Latest Episodes

Since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle quit the royal family, the couple have been building a Hollywood production company and signed deals with Netflix and Spotify. WSJ's Erich Schwartzel explains how this royal career shift has been going.

The Chinese government is cracking down on big private corporations and reining in their power. WSJ's Lingling Wei shares her analysis which suggests this recent development is coming from China's President Xi Jinping's personal ideological shift from capitalism towards a Mao-style socialism.

Take a look at many of the spaces where climate related decisions are being made - from government, to business, to media - and you'll notice someone missing. Women. Despite being roughly half the people on the planet, women are often excluded from critical climate decision making spaces. This isn't just bad for women - it's bad for everyone. This week, we take a deep dive into the data to show how...

Childbirth seems to be getting more and more medicalized, with C-sections and other interventions out the wazoo. But childbirth isn’t a disease! So is all this medical meddling really necessary, or are doctors too trigger-happy with the scalpel? To find out, we talked to obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Sarah Osmundson, doula Shala Konomi, clinical scientist Dr. Sarah Stock, and obstetrician and g...

Last week, the U.S. announced a new multibillion-dollar deal to supply nuclear submarines to Australia. There was just one problem: Australia had already inked a submarine deal with France. WSJ's Matthew Dalton explains the sub snub and what it means for U.S.-France relations.

Smiling poop. Zombie lady. High-fiving squid. Emojis cover a huge spectrum of human expression. But did you ever wonder where they came from? On September 19, 1982, a computer scientist, concerned his jokes weren’t landing in a university chatroom, used the first emoticon; colon, minus sign, parenthesis. The simple smiley face set the stage for a revolution in online communication.

A growing number of retailers are offering customers the ability to buy a product and pay for it later in installments. WSJ's AnnaMaria Andriotis explains why the approach has become so popular and whether it's likely to stick around.

There comes a time in everyone's life when you realize that your parents are two people: who they are with you, and who they are with the world. For Steve Barnes, that happened one day while he was reading the newspaper.

A journalist is jailed in an Iranian prison. His fate is tied to a ground-breaking diplomatic mission. Here’s the story of what it took to get him out.

Dogecoin began as a joke cryptocurrency in 2013, but this year its price has soared, and now its market cap stands at about $30 billion. WSJ's Caitlin Ostroff says two competing organizations that both call themselves the Dogecoin Foundation are vying for the coin's trademark and its future. Representatives from both groups make their case about who should be dogecoin's steward going forward.

In the fourth episode of our investigative series based on an extensive array of internal Facebook documents, we explore the fallout of a major algorithm change the company made in 2018. The documents outline how an emphasis on engagement incentivized the spread of divisive, sensational content and misinformation. WSJ's Keach Hagey and Jeff Horwitz explain how attempts from within the company to un...

In the third episode of our investigative series based on an extensive array of internal Facebook documents, we look at a persistent problem on the platform: human trafficking. WSJ's Justin Scheck describes documents showing that Facebook has closely studied how human traffickers use the platform to ensnare victims and advertise illegal sex services. The documents also show Facebook's response to t...

To combat increasingly extreme wildfires, firefighters are taking cues from the world of sports analytics. WSJ's Dan Frosch explains how the "Moneyball" sports data revolution is making its way into firefighting and why increasingly unpredictable fires are putting new computer models to the test.

We’re hearing nonstop chatter about the “quarantine 15.” But should we really care if we put on weight? Is fat bad for us? We talk to Prof. Henry Blackburn, Assoc. Prof. Laura den Hartigh, and Assoc. Prof. A. Janet Tomiyama. 

Jack Schron has been encouraging his employees to get vaccinated. He also worries a vaccine mandate might cause them to quit. The manufacturing company president explains what the Biden administration's vaccine mandate could mean for him, and WSJ's Eric Morath discusses its impact on the labor market.

Wind and solar are now some of the cheapest ways to make electricity. So, what’s standing in the way of using more of these renewable energies? One of the biggest barriers is something all around us that we rarely notice – our electricity grid. Not just the wires and technology that make up the grid, but also the people and institutions that run it. In this episode we talk with anthropologist Gretc...

The Reply All Team talk to people trying to break out of their mid-pandemic funk.

A brazen kind of shoplifting is plaguing America's retail stores, where people fill up garbage bags with items and simply walk out the door. WSJ's Rebecca Ballhaus explains how organized crime rings orchestrate the shoplifting. And Ben Dugan, the head of CVS' investigative unit, describes what he does to fight crime at his stores.

Before George Floyd was known to the world, he was known to his friends as Big Floyd - a gentle giant who loved to rap. Our friends at Mogul made him this tribute. To hear more from them, follow Mogul for free on Spotify.

Zsa Zsa Gabor was the epitome of Hollywood glam, starring in dozens of films and tv shows in the 1940s and 50s. But by the 1980s, her shine began to dim. On September 14 1989, Gabor made a celebrity comeback when she was prosecuted for slapping a Beverly Hills cop. In court Gabor played the role she was born to play… herself.

In the second episode in our investigative series, we turn to research that Facebook has kept private: its internal studies on the effects of Instagram, one of its core products, on teen mental health. WSJ's Georgia Wells details the company's findings, which show that Instagram can be harmful for young users, particularly teen girls. Plus, Instagram head Adam Mosseri explains why he thinks there's...

This week, an encore of a favorite episode: What happens behind the scenes at the symphony. Does a triangle player get the same pay as a violinist? Do conductors ever fall off their podiums? Which section do the other musicians love to hate? ELT dishes symphony secrets with violinist Akiko Tarumoto and conductor Rob Kapilow. Special thanks to Nathan Cole and danke schön to caller Laszlo.

The Facebook Files, an investigative series from The Wall Street Journal, dives into an extensive array of internal Facebook documents, giving an unparalleled look inside the social media giant. In our first episode, WSJ's Jeff Horwitz explains how high-profile users from celebrities to politicians are shielded from the site's rules and protected from enforcement measures. The company does this in ...

As the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, members of the country's women's soccer team - once symbols of a new Afghanistan - knew they needed to escape. WSJ's Drew Hinshaw tells the story of how the team's former captain, Khalida Popal, hatched a daring plan for their evacuation.