Economist Podcasts
Episodes
This, too, shall impasse: Brexit talks resume
04 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The pandemic has made negotiations more difficult and changed the political calculus on both sides. Prospects for a deal before year’s end are dimmi...
Forgoing the distance: covid-19 spreads in Brazil
03 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Even those who can distance themselves are unsure whether to do so—in part because President Jair Bolsonaro mocks the science and rails against lock...
An epidemic of hunger: covid-19 and poverty
02 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The pandemic is driving up the number of impoverished people for the first time in more than two decades. Lockdown-policy calculations are simply diff...
The flames spread: protests in America
01 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Demonstrations against police violence have only amplified. We ask why George Floyd’s death touched a nerve, and why these events keep happening in ...
Crying foul, again: Black Lives Matter
29 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Protests have broken out in Minneapolis and far beyond, following another black man’s death at the hands of a white policeman. Can the once-mighty B...
Checking their privilege: Beijing’s threat to Hong Kong
28 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
China’s parliament voted today to draft legislation that would utterly undermine the territory’s independence. What now for protesters, for Wester...
Leading nowhere: assessing Trump’s covid-19 response
27 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump’s failures of leadership have compounded the crisis. But America’s health-care and preparedness systems have problems that ...
Shot chasers: big pharma’s covid-19 boost
26 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The pandemic has caused a shift in how drug firms are viewed: their capacity for big-money innovation will give them immunity in the crisis. Widesprea...
Clear skies with a chance: covid-19’s green opportunity
25 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Emissions have plummeted as the pandemic slowed the world. It could be a mere blip—but it is an unprecedented opportunity for a greener, more sustai...
Systemic concerns: China’s party congress
22 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Legislation signalled at the annual meeting undermines the “one country, two systems” approach to Hong Kong’s rule—and may inflame rather than...
Swimming against the currency: Turkey
21 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A central bank struggling for independence, dwindling foreign reserves to prop up the currency and a president who just hates rates: Turkey’s econom...
Politics trumps co-operation: the WHO’s annual meeting
20 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Rhetoric and posturing at the World Health Organisation’s annual assembly reveal an agency under geopolitical stresses just when global co-operation...
Extreme measures: America’s far right
19 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Extremists are cropping up at protests and expanding their reach online. They see the pandemic as proof of their worldview, and as an opportunity to s...
Carriers and the disease: the airlines set for hard landings
18 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Which firms will fly above the covid-19 clouds? Big, low-cost carriers with strong finances seem likeliest, but either way consolidation is inevitable...
Continental divides: covid-19 strains the EU
15 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What started as a public-health crisis is developing into an existential one. The most fundamental question to be addressed is: what is the European U...
Bibi steps: Israel’s long-awaited government
14 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
After three elections and 16 months, the unity government between sworn rivals Binyamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz gets to work tonight. Can it withsta...
Fool Britannia? A covid-19 response under scrutiny
13 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
After a series of government missteps, people in Britain—and, increasingly, outside it—are lambasting the covid-19 response. That has great reputa...
Moveable feast: a global food system adapts
12 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The vast network moving food from farm to fork has shifted gears mightily in response to covid-19. But some will still go hungry; governments must res...
Back to the furore: protests set to reignite
11 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The pandemic overshadowed a striking spate of uprisings around the world. In Lebanon economic conditions have only worsened since—and the protesters...
Rises and false: markets v the economy
08 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How can stockmarkets be so healthy when many businesses are so unwell? We look at the many risks that are clearly not priced in. China’s documentary...
Hitting a Vlad patch: 20 years of Putin
07 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As Russia’s leader marks two decades in power, he faces almighty headwinds—not only covid-19 but also cut-price oil and an increasingly leery citi...
Disarming revelation: a chance at a global ceasefire
06 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Many were shocked when armed groups heeded a call for a global ceasefire; given a squabble at the UN it would now be shocking if those pockets of peac...
Degrees of separation: universities and covid-19
05 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Many universities were on thin ice financially before the pandemic. Now, with foreign travel slumping and distancing measures the norm, a global recko...
Lives v livelihoods: Africa’s covid-19 tradeoffs
04 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As Nigeria tentatively lifts its lockdown today, we examine the decisions African leaders face: pandemic policies may do more harm than the pandemic i...
Nature, or nurtured? A politicised virus-origin hunt
01 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists may soon understand how the new coronavirus got its start; that could help head off future outbreaks. In the meantime, politicians are clou...
