Well-Informed & Open-Minded

China’s consumer slowdown is not unfolding the way many expected. While wealthier urbanites tighten their belts, spending is rising among lower-income households and residents of smaller cities, reshaping where—and how—money is being spent. Budget destinations like Dali are booming, even as visitors spend less per trip, reflecting what economists call “consumer downgrading.” In this episode, we explore why domestic travel is surging despite caution at the top, how falling savings rates and modest gains among poorer households may be driving new demand, and why interior cities are now outpacing Beijing and other megacities in retail growth. The story suggests that China’s economic future may hinge less on luxury consumption—and more on millions of price-conscious consumers redefining what growth looks like.https://www.economist.com/china/2025/09/07/dalifornication-grips-china

In South Korea, a quiet countercurrent is pulling young people away from the city and back to the land. Known as kwichon, the movement reflects post-pandemic disillusionment with precarious urban work and the grind of corporate life, especially within the country’s powerful chaebol. In this episode, we explore why the government is encouraging this return to rural life, how new farmers are being trained to grow food and sell it online, and what happens when digital natives meet long-established village traditions. As hundreds of thousands test the promise of the countryside, the story reveals both the hope and the friction involved in trying to rebuild rural communities—and redefine success—far from the city.https://www.economist.com/asia/2022/09/01/young-koreans-are-moving-to-the-countryside-to-farm

A rare coyote attack on a child in Chicago briefly pulled an overlooked urban resident into the spotlight. Though such incidents are uncommon, coyotes have quietly colonized cities across America, adapting with remarkable success to parks, railways, and suburban edges. In this episode, we explore why thousands now live in Chicago alone, how the loss of wolves and changes in human land use pushed them into urban spaces, and why their presence is not simply a threat but also a benefit. As coyotes keep rats and rabbits in check while occasionally preying on pets, the story challenges instinctive fears—and asks what coexistence with a wild predator really looks like in the modern city.https://www.economist.com/united-states/2020/01/16/unpacking-the-rise-of-urban-coyotes

At the highest levels of leadership, success often depends on a resource that is rarely discussed and easily depleted: personal energy. When football manager Jürgen Klopp stunned fans by stepping down from Liverpool, citing exhaustion, he voiced a truth few elite figures admit—that stamina, not just talent or strategy, can set the limits of achievement. In this episode, we explore why roles like CEO or head coach demand relentless physical and mental reserves, how this burden falls unevenly on different personalities, and why leaders from Jacinda Ardern to corporate executives have chosen to step back rather than burn out. The story reframes leadership not as an endless test of willpower, but as a discipline of knowing when energy runs out—and why rest, recovery, and restraint may be marks of strength, not weakness.https://www.economist.com/business/2024/01/29/jurgen-klopp-and-the-importance-of-energy

In China’s bookstores, self-help manuals tower over fiction and history, reflecting a society under intense pressure to adapt, compete, and succeed. Translations of American guides on management and personal growth sell briskly, even as the Communist Party urges readers toward homegrown models of “positive energy,” including the writings of Xi Jinping himself. In this episode, we explore why advice literature has such deep roots in Chinese culture, how classical texts are being reread as manuals for self-improvement, and what this hunger for guidance reveals about life in a fast-changing, high-stakes economy. The story suggests that China’s self-help boom is less about optimism than necessity—a search for tools to navigate a system where formal education rarely feels sufficient.https://www.economist.com/china/2020/11/12/why-self-help-books-are-so-popular-in-china

Sport is obsessed with streaks—with dynasties that seem unstoppable and teams so cursed they appear incapable of winning. From the record-breaking dominance of the 1971–72 Los Angeles Lakers to the years-long misery of the Cleveland Browns or the American Samoa football team, winning and losing runs are woven into how fans explain success and failure. In this episode, we explore what really lies behind these streaks: whether they are driven by leadership changes, psychology, money, and momentum, or whether—as statisticians argue—they are often little more than chance misread as meaning. By comparing real-life turnarounds with the stories we tell about them on screen, the episode asks why humans crave explanations for runs of fortune and misfortune—and why, for many fans, there is a strange comfort in backing a team whose day will surely come.https://www.economist.com/culture/2023/12/22/how-to-break-a-losing-streak

