Strait and narrowing: the Iran deal crumbles

Summary

Economist Podcasts: "Strait and narrowing: the Iran deal crumbles"

Date: July 15, 2026
Host: Jason Palmer
Main Contributors: Leo Morani, Greg Karlstrom, Rachel Maimon

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Episode Overview

This episode dissects the unraveling of the recent Iran deal meant to end the war and discusses the global implications, especially regarding the Strait of Hormuz and oil prices. The show then shifts focus to India’s frustrating government website experience before closing with a lighter feature on the explosion of adult summer camps. The tone navigates from tense and analytical regarding geopolitics to wry humor in technology commentary, finally moving to a warm, nostalgic mood for adult camps.

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1. The Crumbling Iran Deal and Tensions at the Strait of Hormuz

[01:05–11:04]

Main Discussion Points

• The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Unravels

  • The much-touted deal between America and Iran collapsed within weeks.
  • The main sticking point is a differing interpretation of the MOU, specifically over ship passage in the Strait ([03:42]):
    • US View: Iran must remove mines and allow commercial shipping freely.
    • Iranian View: They also gain the right to "administer" (i.e., control) traffic.

• Resumption of Hostilities

  • Tit-for-tat strikes have resumed—six nights of bombings: “Iran started the fighting by attacking three ships in the Strait of Hormuz.” ([02:45])
  • Former President Trump’s rhetoric returns to a belligerent tone, threatening attacks on power plants and infrastructure ([03:14]):
    “We’re going to hit them very hard tomorrow night. ... Next week comes the power plants, next week comes the bridges. We’re going to knock out all that power.” — Donald Trump, [03:14]

• The Uncertainty of Passage and Soaring Oil Prices

  • Despite official statements, the true status of the Strait depends on whether shipping companies feel it’s safe ([04:48]).
  • Ship traffic has plummeted; oil prices have surged by nearly 20% in 10 days ([04:44]).

• The Stalemate and Its Consequences

  • Neither side benefits; Iran forfeits economic relief while America’s own goals are stymied ([06:06]): “No, this all feels very familiar... No one wins. Clearly, the Americans don’t, because no oil and gas is getting through Hormuz now. But for Iran, too, this is problematic.” — Economist Correspondent, [06:06]
  • The desire for strategic leverage clashes with economic self-interest.

• Military Options: All Bad

  • America’s choices are limited and risky, from further strikes (which aren’t changing behavior) to escalation or blockade ([07:48–08:38]).
  • International help is scarce; “again, it’s a menu of mostly bad options here for the Americans.” ([09:59])

• Will Diplomacy Return?

  • The volatility of Trump’s approach means negotiations could reignite as quickly as they were abandoned ([10:08]): “Nothing is permanent in Trump world.” — Economist Correspondent, [10:08]
  • Iran faces a strategic choice: control vs. economic relief.

Notable Quotes

• “That long-awaited deal of a month ago to end the war is now in tatters.” — Jason Palmer, [01:05]
• “It was a very vaguely worded memorandum which turns out not to be a good way to draft a diplomatic agreement.” — Economist Correspondent, [03:42]
• “If it’s not willing to release Hormuz in return for sanctions relief, ... longer term, it’s strategically questionable for the Iranians.” — Economist Correspondent, [07:18]

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2. Broken by Design: Why India’s Government Websites Are So Frustrating

[13:02–19:41]

Main Discussion Points

• A Nightmarish Digital Experience

  • Leo Morani, who covers India, challenges listeners to try applying for an Indian visa online as a demonstration of poor user experience ([13:02–13:32]):
    “Do you remember GeoCities?... they would have found something resembling a GeoCities website from 1999.” — Leo Morani, [13:41]

• Root Causes of Dysfunction

  • A disconnect between India’s consumer tech prowess and governmental IT ([14:43]):
    • No focus on “UX” (user experience) until very recently.
    • Government IT projects replicate outdated paper-based processes.
    • The National Informatics Centre, while capable, is hamstrung by bureaucrats demanding pointless visual flourishes and lacking real IT vision ([14:43–15:53]).
    • Outsourcing to major IT companies does not guarantee success if the government lacks project management skills or technical insight.

