In the past decade self-driving cars have gone from an engineer’s fantasy to a reliable technology. Once they are widely adopted – which could be by the middle of this century – our overcrowded, congested cities will look very different: carparks will be turned into parks, there will be no more traffic jams, and commuters will be able to live further away. In this podcast, Joel Budd and Matthew Sweet discuss what a driverless future might look like.
Almost every year since 1972 has contained a 61-second minute. In this podcast Tom Whipple joins Matthew Sweet to discuss where these “leap seconds” come from and why we should be worried about them
Data suggest that couples who have sons are more likely to stay together than those who don't. In this podcast, Emily Bobrow discusses whether fathers find it harder to parent daughters and whether having sons makes women more likely to stay in unhappy marriages
The most forbidding corner of the world is now taking guests. In this podcast, our travel editor Sophy Roberts talks about what it was like to spend a week in Antarctica as a tourist, and explains why the continent is as much an idea as it is a place on the map
To the leader of France’s National Front, politics is like a virus: “Once you have it, you never get away from it.” In this podcast, Sophie Pedder discusses the rise of Marine Le Pen
Our jaded new columnist gripes about life in the age of globalisation – and travels to the country of the future
An increasing number of Chinese students are enrolling in top American colleges. Brook Larmer explains why they are so eager for the Ivy League – and what they’re doing to get in
The Economist takes a peek into some of the stories featured in our first issue
Maggie Fergusson discusses how our relationship with death is changing, the question of assisted dying, and how she might face her own end
How America’s National Parks have changed the country’s culture, and are now wilder than ever
