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You're listening to the Monocle Daily, first.
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Broadcast on 15 January 2026 on Monocle Radio.
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Could the People's Republic now be a better friend to the west than the United States? Will Anybody thank the UK's government for an improving economy? And will you mourn the chance to fly in a Star wars themed airliner? I'm Andrew Muller. The Monocle Daily starts. Hello and welcome to the Monocle Daily. Coming to you from our studios here at Midori House in London. I'm Andrew Muller. My guests Carol Walker and Alexander Gerlach will discuss the day's big stories. And our weekly letter from has a Moroccan stamp on it. Stay tuned. All that and more coming up right here on the Monocle Daily. This is the Monocle Daily. I'm Andrew Muller and I'm joined today by Carol Walker, Times radio presenter, political commentator and former BBC correspondent, and Alexander Gerlach, professor of political philosophy and geopolitics at New York University. Hello to you both. Yeah, hello, welcome back, Happy New Year, et cetera. We are still at the point, I think, at which we can milk a few minutes at the top of the show from what people did over Christmas. Alexander, you were in Berlin.
B
I did, I mean, I did a lot of things over Christmas, not just only Berlin, but I have had the pleasure of like going back to some of the techno clubs I have been frequenting in. And I was delighted to be at the rave that was dedicated to the 90s techno, which was very interesting at the time when I was in high school and the music was rather new and I actually did have a friend in high school who said, one day in high school I'm leaving school, I become a techno dj. And I was like, you just have to ride out one more year. But then he just quit and now and today he is a world renowned techno dj.
C
So is this one of those rare occasions where somebody you went to school with becoming enormously successful is not in fact massively irritating?
B
I mean, I think like he saw his opportunity at that time, which I couldn't see, even though I enjoyed the music. I was like not thinking in that term. So, yeah, I'd agree. He saw like that's his passion and he went for it.
C
So no regrets on your part that you are not in fact now dj, Alexander?
B
No, actually I like to be in front of the booth or indeed when my friend is DJing, I'm also allowed in the booth, but that's it.
C
Carol, you have been, by way of contrast, on a broken ferry.
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Yeah, well, it wasn't just a broken ferry. We had a few days in France over the Christmas period, which was. It was a different. It was a wonderful experience. We were in St Malo and we'd both. My husband and I recently read a book I don't know, you came across. All the Light We Cannot See was a very popular novel, was set in St Malo during the German occupation and, you know, being there during the festive period when of course, a lot of places were closed and you walk around the streets of the old town and of course there's still one or two scars of the wartime bombs, one or two parts that they've particularly left that you can see, and it's one of those old walled cities right on the sea. And it really did. In the kind of gloom of the December afternoons, you could conjure up what it just might have been like for the people who had the misfortune to live under all of that. So it was a fascinating experience. We could have done without. Nine hours sitting on the ferry in St Malo harbour, waiting for them to fix the boat on the way home. That wasn't quite the end of the trip that we would have planned, but these are all part of the rich tapestry of travel.
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Well, we will start in Beijing, where the red carpet has been kicked towards the plane bearing Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney making the first visit to the People's Republic by a Canadian head of government in the thick end of a decade. Carney, having met Premier Li Chang today, will be treated tomorrow to the traditional photo opportunity with Xi Jinping, in which the Chinese President will appear to be mentally reciting the extremely long list of places he would rather be. Canada's economic connection with China is obviously important, as is everybody's, but this visit may touch on other subjects, such as the possibility of a wider recalibration of Sino Western relations during the United States current whatever it is the United States is doing. Alexander, is there actually any extent whatsoever to which China could sort of replace the United States as the guarantor of the West?
B
No, I would say that is not. That will not be happening. And I feel also you. Look, the People's Republic has been very reluctant to take on any charge in international affairs, like sustainably, be it in Gaza or be it in Ukraine. They rather shy away from taking on a leading role in these affairs. So I think we will not be. Have to expect this and I also feel for Europe as such. It would be a better world if it would become a more multipolar one. We don't need another unipolar moment held by China in that moment of time because that's obviously a different system of governance and also like a different set of values that underpins it.
C
I mean, is this going to be another knock on effect of Trumpism, Carol, that we're going to see European nations, Canada, Australia, the wider west in general, feeling more obliged to try and make nice with China?
