2024 was, in many ways, a year of elections. Both home and abroad. President-elect Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in November. He won a second term in office and will be headed back to Washington come January. What happened in democratic elections around the world? What do the outcomes reflect when it comes to the wishes of voters? And which elections represent countries that have a vibrant democracy and rule of law, or democratic backsliding?

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If you were in New York City in the 1980s and you turned on a radio late at night, you’d most likely have heard a distinctive voice answering questions about sex. Dr. Ruth Westheimer was unassuming – a small woman with a friendly smile and an ever-present German accent. As she would say, she could be someone’s mother or grandmother. But a grandmother who told you what you needed to know about sex.

It’s sitting in your home right now, humming away. If prompted, you might say it’s one of the most important appliances you own. But you probably don’t give your refrigerator too much thought. The humble fridge has been a staple in American households since it became popular in the 1940s and ’50s. Fridges today have more space than ever, and more gadgets to make them “smart.”

Taylor Swift’s monumental success is due to her talent as a performer — as well as her business acumen. Bloomberg’s Devon Pendleton and Claire Ballentine join this episode to talk about how the pop star has taken ownership of her music, built a fiercely loyal fan base–and become a billionaire in the process.

Taiwan’s current Vice President, ​​Lai Ching-te, leads the polls in the upcoming January presidential election. The winner will have a lot to contend with–and at the top of the list is how to keep the peace with China amid rising tensions. Bloomberg Businessweek editor Joel Weber sat down with Vice President Lai for several wide-ranging interviews in Taiwan. Joel and Taipei deputy bureau chief Cindy Wang join this episode to talk about the challenges the next president will face in preserving a democratic Taiwan.

Catalytic converters are a vital part of emissions reduction in gas-powered vehicles. But that’s not why they’ve been making headlines. Thieves across the US have been sawing them off cars because they contain precious metals like platinum, palladium and rhodium. Bloomberg Businessweek contributor Evan Ratliff is here to tell the tale of a $500 million catalytic converter theft ring—and how local police departments and federal law enforcement brought it down.

Bloomberg Businessweek contributor Mary Pilon joins this episode to talk about the promise–and challenges–of building a fanbase for the Women’s Football Alliance, an all-female, full-contact league that has 60 teams in four divisions across 32 states. And we head to a nighttime practice of the DC Divas, to hear from the players and coaches about why they love the game and what it means for women to play tackle football.

The tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons is approaching its 50th anniversary and it has never been more popular, attracting players of all ages to its analog charms. Now Hasbro, the toy company that owns it, is betting D&D can be brought into the digital age and become a big moneymaker. Bloomberg correspondent Felix Gillette joins this episode to talk about why Dungeons & Dragons is having a cultural — and economic — moment, and why it might not be so easy to persuade diehard fans to pay for a digital experience. Gaming retail store owner Lauren Bilanko shares what it’s like to run a business that caters to the D&D crowd.

As the technology powering artificial intelligence keeps improving, it’s getting harder to tell the difference between human and machine. And that means companies are looking to capitalize on its uses.ChatGPT’s maker OpenAI is quickly rolling out new iterations, like the more powerful version of the product called GPT-4. Google has introduced its own version, albeit with some early stumbles. And Elon Musk also has his eye on the AI space. Bloomberg Opinion columnist Parmy Olson and technology reporters Dina Bass and Rachel Metz have reported extensively on the rise of ChatGPT and other forms of AI. They join this episode to talk through the upsides–and significant downsides–of a bot that can appear to write and sort of think for you, and what it looks like when humanlike machines become a bigger part of our daily work and lives.

Twelve years after the 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, Japan is now considering restarting its shuttered nuclear reactors to combat rising energy prices. It’s a slow process, and one where the government and the public are conflicted about the advantages and risks of nuclear power. Around the world, countries that turned off their reactors in the wake of Fukushima, or have closed old or expensive reactors, are doing a similar about-face, with rising energy prices and clean energy.

In 2019, US officials seized a massive cargo ship called the MSC Gayane in the Port of Philadelphia. On board, they found containers filled with products of all kinds that the ship had picked up along its global route. They also discovered cargo that didn’t appear on the ship’s manifest—40,000 pounds of cocaine. Bloomberg investigative reporters Lauren Etter and Michael Riley join this episode to tell the wild story of how one of the world’s biggest cargo ships became an unofficial courier for a notorious European drug cartel.

