Economist Radio

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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The Economist Asks: Brené B...

10.22.2020

The Texan research professor, podcaster and adviser to CEOs explains how to preserve mental health in the covid-19 era. Anne McElvoy asks what her study of isolation shows about the effects of pandemic restrictions. Brown explains the effects of fear ...

Economist Radio episodes:

10.22.2020 The Economist Asks: Brené Brown The Texan research professor, podcaster and adviser to CEOs explains how to preserve mental health in the covid-19 era. Anne McElvoy asks what her study of isolation shows about the effects of pandemic restrictions. Brown explains the effects of fear ...
10.22.2020 Pandemic power-grabs: autocrats’ covid opportunism As it has with so many other trends, the pandemic has hastened the decline of democracy and human rights; covid-19 provides autocrats with perfect cover. The plummeting price for the cobalt that powers electronics has upended lives and driven crime ...
10.21.2020 Babbage: Herd mentality As new waves of covid-19 sweep around the world, scientists are clashing over the concept of herd immunity. Host Kenneth Cukier asks scientists on both sides of the debate whether covid-19 should be left to spread freely among the young ...
10.21.2020 Secular-stand nation: terror in France The brutal murder of a schoolteacher comes amid warnings of mounting Islamism in the country. The attack will only harden resolve for a secular society. Alexei Navalny, Russia’s opposition leader, speaks with our correspondent about the attempt on his life; ...
10.20.2020 Money Talks: Xinomics A new economic era is dawning in China—a potent mix of autocracy, technology and dynamism. Our Asia economics editor Simon Rabinovitch and host Simon Long speak to local business owners and economists about this evolution of state capitalism. Could a ...
10.20.2020 The persecution of a people: China’s repression of the Uyghurs Reporting by The Economist reveals deepening efforts by Chinese authorities not just to imprison the Muslim-minority people but also to reduce their number, to wipe out their culture and to hound them wherever in the world they may go. Yet ...
10.19.2020 Loved Labour’s won: landslide in New Zealand After a term spent steering the country through crises, Jacinda Ardern has led her Labour party to a thumping victory; what will they do with their historic majority? Far from taking on water as the pandemic progresses, the shipping industry ...
10.18.2020 Editor’s Picks: October 19th 2020 A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, the persecution of the Uyghurs, Trumponomics (11:05), and Formula 1: man vs machine (17:20). Please subscribe to The Economist for full access to ...
10.16.2020 Checks and Balance: Joe’s job No candidate challenging a sitting president has had a poll lead bigger than Joe Biden’s this close to election day. His allure owes a lot to who he is not. The Democrats coalesced around the former Vice President only when ...
10.16.2020 Más MAS? Bolivia’s election After last year’s vote was marred by fraud allegations, the electorate is split ahead of Sunday’s poll: will the country return the socialist MAS party of exiled leader Evo Morales to power? A private tutor to the rich and anxious ...
10.15.2020 The Economist Asks: Martin Amis The British novelist tells host Anne McElvoy how anyone can become “an expert on words”. She asks Amis, who first became famous when he published "The Rachel Papers" in 1973 in his mid-twenties, why he never reads young authors and ...
10.15.2020 A close-it call: Nigeria’s uprising Angry protests following an alleged police killing continue, even after a hated police unit was shuttered. That exposes far-deeper discontent. Banks’ earnings this week show that belt-tightening earlier in the year has held them in good stead. What to do ...
10.14.2020 Babbage: The Metaverse is coming We explore computer-generated virtual worlds and their use in everything from film-making to architecture. What will it take to build a real Metaverse, a persistent virtual world that anyone can plug into? This vision, though born in the minds of ...
10.14.2020 Scared strait: Taiwan Rhetoric and sabre-rattling from mainland China are rapidly ramping up; we examine the risk of an invasion that would have global consequences. A decision by World Rugby to ban trans women from the women’s game stokes a notoriously ill-tempered debate. ...
10.13.2020 Money Talks: The prize is right This year’s Nobel prize rewards two economists who reimagined an ancient form of transaction—the auction. Host Rachana Shanbhogue asks one of the winners, Paul Milgrom, how he put his cutting-edge theory into practice. Plus, the $100bn bet that has not ...
10.13.2020 Food chain broken: famine in Yemen The country yet again faces widespread starvation as a civil war grinds on, and both sides are to blame for the misery visited upon civilians. With the stroke of a pen, Argentina recently doubled in size—setting a precedent with big ...