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Well, I think certainly if you look at Mark Carney, who of course has had a pretty fractious relationship with President Trump, although they seem to have perhaps reached some form of accommodation. But there's still this huge battle, isn't there, over the level of tariffs and trade and so on. And Canada, like most nations, needs investment and China has got money to invest. And that is why I think you're seeing Mark Carney here this week. We've got the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, who despite a lot of political pressure not to do so, is also due to go and visit President Xi towards the end of the month. And like many nations, the trade with the US, even though the UK's got its own little carve out deal, has been hit by tariffs, particularly on steel and so on. And they know that President Xi is looking to cut a bargain. And if he can do that and prove to President Trump that any efforts he makes to slap tariffs on China, China can find other partners to trade with, well, you can see why it works for both sides.
C
I mean, Alexander, is it fairer to say that probably it's China that sees that there might be opportunities in the United States retrenchment?
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Obviously China's commerce did very well in the last year. It increased significantly. It made up for what it lost with the United States. So the surplus, the trade surplus is the highest ever on record for China, which is also because they have flooded the world with a lot of cheap goods and kept the currency low, which in turn is nothing that European leaders can have sustainably for a long time. So I also see frictions already coming into that sort of like situation and relationship. But clearly for European leaders, for the Canadian Prime Minister, China is open for business and China makes itself subject to the rules based trade order of the world, which it hasn't done all the time, spectacularly. But then there is indeed a space when America leaves the international community. It seems to be at the point then of course, China open for business. Also. Javier Milei of Argentina said the same thing, open for business. And we don't share the same values, but we want to be like, you know, Fostering our economies. And yeah, that's why China makes inroads with a political aim, mostly because economically it's not in dire need to please the Canadians or the Europeans.
C
There's a couple of points Alexander raises there, Carol, which I mean, one would hope, slash assume that countries dealing with China are thinking about, which is it's the question of, as Alexander points out, China has always been somewhat pick and choose about the rules based order. It does not share a system of government or broad values. Certainly with Europe or Canada. Are we on the brink of making the same mistake we did with Russia, that is that if we enmesh ourselves economically with an otherwise frankly hostile country, that'll all basically be fine. Nothing could go wrong?
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Well, I do think that there is a risk of a certain amount of naivety in the approach to China. I mean, China's approach to all of this is to get out of it what it wants to. I mean, here in the UK we have had the intelligence agencies specifically warning of the activities of Chinese spies trying to establish links, relationships with British parliamentarians by posing as people, offering job opportunities, communications help and so on, trying to obtain all kinds of information. We've got the British businessman Jimmy Lai on trial still or a further part of his legal case being heard in Hong Kong. And there is, I think, I feel sometimes you get foreign leaders that visit President Xi and Xi and make some kind of ritual comment about their concern about the treatment of the Uyghurs, because they can then kind of tick that box in the communique that they put out afterwards. But President Xi knows that they're not really exerting any pressure over all of that. And I think that, and whilst in part there is some economic realism, I mean, apparently, you know, we've got a big expansion of solar farms to provide energy here in the uk, Nearly all of them and vast amounts of the components are made and produced by the Chinese. I think there's perhaps too, my feeling is that there's too great a willingness maybe to overlook not just the human rights abuses but the threats to our security that China potentially poses.
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Well, to the United States now. And to further demonstration of the somewhat selective enthusiasm for the First Amendment of the U.S. constitution maintained by the current upholders and defenders thereof, the FBI has raided and searched the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natansen rather, and taken a bunch of her stuff. Attorney General Pam Bondi, taking a moment from her diligent preparations to release the rest of the Epstein file, surely any day now, claimed that Natanzen had been in receipt of information leaked by Pentagon contractor that is had been doing journalism. Bondi harrumphed that the Trump administration would not tolerate the leakage of material which might endanger American personnel. Arguably somewhat lofty talk from an administration whose secretary of defense copied a reporter in on actual attack plans. Alexander, who are we most inclined to take seriously here?
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Well, I mean the, the authorities claimed that it was not they were not with the rate addressing the journalist and the paper say but like the contractor. However, everyone that you read now in the United States media is saying like that is a stretch.
C
It's rather it's a bit hard to take your not to take your home being raided personally.
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Exactly as I'm saying this is like and again, you need to see the broader picture and I'm being from Germany and we learned this extensively how to transform a country into an authoritarian or even a fascist state. Today the president said he would. He's inclined to invoke the insurrection act over Minneapolis. He wants to suspend elections and the seizure of tanks. And whatever you think of Maduro, we can all agree that was an audacious act. That is if you have empire in your mind, you are less reluctantly to do it. And the president of the United States did it. So you see this to me back to your question. What happened with the journalists home? That is just in line with a broader transformation. And I have been living in America for the last biggest chunk of the last 10 years and you could see this from Trump 1 to the beginning of Trump 2 and then we escape to his Majesty's realm.
