Babbage from The Economist

Babbage is our weekly podcast on science and technology, named after Charles Babbage—a 19th-century polymath and grandfather of computing. Host Alok Jha talks to our correspondents about the innovations, discoveries and gadgetry shaping the world. Published every Wednesday.

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Episodes

Herman Pontzer: what people get wrong about metabolism

Do you run, cycle or swim to lose weight? Herman Pontzer, an evolutionary anthropologist who specialises in understanding how humans use energy, thinks you’re probably wasting your time. His idea of the “exercise paradox” suggests that the amount of energy people use in a day is constrained (by evolution) and that exercising more doesn’t end up burning more calories. Figuring out why our bodies work like this is part of Prof Pontzer’s bigger project to map out and better understand how evolution...

Apr 30, 2025•35 min

Trailer: Boss Class Season 2

Good bosses are rare. They don’t have to be. The skills of management can be learned. The Economist ’s management columnist, Andrew Palmer, is here to help. The second season of Boss Class features leaders at some of the world’s best performing companies, from Levi’s to Novo Nordisk to Google.  New episodes are out weekly starting May 12th.  To listen to the full series, subscribe to Economist Podcasts+ . https://subscribenow.economist.com/podcasts-plus If you’re already a subscriber t...

Apr 30, 2025•2 min

Trailer: Scam Inc

A sophisticated, predatory, multi-billion dollar industry is emerging from the shadows. It already rivals the size of the illicit drug trade. And it’s about to get bigger and much more powerful.  The Economist ’s Sue-Lin Wong follows a trail that starts with the collapse of a bank in rural Kansas to uncover a global, underground scam economy built around human trafficking, corruption and money laundering. Can it be stopped? Available now. To listen to the full series subscribe to Economist ...

Feb 05, 2025•4 min

Trailer: The Modi Raj

Narendra Modi is one of the most popular politicians on the planet. India’s prime minister is eyeing a third term atop the world’s biggest democracy.  A tea-seller’s son, Mr Modi began life an outsider and the man behind the political phenomenon remains hard to fathom. India has become an economic powerhouse during his ten years in charge. But he’s also the frontman for a chauvinistic Hindu nationalist dogma.  Can Mr Modi continue to balance both parts of his agenda and finish the job ...

May 29, 2024•5 min

AI and health part one: DrGPT will see you now

Artificial intelligence is already making its mark in health care —but new, bigger, models promise to improve how patients access services, help doctors spot diseases faster and transform how medical research is done. In the first of two episodes on the potential of AI in health care , we ask: how will patients benefit from the technology behind ChatGPT ?  Host: Alok Jha, The Economist ’s science and technology editor. Contributors: Natasha Loder, The Economist 's health editor; Gerald Lip ...

May 22, 2024•46 min

Babbage: Teens and their screens

Ever since there have been smartphones and social media, there have been concerns about how they might be affecting children. Over the past decade, doctors have seen a decline in mental health in the young in much of the rich world. But whether that rise can be attributed to technology is still a matter of fierce debate. Nevertheless, demands are growing to proactively restrict teenagers’ access to phones and social media, just in case. How concerned should parents and teachers be? Or is this ju...

May 01, 2024•42 min

Babbage: The science that built the AI revolution—part one

What is intelligence? In the middle of the 20th century, the inner workings of the human brain inspired computer scientists to build the first “thinking machines”. But how does human intelligence actually relate to the artificial kind? This is the first episode in a four-part series on the evolution of modern generative AI. What were the scientific and technological developments that took the very first, clunky artificial neurons and ended up with the astonishingly powerful large language models...

Mar 06, 2024•43 min

Babbage: The hunt for dark matter

Dark matter is thought to make up around a quarter of the universe, but so far it has eluded detection by all scientific instruments. Scientists know it must exist because of the ways galaxies move and it also explains the large-scale structure of the modern universe. But no-one knows what dark matter actually is . Scientists have been hunting for dark matter particles for decades, but have so far had no luck. At the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, held...

Feb 21, 2024•44 min

Babbage: Sam Altman and Satya Nadella on their vision for AI

OpenAI and Microsoft are leaders in generative artificial intelligence (AI). OpenAI has built GPT-4, one of the world’s most sophisticated large language models (LLMs) and Microsoft is injecting those algorithms into its products, from Word to Windows.  At the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, Zanny Minton Beddoes, The Economist ’s editor-in-chief, interviewed Sam Altman and Satya Nadella , who run OpenAI and Microsoft respectively. They explained their vision for humanity’s future w...

Jan 24, 2024•45 min

Babbage: Science book club

Books are the original medium for communicating science to the masses. In a holiday special, producer Kunal Patel asks Babbage’s family of correspondents about the books that have inspired them in their careers as science journalists. Host: Alok Jha, The Economist ’s science and technology editor. Contributors: Rachel Dobbs, The Economist ’s climate correspondent; Kenneth Cukier, our deputy executive editor; The Economist ’s Emilie Steinmark; Geoff Carr, our senior editor for science and technol...

Dec 20, 2023•42 min

Babbage: Fei-Fei Li on how to really think about the future of AI

A year ago, the public launch of ChatGPT took the world by storm and it was followed by many more generative artificial intelligence tools, all with remarkable, human-like abilities. Fears over the existential risks posed by AI have dominated the global conversation around the technology ever since. Fei-Fei Li, a pioneer that helped lay the groundwork that underpins modern generative AI models, takes a more nuanced approach. She’s pushing for a human-centred way of dealing with AI—treating it as...

Nov 22, 2023•39 min

Babbage: How to avoid a battery shortage

In the coming decades, electric vehicles will dominate the roads and renewables will provide energy to homes. But for the green transition to be successful, unprecedented amounts of energy storage is needed. Batteries will be used everywhere—from powering electric vehicles, to providing electricity when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow. The current generation of batteries are lacking in capacity and are too reliant on rare metals , though. Many analysts worry about material shortag...

Oct 25, 2023•45 min

Babbage: Trailer

May 06, 2015•2 min

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