In his inaugural speech, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani declared an end to “rugged individualism” and the embrace of “the warmth of collectivism.” New Yorkers are about to find out that collectivism will not produce what they need to have better lives.
Berlin nightclub in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood closed permanently in November 2023, after four decades in business. The closure happened amid stalled negotiations between the bar’s owners and its unionizing employees. Today, the space remains empty, and it’s unclear what will take its place.
In our last episode, Curious City looked into a mural that was a staple at Berlin for much of its existence. Today, we revisit an episode of WBEZ’s The Rundown podcast from just after the club closed. In asking some of the people who worked there, danced there and made memories there, it’s obvious that Berlin was more than just a bar.
“It felt like a secret almost,” said All The Way Kay, who DJed at Berlin for over 15 years. “It felt like something that you wanted to hold very, very close to you because spaces like that really don't exist.”
We talked with Kay, queer historian Owen Keehnen, DJ Greg Haus and several listeners who called The Rundown podcast to share what Berlin meant to them and what they hope for the future.
What kind of state does the UK find itself in as we start 2026? That’s the question Tim Harford and the More or Less team is trying to answer in a series of five special programmes.
In the fourth episode, we’re searching for answers to these questions:
Are one in four pensioners millionaires?
Is England’s education system performing better than Finland’s? And how does it compare to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Are our prisons going to run out of space?
Is the weather getting weirder?
Get in touch if you’ve seen a number in the news you think we should take a look at: moreorless@bbc.co.uk
Contributors:
Heidi Karjalainen, Senior Research Economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies
Harry Fletcher-Wood, Director of Training at StepLab
John Jerrim, Professor of Education and Social Statistics at University College London
Cassia Rowland, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Government
Friederike Otto, Professor of Climate Science at Imperial College London
Credits:
Presenter: Tim Harford
Producers: Lizzy McNeill, Nathan Gower, Katie Solleveld and Charlotte McDonald
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound mix: Sarah Hockley and Neil Churchill
Editor: Richard Vadon
President Trump claims Venezuela stole American oil. Is that true? We trace Venezuela's oil industry from its 1920s birth through nationalization and then collapse. Today on the show, how did the Venezuelan oil industry get to a point where it’s barely pulling from its reserves? And will anything change now?
The Austrian School of economics isn’t a 20th century or even 19th century creation. Instead, Austrian economics is rooted in the logical thought, as developed by Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas.
Donald Trump’s war against Venezuela is truly a racket, as it looks to be little more than an attempt to loot the nation of Venezuela’s natural resources in the name of “liberation.”
The large mural hung over the main bar at Berlin. Painted in the Art Deco style, the masculine and feminine figures in the painting watched over the nightly revelry at the storied nightclub until it closed in 2023.
What kind of state does the UK find itself in as we start 2026? That’s the question Tim Harford and the More or Less team is trying to answer in a series of five special programmes.
In the third episode, we’re searching for answers to these questions:
Are there really 700,000 empty homes that could be used to solve the housing crisis?
Does the NHS pay less for drugs than health services in other countries?
Is violent crime going up or down?
Is the UK in the midst of a fertility crisis?
Get in touch if you’ve seen a number in the news you think we should take a look at: moreorless@bbc.co.uk
Contributors:
Dr Huseyin Naci, Associate Professor and Director the Pharmaceutical Policy Lab at the London School of Economics
Professor Jennifer Dowd, deputy director of the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science at the University of Oxford
Credits:
Presenter: Tim Harford
Reporters: Lizzy McNeill and Nathan Gower
Producers: Katie Solleveld and Charlotte McDonald
Series producer: Tom Colls
Production co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele
Sound mix: Sarah Hockley and James Beard
Editor: Richard Vadon
When you're in a grocery store nowadays, chances are your data is being collected. From a swipe of the loyalty card to the purchase of an ice cream pint, your data tells stores what you like, how much they should stock, and more.
But what if that data meant a grocer could charge you a different price than another shopper?