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Things we do know about Trump, Carol, include the fact that he is extraordinarily thin skinned, very vindictive, does not enjoy criticism and never believes himself to deserve it. Is it possible that this raid has something to do with the fact that the reporter concerned recently wrote that she has cultivated nearly 1200 sources inside the federal government who all have tales to tell about what an unmitigated shambles it is.
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Yeah, I mean I don't personally know Hannah Nathanson, but she sounds to me like a pretty damn good journalist who's working hard to get stories out, to get the truth out, rather than allowing Donald Trump to simply wander onto the airwaves and say what he wants directly to the media. And look, this is just the latest effort to absolutely clamp down on the way that the media operates in the United we saw this whole new system of passes required for correspondents who worked at the Pentagon who are in the.
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Which is why all the serious people.
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Have left and most serious journalists have refused to sign up to it because it would have required any story to be basically cleared by the department itself. We've seen the president himself take out legal action against media organizations that whose behavior he didn't like. And if they wanted to be able to continue to operate and to continue their business model, many of them have backed down or paid out vast sums of money. And we've seen the way that even for example, the White House pool operates so that the president ensures that journalists that are sympathetic to his viewpoint are pretty sure to get to get a question in there. So I think this is the latest attempt to bully the press. I hope it doesn't succeed. And I do hope that this raiding of the home doesn't deter what sounds like a pretty decent journalist trying to do her job under very difficult circumstances. And I think it is particularly shocking when we know the history of America, the amendments applying to the freedom of the press and the fact that until very recently it really prided itself on the freedom of the press and granted them far greater rights than you get.
C
Even here in the UK Alexander, going back to that point you were making about the pattern of authoritarianism and how that this might seem wearily familiar to Germans or people with an appreciation of 20th century German history. That pattern that Carol describes of Trump standing over media, which is fairly well established by now, are you surprised, disappointed that so many of those media groups have buckled rather than just telling him to get knotted and maybe try governing?
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We have seen that in the beginning of his second term, Trump has embraced a whole array of tech and other billionaires in the industries. And knowing the ownership structures of let's say the Washington Post, which Jeff Bezos we have had already like the suspension of an op ed recommending a candidate for election. So you see like this is it is a matter I guess for these owners of survival in their opinion. And I guess we will be be seeing much more controversy walk outs of colleagues if not. So. Yeah, I think this and it's in line with the overall attack of the Trump administration on universities. NGOs like to intimidate students to express their First Amendment rights as we have had like people expelled for expressing their opinion about Palestine, which is a completely legit opinion. So you see this again, again holistically look at the whole things and the measures the Trump administration is undertaking. And you see like what in German was called Die Kleischaltung, the equalizing of all measures and verticals of society.
C
Just finally on this one, Carol is Something shifting more broadly in the relationship between governments and media perhaps, as legacy media gets its power and influence eaten away by the Internet. Because it used to be conventional wisdom in democratic politics that as the saying had it, don't pick a fight with some someone who buys ink by the barrel, whereas now the politicians seem maybe less scared than they did 30 or 40 years ago.
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Well, I think it's partly a reflection of the fact that the media landscape has changed dramatically in recent years and that whereas Perhaps even just 20 years ago, governments would need to have a working relationship with maybe a handful of newspapers and a handful of broadcasters, they now have a myriad of ways of getting their message out. They can put it out directly, of course, on social media, on YouTube and through all kinds of different means. And they are less dependent on the legacy media as it's called. And I mean, in one sense you can understand governments that say, yeah, look, we're going to put out our message directly on TikTok, on Twitter X, because then we can put it out unmediated. But I think it is interesting that the so called legacy media still here in this country does have quite a significant influence on the whole news agenda. And although perhaps younger generations, yep, we know they're getting their news from TikTok, from YouTube and wherever else, but even those channels are certainly influenced by what's appearing on the old fashioned mainstream media. And yeah, it's a battle, but I think certainly here in the UK you still see day after day good journalists breaking really good stories about politics, about geopolitics and so on. And it's just, it does seem to be increasingly difficult to do that in the United States.
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Well here in the uk meanwhile, goodish to glad tidings for a government which has enjoyed little of such delight since winning election 18 or so so months back, to the confoundment of economists, the economy grew 0.3% or so in November, spiked by upticks in travel, sports, manufacturing and the earlier purchases of Christmas stuff. Maybe there is something to be said for beginning to berate shoppers with Slade and Wizard songs in early October after all. Carol, is anybody going to thank the government for this? Will they get any credit for this, et cetera?
