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By The Economist

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The Economist was founded in 1843 "to throw white light on the subjects within its range". For more from The Economist visit http://shop.economist.com/collections/audio

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Bits in pieces: a fragmenti...

11.19.2019

The early vision for a borderless, unregulated internet has not panned out as its pioneers hoped. How to handle the “splinternet”? Doug Jones is Alabama’s first Democratic senator in a quarter of a century; in his moderate ways our correspondent ...

Economist Radio episodes:

11.19.2019 Money talks: Getting bizzy Ahead of the UK’s general election, party leaders courted businesses at the annual conference of the Confederation of British Industry. We ask the CBI’s chief economist Rain Newton-Smith what attendees made of their proposals. Also, Scott Kupor of Andreessen Horowitz ...
11.19.2019 Bits in pieces: a fragmenting internet The early vision for a borderless, unregulated internet has not panned out as its pioneers hoped. How to handle the “splinternet”? Doug Jones is Alabama’s first Democratic senator in a quarter of a century; in his moderate ways our correspondent ...
11.18.2019 Futurewatch: The crypto craze Is cryptocurrency the future of money? Helen Joyce, The Economist’s finance editor, explores whether digital coins can offer a viable alternative to existing currencies. And Tim Cross, The Economist’s technology editor, explains the blockchains that underpin them For information regarding ...
11.18.2019 Head for the Hill: this week’s impeachment hearings Democrats have a hard task as the hearings’ public stage proceeds: not uncovering new evidence, but building a robust public case for impeachment. The online-grocery business is tough—but that isn’t stopping e-commerce players big and small from trying to crack ...
11.15.2019 The Economist asks: Esther Perel What is the secret to a great working relationship? The psychotherapist, author and podcaster opens up about the key ingredients to collegiality in the office, millenials’ expectations of managers and the cult of the founder. Esther Perel also offers Anne ...
11.15.2019 Better the devil they know? Sri Lanka’s election After multiple suicide bombings in April, much campaigning has been about security. Will Sri Lankans vote tomorrow for the authoritarian-but-effective candidate, or the more untested peacemaker? We examine the growing nostalgia for Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted as Egypt’s president ...
11.14.2019 Editor’s picks: November 14th 2019 A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, Democrats want impeachment hearings to change the public’s view of Donald Trump. That will be difficult. (10:50) The tangled politics surrounding a killing ...
11.14.2019 Language barrier: Cameroon’s forgotten conflict There is widespread terror in the largely Francophone country’s English-speaking region. Both hardline separatists and the army target civilians with shocking brutality. In a Central Asian valley, a tangle of borders and exclaves that stretch back to Soviet times is ...
11.13.2019 Babbage: Private patients Google has teamed up with US-healthcare provider Ascension to access patient data without them being notified. What are the privacy concerns and implications for digital healthcare? And, how will 3D printing change the way we build everything from skyscrapers to ...
11.13.2019 Umbrellas to firebombs: Hong Kong’s escalating protests Molotov cocktails are flying and live rounds have been fired. Once-peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations are transforming into violent confrontations—and neither side seems willing to back down. The agricultural revolution that has swept much of the world has still not reached much ...
11.12.2019 Money talks: Streams come true Disney Plus enters the battle of the streaming services, amongst competition from Netflix, Apple, Amazon and others. Which will achieve the Hollywood ending? And we ask Peter Navarro, President Trump’s trade advisor, what the endgame is in negotiations with China. ...
11.12.2019 The American Dreamer: DACA in the Supreme Court The Trump administration has long wanted to scrap the “Dreamers” scheme, which allowed illegal immigrants who came as youths to stay in America. The question is whether the programme’s founding was legal. An emissions debate has infuriated Dutch farmers, and ...
11.11.2019 Futurewatch: The future of banking Futurewatch: The future of banking Will the bricks and mortar of high-street banks be replaced by the silicon chips of data centres? Looking at the rise of "neobanks" around the world, The Economist’s finance editor Helen Joyce explores how technology ...
11.11.2019 Unpresidented: Bolivia’s leader resigns After weeks of protests following a disputed election, Evo Morales has stood down. Who is in charge, and how can the country escape its gridlock? On a visit to a military hospital our correspondent wonders why Americans seem so disengaged ...
11.08.2019 The Economist asks: Thirty years on, is Germany still divided? On November 9th 1989, Anne McElvoy and Conny Günther were in East Berlin watching the impossible—the fall of the Berlin Wall. Thirty years later they retrace their steps to find out how decades of division transformed and still shape German ...