• Bureaucratic Incentives and Risk Aversion

  • Institutional patterns prioritize basic completion over innovation ([17:05]): “If you’re a bureaucrat and you do a terrific job, but that involves taking risks, you’re not going to get any reward for that. But you check all the right boxes and you do a terrible job, you’re not going to get in trouble for that.” — Leo Morani, [17:05]
  • Notable failings are rarely punished, only shuffled to other departments ([17:58]).

• Glimmers of Success

  • Some government IT projects work brilliantly—the standout is Aadhaar, the biometric national ID, enabled by strong technical and political leadership ([18:08–19:37]): “The way it was done was they got a guy who knew stuff, but the guy that they got who knew stuff, they also gave him on his demand, the rank of cabinet minister. ... And he produced this thing, him and his very big team... they produced this national ID that every Indian now has.” — Leo Morani, [18:08]
  • Simpler digital payment systems (UPI) also lauded.

Notable Quotes

• “Most of [the websites] are worse [than the visa site].” — Leo Morani, [14:39]
• “The problem with bureaucracy, not just in India, but anywhere... it runs on risk aversion.” — Leo Morani, [17:05]

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3. Grown-Ups at Summer Camp: Escaping Adulthood for a Weekend

[19:59–24:12]

Main Discussion Points

• Rise of Adult Summer Camps

  • Rachel Maimon visited “Camp Social” in the Pocono Mountains; a diverse crowd of adults (20s–80s) enjoys classic camp activities, looking to reconnect and find respite ([20:05–20:41]).
  • Camps now target specific groups (women, LGBT, wellness seekers); demand for these experiences is soaring (350% increase in Yelp searches from 2024 to 2025, per segment at [20:41]).

• Why Are These Camps So Popular?

  • Escape from daily anxiety and relentless decision-making ([21:40–22:10]): “I like to think of camp as almost like a ‘restart.’ It’s like a New Year’s in the summer.” — Liv Schreibert, Camp Social founder, [22:10]
  • Nostalgia for childhood: friendship bracelets, marshmallows, no screens.
  • Need for genuine connection: loneliness and the ‘friendship recession’ lead people to seek new real-world bonds.

• Technology-Free Environments

  • Attendees emphasize putting away phones and prioritizing in-person interaction ([23:40]): “Lots of the guests said they're putting away their phones, swapping mindless scrolling for real conversations.”

• Cost and Value

  • Around $1,000 for a long-weekend experience, but considered valuable for the connections and memories made ([23:40–24:12]).

Memorable Moments

• “There’s three people in our bunk that are named Carol for starters. Like everyone that came in and said hi, I’m Carol. ... So we decided let’s all call ourselves ‘the Carols.’” — Camper anecdote, [22:32]
• “No one is like on their phone.” — Camper, [23:37]

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Key Timestamps

• [01:05–11:04]: The Iran deal, renewed conflict, MOU disputes, and implications for the Strait of Hormuz and oil prices
• [13:02–19:41]: Leo Morani’s exploration of India’s government website woes and underlying causes
• [19:59–24:12]: Rachel Maimon’s report on adult summer camps—their appeal, social trends, and campers’ stories

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Notable Quotes Summary

• “You want to do your job to not necessarily the best of your abilities, but the least of your inabilities, let us say.” — Leo Morani, [17:05]
• “Nothing is permanent in Trump world.” — Economist Correspondent, [10:08]
• “It’s like a New Year’s in the summer.” — Liv Schreibert, [22:10]

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Final Thoughts

This episode juxtaposes high-stakes geopolitics and its economic reverberations with a humorous yet incisive look at the mundane (but meaningful) frustrations of digital state bureaucracy, and ends on a sunny, optimistic note with stories of adults creating new connections at summer camp. For listeners seeking context, clarity, and the human side behind the headlines, this episode delivers across a range of global lived experiences.

Transcript

[Narrator/Reporter]

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[Economist Correspondent]

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[Leo Morani]

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[Economist Correspondent]

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[Jason Palmer]

The economist. Hello and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist. I'm Jason Palmer. Today on the show, why India's government can't build a decent website and summer camps but for grown ups. First up though, Here we are again. Missiles are flying over and out of Iran. That long awaited deal of a month ago to end the war is now in tatters. You know this deal we reached an

[Leo Morani]

agreement with Iran that achieves everything we set out to accomplish everything and much

[Jason Palmer]

more strong mission accomplished vibes, right? But again, the Strait of Hormuz is all but pinched off. And the fiery rhetoric, it's back too.

