• The voice of moderate America
    Nov 27 2025

    Gideon talks to Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the senior Democrat on the US Senate Committee on foreign relations, about Donald Trump’s foreign policy. Can Congress stop the president from making big concessions to Russia and attempting regime change in Caracas? Clip: ABC News


    Free links to read more on this topic:

    Ukraine has no choice but to engage with US peace plan

    Russia pursues peace deal — on its own terms

    Donald Trump’s affordability problem: in charts

    What is Venezuela’s ‘Cartel of the Suns’?

    Mohammed bin Salman, the autocratic Saudi moderniser trying to escape his past


    Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    28 mins
  • Coming soon from Tech Tonic: Defying death
    Nov 22 2025

    Investors are spending billions of dollars on novel ways to extend human life through inventive treatments, therapies, and even manipulating our genes. And increasingly, it seems as though anti-ageing efforts have moved from the super rich to a mass market consumer industry. In this series, we’re covering the past, present and future of the longevity movement. We’ll be looking at where the fixation on longevity is coming from, and trying to understand the practical and ethical issues at the heart of this cutting-edge field of research.


    From Silicon Valley fantasies, to Singaporean health spas, to Colombian genetic clinics and beyond, the FT’s Hannah Kuchler and Michael Peel ask whether breakthroughs in science and technology can really help us live longer, and even stop us aging altogether.


    Free to read:


    US ‘wellness’ industry scents opportunity to go mainstream


    The quest to make young blood into a drug


    This season of Tech Tonic was produced by Josh Gabert-Doyon. The senior producer is Edwin Lane. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Fact checking by Simon Greaves, Lucy Baldwin and Tara Cromie. Original music by Metaphor Music. Manuela Saragosa is the FT’s acting co-head of audio.


    The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    2 mins
  • Europe’s triple shock: Putin, Trump and Xi
    Nov 20 2025

    The French pioneer of European integration Jean Monnet believed that Europe would be ‘built in crisis’. The war in Ukraine is putting this theory to the test, once again. Gideon discusses with historian Timothy Garton Ash how European leaders are responding to this latest crisis after the brief ‘holiday from history’ that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall. Clip: ITV


    Free links to read more on this topic:

    US and Russian officials draft new peace plan for Ukraine

    The scramble for Europe is just beginning

    Ukraine secures winter gas support from Greece

    Poland blames Russia-linked operatives for rail explosion


    Subscribe to The Rachman Review wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe.

    Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and the executive producer is Flo Phillips.


    Follow Gideon on Bluesky or X @gideonrachman.bsky.social, @gideonrachman


    Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    29 mins
  • The battle for AI supremacy
    Nov 13 2025

    Gideon Rachman sits down with the FT's innovation editor John Thornhill and Caiwei Chen, China reporter for the MIT Technology Review, to discuss the race between China and the US to become the 21st-century AI superpower. The west is used to hearing about the might of the Silicon Valley giants, US cutting-edge research and chip dominance. But China has a different approach. Will its use of a cheaper and more efficient open AI model allow China to overtake the US with this era-defining technology?


    Want more? Join John and the FT’s Chinese technology correspondent Eleanor Olcott in a live Q&A on November 13 at 1pm GMT where they will be answering your questions on the tech battle between Silicon Valley and Beijing.

    Submit your question: Will China win the AI race?


    And subscribe to a new six part newsletter series - 'The State of AI'. It's a collaboration between the FT and MIT Technology Review where writers from both publications debate the defining questions of the AI era. Sign up here


    More on this topic:

    The State of AI: is China about to win the race?

    China offers tech giants cheap power to boost domestic AI chips

    AI pioneers claim human-level general intelligence is already here

    The AI race

    Who’s right about AI: economists or technologists?


    Follow Gideon on Bluesky or X @gideonrachman.bsky.social, @gideonrachman


    Subscribe to the Rachman Review wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe.


    The Rachman Review is presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Clare Williamson. The executive producer is Flo Phillips and the sound design is by Simon Panayi.

    Clip: Axios


    Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    31 mins
  • Donald Trump and autocracy in America
    Nov 6 2025

    Gideon Rachman talks to historian and author Anne Applebaum about the Trump presidency. The US president is increasingly accused of being a would-be dictator, but is it fair to compare Donald Trump to authoritarian leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping?

    This episode is an edited recording of an event organised by Intelligence Squared that took place in central London last month.


    Clips: CBS 60 Minutes

    Follow Gideon on Bluesky or X @gideonrachman.bsky.social, @gideonrachman


    More on this topic:

    Trump’s fawning cabinet and the threat to US democracy

    The Trump doctrine: don’t rely on America

    The Trump Supremacy

    Saudi Arabia in talks for US defence pact

    How the Trump companies made $1bn from crypto


    Subscribe to The Rachman Review wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe.

    Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Clare Williamson. The executive producer is Flo Phillips and sound design is by Breen Turner


    Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    32 mins
  • US versus China: a test of strength
    Oct 29 2025

    Gideon talks to former US trade representative Michael Froman about Donald Trump’s visit to Asia this week, culminating in a meeting with Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Apec summit in South Korea. What does it tell us about US trade priorities in the region and who is best placed to win the contest of strength between the US and China? Clips: NST online; Times Now


    Free links to read more on this topic:

    Will Trump push south-east Asia towards China?

    China calls for ‘extraordinary measures’ to achieve chip breakthroughs

    Why China keeps winning the trade war

    China doubles down on industrial policy


    Subscribe to The Rachman Review wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe.

    Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and the executive producer is Flo Phillips.

    Follow Gideon on Bluesky or X @gideonrachman.bsky.social, @gideonrachman


    Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    29 mins
  • Nuclear weapons and the balance of terror
    Oct 23 2025

    Gideon talks to the historian and author Serhii Plokhy about how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed our calculations about the risk of nuclear war. They discuss the history of the atom bomb from its first use in 1945 to the risk of a resurgence of proliferation. Clip: Harry S Truman Library


    Free links to read more on this topic:

    The Nuclear Age by Serhii Plokhy — why nations want the bomb

    US offers nuclear energy companies access to weapons-grade plutonium

    The covert trip by Iranian nuclear experts to Russia

    The old nuclear rules won’t stop proliferation


    Subscribe to The Rachman Review wherever you get your podcasts - please listen, rate and subscribe.

    Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and the executive producer is Flo Phillips.

    Follow Gideon on Bluesky or X @gideonrachman.bsky.social, @gideonrachman


    Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    33 mins
  • Introducing Untold: Toxic Legacy
    Oct 21 2025

    Introducing Toxic Legacy, a new season of Untold from the Financial Times. Host Laura Hughes uncovers a lead poisoning epidemic across the UK. You might be living with lead and not know it: the toxin is often invisible to the human eye, but wreaks havoc on our bodies once we’re exposed. The first episode of Untold: Toxic Legacy launches October 22.


    Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you get your podcasts.


    For information on how to live safely with lead, please visit the LEAPP Alliance website.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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    2 mins