Well-Informed & Open-Minded

Urban planning is often presented as a technical exercise, but at its core it is a political act—one that decides who benefits from city life and who bears its costs. From exclusionary zoning and racially restrictive covenants to modern debates over gentrification, planning has long reflected the interests and power of those able to shape it. In this episode, we explore how planning evolved from informal private controls to formal zoning systems, why reformers pushed for advocacy and equity planning, and how today’s cities are grappling with demands for inclusion and participation. The story reveals that streets, neig...

Ever since the Concorde’s final landing in 2003, commercial air travel has been getting slower, not faster—despite decades of technological progress. The reason lies less in engineering limits than in economics and physics: supersonic flight creates disruptive sonic booms, guzzles fuel, and forces airlines onto narrow, unprofitable routes. In this episode, we explore why modern jets cruise below 900 kilometers per hour, how fuel efficiency and environmental costs now outweigh the lure of speed, and why passengers have quietly accepted longer journeys in exchange for cheaper tickets. Even as new designs promise quieter booms and cleaner fuels, the story asks...

In one of the world’s most tightly managed cities, an unlikely form of freedom splashes into view. Along Beijing’s rivers and canals, residents—once mostly retirees, now joined by younger swimmers—slip past fences and warning signs to plunge into forbidden waters, building informal swimming holes complete with chairs and makeshift diving boards. In this episode, we explore how “wild swimming” has endured decades of official bans and safety concerns, and why it took on new meaning during the pandemic, when regulated leisure spaces fell silent. The story captures a quiet standoff between authority and habit, revealing how ordinary...

Born from the shockwaves of the atomic age, Godzilla first stomped onto Japanese screens as a creature of terror and trauma—a living metaphor for nuclear destruction in a country still reeling from war. Inspired by the 1954 exposure of a Japanese fishing boat to an American hydrogen-bomb test, producer Tanaka Tomoyuki imagined the monster as nature’s revenge, awakened by human hubris. In this episode, we explore how Godzilla evolved from a singular expression of postwar fear into a global cinematic icon, endlessly reshaped to reflect changing anxieties about pollution, politics, and power. More than just a monster, Godzilla’s long...

Once a quiet inhabitant of Mexico’s ancient canals, the axolotl has become one of the internet’s most recognizable creatures—smiling, pink, and endlessly reproduced in games, memes, and toys. Revered by the Aztecs and later rediscovered by scientists for its uncanny ability to regenerate limbs and remain forever youthful, the salamander’s leap to global fame came through Japanese kawaii culture and blockbuster games like Pokémon and Minecraft. In this episode, we explore how digital culture turned an obscure amphibian into a worldwide icon—and why that fame masks a grim reality. As pollution and development push the ax...

Each spring in parts of Oklahoma and Texas, rattlesnake roundups draw crowds eager to watch hunters flush snakes from their dens, parade them through town, and turn them into spectacle, food, and local income. What began as a practical response to fear and ranching life has evolved into a ritual that now sits uneasily with modern ideas about conservation and animal welfare. In this episode, we explore how these events sustain small-town economies while provoking fierce opposition from herpetologists who warn of cruelty, ecological damage, and indiscriminate practices like gassing dens. As some states reinvent their roundups as wildlife...

Half a century on, Jaws is still hailed as the first great summer blockbuster, remembered for its thrills, its iconic score, and the stoic heroism of Police Chief Brody. But a closer look reveals a stranger, darker film beneath the legend. Plagued by technical failures and nearly undone by the decision to shoot at sea, Steven Spielberg was forced to hide the shark—turning absence into suspense and malfunction into myth. In this episode, we explore how those constraints reshaped the film, and why the shark itself may be the story’s true moral force: a creature that punishes corr...

From bustling marketplaces to gleaming waterfronts, the modern city center is the product of repeated reinvention. Once forged by the convergence of railways, ports, and commerce in the late nineteenth century, downtowns later became targets of mid-twentieth-century urban renewal schemes that sought to erase “blight” through large-scale redevelopment—often at the cost of local communities. In this episode, we explore how critics like Jane Jacobs challenged those visions, reshaping planning around street life, density, and diversity, and how today’s city centers are being redesigned once again as festival marketplaces, cultural districts, and global nodes in a postindustrial economy. The stor...