[Leo Morani]

And they're a bunch of scum. You want to know that they're scum. And so we don't like them. I don't like them. And they're evil people.

[Jason Palmer]

For a hot minute there, Mr. Trump said he'd start charging a toll in the straight, but soon after walked it back.

[Leo Morani]

I don't think anybody should be able to charge a fee for the straight.

[Jason Palmer]

That's just one hint of how constrained his options really are.

[Economist Correspondent]

We've now had six nights of tit for tat strikes. Iran started the fighting by attacking three ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

[Jason Palmer]

Greg Karlstrom is a Middle east correspondent for the Economist.

[Economist Correspondent]

This is something less than the all out war that we saw back in March, but nonetheless it looks, at least for now, like the Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries is dead and Donald Trump is back to using the same sort of inflammatory language he used earlier in the war.

[Leo Morani]

We're going to hit him very hard tomorrow night. We're going to hit him very hard the night after. And then next week it gets really bad for them, because next week comes the power plants, next week comes the bridges. We're going to knock out all that power.

[Economist Correspondent]

Donald Trump wants the Strait of Hormuz to reopen, but he has no good way to do it.

[Jason Palmer]

So what about that memorandum of understanding, the deal to make a lasting deal? What happened?

[Economist Correspondent]

It was a very vaguely worded memorandum which turns out not to be a good way to draft a diplomatic agreement. And the dispute here is around the fifth paragraph in particular, which states that Iran will make arrangements for the safe passage of commercial vessels through the strait. Now, the Americans read that to mean Iran will remove the mines that they have scattered through the Strait of Hormuz and they will unlock it and allow ships to travel through, and that's it. But the Iranians read something more into that language. They think that also confers a right to administer traffic through the strait, so to decide which vessels can move and when. And obviously, the Americans disagree with that. So for weeks, they have been helping to escort tankers through the southern route of Hormuz, which goes through Oman's territorial waters, doesn't cross Iranian waters, and therefore, the Iranians have no say over what happens there. Iran quite unhappy with that because it thinks it erodes what it believes to be its right to control traffic.

[Jason Palmer]

So, once again, sort of not clear whether the strait is open or not.

[Economist Correspondent]

It depends on who you ask. Right. The Iranians say that it is now shut altogether. They made that announcement a few days ago. Donald Trump continues to insist that actually the strait is open. But what's relevant here is not what the Iranians or the Americans say. It's what ship owners and insurers think. Do they believe that it's actually safe to transit through Hormuz? And after a string of Iranian attacks over the past eight or nine days, it's very clear that most ship owners do not consider the strait safe. So we've seen a significant drop in traffic. If you go Back to about 10 days ago, you had 30, 40, even 50 ships transiting on some days, whereas on July 12, just 11 vessels transited the strait. And traffic has remained at that very low level ever since. So very few ships willing to use Hormuz. And consequently, we've seen oil prices start to climb from about $71 a barrel once the MOU was signed to the mid-80s. Now there's been almost a 20% increase in oil prices over the past 10 days.

[Jason Palmer]

I regret how much this conversation is very much like conversations we've had earlier in the year. But once again, nobody wins Here.

[Economist Correspondent]

No, this all feels very familiar. I mean, listening to Donald Trump now make threats to attack power plants and bridges, listening to him briefly revive the idea that America might start charging tolls on ships traveling through Hormuz. And you're right to say that no one wins. Clearly, the Americans don't, because no oil and gas is getting through Hormuz now. But for Iran, too, this is problematic. The main reason they signed the MOU in the first place was to secure economic benefits. By their own estimates, the war has caused $270 billion worth of damage. And of course, their economy was already reeling from years of sanctions and mismanagement. So they really needed to unlock sanctions relief that would allow them to start dealing with this economic crisis. And the MOU did that. America lifted its sanctions on Iranian oil sales. It lifted its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. But now, because Iran is attacking ships, because it is insisting on maintaining this control, it has lost those benefits. And so it's hard to see what Iran gains from any of this. You have hardliners who think it's important for some ideological or principled reason to maintain their grip on the Strait. But I think in reality, Hormuz only matters to Iran in terms of what it can get in trade for reopening the Strait. And at the moment, it's not getting anything for holding the Strait. So if it's not willing to release Hormuz in return for sanctions relief, then I think this is a short term tactical victory. But longer term, it's strategically questionable for the Iranians.

