Many people turn to the internet for medical advice. But there’s a lot of misinformation out there. To help you think through the fog, over the next two weeks we’re bringing you two conversations about health, medicine, evidence and trust in the digital age. In the first episode, we diagnose the problem: how online influencers and AI diagnoses are turning people away from evidence-based advice.

Guests and hosts:

• Deborah Cohen, author of “Bad Influence”
• Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor

Topics covered:

• Wellness trends
• Healthcare technology
• Artificial intelligence

Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.

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A rare disease spreading on a cruise ship triggered memories of covid-19. But while people worried about hantavirus cases reaching their shores, a much larger outbreak of Ebola took hold in central Africa. The two outbreaks have come in the wake of a series of worrying developments for international public health agencies: America has left the World Health Organisation and the country has also gutted its spending on international aid. How should pathogenic threats be handled in this post-aid era?

Guests and hosts:

• Slavea Chankova, The Economist’s health-care correspondent
• Nicole Tischler of Fundación Ciencia & Vida, Chile
• Tom Geisbert of the University of Texas Medical Branch
• Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor

Topics covered:

• Andes hantavirus
• Bundibugyo Ebolavirus
• Pandemic preparedness

Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.

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Not long ago, AI models struggled with basic arithmetic. Now, they’re solving complex mathematical conjectures. But researchers want to go further. They think AI could help them organise the mathematical literature into a common language—thereby finding connections between hitherto-disparate fields and, perhaps, even making completely new discoveries in one of the most fundamental areas of human inquiry.

Guests and hosts:

• Anjani Trivedi, The Economist’s global business correspondent
• Terence Tao of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
• Patrick Shafto of America’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
• Maryna Viazovska of L'École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
• Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor

Topics covered:

• Mathematics
• Large language models
• Autoformalisation

Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.

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What is consciousness? It’s a question scientists have been struggling to answer for decades. Author Michael Pollan has been searching for scientific evidence that could unlock the mystery. His journey extends from humans to animals and even plants. But could consciousness ever exist in machines?

Guests and hosts:

• Michael Pollan, author of “A World Appears”
• Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor

Topics covered:

• Consciousness
• Sentience
• Neural correlates of consciousness

Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.

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Sporting history was made at this year’s London Marathon. Sabastian Sawe became the first man to finish a competitive race in less than two hours. How are elite athletes getting so much faster? We investigate how runners are harnessing the science of physiology and the technology of shoes to increase their speed. Plus, how anybody can train for a marathon—or just get fit fast.

Guests and hosts:

• Ainslie Johnstone, The Economist’s data and science correspondent
• Tim Cross, senior science writer and author of the “Well Informed” newsletter
• Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor

Topics covered:

• London Marathon
• Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3
• Exercise hacks

Audio and commentary taken from the BBC's live coverage of the London Marathon, April 26th 2026.

Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.

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In the popular imagination, the Chernobyl nuclear-power plant sits in an abandoned, post-apocalyptic wasteland. In reality, the site of the world’s worst nuclear-energy disaster is a thriving experimentation ground for scientists studying the long-term impacts of radiation. This week, 40 years after the meltdown, we investigate what that laboratory has found so far.

Guests and hosts:

• Jason Palmer, host of “The Intelligence” podcast
• Olena Pareniuk of the Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants
• Jim Smith of the University of Portsmouth
• Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor

Topics covered:

• Chernobyl nuclear disaster
• Nuclear safety
• Radiation physics

Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.

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The universe—and everything inside it—shouldn’t exist. The big bang should have produced equal amounts of matter and antimatter, and their mutual annihilation should have resulted in nothing more than a sprawling ball of energy. But, in fact, the universe is dominated by matter, while antimatter is vanishingly rare. To try to understand why, physicists have taken antimatter on a road trip—for the first time in history.

Guests and hosts:

• Sam Wikeley, The Economist’s science correspondent
• April Cridland of CERN’s antimatter factory
• Stefan Ulmer of HHU Düsseldorf and CERN’s BASE experiment
• Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor

Topics covered:

• Antimatter
• The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN)
• Particle physics

Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.

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The AI race is intensifying. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, according to Demis Hassabis, the boss of Google DeepMind. Journalist and biographer Sebastian Mallaby has had unprecedented access to Mr Hassabis over the past three years. In this episode, he tells us how the AI pioneer was swept into a commercial and geopolitical contest that he never expected. Can Mr Hassabis’s aim of safely building artificial superintelligence still be achieved?

Guests and hosts:

• Sebastian Mallaby, author of “The Infinity Machine”
• Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor

Topics covered:

• Demis Hassabis and Google DeepMind
• AI safety and regulation
• China’s open-source AI industry

Watch The Economist’s recent interview with Demis Hassabis on “Inside Tech” here.

Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.

Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—subscribe to Economist Podcasts+.

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