Well-Informed & Open-Minded

Protein has moved from the gym bag to the grocery aisle. Once the preserve of bodybuilders and fitness obsessives, high-protein eating has gone mainstream, amplified by social media, celebrity endorsements, and a booming market of fortified yogurts, drinks, and snacks. In this episode, we explore why protein now commands more attention than fiber or whole grains, how weight-loss drugs and fears of...

Seen from Hollywood, Crazy Rich Asians was a breakthrough; seen from Singapore, it looks far more complicated. Shot against the gleaming excess of Marina Bay Sands, the film was hailed for its all-Asian cast and box-office success, telling a glamorous story of love, wealth, and identity. In this episode, we explore how that triumph plays differently on the ground, where critics argue the film embr...

A new kind of workout is promising results not in the gym, but on the face. As facial exercise studios and apps gain popularity, clients are paying premium prices for hands-on massages and guided routines that claim to sculpt jawlines, reduce puffiness, and offer a needle-free alternative to cosmetic procedures. In this episode, we explore why facial workouts have found an eager audience—including...

The dates stamped on food packages look authoritative, but they are quietly driving mountains of unnecessary waste. In the United States, most “sell by” and “best before” labels were created to signal peak freshness—not safety—yet consumers often treat them as expiration warnings, tossing food that is still perfectly edible. In this episode, we explore how a confusing dating system born in the 197...

As Ukraine looks beyond the battlefield toward rebuilding, some of its most important lessons are coming from a country long shaped by catastrophe. Japan’s experience recovering from earthquakes, tsunamis, and wartime destruction has become a model for Ukrainian officials planning for a future that must be resilient by design. In this episode, we explore what Ukraine is learning from Japan’s disas...

Across Asia, disasters are striking more often and with greater force, yet responses still tend to arrive only after lives and livelihoods have been shattered. A growing movement argues that waiting is the costliest mistake of all. In this episode, we explore the rise of “anticipatory action”—policies that use early warnings to deliver cash and support before floods, droughts, or storms hit—and wh...

For generations, the American firefighter has been defined by flames and heroism—but the job is quietly being reinvented. As improved building codes and smoke alarms have driven structural fires sharply down, fire departments now spend much of their time responding to medical emergencies, rescues, and crises far removed from burning buildings. In this episode, we explore how this shift is reshapin...

Life in the Bangladesh Delta is shaped by water that never stays still. Along the Jamuna, Padma, and Meghna rivers, entire communities live with the constant threat of floods and erosion, as land appears and disappears with the seasons. In this episode, we explore how people adapt to a landscape defined by movement, from teardrop-shaped earthen plinths designed to let floodwaters flow past, to hos...

When powerful earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria, the scale of destruction exposed more than a natural disaster—it revealed the deadly cost of human decisions made long before the ground shook. Tens of thousands were killed as buildings collapsed, particularly in Turkey, where corruption, weak enforcement, and decades of construction amnesties had normalized unsafe practices. In this episode, we...

Cities often feel like the opposite of nature—but in reality, they are ecosystems of their own. From coyotes roaming urban streets to rivers buried and revived beneath concrete, the “natural city” reveals how deeply urban life is entwined with the environment around it. In this episode, we explore how planners and thinkers—from Frederick Law Olmsted’s park systems to today’s sustainability advocat...

A single tree species now sits at the center of a global cultural and environmental standoff. Brazilwood—also known as pernambuco—has long been prized for making the world’s finest violin bows, yet rampant logging and habitat loss have pushed it to the brink of extinction in Brazil’s Atlantic forest. In this episode, we explore why proposals to tighten international protections have alarmed musici...

The software job market is splitting in two. At the very top, a small cadre of AI specialists is being courted with extraordinary salaries and fierce competition, as companies treat elite talent as a strategic asset worth hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. For everyone else, hiring has slowed sharply, with layoffs and shrinking job listings reflecting the productivity gains promised by gener...

