Shows / The Intelligence from The Economist
The Intelligence from The Economist
Join Jason Palmer and Rosie Blau for noise-cancelling news and analysis from The Economist's global network of correspondents. Every weekday the winner of "Best Daily Show" at the 2026 British Podcast Awards, picks three stories shaping your world—the big shifts in politics, business and culture, plus things you never knew you needed to know. On Saturdays, download The Weekend Intelligence to dive deep into a single story, vividly told.
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Episodes
The Intelligence from The EconomistIn 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…
The Intelligence from The EconomistEnclave 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…
The Intelligence from The EconomistShoutshow: 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…
The Intelligence from The EconomistNo-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…
The Intelligence from The EconomistBench 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…
The Intelligence from The EconomistAnother 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…
The Intelligence from The EconomistWinter 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…
The Intelligence from The EconomistAmerica’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…
The Intelligence from The EconomistStumbling 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…
The Intelligence from The EconomistJudge 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…
The Intelligence from The EconomistUneasy lies the head: Thailand’s under-fire king
Thailand is bracing for a large anti-government protest, with some of the anger directed at the usually-revered monarchy. Some fear that the establishment’s…
The Intelligence from The EconomistConviction politics: Florida’s disenfranchised felons
More than a million former felons in Florida regained the right to vote in 2018. Last week, many of them lost it again. We look at the barriers to voting in…
The Intelligence from The EconomistSanctuary in Sochi: Belarus’ dictator clings on
Belarus dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, has travelled to Sochi amid major protests at home to ask Vladimir Putin for help. We examine whether he will get…
The Intelligence from The EconomistAfter Abe: Japan’s new prime minister
Japan’s new prime minister will be Yoshihide Suga, the son of a strawberry farmer from the country’s rural north. We look at whether he can step into the shoes…
The Intelligence from The EconomistHomework: the future of the office
The pandemic has been a giant experiment in working from home. We examine whether workers are happier and more productive using Zoom in their pyjamas than…
The Intelligence from The EconomistGreat walls of fire: America’s west coast burns
Relentless climate change will make devastating blazes more likely; urbanisation in woodland areas will make them more costly. Prevention measures could…
The Intelligence from The EconomistGenocidal intent? Deserters recount Rohingya atrocities
Two Burmese soldiers have described in harrowing detail what has long been alleged: that the army targeted Muslim-minority Rohingya in a programme of ethnic…
The Intelligence from The EconomistUnpicking the thread: forced labour in Xinjiang
Sanctions are tightening around the Chinese province amid suspicions of forced labour. Western firms that are reliant on the region’s cotton and other…
The Intelligence from The EconomistSubcontinental drift: India’s covid spike
A hurried lockdown early in the pandemic has cratered the country’s economy, and infection rates are now shooting up. More suffering lies ahead, on both…
The Intelligence from The EconomistPact unpacked: wobbly Brexit talks
Negotiations on Britain’s post-Brexit relationship with Europe were floundering—even before revelations it may essentially rewrite parts of the last pact it…
The Intelligence from The EconomistBack to the future-planning: France
Alongside a green-minded, 100bn-euro stimulus, President Emmanuel Macron’s recovery plan borrows ideas from the post-war past to imagine a post-covid future…
The Intelligence from The EconomistRough seas and safe seats: Caribbean elections
The outcome of Jamaica’s election isn’t much in doubt. What’s uncertain is how the wider Caribbean can handle rock-bottom tourism and looming hurricane risks…
The Intelligence from The EconomistIn a class, by themselves: pupils head back to school
Millions of schoolchildren are heading back to classes, many of them online. We examine the evidence on virtual learning and how it deepens inequalities. Dubai…
The Intelligence from The EconomistIntegration, differentiation: migrants in Germany
Five years ago, a vast wave of migrants and refugees began to spill into the country. We examine their fates amid a tangle of bureaucracy. Even for the…
The Intelligence from The EconomistIll be going: Abe Shinzo’s legacy
Japan’s longest-serving prime minister leaves behind a mixed bag of policy successes and shortcomings. We examine his legacy and ask what his successor faces…
The Intelligence from The EconomistShot down, in flames: Kenosha, Wisconsin
Another shooting of an unarmed black man by police has reopened wounds still not healed after George Floyd’s killing—and, like all else, the unrest is being…
The Intelligence from The EconomistTeam-building exercise: America’s Middle East diplomacy
American officials hope more Arab states will follow the United Arab Emirates in normalising relations with Israel; the groundwork for that has been quietly…
The Intelligence from The EconomistThe grande scheme of things: corruption in Mexico
The former head of the state-owned oil firm has presented stunning claims of high-level graft. Are they credible, and will the president pursue them? Museum…
The Intelligence from The EconomistInsecurity services? Alexei Navalny’s poisoning
Doctors believe Russia’s opposition leader was poisoned, and suspicion naturally falls on the Kremlin. Why might the country’s leadership have taken such a…
The Intelligence from The EconomistIsle take it: Turkey’s adventures in the Med
The considerable oil and gas reserves beneath the eastern Mediterranean have sparked Turkey’s interest—as well as a number of disputes in the region and…
The Intelligence from The EconomistIn over its head of state: Mali’s coup
The military has again ousted the president, after months of protests and years of ethnic violence. Fresh elections or no, whoever comes out on top faces a…
The Intelligence from The EconomistNot free, not fair, not finished: Belarus’s election
Huge protests following a rigged election reveal that the people have had enough of “Europe’s last dictator”, Alexander Lukashenko. How long can he hang on?…