11.08.2019 Persistence of division: after the Berlin Wall This weekend marks three decades since the wall fell, yet stark divides remain between East and West. We revisit that moment of hope that remains unfulfilled. Ethiopia’s Somali state was until recently the country’s most repressive; a visit to one ...
11.07.2019 Editor’s picks: November 7th 2019 A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, Emmanuel Macron warns that Europe is “on the edge of a precipice”. (9:20) Bashing billionaires is misguided. (15:40) And, could the internet splinter ...
11.07.2019 Allez, Europe! Macron’s diplomatic push This week our correspondent joined Emmanuel Macron on his visit to China. The French president is stretching his diplomatic wings, and has some striking views about Europe’s place in the world. The state of Texas has been reliably Republican for ...
11.06.2019 Babbage: Designer genes How far away are “designer babies” from being a reality? Host Kenneth Cukier explores the ethical questions around the applications of a genome-wide association study. Journalist and author Gaia Vince on how “cultural evolution” shapes society. Also, a solution to ...
11.06.2019 Demonstrative: a global wave of protest Today’s public-sector demonstrations in Zimbabwe are just the latest in a wave of protests around the world. We look into why there are so many, and what might be driving them. It’s not all sound and fury, though; in Lebanon, ...
11.05.2019 Money talks: Unhappy EUnion Opposition to the European Central Bank’s plans for quantitative easing has been split along North-South lines in the euro zone. But are these concerns justified? And, journalist and author Matthew Syed explains why thinking is more creative in organisations where ...
11.05.2019 Stone unturned? Trump’s adviser on trial Today Roger Stone, a colourful associate of President Donald Trump for 40 years, goes on trial facing seven charges; he denies them. Could his testimony worry the Trump camp? In the international race to mass-market driverless cars, China’s 5G network ...
11.04.2019 Futurewatch: The death of cash As digital payments become the norm, will there be a need for cash? The Economist’s Finance editor Helen Joyce takes a look behind the scenes of the future, from Sweden to Shanghai. She explores how digital payments will transform the ...
11.04.2019 Facebooklets: breaking up Big Tech Few politicians are as ambitious about dismantling the tech behemoths as Elizabeth Warren, one of America’s Democratic presidential contenders. What she is proposing, though, would be neither easy nor quick. We dive into the myriad threats faced by corals, and ...
11.01.2019 Editor’s picks: November 1st 2019 A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, Islamic State after the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. (11:12) The reinvention of the MBA for the next business revolution. (22:33) And, why ...
11.01.2019 Impeach-y keen: Trump investigation goes public America’s House of Representatives took its first vote on how to proceed with impeachment proceedings against the president. Republicans will now struggle to defend him. Uighurs, China’s Muslim minority, are not just at risk of internment and “re-education” at home; ...
10.31.2019 The Economist asks: José Manuel Barroso The Brexit deadline has been delayed and Britain is now heading for a snap general election. Anne McElvoy asks José Manuel Barroso, former president of the European Commission, whether Boris Johnson can win on December 12th and “get Brexit done”. ...
10.31.2019 Iraq in a hard place: deadly protests continue Demonstrations have been growing for a month and show no signs of abating. But would the reforms that the protesters are demanding actually work? We examine a pioneering bit of Lithuanian software that excels at fake-news detection. And why Germans ...
10.30.2019 Babbage: Home o’Sapiens Scientists believe they have located the ancestral home of one of humanity’s early ancestors—in northern Botswana. Tom Siebel, a Silicon Valley veteran and the founder of C3.ai, explains how digital transformation stops companies from going extinct. And, host Kenneth Cukier ...
10.30.2019 May as well: Boris Johnson’s electoral bet Prime Minister Boris Johnson has at last secured a general election. Just as with his predecessor Theresa May, that may not result in easier Brexit arithmetic. We speak to Amy Klobuchar, a Democratic-nomination contender; she is behind in polls, but ...
10.29.2019 Money talks: HSBC change HSBC’s third-quarter results have revealed a “disappointing” performance in Europe and America. What has caused problems for the global bank? Also, Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil firm, looks likely to push forward with plans for an IPO. What challenges does ...
10.29.2019 Not fare enough: Chile’s protests The ongoing unrest is no longer about a rise in metro fares; Chileans have risen up to demand that the prosperity of their country be distributed more evenly. The “Visegrad Four” economies of central Europe have been a post-communism success ...
10.28.2019 Futurewatch: Trailer Coming soon: a new series from The Economist that goes behind the scenes of the future to meet the people who are building tomorrow's world. In its first season, Futurewatch looks at the future of money—the death of cash, the ...
