John Prideaux

speaker

643 appearances 3 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 19 Jun

John Prideaux’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 3.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

The Intelligence from The Economist · Tocqueville Road Trip: 1. Game of chance · 13 Jun 2026 podcast

It hasn't stopped equality of conditions from being the defining force here.

And in lots of ways gender, race, access to education, the US is far more equitable now than it was when Tocqueville visited, or even than it was when my parents were born.

Objective measures show a country that's doing better than ever.

Life expectancy has never been higher.

Unlike in Europe, the economy here is growing.

Wages of those at the bottom end of the labour market have been rising.

So why have so many people lost their faith in the country?

In order to get closer to an answer, we need to press on.

Tocqueville's trek into the interior involved bumpy stagecoaches and creaking paddle steamers.

I'll have the relative comfort of planes, trains, and rental cars.

My journey will span more than three thousand miles and will touch many of the same places he visited.

I'll go to small towns and grand institutions.

I'll talk to people who are battling for survival.

and others who say they've never been better.

And for my next stop, I'm heading up the Hudson to a spot that now lies just beyond New York City's limits, a place that amazed Tocqueville when he was here.

A prison that gets its name from a Native American phrase meaning stone upon stone.

Sing Sing.

You can listen to that episode now for free wherever you get your podcasts.

To hear the rest of the series as it comes out, you'll have to be an Economist subscriber.

Go to economist.com slash podcasts plus for our best offer.

Showing 621–640 of 643 · page 32 of 33