Often reviled as symbols of death, vultures are in fact among nature’s most effective public-health workers. Armed with stomach acid strong enough to neutralize pathogens like rabies, cholera, and tuberculosis, they strip carcasses clean before decay can poison water and soil, quietly stopping outbreaks before they begin. In this episode, we explore how these “plague-busting heroes” evolved to turn death into ecological renewal—and why they are now vanishing at alarming rates, devastated by toxic veterinary drugs, habitat loss, and poisoning. As vulture populations collapse and human disease rises in their wake, the story reveals what happens when a crucia...

Perched in the hills of southern Italy, San Giovanni Lipioni has become a symbol of a nation’s demographic reckoning—a village of just 137 residents, once dubbed Italy’s oldest town by average age, now hollowed out by decades of emigration. Empty houses line its streets, the last grocery store has shut, and the nursery school is gone, leaving an aging population and a fragile local economy clinging to memory and routine. In this episode, we explore how local officials and residents are trying to turn notoriety into survival, selling abandoned homes to outsiders in hopes of reviving daily life...

In France, aging is being quietly recast—not as a retreat from visibility, but as a moment of release. From actress Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu’s unapologetic embrace of daring fashion in her sixties to a wave of books celebrating single, self-directed life after 50, older women are pushing back against the idea that desirability and power have an expiry date. In this episode, we explore how changing aesthetics, prominent cultural figures, and the rise of what some call “silver power” are reshaping attitudes toward age, femininity, and authority. Set against a younger generation more drawn to cosmetic intervention, the story asks whether...

A viral trend has turned a design shortcut into a nationwide crime wave. Videos posted by the so-called “Kia Boys” show just how easily certain Kia and Hyundai models can be stolen, and the results have been felt on city streets from Chicago to New York. In this episode, we examine how the absence of a basic, low-cost immobilizer—standard in many other countries—helped fuel a surge in car thefts, prompting major cities to sue the manufacturers for selling what they claim are defective vehicles. Beyond the courtroom, the story raises larger questions about corporate responsibility, social media–driven cri...

In a world where water is supposed to be tasteless, a small but growing group insists it has terroir. At a Fine Water Summit in Atlanta, judges swirl, sip, and score bottled waters from around the globe, parsing mineral content and mouth-feel with the seriousness of a wine tasting. In this episode, we explore the rise of water connoisseurship, from the influence of Michael Mascha, the Austrian evangelist behind restaurant water menus, to the surge of artisanal brands embraced by younger consumers and viral influencers. What begins as a story of luxury and distinction ultimately opens onto a deeper...

Once seen as a niche or nostalgic mode of travel, the bicycle—supercharged by the rise of the e-bike—is rapidly reshaping cities around the world. From Paris to New York, protected lanes and better batteries have turned cycling into a practical alternative to the car, cutting congestion and pollution while reclaiming urban space. In this episode, we explore why the pandemic, new technology, and safer infrastructure have fueled this boom—and why it has sparked a fierce backlash, as motorists, populist politicians, and regulators push back against bike-friendly streets. As powerful and sometimes illegal e-bikes blur the line betwee...

For generations, abundance at the Chinese table has been measured not by what is eaten, but by what is left behind—where full plates signal generosity, status, and face. In this episode, we examine how that deeply ingrained culture of waste is being challenged by a top-down campaign led by Xi Jinping, who has framed food waste as a threat to national food security shaped by his own memories of hunger. From a sweeping 2021 anti-food-waste law and bans on mukbang videos to efforts encouraging diners to take leftovers home, the story traces how the state is trying to engineer ne...

Along Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, the global appetite for lobster is sustained by some of the most dangerous labor on earth. In the impoverished, largely Indigenous community of Puerto Cabezas, divers descend ever deeper with faulty equipment and little training, risking paralysis or death from decompression sickness in order to survive. In this episode, we follow the story of Edmundo Stanley Antonio, a fisherman who returned to the water after a near-fatal accident, and examine how overfishing, weak enforcement, and political inertia have trapped hundreds of men in a brutal economy of risk. As laws meant to protect divers st...

