October 22, 2023 – From Zürich, Monocle’s editorial director Tyler Brûlé, Fabienne Kinzelmann, Juliet Linley and Florian Egli discuss the weekend’s hottest topics. Plus: check-ins with our friends and correspondents in Palma, Helsinki and Paris.
Category Archives: Podcasts
Saturday Morning: News And Stories From London
Monocle on Saturday, October 21, 2023: Charles Hecker and Georgina Godwin discuss the Rafah border crossing opening in Egypt, turmoil in the US House of Representatives, the UK’s by-election results and hibernation season in Japan.
Plus: Monocle’s Isabella Jewell explores the Horniman Museum’s new exhibition on the history of tea, followed by a tasting of some unusual brews.
Reviews: ‘The Week In Art’
The Week In Art Podcast (October 20, 2023): This week: it’s the second year of Paris +, the event that has taken over from Fiac as the leading French art fair. How is Art Basel’s French flagship faring amid geopolitical turmoil and economic uncertainty, and is Paris still on the rise as a cultural hub?
We speak to Georgina Adam, an editor-at-large at The Art Newspaper, and Kabir Jhala, our deputy art market editor, who are in Paris, to find out. The largest ever exhibition of the work of the Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto opened last week at the Hayward Gallery in London, before travelling to Beijing and Sydney next year. We talk to its co-curator Thomas Sutton.
And this episode’s Work of the Week is La femme-cheval or the Horse-Woman, a painting made in 1918 by the French artist Marie Laurencin. She is the subject of a major survey, called Sapphic Paris, opening this week at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia in the US. Cindy Kang, who co-curated the exhibition, tells us more about this landmark work in Laurencin’s life.
Paris +, 20-22 October.
Hiroshi Sugimoto: Time Machine, Hayward Gallery, London, until 7 January 2023; UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, 23 March-23 June 2024; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia, 2 August-27 October 2024.
Marie Laurencin: Sapphic Paris, Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, US, 22 October-21 January.
News: Israel-Gaza Ground War, Biden Urges Funding, U.S. House Speaker Chaos
The Globalist Podcast (October 20, 2023) – The latest from the Middle East; why the US battle for the next House Speaker has descended into chaos; and a look ahead to the weekend’s elections in Argentina.
Plus: we discuss Russia’s nuclear presence in Belarus and get the theatre news from critic Matt Wolf.
Research Preview: Science Magazine – Oct 20, 2023
Science Magazine – October 20, 2023: The new issue features Copious Cicadas – Mass emergence alters food webs; A giant European telescope rises as U.S. rivals await rescue; Probe of Alzheimer’s studies finds ‘egregious misconduct’, and more…
A giant European telescope rises as U.S. rivals await rescue

Past the halfway point, Extremely Large Telescope prepares to receive first mirrors
A web of steel girders is rising from the flattened summit of Cerro Armazones, 3000 meters above sea level in Chile’s Atacama Desert. The dome it will support will be vast—with a footprint as big as a soccer field and almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty— and unexpectedly nimble: It will smoothly rotate on rails as a giant telescope inside tracks stars through the night.
Probe of Alzheimer’s studies finds ‘egregious misconduct’
Co-developer of biotech’s drug couldn’t supply original data
U.S. hands out $7 billion for hydrogen hubs
Gas could replace fossil fuels and fight climate change—if it is made cleanly
News: Gaza Protests & U.S. Aid Deal; Germany-Egypt Mediation, House Speaker
The Globalist Podcast (October 19, 2023) – Journalist Stefanie Glinski brings us the latest on the Israel-Hamas conflict from Jerusalem.
We also take a look at Olaf Scholz’s trip to Egypt and an attack on a synagogue in Berlin. University College Dublin’s Scott Lucas talks us through the chaos in Congress as Jim Jordan scrambles for enough support to be the next US House Speaker. Plus: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to North Korea.
Research Preview: Nature Magazine – Oct 19, 2023
nature Magazine – October 19, 2023: The latest issue features how humans develop in the very early stages when a newly formed embryo is implanted in the wall of the uterus, largely because of the physical and ethical challenges that are presented by studying early human embryos.
Carl Sagan’s audacious search for life on Earth has lessons for science today
The test 30 years ago of what remote sensing could tell us about our own planet shows the value of looking with unbiased eyes at what we think we already know.
Runes on Viking stones speak to an ancient queen’s power
Analysis of carved inscriptions more than 1,000 years old suggests the prominence of the Viking queen Thyra.
‘Incredible’ asteroid sample ferried to Earth is rich in the building blocks of life
Samples of asteroid Bennu delivered by the OSIRIS-REx mission contain carbon, water and other ingredients from the primordial Solar System.
News: Israel Blames Gaza Hospital Blast On Hamas, Ukraine’s Tactical Missiles
The Globalist Podcast (October 18, 2023) – UCL’s Julie Norman discusses Joe Biden’s high-stakes visit to Israel in the wake of a devastating blast at a Gaza hospital. We also examine what Ukraine’s use of US-made long-range missiles means for the country’s counteroffensive.
Plus: Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping strengthen ties at the Belt and Road Summit and Bottega Veneta launches its own academy.
News: Biden To Visit Israel, Egypt-Gaza Border, Putin To Meet With Xi In Beijing
The Globalist Podcast (October 17, 2023) – The latest on the fighting between Israel and Hamas from ‘Haaretz’ journalist Allison Kaplan Sommer in Tel Aviv, as well as a look at the situation at the Egypt-Gaza border.
Also in the programme: Vladimir Putin prepares to make his first trip to a major global power since the International Criminal Court arrest warrant to meet Xi Jinping at the Belt and Road Summit. Plus: why Italy’s population is in crisis.
Opinion: Israel’s Agony & Retribution, Green Policy Recoil, 2-Day Workweeks
‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (October 16, 2023) – A selection of three articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, will Israel’s agony and retribution end in chaos or stability? Also, the backlash against green policies (09:58) and a disastrous workplace experiment (16:15).