Chinese cuisine is often reduced in the West to takeaway staples, but a new book invites readers to taste something far deeper. Fuchsia Dunlop’s Invitation to a Banquet uses thirty carefully chosen dishes—not recipes, but stories—to reveal how food expresses Chinese history, philosophy, and everyday life, from the quiet elegance of a final cup of broth to the prized textures of slippery, crunchy kougan. In this episode, we explore how Dunlop reframes “unusual” ingredients not as symbols of scarcity, but of aesthetic choice and culinary sophistication. The result is a portrait of a cuisine that values mouth-feel as much as flavor, and a reminder that to understand China, one must first learn how—and why—it eats.https://www.economist.com/culture/2023/08/30/chinese-food-is-more-diverse-than-western-eaters-might-think

For more than a century, tennis has ruled the world of racket sports, crowned by global stars, billion-dollar tournaments, and a reputation for athletic and cultural prestige. Yet on courts from Miami to Madrid, quieter challengers are gaining ground. In this episode, we explore how padel and pickleball—easier to learn, more social, and especially appealing to older players—have surged in popularity, accelerated by the pandemic and changing leisure habits. As tennis loyalists bristle at the rise of these simpler games, the story echoes an old sporting cycle: today’s establishment once displaced its own predecessors. The question now is whether tennis can adapt to a shifting audience—or whether the future of racket sports belongs to its fast-growing rivals.https://www.economist.com/culture/2023/05/26/pickleball-and-padel-are-challenging-tenniss-supremacy

Urban planning is often presented as a technical exercise, but at its core it is a political act—one that decides who benefits from city life and who bears its costs. From exclusionary zoning and racially restrictive covenants to modern debates over gentrification, planning has long reflected the interests and power of those able to shape it. In this episode, we explore how planning evolved from informal private controls to formal zoning systems, why reformers pushed for advocacy and equity planning, and how today’s cities are grappling with demands for inclusion and participation. The story reveals that streets, neighborhoods, and skylines are never neutral—and that understanding whose voices count is essential to understanding how cities are made.Abbott, Carl, 'Contested communities', City Planning: A Very Short Introduction, Very Short Introductions (New York, 2020; online edn, Oxford Academic, 22 Oct. 2020), https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780190944346.003.0005

Ever since the Concorde’s final landing in 2003, commercial air travel has been getting slower, not faster—despite decades of technological progress. The reason lies less in engineering limits than in economics and physics: supersonic flight creates disruptive sonic booms, guzzles fuel, and forces airlines onto narrow, unprofitable routes. In this episode, we explore why modern jets cruise below 900 kilometers per hour, how fuel efficiency and environmental costs now outweigh the lure of speed, and why passengers have quietly accepted longer journeys in exchange for cheaper tickets. Even as new designs promise quieter booms and cleaner fuels, the story asks whether the age of faster-than-sound travel will ever truly return—or whether convenience, not velocity, now defines the future of flight.https://youtu.be/hd8tYiLSmn0?si=1NorDJLSjWzKI738

In one of the world’s most tightly managed cities, an unlikely form of freedom splashes into view. Along Beijing’s rivers and canals, residents—once mostly retirees, now joined by younger swimmers—slip past fences and warning signs to plunge into forbidden waters, building informal swimming holes complete with chairs and makeshift diving boards. In this episode, we explore how “wild swimming” has endured decades of official bans and safety concerns, and why it took on new meaning during the pandemic, when regulated leisure spaces fell silent. The story captures a quiet standoff between authority and habit, revealing how ordinary people carve out joy, community, and autonomy—even in a city defined by rules.https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/25/world/asia/beijing-china-swimming-holes.html

Born from the shockwaves of the atomic age, Godzilla first stomped onto Japanese screens as a creature of terror and trauma—a living metaphor for nuclear destruction in a country still reeling from war. Inspired by the 1954 exposure of a Japanese fishing boat to an American hydrogen-bomb test, producer Tanaka Tomoyuki imagined the monster as nature’s revenge, awakened by human hubris. In this episode, we explore how Godzilla evolved from a singular expression of postwar fear into a global cinematic icon, endlessly reshaped to reflect changing anxieties about pollution, politics, and power. More than just a monster, Godzilla’s long reign reveals how popular culture absorbs collective dread—and keeps finding new ways to give it form.https://www.economist.com/christmas-specials/2024/12/19/what-a-70-year-old-firebreathing-lizard-reveals-about-humanity

