Kicking and screaming: protests at World Cup
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.3 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 11 June 2026
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Millions of people will tune in when the World Cup starts today. But demonstrators in Mexico, which hosts the first match, are using the international spectacle to draw attention to their causes. Commercial enterprises are on the cusp of making money in space: who will tax the heavens? And Narendra Modi is unsettling India’s middle class.
Guests and host:
- Hal Hodson, Americas editor
- Shera Avi-Yonah, business correspondent
- Leo Mirani, Ashoka columnist
- Rosie Blau, co-host of “The intelligence”
- Jason Palmer, co-host of “The intelligence”
Topics covered:
- World Cup, Mexico, protests
- Space, taxation, global commons
- India, Modi
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Economist. |
| 0:09.5 | Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. |
| 0:13.2 | I'm Rosie Bloor. |
| 0:14.4 | And I'm Jason Palmer. |
| 0:19.0 | Today on the show, tax in space, and will India's elite tighten their belts? |
| 0:29.4 | But first... |
| 0:47.3 | ... But first... When the whistle blows today for the first millions of people will be watching, |
| 0:50.3 | but it won't just be football fans flocking to the great stadium in Mexico City. |
| 0:55.6 | In recent weeks, there have been giant protests there over the country's 130,000 missing |
| 1:01.6 | people. Demonstrators are taking advantage of that rare international audience to draw attention to their cause. |
| 1:13.0 | The Mexican government had hoped the tournament would be a chance to show itself as a hub for technology, |
| 1:18.7 | innovation and foreign investment. Now there's a more basic question. Can it keep all those eyeballs |
| 1:25.1 | on the beautiful game? |
| 1:31.8 | This World Cup is going to be the most watched sporting event ever. |
| 1:37.7 | There's going to be 104 matches spread across 16 different cities in three countries, |
| 1:39.9 | that's the United States, Canada and Mexico. |
| 1:43.9 | Hal Hodson is the Economist's America's editor. |
| 1:49.6 | The US is going to have 78 matches, and Canada and Mexico are going to have 13 each. |
| 1:55.2 | And in Mexico, the matches are going to be hosted in Guadalajara, Monterey and Mexico City. |
| 2:00.5 | Mexico's hosting schedule is attracting particular attention and not necessarily the good kind. |
| 2:07.9 | If Mexico is only hosting 13 matches, why is it under such scrutiny? |
| 2:13.5 | Well, Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world, is the short answer. |
... |
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