Submerging markets: developing economies and covid-19
30 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The pandemic is hitting emerging markets particularly hard, and the crisis is likely to widen the gap between the strongest and the weakest among them...
Those who can, teach! The case for reopening schools
29 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The world’s students are falling behind and lockdown is only exacerbating prior disparities in their progress; we examine a compelling back-to-schoo...
First, pass the post: Ohio’s vote-by-mail experiment
28 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The state’s all-postal primaries vote could be seen as a trial run for November’s presidential election. Might voting by mail be the least-bad opt...
End transmission: covid-19 in New Zealand
27 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The country is aiming for complete elimination of the coronavirus; so far, so good. But renewed freedom within its borders requires that virtually no ...
Unsteady states: America’s piecemeal reopening
24 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Some governors are co-ordinating mutual lockdown plans, others are already reopening their states. That haphazardness bodes ill in the absence of wide...
Rakhine and ruin: insurgency in Myanmar
23 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Rohingya genocide was just one of many sectarian flashpoints in Rakhine state; now a slick separatist insurgency is getting the better of Myanmar’...
Held in cheque: corporate payouts and covid-19
22 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Even before the pandemic, companies were accused of returning too much money to shareholders. As a recession looms, dividends and share buy-backs shou...
Symbols’ status: arrests in Hong Kong
21 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Authorities have re-ignited tensions by arresting some of the democracy movement’s most prominent figures—and Beijing seems to be piling more pres...
Restarting Europe’s engine: Germany’s lockdown lightens
20 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Non-essential businesses are opening; schools soon will be, too. The country’s fortunes are down to a mix of science-minded leadership, functional f...
Gross domestic plummet: China’s historic contraction
17 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The covid-19 pandemic has caused the country’s first GDP dip in more than four decades. What struggles still lie ahead for the world’s second-larg...
This sequestered isle: Britain’s covid-19 response
16 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The prime minister is still convalescing; Parliament is still finding ways to meet virtually. Meanwhile questions are growing about how the government...
The gloves are on: South Koreans vote
15 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s legislative elections in South Korea are the world’s first to take place amid the covid-19 crisis. How have masked campaigners managed, an...
Dis-Kurti-ous: intrigues in Kosovo
14 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We speak to Albin Kurti, a reformist prime minister, after his ouster—and ask how American officials may have played a role in his downfall. Gloomy ...
Opening arguments: Europe’s cautious restart
13 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week, some European countries are beginning to switch their economies back on, but leaders face a grim trade-off between economic health and publ...
The fascists and the furious: remembering the 43 Group
10 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Many have forgotten that, even after the second world war, a fascist movement held sway in Britain. Our culture editor recounts the tale of the group ...
What Viktor’s spoiled: ten years of Orban
09 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Under Hungary’s shape-shifting prime minister the country has essentially become a dictatorship—and it seems there is little the European Union ca...
Movement at the epicentre: Wuhan’s lockdown lifts
08 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
People are spilling from the Chinese metropolis where the global outbreak took hold. But controls actually remain tight, and authorities’ attempts t...
States’ evidence: Brazil’s messy covid-19 response
07 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
President Jair Bolsonaro still dismisses the disease as “just the sniffles”, so state and local authorities—and the country’s vast slums—hav...
An app for that: covid surveillance
06 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
To keep track of the spread of covid-19, some governments are turning to digital surveillance, using mobile-phone apps and data networks. We ask wheth...
Trough to peak: how high will American unemployment go?
03 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The coronavirus pandemic has sent America’s mighty jobs machine into screeching reverse. How bad might the labour market get? Covid-19 is just one r...
No port of call: coronavirus may sink the cruise industry
02 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Cruise ships had been enjoying a golden era—until covid-19 came along. The pandemic has been a catastrophe for the industry. Stranded passengers hav...
Wishful thinking: America’s offer to Venezuela
01 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Trump administration makes Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro an offer he seems sure to refuse: an end to sanctions in return for power-sharing and ele...
In need of Comfort: New York's covid-19 crisis
31 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
New York is at the centre of America’s—and the world’s—coronavirus crisis. The metropolis has also been caught in a damaging three-way politic...
Containment or complacency? Covid-19 in Japan
30 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Japan has reported a relatively low number of coronavirus cases. But concern is growing. The Olympics have at last been postponed and infections are o...
Life sentences? Prisons and covid-19
27 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Outbreaks among inmates are all but inevitable. Efforts at prison reform that were already under way will get a boost, because now they will save live...