Once a quiet inhabitant of Mexico’s ancient canals, the axolotl has become one of the internet’s most recognizable creatures—smiling, pink, and endlessly reproduced in games, memes, and toys. Revered by the Aztecs and later rediscovered by scientists for its uncanny ability to regenerate limbs and remain forever youthful, the salamander’s leap to global fame came through Japanese kawaii culture and blockbuster games like Pokémon and Minecraft. In this episode, we explore how digital culture turned an obscure amphibian into a worldwide icon—and why that fame masks a grim reality. As pollution and development push the axolotl to the brink of extinction in its only natural home, the story reveals a modern paradox: how celebrity can both endanger and, perhaps, help save a species and the fragile ecosystem that sustains a megacity.https://www.economist.com/christmas-specials/2024/12/19/how-the-axolotl-rose-from-obscurity-to-global-stardom

Each spring in parts of Oklahoma and Texas, rattlesnake roundups draw crowds eager to watch hunters flush snakes from their dens, parade them through town, and turn them into spectacle, food, and local income. What began as a practical response to fear and ranching life has evolved into a ritual that now sits uneasily with modern ideas about conservation and animal welfare. In this episode, we explore how these events sustain small-town economies while provoking fierce opposition from herpetologists who warn of cruelty, ecological damage, and indiscriminate practices like gassing dens. As some states reinvent their roundups as wildlife festivals and others double down on tradition, the story exposes a deeper clash between heritage and science—and asks who gets to decide how humans coexist with the wild.https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/05/04/the-fun-and-the-fury-of-a-rattlesnake-derby

Half a century on, Jaws is still hailed as the first great summer blockbuster, remembered for its thrills, its iconic score, and the stoic heroism of Police Chief Brody. But a closer look reveals a stranger, darker film beneath the legend. Plagued by technical failures and nearly undone by the decision to shoot at sea, Steven Spielberg was forced to hide the shark—turning absence into suspense and malfunction into myth. In this episode, we explore how those constraints reshaped the film, and why the shark itself may be the story’s true moral force: a creature that punishes corruption, exposes human pettiness, and echoes deeper anxieties about nature, power, and the atomic age. What emerges is not just a monster movie, but a parable about hubris—and the terror of what we can no longer control.https://www.economist.com/culture/2025/06/09/as-jaws-turns-50-who-is-the-blockbusters-real-hero

From bustling marketplaces to gleaming waterfronts, the modern city center is the product of repeated reinvention. Once forged by the convergence of railways, ports, and commerce in the late nineteenth century, downtowns later became targets of mid-twentieth-century urban renewal schemes that sought to erase “blight” through large-scale redevelopment—often at the cost of local communities. In this episode, we explore how critics like Jane Jacobs challenged those visions, reshaping planning around street life, density, and diversity, and how today’s city centers are being redesigned once again as festival marketplaces, cultural districts, and global nodes in a postindustrial economy. The story traces a long arc of ideas about what the heart of a city is for—and why it keeps changing with every new era of movement, money, and power.Abbott, Carl, 'Saving the center', City Planning: A Very Short Introduction, Very Short Introductions (New York, 2020; online edn, Oxford Academic, 22 Oct. 2020), https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780190944346.003.0004

Often reviled as symbols of death, vultures are in fact among nature’s most effective public-health workers. Armed with stomach acid strong enough to neutralize pathogens like rabies, cholera, and tuberculosis, they strip carcasses clean before decay can poison water and soil, quietly stopping outbreaks before they begin. In this episode, we explore how these “plague-busting heroes” evolved to turn death into ecological renewal—and why they are now vanishing at alarming rates, devastated by toxic veterinary drugs, habitat loss, and poisoning. As vulture populations collapse and human disease rises in their wake, the story reveals what happens when a crucial link in the ecosystem breaks, and how conservationists are racing to bring these indispensable birds back from the brink.https://youtu.be/1WIUuGCIfcc?si=2dk7QlsGQVSQlul5

Perched in the hills of southern Italy, San Giovanni Lipioni has become a symbol of a nation’s demographic reckoning—a village of just 137 residents, once dubbed Italy’s oldest town by average age, now hollowed out by decades of emigration. Empty houses line its streets, the last grocery store has shut, and the nursery school is gone, leaving an aging population and a fragile local economy clinging to memory and routine. In this episode, we explore how local officials and residents are trying to turn notoriety into survival, selling abandoned homes to outsiders in hopes of reviving daily life. Yet beneath the headlines and hopeful schemes lies a quieter story of decline, as young families continue to leave and essential services vanish. The fate of San Giovanni Lipioni raises a stark question facing many rural communities across Europe: what does it take for a town not just to be remembered, but to endure?https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/22/world/europe/italy-san-giovanni-lipioni-aging.html

