Degrees of freedom? Harvard’s shakedown dilemma
The Intelligence from The Economist
The Economist
4.6 • 3.6K Ratings
🗓️ 4 August 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Donald Trump’s mission to bend higher education to his will maintains its sharpest focus on Harvard. Will the venerable university settle—and should it? Our correspondents meet with France’s top general, who believes Russia will threaten Europe sooner than many people think. And a look at how satire changes when politics is beyond parody and its practitioners cannot be shamed.
Impressions courtesy of George Simpson
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Transcript
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| 1:20.9 | Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. |
| 1:24.2 | I'm your host, Jason Palmer. |
| 1:26.0 | Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. |
| 1:34.3 | Our correspondents sit down with France's top general, who has some sobering views about the coming threats to Europe from Russia, and how nuclear deterrence fits in. |
| 1:49.0 | And it's really hard to do political satire in what historians will one day call the age of Trump. |
| 1:54.0 | It assumes a reality that's not already parody. |
| 1:58.0 | Our culture correspondent says that these days it's not the usual cast of |
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