Economist Podcasts
Episodes
End-Gulfed: Preparing for a post-oil future
14 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The petrostates of the Gulf are modernising their economies, growing more tolerant and liberalising their social contracts as they prepare for a world...
Toil and rubble: a report from Turkey
13 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Our correspondent visits town after devastated town. Poorly enforced building codes are one clear factor in the rising death toll—and a political ba...
A chance at renewal: Nigeria’s coming election
10 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Young voters are fired up and the electoral system has been strengthened, but Nigeria’s challenges are considerable. We explore why this month’s v...
Long division: America’s busy state legislatures
09 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
America’s Congress may be gridlocked, but its state legislatures certainly aren’t. The laws they’ll pass this year will probably impact more peo...
Bot the difference: AI and the future of search
08 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The race for AI supremacy is on. Microsoft, Google, Baidu and a host of smaller firms are all placing bets on the technology’s future. Which version...
Race against time: rescue efforts in Turkey and Syria
07 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Amid unthinkable destruction and loss of life, we examine the factors that will frustrate relief efforts following earthquakes in an already troubled ...
Tony isn’t blinkin’: Sino-American relations, post-balloon
06 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
American fighters shot down a balloon that China says was monitoring the weather, but America insists was spying. It was a minor incident, but it high...
Bold eagle: America's industrial evolution
03 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As part of The Economist’s new series on the remaking of the country's economy, our correspondent looks at the Biden administration’s audacious in...
Poll fishing: Peru’s persistent protests
02 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The country remains riven by unrest since the “self-coup” and subsequent arrest of its president in December; only an early election might bring a...
Troubled shares, troubles shared: Adani and India Inc
01 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Adani Group, one of India’s biggest conglomerates, has come under fire from a tiny American research firm. A successful secondary share sale ami...
Not shy about retiring: strikes in France
31 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Fixing the complex, creaking pension system remains central to President Emmanuel Macron’s agenda of reforms. But leaving it alone is central to Fre...
Didn’t protect or serve: Tyre Nichols’s killing
30 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The response to the death of the 29-year-old has differed from that of previous cases of police killings; we ask what the tragedy indicates about how ...
Tunnel, no lights: South Africa’s crumbling infrastructure
27 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
South Africa’s infrastructure—its ports, railways and power grid—are struggling and poorly managed. Ordinary South Africans are increasingly fed...
Bibi’s gambit: Israel’s government v its judiciary
26 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Israel’s right-wing coalition government has the country’s supreme court in its sights. Their proposal to effectively subjugate its independence t...
Tanks, a lot: arming Ukraine
25 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After months of foot-dragging, Germany is sending tanks to Ukraine, with America poised to follow suit. We examine how that could reshape the battlefi...
Marshalling resources: rebuilding Ukraine
24 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Around one-fifth of Ukraine’s population has fled. The country’s GDP has plummeted and foreign investors are staying away. Even as the fighting ra...
Feeling un-Wellington
23 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jacinda Ardern resigned as New Zealand’s prime minister last week. As Chris Hipkins prepares to take over, we reflect on Ms Ardern’s legacy, and l...
A rarefied air: a dispatch from Davos
20 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The global elite’s annual Alpine jamboree may have lost some of its convening power, our editor-in-chief says, but the many encounters it enables st...
Turkey stuffed? A democracy’s last stand
19 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dismantled the country’s institutions. As an election looms we ask what democratic guardrails remain, and examine...
Tanks-giving parade? Arming Ukraine
18 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For nearly 11 months Western powers have resisted providing tanks to Ukraine, fearing an unpredictable Russian escalation. What happens now that red l...
Get down to Syria’s business: coming talks with Turkey
17 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Through years of Syria’s messy civil war, Turkey has been a foe. As the conflict slowly fades, the countries have a mutual interest in rapprochement...
What did the president stow and when did he stow it? Biden‘s mess
16 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A drip-feed of discoveries of classified material in Joe Biden’s home and offices—and the president’s botched messaging around them—are a gift...
Zero-sum: the imperilled global economic order
13 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Countries across the world are turning inward, embracing protectionism, subsidies and export controls. This threatens the global order that has lifted...
Unveiled threats: Iran's patient protesters
12 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Iran’s protests may have gone quiet for the moment, but that does not mean they’ve been defeated. Beneath a calmer surface, Iranians are seething ...
Doctors’ disorders: Britain’s overwhelmed health service
11 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Britain’s National Health Service is in crisis. Wait times are rising, nurses and paramedics are striking, and doctors are overworked—leading to h...
