Big Take

Big Take

The Big Take from Bloomberg News brings you inside what’s shaping the world's economies with the smartest and most informed business reporters around the world. The context you need on the stories that can move markets. Every afternoon.

Episodes

December 31, 2025 14 mins

Tired Americans are increasingly willing to pay a premium for items or services that save time or ease their fatigue: a laundry machine that both washes and dries, a grocery delivery service that puts the groceries away for them, a high-tech closet that steams their clothes.

On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg retail reporter Jaewon Kang and Wharton professor Gal Smitizsky discuss why a growing number of American cons...

Mark as Played

China started 2025 with deflation, a property crisis and fears of a “lost decade” damping sentiment. By year’s end, it had stunned the world with an AI breakthrough, a trillion-dollar trade surplus and rare earth dominance.

On today’s Big Take Asia Podcast, host K. Oanh Ha talks with Bloomberg Executive Editor John Liu and Bloomberg Opinion’s Shuli Ren about how China navigated Trump’s tariff war...

Mark as Played
December 29, 2025 18 mins

Chinese tech companies Huawei and DeepSeek are teaming up to offer cloud computing and AI services. And they’re pitching African startups on using their offerings over Western competitors like OpenAI in a bid to get an early foothold in the African tech scene.

In a special episode from Bloomberg’s Big Take and Next Africa podcasts, reporters Loni Prinsloo and Helen Nyambura join hosts Sarah Holder and Jennifer Zabasajja...

Mark as Played
December 26, 2025 23 mins

Since the start of his second term, US President Donald Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs – especially on China, where most toys are made. 

On today’s Big Take Asia Podcast, host Oanh Ha talks with Rick Woldenberg, CEO of fourth‑generation toymaker Learning Resources, about his company’s battle against tariffs in stores and in court – and what it reveals about the true cost of America’s trade war...

Mark as Played
December 25, 2025 22 mins

The US-China trade war has upended global manufacturing, forcing companies like Chicago-based Learning Resources to fundamentally change how and where its products are made, even as it challenges the tariffs in court.

On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, K. Oanh Ha heads to India, where the toymaker has begun shifting production of its popular children’s toys. We examine how the company is managing the complex shift from C...

Mark as Played

President Trump’s trade threw American businesses, which source everything from aircraft parts to baby strollers from China, into chaos. Over this year, some companies challenged the president’s tariffs in court — including Illinois-based toymaker Learning Resources, whose case is now before the Supreme Court. 

On today’s Big Take Asia Podcast, host K. Oanh Ha is joined by Rick Woldenberg, CEO of Learni...

Mark as Played

This month, the think-tank the Groundwork Collaborative, Consumer Reports and the news nonprofit More Perfect Union released a report finding that Instacart had been using an AI tool to run algorithmic price experiments on shoppers around the country. As a result, shoppers were being charged different prices for the exact same items from the exact same stores.

At a time when inflation has driven grocery costs higher, the revelation...

Mark as Played

From OPEC powerhouses and US shale producers to countries like Guyana, global producers are drilling more oil and driving down prices. And with the potential for a ceasefire in Russia and pressure on Maduro in Venezuela, even more oil could flood the market in 2026.

On today’s Big Take podcast, host David Gura sits down with Bloomberg oil trading reporter Alex Longley and Opinion columnist Javier Blas to discuss the forces dr...

Mark as Played

Lynsey Addario’s life work means  taking great risks to tell other people’s stories. She is a Pulitzer Prize winning war photographer who has been abducted twice while documenting conflicts from Afghanistan to Ukraine and Sudan.

There aren’t many women in her field. In a new National Geographic documentary called “Love+War,” currently streaming on Disney+, she lets us into that world, one s...

Mark as Played

As AI-generated images ping pong around the internet, the Walt Disney Company has been mostly playing defense, using litigation to protect its intellectual property. But last week, Disney announced a $1 billion deal with OpenAI, licensing more than 200 of its iconic Disney characters for use on OpenAI’s video platform, Sora.

On today’s Big Take podcast, host Sarah Holder talks with Bloomberg tech reporter Shirin Ghaffar...

Mark as Played

The trucking industry has long been dominated by older white men. But as those truckers steer toward retirement, who will replace them? 

