The Week Unwrapped podcast: Psychopaths, privileged actors and Saudi oil

Is psychopathy a good thing? Why do most actors come from privileged backgrounds? And why is the most successful ever IPO actually a flop?

Daisy Ridley
(Image credit: SpaceX)

Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days.

In this week’s episode, we discuss:

Privileged actors

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Star Wars actor Daisy Ridley has attracted criticism after giving an interview in which she expressed astonishment that her privileged background could have made her more confident and advanced her career. Was the vitriol justified? Why are so many British actors middle class? And does their background really matter?

Psychopaths

A lack of empathy has long been considered the most quintessential quality of the psychopath. But a new study suggests that psychopaths do have the ability to empathise - they just don’t want to. Why not?

Saudi oil

Saudi Arabia has just sold part of its huge state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco, to investors. That makes Aramco the biggest publicly listed company in the world. And yet, some are describing the sale as a flop. Why? And why are the Saudis selling up now?

You can subscribe to The Week Unwrapped on the Global Player, Apple podcasts, SoundCloud or wherever you get your podcasts. It is produced by Sarah Myles and the music is by Tom Mawby.

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