In France, aging is being quietly recast—not as a retreat from visibility, but as a moment of release. From actress Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu’s unapologetic embrace of daring fashion in her sixties to a wave of books celebrating single, self-directed life after 50, older women are pushing back against the idea that desirability and power have an expiry date. In this episode, we explore how changing aesthetics, prominent cultural figures, and the rise of what some call “silver power” are reshaping attitudes toward age, femininity, and authority. Set against a younger generation more drawn to cosmetic intervention, the story asks whether France is offering an alternative model of aging—one rooted less in preservation, and more in confidence, freedom, and presence.https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/11/14/how-older-french-women-are-redefining-the-aesthetics-of-ageing

A viral trend has turned a design shortcut into a nationwide crime wave. Videos posted by the so-called “Kia Boys” show just how easily certain Kia and Hyundai models can be stolen, and the results have been felt on city streets from Chicago to New York. In this episode, we examine how the absence of a basic, low-cost immobilizer—standard in many other countries—helped fuel a surge in car thefts, prompting major cities to sue the manufacturers for selling what they claim are defective vehicles. Beyond the courtroom, the story raises larger questions about corporate responsibility, social media–driven crime, and how a small engineering decision can ripple outward, reshaping patterns of youth offending and reversing decades of progress in car security.https://www.economist.com/cities-are-suing-car-manufacturers-over-auto-theft-they-have-a-case

In a world where water is supposed to be tasteless, a small but growing group insists it has terroir. At a Fine Water Summit in Atlanta, judges swirl, sip, and score bottled waters from around the globe, parsing mineral content and mouth-feel with the seriousness of a wine tasting. In this episode, we explore the rise of water connoisseurship, from the influence of Michael Mascha, the Austrian evangelist behind restaurant water menus, to the surge of artisanal brands embraced by younger consumers and viral influencers. What begins as a story of luxury and distinction ultimately opens onto a deeper paradox: how the elevation of bottled water as a premium product intersects with growing awareness of environmental limits and the global scarcity of clean, drinkable water.https://www.economist.com/united-states/2025/04/27/water-sommeliers-say-the-simplest-drink-is-the-future-of-luxury

Once seen as a niche or nostalgic mode of travel, the bicycle—supercharged by the rise of the e-bike—is rapidly reshaping cities around the world. From Paris to New York, protected lanes and better batteries have turned cycling into a practical alternative to the car, cutting congestion and pollution while reclaiming urban space. In this episode, we explore why the pandemic, new technology, and safer infrastructure have fueled this boom—and why it has sparked a fierce backlash, as motorists, populist politicians, and regulators push back against bike-friendly streets. As powerful and sometimes illegal e-bikes blur the line between bicycle and motor vehicle, the story reveals how a simple machine has become one of the most disruptive—and divisive—transport technologies of the modern city.https://www.economist.com/international/2025/10/09/forget-evs-cycling-is-revolutionising-transport

For generations, abundance at the Chinese table has been measured not by what is eaten, but by what is left behind—where full plates signal generosity, status, and face. In this episode, we examine how that deeply ingrained culture of waste is being challenged by a top-down campaign led by Xi Jinping, who has framed food waste as a threat to national food security shaped by his own memories of hunger. From a sweeping 2021 anti-food-waste law and bans on mukbang videos to efforts encouraging diners to take leftovers home, the story traces how the state is trying to engineer new habits around “clean plate” behavior. Yet as experts point out that waste occurs all along the farm-to-fork chain, the campaign reveals a larger struggle: whether legislation and moral pressure can truly reshape everyday practices tied to pride, tradition, and prosperity.https://www.economist.com/china/2022/03/12/china-is-clamping-down-on-food-waste

Along Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, the global appetite for lobster is sustained by some of the most dangerous labor on earth. In the impoverished, largely Indigenous community of Puerto Cabezas, divers descend ever deeper with faulty equipment and little training, risking paralysis or death from decompression sickness in order to survive. In this episode, we follow the story of Edmundo Stanley Antonio, a fisherman who returned to the water after a near-fatal accident, and examine how overfishing, weak enforcement, and political inertia have trapped hundreds of men in a brutal economy of risk. As laws meant to protect divers stall and alternative livelihoods remain scarce, the story exposes a stark choice faced by many in the region: risk death at sea, or face hunger on land.https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/24/world/nicaragua-lobsters-fishing.html

