Recommended podcast from the Economist

I've been promoting podcast listening with my Y12 today, both in terms of beefing up UCAS forms and their intrinsic educational benefit

Have a listen to the Intelligence from the Economist. It contains a great analysis of Boris Johnson's current political difficulties

I started listening to today's episode thinking it would analyse the reasons for declining religiosity in the USA. If you didn't already know, the number of people in America who consider religion to be important in their lives forms part of the argument about so-called "American exceptionalism". In most rich nations less than half of their country's populations consider religion to be important, but in the USA it is the vast majority of its people.

See this report from the Pew Center, here for instance: Chapter 2. Religiosity | Pew Research Center

But according to a new poll published in the Economist the figure for the number of US citizens for whom religion is important has declined in the last two decades from 82% to 75%. The reasons for this decline were not really explored. Instead the article focused on how religious institutions have shifted online during the pandemic.

But the segment on the Prime Minister is excellent. Well worth a listen.

The Intelligence: “People shouldn’t be surprised he broke the rules; that’s part of his appeal”—Boris Johnson under fire | The Economist

If you are interested, here is the link to the article on religion. It is behind a paywall, by the way: The world’s religions face a post-pandemic reckoning | The Economist