Today

Hasta la victoria, quizás: Cuba’s broken economy

Even before America crimped Cuba’s oil, the country was teetering. We ask what is to blame for the Cuban people’s plight, and whether anything better is in prospect. The craze of injecting peptides is not only scientifically unsupported—it is potentially dangerous. Chuck Norris o ... Show More

23m 56s

Yesterday

Algorithm and blues: a watershed social-media verdict

A jury in California agreed with a plaintiff who argued that Meta and Google, two social-media giants, designed their platforms to be addictive. That opens the floodgates to more litigation and perhaps to regulatory change. We examine the world’s maritime chokepoints and how they ... Show More

22m 4s

Mar 25

On goal difference: are America and Israel diverging on Iran?

In the daily tea leaves one might read that President Donald Trump would prefer a deal with Iran to a continuing military campaign. Where would that leave Israel and its goals? Cryptocurrencies have gained a particular foothold in Asian economies; will they become real financial ... Show More

23m 49s

Nov 2024

Last-ditch pitch: America’s campaigns conclude

Both campaigns have racked up air miles covering the swing states that will decide America’s knife-edge election. We take a measure of things one day before the vote. The Turkic states of central Asia once depended heavily on Russia; now they are banding together to counterbalanc ... Show More

24m 4s

Nov 2024

Vote! Our election-day special

America and the world hold their proverbial breath for what has become a dead heat. Our special episode explains how the vote works and how the count will proceed. We ask what to watch for, how countries outside America view the potential outcomes, how the country’s largest swing ... Show More

27m 22s

Oct 2024

Your money for a run? Campaign finance in America

Kamala Harris has proven to be an enormous draw for campaign donors. But the size of a candidate’s war chest influences the outcome much less than it once did. Our correspondent meets asylum-seekers on a Dutch ship, investigating the new hard-right government’s tactics with migra ... Show More

24m 17s

Apr 2025

Carney score: last days of Canada’s campaign

Canada’s sovereignty has loomed large in the federal election campaign, but beyond the show of national unity the country’s media and political landscape is riven with division. To counter China’s capabilities, America may have to start building ships in Asia (11:26). And how “Th ... Show More

26m 19s

Sep 2025

Home truths: Ukraine’s internal strains

A snapshot of the country reveals deepening military and economic problems—and, perhaps above all, political ones. America’s efforts to clamp down on skilled-worker visas will have far-reaching unintended consequences. And globally, more children today are obese than underweight. ... Show More

21m 15s

Feb 2025

Scam Inc 1: Pigs in a barrel

You wouldn’t fall for a scam—would you? A small town in Kansas is left reeling after one of its best and brightest gets sucked in. To listen to the full series, subscribe to Economist Podcasts+. If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you have full access to all our show ... Show More

41m 31s

Oct 2025

Chainsaw out of gas? Milei’s experiment wobbles

A telling local-election loss, persistent allegations of scandal and an American pledge to prop up the peso: much is chipping away at the experiment of Argentina’s President Javier Milei. Long after the twin troubles of a pandemic and interest-rate rises, America’s commercial-pro ... Show More

25m 43s

Oct 2025

Space invaders: Russia’s NATO nose-thumbing

Russia’s dark-fleet maritime operations and brazen incursions into NATO airspace appear to be precision-engineered to test Western resolve. We ask how this new phase of aggression may end. Our correspondent reports from Madagascar, where young people are leading unprecedented ant ... Show More

24m 45s

Sep 2025

Fortunes of war: is Russia’s economy slowing?

The collapse of Russia’s wartime economy has long been foretold, yet massive fiscal stimulus has compensated for the effect of sanctions. Though the pinch is now being felt, the labour market is surprisingly resilient. Protesters in China are getting more creative. And why car to ... Show More

23m 30s

Sep 2025

States of disarray: the UN at 80

Coffers running low and an increasingly absent principal member: the United Nations has never looked so precarious. We discuss its future amid uncertain geopolitics. The generative-AI explosion has mostly been driven by so-called large language models—but small ones look ever mor ... Show More

25m 13s

Last-ditch pitch: America’s campaigns co...