Money Talks: The next recession

Since 1900, the global economy has fallen into a recession about once a decade on average. In 2020, the world experienced the deepest downturn since the second world war. Just two years on, is another recession on the way? This week, hosts Soumaya Keynes and Mike Bird focus on the economic slowdown in the world’s two biggest economies - in America and...

15h

Active shooters, inactive politics: America’s latest school massacre

After 19 children and two adults were gunned down in Texas, we ask why gun laws are actually loosening in many states and why even moderate gun controls do not get passed. The rapid spread of monkeypox has rattled a covid-weary world; how much cause for concern is there? And why teams of professional writers are getting involved in games development....

22h

Babbage: How to unlock the secrets of the universe—part two

In part two of our visit to the Large Hadron Collider on the Franco-Swiss border, Alok Jha asks whether the machine’s next iteration can take the field of particle physics beyond the Standard Model. We also investigate the long-term future of particle colliders. Will scientists ever build the instruments required to reveal the true building blocks of...

1d

The city that never slips: Beijing and covid

China’s Communist Party leaders have painted themselves into a corner: they cannot be seen to put the capital into lockdown, but permitting covid to spread could be catastrophic. We look into the myriad reasons behind America’s sharp shortages of baby formula, and how to solve them. And why it is illegal for women to get a manicure in Turkmenistan.For...

1d

Editor’s Picks: May 23rd 2022

A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, how the war in ukraine is tipping a fragile world towards mass hunger (10:36), why the tide is out for cryptocurrency assets (16:40), and pouring graphene’s bright future.  Please subscribe to The Economist for full access to print, digital and audio...

2d

Labor’s day: Australia’s election

Anthony Albanese, the first Labor prime minister in a decade, has pledged to do far more on climate change. His party’s slim win shows how Australian politics is changing. Bosses are increasingly turning to surveillance software to monitor employees (so be careful if listening to this show during work hours). And why the fortune-telling tradition of...

2d

Labor’s day: Australia’s election

Anthony Albanese, the first Labor prime minister in a decade, has pledged to do far more on climate change. His party’s slim win shows how Australian politics is changing. Bosses are increasingly turning to surveillance software to monitor employees (so be careful if listening to this show during work hours). And why the fortune-telling tradition of...

2d

Checks and Balance: Rights to remain

President Biden came to office promising, like many before him, to fix America's immigration system. But border crossings are at record highs, his reforms have floundered and states are going their own way on how to treat undocumented residents. Meanwhile a third of voters believe there is a plan afoot to replace them with people brought in from abroad....

5d

Straight out of Orwell: Russia’s propaganda machine

The Kremlin’s propaganda machine ensures that Russians have a much different view of the war in Ukraine than the rest of the world. Our correspondent spent a day immersed in Russian media, to learn what people there see—and what they don’t. The spectre of hyperinflation is once again stalking Zimbabwe. And our obituaries editor remembers a man who refused...

5d

The Economist Asks: Is the United Nations fit for purpose?

The war in Ukraine has put the organisation’s founding principles and its authority on the line. Anne McElvoy asks Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States ambassador to the UN, how the Security Council can function in a time of division. Is the sharing of military intelligence by America an act of war? Plus, the ambassador discusses her solutions...

6d