The Week Unwrapped podcast: end-of-2019 special – The Year Unwrapped

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:

Dolly Parton

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

2019 has been the year of Dolly Parton. The 73-year-old country music star is experiencing a renaissance: She’s got a new Netflix series, she’s the subject of a popular podcast, she’s planning a movie, there’s even talk of her replacing a confederate statue in Tennessee. What's behind the rise of Dolly, and what does it say about American culture and politics more broadly?

Renewable energy

In 2019, Britain generated more electricity from renewable sources than from fossil fuels. This is a huge transformation - in 2010 we got three-quarters of our electricity from coal, oil and gas - and yet it gets surprisingly little attention, even as the climate politics enters the mainstream. Focusing on the negatives is understandable: climate change is a huge threat and fixing it will be an immense challenge. But the current approach is leading to apathy rather than urgency.

Investing

This year is shaping up to be one of the best ever for investors, with nearly every single asset class on track to finish 2019 in the green. From stocks to government debt to corporate bonds to commodities, no matter where you went, you made money. Why did everything go so well?

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.