Babbage is The Economist’s weekly podcast on science and technology—named after Charles Babbage, the grandfather of computing. Explore the science changing the way we live from AI to genetics, particle physics and space travel with Alok Jha. This award-winning podcast features in-depth interviews with top scientists and special episodes investigating wellness trends. Published every Wednesday. If you’re already a subscriber to The Economist, you’ll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about Economist Podcasts+, including how to get access, please visit our FAQs page here https://myaccount.economist.com/s/article/What-is-Economist-Podcasts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
What this show covers
generative AIAI historyintelligencelarge language modelsneurosciencesocial mediaparentingteen mental healthtechnology debatescreen timenuclear physicsgeopoliticshistory of scienceLos Alamosnuclear weapons
What listeners will find here
How brain science helped spark AI’s first big leap
This preview is based on the episode’s published notes, not the audio itself. Part one of a four-part Babbage series looks at how ideas about human intelligence and the brain shaped early AI—and how that path eventually led toward today’s large language models.
Teens, screens and the science behind the panic
This preview, based only on the show notes, suggests a balanced look at one of parenting’s biggest modern anxieties: whether smartphones and social media are harming young people. The episode appears to weigh worsening youth mental health, contested evidence and growing calls to restrict teen phone use.
How a mystery about atoms became the path to the bomb
This preview, based only on the published show notes, introduces the first episode of The Economist’s four-part series on nuclear weapons. It traces how early 20th-century nuclear physics set the stage for a world-changing bomb and why that history still matters as America modernises its stockpile.
Can ChatGPT-style AI really improve patient care?
This preview, based only on the published show notes, explores a first episode on how AI is already shaping health care and how larger models could change access, diagnosis and research. It looks especially relevant if you want a broad, reported introduction rather than a technical deep dive.
A road trip through American democracy, then and now
This preview is based on the episode’s published show notes. It introduces a series in which The Economist’s John Prideaux retraces Alexis de Tocqueville’s 1831 journey across America to test what still defines the country—and what may have changed.
Episodes
More like Babbage from The Economist
The a16z Show
Andreessen Horowitz
Latent Space: The AI Engineer Podcast
Latent.Space
Big Technology Podcast
Alex Kantrowitz
A Question of Science
The Francis Crick Institute
No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups
Conviction
Industrial AI Podcast
Robert Weber / Peter Seeberg
The Gargle
The Bugle
Dwarkesh Podcast
Dwarkesh Patel
Comptoir IA 🎙️🧠🤖
Nicolas Guyon
Google DeepMind: The Podcast
Hannah Fry