logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2023
27m 46s

Toil and rubble: a report from Turkey

The Economist
About this episode

Our correspondent visits town after devastated town. Poorly enforced building codes are one clear factor in the rising death toll—and a political backlash looms. Britain’s productivity problem is at least partly a problem with bad managers; we look at the substantial gains to be had from better-run companies. And the valuable data to come from an ambitious, national-scale sex survey.


For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Today
Party likes it 1959: Cuba in crisis
<p>The country’s Communist Party leadership continues to cling to old ideals amid on-again, off-again diplomacy with America—and the people’s suffering <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2025/11/18/cuba-is-heading-for-disaster-unless-its-regime-changes-drastically?ut ... Show More
23m 15s
Yesterday
Wage against the machine: the distortions of minimum pay
<p>For decades governments have found minimum-wage rises a politically expedient means of redistribution. But the onward <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2025/11/20/why-governments-should-stop-raising-the-minimum-wage?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_so ... Show More
22m 16s
Nov 24
Emission creep: a contentious COP closes
<p>It is telling and troubling that the annual climate talking-shop’s <a href="https://www.economist.com/international/2025/11/22/cop30-ends-with-a-whimper?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownote ... Show More
25m 51s
Recommended Episodes
Feb 2023
Toil and rubble: a report from Turkey
<p>Our correspondent visits town after devastated town. Poorly enforced building codes are <a href="https://www.economist.com/europe/2023/02/12/turkeys-earthquakes-show-the-deadly-extent-of-construction-scams?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligenc ... Show More
27m 46s
Aug 2020
A 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 <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/08/05/beirut-after-the-blast-the-crunch-of-glass-acrid-smoke-and-stairs-slick-with-b ... Show More
22m 30s
Apr 2023
File-sharing: America’s huge intelligence leak
<p>A trove of once-secret <a href="https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/04/10/a-leak-of-files-could-be-americas-worst-intelligence-breach-in-a-decade?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_showno ... Show More
24m 16s
Mar 2023
Losing the threads: Bangladesh
<p>Shifts in the garment industry, which powered development in the country, represent one risk; meagre currency reserves are another. Yet nothing so <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/03/01/bangladeshs-economic-miracle-is-in-jeopardy?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio. ... Show More
22m 43s
Mar 2024
The Intelligence: F is for falling standards
America is producing more high-school graduates—but on average, they know less. We ask how a push for equity can in reality seed a systemic failing. London’s Canary Wharf was built as a high-rise jungle for white-collar workers; how is it surviving in a work-from-home world (7:57 ... Show More
19m 15s
Apr 2024
The Intelligence: Bear up
In Russia inflation is under control, wages are on the up and supposedly tough sanctions have been successfully skirted. Why is the pariah economy proving so resilient? Despite the nasty rhetoric of many of its politicians, Britain has turned out to be quite good at assimilating ... Show More
25m 6s
May 2024
Swat off the press: Meta v Canada’s news ploy
A bid to squeeze money from social-media platforms that link to news content has backfired: what was intended to help publishers is instead harming them. America’s workers still work more than Europe’s; what is changing is where they do it (9:44). And remembering Shirley Conran, ... Show More
23m 40s
Jan 2024
The Intelligence: The city that never slipped
From Brexit to covid-19, nothing has yet stymied London’s successes. The city has its problems, but it remains a paragon of policymaking. In the last of our series on democracy around the world, we examine what is at stake in India’s coming election (9:16). And a tribute to Gao Y ... Show More
24m 49s