The Intelligence from The Economist
The Economist
Get a daily burst of illumination from The Economist’s worldwide network of correspondents. Our reporters dig past the headlines to get to the stories beneath—and to stories that aren’t making headlines, but should be. A unique perspective on the issues and events shaping your world.
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Location:
United Kingdom
Genres:
News & Politics Podcasts
Networks:
The Economist
Description:
Get a daily burst of illumination from The Economist’s worldwide network of correspondents. Our reporters dig past the headlines to get to the stories beneath—and to stories that aren’t making headlines, but should be. A unique perspective on the issues and events shaping your world. Sign up for Economist Podcasts+ at http://www.economist.com/podcastsplus-intelligence. If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you’ll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about Economist Podcasts+, including how to get access, please visit our FAQs page at https://myaccount.economist.com/s/article/What-is-Economist-Podcasts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Language:
English
Episodes
Peace by piece? Zelensky and Trump meet again
8/18/2025
After an inconclusive summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, the stakes are high for Volodymyr Zelensky’s meeting with the US president in Washington today. Enter the “solopreneur”: why AI is allowing entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses on their own. And a 400-year-old Chinese cough syrup is enjoying new-found popularity.
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Duration:00:21:06
A farewell to arms? Hamas considers its options
8/15/2025
Opinions of Hamas are shifting—among its international backers, in Gaza, even within its affiliates’ ranks. If it opts to disarm, what would happen next? A new analysis suggests using a sense of risk to explain markets’ movements might be focusing on the wrong emotion. And our final “Archive 1945” instalment relives VJ day through The Economist’s coverage at the time.
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Duration:00:24:28
Frozen conflict? A special episode in the Arctic
8/14/2025
In Norway’s north, a geopolitical quirk may yet transform into a geopolitical conflict. We visit Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago that contains a Russian company town complete with a bust of Lenin. Ahead of the high-stakes, high-north summit in Alaska, our correspondents lay out why—perhaps even more than the Baltic states—the Arctic might be the flashpoint for Russia’s next bout of expansionism.
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Duration:00:23:28
Just getting started: El Salvador’s president for life
8/13/2025
First he came for the gangs; then, for his critics. Now Nayib Bukele has come for El Salvador’s constitution, and there is little to stop him staying in office indefinitely. America’s paltry fertility numbers show a counterintuitive pattern: births are falling fastest where they were once highest. And France’s Provence region becomes a brand unto itself.
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Duration:00:23:07
Next top model: GPT-5 and its AI rivals
8/12/2025
A look at progress in generative AI shows that OpenAI’s latest, greatest model sits on a neat curve of growing utility over time. But what other firms are on that curve, and where is it taking humanity? After a long, wary time, Japanese savers are getting into investing—with gusto. And what goofy, small-time wrestling leagues reveal about today’s America.
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Duration:00:21:42
The summit of its parts: Ukraine, Trump and Putin
8/11/2025
What is on the table for the meeting in Alaska? What are the red lines? What chance Ukraine would accept what is agreed, especially if its president is not even in the room? Many world cities would like to become the Detroit of electric vehicles; our correspondent visits China’s contenders. And treatments improve for even the worst cases of allergies.
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Duration:00:23:49
Not all’s fair: Israel and accountability
8/8/2025
We take an expansive look at how much the Israeli justice system is holding its war machine to account. The results are so far unpromising. The idea, popular on social media, of “job-hopping” to ratchet up pay is looking ever less wise. And a look back on the life of Father Patrick Ryan, unrepentant improver of the IRA’s bombs.
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Duration:00:25:54
Duty regime: America’s consumers will foot the tariff bill
8/7/2025
As yet another tranche of Donald Trump’s tariffs takes effect, we look at why the duties might outlast him—and how American consumers will ultimately shoulder the trade war’s costs. Our correspondent visits US Space Command, which is preparing for a new age of combat in the heavens. And Gen Z’s obsession with big, personalised water bottles.
