logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2025
21m 15s

Home truths: Ukraine’s internal strains

The Economist
About this episode
tail spinning
Up next
Yesterday
Nukes of hazard: US-Russia arms treaty expires
The New START nuclear deal was signed in 2010 to restrict the number of strategic warheads and missiles America and Russia could amass. Will there be a new deal – and what will happen if not? How social media has helped fuel recruitment to cults. And our baldness correspondent br ... Show More
24m 33s
Feb 4
Peter and the wolves: Mandelson falls but Epstein scandal spreads
Peter Mandelson was a totem of Britain’s Labour party for decades. The newest Epstein files mark the end of his political career. What are the consequences for the country’s prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer? Ryanair is controversial and widely hated—yet strangely successful. And ... Show More
20m 21s
Feb 3
Tug of Warsh: will the new chair politicise the Fed?
After months of speculation, Donald Trump has picked Kevin Warsh to run the Federal Reserve. Our correspondent explains what this means for America–and the world economy. What matters more in Thailand’s election: the will of the people or the power of the monarchy? And why Hong K ... Show More
19m 56s
Recommended Episodes
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
Aug 2024
Landing padded: the global-recession risk
Inflation, interest rates and jobless numbers are on healthy trends; markets are gaining back ground. As the spectre of global recession fades we ask why fear has persisted. In the second instalment of our series on dating we look at what singles are doing beyond the apps (10:23) ... Show More
26m 33s
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
Sep 2025
Honey, we shrunk the kids: population fall
Falling fertility makes a global decline in population inevitable. That will change the shape and make up of societies. But it may not make us poorer. Are large language models really woke? And reading is on the wane – and why that matters. Listen to what matters most, from globa ... Show More
23m 46s
Aug 2024
Enter staged right: misinformation feeds Britain’s riots
Unrest across the country has been driven in part by the provably false claims of right-wing provocateurs. We examine the real concerns underlying the violence, and how to end it swiftly. Japanese politics had until recently been anachronistically tame; not so now that the social ... Show More
22m 37s
Sep 2024
Don wan: Harris keeps Trump tame
The vice-president turned in a confident if imperfect performance, leaving Donald Trump flustered. But will it change anything? A global shortfall of blood plasma is hampering the development of new medicines; we argue for some simple market forces that could plug the gap (11:40) ... Show More
23m 14s
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
Feb 2025
Young, gifted and black: Africa’s next generation
Africa’s young are educated, ambitious side-hustlers. But they are hampered by their economies and dispirited by their politicians. How to harness their vast potential? America’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency is, in a real-world accounting, not actually budging th ... Show More
21m 11s
May 2025
Soldiers’ fortune: Ukraine’s prisoner swap
No one knows which soldiers will be on the buses; many families simply come in hope. As the wider war grinds on, our correspondent witnesses a mix of joy, confusion and disappointment. Big American brands once had it easy in the global marketplace. Now they bear the brunt of anti ... Show More
25m 26s
Sep 2024
Beyond the bullets: we go to Ukraine
We take a look at the grim conditions in and prospects for the frontlines in the country’s east and north. But not all of the fighting is military in nature. We examine a far wider cultural revival going on (10:59), in music and fashion and long-forgotten ingredients and methods ... Show More
27m 30s