Jenn’s Reading Room · A Public Index
The Economist
Podcasts
A reader’s index of The Economist’s flagship audio output, with a structured tracker for the Checks and Balance closing quiz.
The Economist publishes five regular podcasts. This page exists for two reasons: to keep one tidy public index of the catalogue, and to track — week after week — the closing quiz on Checks and Balance, the programme on American politics.
The tracker runs against 294 rounds covering Jan 2020 through Feb 2026. Wins and ties are coded from the closing-quiz audio; rounds where neither host answered correctly are recorded as stumpers.
Checks and Balance
The active tracker follows the closing quiz.
Each round is coded from the closing-quiz portion of an episode and yields a winner, a tie, or a stumper. The aggregate sits below; per-year and most-recent views follow.
Leaderboard · All-time
| Host | Wins |
|---|---|
Idrees KahloonLeads US Editor | 47 |
Charlotte Howard Executive Editor | 40 |
John Prideaux US Editor & Quiz Master | 2 |
Wins reflect the host who guessed correctly first; rounds count quizzes where the host appeared. Ties and stumpers are tracked separately below.
Head-to-head · 292 rounds
Idrees wins
47 · 16%
leader
Charlotte wins
40 · 14%
Ties
59 · 20%
Stumpers
146 · 50%
no host correct
Yearly wins · Idrees versus Charlotte
Recent rounds
- Feb 27, 2026CharlotteDonald Trump readies for war, again
- Feb 20, 2026StumperWhy Congress just isn't any fun
- Feb 13, 2026TieMAHA's first annual checkup
- Feb 6, 2026CharlotteAll in: America bets on prediction markets
- Jan 30, 2026CharlotteBlocks of ICE: the fallout from Trump's deportation agenda
- Jan 23, 2026StumperMinnesota ICE: crackdown in the Twin Cities
- Jan 16, 2026StumperCheap shots: the political fight over rising prices
- Jan 9, 2026StumperCrude behaviour: Trump's Venezuelan adventure
Other shows
The rest of The Economist’s podcast catalogue.
The four shows below are catalogued but not yet tracked at the round level. They are listed here so the public index is complete; deeper tracking may be added show-by-show as warranted.
Money Talks
WeeklyEconomics and markets with Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood, and Ethan Wu. The stories that move markets — trade wars, central bank fights, AI bubbles, and the structural forces underneath.
Hosts
Mike Bird, Alice Fulwood, Ethan Wu
29 episodes in catalogue
The Intelligence
DailyThe Economist's daily briefing. Three stories shaping the world — the big shifts in politics, business, and culture, in under 25 minutes.
Hosts
Jason Palmer, Rosie Blau
0 episodes in catalogue
Boss Class
SeasonalAndrew Palmer — The Economist's Bartleby columnist — on how to be a better boss. Season 3 dives into AI at work: can it do your job, what happens when everyone can code, and what's your unfair advantage over a machine.
Hosts
Andrew Palmer
11 episodes in catalogue
Drum Tower
WeeklyChina, from the inside. Jeremy Page and Sarah Wu — The Economist's China correspondents — cover politics, economics, tech, culture, and China's reach beyond its borders. Award-winning.
Hosts
Jeremy Page, Sarah Wu
9 episodes in catalogue
Methodology
Sources and update cadence.
Episode metadata is pulled from each show’s public RSS feed. Closing-quiz outcomes are coded from the audio, then cross-checked against the published episode page. The most recent verified round is dated Feb 27, 2026.
Where a quiz response cannot be matched to a named host — for example, when the audio is unclear or the speaker is a guest — the row is marked needs review and held back from the leaderboard until the evidence is verified. Of 294 tracked rounds, 0 (0%) are currently verified.
This page is research, not affiliation. The Economist, Checks and Balance, and the names of the hosts are used as references to the public programme.
Source links