Working memory: the surprising decline of dementia

The Economist: The week ahead by The Economist

Jul 30, 202625:08News & Politics

A dive into the data reveals that, despite dire past predictions, the prevalence of dementia is actually waning . We take a look at Pix, a beloved Brazilian digital-payments system, and why it so bothers President Donald...

Related Episodes

Continue listening to more episodes from The Economist: The week ahead.

The end of the world is AI? An existential threat

Sep 16, 2026 - 24:16

Is artificial intelligence becoming uncontrollably powerful? Our correspondent analyses whether a pause t...

Islamism in Britain: what is the threat?

Sep 15, 2026 - 23:41

Though a growing share of the British population is anxious about Islam, they have no reason to be. Islam...

Strait and narrowing: the Houthis’ striking advance

Sep 14, 2026 - 22:46

After years of stalemate, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis are taking territory , including on a Red Sea strai...

The Weekend Intelligence: Shire folk

Sep 12, 2026 - 49:13

For 15 years, the British media dismissed Tommy Robinson as a far-right extremist. We kept him off our te...

Out-numbered: AI’s contentious maths milestone

Sep 11, 2026 - 22:49

OpenAI’s claim to have solved one of the great problems in mathematics has itself created problems. We as...

Working through it: the AI jobs boom dawns

Sep 10, 2026 - 19:56

The labour data are in from America and a trend is becoming clearer : on balance AI is starting to create...

Chainsaw sputtering: Milei’s experiment falters

Sep 9, 2026 - 22:09

President Javier Milei has tamed inflation and improved the lot of many Argentines. But an election seaso...

School of shock: teenagers get dimmer

Sep 8, 2026 - 21:20

International tests in maths and reading show that 15-year-olds today score what 14-year-olds would have...