Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio.

I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Until recently, the only likely career that a blind person in China could hope for was in massage.

Our correspondent meets with blind students studying for the country's fearsome university exam and finds that at last things are changing a bit.

And your boring supermarket potato is a descendent of Spuds originating on an island of Patagonia called Chiloé.

We pay a visit to check out the 286 local types and ask why that riotous variety of colorful, nobily potatoes isn't found elsewhere.

But first.

Today it is my honor to nominate one of our nation's most brilliant and gifted legal minds to the Supreme Court.

She is a woman of unparalleled achievement, towering intellect, sterling credentials and unyielding loyalty to the Constitution, judge Amy Coney Barrett.

On Saturday, President Donald Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

A devout Roman Catholic and a Notre Dame Law School graduate. Barrett is a favorite among religious conservatives who are a key Trump voter block while liberals voiced concern.

If confirmed, she'll replace liberal justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died earlier this month.

Her appointment could change the ideological balance of the court for decades.

I have no illusions that the road ahead of me will be easy, either for the short term or the long haul.

I never imagined that I would find myself in this position.

But now that I am, I assure you that I will meet the challenge with both humility and courage.

Amy Coney Barrett is young at 48 years old. She is deeply conservative.

Even Mayday is our Supreme Court correspondent.

She's been a judge since 2017 on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago.

Before that, she taught for 15 years at Notre Dame Law School in Indiana where she garnered the top teaching prize three times.

She has been supported in both her 7th Circuit nomination and this Supreme Court nomination by both her students and her colleagues.

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