10.12.2020 In their own Swede time: pandemic pragmatism By the numbers to date, Sweden's light-touch covid-19 measures may not seem successful. But its pragmatism takes an instructively long view of the pandemic. China’s high-level party machinery brooks no political dissent; among street-level functionaries, stories of disobedience and tolerance ...
10.11.2020 Editor’s Picks: October 12th 2020 A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week: Ant group and fintech come of age, economic disparities after covid-19 (09:30) the US election in miniature (17:00). Please subscribe to The Economist ...
10.09.2020 Checks and Balance: Florida’s key A covid-19 outbreak in the White House threatens President Trump’s chances of reelection. Behind in national polls, his path to victory once again goes through the Electoral College. He must win Florida, his adopted home state and the biggest battleground ...
10.09.2020 Buy the way? Kyrgyzstan’s post-election chaos Citizens are furious after a poll seemingly tainted by vote-buying; its annulment leaves a power vacuum that may yet draw in China and Russia. An author’s journey through the history of America’s racist militias, including the Ku Klux Klan, starts ...
10.08.2020 The Economist Asks: Fareed Zakaria & John Micklethwait Which countries passed and failed "the great covid test"? CNN’s Fareed Zakaria and John Micklethwait, the editor-in-chief of Bloomberg, have both written books assessing countries' responses to covid-19 and how governments should adapt to the post-pandemic world. Is the global ...
10.08.2020 More-civil discourse: Pence and Harris debate That a housefly could steal the show at America’s only vice-presidential debate is telling, but a discussion with more substance than bombast was a welcome respite. Cuba is experiencing its worst food crisis in decades, and that at last may ...
10.07.2020 Babbage: Nobel minds Host Kenneth Cukier explores the science honoured in this year’s Nobel prizes. Our correspondents assess the life-saving impact of the identification of hepatitis C, speak to one of this year’s winners for physics, Andrea Ghez, about her work unveiling the ...
10.07.2020 Clerical era: Iraq in a hard place A pilgrimage that is sure to become a covid-19 hotspot is a sign of how much the country’s government is losing legitimacy to its clergymen and tribal leaders. Social-media giants’ efforts to scrub violent content from their platforms simultaneously hobbles ...
10.06.2020 Money Talks: GiAnt of finance Ant Group, the world’s biggest fintech platform, is preparing for a record-busting IPO. Is it a glimpse of the future of finance? Suzanne Clark, president of the US Chamber of Commerce, tells us how she thinks the elections will reshape ...
10.06.2020 Sailing into the wind: Boris Johnson Britain’s prime minister will outline big wind-energy plans at his party’s annual conference, even as the pandemic and Brexit blow his government off course. The sombre tone at a thanksgiving festival in Ethiopia reveals how the country’s largest ethnic group ...
10.05.2020 Ill-disposed: Trump’s hospital stay Amid a flurry of conflicting information over the weekend, details of Donald Trump’s progress and prognosis remain worryingly unclear. How will this brush with the virus change the campaign, or the president? Asia’s migrant workers had difficult, precarious lives that ...
10.04.2020 Editor’s Picks: October 5th 2020 A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week: Bidenomics, Chinese officials want to erase many villages (12:00) and ethnic minorities in Britain (19:10). Please subscribe to The Economist for full access ...
10.02.2020 Checks and Balance: Reality wreck The president’s tweet announcing his positive coronavirus test was his most shared ever - a shocking fact amid a mire of misinformation. This week’s angry TV debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden highlighted how even the truth has become ...
10.02.2020 In Syria’s trouble: an embattled despot digs in Unexpected defeats at rebels’ hands, a cratered economy, a hungry citizenry and a runaway covid-19 epidemic: can anything unseat Bashar al-Assad? When Germany reunified, many worried it would upset the balance of Europe; 30 years on and if anything the ...
10.01.2020 The Economist Asks: Philippe Reines After President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden's first televised presidential debate resulted in a shout show, Anne McElvoy asks how candidates can win or lose a debate. Philippe Reines was Hilary Clinton’s long term adviser who prepared ...
10.01.2020 Enclave on edge: Armenia and Azerbaijan The region of Nagorno-Karabakh has been the subject of dispute and skirmishes for decades—but the current conflict threatens to draw in both Turkey and Russia. Rule changes accelerated by the pandemic have revealed a better way to handle early-stage abortions. ...
09.30.2020 Babbage: Apple's Epic battle This week a judge heard the first arguments in an antitrust case that could reshape the software ecosystem. Who will be the real winners and losers of this digital deathmatch? Quantum computers have limited capabilities, but the technology may yet ...
