China’s Open AI Models Are Advancing Its Global Soft Power
by Nathan Gardels
If the whole world uses Chinese code, whose stories will the computers tell?
0:00 / 8:10 · Narrator Algieba
Daily edition
2026-07-12
Today's Crosscut
Farming and Fossils
How do fossils from a 70-million-year-old inland sea and the tiny microbes living in the dirt today help a farm grow crops without relying on synthetic fertilizers?
Fertilizers Carry a Hidden Cost for Soil’s Crucial Microbes – Using Less as Prices Rise Might Pay Off for Farms in Unexpected Ways × An Ancient Sea Once Split North America Down the Middle. The Beautiful Multicolored Ammonite Shells From Its Waters Are so Perfectly Preserved That They Still Shimmer Today
0:00 / 18:53 · Narrator Sulafat/Charon/Vindemiatrix
Future-gazing →
Behind the news →
What is the World Cup For?
by Boima Tucker
When a stadium costs more than a hospital, why does the game inside still feel so essential?
0:00 / 25:39 · Narrator Charon
For the curious →
Ramachandra Guha: in Mannu Bhandari’s Memoir, an Unflinching Spotlight on Indian Patriarchy
by Ramachandra Guha
Why does a man who writes with such kindness for the world have none left for his wife?
0:00 / 9:33 · Narrator Rasalgethi
Smart escape →
Why the Media Keep Quoting the Same Climate Scientist
by Jason Dove Mark
How did one man become the person everyone calls the moment the wind starts to pick up?
0:00 / 11:10 · Narrator Sulafat
Plato’s Allegory of the Crab
by Sabrina Imbler
How does a crab survive for months inside a wine bottle it can no longer squeeze through?
0:00 / 6:42 · Narrator Gacrux