The Rachman Review
Financial Times
Gideon Rachman, the Financial Times chief foreign affairs columnist, takes you with him on his travels, as he meets the decision-makers and thinkers who are shaping world affairs
- 27 minutes 3 secondsTrump takes aim at South Africa
Donald Trump has accused South Africa of carrying out a genocide against its white population. He also says the nation does not deserve to be a member of the G20, which it hosted last month. FT Africa editor David Pilling - standing in for Gideon - puts these allegations to two South Africans, Lawson Naidoo, a civil society activist, and Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, a foreign policy expert. What is the state of race relations in the country and how are South Africans reacting to the allegations? Clip: CNN
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South Africa arrests Kenyans working at US-run Afrikaner ‘refugee’ centre
The ‘pampered princess’ accused of trafficking South Africans to Russia
How South Africa’s underworld infiltrated its government
South Africans question future of Black empowerment policies
South Africa’s credit rating upgraded for first time in two decades
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Presented by Devid Pilling. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and the executive producer is Flo Phillips.
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Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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18 December 2025, 5:00 am - 25 minutes 49 secondsEurope’s rocky relations with Donald Trump
Gideon talks to Jens Stoltenberg, Nato's former secretary-general, about Ukraine and Europe's strategic priorities after recent scathing criticism from US president Donald Trump over its failure to end the war: ‘They talk but they don’t produce.’ Clip: Politico
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The White House’s rupture with the western alliance
Trump pushes for ‘free economic zone’ in Donbas, says Zelenskyy
Friedrich Merz offers to host Ukraine talks so deal not done ‘above Europe’s head’
Ukraine’s ‘fortress belt’ that Donald Trump wants to trade for peace
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and the executive producer is Flo Phillips.
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11 December 2025, 6:55 pm - 24 minutes 37 secondsSplits in the Maga movement
Gideon talks to Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of the National Interest, about the rows over racism, Epstein and Israel that have broken out in Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement. Clips: Tucker Carlson, Right wing watch, Dana Loesch
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Marjorie Taylor Greene to resign from Congress after clash with Donald Trump
Trump’s Maga coalition fractures over far-right interview
Maga vs AI: Donald Trump’s Big Tech courtship risks a backlash
Donald Trump’s Maga base split over handling of Jeffrey Epstein files
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Presented by Gideon Rachman. Produced by Fiona Symon. Sound design is by Breen Turner and the executive producer is Flo Phillips.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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4 December 2025, 5:00 am - 28 minutes 4 secondsThe voice of moderate America
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
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27 November 2025, 5:00 am - 1 minute 30 secondsComing soon from Tech Tonic: Defying death
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.
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22 November 2025, 5:00 am - 29 minutes 26 secondsEurope’s triple shock: Putin, Trump and Xi
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
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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
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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
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20 November 2025, 5:00 am - 30 minutes 32 secondsThe battle for AI supremacy
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
Who’s right about AI: economists or technologists?
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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
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13 November 2025, 5:00 am - 31 minutes 49 secondsDonald Trump and autocracy in America
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
Saudi Arabia in talks for US defence pact
How the Trump companies made $1bn from crypto
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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
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6 November 2025, 5:00 am - 28 minutes 36 secondsUS versus China: a test of strength
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
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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
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29 October 2025, 5:00 am - 33 minutes 24 secondsNuclear weapons and the balance of terror
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
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23 October 2025, 4:00 am - 2 minutes 16 secondsIntroducing Untold: Toxic Legacy
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.
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