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Duration:00:22:37
Unsteady state: Somalia in disarray
8/6/2025
The country had been on the rise: beating back jihadists, strengthening its federal structure and gaining international stature. That has all reversed. In Britain levels of crime have fallen—but the changing nature of criminality has meant a smaller fraction of crooks getting caught. And 80 years on to the day our Archive 1945 project revisits the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
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Duration:00:24:02
Consultant management: McKinsey loses its shine
8/5/2025
The world’s biggest strategy consultant has smaller rivals nipping at its heels. As it nears 100 years old, we ask how it will navigate a tricky AI-inflected future. It is already hard enough to fiddle with travel plans to get the cheapest flight. A new thing to consider? Whether you’re flying solo. And in America, women’s-sports bars are proliferating.
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Duration:00:21:14
Degrees of freedom? Harvard’s shakedown dilemma
8/4/2025
Donald Trump’s mission to bend higher education to his will maintains its sharpest focus on Harvard. Will the venerable university settle—and should it? Our correspondents meet with France’s top general, who believes Russia will threaten Europe sooner than many people think. And a look at how satire changes when politics is beyond parody and its practitioners cannot be shamed.
Impressions courtesy of George Simpson
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Duration:00:24:44
State swing: recognising Palestine
8/1/2025
The aims of France, Britain and Canada in recognising a Palestinian state are laudable—but now is not the time to deploy what little leverage they have. AI optimists reckon the era of superintelligence will bring about explosive growth; we ask what that world would look like. And remembering Tom Lehrer, whose rare gift for satirical song skewered anything and anyone.
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Duration:00:29:26
Luxe run out? LVMH
7/31/2025
LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, to use its proper name, is led by Bernard Arnault, who is credited with creating today’s luxury industry. Can he turn the firm around after its missteps? Why do fluffy K-dramas tempt North Koreans to brave the firing squad? It is not the political messages. And our Big Mac index shows trade-tantrum effects on the dollar.
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Duration:00:23:13
Heavy meddle: Trump and Brazil
7/30/2025
President Donald Trump’s animus towards his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is best seen as solidarity with Jair Bolsonaro, another ousted president who clung to power. India has surpassed China as Asia’s biggest private-jet buyer, but not only because of rising numbers of super-rich. And Hong Kong’s quirky fusion cafes bloom abroad as they thin out at home.
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Duration:00:20:11
Pause for little effect: a trickle of aid in Gaza
7/29/2025
Localised “tactical pauses” in Gaza relieve international pressure on Israel more than they relieve the pressure of starvation on Gazans. We ask how the aid effort looks on the ground. Japan’s law on couples sharing surnames is coming under fire; repealing it might actually help with the birthrate. And how Bad Bunny brought Spanish to the top of the charts.
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Duration:00:22:46
EU gotta know when to hold ‘em: America’s latest trade deal
7/28/2025
The European Union will swallow 15% tariffs in exchange for promises to buy American. We examine the accord and ask what will stick. The English region of the Midlands is unjustly overlooked, our correspondent says; how can it get its due? And Fauja Singh ran his first marathon aged 88—or thereabouts. Our obituaries editor reflects on his relationship with running.
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Duration:00:20:38
Xiaomi the way: a Chinese tech giant gets bigger
7/25/2025
The smartphone giant is now making strong inroads in the electric-vehicle market. But can its boss’s belovedness at home translate to success abroad? Britain and Argentina are putting past differences behind them as the South Atlantic becomes a strategic hotspot. And how women’s sports, already sharply on the rise, can get bigger still.
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Duration:00:23:03
Anti-anti-corruption? A bill in Ukraine sparks protests
7/24/2025
A new bill threatening the independence of anti-corruption agencies has brought Ukrainians onto the streets and rattled international observers. London’s electric bikes are making it ever more a cycling city—and plugging longstanding transport gaps. And a tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, who did perhaps more than anyone to found the genre of heavy metal.
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Duration:00:23:49
The smaller C: progress in beating cancer
7/23/2025
Overall, more people are dying from cancer. But a closer look at the numbers reveals just how much success modern medicine has had at making the disease less deadly. The spiraling fortunes of Kraft Heinz since its formation from a merger is a sign of a wider malaise in the food industry. And Germany’s football-playing parliamentarians cannot keep politics off the pitch.
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Duration:00:21:56
Hawks v talks: barriers to peace in Gaza
7/22/2025
Even as Western countries band together to condemn Israel’s actions, aid remains at a trickle and the war is expanding into a central-Gazan city. We ask how the horrors might end. As with many technologies before it, many worry artificial intelligence will ultimately dumb down its human users; will it? And why so many American men are injecting testosterone.
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Duration:00:24:44