09.30.2020 Shoutshow: Trump and Biden clash America’s first presidential debate was unmitigated chaos, revealing little more than the rancour between the candidates. In Chicago a newish musical genre called drill has a strong relation to the city’s gang violence; we ask whether it is a causal ...
09.29.2020 Money Talks: A plague, but not on houses What is driving the global boom in house prices during the pandemic? Also, American fintech firms have long distanced themselves from traditional banking—so why are some now angling to become banks themselves? And, reflections on the life of Donald Kendall, ...
09.29.2020 No-tax-and-spend policy: Trump’s tax returns Just ahead of the first presidential debate, a trove of tax documents suggests the president has some staggeringly loss-making businesses and a staggering amount of debt coming due. We examine China’s pledge to become carbon-neutral by 2060 and what it ...
09.28.2020 The World Ahead: The future of work With work habits around the work changing because of covid-19, host Tom Standage considers the future of the office. What lessons can be learned from companies like GitHub, where most employees are remote? What can providers of flexible workspaces, such ...
09.28.2020 Bench press: Trump’s Supreme Court pick On gun rights, abortion policy and health care Amy Coney Barrett, the seemingly unstoppable successor to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, will shift the court’s balance for decades. In China, the visually impaired are usually shuffled off to the massage industry; we ...
09.27.2020 Editor’s Picks: September 28th 2020 A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, covid-19: why are so many governments getting it wrong? What Warren Buffett sees in Japan Inc (8:11) and French diplomacy (16:00). Please subscribe ...
09.25.2020 Checks and balance: Confirmation bias Economist modelling suggests November's election may end Republican control of the Senate. The Republican leadership plans to push through the appointment of a new Supreme Court justice to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg before then. Democrats are threatening to retaliate by ...
09.25.2020 Another matter: the Breonna Taylor verdict A grand jury’s decision has re-energised months-long protests. We ask how much another tragic death at the hands of police may spur meaningful reforms. A once-fringe movement to “re-wild” the Highlands of Scotland is gaining momentum. And how the promising ...
09.24.2020 The Economist Asks: Hilary Swank Anne McElvoy asks two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank whether the new rules intended to encourage diversity in film will work. The actress argues for change in the Oscars but worries that new diversity standards could limit which stories are ...
09.24.2020 Winter is coming: covid-19’s next phase Soon the pandemic will have claimed a million lives. We take a broad look at what has been learned—and the deadly mistakes still being made. Our correspondent visits Wuhan, site of the first known outbreak, to find a city that ...
09.23.2020 Babbage: Pandemic’s progress As the global covid-19 death toll nears 1 million, The Economist’s healthcare correspondent and health policy editor explain what scientists are still investigating about the virus, how long-lasting is the immune response and how the pandemic can be tamed. And, ...
09.23.2020 America’s next top chamber, modelled: the Senate battle Congressional elections will decide the direction of America’s governance irrespective of the presidential pick; we reveal our statistical model of the Senate races. Tesla steals the headlines in the electric-vehicle stakes, but a vast, global industry is nipping at its ...
09.22.2020 Money Talks: Power in the 21st century Oil fuelled the 20th century, but now a huge energy shock is catalysing a shift to a new world order. Charlotte Howard, The Economist's energy and commodities editor, and host Rachana Shanbhogue investigate why this oil slump is different. They ...
09.22.2020 Stumbling block: the battle over WeChat The Trump administration’s bid to block the Chinese app has been stymied—for now. The tussle reflects a change in how America does business, and how the internet itself may evolve. Migration in the Mediterranean is picking up again; the pandemic ...
09.21.2020 Judge dread: the fight for Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a liberal icon. Her death last week opens a Supreme Court vacancy for Donald Trump to fill, which could tip the court further right ahead of what might be a legally fraught election. And there is ...
09.20.2020 Editor’s Picks: September 21st 2020 A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week: 21st century power, the birth of the Frankenfirm (09:40) and, why no one is called Linda in Saudi Arabia (15:00). Please subscribe to ...
09.18.2020 Checks and balance: Suburban brawl Donald Trump hopes fear of unrest and rising crime will appeal to the “suburban housewives” he tweets about. It’s a strategy borrowed from Richard Nixon, who first harnessed the political power of suburban voters to win the White House. But ...