For much of the past decade, democracy in Asia appeared to be in retreat, as strongmen consolidated power, courts and media were weakened, and coups and crackdowns—from Myanmar to the Philippines—seemed to confirm an authoritarian tide. In this episode, we examine why that narrative is no longer complete, tracing recent moments of democratic resilience and revival, from peaceful elections in Malaysia and Fiji to mass protests that toppled entrenched rulers in Sri Lanka. The story explores how economic disappointment has undercut authoritarian promises and how older democratic traditions have quietly endured beneath the surface. Despite ongoing setbacks and fragile institutions, the political mood across parts of Asia is shifting, revealing signs that the seeds of democratic renewal may be taking root once again.https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/02/09/democracy-is-reviving-in-asia

Downtown skylines are changing, not with new towers but with new lives inside old ones. As hybrid work leaves offices empty in cities around the world, developers and policymakers are betting on a radical reuse: turning vacant commercial buildings into housing. In this episode, we explore why projects like the massive conversion of 25 Water Street in New York have become symbols of a new urban strategy, how zoning reforms and political incentives are accelerating the trend, and why the physical realities of office design—deep floor plates, plumbing, and light—make such transformations far from simple. Drawing on Lower Manhattan’s earlier reinvention as a residential neighborhood, the story asks whether office-to-apartment conversions can truly revive struggling city centers, or whether they offer only a partial fix to deeper urban and housing crises.https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2023/02/09/city-centres-from-offices-to-family-homes

The modern digital economy runs not just on clicks and code, but on habit. Behind the apps and platforms that dominate daily life are designers who study human psychology, borrowing ideas from behavioral science to keep users returning through variable rewards, social validation, and subtle cues that turn ordinary users into “uber-users.” In this episode, we explore how internet companies engineer attention, why some critics liken these techniques to addiction while others insist habits are far harder to create, and what this arms race means for autonomy in an always-connected world. As digital products grow more sophisticated and more pervasive, the question is no longer whether technology shapes behavior—but how consciously, and at what cost.https://www.economist.com/business/2014/12/30/getting-hooked

For decades, China’s leaders have wrestled with how to manage a faith they have long regarded as foreign—and since 2015, that struggle has taken a new form in Xi Jinping’s campaign to “sinify” Christianity. In this episode, we examine how five-year plans now seek to reshape Christian belief and practice around socialist ideology and “core socialist values,” affecting tens of millions of believers across the country. From a cautious accommodation with the Vatican to an ongoing crackdown on independent Protestant house churches, the story traces the limits of state control over belief. And yet, as churches adapt, migrate online, and continue to grow, the campaign reveals a deeper tension: whether a government can fully domesticate a faith whose followers insist they are both genuinely Christian and unmistakably Chinese.https://www.economist.com/china/2021/03/31/china-wants-to-make-its-christians-more-chinese

For more than a century, urban planning has swung between opposing ideals—escape the crowded industrial city, then repair the damage left by suburban sprawl. From Britain’s postwar “new towns” to the automobile-fueled expansion of low-density suburbs, each solution carried unintended consequences: longer commutes, higher infrastructure costs, environmental strain, and traffic that only worsened as roads multiplied. In this episode, we explore how planners are now trying to reverse that trajectory, embracing denser, mixed-use neighborhoods, transit-oriented development, and walkable streets inspired by New Urbanism. The story reveals how cities are rethinking mobility, space, and community—and why fixing the problems of the past means redesigning how we move through the places we call home.Abbott, Carl, 'The suburban solution', City Planning: A Very Short Introduction, Very Short Introductions (New York, 2020; online edn, Oxford Academic, 22 Oct. 2020), https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780190944346.003.0003

A routine breakfast turned dangerous in 2010, when millions of eggs from Iowa became the source of a widespread Salmonella outbreak—an episode that revealed how an invisible microbe can slip unnoticed from farm to plate. In this episode, we trace how Salmonella moves from chickens and eggs into the human body, survives stomach acid, and uses specialized molecular tools to invade intestinal cells and multiply. As the immune system fights back, the familiar symptoms of fever and diarrhea emerge—not as accidents, but as part of the body’s own defense. Along the way, the story separates everyday food poisoning from the far deadlier typhoid strain, offering a reminder that food safety, proper cooking, and public health remain our strongest protection against a bacterium that thrives in plain sight.https://youtu.be/nQf-lystVn4?si=eZn9BnVqU1OdRDC0

