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Boss Class from The Economist
Trailer: Boom!
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How did two old, unpopular men end up running for the world's most demanding job? It’s the question John Prideaux, The Economist’s US editor, gets asked the most. And the answer lies in the peculiar politics of the baby boomers.
Since 1992, every American president bar one has been a white man born in the 1940s. That run looks likely to span 36 years - not far off the age of the median American. This cohort was born with aces in their pockets. Their parents defeated Nazism and won the cold war. They hit the jobs market at an unmatched period of wealth creation. They have benefitted from giant leaps in technology, and in racial and gender equality.
And yet, their last act in politics sees the two main parties accusing each other of wrecking American democracy. As the boomers near the end of their political journey, John Prideaux sets out to make sense of their inheritance and their legacy.
Launching July 2024.
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Boss Class: Trailer
02:08|The workplace keeps changing and managers have to keep up. The best bosses create systems for solving problems old and new—from navigating working-from-home demands to hiring the right people, from running good meetings to managing themselves. Andrew Palmer, author of the Bartleby column, looks for advice on how to be a better boss by talking to people who have actually done the job. Listen to The Economist's seven-episode guide for managers.Episodes are out on Mondays starting later in October. If you're not already a subscriber to The Economist, sign up for a free trial of Economist Podcasts+ or if you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.
1. Boss Class 1 - Leadership: Weed it and reap
31:56||Ep. 1Andrew Palmer, The Economist's Bartleby columnist, learns lessons in management on a Norwegian mountainside. He hears from Emma Walmsley, the CEO of GSK; Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel prize-winning psychologist; and Claire Hughes-Johnson, the one-time COO of Stripe. Episodes are out on Mondays. If you’re not already a subscriber to The Economist, sign up for a free trial of Economist Podcasts+ or if you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.
2. Boss Class 2 - Hybrid work: Out of office
33:09||Ep. 2To manage a workforce divided between the home and office, bosses should ask the five basic questions of journalism: who, what, where, when and why. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jane Sun, the CEO of Trip.com Group, and Lidiane Jones, the CEO of Slack, give their divergent views. Episodes are out on Mondays. If you’re not already a subscriber to The Economist, sign up for a free trial of Economist Podcasts+ or if you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.
Boss Class 3 - Recruitment: Testing, testing
30:39|It is the most important decision a manager can make. How do you increase your chances of hiring the right people? Tracey Franklin, Moderna's human-resources chief, tells Andrew Palmer how the company scaled up at speed during the pandemic. Andrew learns what not to do when taking psychometric recruitment tests and a headhunter from Russell Reynolds reveals the secrets to a successful CEO search.This is a subscriber-only episode. Sign up for a free trial of Economist Podcasts+ or if you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.
Boss Class 4 - Teamwork: Inside the yellow line
30:49|Taavet Hinrikus, the co-founder of Wise, one of the world’s biggest fintech firms, gives advice on forming and running teams. Andrew Palmer learns the secrets of teamwork in Afghanistan, Mumbai and Silicon Valley; and Amy Edmondson of Harvard Business School explains how to foster psychological safety.This is a subscriber-only episode. Sign up for a free trial of Economist Podcasts+ or if you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.
Boss Class 5 - Meetings: The clown car
29:45|What if all the meetings in your calendar disappeared overnight? Tia Silas, Chief HR Officer of Shopify, an e-commerce firm, tells Andrew Palmer what happened when they tried just that. Claire Hughes-Johnson, a former COO of Stripe, offers a practical guide to running meetings. And we eavesdrop on the weekly meeting at The Economist, with lessons from Zanny Minton Beddoes, our editor-in-chief, on how she encourages constructive debate.This is a subscriber-only episode. Sign up for a free trial of Economist Podcasts+ or if you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.
Boss Class 6 - Incentivising: Into the upside down
29:26|The Economist's Andrew Palmer asks how companies motivate employees to do their best work. He hears from Patty McCord, Netflix’s former head of HR, and Zeynep Ton, author of "The Case for Good Jobs". Sir John Timpson, a British retail boss, preaches the virtues of "upside down management". And Andrew learns how to write a good purpose statement.This is a subscriber-only episode. Sign up for a free trial of Economist Podcasts+ or if you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.
Boss Class 7 - Managing yourself: Human factors
36:43|The Economist’s Andrew Palmer seeks advice on managing your cognitive load, your career path and the changes that generative AI could bring. He gets tips from Cal Newport, an author and professor of computer science, on how to carve out time away from email; from Jeffery Pfeffer, of Stanford Graduate School of Business, on how to accumulate power; and from Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn's co-founder, on how to get ready for the era of AI. This is a subscriber-only episode. Sign up for a free trial of Economist Podcasts+ or if you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.
Boss Class: Reid Hoffman interview
35:02|On the cover of his latest book, Impromptu: Amplifying Our Humanity Through AI, Reid Hoffman credits GPT-4 as a co-author. The tech investor tells our Bartleby columnist Andrew Palmer that artificial-intelligence tools offer a solution to the “blank-page problem” and will soon become a core competence for knowledge workers. This is a subscriber-only episode. Sign up for a free trial of Economist Podcasts+ or if you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription.For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account.