[Jason Palmer]

So it seems that Iran is using its one piece of leverage in the Strait. What about America? What options does it have here? Is it just back to bombing and strikes?

[Economist Correspondent]

It has a few options, but none of them are good. The first one is what we're seeing now, which is these limited strikes on military targets in southern Iran. The problem here is We've had now six nights of those airstrikes on more than 300 targets, and they haven't changed Iran's behavior. And there's no reason to think that a seventh or an eighth or a tenth will be the one that makes a difference. The regime has already been through six weeks of very intense American and Israeli bombing earlier in the war. And it's not clear that some occasional bombing now is going to seriously degrade their capabilities or convince them to change their behavior.

[Jason Palmer]

So that's on the basis of what America has been doing over the past six nights. But you said we're not back in full on war, and I Suppose America could get closer to full on war, escalate essentially.

[Economist Correspondent]

It could. It could go back to the sort of large scale bombing that we saw in March and early April, but there's no guarantee that will succeed either. America could carry out strikes on infrastructure in Iran, as Trump threatened to do yesterday. That would invite reciprocal attacks, though on Gulf states. It might also be a war crime. It could try to deploy ground troops to seize islands in the Strait of Hormuz or to the Iranian coast, the mainland. But doing that, I think, is a political non starter in Washington. There would be a lot of opposition to it and there's no guarantee it actually works. Iran can just keep attacking ships from further inland because it has missiles and drones with relatively long ranges. Reinstating the blockade of Hormuz, which Trump has done, may be less fraught than ground troops or larger bombing. It brings us back to this economic staring contest to see which side blinks first. But there's no guarantee Iran accepts it this time. Iran might decide to escalate and start attacking Gulf states. And that puts Trump then in a bit of a bind. So his military options, there's no guarantee that they're going to succeed. In fact, they probably won't. And there's nowhere else he can look for help. No one is that enthusiastic about contributing to a multilateral mission. So again, it's a menu of mostly bad options here for the Americans.

[Jason Palmer]

So given where we are and that the rhetoric is dialed back up to 11, how do you think things might get back to the negotiating table where at least some progress was being made?

[Economist Correspondent]

I think first we should remember, as always, that this is Donald Trump. And so it's entirely possible that one week he calls the Iranians scum and the next week he calls them very wonderful people and he's very happy to negotiate a deal with them. Nothing is permanent in Trump world. And I think speaking to people in the region over the past week, there is a sense that, yes, the MOU looks dead for now, but it may not be dead forever. There's a chance that both sides will get back to talking and broadly observing the terms of the agreement. Iran is going to need to make a choice here. Is it worth pushing the country deeper and deeper into crisis to maintain their control over the Strait of Hormuz, or is it worth trading this for the sorts of economic benefits that the Americans are willing to give them?

[Jason Palmer]

Thanks very much for joining us, Greg.

[Economist Correspondent]

Thank you. J.

[Jason Palmer]

Foreign.

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[Leo Morani]

Before you listen to the rest of this podcast, I suggest you pause, go get a glass of water and at least 1,000 milligrams of paracetamol.

[Jason Palmer]

Leo Morani writes Ashoka, our column on India.

[Leo Morani]

Now walk over to your laptop and make yourself comfortable. The smartphone in your pocket or your hand is not up to this task. And see if you can figure out how to apply for an Indian visa online. For those of you who have valiantly tried this task, welcome back and apologies. It's not you, I promise. It's the website. In fact, it's the government of India.

[Jason Palmer]

Right? For those listeners who did not valiantly undertake this task, tell me what they would have found.

[Leo Morani]

Do you remember GeoCities? Yeah. They would have found something resembling a GeoCities website from 1999. Let me describe it to you. Hang on. So we have scrolling text in red, we have several little bits that look like they've been made with clipart. We have various boxes and my eyes don't know where to look and I'm really struggling to figure out how I should apply for an Indian visa. When I look at this website, which is weird because it's called indianvisaonline.gov.in and

[Jason Palmer]

this is, to your mind, representative of the Indian governmental IT experience.

