Latest Episodes

Evergrande built homes for China's growing middle class for more than two decades. Now, the property developer is running out of money. WSJ's Quentin Webb explains how years of piling on debt brought Evergrande to a crisis point, and what its potential collapse could mean for China.

Join us all October long for some of the spookiest stories across time.

Plants aren’t just sitting around looking cute; they’re doing all sorts of stuff, like defending themselves, and even warning other plants about danger. Today, we’re talking all about the weird and wily world of plants with Professor Beronda Montgomery from Michigan State University. She has a new book out called “Lessons From Plants.” 

Jason's brother gets news of the arrest and calls their mom. The Rezaians begin a long journey to figure out what it will take to face down Iran’s leaders, pressure the U.S. government, and free Jason.

Jason and Yegi are each detained in solitary confinement, enduring everything from cruel interrogations to the tedium of vacuuming their own cells. Without any information from the outside, Jason starts to fear that no one is doing anything to free them.

Everything was going great for Jason Rezaian. He was The Washington Post’s correspondent in Tehran. He had just gotten married. Then, in July of 2014, Jason and his wife were arrested and thrown in an Iranian prison.

Last week, roughly 16,000 migrants showed up in Del Rio, Texas. Most of them were Haitian, but they didn't come directly from Haiti. They've been on a long journey. WSJ's Alicia Caldwell and Juan Montes explain how these Haitians reached Texas and what they're encountering at the border.

This week, we dug up a favorite episode on the secret life of squirrels. The average tree squirrel can bury up to 10,000 nuts every fall. How do they keep tabs on that stash? Animal behaviorist and pro squirrel watcher Mikel Maria Delgado exposes the secrets of squirrel pantry maintenance. Thanks to caller Cayra. This episode of Every Little Thing was produced by Stephanie Werner, Emily Forman, Pho...

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...