For much of the past decade, democracy in Asia appeared to be in retreat, as strongmen consolidated power, courts and media were weakened, and coups and crackdowns—from Myanmar to the Philippines—seemed to confirm an authoritarian tide. In this episode, we examine why that narrative is no longer complete, tracing recent moments of democratic resilience and revival, from peaceful elections in Malaysia and Fiji to mass protests that toppled entrenched rulers in Sri Lanka. The story explores how economic disappointment has undercut authoritarian promises and how older democratic traditions have quietly endured beneath the surface. Despite ongoing setbacks and...

Downtown skylines are changing, not with new towers but with new lives inside old ones. As hybrid work leaves offices empty in cities around the world, developers and policymakers are betting on a radical reuse: turning vacant commercial buildings into housing. In this episode, we explore why projects like the massive conversion of 25 Water Street in New York have become symbols of a new urban strategy, how zoning reforms and political incentives are accelerating the trend, and why the physical realities of office design—deep floor plates, plumbing, and light—make such transformations far from simple. Drawing on Lower Manh...

The modern digital economy runs not just on clicks and code, but on habit. Behind the apps and platforms that dominate daily life are designers who study human psychology, borrowing ideas from behavioral science to keep users returning through variable rewards, social validation, and subtle cues that turn ordinary users into “uber-users.” In this episode, we explore how internet companies engineer attention, why some critics liken these techniques to addiction while others insist habits are far harder to create, and what this arms race means for autonomy in an always-connected world. As digital products grow more sophisticated and more perv...

For decades, China’s leaders have wrestled with how to manage a faith they have long regarded as foreign—and since 2015, that struggle has taken a new form in Xi Jinping’s campaign to “sinify” Christianity. In this episode, we examine how five-year plans now seek to reshape Christian belief and practice around socialist ideology and “core socialist values,” affecting tens of millions of believers across the country. From a cautious accommodation with the Vatican to an ongoing crackdown on independent Protestant house churches, the story traces the limits of state control over belief. And yet, as churches adapt, migrate online...

For more than a century, urban planning has swung between opposing ideals—escape the crowded industrial city, then repair the damage left by suburban sprawl. From Britain’s postwar “new towns” to the automobile-fueled expansion of low-density suburbs, each solution carried unintended consequences: longer commutes, higher infrastructure costs, environmental strain, and traffic that only worsened as roads multiplied. In this episode, we explore how planners are now trying to reverse that trajectory, embracing denser, mixed-use neighborhoods, transit-oriented development, and walkable streets inspired by New Urbanism. The story reveals how cities are rethinking mobility, space, and community—and why fixing the proble...

A routine breakfast turned dangerous in 2010, when millions of eggs from Iowa became the source of a widespread Salmonella outbreak—an episode that revealed how an invisible microbe can slip unnoticed from farm to plate. In this episode, we trace how Salmonella moves from chickens and eggs into the human body, survives stomach acid, and uses specialized molecular tools to invade intestinal cells and multiply. As the immune system fights back, the familiar symptoms of fever and diarrhea emerge—not as accidents, but as part of the body’s own defense. Along the way, the story separates everyday food poison...

The beauty ideal is narrowing again—quite literally. As fashion and social media resurrect the allure of the “tiny waist,” a new and controversial corner of plastic surgery has emerged, promising a sculpted “Barbie waist” not through dieting or corsetry but by reshaping the ribs themselves. Originating in Russia in the late 2010s as an alternative to outright rib removal, the technique has since evolved into more technologically refined—and fiercely debated—procedures elsewhere. Proponents argue that modern methods can safely deliver dramatic results; critics warn that they flirt with medical risk and cartoonish aesthetics. Beneath the surgical innovation lies a familia...

Pakistan’s political crisis just took a dramatic new turn. In this episode, we unpack how Bushra Khan—the wife of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan—stepped unexpectedly into the spotlight, leading a mass protest that spiraled into chaos and deepened turmoil within his party, PTI. We explore the fierce state crackdown that followed, from new charges and censorship to the creation of a federal anti-riot force, and how Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Asim Munir are consolidating power. Is this the end of street politics for Imran Khan’s movement—or the beginning of a more volat...

