The Journal.

@thejournal · Podcast

Latest segments

• Anthropic's $63B debt deal, 2026-10-30
  Reads the S-1 against the Broadcom deal
  Reads the S-1 against the $63 billion Broadcom deal and finds the piece the deal coverage did not have: Broadcom is also lending Anthropic money it can use to repay the financing, which the show frames as circular financing and a capital mismatch that points to consolidation.
• Anthropic's $63B debt deal, 2026-10-30
  Reconstructs the weekend the deal closed
  Reconstructs the weekend the $63 billion deal closed: Tan personally pushed banks to the table, agreeing to a higher interest rate Anthropic will bear and broader loss guarantees, with Blackstone partially financing the rest. Adds the terms of the final push that the earlier coverage did not have.
• Anthropic's $63B debt deal, 2026-10-30
  Walks through the chip financing mechanics
  Walks through the mechanics of the $63 billion chip financing: Broadcom's shell company buys the chips, borrows the money and collects lease payments from Anthropic, with Broadcom's credit rating standing behind the debt. Adds the structure and the reason banks would not lend to Anthropic directly.
• Anthropic's $63B debt deal, 2026-10-30
  Frames the loan as one of the biggest ever
  Opens the episode with the $63 billion Anthropic loan package, framing it as one of the biggest corporate debt deals ever and stressing how hard it was to arrange as investors pull back from AI exposure. Setup for the rest of the show, no new detail.
• Musk's SpaceX share giveaway, 2026-10-29
  Argues the shares build a captive base
  Pushes past the tax angle to the governance one: children cannot refuse the shares or sell them for five years, and the hosts argue that makes them a built-in base of SpaceX supporters. Notes SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment.
• Musk's SpaceX share giveaway, 2026-10-29
  Breaks down the tax mechanics of Musk's pledge
  Pairs the Dell and Musk pledges and adds the tax mechanics: donating appreciated SpaceX stock lets Musk deduct the full value and skip a large capital gains bill, per tax experts. Also notes the Dell side put $250 into accounts in lower-income zip codes.
• Musk's SpaceX share giveaway, 2026-10-29
  Frames the pledges as a billionaire trend
  Opens the episode by framing the pledges as a trend: billionaires giving small amounts of cash or stock to millions of American kids through Trump Accounts. Recaps the Dell and Musk commitments and floats reputational motives, staying inside the week's coverage.
• El-Sayed's Michigan Senate bid, 2026-10-28
  Gets a voter on the record in Grand Rapids
  Follows El-Sayed to a Grand Rapids bar and gets a voter on the record: J.D. Chapman Jr. says the candidate skirted his question on why Black voters should trust Democrats and is considering sitting out the Senate race entirely.
• El-Sayed's Michigan Senate bid, 2026-10-28
  Takes the campaign to a gas station near Ithaca
  Takes the El-Sayed campaign outside the cities to a gas station near Ithaca, where a three-time Trump voter says he will vote for neither El-Sayed nor Rogers, calling El-Sayed too far left. Voter color on the electability question the episode already framed.
• El-Sayed's Michigan Senate bid, 2026-10-28
  Profiles the candidate and adds the primary result
  Profiles El-Sayed's Detroit upbringing, his Oxford and Columbia degrees and his local health department record, and adds the primary result: Democratic voters picked him over establishment-backed incumbent Haley Stevens. Frames the general election against Mike Rogers as a tough sell in a swing state.
• El-Sayed's Michigan Senate bid, 2026-10-28
  Adds a Wall Street Journal poll on progressive policies
  Sets up the El-Sayed race with the broader progressive movement's history and a new Wall Street Journal poll: Medicare for All and millionaire taxes draw majority support, while the DSA is viewed favorably by only 24%. Notes El-Sayed is not a DSA member.
• El-Sayed's Michigan Senate bid, 2026-10-28
  Frames the run as a purple-state electability test
  Opens at a Grand Rapids meet-and-greet and frames El-Sayed's Senate run as a test of whether a very progressive candidate can win a purple state, with both party wings waiting on the result.
• French debt contagion, 2026-10-23
  Contrasts Le Pen's address with Mélenchon
  Turns to the election six months out: frames Macron's exit against the fiscal crisis, then contrasts Mélenchon's 'throw it in the fire' debt line with Le Pen's cut-and-borrow platform and her post-riot address styled as a presidential one.
• French debt contagion, 2026-10-23
  Puts figures on France's interest bill
  Lays out France's twin problems - a deficit above 5% of GDP and roughly $1 trillion of debt to roll over in three years at near 5% - and puts figures on the cost: about $360 billion in interest next year, potentially dwarfing the military budget by 2030.
• French debt contagion, 2026-10-23
  Explains the mechanism behind the sell-off
  Explains the mechanism behind the French sell-off: investors who lent at near-zero rates watched fiscal plan after fiscal plan get shot down and priced in systemic dysfunction. Background on how the cheap-debt era ended, not a new development.
• French debt contagion, 2026-10-23
  Traces the history behind the bond selloff
  Traces the history behind the bond selloff: the 2018 Yellow Vest spending, the 'whatever it costs' COVID programs, the 2022 energy cap, and the 40 billion euro hole found in early 2024. Explains how cheap debt and Macron's 2024 snap election left parliament deadlocked, but adds no new development.
• French debt contagion, 2026-10-23
  Sets the scene from the Paris protests
  Scene-setting opener from Paris: tear gas outside a theater, smashed storefronts, Limoges city hall burned. Ties the half-million-strong Saturday march to the 43 billion euro budget cut and France's debt, all ground the saga's earlier coverage already holds.
• OpenAI office bugging arrest, 2026-10-22
  Reports the one-way ticket and royal tie
  Goes to the detention hearing and the national-security framing: prosecutors tie Alfozan to Raid Ventures and an unnamed Saudi royal who told him Saudi Arabia needs him more than the US, and call him a flight risk over a one-way ticket booked three days after his arrest. His lawyer counters with his wife's immigration issues and paternity leave.
• OpenAI office bugging arrest, 2026-10-22
  Adds the backpack and the $14 microphone
  Puts the device itself on the record: a roughly $14 Amazon microphone, and experts with no consensus on why it was wrapped in toilet paper. Adds a prosecutorial detail not previously logged, a misplaced backpack holding a second recording device.
• OpenAI office bugging arrest, 2026-10-22
  Walks through the camera behind the TV
  Walks through how OpenAI narrowed to Alfozan: no interior cameras, exterior footage of him lingering near the office, then a camera planted behind the TV that caught him peering back about a week after the device was found. OpenAI then alerted the FBI and handed over evidence.