2026-08-01
52 分钟The Economist.
Progress, as you dedicated economist listeners well know, has its inevitable costs.
And before I go on setting the terms of the debate here, I want to be clear,
like a lot of the characters you're about to hear from, I'm an animal lover.
I grew up with a dog, kept rats in college,
have gone from reluctant cat owner to soppy cat dad.
But I'm also from a past life, a trained scientist,
and I'm at peace with the idea that some scientific progress costs animals' lives.
I know enough to know that animal welfare within those existential bounds is a high priority
for the scientists that work with animals and the institutions that fund them.
And I know that some big medical advances couldn't have happened,
couldn't in many cases continue to happen without first investigating disease and testing treatments on animals.
Not everyone believes the ends justify the means.
I get it, really.
But it used to be that in America,
you could be sure which part of the political spectrum the most vocal activists hailed from.
That is changing, and fast.
I'm Jason Palmer, and this is the Weekend Intelligence.
My colleague Daniella Raz has been following the twist in this tale.
How animal rights, like just about everything else in America,