For nearly a century, the BBC’s Shipping Forecast has done far more than warn sailors of rough seas. Born from the nineteenth-century work of Robert FitzRoy, the man who helped invent modern weather forecasting, its spare, rhythmic litany of winds and waters became a uniquely British ritual—at once practical, poetic, and oddly comforting. Today, satellites and computer models have rendered the broadcast largely obsolete for navigation, yet attempts to scale it back provoke fierce resistance. As the BBC quietly reduces airtime and plans to end longwave transmissions, the Shipping Forecast endures as a cultural touchstone: a reminder of B...

Salary negotiation is awkward—but it’s often where real money is made. In this episode, we unpack the evidence showing that most people who ask for more pay actually get it, sometimes boosting their income far beyond the initial offer. We also explore why negotiation doesn’t work the same for everyone: how gender penalties, cultural norms, and fears of seeming difficult shape who negotiates and who doesn’t. From when to raise the topic to how to anchor requests in market data, we look at what actually works—and why reframing negotiation as a cooperative problem-solving exercise may be the...

What happens when a story kills the person you thought it revolved around? In this episode, we explore the risky but powerful storytelling move of eliminating a main character early, using Succession’s shocking death of Logan Roy as a central case. From Psycho to The Wire and Game of Thrones, writers have used the “false protagonist” to upend expectations, forcing audiences—and surviving characters—to confront uncertainty, loss, and chaos. These moments can feel like betrayal, but they also strip away narrative comfort, redirect power, and reveal who people really are when the center collapses. By breaking the rules of t...

Between 1975 and 1979, Cambodia experienced one of the 20th century’s darkest chapters, when the Khmer Rouge set out to remake society—and killed around two million people in the process. In this episode, we trace how a revolutionary movement born from war, colonial collapse, and Cold War chaos turned cities into graveyards, emptied Phnom Penh overnight, and forced millions into a brutal agrarian experiment built on fear and impossible quotas. We explore how execution, starvation, and disease became tools of governance, and why the regime devoured even its own cadres. But the story doesn’t end with the fall of the...

What does it really mean to be a genius—and can it be made, or only born? In this episode, we unpack how the idea of genius evolved from an ancient “guardian spirit” into a modern label for extraordinary minds, and why defining it today is surprisingly hard. We explore the long-running battle between nature and nurture, from Francis Galton’s flawed obsession with inherited brilliance to modern research showing how intense practice can physically reshape the brain. Is genius just extreme talent, or something rarer—a once-in-a-lifetime collision of ability, effort, and circumstance? And why does our fascination with geniu...

In this episode, we travel to Danao in the Philippines, where an illegal but highly skilled gunsmithing trade has sustained families for generations. Born out of wartime necessity and economic neglect, backyard workshops produce cheap, reliable firearms in a town with few legal jobs and little state presence. For craftsmen like I. Launa, gun-making is not ideology but inheritance—a way to feed children and preserve a hard-won skill. Yet these weapons fuel crime, insurgency, and extrajudicial killings, leaving authorities torn between enforcement and reality. Is legalization a path to control—or would it legitimize a trade the state can’...

In socially conservative India, finding privacy can be harder than finding love itself. In this episode, we explore the rise of short-stay “love hotels,” where unmarried couples can book rooms by the hour to escape joint families, cramped homes, and the risk of moral policing. Apps like Brevistay and StayUncle are trying to normalize intimacy by professionalizing what was once a shadowy arrangement—offering clean rooms, discreet check-ins, and even “love kits.” But can a business built on privacy survive in a culture that still treats young romance as a public offense? And what does this quiet hotel boom reveal abo...

Independent journalism across the Arab world is quietly being strangled. In this episode, we explore how governments that once tolerated critical media as a pressure valve are now shutting it down—using arrests, spyware, financial pressure, and advertising chokeholds to silence dissenting voices. From Egypt to Algeria, newsrooms are closing, foreign broadcasters are pulling their punches, and journalists are being pushed into exile or online obscurity. As state-controlled media loses credibility, audiences are turning to social platforms instead. What’s lost when independent Arab media disappears—and what fills the void when fear replaces scrutiny?

https...

