The Intelligence from The Economist

Every day, ordinary people face split-second choices about whether to help others in a crisis. A car crashes on the highway. Someone in a park clutches their chest as their knees buckle. A swimmer cries out in distress. Most of us believe we know what we’d do, in that moment. But are we mistaken?In this episode of The Weekend Intelligence, Stephanie Studer, The Economist’s US Digital Editor, goes on a journey across America to explore how a decision to do the right thing can go wrong. What one state considers a legal obligation can mean a legal nightmare in another. What happens when being good comes at a cost?

Many adults perform worse in tests of literacy and numeracy than the average ten year old. And results have worsened in the past decade. Are our brains rotting? Russia’s economy could finally be nosediving (7:20). And remembering Eichmann’s jailer, Shalom Nagar (14:00). 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.

Layoffs, suspended dividends, a share price in free fall, a chief executive hustled out the door: Intel is in a bad way. But America needs a chipmaking champion, so what will save it? We examine a legally pioneering International Criminal Court case alleging cross-border crimes against humanity (10:31). And how the internet is changing the way people think about food and cooking (19:40).Get a world of insights by subscribing 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.

As Syrians awoke to a new era, thousands rushed to fling open the dark, filthy prisons where Bashar al-Assad locked up dissenters. Our correspondent followed along. The first of our two-part series on spirituality reveals a lucrative nexus of DIY enlightenment and tourism (9:13). And the stumbles of Manchester City, a once-invincible side in England’s Premier League (15:27).Get a world of insights by subscribing 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.

For five years the prospect of a criminal prosecution has loomed over Binyamin Netanyahu. Today he becomes the first Israeli prime minister to testify as a defendant. A shocking fraction of master’s degrees confer no financial benefit—and may even leave degree-holders worse off (10:43). And our staff share their picks for the best books of 2024 (16:58).Get a world of insights by subscribing 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.

President Bashar al-Assad has been run out, his regime in tatters. As Syrians awaken to a new era, how can they put their broken country back together peacefully? Australia has passed a law that will ban under-16s from social media: a bold move, but a tricky one to implement (10:21). And how “Dungeons & Dragons” jumped from nerd culture to popular culture (19:38).Get a world of insights by subscribing 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.

When Russian troops invaded Ukraine thousands fled for fear of retribution from President Putin and his infamous "kill list". One of those refugees was a Nigerian pastor called Sunday Adelaja. In the years following the fall of the USSR Pastor Sunday built one of Europe’s largest churches. Headquartered in Kiev it became more than a spiritual force - it was a political one too, frequented by Ukraine’s great and good.On the Weekend Intelligence The Economist’s chief Africa Correspondent John McDermott tracks Sunday down to tell his story, one of biblical proportions.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 Epidemic

Many thought a five-year timeline was too ambitious. But even as France’s politics falls apart, it has managed to put the cathedral back together with aplomb. As an election takes place in Ghana, its status as a leading light of African democracy is looking shaky (10:11). And remembering John Kinsel, among the last of the second world war’s Navajo code-talkers (17.44).Get a world of insights by subscribing 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.

An alliance of the far right and the left has sacked Prime Minister Michel Barnier; out goes his budget and the government. Can President Emmanuel Macron find a stable path between the political extremes? We ask why employees seem so much more comfortable using generative artificial intelligence than their employers do (8:25). And Britain’s giant craft-gin industry hits headwinds (14:33).Get a world of insights by subscribing 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.