The word “genius” carries a seductive power—but it may explain far less than we think. Drawing on Helen Lewis’s critique, this episode unpicks the idea of genius not as an innate quality, but as a status granted by society, shaped by fashion, power, and storytelling. In this episode, we explore how the myth evolved from Romantic suffering to pseudo-scientific rankings that once underpinned eugenic...

When 18-year-old Dommaraju Gukesh returned to Chennai as the youngest world chess champion in history, the celebration felt like more than a sporting triumph. His victory over China’s Ding Liren—the first all-Asian world championship final—marked a generational shift in a game long dominated by Europe and Russia. In this episode, we explore how Gukesh’s rapid rise, powered by relentless training a...

Never before have two leading presidential candidates been so old—and so closely scrutinized for it. With Joe Biden and Donald Trump both well beyond the age of past presidents and most global leaders, concerns about health, stamina, and mental sharpness have moved from the margins to the center of political debate. In this episode, we explore what biology and social science actually say about agi...

More than a century ago, Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago offered a bold idea: that cities should be planned not just block by block, but as regions, weaving beauty, infrastructure, and growth into a single vision. That ambition spread quickly, as planners grappled with sprawl, coined new ways to measure metropolitan scale, and experimented with governance models that could coordinate transport, h...

Rising from the desert with mathematical precision, the Great Pyramid of Giza remains one of humanity’s most astonishing feats of organization and belief. Built for Pharaoh Khufu under the direction of his architect Hemiunu, the monument demanded twenty years of relentless coordination—quarrying stone, hauling blocks across the Nile, and placing one massive block every few minutes. In this episode...

For more than a century, big cities have been celebrated as engines of growth, magnets for talent, and crucibles of innovation. Economists have long argued that crowding people together boosts productivity through “agglomeration,” making everything from public services to new ideas more efficient. In this episode, we explore a provocative challenge to that logic, examining research that suggests A...

When the pandemic shut the world down, it also stripped away the illusions of celebrity. As millions struggled with illness, isolation, and lost income, famous figures posting from vast homes and urging solidarity exposed the widening gap between wealth and reality—and sparked a furious backlash. In this episode, we explore how COVID-19 accelerated the unraveling of celebrity culture, from tone-de...

Not long ago, New York Harbor was treated as an open sewer, written off as biologically dead—but today, whales surface beneath the skyline. After decades of environmental regulation and conservation, sharks, dolphins, and even humpback and fin whales have returned, alongside the slow revival of oyster reefs that once defined the city’s waters. In this episode, we explore how laws like the Clean Wa...

China’s consumer slowdown is not unfolding the way many expected. While wealthier urbanites tighten their belts, spending is rising among lower-income households and residents of smaller cities, reshaping where—and how—money is being spent. Budget destinations like Dali are booming, even as visitors spend less per trip, reflecting what economists call “consumer downgrading.” In this episode, we ex...

In South Korea, a quiet countercurrent is pulling young people away from the city and back to the land. Known as kwichon , the movement reflects post-pandemic disillusionment with precarious urban work and the grind of corporate life, especially within the country’s powerful chaebol . In this episode, we explore why the government is encouraging this return to rural life, how new farmers are being...

A rare coyote attack on a child in Chicago briefly pulled an overlooked urban resident into the spotlight. Though such incidents are uncommon, coyotes have quietly colonized cities across America, adapting with remarkable success to parks, railways, and suburban edges. In this episode, we explore why thousands now live in Chicago alone, how the loss of wolves and changes in human land use pushed t...

At the highest levels of leadership, success often depends on a resource that is rarely discussed and easily depleted: personal energy. When football manager Jürgen Klopp stunned fans by stepping down from Liverpool, citing exhaustion, he voiced a truth few elite figures admit—that stamina, not just talent or strategy, can set the limits of achievement. In this episode, we explore why roles like C...

In China’s bookstores, self-help manuals tower over fiction and history, reflecting a society under intense pressure to adapt, compete, and succeed. Translations of American guides on management and personal growth sell briskly, even as the Communist Party urges readers toward homegrown models of “positive energy,” including the writings of Xi Jinping himself. In this episode, we explore why advic...