Big Take

Tucker Carlson was one of Donald Trump’s most prominent allies when he campaigned for re-election and through his first year back in the White House. The US-Israel war with Iran, however, marked a decisive split between the two men. Carlson, a right-wing media personality, now argues that Trump has abandoned his “America First” agenda and allowed Israel to drive US foreign policy...

There’s a historic mismatch between fun-supply and fun-demand in the US this summer. Americans are clamoring for places to relax and socialize. But the purveyors and conduits of fun — like airlines, theme parks, resorts, concert venues, camps and more — are all grappling with the same inflationary pressures as the rest of us — making fun more expensive and harder to access....

A slate of new data this week painted a tepid but slightly optimistic picture of the US economy: Consumer prices declined in June for the first time in six years, jobless claims ticked down and retail sales rose modestly. So why doesn’t the data match up with how Americans are feeling? On today’s Big Take podcast, host Sarah Holder talks to Bloomberg’s Reade Pickert and labor eco...

President Donald Trump’s 2025 financial disclosure showed earnings unlike anything Americans have seen from a sitting US president: $1.4 billion in cryptocurrency, 21,000 securities trades and millions from his resorts and golf clubs. On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg campaign finance reporter Bill Allison joins host Sarah Holder to look at the ethical concerns the disclosure rais...

China’s men’s soccer team has qualified for the World Cup just once, despite millions in investment and a personal push from President Xi Jinping to turn the nation into a footballing powerhouse. On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, host Oanh Ha speaks with Eric Zhu of Bloomberg Economics and Mark Dreyer, sports writer and author of Sporting Superpower, about why the country’s...

The last few days have brought a flurry of developments in the Iran war. As armed hostilities between the US and Iran resumed over the weekend, news broke that US Senator Lindsey Graham had died. Graham was a staunch supporter of Israel and of the war in Iran. And on Monday, President Trump declared US control over the Strait of Hormuz and demanded a 20% reimbursement rate for all cargo that moves...

The great famine of the 1870s killed 50 million people – and El Niño was a key driver. Another El Niño phase has just begun and it’s expected to be among the strongest. There are five times as many people in 2026 as there were in the 1870s and the planet is 1.4C hotter. So are we better prepared? In this weekend's listen, Bloomberg’s Akshat Rathi speaks with Mingfan...

Some of the world’s top tennis players will face off at the Wimbledon finals this weekend. The players who make it to Centre Court have already achieved a bigger feat: a career as a tennis player. On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg’s Hannah Miller and The Athletic’s Matt Futterman break down what sets tennis apart from other sports and the challenges the tournaments and...

Maine Democrat Graham Platner’s withdrawal from his US Senate race is ratcheting up an already intense run-up to the US midterm elections. And yet, across the political spectrum, lawmakers in Washington agree that they need to deliver — quickly — on promises of affordability. With broad bipartisan support, they passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, billed as allowing more...

For two decades, American universities have doubled down on master’s programs, relying on graduate degrees as their financial backbones. Now, the Trump administration’s policies are posing existential threats to that business model. On today’s Big Take podcast, education reporter Liam Knox joins host Sarah Holder to break down the administration’s three-pronged attack on gr...

China rattled neighbors from Japan to Australia on Monday by test-launching a long-range ballistic missile from a nuclear submarine in the Pacific Ocean. While such launches are rare, the latest test reflects Beijing’s increasing openness about its growing military strength. On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, Rebecca Choong Wilkins, who covers Asian government and politics, joins host K...

Two opaque corners of finance have joined forces: shadow banking and phantom debt. Put another way, private credit firms are backing Buy-Now-Pay-Later companies to finance their expansion into the US consumer market. On today’s Big Take podcast, guest host Stacey Vanek Smith joins Bloomberg reporters J.J. McCorvey and René Ismail to discuss what private credit’s involvement in B...

For America’s 250th anniversary and our Weekend Listen, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jill Lepore joins Mishal Husain to take her through her book on the US Constitution. We The People explores how the Constitution came about and, crucially, how there was an expectation that it would likely change over time.  This is not, however, an episode entirely set in the past, because Jill...

The federal programming leading up to the United States’ 250th anniversary this weekend has ranged from the genteel (essay contests for grade-schoolers and a national push for volunteerism) to the MAGA-coded (a “Freedom Truck” convoy and a UFC cage fight on the White House lawn). The events are the product of rival planning committees – one created last year by the Trump ad...

In just a few years, peptides have grown from fringe drugs popular with fitness buffs and ‘looksmaxxers’ to a billion-dollar black market. Now, with the prospect of regulation on the horizon, healthcare players and investors are racing to cash in. On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg reporters Amanda Mull and Madison Muller join host Sarah Holder to break down the peptide boom,...

In the 2026 elections, artificial intelligence is the backdrop for just about everything. The US and Anthropic reached a truce in recent days that lets the company roll out its powerful models to some users, the sort of on-the-fly decision-making that has candidates jockeying to shape how AI is regulated. Big AI companies are pouring money into 2026 state and federal races, dwarfing the cryptocurr...

Thanks to the AI boom, stock markets in Taiwan and South Korea have seen historic rallies this year. But as retail investors pile in, often using borrowed money, concerns are growing over whether this momentum is sustainable. On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, guest host Rebecca Choong Wilkins speaks with Bloomberg’s Asian markets reporter Charlotte Yang and Bloomberg Opinion’s Sh...

A divided Supreme Court has upheld the constitutional right to birthright citizenship, rejecting President Trump’s planned restrictions and invalidating a central plank of his immigration agenda. We have more on that story next from Bloomberg News Now, tracking the latest business headlines from around the world. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court blocked President Trump’s efforts to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook for now, delivering the Fed a victory in the grueling fight over its independence. But the decision arrived alongside another ruling that allows the president to fire a top official at the Federal Trade Commission—a move widely seen as a boon to executive power over indepen...

In November, California will choose a new governor to replace Gavin Newsom, pitting Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra, a former US Secretary of Health and Human Services, US Congressman and state attorney general, against an unlikely Republican rival: Steve Hilton. Hilton was born in the UK and became a US citizen only five years ago. He had a career in center-right British politics, working as...

On July 1, 2025, the US effectively ended operations of the United States Agency for International Development, the global aid organization founded in 1961, cutting most staff and moving it into the US State Department. Samantha Power, who led the agency under President Biden until early 2025, joins David Gura on the Big Take podcast to look back at what was lost, internationally and at home. You...

Nearly four months after the war in Iran began, US and Iranian negotiators are trying to turn their cease-fire into lasting peace. But critics of the latest memorandum of understanding say it mostly leaves President Donald Trump where he was before the war started, with many key issues unresolved. On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg Opinion columnist Marc Champion on the latest negotiatio...

For a growing number of older workers, retirement is no longer feeling so achievable—or appealing. But staying in the workforce or going back to work in your 60s and 70s comes with challenges, for workers and companies. On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg’s Stacey Vanek Smith talks to the World Economic Forum’s Haleh Nazeri about the factors driving the rise in so-called...

After more than a decade as a private company, Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu, known internationally as RedNote, is testing China’s mood for all things tech with its plan to list in Hong Kong. On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, host K. Oanh Ha speaks with Bloomberg Intelligence’s Robert Lea about why the time may be right for an IPO and what Xiaohongshu's debut says about th...

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his resignation Monday after less than two years in office. Starmer is the sixth Prime Minister to resign in the decade since the Brexit vote, raising major questions about where the country’s fractured political system goes from here. On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg Executive Editor Edward Evans joins guest host Wendy Benjaminson fr...