Going to townships: covid-19 threatens Africa
26 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Governments across the continent have had a head start, but that will not address some worrying systemic problems many of them share. Ventilators are ...
Fiscal firepower: governments’ covid-19 aid
25 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As American lawmakers reach a deal on the country’s largest-ever rescue package, we examine how planners are balancing the health of their citizens ...
Trial, trial again: the race for covid-19 treatments
24 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The world’s scientists are swiftly identifying drugs that may help with the pandemic, and setting out on the long road toward a vaccine. Ethiopia’...
Continental shift: covid-19 grips Europe
23 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The novel coronavirus is spreading around the world, but its grip on Europe is curiously tight; we ask why, and what to expect next. We pay a visit to...
Lessons unplanned: school shutdowns spread
20 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Schools are closing down as covid-19 measures take hold; we look into the social, economic and educational costs for a world thrust into distance lear...
Pandemic, meet politics: the US-China spat
19 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Prior tensions have blunted the chances for a co-ordinated response to covid-19—and both countries are fighting a grand ideological battle alongside...
Drawbridges up: lockdowns and covid-19
18 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Borders are closing; suggestions to stay home are becoming mandates. We examine how the national responses to covid-19 have varied, and how they may b...
Same old song, and Gantz: fresh coalition talks in Israel
17 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
He has four weeks to form a government, but Binyamin Netanyahu’s rival Benny Gantz is likely to find that the battle lines from three inconclusive e...
Flight risk: airlines and covid-19
16 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Travel restrictions that are proliferating worldwide may represent an existential threat to many airlines. How long the pandemic lasts will determine ...
Coming two terms with it: Putin’s power grab
13 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A resetting of the clock on the Russian leader’s tenure will almost certainly pass into law. That sets up a standoff with a public swiftly losing fa...
Stimulating discussion: policy responses to covid-19
12 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Britain’s central bank made an emergency cut and released a budget with a whopping £30bn ($38bn) stimulus; we discuss what countries are doing, or ...
Hollywood moment: Harvey Weinstein’s sentencing
11 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The disgraced producer’s conviction may seem a clear-cut win for the #MeToo movement, but it’s as yet uncertain just how much will change outside ...
When in Rome...stay put: Italy on lockdown
10 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The unexpected expansion of quarantine measures are a look into the near future of many countries, each facing different social and epidemiological tr...
A day without women: a vast strike in Mexico
09 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Millions of women will stay home today, protesting against rising levels of violence against them. In the Netherlands, a criminal trial begins in the ...
Nevertheless, she persisted: the futility of restricting abortion
06 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
America’s Supreme Court is again tussling with the age-old question of abortion rights. Internationally the picture is very different; abortions are...
Testing times: the world responds to covid-19
05 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Our journalists explore the variance in both policy and preparedness among different countries and regions that are dealing with coronavirus outbreaks...
Joe through a rough patch:Biden’s super Tuesday
04 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The former vice-president stormed a raft of primaries yesterday, setting up a two-horse race to the Democratic nomination. What happens next, though, ...
Caught in the middle: Idlib’s humanitarian disaster
03 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Turkey sees the fall of Idlib as an existential threat; Russian-backed Syrian forces see the province as the last redoubt of troublesome rebels. Milli...
EU’ve heard this one before: Brexit trade talks
02 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Once again, Britain’s negotiators are talking tough, threatening a no-deal scenario as a long series of trade talks begins in Brussels. They’ve go...
Playing with fire: Democrats may get Bern
28 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Bernie Sanders's rise in the Democratic primaries has echoes of Donald Trump’s road to the Republican nomination. He has already changed the tone of...
Delhi melee: India’s citizenship protests
27 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Violence in the country’s capital is the worst in decades. The unrest pits the ruling party’s Hindu-nationalist agenda against citizens proud of I...
Clash pipe: Canada’s widening protests
26 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Successive governments have overlooked the concerns of indigenous peoples, and that has elevated a small gas-pipeline protest into a national conflagr...
Mitigating circumstances: coronavirus spreads
25 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Global markets tanked yesterday as governments reported startling rises in covid-19 cases. Our correspondents around the world assess countries' diffe...
Peace-meal: ceasefire in Afghanistan
24 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For now, a “reduction in violence” is holding, and a long-awaited agreement hangs in the balance. But can the Taliban and the country’s governme...