Unquiet on the eastern front: fighting in the Donbas
10 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Russian troops have turned Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, into a charnel house—and a proving ground for its mercenary army. The booming North Sea regi...
Cloud coup-coup land: riots in Brazil
09 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In a scene reminiscent of the US Capitol riot two years ago, supporters of Brazil’s defeated president rampaged through government buildings yesterd...
Bibi’s got backup: Israel’s right-wing government
06 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Israel’s new government is its most right-wing ever—but, in a break from the past, that may not derail deepening relations with neighbouring Arab ...
Silva’s mettle: Brazil’s newish president
05 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Our Brazil correspondent surveys the state of the country, as Lula assumes the presidency precisely 20 years after his first inauguration. We ask why ...
We need to balk about Kevin: Congress opens in chaos
04 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Republican control of America’s House of Representatives began in chaos: they failed to elect a speaker, the first time in a century that’s happen...
Ill news, spreads apace: covid in China
03 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The sudden rescinding of zero-covid strictures has, as expected, led to a spike in cases. Our correspondent visits overstretched hospitals and cremato...
The dragon chasing: China and a new nuclear order
02 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
China’s arsenal of nuclear weapons has swiftly expanded; it is now roughly the size of Russia’s and America’s. That will make for a different—...
In passing: the notable lives lost in 2022
30 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From Pelé, the “king of football”, to Britain’s longest-reigning queen, our editors and correspondents reflected on the accomplishments of many...
Best-of three: our country, books and games of the year
29 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It is that best-of time of year. We outline the case for our country of the year, after an uncharacteristically easy nomination process. Our correspon...
Debasement all around: lessons from 16th-century inflation
28 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 2022 global inflation spiked at a rate not seen in decades. A look at the world’s very first such bout reveals eerie echoes of today’s woes—a...
Cattle lines are drawn: cows in India
27 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Cows are venerated in India, but precisely how intensely often depends on politics. And being venerated does not necessarily yield a pleasant life for...
Land, sea and air: let us move you
26 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In a special episode, our Paris bureau chief witnesses the political divides that become apparent as she switches from France’s famed high-speed rai...
An oily sheen: Nicolás Maduro in from the cold
23 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Waves of protest after a stolen election in 2019 came to nothing. Now, thanks to the luck of geopolitics and petro-economics, President Nicolás Madur...
A figure of speeches: Volodymyr Zelensky in his own words
22 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
At the beginning of the war, editors from The Economist went to Kyiv, the first Western journalists to interview Ukraine’s president. Our Russia edi...
Needs Musk? Tumult at Twitter
21 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Elon Musk may be stepping down as chief executive, but he has already changed the firm’s fortunes—and shown that social media’s free-speech stru...
Trump card marked: the January 6th investigation
20 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Congressional committee probing the riot at America’s Capitol recommended that the Justice Department bring four charges against Donald Trump. B...
Under the missile flow: North Korea
19 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The country has been slinging missiles skyward at an alarming pace, and with ever-greater technological advancement. We ask why things are heating up,...
More generals, less pacific: Japan’s new defence policy
16 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A strategy approved today peels back some of the country’s constitutional pacifism; in large part that is because of its tense relationship with a h...
No rest for the weary: meeting Ukraine’s high command
15 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Our correspondent sits down with President Volodymyr Zelensky and two top military commanders—concluding that the next few months will determine the...
Precious joules: a fusion-energy result
14 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists have reported a long-awaited nuclear-fusion breakthrough, using lasers to ignite hydrogen-isotope fuel in a self-sustaining burn. But that ...
Continental drift: Europe’s challenges
13 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A pair of crises will bedevil Europe, starting with crippling energy prices in the short term. And American protectionism threatens a longer-term dent...
Zero to sickly? China’s covid climbdown
12 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
With astonishing speed, the machinery of testing, tracing and lockdowns is being dismantled. We examine the risks that will pose to a country that is ...
Second time as farce: Peru’s president falls
09 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Perhaps Pedro Castillo thought he could repeat the coup staged by his predecessor, Alberto Fujimori, in 1992. He did not, and is now behind bars. We a...
Like biding a Reich: Germany’s alleged coup plot
08 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Raids across the country netted 25 far-right extremists suspected of trying to overthrow the government. We look into what is known about a hare-brain...
Pastor present: Georgia’s Senate runoff
07 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Democrats will have a bit more breathing room in the Senate, with an outright majority provided by Reverend Raphael Warnock’s win. We ask what the s...