The beauty ideal is narrowing again—quite literally. As fashion and social media resurrect the allure of the “tiny waist,” a new and controversial corner of plastic surgery has emerged, promising a sculpted “Barbie waist” not through dieting or corsetry but by reshaping the ribs themselves. Originating in Russia in the late 2010s as an alternative to outright rib removal, the technique has since evolved into more technologically refined—and fiercely debated—procedures elsewhere. Proponents argue that modern methods can safely deliver dramatic results; critics warn that they flirt with medical risk and cartoonish aesthetics. Beneath the surgical innovation lies a familiar story: how shifting cultural fantasies about the body drive medicine to redraw the limits of what can, and should, be altered.https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/12/style/plastic-surgery-waist-reduction.html

For nearly a century, the BBC’s Shipping Forecast has done far more than warn sailors of rough seas. Born from the nineteenth-century work of Robert FitzRoy, the man who helped invent modern weather forecasting, its spare, rhythmic litany of winds and waters became a uniquely British ritual—at once practical, poetic, and oddly comforting. Today, satellites and computer models have rendered the broadcast largely obsolete for navigation, yet attempts to scale it back provoke fierce resistance. As the BBC quietly reduces airtime and plans to end longwave transmissions, the Shipping Forecast endures as a cultural touchstone: a reminder of Britain’s maritime past, its island identity, and the strange power of a voice calmly describing the weather far beyond the shore.https://www.economist.com/britain/2025/07/03/britains-least-controversial-national-treasure

Salary negotiation is awkward—but it’s often where real money is made. In this episode, we unpack the evidence showing that most people who ask for more pay actually get it, sometimes boosting their income far beyond the initial offer. We also explore why negotiation doesn’t work the same for everyone: how gender penalties, cultural norms, and fears of seeming difficult shape who negotiates and who doesn’t. From when to raise the topic to how to anchor requests in market data, we look at what actually works—and why reframing negotiation as a cooperative problem-solving exercise may be the smartest move in today’s workplace.https://www.economist.com/business/2025/06/02/a-short-guide-to-salary-negotiations

What happens when a story kills the person you thought it revolved around? In this episode, we explore the risky but powerful storytelling move of eliminating a main character early, using Succession’s shocking death of Logan Roy as a central case. From Psycho to The Wire and Game of Thrones, writers have used the “false protagonist” to upend expectations, forcing audiences—and surviving characters—to confront uncertainty, loss, and chaos. These moments can feel like betrayal, but they also strip away narrative comfort, redirect power, and reveal who people really are when the center collapses. By breaking the rules of traditional plot arcs, these deaths make fiction feel truer to life: abrupt, unfair, and transformative.https://www.economist.com/culture/2023/05/02/what-happens-when-a-story-loses-a-main-character

Between 1975 and 1979, Cambodia experienced one of the 20th century’s darkest chapters, when the Khmer Rouge set out to remake society—and killed around two million people in the process. In this episode, we trace how a revolutionary movement born from war, colonial collapse, and Cold War chaos turned cities into graveyards, emptied Phnom Penh overnight, and forced millions into a brutal agrarian experiment built on fear and impossible quotas. We explore how execution, starvation, and disease became tools of governance, and why the regime devoured even its own cadres. But the story doesn’t end with the fall of the Khmer Rouge. We also examine the uneasy legacy of justice, the limits of international tribunals, and why many Cambodians today still struggle to separate perpetrators from victims in a trauma that reshaped an entire nation.https://youtu.be/8_TYFfkc_1U?si=O3gN9DPSECGGOgE9

What does it really mean to be a genius—and can it be made, or only born? In this episode, we unpack how the idea of genius evolved from an ancient “guardian spirit” into a modern label for extraordinary minds, and why defining it today is surprisingly hard. We explore the long-running battle between nature and nurture, from Francis Galton’s flawed obsession with inherited brilliance to modern research showing how intense practice can physically reshape the brain. Is genius just extreme talent, or something rarer—a once-in-a-lifetime collision of ability, effort, and circumstance? And why does our fascination with genius say as much about society as it does about intelligence itself?Robinson, Andrew, 'Defining genius', Genius: A Very Short Introduction, Very Short Introductions (Oxford, 2011; online edn, Oxford Academic, 24 Sept. 2013), https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780199594405.003.0001