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Yeah. Woohoo. They exceeded expectations. People were expecting 0.1% and we've got.
C
0.3 and I think that's times three.
A
I think it's just a measure of the fact that the economy has been absolutely flatlining for years, that a rise of that is 0.2% higher than people had Expected is seen as comparatively good news. And look, I mean it's. I talk regularly to businesses and business leaders who tell you that they have been absolutely clobbered over the last few years by increases in tax, the increase in the national insurance contributions of employers, the amount they have to pay for their staff increases. We're just seeing a huge row at the moment about changes to the business rates, particularly of many high street businesses. There's a massive row about how pubs are going to be absolutely clobbered by this. We've got a new package of workers rights which adds to the burden, particularly on small businesses. We've had a rise in the minimum wage, which is great news for the workers, but of course that's got to be paid by the businesses. And they are saying that, look, if you just pile more and more costs on us, where do you expect us to find the money to invest in the business, to grow the business, to take on more staff and to contribute to the wider economic growth? And I think that's why our growth is frankly pretty pathetic. I think part of this slight uptick is also because there was a certain amount of relief after the budget because everyone had been expecting the budget to be absolutely terrible and it was just bad. But there was a sense of relief that at least they'd got that medicine out the way.
C
Alexander, is there a similar phenomenon detectable in Germany and elsewhere in Europe that maybe things are starting to pick up a bit even if voters don't necessarily want to thank their governments for it?
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The German number is 0.2 and and analysts say this is due to higher government spending, especially in defense. You also see that in the United States with a magic 4.3 or 6% GDP growth that trumpeting out. But that's also due to higher defense spending and higher health costs, by the way. So I think like what governments cannot keep up with, and we see this from Sydney to Toronto, is that in the cities where the jobs are the cost of living and the rents are so high, it is also true for London and for Berlin that you literally cannot go by with the money you make. And that's also putting like a strain on what is like what is a good wage, what's a good minimum wage? Because people need to somehow also just survive. And I think that makes it for governments very difficult to either you go the New York way and you vote for a mayor that says like I'm tackled the cost of living crisis. So to give you some reprieve or relief. Also in this country we have now the new renters laws that come in effect in which also I think aim at the same thing. So because we cannot continue. That's what I want to say in a nutshell, the system where also more costs are like laid on the workers. And I agree with what you say. Overregulation is this thing in Germany too. Like, businesses are complaining about, like, and I guess we have a reputation for a reason, the Germans. It's just very overbearing. And so it's also hindering. And it's the third government now in a row in Germany that tries to just like tackle that. And I'm excited to see what's going to happen here. But like, I think we see the stagnation that you talk about also because people do not spend and they do not spend because they have no extra dime.
C
Carol, just finally on this one, there is obviously a dynamic which is common to the United Kingdom, to Germany, to many other jurisdictions where what you might think of as broadly normal establishment parties are going to find themselves in coming years running up against populists whose whole pitches everything is terrible. Vote for us. How much better do things need to get before. That's not a persuasive point pitch.
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I think there's the big question, and that's what the Labour government here in Britain is really grappling with. The Prime Minister is insisting that there are some positive signs in the economy. We saw that tiny uptick in growth. Inflation is coming down a bit. I think the difficulty is that if you're a family, if you're really struggling with the cost of living and inflation is coming down a bit so that your groceries are not increasing in price price at quite the same speed as they were last year. You're not necessarily going to say thank you to the government for achieving that. And yeah, you've got the reform UK populist party riding high in the polls, just bagged another senior figure from the Conservative Party, Robert Jenrick today, saying, look, we're going to slash migration. We'll cut the cost that we're spending on housing migrants in hotel, we'll get rid of all the green subsidies and you'll get loads off your energy bills without necessarily producing all the figures to prove their economic arguments. And that is still going to be quite a persuasive argument to quite a few voters.
C
Well, to Japan now, where All Nippon Airways or ANA has retired the last of the most ostentatious aircraft in their fleet. That is the planes which for the last decade or so have taken to the skies adorned in various liveries, evoking the Star wars franchise of three mildly amusing films, followed by a whole load of extremely dull ones. The final flights of the collaboration were undertaken by the Boeing 777 dressed up as anxious Android C3PO. Excitingly, this presenter is able to contribute that he once flew between London and Tokyo on the 787, sprayed as a perambulating pedal bin R2D2, and that the flight was otherwise unremarkable in every respect. Except they gave me a little commemorative card which I lost, though there is one going on ebay right now for £8.92. We see what I missed out on there. Alexander, were you charmed by this? Did you like the planes painted in Star wars stuff?