Suspension of this belief? Iran’s morality police
06 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The enforcers of the hardliners’ mores may have been disbanded; it is hard to know if the regime is bending to protesters or sowing confusion. Eithe...
The for-sixty-dollar question: a cap on Russian oil
05 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Shippers and insurers of Russian crude are now subject to a $60-per-barrel price cap. That may spark Russian production cuts—or an oil-market realig...
In sofa as I can recall: troubles for Cyril Ramaphosa
02 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
South Africa’s leader says a pile of cash stashed in a sofa represents no wrongdoing. The outcome of an investigation could be the undoing of his pr...
Square dealing: Jiang Zemin dies
01 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Chinese leader who took over a squabbling party following the Tiananmen Square massacre surprised the world by stifling dissent, overseeing a stag...
On the Horn’s dilemma: meeting Somalia’s president
30 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Horn of Africa’s resurgent jihadists of al-Shabab pose the biggest problem to Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. He tells us his plans—political, economic...
The French connection: Macron’s state visit to America
29 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Behind the pageantry, Presidents Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron will have much to chew over, from a unified response in Ukraine to tricky trade negotia...
Patience zero: China’s remarkable unrest
28 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Protests have become as bold as they are widespread—mostly against the country’s unsustainable zero-covid policies, but increasingly against the r...
Forgoing a song: protest inside and beyond Iran
25 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Players’ refusal to sing their national anthem at the World Cup has brought their country’s protests onto the global stage. We ask whether the dis...
Scar from the madding crowd: Korea probes a tragedy
24 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Grief about the deaths of more than 150 people in a crush has turned to anger, and the investigation into what actions were taken—or not taken—has...
A whole other kettle of fission: Ukraine’s imperilled nuclear plant
23 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The power station in Zaporizhia has served as an impromptu military base for Russian forces—but danger is mounting and there are signs that troops m...
Ploy story: a defenestration at Disney
22 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Executives have squeezed out Bob Chapek and re-anointed Bob Iger as boss. But the firm’s woes are less about leadership and more about the new econo...
Damage collateral: a tide turns at COP27
21 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
An issue ignored for three decades came to dominate the summit’s agenda: reparations to poor countries for climate-driven “loss and damage”. Ala...
In come taxes: Britain’s austere economic plan
18 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The “Autumn statement” was filled with belt-tightening, from stealthy tax rises to public-service cuts. But perhaps the bitterest part of the pill...
Musketeers heading for the exits: chaos at Twitter
17 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Elon Musk gave Twitter’s remaining staff an ultimatum: commit to “working long hours at high intensity” for “hardcore” Twitter, or leave. We...
Strike price: missiles fall in Poland
16 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How did apparently Russian-made munitions kill two people on NATO soil? An accident in the fog of war seems likely, but listen closely: the immediate ...
Get the Bali rolling: the G20 meet begins
15 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The G20 Summit gets under way in Bali today at a time of tensions over Ukraine and Taiwan, and worries about high food and energy prices. We look at w...
Bolt from the blue: Democrats hold the Senate
14 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
America’s upper legislative chamber remains in Democrats’ hands; they may even expand their majority. We explain what that means for the Biden adm...
Tales from the crypto: An exchange implodes
11 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
At the start of this week, FTX was the world’s third-largest crypto exchange. After rumours of illiquidity swirled, customers pulled $6bn in assets....
Beaten, a retreat: cautious hope in Kherson
10 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Russia says it will withdraw from the only captured Ukrainian provincial capital. We ask how the drawdown might go and what it means for the wider war...
Red ripple: America’s midterm elections
09 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
America’s midterm elections have finished. While the full results may not be known for some time, Democrats appear to have outperformed expectations...
Who counts wins: Election-administration fears
08 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the final episode of our midterms series, we examine how the Republican party’s anti-democratic turn is putting pressure on election administrato...
Introducing Drum Tower
07 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Two of The Economist's China correspondents, Alice Su and David Rennie, analyse the stories at the heart of this vast country and examine its influenc...
Degrees of risk: COP27 and the 1.5C myth
07 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As the UN’s annual climate jamboree begins, our correspondent calls for a strong dose of realism: limiting warming to 1.5C is just no longer feasibl...
Red fights and blue: America’s midterm elections
05 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
America’s midterm elections, which will determine control of both chambers of Congress, end on Tuesday. For the past three months our correspondents...
Peace meal: Ethiopia’s civil war
04 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A surprise peace agreement should permit desperately needed humanitarian relief for millions in the region of Tigray—but there are reasons to doubt ...