[Leo Morani]

Look, I live in India, I use a lot of Indian government websites. I pay my taxes in India, both income tax as well as local tax. I deal with the train ticketing website and because I'm a journalist I go to a lot of government websites to find information and data and this sort of stuff.

[Jason Palmer]

And in summary, they all suck.

[Leo Morani]

Yes, this is not representative. Most of them are worse.

[Jason Palmer]

Why are they bad?

[Leo Morani]

I think the real question is even slightly better than that. This is a country that's famous for tech, right? And we have quite a lot of good consumer tech actually. Like I have a whole bunch of great Indian apps that I use which are fantastic. But our government websites suck, so why are they so bad? The first reason is that the Indian government does not think about what is known as UX or user experience. It's a bit of jargon. It was coined in 1993. It entered official government guidelines for Indian websites in 2023. The second reason is that for the longest time the Indian government has not sort of thought to itself how do I use this wonderful new technology called the Internet, you may have heard of it Jason, do things instead? It's like how do I replicate paper processes on this weird new technology? The third reason is that a lot of these government websites are built by an in house body called the National Informatics center which is reasonably competent but does not have the power to push back against its political and bureaucratic masters who when they say I want scrolling text and I want big portraits of myself, well what are you going to do? You have to provide that the client is the boss.

[Jason Palmer]

But as you say, this is a country that is renowned for its IT expertise. Why don't they outsource it?

[Leo Morani]

They do in fact outsource it. So for the really complicated stuff they tend to use the same companies that have made India famous for its IT skills. So the problem is how this process works because these companies obviously are competent and able to do things. So what tends to happen is for a complicated project they put a mid level bureaucrat in charge. Now this guy may or may not and I say guy because it's usually a guy may or may not know very much, right, about the technical aspect of it. So they will get a big four consultancy to help them design the requirements and all of that. Then they will get one of these brand name IT services firm to do the work. And this all sounds great because they've outsourced to the very best people there are. The problem is that when you don't know what you're requesting and what you're building and what you're buying, then you don't really know what to do with it or whether it's any good or not. So the government ends up with these products that it is paying a lot of money for, but doesn't really understand.

[Jason Palmer]

So will it always be thus? Is this just the way that Indian government websites have always been made and how they will continue to be made?

[Leo Morani]

Yes and no. So I expect web design to improve because now they've stumbled upon the idea of ux. But the real problem here is not web design, it's institutional design, right? It's the incentives baked into the bureaucracy and all of this. And the problem with bureaucracy, not just in India, but anywhere in the world, is that it runs on risk aversion. You want to do your job to not necessarily the best of your abilities, but the least of your inabilities, let us say. And so if you're a bureaucrat and you do a terrific job, but that involves taking risks, you're not going to get any reward for that. But you check all the right boxes and you do a terrible job, you're not going to get in trouble for that. For example, recently there was a big scandal in India because there was this very important school leaving exam whose online processes were less than ideal and not super secure. And some 19 year old figured out how to hack that. And the guy who was in charge of that, what happened to him? He was transferred to the Agriculture Ministry

[Jason Palmer]

where presumably he's going to make different messes. I gotta say though, Leo, you are, you are really down on this. There's got to be some example of a triumph of governmental it.

[Leo Morani]

There are in fact several examples. I cannot tell you how easy it is to pay for stuff in India. That's one example. It's called UPI and it has changed my life. But the canonical example, the foundational example, is something called Aadhaar, which is a national biometric ID system. And you're right, I am too down in India, I should acknowledge that. Great stuff, right? So Aadhar, the biometric id, that was done within government, but the way it was done was they got a guy who knew stuff, but the guy that they got who knew stuff, they also gave him on his demand, the rank of cabinet minister. So now you have a guy who has both technical competence as well as authority. And this combination is important, right? And he worked within all of the systems that already exist within the Indian government, within the Indian bureaucracy, within systems. And he produced this thing, him and his very big team. I mean, it's not like he did it alone. Obviously, they produced this national ID that every Indian now has, and that is the foundation for a number of other technologies that we use in India that have made a lot of things very simple. So the model is there, but India has somehow failed to look at that example and say, how can we apply this to everything else? It's been applied here and there a little bit, but by and large, they use the silly version where you end up with stuff like the Indian visa website. So, yes, there is some good stuff. There could be a lot more good stuff. And that's the reason I write about this. It's not because I'm generally just down on everything, grumpy as I look and sound most of the time.