B
Well, I mean, this is, you know, when you came up with the topic for the day, I was wondering, like, we. In Germany, we have, you know, sometimes it's like a soccer team's logo on a plane or whatever. Like you. So this kind of like this branding sort of like it's nice. I don't know, I have no real, real opinion about it. But like, what you just how you characterize the Star wars movies. I think you made like a ton of enemies with that one sentence. So there is a lot of fans, I want to say, that literally buy Lego merchandise. I mean, this is, I guess Star wars and Harry Potter are the biggest franchise of all times and they make like loads of money and they also have Legos, which you can see, like when you make it into Lego, then you are the top franchise. So that's what I can say. I have not had the pleasure of being on that airplane, but I had very good food at ana, actually any East Asian airline. So that would have been remarkable for me if I had flown that, that airplane with you.
C
I mean, my irritation with the setup, Carol, was that they just didn't go the whole hog on this. The air crew were not dressed up as stormtroopers. I mean, you could have had fun with this. But what we're trying to establish here is is this sort of crossover ever actually charming in any way? Is it even effective? Do people who might not otherwise have fancied flying to Japan think, well, if I can go on a plane that looks a bit like R2D2I in.
A
Well, I was amazed to actually read about the fans who've turned out to catch potentially a last glimpse of these planes. And I have to confess that I, I was unaware of this phenomenon and I haven't actually known on plane spotters are a whole thing yeah, they are a whole thing. But I think that what they've managed to do with this tie up with, with this hugely popular brand is to expand be the traditional plane spotting community. Look, I think anything that makes flying a little bit more fun, if it's going to excite the kids after they've been hanging around the airport for four hours and they finally get to see the plane and you know they're going to be excited about it, why not a bit of fun? But like you, I mean frankly, you get a quick glimpse of it as you're getting on and if it's not going to be followed through inside, I'm not sure how much difference it would really make. Certainly not to. I think the problem is how much do you really notice the outside of your plane. Here in the UK there was a big fuss when British Airways slightly changed the paintwork on their planes. I couldn't see a massive difference and I just thought, well, I think I'd rather they spent that money on bringing the fares down.
C
I mean, I suppose it's that thing Alexander, that maybe they're thinking people will take a photo of the plane and post it on social media and that's a whole load of free publicity for us. But. But do crossovers like this occasionally tempt the idea or tempt the fates? You know that, that conventional wisdom that no publicity is bad publicity, but sometimes you get bad publicity. There is currently now a thing in London where the Bakerloo line of the underground has been temporarily renamed the Baker 0.0 line allegedly to promote some sort of alcohol free beer whose brand we shall not be naming. Bond street was at one point renamed briefly Burberry Street. And I did see myself during that period several tour getting completely bewildered and missing their stop because they wanted to go to Bond street and didn't think they were at it.
B
Well, I mean that is, that's an expansion of the, of the topic which I could, I mean this is. Yeah, no, I could totally see how that's. You have the stadiums in Germany that are not called like the, the team that's playing then but like insurance or whatever and like the arena in Berlin is they did it and then a year later because it changes, it changes the sponsors. I think actually I, I actually particularly hate that I didn't on the airplane because some people, I'm sure the CEO of the airline liked Star wars and that's how it happened. If he had been liking Star Trek it would have been Star Trek. But like this naming of stadiums and streets and such, even for short periods of time, that has been that has become a thing, I guess, in the enterprise of Advertisement Alexander Gerlach and Carol.
C
Walker thank you both for joining us. Finally, on today's show, our weekly letter from reaches us from Isabella Orlando in the mares.
