QuickTake

By Bloomberg

What's QuickTake about?

Fast news explainers for a world in flux. Every week, Bloomberg Radio's Charlie Pellett brings you the context, background and meaning for an issue, event or idea in the news.

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QuickTake episodes:

10.30.2018
When Your Phone Is Your Wallet
The future of money is in your pocket — the one you keep your phone in, not your wallet. A growing portion of the world’s population is making phone-assisted transactions. They’re using a variety of technologies, from the text-message system...
10.23.2018
The Cost of Carbon
When factories belch smoke, everybody pays. Shouldn’t polluters be the ones to feel the sting instead? That’s the big idea behind carbon pricing: Add a levy so that emissions of greenhouse gases have a cost in line with their environmental...
10.18.2018
Are We Measuring Hurricanes Wrong?
Call anything a Category 5 storm, disaster or crisis and immediately it sounds awful. The label owes much of its weight to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which is cited routinely (if rarely by its full name) this time of...
10.10.2018
What Countries Are Doing About Deforestation
When it comes to saving the world’s rainforests, governments can make a big difference, and fast. Take Indonesia, which in 2012 surpassed Brazil as the world’s leader in tropical rainforest destruction. In 2017, it engineered a 60 percent drop in...
10.04.2018
Fintech and the Digital Future
Not so long ago, homebuyers, entrepreneurs and investors went hat-in-hand to the bank to apply for a mortgage, small-business credit line or brokerage account. Financial technology, or fintech, is rapidly changing all that by making it easier to save, borrow...
09.25.2018
When Will Ultrafast Internet Come to Your Phone?
A surge in mobile-data demand worldwide has more and more people asking when they’ll get that speedy next-generation 5G mobile service. Companies are wondering, too, since 5G has the potential to revolutionize everything from self-driving cars to robotic surgery. Mobile...
09.24.2018
Faking Videos Is Easier Than Ever, and That's Scary
A minute-long video of Barack Obama has been seen more than 4.8 million times since April. It shows the former U.S. president seated, with the American flag in the background, speaking directly to the viewer and using an obscenity to...
09.12.2018
Why the World Is Watching Canada's Pot Legalization
All eyes are on Canada as it prepares to legalize recreational marijuana in October, becoming only the second country to do so after Uruguay. The pending change has touched off an investment boom and pushed up valuations of Canada’s cannabis...
09.04.2018
How Raging Heatwaves Affect the Global Economy
To see the impact of record-breaking temperatures around the world, watch wheat. Found in everything from bread to noodles, biscuits to cereals, beer to cakes -- there is no more widely grown staple crop and more than 170 million metric...
08.31.2018
Market Meltup
Once again, stocks are hot. Following a drubbing earlier in the year, benchmark indexes are setting new records as investors ignore warning signs and keep piling in. Is this another rally justified by robust earnings, lower taxes and less regulation?...
08.21.2018
Standoff in Ukraine
The allure of the West has helped shape Russian history since Peter the Great three centuries ago. Now it’s shattering even older bonds with Russia's neighbor, Ukraine. In 2013, a rebellion sparked by pro-European Ukrainians seeking a decisive break from...
08.14.2018
Erasing Your DNA Footprint is Harder Than You Think
DNA tests are a game-changing technology poised to reshape how we see ourselves and live our lives. So-called direct-to-consumer DNA testing companies like 23andMe, Ancestry and Helix advertise the ability to reveal your ancestry, inform you of your health status,...

What's QuickTake about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

QuickTake episodes:

When Your Phone Is Your Wallet

The Cost of Carbon

Are We Measuring Hurricanes Wrong?

What Countries Are Doing About Deforestation

Fintech and the Digital Future

When Will Ultrafast Internet Come to Your Phone?

Faking Videos Is Easier Than Ever, and That's Scary

Why the World Is Watching Canada's Pot Legalization

How Raging Heatwaves Affect the Global Economy

Market Meltup

Standoff in Ukraine

Erasing Your DNA Footprint is Harder Than You Think