In this episode, we travel to Danao in the Philippines, where an illegal but highly skilled gunsmithing trade has sustained families for generations. Born out of wartime necessity and economic neglect, backyard workshops produce cheap, reliable firearms in a town with few legal jobs and little state presence. For craftsmen like I. Launa, gun-making is not ideology but inheritance—a way to feed children and preserve a hard-won skill. Yet these weapons fuel crime, insurgency, and extrajudicial killings, leaving authorities torn between enforcement and reality. Is legalization a path to control—or would it legitimize a trade the state can’t afford to ignore?https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/07/world/asia/philippines-illegal-guns.html

In socially conservative India, finding privacy can be harder than finding love itself. In this episode, we explore the rise of short-stay “love hotels,” where unmarried couples can book rooms by the hour to escape joint families, cramped homes, and the risk of moral policing. Apps like Brevistay and StayUncle are trying to normalize intimacy by professionalizing what was once a shadowy arrangement—offering clean rooms, discreet check-ins, and even “love kits.” But can a business built on privacy survive in a culture that still treats young romance as a public offense? And what does this quiet hotel boom reveal about changing ideas of freedom, modernity, and desire in India today?https://www.economist.com/asia/2021/09/23/love-hotels-are-blossoming-in-india

Independent journalism across the Arab world is quietly being strangled. In this episode, we explore how governments that once tolerated critical media as a pressure valve are now shutting it down—using arrests, spyware, financial pressure, and advertising chokeholds to silence dissenting voices. From Egypt to Algeria, newsrooms are closing, foreign broadcasters are pulling their punches, and journalists are being pushed into exile or online obscurity. As state-controlled media loses credibility, audiences are turning to social platforms instead. What’s lost when independent Arab media disappears—and what fills the void when fear replaces scrutiny?https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2023/01/13/the-arab-worlds-rulers-have-turned-journalists-into-courtiers

Obesity is no longer being treated simply as a risk factor—it’s increasingly being defined as a disease in its own right. In this episode, we unpack a major shift in how doctors diagnose obesity, driven in part by the rise of powerful new weight-loss drugs like semaglutide. A new framework from the Lancet Commission moves beyond the blunt tool of BMI, distinguishing between people who are overweight but otherwise healthy and those with clinical obesity, marked by impaired organ function or reduced ability to live normally. The result is a sharper, more medical definition of who actually needs treatment—and who may not—raising big questions about diagnosis, drugs, and how we talk about body weight in the first place.https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2025/01/15/is-obesity-a-disease

India is in the middle of a pet boom. As middle-class incomes rise and young adults delay marriage and children, dogs and cats are stepping into the emotional and economic spotlight. The result is a fast-growing industry—pet insurance, luxury boarding, grooming salons, even “paw-ternity leave”—with the market expected to nearly triple over the next decade. Once a niche choice, pet ownership is becoming a marker of modern urban life, reshaping careers, consumption, and family norms across the country.https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/12/12/indians-are-going-gooey-over-dogs

Weddings in Syria are changing—and that shift says a lot about a country trying to leave war behind. For decades, celebrations were marked by gunfire, a tradition that turned joyful moments deadly as stray bullets and even grenades injured and killed guests. Now, under a new government eager to reassert order, celebratory shooting is banned and increasingly enforced, with fines, confiscations, and even demands that grooms surrender a weapon. Fireworks are taking the place of rifles, symbolizing a cautious return to normal life. Yet the old habits linger, revealing how hard it is to disarm a society shaped by years of conflict.https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/world/middleeast/syria-weddings-tradition-gunfire-fireworks.html

Sex is supposed to be intimate and effortless—but for millions of people, it’s a quiet source of stress, shame, and silence. In this episode, we unpack the surprisingly widespread reality of sexual dysfunction, from erectile problems and low desire to pain and anxiety, and why so many sufferers never seek help. Drawing on global surveys and personal stories, we explore how embarrassment, poor sex education, and reluctant doctors keep real problems hidden—even when they can signal deeper health risks like heart disease or strain relationships to breaking point. As therapy apps, generic medications, and “wellness” sex tech reshape the conversation, we ask: are we finally learning to talk honestly about sex, or just finding new ways to avoid it?https://www.economist.com/international/2022/12/01/the-taboos-around-sexual-health-are-weakening

