The Intelligence from The Economist - Podcast Rankings and reviews

Always interesting topics, always very insightful and detailed while not getting too in the weeds - covers both “in the news” topics and little-known stories & studies.

This is one of my favorite morning listens. They provide insight and detail on just three stories each day, with a long exploration of a single subject on the weekend. The 10/29/24 episode is a great example of a detailed analysis of the state of things in Ukraine, a beautiful tribute to democracy and voting, and a delightful discussion of the UK citizenship test.

I really enjoy the depth and consistent day-to-day quality of the podcast. The new weekend sessions are great. My one complaint is that Jason needs a better quality microphone. His audio quality differs greatly from the other host and most guests. Some days it just irritates me. Keep up the good work.

The absolute best journalism anywhere in the world all in one place. Thank you for the report on the war in Sudan. I am an American, and collectively we very distracted. This is such an important story; don’t let us forget or ignore what is happening. Hearing the personal stories of those affected and their families helps tremendously.

The latest episode featured an extremely biased and unsophisticated analysis of the rise of housing costs around the world and, in the case of Stockholm, squarely laid the blame on rent control policies for the housing crisis there. Their understanding of rent control is elementary, as they seemingly conflate (and then clarify that they are not conflating—but who cares at that point) rent ceilings and the yearly permitted increase of rent stabilization policies which are the only form of rent control observed today. Surprisingly, however, they contradict themselves, saying that there are cases where rent control can work, as long as it’s paired with a concerted push for plentiful supply, like in Vienna, their example of choice. However they are quick to dismiss the idea of learning any lessons from Vienna, because after all, it’s not because of rent control that housing is affordable there, it’s because they increased supply (which they just set as a precondition, but whatever) and because the population hasn’t grown since WW2 (well neither has the population of their comparative case study Manhattan, which has never recovered its previous peak set in 1950). Overall this headline story really does illustrate their blind adherence to propping up an industry which does not create any inherent value or drive much innovation. It shouldn’t be surprising, but it seemed like this podcast was different than the rest of the magazine, dealing in actual facts rather than Friedmanite truisms about rent control policies which haven’t been implemented since the 1940s.

This podcast used to be my go-to news podcast, but lately it focuses almost entirely on stories that have to do with one of the following: 1) tactical military strategy, 2) shameless promotion of AI, 3) obituaries, or 4) advertisements for their other podcasts. They ignore many genuine news stories which don’t fall into one of these buckets.