The elephant in the chamber? America’s midterms
03 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Our election model suggests that at least one legislative chamber will revert to Republican control; we ask what sort of government would result. The ...
The curious case of Binyamin’s butt-in: Israel’s election
02 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After a 16-month absence from leadership, Binyamin Netanyahu is back at the centre of the country’s messy politics. We ask how his divisive ways wil...
Falling tsar? Russians eye life after Putin
01 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine continues to falter, Russian elites are now daring to consider the once unthinkable: a life after his l...
Once and future: Brazil’s Lula wins again
31 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist former president, has won again. Even if President Jair Bolsonaro gracefully concedes, his followers and fellow ...
Elon-gate: the Musk-Twitter story
28 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After months of wrangling, Elon Musk completed his deal to buy Twitter, and immediately sacked several top executives. We ask what’s next for the pl...
Power play: electricity in Ukraine
27 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with missiles and drones. Ukraine’s air defences are struggling to keep up, and many hou...
Tough Roe to go: abortion and the midterms
26 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When America’s Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, the conventional wisdom was that it would help Democrats by galvanising them for the midterm ele...
Third time’s the charm? Britain’s new prime minister
25 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Rishi Sunak becomes Britain’s prime minister today, making him the third in the past seven weeks. Our correspondent explains who he is, and analyses...
Number three for Xi: power in China
24 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Xi Jinping won a third term as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. Our correspondent explains how the recent party congress solidified X...
No wilt to go on: let us bid Truss goodbye
21 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Economist’s comparison of Liz Truss’s staying power to that of a lettuce captured global imaginations. Will the next prime minister have a lon...
Redrawing the lines: cocaine policy in Latin America
20 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Regional leaders recognise the abject failure of the war on drugs. We speak with Colombia’s president about some bold new ideas to tackle the proble...
Variety in the price of life: inflation and the midterms
19 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the next instalment of our American midterms series we visit Rhode Island to see how inflation—at its highest since the early Reagan era—is aff...
Hell hath no fury: a look inside Iran’s protests
18 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Unrest is only spreading and the authorities trying to quell it are looking increasingly desperate. We hear from one protester among many who are rack...
Helmsman’s high water: China’s Communist Party Congress
17 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
State media have taken to calling President Xi Jinping “the helmsman”; at the five-yearly meeting he defended his means of steering the country. W...
Witness self-protection programme? Trump and the Capitol riot inquiry
14 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The former president may well ignore the January 6th committee’s summons; the whole affair may be unceremoniously shut down next year. But that is n...
Gilt trip: Liz Truss’s hobbled leadership
13 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Paroxysms in the market for gilts—British-government bonds that were once safe-haven assets—reveal just how wounded the new government’s plans h...
Don kingmaker: Trump and the midterms
12 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The latest instalment of our series asks how much difference Donald Trump’s imprimatur has made to candidates—and whether that influence will carr...
Help them, Obi: one hopeful candidate in Nigeria
11 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Our correspondent meets with Peter Obi, who has a handsome poll lead and an appeal that spans the country’s religions and ethnicities. But his presi...
Crimea and punishment: Russia’s reprisals
10 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
An attack on the Kerch bridge—a pet project of President Vladimir Putin that links Russia with annexed Crimea—has prompted a swift and brutal resp...
The gains in Ukraine: stalled Russia plainly wanes
07 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ukraine’s army has pushed Russian forces back in the south and east. We ask how they’ve managed to make such impressive gains so quickly, whether ...
Bloody and forgotten: Conflict in eastern Congo
06 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Our correspondent reports from eastern Congo, where a three-decade-long conflict has killed thousands, and forced more than five million people from t...
It does mean a thing: America’s swing voters
05 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the next instalment of our midterms series, we head to the suburbs of Atlanta in search of that rarest of political creatures: the swing voter. The...
Misplaced Truss? Britain’s ruling party meets
04 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Prime Minister Liz Truss has had a bruising first few weeks in office. Amid policy U-turns and plummeting poll numbers, her Tory party’s annual shin...
Poll vaulter: Brazil’s surprise election result
03 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jair Bolsonaro, the incumbent president, did unexpectedly well—giving his campaign a boost and foreshadowing a tough run-up to the second round. Mal...
Form-annex trick: Russia’s Ukraine-seizure bid
30 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After a series of sham referendums, President Vladimir Putin is expected to annex four partly occupied regions of Ukraine. We ask what risks that move...