On today’s Big Take podcast, host Sarah Holder hits the road with Bloomberg’s Jaewon Kang, who’s been exploring how one company is trying to transform its trucking workforce. And we hear from MIT’s Chris Caplice, DAT Freight and Analytics’ Dean Croke and two Walm...

Mark as Played
December 17, 2025 19 mins

Treating cancer is a massive business. In 2024 alone, cancer treatments generated at least $200 billion in worldwide sales for the pharmaceutical industry, more than the obesity drug rush. But a Bloomberg News analysis showed that fewer than half of treatments reviewed — some of which have painful side effects — have been shown to extend patients’ lives.

On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg senior healthca...

Mark as Played

The Philippines is no stranger to typhoons, but this year’s storms exposed something far uglier: a vast corruption scandal.

On today’s Big Take Asia Podcast, host K. Oanh Ha speaks to Bloomberg’s Andreo Calonzo and Rosalind Mathieson about how billions of dollars earmarked for flood control vanished and what the crisis means for the country’s political and economic stability.

See omnystudio.com/listener for p...

Mark as Played

All year, the jobs market, consumer sentiment, AI and inflation flashed warning signs about the economy — but 2025 managed to avoid a recession.

On today’s Big Take podcast, host Sarah Holder talks with Bloomberg’s Stacey Vanek Smith and Moody’s Analytics Mark Zandi to understand what this year’s wonky economy can tell us as we head into 2026 and what to watch for in the new year.

Read more: US Recessi...

Mark as Played
December 12, 2025 16 mins

Depending on who you talk to, AI is the key to remaking industries and jobs – or a bubble ripe to pop. And if you’re an investor, you’re already exposed.

So what’s the best strategy for investing in AI now? On today’s Big Take podcast, host Sarah Holder and Bloomberg personal finance reporter Suzanne Woolley talk to experts – ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood, Fidelity International’s Taosha W...

Mark as Played

From rising costs to shifting markets, American farmers are struggling to make ends meet. Now, the White House is stepping in.

On today’s Big Take podcast, David Gura sits down with Bloomberg agriculture Reporter Erin Ailworth and a fifth-generation farmer to discuss President Trump’s $12 billion farm aid plan. What prompted the move, which sectors will be eligible and how ongoing tensions between the US and China have ...

Mark as Played

On Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee cut rates by 25-basis points. It was the scenario a lot of close watchers of the Federal Reserve expected — but what comes after this Fed Meeting is an open question.

With President Trump poised to name Chair Jerome Powell’s replacement by early 2026, both markets and the Federal Reserve itself could start to look to Trump’s nominee for guidance. Kevin Hassett has em...

Mark as Played

The US tariff war with China sent American companies scrambling to find alternative manufacturing hubs. India looked promising until the White House upended everything. 

On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, K. Oanh Ha heads to India, where she goes inside two toy factories scrambling to adapt to Washington’s shifting trade policies. How sky-high tariffs are undercutting India’s ambitions to take China’s cr...

Mark as Played

After last month’s passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the US Department of Justice is on the clock to release an enormous cache of documents related to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

So what could be in the files? And what might the government hold back? 

On today’s Big Take, host David Gura is joined by Bloomberg investigative reporter Jason Leopold, who specializes in making government docu...

Mark as Played

News broke overnight that Netflix is acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $82.7 billion. 

It’s a deal raising eyebrows in the entertainment industry, from Netflix competitors including Paramount — and reportedly even the White House. 

On today’s Big Take, host David Gura sits down with Screentime writer and entertainment reporter Lucas Shaw to discuss the ins and outs of th...

Mark as Played

Popular Podcasts

    If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

    Dateline NBC

    Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

    The Burden

    The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.

    SmartLess

    "SmartLess" with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, & Will Arnett is a podcast that connects and unites people from all walks of life to learn about shared experiences through thoughtful dialogue and organic hilarity. A nice surprise: in each episode of SmartLess, one of the hosts reveals his mystery guest to the other two. What ensues is a genuinely improvised and authentic conversation filled with laughter and newfound knowledge to feed the SmartLess mind. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of SmartLess ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.

    The Breakfast Club

    The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!

Advertise With Us

Hosts And Creators

Sarah Holder

Sarah Holder

Saleha Mohsin

Saleha Mohsin

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.