Here’s a random yet important fact: Copper is one of the very best conductors of electricity of all metals. And that matters, because as we move toward a world in which more and more things in our lives plug in or charge up–not just your phone, but electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines that will power the future–copper is in increasingly high demand. Worldwide, about 21 million metric tons of it are hauled up from the ground each year. And demand will soon double. Some of the richest reserves of copper are found in Southern Africa. But getting it from deep underground and trucking it thousands of miles to buyers can be a harrowing journey.

Hello and welcome to The Big Take Podcast! Today: The good news, and not so good news, about the US middle class. With inflation rising, the stock market ping-ponging and housing prices softening, that broad swath of Americans who form the backbone of the US economy are getting hit on all sides. Bloomberg reporters Shawn Donnan, Alex Tanzi, Claire Ballentine and Airielle Lowe teamed up to take a look at how middle-income Americans are doing. The answer: Not so badly, actually–at least on paper.

We kick off Episode 8 of Season 3, “Like Family, Like Nation,” with Guzmán’s retelling of that conversation stopper also featured in her new book, I Never Thought of It That Way: How To Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times. She joins Rob this week for Episode 8 of Season 3 to talk about open political dialogue, letting curiosity lead you, and why her Mexican immigrant parents voted for Donald Trump.

Although sub-Saharan Africa is the lowest contributor to global emissions, it will likely be hit hardest by the impacts of climate change—from rising temperatures to extreme and destructive weather events.

[Producer for weekly show] This week on Arts and Ideas: 7pm: Tales of clandestine cooking, kitchen rituals and underground traditions. It’s Hidden Kitchens, from the Kitchen Sisters. The outdoor ovens of Western sheep-herders, barbeque meets Lebanese food in the Mississippi Delta, and more. 8pm: Winding down the Chicago, Green, and Ganges rivers. Stories about how rivers feed us and shape our lives. 9pm: Whether cancel culture is a good thing. A debate from Intelligence Squared US about the value of calling out and public

[Producer for weekly show] This Sunday on Arts & Ideas: a musical journey with jazz pianist Myra Melford, suits and the impressions they make, and the possibility of geoengineering our way out of climate change.

One year ago this week, Americans’ anxiety and uncertainty about the 2020 election was already inching upward when Donald Trump propagated the lie that mail-ballot fraud could cost him his victory and as far-right media began a movement called Stop the Steal. Also one year ago, a group of 15 reporters around the country got a crash course in a new kind of journalism and started jobs with a pop-up newsroom called Votebeat.

The 2020 election was contested at the polls and in the courts. Georgia’s secretary of state was the focus of intense criticism and White House pressure. North Carolina’s elections authority also had its share of political controversy, and it wasn’t the first time.

[Podcast two-way] Charlotte is known for its abundance of trees. Where can you find the biggest, oldest ones in the city?

The Prothonotary Warbler is an endangered species that can be found throughout the Southeastern U.S., including in South Carolina’s Congaree Creek Heritage Preserve.

Something historic happened when the North Carolina State Board of Elections certified the state’s election results in late November: Board member Tommy Tucker voted against certification. It was the first time in recent history a member has dissented from a unanimous vote.

The 2020 election in North Carolina is nearly over. Election boards are finalizing vote counts, and more than 5.5 million North Carolinians voted this year. One of them was a man in Union County who says he voted twice. The county board of elections is now challenging one of his votes in a rare case of double voting.

Charlotte has been losing trees for years, leaving some neighborhoods with less shade than others. New data shows a different way of looking at which neighborhoods lack trees.

A crowd of up to 250 people protested outside a CMPD office in north Charlotte on Friday evening, eventually breaking windows until police fired tear gas to disperse those who had gathered. The protest was one of many across the country following the death of George Floyd this past week by a police officer in Minneapolis.

Charlotte's rapid development in the past 20 years has threatened the city’s tree canopy, with at least 400 total acres lost since 2012. Among those lost are some of Charlotte’s biggest trees, and now there's an effort to track down a number of the city’s historic "treasure trees."

Most high schools in the region have delayed football practice because of the coronavirus pandemic. One exception is Lake Norman High School in Iredell County, where coaches and players are practicing football differently this year.