The Weekend Intelligence from The Economist

Chef Gary Thomas has a lot on his plate. That’s because he’s in the business of feeding thousands of people a day on a ship in the middle of the ocean. Not just any ship – the Star of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world. The Weekend Intelligence’s senior producer Barclay Bram braved a trip to the Bahamas to try to figure out the secret behind one of the most impressive food operations in the world. 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 Blue dot and EpidemicThis 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.

Seventy years ago, a small Christian community in rural Georgia became an unlikely battleground in America’s fight over civil rights. Koinonia was founded on a radical idea: that black and white families should live, work and worship together as equals. For the people of nearby Americus, that belief was heresy. What followed was years of boycotts, gunfire, cross burnings and isolation.Lenny Jordan grew up in the middle of it. As a child he learned to distinguish the sound of a passing car from the sound of one slowing to shoot. His father, Clarence Jordan - farmer, preacher - refused to compromise his principles, even as the Klan targeted his family and the community was boycotted.This autumn, our Southern correspondent Rebecca Jackson travelled with Lenny back to the farm. There he confronts the scars of a childhood spent in the crosshairs - and asks what it means to cling to your convictions when your country feels like it is slipping backwards.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 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.Read more about how we are using AI.

The Weekend Intelligence has got it's own feed. That means no more scrolling back every week to find episodes you've missed, they're all in one handy place. All one hundred (and counting).

Nader Sadaqa was meant to spend the rest of his days in prison. He was released by Israel in October as part of the ceasefire deal with Hamas, one of 250 prisoners serving life sentences. But Sadaqa is no ordinary prisoner. He is a Samaritan—-a tiny ethnoreligious community who claim to descend from the ancient Israelites. Once numbering nearly 1m people, only 850 remain today. They move freely between Israel and the Palestinian territories to work, visit family and observe religious traditions. Being able to navigate both worlds is central to being a Samaritan. They tend not to pick sides. But Sadaqa made a different choice. Twenty years ago, he was imprisoned for murdering four Israeli soldiers and four citizens. In this episode, our Middle East correspondent Nick Pelham meets with Sadaqa in Cairo to learn why he took up the Palestinian cause when neutrality would have been far easier.For more episodes by Nick Pelham, click the links below. Listen to the story of Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian politician-turned-revolutionary who was convicted of acts of terrorism and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in an Israeli prison. Hear Maroua Abudhagga, a Palestinian from Gaza, and Samy Ibrahim, her Egyptian Jewish husband, discuss a marriage and shared heritage that bridges divides.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, epidemic, and Sofi Tsedaka.

Since September 2024 the Sinaloa Cartel has been tearing itself apart, and the city of Culiacán has been dragged into its bloody and brutal orbit. In September, our Mexico Bureau Chief, Sarah Birke, visited Culiacán to find out what it’s like living in a city transformed by a narco war. 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 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.Read more about how we are using AI.

Erik Prince, America’s most infamous mercenary, is back. Mr Prince rose to prominence during the war on terror as the founder of Blackwater, a private military company. The firm earned over a billion dollars providing armed personnel to various branches of the US government before becoming implicated in a number of scandals. In 2007 its contractors killed 14 Iraqi civilians, including a nine-year-old child. The massacre made Mr Prince the face of the Iraq fiasco. He sold the company and disappeared from the public eye.But in recent months Mr Prince has reemerged. He has popped up in some of the most dangerous, contested places in the world, from Ukraine to Haiti to the DRC. They are places the Trump administration is interested in too. For the Weekend Intelligence the Economist’s Africa Correspondent, Tom Gardner, flew to Cape Town to meet with Prince, the mercenary in CEO’s clothing. Prince is defiant after his years in the political wilderness. And he’s spying some big opportunities. The global mercenary business is on the brink of a new boom. States, across Africa and beyond, are fracturing. The international system is fraying. With UN peacekeepers drawing down, from Mali to Congo to Lebanon, mercenaries of different stripes can expect to fill the void. Is this Erik Prince’s moment?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 and epidemic.