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On the edge of winter, I fled London's shades of gray in search of some color. Touching down at dusk in Maresh, I knew I'd gone looking for it in the right place. Palm fronds swayed against the pink stucco of the buildings. The sky was soft powder blue as we drove into the city's historic heart, the medina. A tangerine sun cast its final glow through the olives, figs, palms and the occasional pomegranate tree, a classic Mediterranean bounty. Mopeds raced past, and despite their honking, I found the scene soothing. They seemed to go together so naturally, these characteristic shades I'd later learned the significance of. The following morning, our guide Yousef explained to me that Marrakesh's cannon of traditional colors remain a fundamental element of the city's heritage and visual culture, originating as natural pigments from the region's raw materials ochres drawn from clay, indigos from cobalt, deep yellows from strands of saffron. The pinky ochre tone that drenches the buildings is said to be a nod to the red dirt of the Atlas Mountains and the yellow sands of the desert, a color combination that stretches back to the city's origins. Because the buildings all share their pinky hue, it's easy to get lost. But we soon discovered that in Marrakech, all roads lead back to the souks. Beneath bundles of multicolored yarn, animal skins being turned into leather and clinking metalwork, a maze of markets unfolds. The souk is fiat in places but functional in others. Behind the tourist facing stalls hide tailors like Atelier Imane, who cut modern menswear from neutral cloth and embellish it with Moroccan style buttons and trim, fine leather workers that hammer soft skins into belts and slippers, tiny fine tea shops like the Moroccan Botanist, a Secret garden, and traditional tea houses like shape Bismala. But the central souk is a spectacle in motion, and it's easy to imagine the generations of hands that shaped these crafts long before the city became a destination. And the best place to watch it all unfold is on the balcony of central lunch spot Yazell with a kafta in hand. In Marrakech, the garden is your pharmacy. Water protects and purifies, and where the sun goes, the doctor does not. Consciousness toward health and well being and a connection between those fundamentals and nature is embedded into the way homes are designed. Carved into their very walls in the Grand Riad of the Badia palace, the term health eternal is incised and script into the archways said to bless whomever passed beneath. Today, most Riads have been converted into guest houses. There are plenty of Marrakeshi stays to choose from, but two are an absolute must. At Riyad el Fen, luxury takes on a kind of playful confidence. Elfen unfolds like a labyrinth with a series of delightful surprises to behold. Jewel toned corridors, candlelit terraces, alcoves softened with low armchair chairs, the scent of cedar and neroli filling the air, and a pair of turtles wandering about. Each room is uniquely and exquisitely assembled, yet not overly considered. What struck me most was how deliberately the hotel refuses the polished neutrality of most high end stays. Instead, Elfen leans into Marrakech's variety and vibrance while embellishing it with a rotating scheme of exciting contemporary Moroccan and artwork. By contrast, Riyadh Brumel Medina is beautiful in its tranquility. Pale pink plaster walls, clean lines, minimalist courtyards, quiet hallways and a sun drenched rooftop terrace where you can enjoy breakfast of homemade misemen, flaky Moroccan pancakes made by the house cook just steps from the table. When you venture out into to the city, the map and curated recommendations by Brumel provide a grateful companion to the winding streets and endless options of the medina. And further afield in Marrakech's other nearby neighborhoods alike. Coeliz, the vibrant new town filled with restaurants, shopping and nightlife in a more modern setting and Majorelle, home to the Yves St. Laurent foundation, the city's famous gardens and and some beautiful shops. Although the district feels a little sanitized in comparison to the sound and color of the Medina, the final stop on our tour took us behind the alleyways of the souks to the furnace that heats the public baths, manned by a gentleman who has done the job for decades. Sitting in the embers were sealed terracotta pots holding Tangia, a traditional Moroccan slow cooked stew to be shared by the nearby market sellers later that day. Possibly thanks to these strong foundations, Marrakesh is a city that, while incredibly stimulating, also knows how to be still. Its history of cohesion and fusion has led to visual, social and cultural diversity that expresses itself in abundance. There is harmony in the chaos that doesn't make it feel like chaos at all. And this harmony is something to behold.
C
Thank you Isabella Orlando that is all for this edition of the Monocle Daily. Thanks to our panelists today, Carol Walker and Alexander Gerlach. Today's show was produced by Chris Chermack, Tom Webb and Carlotta Rebelo and researched by Anneliese Maynard. Our sound engineer was Steph Chongu. I'm Andrew Muller here in London. The Daily is back at the same time tomorrow. Thanks for listening, Snake.
This episode of The Monocle Daily offers sharp global commentary on major current affairs, with host Andrew Muller welcoming guests Carol Walker (Times Radio presenter, political commentator) and Alexander Görlach (professor at New York University) for lively debate and analysis. Core discussions include Mark Carney’s landmark visit to China as Canadian PM, Europe’s tentative economic improvement, the crackdown on media freedoms in the United States, and a lighter look at branded airliners and travel culture. The episode closes with a richly detailed dispatch from Marrakech by correspondent Isabella Orlando.
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For those who missed the episode, this summary captures the breadth of geopolitical analysis, economic realism, cultural color, and witty banter that define The Monocle Daily's distinct tone.