Babbage from The Economist

Sporting history was made at this year’s London Marathon. Sabastian Sawe became the first man to finish a competitive race in less than two hours. How are elite athletes getting so much faster? We investigate how runners are harnessing the science of physiology and the technology of shoes to increase their speed. Plus, how anybody can train for a marathon—or just get fit fast.Guests and hosts: Ainslie Johnstone, The Economist’s data and science correspondentTim Cross, senior science writer and author of the “Well Informed” newsletterHost: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editorTopics covered: London MarathonAdidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3Exercise hacksAudio and commentary taken from the BBC's live coverage of the London Marathon, April 26th 2026.Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.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 the popular imagination, the Chernobyl nuclear-power plant sits in an abandoned, post-apocalyptic wasteland. In reality, the site of the world’s worst nuclear-energy disaster is a thriving experimentation ground for scientists studying the long-term impacts of radiation. This week, 40 years after the meltdown, we investigate what that laboratory has found so far. Guests and hosts: Jason Palmer, host of “The Intelligence” podcastOlena Pareniuk of the Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power PlantsJim Smith of the University of PortsmouthAlok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editorTopics covered: Chernobyl nuclear disasterNuclear safetyRadiation physicsTranscripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.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.

The universe—and everything inside it—shouldn’t exist. The big bang should have produced equal amounts of matter and antimatter, and their mutual annihilation should have resulted in nothing more than a sprawling ball of energy. But, in fact, the universe is dominated by matter, while antimatter is vanishingly rare. To try to understand why, physicists have taken antimatter on a road trip—for the first time in history.Guests and hosts: Sam Wikeley, The Economist’s science correspondentApril Cridland of CERN’s antimatter factoryStefan Ulmer of HHU Düsseldorf and CERN’s BASE experimentHost: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editorTopics covered: AntimatterThe European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN)Particle physicsTranscripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.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.

The AI race is intensifying. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, according to Demis Hassabis, the boss of Google DeepMind. Journalist and biographer Sebastian Mallaby has had unprecedented access to Mr Hassabis over the past three years. In this episode, he tells us how the AI pioneer was swept into a commercial and geopolitical contest that he never expected. Can Mr Hassabis’s aim of safely building artificial superintelligence still be achieved?Guests and hosts:Sebastian Mallaby, author of “The Infinity Machine” Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editorTopics covered:Demis Hassabis and Google DeepMindAI safety and regulationChina’s open-source AI industryWatch The Economist’s recent interview with Demis Hassabis on “Inside Tech” here. Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.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.

Imagine if a single vaccine could protect against a vast array of pathogenic threats. Recent research suggests that a universal vaccine to fend off respiratory viruses, bacterial infections—even allergens—might become a reality. Such jabs would be vital for blunting the impact of the next pandemic. Guests and hosts:Ainslie Johnstone, The Economist’s data and science correspondent Mihai Netea of Radboud University NijmegenPamela Bjorkman of the California Institute of Technology Bali Pulendran of Stanford UniversityHost: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editorTopics covered:Broad-spectrum vaccinesImmunologymRNA technologyListen to Ainslie’s related reporting on dementia and infections by scrolling back to our March 2025 episode, “Going viral: could infections cause Alzheimer's?”Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.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.

The conflict in Iran has been described as the “first AI war”. But how is artificial intelligence actually being deployed? We examine the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine, which raise some thorny questions about the mechanics and ethics of the future of war.Guests and hosts:Shashank Joshi, defence editor at The EconomistJames Lawson, a director at HelsingHost: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editorTopics covered:Military technologyAutonomous weaponsArtificial intelligenceTranscripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.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.

The mechanisms of games are often used to motivate people—from tracking health to scrolling social media feeds and even the way school is graded. But C. Thi Nguyen is worried we’re over-obsessing about keeping score. He wants us to focus more on the things we enjoy doing, rather than letting metrics hijack our lives. Guests and hosts:C. Thi Nguyen, a philosopher at the University of Utah and author of “The Score”Host: Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editorTopics covered:GamesMetricsSocial mediaTranscripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.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.

The spat between America’s government and Anthropic has some alarming implications. In AI development, it appears speed is being prioritised over safety. Artificial intelligence could not only give bad actors the capabilities to unleash destruction, evidence is building that the models themselves are becoming more capable of deceit. Is a catastrophe imminent?Guests and hosts:Alex Hern, The Economist’s AI writerAdam Beaumont, director of Britain’s AI Security Institute (AISI)Jade Leung, Chief Technology Officer at AISIAlok Jha, host of “Babbage”Watch Zanny Minton Beddoes, The Economist's editor-in-chief, interview Dario Amodei, Anthropic’s boss, on “The Insider”.Topics covered:Anthropic vs America’s governmentAI safetyCyber security Transcripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.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.

Making computer chips is not easy. The machines that etch patterns onto silicon wafers already use some astonishing engineering. To make the next generation of computer chips, though, engineers will need to get even more radical.Guests and hosts:Shailesh Chitnis, The Economist’s global business correspondentBruno La Fontaine, a physicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryNicholas Kelez, CEO and CTO of xLightAlok Jha, host of “Babbage”Topics covered:Extreme ultraviolet lithographyChipmakingASMLTranscripts of our podcasts are available via economist.com/podcasts.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.