Seven gourds, one grandpa, and the price of going viral

It begins in a quiet corner of Shaoxing, on a balcony full of gourds, with an old man happy to wave at whoever shows up. It starts as the kind of story that makes you smile. Then the crowds get bigger, the cameras get closer, and the smile gets harder to hold. When does showing up to admire someone's life turn into taking it away from them? / Why do we never like our pictures (18:02)? On the show: Steve, Yushun & Guo Yan

In 45-degree heat, air conditioning is a luxury millions can't reach, so researchers at the Beijing Institute of Technology are building something you wear instead. Round Table's Yushan sits down with Ji Wenjie and Fu Ying, two members of the team behind a cooling vest that could change who survives the heat and who gets left behind. On the show: Steve, Yushun & Guo Yan

Across China, people are paying strangers for what friends used to give for free — a listener to vent to, or someone to offer custom compliments and rebuild confidence. Maybe connection isn't the problem. Maybe trust is. Today, we're asking what happens when we'd rather pay a stranger than lean on the people we know. On the show: Steve, Yushan & Yushun

Paying to get knocked around by fake hurricane winds. Wading through a flooded garage that's dry on the other side. Getting swept up in a man-made torrent. It sounds like something to avoid — until you realize people are doing it to learn. Across China, disaster simulation venues are turning fear into a classroom. Because when the real storm hits, hesitation kills. And practice can mean the difference between hesitation and action. But as extreme weather becomes more common, are we getting better prepared, or just better at pretending we are? On the show: Steve, Yushan & Yushun

The most interesting developments at this year's China International Fair for Trade in Services may be happening outside the venue. Beijing's western districts now have new waterfront spaces, routes and transport, all backed by AI, digital platforms and healthcare technology, and all pointing to a fair that no longer speaks only to companies but to the rest of us. On the show: Steve, Fei Fei & Yushun

BRICS is meeting in India this week, and the group has grown well beyond its original five economies. Trade, technology, climate and jobs keep expanding the agenda, but a simpler question lingers: does any of it reach ordinary people? Fei Fei asks Li Lun, an assistant professor at Peking University specializing in the digital economy, what BRICS means for our everyday lives and whether it can answer what young people are most worried about today.

A bank in Hubei decided to close for ninety minutes each afternoon so staff could take a proper break. The public response was anything but calm. Office workers scrambled, elderly customers voiced frustration, and local media fanned the flames. What seemed like a minor change triggered a much larger conversation about routine and why we cling to systems that no longer make sense. On the show: Steve, Fei Fei & Yushan

The back-to-school season has long meant overpriced uniforms and endless waiting, but Shenzhen offers a different model. Parents buy standard school shirts at corner stores, supermarkets, or through delivery apps for the price of a meal. The city set a unified design and let the market handle the rest. So how did Shenzhen pull this off, and what are the criticisms? On the show: Steve, Fei Fei & Yushan

A new generation just arrived on campus, and they are rewriting the rules of friendship. They scroll with confidence but clam up in person. They crave connection, yet keep everyone at arm's length. From social anxiety as an identity to the rise of buddy culture, something is changing beneath the surface. What happens when the need to belong collides with the urge to retreat? On the show: Steve, Yushan & Yushun

You live in one city and work in another, and the only thing standing between you and your desk is an hour long crawl through traffic, until now. Beijing's newest subway line does not stop at the city line. It keeps rolling straight into Hebei, turning what used to be a commute into something that feels more like a local errand. That changes everything, not just for the people riding it, but for the very idea of where a city ends and where a region begins. On the show: Steve, Yushan & Yushun