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.

In America, midwives don't normally tend to be very busy.

In the COVID era, they're booked solid as expectant mothers try to avoid hospital trips.

The trend ought to outlast the pandemic.

Statistics show midwifery has serious public health benefits.

And you've probably heard of Parkinson's law that work expands to fill the time available.

Given that so many workers are clocking in at home, our columnist has updated the law to include two versions,

one for the workaholics and one for the work shy.

But first, When the pandemic struck, a world that had run on oil for more than a century was thrown into disarray.

As industries shut down and commuters stayed home, oil supplies started spilling over.

By April, many producers had nowhere to store the stuff and actually paid buyers to take it.

Some oil was, for the first time on record, less than worthless.

Yesterday, the price of West Texas intermediate crude fell below zero for the first time in history.

Simply, people can't store the stuff anymore.

This is unprecedented.

I've seen a lot in my 40-year career, but nothing like this.

Prices have been ticking back up, and when the club of oil exporting countries known as OPEC

Plus meets this week, they're likely to nudge production

back up again. But that's not to say that all the oil turmoil is coming to an end.

Early on the pandemic, basically, as people stop traveling and going to work, demand for oil

...