Can Chinese Customers Rescue Starbucks?

As demand for the new class of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs skyrockets, one thing has stood in the way of many people trying to access them: cost. With a price tag around $1,000 a month for U.S. patients and many insurance companies refusing to cover these drugs for weight loss, patients are often turning to alternatives. In episode two of “Trillion Dollar Shot,” we look at the roadblocks to making these drugs more affordable, concerns that their high cost will negatively impact U.S. insurance systems, and the sometimes risk-laden options people are turning to in desperation. Listen: Trillion Dollar Shot, Episode 1: Birth of a Blockbuster   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Pacific Surfliner train in Southern California runs along some of the most beautiful coastlines in America. But some fear it might soon fall into the ocean. WSJ’s Jim Carlton reports on how coastal erosion is impacting an iconic train route and the controversial plans to move parts of the line inland.   Further Reading: - The Race to Keep an Amtrak Train From Falling Into the Pacific  Further Listening: - What Caused a Train to Derail in East Palestine, Ohio?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jim Simons pioneered a revolution in financial trading, embracing a computer-oriented, quantitative style in the 1980s well ahead of Wall Street. Following Simons’ recent death, WSJ’s Gregory Zuckerman unpacks his legacy from financial algorithms to philanthropy.  Further Reading: -How Did Jim Simons’s Firm Make $100 Billion? He Told His Secrets to Our Reporter  -Jim Simons, a Pioneer of Quantitative Trading, Dies at 86  -The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution  Further Listening: -Charlie Munger: Curmudgeon, Sage and Investing Legend  -Rise and Revolt at Renaissance, Part 1  -Rise and Revolt at Renaissance, Part 2  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If the upcoming presidential election could be summed up by a song, what would it be? And will voters cast their ballots based on a bright future or a gloomy one? In a live-taping before an audience at the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival, Kate Linebaugh and Ryan Knutson sat down with WSJ political reporter Molly Ball to discuss these topics and more. To watch the video, check out the episode on Spotify. Further Reading: -Biden and Trump, In Two Speeches, Speak to Two Visions of America  -Arizona is Booming, But Restless Voters Feel Downbeat About Economy Further Listening: -Trump Allies Draft Plans to Rein in the Fed -Why the Fed Is Steering Away From Rate Cuts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For six decades, one man has been largely responsible for creating North Korea’s propaganda machine: Kim Ki Nam. He served all three North Korean dictators and is the architect of many of the myths that have helped to keep the Kim family in power. Last week, Kim Ki Nam died at the age of 94. WSJ’s Timothy Martin reports on his controversial legacy.  Further Reading: -The Original Mastermind Behind North Korea’s Cult-of-Personality Propaganda Dies  -Kim Jong Un’s New Look Is More Man Than Superhuman  Further Listening: -How North Korea’s Hacker Army Stole $3 Billion in Crypto  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When FTX collapsed into bankruptcy in 2022, many customers never thought they'd see their money again. But FTX's assets have rebounded. WSJ’s Andrew Scurria unpacks why FTX will have more than enough money to fully repay customers and many creditors. Further Reading: - Crypto Exchange FTX Is the Rare Financial Blowup That Will Repay Victims in Full  Further Listening: - The Trial of Crypto’s Golden Boy  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound, there was Lotte Bjerre Knudsen. In the 1990s, the young scientist at the Danish drug company Novo Nordisk was trying to unlock the key to a new technology for treating Type 2 diabetes. To her bosses, Lotte’s project, which focused on a hormone called GLP-1, looked like a distraction.  But as Lotte fought to save her diabetes project from the chopping block, she couldn’t have imagined how much of an impact her breakthrough would have. Her work would pave the way for a hit drug called Ozempic. And it would unleash a new class of blockbuster drugs, pitting two companies in a race to become the world’s first trillion-dollar pharmaceutical company by market cap. Listen to Part 1 of “Trillion Dollar Shot” now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WSJ’s Julie Wernau wanted to test a hypothesis: are there more mentally ill homeless people now, compared to before the pandemic? That question led her to Rob Dart. Once a successful lawyer, in 2022 he went into a downward spiral, which his family has not been able to stop despite their best efforts. Further Reading: - A Lawyer Abandoned Family and Career to Follow the Voices in His Head  - A Lawyer’s Slide Into Psychosis Was Captured in a WSJ Profile. He Tells Us His Story.  Further Listening: - America's Maternal Mental Health Crisis  - Evicted on Wood Street: California's Housing Crisis  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Starbucks has a problem: Sales at U.S. stores have fallen sharply and now the company is looking to China, its second biggest market, to boost its revenue. But as WSJ’s Spencer Jakab explains, increased competition there is making that a tall order.  Further Reading: -Starbucks Is Running Out of Americans to Drink Its Expensive Coffee  -The Furious Race for the Future of Coffee Further Listening: -The Underdog Coffee Bean That’s Making a Comeback  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

London and Dubai's international airports have become conduits for billions of dollars of illicit funds, potentially linked to corruption, drug trafficking and other crimes. WSJ's Margot Patrick explains how couriers in one money-laundering operation transported millions in dirty money on flights. Further Reading: - Billions in Dirty Money Flies Under the Radar at World’s Busiest Airports  Further Listening: - How The Government Tied One Couple to Billions in Stolen Bitcoin  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices