At first glance, Russia’s economy is thriving: shops bristle with designer goods, and revellers party on heaving dance floors. But behind the scenes, things aren’t so bright. Kate de Pury reveals why life in Moscow is a tale of two cities. Read by Sharon McCune.

1843 Magazine brings stories of an extraordinary world to life. The Economist publication covers topics like culture, lifestyle, design, fashion, health, travel, and technology.

1843

Gucci is cheap and eggs are pricey in Russia’s surreal economy

Elon Musk recently said that he disagrees with the very idea of unions. Now, one in Sweden has cheerfully prepared to fight his company, Tesla, for 538 years. Miles Ellingham reports on this story from the picket line. Read by Jonathan Booth.

Sweden’s polite war with Elon Musk

In an age of social-media validation, the Guinness World Records is thriving. Barclay Bram explores how the collection's consultants are designing bespoke awards to help companies and individuals build their brands. Read by Jonathan Booth.

Anyone can break a Guinness World Record. I did

David Meidan managed to get one person out of Gaza in 2011 - now he’s trying to free 240. In an interview with the Israeli intelligence officer, Yossi Melman discovers the hurdles of negotiating with the enemy. Read by Jonathan Booth.

Israel’s top hostage negotiator on dealing with Hamas

Eritrea is one of the poorest countries in the world, but its Mao-reading president is on a roll. Michela Wrong examines how Issaias Afwerki has made a surprise triumph to become known as ‘Africa’s Kim Jong Un’. Read by Jennifer Jill Araya.

The surprising triumph of “Africa’s Kim Jong Un”

She was supposed to teach the algorithm how to be more human. Instead, she became more like a robot. Irina Teveleva reflects on how her experience working with an AI chatbot confronted real-world problems. Read by Marni Penning.

My life as an AI chatbot operator

Tennessee conservatives have been crusading against drag and LGBTQ+ for months, including passing a new anti-drag law. Charlie McCann explores how a climate of fear is forcing gay institutions to close their doors.

The last drag queens of Tennessee

Sarah, like many before and after her, was only a teenager when she was raped by a UN peacekeeper. Through her story, Olivia Acland discovers the hidden epidemic of sexual exploitation in Congo.

Sarah said she was raped by peacekeepers. The UN offered her $50

You're a comp sci grad, but big tech doesn't want you. Now what?

Students at the Bay Area's best universities once dreamed of working for Apple, Google and Meta. Then the layoffs happened, and the world of work changed. Charlie McCann explores what the future holds for computer-science graduates.

You studied computer science but big tech no longer wants you. Now what?

Inside the school where Russia’s TV journalists are trained 

Russia's propaganda machine is working overtime to put a positive spin on Putin's war in Ukraine. Kate de Pury enters a damp Moscow classroom to see where it all begins for the state's TV journalists.

Inside the school where Russia’s state TV journalists are trained 

A new space age is dawning, and life on Mars could soon be a reality - if Elon Musk's SpaceX can achieve its extraplanetary ambitions. Charlie McCann meets the "space dorks" who worry that Twitter is distracting their hero.

The Musk superfans who want to live on Mars with Elon

Artificial intelligence is increasingly sounding and acting more like us. But is it sentient? Tomas Weber discovers the narrowing divide between man and machine through 73-year-old Stephen Thaler's story. 

The inventor who fell in love with his AI

Inside the college on the front line of DeSantis’s culture war

Conservatives have seized control of the New College of Florida to purge academia of left-wing rhetoric and woke ideology. Charlie McCann meets with the students fighting back.

Inside the progressive college on the front line of Ron DeSantis’s culture war

With the Lebanese economy descending into a spiral of hyperinflation and debt default, Wendell Steavenson meets with poverty-stricken families to discover the terrible price of their government's failures.

In Lebanon, parents are abandoning their children in orphanages

Following the closure of RedIssue, a Manchester United fan-run Twitter account, Jack Shenker meets with conspiracy-believing founder John-Paul O'Neill to discuss everything from COVID to financialised capitalism's impact on the beautiful game.

How a Manchester United superfan became a conspiracy theorist

Years of hyperinflation, political turmoil and a deadly pandemic have worsened Lebanon's ongoing liquidity crisis, and the citizens have had enough. Wendell Steavenson discovers the lengths enraged depositors have gone to access their own money.

My money or your life: the bank robbers of Beirut

Several months after Elon Musk's Twitter takeover, software engineer Manu Cornet divulges the wild, behind-the-scenes events that followed until - like his colleagues before him - he lost his job too.

“I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired”: tales of a Twitter engineer

Discover the story behind the world’s most powerful man.

Xi Jinping wants to ensure that the Communist Party never loses its way again as it did during the Cultural Revolution or the pro-democracy protests of 1989. But the way he sees it, only he is qualified to navigate the passage. Sue-Lin Wong profiles the influential Chinese leader.

Xi Jinping: the making of a dictator

The criminal justice system has no room for neurodivergence. 

In 2021, Brandon Fleury was sentenced to five years in prison for harassing the families of school shooting victims online. Through Fleury's story, Stephanie Clifford examines the drawbacks of a system that isn't ready for those wired to see the world differently.

An autistic man was surfing the internet on his dad’s sofa. Then the FBI turned up

The social movement has lost its moral motives.

The Effective Altruism community claims to use practical ethics to strive for a better world. However, as Linda Kinstler discusses, the "empathy with evidence" philosophy no longer applies to our changing world.