AMERICA IS beginning a new chapter. A once-in-a-century pandemic and a once-in-a-generation racial reckoning are raising questions about domestic harmony and global hegemony.

“Checks and Balance” unlocks American politics by taking a big theme each week and digging into the data, the ideas, and the history shaping the country at this dramatic moment.

You can subscribe and listen to “Checks and Balance” on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Stitcher | TuneIn or wherever you get your podcasts.

Each episode draws on the rigour and expertise of The Economist’s journalists. Our US Editor John Prideaux hosts, together with Charlotte Howard, New York bureau chief, and Washington correspondent Jon Fasman. Every Friday, editors and correspondents from across the US and the rest of the world plus expert guests—politicians, pollsters, professors—join them for in-depth reporting and discussion.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Stitcher | TuneIn

On the latest episode: American house prices have risen more steeply during the pandemic than at any time in the last 15 years. Buyers are swapping big cities for suburbs and smaller, sunnier cities in the South and Mountain West. How might this reshuffle change America's politics?

In this episode we’ll take the temperature of the global housing boom, find out how highway construction transformed American politics, and hear how incomers are changing Colorado Springs - one of the winners in the population shift.

The Economist’s data journalist James Fransham and Denver correspondent Aryn Braun join, along with John Suthers, mayor of Colorado Springs.