The Weekend Intelligence from The Economist

When Yamagami Tetsuya fired the bullets that killed Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, he set off a chain reaction that upended Japanese society. The sheer force of his act brought down a church, a political party and a patriarch. In doing so it fractured the populace. On The Weekend Intelligence, Moeka Iida reports from the murder trial to tell the story of the assassination that changed Japan.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.

In the outer suburbs of Istanbul, the Elithair clinic operates nearly round the clock delivering hair transplants to a seemingly endless stream of young men from all over the world. They expect demand to keep on rising. But what, exactly, has changed to make record numbers of young men choose elective cosmetic surgery? Senior producer Sam Westran travels to Turkey to watch surgery in action, and muses on the state of baldness, masculinity and the manosphere.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, Epidemic Sound and Sound of PictureThis 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.

Britain is getting hot and steamy.From railway arches in Peckham to windswept beaches in Fife, public saunas are popping up across the country, promising warmth, connection and a break from that traditional British pastime of drinking alcohol. On The Weekend Intelligence, Ibby Caputo sweats into Britain’s booming sauna scene— where wellness culture meets genuine need. Inside the heat, she finds Gen Z ditching the pub for sober Saturday evenings, unpaid carers prescribed steam, and strangers bonding through sweat, silence and shared endurance.From the intimacy of the sauna bench to the icy shock of the North Sea, this is a story about bodies, belonging, and why Britain is learning to sweat together.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.

We asked the head of podcasts to choose his favourite Weekend Intelligence from 2025 to play during the Christmas period. He chose our host Rosie Blau’s episode, The Last Boat, about the story her father never told.Rosie grew up knowing that her father escaped the Nazi regime on the last boat from Poland to Britain before war broke out in 1939. But she knew little of what he left behind and why he would not talk about it. In the episode she traces her father’s journey from Berlin to a forest clearing in southern Poland. On the way, she finds out that some histories resist telling – and how silence itself becomes an inheritance passed from generation to generation.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 week we’re taking a different approach, returning to some of our most compelling episodes from the past year. We’ll discover what’s happened to the people we encountered, catching up with them months after our initial conversations. Plus, our correspondents share what it was like to report these stories, and the insights they gained along the way.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.

In July 2019 Nicolas Pelham, The Economist’s Middle East correspondent, received a rare journalist’s visa to Iran. On the day he was due to fly home, he was detained.He was held in Tehran for seven weeks while those back home desperately tried to secure his return.In November, Nick returned to Iran for the first time since his detention, accompanied by The Economist’s digital editor, Adam Roberts. In this episode of The Weekend Intelligence, Adam and Nick discuss the experience and reflect on what it’s like to work as foreign journalists in Tehran.Read Nick’s original story, Trapped in Iran.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.

Ukraine has been hit by a corruption scandal. One that strikes at the core of the political establishment in a way never before seen—and this in a country with a long and turbulent history of corruption. It has toppled President Zelensky’s right-hand man. It could mean the President himself won’t survive re-election when the war is over. And the timing couldn’t be worse—right in the middle of a peace deal Ukraine has had little part in composing.The Economist’s Ukraine correspondent, Ollie Carroll, has been following the scandal and the investigation that brought it crashing to the surface for months. On The Weekend Intelligence he takes us deep inside "Operation Midas”.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.

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.