This weekend, Yemeni rebels struck Saudi Arabia’s international airport in the deadliest attack on a Gulf Arab country since the Iran war began in February. Our correspondent reports from Riyadh. How European manufacturers are adjusting to high energy prices and war. And the revival of writing by hand.

Guests and host:

• Gregg Carlstrom, Middle East correspondent
• Guy Scriven, global business writer
• Caitlin Talbot, culture correspondent
• Rosie Blau, co-host of “The Intelligence”

Topics covered:

• Saudi Arabia, Houthis, Yemen, Riyadh airport
• European carmakers, energy prices, tariffs
• Cursive, handwriting

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This is the story of one of the most challenged books in America, and the feathered-freedom fighters caught up in America’s culture wars.

*This episode was first published in December 2023

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Music by bluedot Sessions and Epidemic Sound. AND TANGO MAKES THREE Copyright © 2005 by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. Audio excerpts courtesy of Simon & Schuster Audio, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. read by Neil Patrick Harris from the audiobook by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell.

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Now every fact is a click away, the role of memory has changed. On The Weekend Intelligence, Rosie Blau profiles an eight-times world memory champion, a woman suffering from early-onset dementia and Artificial Intelligence to find out what matters: the information itself, or the journey we take to retrieve it?

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Music by bluedot Sessions and Epidemic Sound.

In our third and final episode of Shire folk, our series on the rise of Tommy Robinson, Georgia follows Tommy across the Atlantic to find out why so many powerful Americans are suddenly interested in his version of Britain, and what they stand to gain from endorsing it.

Topics covered:

• Christian nationalism
• Anti-Islam sentiment
• Mass deportations
• Danny Tommo

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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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In the 1990s, as Nigeria was under a brutal military dictatorship, Radio Kudirat emerged as a glimmer of hope. The clandestine project united journalists, activists and engineers, who risked their lives to give Nigerians a voice even when a $5 million bounty was put out on their heads. Over 30 years later, Africa correspondent Ore Ogunbiyi re-unites some of the people who brought Radio Kudirat to life.

Topics covered:

• Nigeria
• Democracy
• Authoritarianism
• Propaganda
• Radio Kudirat

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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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FOR 35 years the Ig Nobel prizes—given for “research that makes people laugh, then think”—have been awarded at a madcap ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The “laugh” part highlights the sillier side of science; the “think” part reveals the same creative inquiry that drives the more dour-seeming side. Jason Palmer, co-host of “The Intelligence”, speaks to the prizes’ founder and past winners about the grave reasons the ceremony is moving this year to Zurich.

Topics covered:

• Ig Nobel prizes
• Nobel prizes
• scientific inquiry
• American science policy

Guests:

• Marc Abrahams, founder, Ig Nobel prizes
• Marie Dacke, professor of sensory biology, Lund University
• Sir Andre Geim, professor of physics, University of Manchester
• David Kaiser, professor of physics and professor of the history of science, MIT
• Luca Luiselli, president, Institute for Development, Ecology, Conservation and Co-operation

Links to other episodes:

• The Weekend Intelligence: Science under siege
• The Weekend Intelligence: The War on Animal Research

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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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Around 30% of Japan’s population is now over 65 and record numbers of people are dying. The weight of those deaths is falling on fewer shoulders, as births decline and the younger generation shrinks. On The Weekend Intelligence our East Asia reporter, Moeka Iida reports on kodokushi or "lonely deaths” and meets people finding ways to make the end of life less solitary.

Topics covered:

Aging society

Lonely death

Death cleaning

End-of-life planning

“Grave friends”

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.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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As aid systems come under growing strain, a new form of giving is emerging online. Catherine Brahic follows two people in Gaza who have come to rely on crowdfunding to survive. She also meets the volunteers who have become their fundraisers, and asks what happens when humanitarian aid is shaped by algorithms not institutions.

Guests and host:

• Catherine Brahic, The Economist’s Environment Editor
• Rosie Blau, co-host of ‘The Intelligence’
• Sami Alshannat, agricultural engineer in Gaza
• Alaa Jaber, teacher in Gaza
• Natalie Naudus, audiobook narrator and donor
• Josh Leigh, digital fundraising consultant
• Olga Boichack, media scholar at the University of Sydney

Topics covered:

• Charity
• Crowdfunding
• Social media
• Gaza
• Ukraine

Click here to find out more about Sami and Alaa’s campaigns or Operation Olive Branch.

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Music by Ahmed Muin Abu Amsha & Gaza Birds Singing, 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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