Falcons have become some of the world’s most expensive birds—and their soaring price is pushing them toward extinction. In this episode, we explore how traditional falconry in the Gulf, now amplified by racing, beauty contests, and status competition, has created a booming global market where rare birds can cost more than gold by weight. That demand fuels illegal poaching from places like Libya and Pakistan, threatening endangered species such as the saker falcon and even wiping out their prey, the houbara bustard. Despite conservation programs and bans on wild-caught birds, the trade persists underground. Can falconry survive without destroying the very birds it reveres?https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2022/02/24/the-market-for-falcons-is-soaring-as-wild-populations-decline

Are leaders really different from managers—or is the divide overhyped? In this episode, we unpack the long-running debate that casts managers as process-driven administrators and leaders as visionary change-makers. Drawing on classic thinkers and new research, we explore what actually separates the two roles, why “leadership” is often treated as the superior path, and how this rigid distinction can backfire in real organizations. The conclusion is surprisingly pragmatic: the most effective bosses aren’t one or the other, but those who can balance big-picture direction with the unglamorous work of execution.https://www.economist.com/business/2023/10/23/is-being-a-leader-really-sexier-than-being-a-manager

Anime didn’t just go global—it quietly took over. In this episode, we trace how a once-niche Japanese art form became a worldwide cultural and economic force, with exports rivaling steel and semiconductors and streaming platforms like Netflix and Crunchyroll driving its spread. We explore what sets anime apart: its hand-drawn aesthetic, emotionally complex stories, and willingness to reject tidy Hollywood endings in favor of darker, more relatable worlds. From an endless supply of manga source material to its growing influence on global film and TV, anime’s rise reveals why millions now see it not as a genre, but as a dominant way of storytelling.https://www.economist.com/culture/2024/10/11/why-the-world-is-so-animated-about-anime

Egypt’s Mediterranean coast may look like one long strip of sun and sand, but socially it’s split in two. In this episode, we explore the divide between Sahel el Tayeb—the “good” coast of modest hotels, family trips, and conservative values—and Sahel el Shireer, the “evil” coast of gated compounds, million-dollar villas, designer nightlife, and Westernized elite culture. Though they share the same sea, these parallel worlds reflect Egypt’s widening class and cultural gaps, where QR codes, private beaches, and soaring prices increasingly shut out the middle class. Who gets to enjoy paradise—and on whose terms?https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/world/middleeast/egypt-good-sahel-evil-sahel.html

Artificial general intelligence promises more than smarter chatbots—it could remake the global economy. In this episode, we unpack bold Silicon Valley claims that AGI might push economic growth far beyond anything seen since the Industrial Revolution, by automating not just jobs but innovation itself. Economists disagree sharply: some expect only modest gains, while others warn of a runaway feedback loop—even a “singularity”—where machines improve faster than humans can follow. What would that mean for work, wages, and who gets rich? And if growth really explodes, how would it upend markets, interest rates, and the value of everything we own? We explore the promise—and the disruption—of an AI-powered future.https://www.economist.com/briefing/2025/07/24/what-if-ai-made-the-worlds-economic-growth-explode

Capybaras have quietly taken over the internet—and the world. In this episode, we trace how a giant South American rodent became a global cultural icon, from Japanese zoos in the 1980s that put capybaras in warm baths, to today’s flood of plush toys, memes, stationery, and viral videos. Boosted by social media and characters like Kapibara-san, capybaras now outperform cats and dogs online, admired for their uncanny calm and sociability. In an anxious age, their appeal isn’t cuteness alone—it’s the fantasy of unbothered, communal serenity, wrapped in whiskers and webbed feet.https://www.economist.com/culture/2025/11/25/what-has-webbed-feet-a-big-snout-and-is-adored-on-the-internet

Tattoos are back in China—and they’re evolving fast. In this episode, we explore how a once-stigmatized art form is finding new life as young Chinese tattooists blend traditional calligraphy and ink-wash aesthetics with modern skin art, even as official attitudes remain wary. From historical associations with punishment and criminality to today’s growing acceptance—including within the People’s Liberation Army—tattooing now sits at the crossroads of culture, identity, and business. We look at how artists are building lucrative careers, tattoo schools are booming, and better tools are transforming the craft, revealing why body art has become a quiet but telling signal of cultural change in contemporary China.https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2020/08/29/china-makes-its-mark-on-the-world-of-tattoos