The Economist ‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (May 15 , 2023) – Is Chinese power about to peak? Why your job is (probably) safe from artificial intelligence (11:00) and how Mexico’s gangs are becoming criminal conglomerates (35:00).
Category Archives: Society
Preview: New York Times Magazine – May 14, 2023
The New York Times Magazine – May 14, 2023: Katie Engelhart reports on a family torn apart by dementia; plus, we take you inside the world of saildrones — the unmanned boats that measure superstorms at sea — and Jazmine Hughes reports on one woman’s efforts to ensure the conviction of the white supremacist who killed her sister in the Buffalo shooting last year.
Hurricanes of Data: The Tiny Craft Mapping Superstorms at Sea
Understanding the secrets of a warming ocean means steering straight into the biggest hurricanes. Enter the saildrone.
A Year After Buffalo: ‘There’s No Forgiveness for That. Ever.’
Court hearings, media scrums, ruined holidays — Barbara Massey-Mapps suffered through it all to see the white supremacist who killed her sister convicted.
Politics: The Guardian Weekly – May 12, 2023
The Guardian Weekly (May 12, 2023) – The name Geof frey Hinton was little known outside the tech industry until last week, when the so-called “godfather of AI” gave an interview after leaving Google in which he warned that machine learning is leading us into uncharted territory.
So is now the time to get properly frightened about the capabilities unleashed by machine learning? Technology writer John Naughton in this week’s big story says an unequivocal yes as he explores a worrying near future, and what prompted Hinton to speak out.
Britain spent last weekend watching avidly or determinedly avoiding the exuberant display of ancient ceremony around the coronation of King Charles III. Our coverage takes a fondly amused look at all the pageantry, personalities and gold braid with Rachel Cooke, while columnist Nesrine Malik unpicks the game of divide and rule, display and disguise through which the institution hangs on to popular support. We also visit Belize to find out how arguments about reparations for slavery are linked to its relationship to the British crown.
Opinion: A World In Fiscal Fantasy, Can Turkey Sack Erdogan, King Charles III
The Economist ‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (May8 , 2023) – Three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, governments are living in a fiscal fantasyland, why Turkey is holding the most important election this year (11:02) and the coronation of King Charles III (17:30).
Health: How The Pandemic Reshaped American Life
Inside Russia: How Life Has Changed Since Invasion
Politics: The Guardian Weekly – May 5, 2023
The Guardian Weekly (May 5, 2023) – The awkward inheritance of Charles III. Plus: Ukraine readies for the counter-offensive…
Seventy years have passed since Britain last held a royal coronation. But, with polls suggesting public support for the monarchy is at a historic low, Charles’s big day this weekend comes at a moment when Britain feels more generationally divided than ever.
At 74, Charles is the oldest person ever to be crowned as a new British king. Opinion polls suggest 78% of the nation’s over-65s still strongly support the monarchy. But, in the 18-24 age bracket, enthusiasm dips to just 32%.
As Jonathan Freedland argues in an essay for our cover story this week, the new king faces an uphill challenge to establish his own legacy in the shadow of his mother, Elizabeth II, “who, even the staunchest republicans had to admit, barely put a foot wrong over seven decades”. Can he really offer a compelling vision to reunite the realm, and should he even try? It may be that his best hope is simply to lay the foundations for the next generation.
A calm before the storm has been felt in Ukraine ahead of a widely expected counter-offensive on the frontline with Russia. Emma Graham-Harrison and Artem Mazhulin report on a critical moment looming for the country and the war.
Opinion: Israel At 75, Is Keir Starmer Ready To Lead UK?, ChatGPT ‘Language’ Issues
The Economist ‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (May 1, 2023) – A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, Israel: the survivor nation at 75, is Sir Keir Starmer ready to govern Britain? (10:25) And why ChatGPT raises questions about how humans acquire language (19:05).
Reviews: “A New Way Of Thinking About Aging”
“People 50 and older hold the vast majority of wealth in the country, but we’re producing products and services for people who don’t have nearly as much money to spend…”
April 27, 2023: Thanks to advances in medicine and public health, people are living longer, healthier lives. The world’s population of people 60 and older is growing five times faster than the population as a whole. Global life expectancy has doubled since 1900, and experts say that children born in developed countries now have a good chance of living to 100.
A “silver tsunami” is already sweeping the U.S. labor force: the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that 36% of people ages 65–69 will remain on the job in 2024 — up significantly from the 22% who were working in 1994.
These longer-lived, longer-working individuals generate an ever-bigger slice of global GDP and control an expanding tranche of global wealth. In her recent book Stage (Not Age), Golden estimates that the “longevity economy” is worth more than $22 trillion — $8.3 trillion in the United States alone.
That may be a conservative figure: AARP (the organization formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons) estimates that people over 50 already account for half of consumer spending worldwide, or $35 trillion. (This range of figures may have to do with how “older adult” is defined: The term is variously used to refer to people over the ages of 65, 60, or — sorry, Gen Xers — 50.)
Preview: New York Times Magazine – May 7, 2023
The New York Times Magazine – May 7, 2023:
Kyrsten Sinema’s Party of One
What the Arizona senator’s breakup with the Democrats means for American politics.
Kyrsten Sinema was standing a few yards from the border wall with four Republican members of Congress. The men were staring balefully at a row of nearby portable toilets, wondering aloud if they could hold out for a proper bathroom on the way back to the airport.
Intellicurious 