10.28.2019 The world ahead: Libra in the balance As doubts surround the launch of Facebook’s Libra, will 2020 really be the year of digital currencies? We find out what shopping is like when payments are automatic and invisible. And, how China provides a glimpse of how people will ...
10.28.2019 State of disarray: the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi The man who brought Islamic State to the world stage with visions of a brutal “caliphate” has been killed. But the jihadist movement, while weakened, lives on. Argentines voted their reformist president out and protectionist, big-state Peronists back in. Can ...
10.25.2019 The Economist asks: Where does power lie in America? Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams was the first African-American woman to win a major-party nomination for governor in 2018, narrowly losing to the incumbent she accused of suppressing non-white votes. Anne McElvoy asks what the fraught Georgia race taught her, whether ...
10.25.2019 Poll dance: Boris Johnson’s election ploy Britain’s prime minister is making a risky move by calling for a general election in December. Will it succeed any more than it did for his predecessor? In Japan, both the government and the people take a dim view of ...
10.24.2019 Editor’s picks: October 24th 2019 A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, why Elizabeth Warren’s plan for American capitalism is not the answer to the country’s problems. (10:30) Russia’s increasing influence in Africa (21:20) And, ...
10.24.2019 Calls to action: Lebanon’s continued protests What began as protests against a tax on WhatsApp calls has blossomed into surprisingly united and peaceful demands for wholesale government overhaul. Today’s disinterment and reburial of Francisco Franco, Spain’s dictator for four decades, speaks volumes about how the country ...
10.23.2019 Babbage: Libra takes a pounding Facebook’s cryptocurrency, Libra, has suffered setbacks in recent weeks, as the company’s founder Mark Zuckerberg appears before a congressional committee to defend it. The Economist’s technology editor Tim Cross explains what’s at stake. Also, how a giant timber mill in ...
10.23.2019 Putin, he’s back into it: Russia’s growing influence Vladimir Putin’s diplomacy regarding northern Syria is just one example of the Russian president’s widening influence. British Airways was once known as the world’s favourite airline, we ask why its popularity has fallen far faster than its profits. And why ...
10.22.2019 Money talks: Wells Far(to)go The new boss of Wells Fargo has an unenviable to-do list. Our Wall Street correspondent sizes up Charlie Scharf’s prospects for rehabilitating the bank after a series of scandals. Senator Elizabeth Warren is now leading the pack of Democratic candidates ...
10.22.2019 The course of Trudeau love: Canada’s election Justin Trudeau will remain prime minister, but will lead a minority government. He will probably be able to continue with his progressive push, but his halo is a bit tarnished. It’s ten years this month since Greece’s financial implosion; we ...
10.21.2019 Going through the motion: more Brexit contortions It might have been a clarifying vote on Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit motion; instead, more legislation and frustration. We dig through the parliamentary procedure to try to map out what happens next. Sports fans’ easy access to the world’s ...
10.18.2019 The Economist asks: Who can trust Trump’s America? America’s withdrawal from northern Syria and the subsequent Turkish invasion have overturned the power balance in the region, displacing tens of thousands of America’s former allies, the Kurds. Ash Carter helped build that alliance as US secretary of defence. John ...
10.18.2019 Irish ayes? A new Brexit deal Britain’s prime minister Boris Johnson has a newly struck European Union divorce deal in hand. He has defied the expectations of many, but he still faces a tricky vote in Britain’s parliament. Turkey’s pummelling of the Syrian border area will ...
10.17.2019 Editor’s picks: October 17th 2019 A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, Donald Trump’s betrayal of the Kurds is a blow to America’s credibility. (09:40) The proposed Brexit agreement is different to anything advertised during ...
10.17.2019 Antsy about ANC: reform in South Africa Our journalists interview Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, about his efforts to clean up his country and his African National Congress party. He’s the right man for the job, but the clock is ticking. The markets are rife with funds ...
10.16.2019 Babbage: Cough up Over the past two decades the Global Fund has fought the spread of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, but now many in the field fear its progress is under threat. The founder and CEO of language-learning app Duolingo, Luis von Ahn, ...
10.16.2019 Back to Square one? Tiananmen veterans in Hong Kong Amid the growing disquiet in Hong Kong are a few survivors of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. These once-moderate voices are changing their minds about whether the protesters should keep provoking the Chinese government. Even as a currency crisis unfolds, ...

