Power Play

After spending decades in relative obscurity, Japanese whisky is finally getting global appreciation for its masterful flavors. Global demand is high, with prices to match. There’s just one problem: There’s no technical definition of Japanese whisky, or formal system to regulate it. Does it matter if not all Japanese whisky is strictly from Japan?

Episode art: Photograph by Eric Helgas, styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi

Transcript: https://qz.com/2062940

A group of 17 elements make up a little-known group called rare earth metals. They are notoriously tricky to extract, which is unfortunate since they’re key components in smartphones, batteries, motors, and wind turbines, and essential to a clean-energy future. China has a near monopoly on the mining and processing of rare earth metals, but as demand for them rises, other countries are looking to get into the game.

Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi

Transcript: https://qz.com/2062525

Kudzu, an ornamental vine from Japan, first appeared on US soil in 1876. More than a century later, the plant has proliferated so uncontrollably that it threatens to choke out native plants in the American South. As the world looks for creative solutions to confront climate change, are we fated to keep repeating our same mistakes?

Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi

Transcript: https://qz.com/2084567

If you’re concerned about sustainability and wellness, chances are you’re a consumer of oat milk, the latest star in the alternative milk scene. But does oat milk have appeal around the world? And who will lose out as big dairy muscles into the alt milk space?

Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi

Transcript: https://qz.com/2077496

Bigger seat, more legroom, even silk pajamas: Flying business class comes with major perks for travelers. It’s also crucial to the entire airline business model. But given the seats’ outsized carbon footprint, how ethical is it to keep flying business class?

Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi

Transcript: https://qz.com/2077489

The beat-heavy, electronic music from Nigeria has been gaining a global fan base and is a point of pride across Africa. It’s also finally helping local artists make real money. But is Afrobeats establishing a path to global domination that other genres can follow, or is an entire continent being reduced to one country’s signature sound?

Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi

Transcript: https://qz.com/2074060

Those internet security tests that ask you to retype blurry numbers or pick out photos of traffic lights have an important job: They stop robots from gumming up the internet. But by using them everywhere, we’re training computers to see the world like we do, and they’re getting really good at it. What happens as it gets harder to prove our humanity online?

Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi

Transcript: https://qz.com/2060828

It’s anonymous, it’s stable, and it’s accepted pretty much everywhere. And despite the rise of mobile payments and the ubiquity of credit cards, it’s still moving everything around us; more cash is in circulation than ever. We talk about the pros and cons of cash in a world increasingly dominated by mobile payments, and try to figure out if cash is here to stay.

Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi

Transcript: https://qz.com/2063471

The global economy needs true randomness to encrypt messages and make sure elections are honest. But not all randomness is random enough, and humans and computers alike are really bad at generating it. So we turn to natural sources like seismic waves, radioactive decay, and lava lamps (yes, lava lamps) to generate it for us.

Photo by Eric Helgas; styling by Alex Citrin-Safadi

Transcript: https://qz.com/2062955

Let's go down the rabbit hole, together. Coming Oct. 12, 2021.