After years of conflict reporting and manic episodes, journalist Ayman Oghanna was aiming for a quiet life—one that looks boring from the outside. Then, in February 2026, his home in a sleepy seaside town on the edge of Athens, was penetrated by a spy.

Topics covered:

• China
• Espionage
• Bipolar disorder

Links to articles:

https://www.economist.com/britain/2025/10/14/has-britain-gone-soft-on-china

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Music by bluedot Sessions and Epidemic Sound.

This podcast transcript is generated by third-party AI. It has not been reviewed prior to publication. We make no representations or warranties in relation to the transcript, its accuracy or its completeness, and we disclaim all liability regarding its receipt, content and use. If you have any concerns about the transcript, please email us at podcasts@economist.com.

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Jails on New York City’s Riker’s Island have been in crisis for decades. Violent and unsafe, its remote location makes it hard for inmates to get to court or be visited by family. The city’s solution is to build new jails next to courthouses across the city. But doing so requires using a classic of New York City design: building up. How does a vertical jail work? And can it really be more humane?

Topics covered:

• Jails
• US criminal justice
• Architecture

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Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound

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

When health correspondent Slavea Chankova struggled to breastfeed her daughter, she went looking for the latest research on human lactation. What she found was a shocking lack of good science. A field neglected since a breast-versus-bottle schism divided parents in the 1970s has left mothers with little support for low milk supply. Now, a handful of researchers are finally uncovering the mysteries of our first food.

Topics covered:

• Breastfeeding
• Maternal health
• Infant formula

For more on the science of baby formula, listen to an episode from our sister podcast, Babbage: “Can breast milk be replicated in a lab?”

And, read Slavea’s reporting in The Economist this week: “Why many women cannot make enough breast milk”.

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Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound

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

In February The Weekend Intelligence reported from Lithuania where civilian society is gearing up to defend itself from attacks across the border; The Economist’s Tim Judah, who has recently come back from a reporting trip in Ukraine, has seen first hand what happens to a nation at war.

Returning to London he went in search of what plans the UK government has for Britain’s civil defence, if and when the time comes. What he found was hardly reassuring.

Topics covered:

• Civil Defence
• Britain
• Disaster relief

Lithuania ep: https://shows.acast.com/theintelligencepodcast/episodes/the-weekend-intelligence-how-to-prepare-for-an-invasion

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

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Music by bluedot Sessions and Epidemic Sound.

This podcast transcript is generated by third-party AI. It has not been reviewed prior to publication. We make no representations or warranties in relation to the transcript, its accuracy or its completeness, and we disclaim all liability regarding its receipt, content and use. If you have any concerns about the transcript, please email us at podcasts@economist.com.

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Sperm and egg donation is increasingly common: nearly one in five births following IVF treatment in Britain involves a donor.

But what happens to the children created? There are, globally, no limits on how many children each donor can produce, which can lead to large sibling groups, and no international agreement on if they can find out their donor’s identity.

Harriet Shawcross, who has two children via donor conception with her wife, speaks to some of the women trying to change the narrative.

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Music by bluedot and epidemic.

This podcast transcript is generated by third-party AI. It has not been reviewed prior to publication. We make no representations or warranties in relation to the transcript, its accuracy or its completeness, and we disclaim all liability regarding its receipt, content and use. If you have any concerns about the transcript, please email us at podcasts@economist.com.

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The last two years have been turbulent ones in Georgia. After mass protests against the government began in November 2024, hundreds were detained and reporting torture in custody. The authorities unleashed a first world war chemical weapon against their own people. And then they got to work dismantling democracy.

Criminal penalties for foreign-funded organisations, opposition parties banned, universities gutted, journalists imprisoned.

Robin Forestier-Walker, a journalist based in Tbilisi, has been charting this rapid descent into authoritarianism from the inside. As friends and colleagues are targeted, he’s wondering whether it’s time to pack up his family and say goodbye.

Topics covered:

• Georgia
• Russia
• Authoritarianism

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

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Music by Blue Dot and Epidemic.

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

The passport bros share a simple message: dating in the West is broken — so go somewhere your money stretches further and your chances improve. Seeking partners abroad is nothing new. But online, the passport bros have repackaged it as the “ultimate life hack” — and their message can sound like the angrier corners of the manosphere.

Carla Subirana travels to a passport bro hotspot, Da Nang in Vietnam, to find out what these men really stand for and what they reveal about why men and women in the West are drifting apart.

Topics covered:

• Dating
• The manosphere
• Social media

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

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Music by Blue dot and Epidemic

This podcast transcript is generated by third-party AI. It has not been reviewed prior to publication. We make no representations or warranties in relation to the transcript, its accuracy or its completeness, and we disclaim all liability regarding its receipt, content and use. If you have any concerns about the transcript, please email us at podcasts@economist.com.

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Reporter David Weinberg takes us to the desert of Southern California, where geologists have discovered half a trillion dollars worth of lithium trapped in a toxic brine deep beneath the state’s largest lake. The system to extract it has never been tried before. Will profits trickle down to fix the broken infrastructure, provide much needed new jobs and save the Salton Sea? Or will property values skyrocket, drive the locals out of town and environmental hazards emerge from this unprecedented experiment?

Topics covered:

• Geothermal power
• Lithium extraction
• Poverty in the US

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

For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.

Music by bluedot Sessions and Epidemic Sound.

This podcast transcript is generated by third-party AI. It has not been reviewed prior to publication. We make no representations or warranties in relation to the transcript, its accuracy or its completeness, and we disclaim all liability regarding its receipt, content and use. If you have any concerns about the transcript, please email us at podcasts@economist.com.

Read more about how we are using AI.