Clerical era: Iran’s elections
21 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In a bid to unite a fractious populace, hardliners barred half of the parliamentary candidates; by silencing moderates, the plan will suppress turnout...
Uncut emerald: Ireland’s unification prospects
20 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Spurred on by demographic shifts, Brexit and the success of the Sinn Fein party in this month’s election, the once-unthinkable idea of Irish reunifi...
Many hands light of work: China’s 170m migrant workers
19 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Strict controls meant to contain the spread of the coronavirus are affecting many of the country’s villages. Our correspondent visits migrant worker...
A friend of mines: America’s explosive policy turn
18 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Trump administration’s stance on anti-personnel landmines worries many—but also speaks to a future in which the rules of war are uncertain. Br...
The snails of justice: the International Criminal Court
17 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sudan’s transitional government has pledged to hand over the country’s brutal former leader to the ICC—could justice for the court’s most-want...
Another man’s Treasury: Britain’s cabinet upheaval
14 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The dramatic departure of the head of the Treasury reveals Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s desire—and that of his wily chief aide—to take firm ho...
Defence on the defensive: NATO under scrutiny
13 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It’s not just President Donald Trump piling pressure on the alliance. As defence ministers meet in Brussels, we examine one of the longest-lasting d...
Bern turn: New Hampshire’s primary
12 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg led the pack in New Hampshire. Two candidates have exited the race, and a potential spoiler is yet to compete. Argen...
Christian Democratic disunion: Germany’s political upheaval
11 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s hand-picked successor is out of the running. The ruling CDU party must now pick a new leader and a path in dealing with t...
Trust the process? China’s coronavirus response
10 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Communist Party is exuding an aura of complete control over the outbreak, but our correspondent finds an undercurrent of distrust. International h...
From out of left field: Ireland’s election
07 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
After the adulation, the discontent. Voters are abandoning the party of the young, progressive leader Leo Varadkar, with many supporting Sinn Fein, a ...
Imperfect call: Trump’s exoneration
06 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A predictable outcome in President Donald Trump’s Senate trial will have unpredictable effects on executive power and congressional oversight—but ...
Address change: the State of the Union
05 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump seemed to be going out of his way to rankle Democrats while he pitched his tenure as a change from American decline to American...
An app-polling delay: Iowa’s caucus chaos
04 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Technical glitches and “inconsistencies” threw America’s first Democratic caucuses into disarray. That will have political consequences, irrespe...
Economic contagion: Hong Kong
03 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Hong Kong’s GDP report released today reflects the squeeze that enormous protests at home and economic headwinds on the mainland have put on the ter...
When one door closes: Brexit day
31 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The costs of leaving the European Union are likely to outweigh the benefits. But as Britain re-aligns itself in the world, those benefits should be se...
Viral hit: the costs of China’s lockdown
30 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Our correspondent travels to the border of the locked-down Hubei province, finding among the people a mixture of resignation, fear and distrust. Was t...
They went that Huawei: Britain’s crucial 5G call
29 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Facing pressure from both China and America on allowing Huawei into its next-generation network, Britain opted to fully appease neither—and that wil...
Showpiece in the Middle East: Trump’s “ultimate deal”
28 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Palestinian leaders have already rejected the American administration’s peace plan. But the proposal is nevertheless politically useful, both for Bi...
Spread bet: China’s coronavirus quarantine
27 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In Hubei province and increasingly across China, new-year celebrations are muted. Authorities are trying to contain the outbreak with an unprecedented...
Ill-judged: Poland’s rule-of-law crisis
24 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Poland's government has been trying to nobble the courts for years. Now the European Union is intervening, and the outcome could undermine the union i...
On the right track: a trend in diplomacy
23 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When conflict-resolution efforts falter in official channels, there are unofficial ones. We ask why “Track 2”—allowing well-meaning third partie...
Justin time, again: Trudeau’s second term
22 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Canada’s prime minister now leads a minority government, and has lost support in the country’s west. We ask what he must do, and how, with his wea...
Can I get a witness? Impeachment
21 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The rules are set, battle lines drawn and the outcome is all but assured. We ask why the Senate trial of President Donald Trump seems so sewn up. A de...
Tripoli crown: the battle for Libya
20 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This weekend’s peace talks in Berlin were a good start, but the situation is still ripe for a longer, messier proxy war. More than a million people ...
Address the problem: the global housing blunder
17 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Badly run housing markets are linked to broader ills, from financial crises to the rise of populism. The first problem? The conviction that home owner...