Obesity is no longer being treated simply as a risk factor—it’s increasingly being defined as a disease in its own right. In this episode, we unpack a major shift in how doctors diagnose obesity, driven in part by the rise of powerful new weight-loss drugs like semaglutide. A new framework from the Lancet Commission moves beyond the blunt tool of BMI, distinguishing between people who are overweight but otherwise healthy and those with clinical obesity, marked by impaired organ function or reduced ability to live normally. The result is a sharper, more medical definition of who actually need...

India is in the middle of a pet boom. As middle-class incomes rise and young adults delay marriage and children, dogs and cats are stepping into the emotional and economic spotlight. The result is a fast-growing industry—pet insurance, luxury boarding, grooming salons, even “paw-ternity leave”—with the market expected to nearly triple over the next decade. Once a niche choice, pet ownership is becoming a marker of modern urban life, reshaping careers, consumption, and family norms across the country.

https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/12/12/indians-are-going-gooey-over-dogs

Weddings in Syria are changing—and that shift says a lot about a country trying to leave war behind. For decades, celebrations were marked by gunfire, a tradition that turned joyful moments deadly as stray bullets and even grenades injured and killed guests. Now, under a new government eager to reassert order, celebratory shooting is banned and increasingly enforced, with fines, confiscations, and even demands that grooms surrender a weapon. Fireworks are taking the place of rifles, symbolizing a cautious return to normal life. Yet the old habits linger, revealing how hard it is to disarm a society shaped by...

Sex is supposed to be intimate and effortless—but for millions of people, it’s a quiet source of stress, shame, and silence. In this episode, we unpack the surprisingly widespread reality of sexual dysfunction, from erectile problems and low desire to pain and anxiety, and why so many sufferers never seek help. Drawing on global surveys and personal stories, we explore how embarrassment, poor sex education, and reluctant doctors keep real problems hidden—even when they can signal deeper health risks like heart disease or strain relationships to breaking point. As therapy apps, generic medications, and “wellness” sex tech resha...

Falcons have become some of the world’s most expensive birds—and their soaring price is pushing them toward extinction. In this episode, we explore how traditional falconry in the Gulf, now amplified by racing, beauty contests, and status competition, has created a booming global market where rare birds can cost more than gold by weight. That demand fuels illegal poaching from places like Libya and Pakistan, threatening endangered species such as the saker falcon and even wiping out their prey, the houbara bustard. Despite conservation programs and bans on wild-caught birds, the trade persists underground. Can falconry survive with...

Are leaders really different from managers—or is the divide overhyped? In this episode, we unpack the long-running debate that casts managers as process-driven administrators and leaders as visionary change-makers. Drawing on classic thinkers and new research, we explore what actually separates the two roles, why “leadership” is often treated as the superior path, and how this rigid distinction can backfire in real organizations. The conclusion is surprisingly pragmatic: the most effective bosses aren’t one or the other, but those who can balance big-picture direction with the unglamorous work of execution.

https://www.economist.com/busi...

Anime didn’t just go global—it quietly took over. In this episode, we trace how a once-niche Japanese art form became a worldwide cultural and economic force, with exports rivaling steel and semiconductors and streaming platforms like Netflix and Crunchyroll driving its spread. We explore what sets anime apart: its hand-drawn aesthetic, emotionally complex stories, and willingness to reject tidy Hollywood endings in favor of darker, more relatable worlds. From an endless supply of manga source material to its growing influence on global film and TV, anime’s rise reveals why millions now see it not as a genre...

Egypt’s Mediterranean coast may look like one long strip of sun and sand, but socially it’s split in two. In this episode, we explore the divide between Sahel el Tayeb—the “good” coast of modest hotels, family trips, and conservative values—and Sahel el Shireer, the “evil” coast of gated compounds, million-dollar villas, designer nightlife, and Westernized elite culture. Though they share the same sea, these parallel worlds reflect Egypt’s widening class and cultural gaps, where QR codes, private beaches, and soaring prices increasingly shut out the middle class. Who gets to enjoy paradise—and on whose terms?

<...