[Jason Palmer]

You said it, not me. Leo, thanks for grumping.

[Leo Morani]

Always a pleasure. It's what they pay me for.

[Narrator/Reporter]

A couple of weeks ago, I headed to the Pocao Mountains of Pennsylvania to report at a summer camp.

[Jason Palmer]

Rachel Maimon is a senior audience editor at the Economist.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Early on a Saturday morning, the dining hall was a buzz. Campers were chatting excitedly about what the weekend had in store. Making friendship bracelets, tie dyeing T shirts, hiking, kayaking. They're just for adventure. Wearing trainers, shorts, T shirts. But these aren't your usual summer campers. I mean, I'm 63. Oh, my God, that dog is adorable. Anyway, sorry. And so I just wanted an opportunity to meet. Meet other women and just, like, connect, you know, and just like, talk about, like. Camp Social is one of a growing number of sleepaway camps for adults. I spoke to people of all ages. Women in their 20s, 60s, 70s, even in their 80s. Some of these camps are aimed at women. Others cater to LGBT people. There are camps that have more festival vibes, more wellness retreat. These types of getaways have exploded in popularity in recent years. In 2025, Yelp reported a roughly 350% increase in searches for these weekend breaks. And the trend is not unique to America. Similar concepts have popped up across Europe.

[Economist Correspondent]

I'm right here.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Down by the lake. Women were sunbathing on the sand, hanging out by the water. And I really wanted to work out why these camps were so popular. Something lots of people said they wanted to get away from the stress and anxiety of today's world.

[Economist Correspondent]

Booked it months ago.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Yeah.

[Economist Correspondent]

On my calendar.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Word.

[Economist Correspondent]

I put on retreat.

[Leo Morani]

My boss was like, we're going for retreat. Yep.

[Economist Correspondent]

And then my husband, like, I told him not to text me.

[Narrator/Reporter]

I caught up with Liv Schreibert, Camp Social's founder, on a picnic table outside the main hall and I like to think of camp as almost like a restat. It's like a New Year's in the summer. She reckons a pre planned schedule offers a break from the constant decision making of adulthood. Like you're just kind of reconnecting to your yeah, there's three people in our

[Economist Correspondent]

bunk that are named Carol for starters. Like everyone that came in and said hi, I'm Carol. We're like so we decided let's all call ourselves to Carol.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Something else the campers pointed to is nostalgia. Being on camp offers a way to revisit the pleasures of childhood. Gen Z and Millennials spend their money and free time kid alting, for example, by spending lots of money on soft toys. And what could be more evocative of carefree bygone summers than marshmallows, bunk beds and sliding down huge water slides? Finally, adults are yearning for real world social connections. In America, there are fears of a friendship recession, as many report having fewer close mates than they once did. Camp Social's website even declares that 99% arrive solo and 100% leave as friends. No one is like on their phone.

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[Narrator/Reporter]

it's nice to see Lots of the guests said they're putting away their phones, swapping mine, the song scrolling for real conversations. The summer camps can cost around $1,000 for a long weekend, but to many people I spoke to, that's a small price to pay for adventure and friends.

[Jason Palmer]

If the idea of sleepaway camps, bunk beds and marshmallows piques your interest, I'd urge you to listen to an episode of the Weekend Intelligence from Earlier this year, my co host Rosie Blau looked into why more and more grown ups are spending money on toys once reserved just for children. Check out the link in the show notes. That's all for this episode of the Intelligence. We'll see you back here tomorrow.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Then I thought, what if I've scaled businesses?

[Leo Morani]

What if I scaled my philanthropy? What if I did as much in one year as I've done in my whole life?

[Economist Correspondent]

See how your wealth could have even Greater [e-mail] Impact this podcast is sponsored

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by Made in Cookware, Made in partners with multi generational artisans and some of the world's best chefs to create professional quality cookware, knives and kitchen tools. Their products are trusted in Michelin starred restaurants worldwide and designed to perform just as well in your kitchen. From five ply stainless clad to carbon steel, every piece is built to last and made to actually make you a better cook. Discover award winning [e-mail].