The Intelligence from The EconomistBlast from the past: a long-awaited verdict in Lebanon
For 15 years, the truck-bomb killing of a former prime minister went unpunished. But an even more devastating recent blast overshadowed a court’s ruling on the…
The Intelligence from The EconomistFrom Chapo to Mencho: Mexico’s cartels
Mexico’s new top cartel, led by a kingpin called El Mencho, has taken the country’s shocking violence to a terrifyingly brazen new level. In Tunisia, ten years…
The Intelligence from The EconomistInsufficient postage: the fight over America’s mail service
The US Postal Service is one of America’s most popular and necessary public institutions. Now it is at the centre of a battle over November’s election. The…
The Intelligence from The EconomistTo a concerning degree: dire climate assessments
Recent reports paint a dark picture, from heatwaves to hurricanes to high-water marks. But some promising trends—and pandemic-era economics—provide reasons for…
The Intelligence from The EconomistYoungish, gifted and black: Kamala Harris
Joe Biden’s choice of running mate is simultaneously groundbreaking and conventional, and reveals much about the state of the Democratic party. In China, a…
The Intelligence from The EconomistTherein Lai’s a tale: Hong Kong’s revealing arrests
The dramatic arrest of Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy newspaper owner, reveals just how enthusiastically Beijing’s new security law will be deployed to quash any…
The Intelligence from The EconomistBuy now, save later: financing vaccine candidates
As clinical trials progress, policymakers must determine how heavily to fund the pre-emptive manufacture of candidate vaccines, and how to distribute the…
The Intelligence from The EconomistBytes and pieces: America’s Chinese-tech attack
First it was Bytedance’s app TikTok, now it’s Tencent’s WeChat: the Trump administration’s fervour to ban or dismantle wildly popular Chinese apps is…
The Intelligence from The EconomistThat history should not repeat: Hiroshima’s storytellers
Survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings are now in their eighties. A new generation is learning to tell their tales, in hopes of preventing more…
The Intelligence from The EconomistA broken system, a broken city: Beirut
Some 300,000 people are homeless after an explosion of unthinkable size. The culprit appears to be sheer negligence, brought on by a broken system of…
The Intelligence from The EconomistOne nation, under gods? India’s divisive temple
Consecration at Ayodhya, the country’s most contested holy site, is another tick box in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist agenda. Is India’s…
The Intelligence from The EconomistGoing old Turkey: a regional power spreads
Since the Arab spring the country has vastly expanded its military and diplomatic efforts—filling an evident power vacuum and harking back to the days of the…
The Intelligence from The EconomistBallot blocks: the squeeze on Hong Kong
The territory’s elections have been postponed, its activists barred from running—police are even targeting them abroad. What next for the democracy movement?…
The Intelligence from The EconomistLiving larger: Google’s challenges
Enormous growth over 22 years has brought challenges, both from within and from outside; we examine the tech behemoth’s prospects. Wealth has always exploded…
The Intelligence from The EconomistBarriers to entry: covid-19 and migration
The crisis has disproportionately squeezed migrants and has given many leaders an excuse to tighten borders. Will the restrictions outlast the pandemic? Balkan…
The Intelligence from The EconomistOne mightily damaging backstory: 1MDB
Five years ago a $4.5bn hole in a development fund scrambled Malaysia’s politics. Now the inquiry has claimed its first scalp: that of Najib Razak, a former…
The Intelligence from The EconomistFeds up: Trump orders troops on America’s streets
Camouflaged personnel with no insignia, protesters bundled into unmarked vans: the President Donald Trump's plan to put federal officers into American cities…
The Intelligence from The EconomistBat out of elsewhere? Tracing SARS-CoV-2’s origins
Scientists are looking to South-East Asia to find how the virus got its start in humans. Knowing that could head off future pandemics. It is often hard to…
The Intelligence from The EconomistFor old timers’ sake: covid-19 and care homes
The pandemic has taken its greatest toll in the world’s nursing homes—but the systemic problems surrounding elderly care long predate covid-19. Economists’…
The Intelligence from The EconomistWithout a trace: Israel’s covid-19 spike
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has gone from boasting about progress to battling protests as the country’s contact-tracing programme has been overwhelmed…
The Intelligence from The EconomistFull-meddle racket: Britain’s “Russia Report”
It remains unclear whether influence and misinformation campaigns have had significant effects on Britain’s institutions, or its elections—but only because…
The Intelligence from The EconomistGrant them strength, or loan it: Europe’s historic deal
After days of gruelling debate, European leaders have agreed a recovery plan. It includes, for the first time, taking on collective debt—to the tune of…
The Intelligence from The EconomistCheques imbalances: America’s partisan stimulus battle
As Congress reconvenes and covid-19 rages largely unabated, the biggest question is how much to prop up the economy—and how to get past partisan rancour about…
The Intelligence from The EconomistLaughing all the way: banks’ pandemic windfall
Pandemic panic has subsided, and economic pain deferred—so far. But never mind investment banks’ recent triumphs; uncertainty still abounds. Brazil once had a…
The Intelligence from The EconomistNo school, hard knocks: developing-world students hit hard
For many of the 1.5bn pupils affected by school closures, fewer lessons just means more labour—or worse. That spells a lifetime of lost earnings, and lost…
The Intelligence from The EconomistEastern exposure: Russia’s telling protests
The arrest of a popular governor in the country’s far east has sparked unrest that reveals President Vladimir Putin’s waning legitimacy—and hints at repression…
The Intelligence from The EconomistCrude awakening: the Arab world after oil
Historic price fluctuations are hastening a post-oil transition that many Arab countries were already contemplating. That could foment plenty of unrest, but…
The Intelligence from The EconomistBinary choice: a tech cold war looms
Tensions between China and America are hastening a global technology-industry split. That is not just inefficient; it will have far-reaching geopolitical…