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Economist Radio

What's Economist Radio about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Economist Radio episodes:

The Economist Asks: Brené Brown

Pandemic power-grabs: autocrats’ covid opportunism

Babbage: Herd mentality

Secular-stand nation: terror in France

Money Talks: Xinomics

The persecution of a people: China’s repression of the Uyghurs

Loved Labour’s won: landslide in New Zealand

Editor’s Picks: October 19th 2020

Checks and Balance: Joe’s job

Más MAS? Bolivia’s election

The Economist Asks: Martin Amis

A close-it call: Nigeria’s uprising

Babbage: The Metaverse is coming

Scared strait: Taiwan

Money Talks: The prize is right

Food chain broken: famine in Yemen

In their own Swede time: pandemic pragmatism

Editor’s Picks: October 12th 2020

Checks and Balance: Florida’s key

Buy the way? Kyrgyzstan’s post-election chaos

The Economist Asks: Fareed Zakaria & John Micklethwait

More-civil discourse: Pence and Harris debate

Babbage: Nobel minds

Clerical era: Iraq in a hard place

Money Talks: GiAnt of finance

Sailing into the wind: Boris Johnson

Ill-disposed: Trump’s hospital stay

Editor’s Picks: October 5th 2020

Checks and Balance: Reality wreck

In Syria’s trouble: an embattled despot digs in

The Economist Asks: Philippe Reines

Enclave on edge: Armenia and Azerbaijan

Babbage: Apple's Epic battle

Shoutshow: Trump and Biden clash

Money Talks: A plague, but not on houses

No-tax-and-spend policy: Trump’s tax returns

The World Ahead: The future of work

Bench press: Trump’s Supreme Court pick

Editor’s Picks: September 28th 2020

Checks and balance: Confirmation bias

Another matter: the Breonna Taylor verdict

The Economist Asks: Hilary Swank

Winter is coming: covid-19’s next phase

Babbage: Pandemic’s progress

America’s next top chamber, modelled: the Senate battle

Money Talks: Power in the 21st century

Stumbling block: the battle over WeChat

Judge dread: the fight for Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat

Editor’s Picks: September 21st 2020

Checks and balance: Suburban brawl

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