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Economist Radio

What's Economist Radio about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Economist Radio episodes:

Money talks: Getting bizzy

Bits in pieces: a fragmenting internet

Futurewatch: The crypto craze

Head for the Hill: this week’s impeachment hearings

The Economist asks: Esther Perel

Better the devil they know? Sri Lanka’s election

Editor’s picks: November 14th 2019

Language barrier: Cameroon’s forgotten conflict

Babbage: Private patients

Umbrellas to firebombs: Hong Kong’s escalating protests

Money talks: Streams come true

The American Dreamer: DACA in the Supreme Court

Futurewatch: The future of banking

Unpresidented: Bolivia’s leader resigns

The Economist asks: Thirty years on, is Germany still divided?

Persistence of division: after the Berlin Wall

Editor’s picks: November 7th 2019

Allez, Europe! Macron’s diplomatic push

Babbage: Designer genes

Demonstrative: a global wave of protest

Money talks: Unhappy EUnion

Stone unturned? Trump’s adviser on trial

Futurewatch: The death of cash

Facebooklets: breaking up Big Tech

Editor’s picks: November 1st 2019

Impeach-y keen: Trump investigation goes public

The Economist asks: José Manuel Barroso

Iraq in a hard place: deadly protests continue

Babbage: Home o’Sapiens

May as well: Boris Johnson’s electoral bet

Money talks: HSBC change

Not fare enough: Chile’s protests

Futurewatch: Trailer

The world ahead: Libra in the balance

State of disarray: the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

The Economist asks: Where does power lie in America?

Poll dance: Boris Johnson’s election ploy

Editor’s picks: October 24th 2019

Calls to action: Lebanon’s continued protests

Babbage: Libra takes a pounding

Putin, he’s back into it: Russia’s growing influence

Money talks: Wells Far(to)go

The course of Trudeau love: Canada’s election

Going through the motion: more Brexit contortions

The Economist asks: Who can trust Trump’s America?

Irish ayes? A new Brexit deal

Editor’s picks: October 17th 2019

Antsy about ANC: reform in South Africa

Babbage: Cough up

Back to Square one? Tiananmen veterans in Hong Kong

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