Can recessions be beneficial?

2025-11-07

What makes the National Rally’s Jordan Bardella so popular in France? Our editor-in-chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, Paris bureau chief Sophie Pedder and a panel of our experts discuss why the populist right are leading the polls in Europe’s biggest economies.

2025-10-29

How could Russia win off the battlefield? The EU’s top diplomat and our geopolitics editor, David Rennie, discuss how Putin could achieve his objectives if Ukraine becomes a failed democracy. Kaja Kallas says democracy in Ukraine is not perfect, and it would need further reform to become a member of the European Union.

2025-10-22

Where are China’s missing moguls? Since the start of the year, 39 Chinese business leaders have vanished into Liuzhi—a detention system created as part of Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption crackdown. Don Weinland, our China business and finance editor and Rosie Blau, co-host of The Intelligence podcast, discuss the extent of these sinister disappearances.

00:00 – Chinese bosses are being detained
00:50 – What is the Liuzhi detention system
02:08 – How many CEOs have disappeared?
03:14 – Why is Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign increasing
05:15 – How else are businessmen being persecuted?
06:43 – High suicide rates among Chinese businessmen

Listen to the full episode: https://econ.st/4osBCph
China’s disappearing bosses: https://econ.st/47uNWjf
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2025-10-13

The Economist was created 182 years ago to campaign for liberalism. But today we are living in a post-liberal age. What has gone wrong and what should liberals should do to defend it?

2025-08-29

What do Kim Kardashian and James Bond have in common? Lane Greene, our language correspondent, explores the controversy behind their creaky vocal quality

2025-07-04

Why was Keir Starmer’s Labour government so unprepared for power? After a shambolic end to its first year in power, The Economist’s British politics correspondent, Matthew Holehouse, analyses what went wrong for Britain’s ruling party.

2025-06-26

Is China becoming a cultural phenomenon? From Labubu dolls to high-tech exports China is making waves abroad. Our producer Jiehao Chen and China correspondent Gabriel Crossley speak on the Drum Tower podcast to discuss China’s pursuit of soft power.

00:00 – China’s softening image
01:07 – What does China’s Communist Party stand to gain?
02:23 – IShowSpeed’s livestream in China
04:08 – So is China cool?

Listen to the rest of the episode: https://econ.st/4epPhtJ
It’s not just Labubu dolls, Chinese brands are booming: https://econ.st/4k9wtzS
Sign up to our weekly newsletter: https://econ.st/4lphUcu

2025-06-17

Israel has hit some of Iran’s most important nuclear sites but doing lasting damage to Iran’s nuclear ability is extremely difficult, as our defence editor, Shashank Joshi, explains