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The Big Take from Bloomberg News brings you inside what’s shaping the world's economies with the smartest and most informed business reporters around the world. The context you need on the stories that can move markets. Every afternoon.


Big Take

As AI-generated images ping pong around the internet, the Walt Disney Company has been mostly playing defense, using litigation to protect its intellectual property. But last week, Disney announced a $1 billion deal with OpenAI, licensing more than 200 of its iconic Disney characters for use on OpenAI’s video platform, Sora.
 
On today’s Big Take podcast, host Sarah Holder talks with Bloomberg tech reporter Shirin Ghaffary and entertainment reporter Thomas Buckley about the terms of the deal, the opportunities and risks for each side and whether it might spur other similar partnerships. 
 
Read more: OpenAI Deal to License Disney Characters Is Entirely in Stock
 
Hosted by: Sarah Holder; Produced by: Rachael Lewis-Krisky; Reported by: Shirin Ghaffary and Thomas Buckley; Edited by: Tracey Samuelson; Fact-checking by: Naomi Ng and Eleanor Harrison-Dengate. Engineering by: Katie McMurran.
 
Senior Producer: Naomi Shavin. Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer.

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Inside Disney and OpenAI’s Billion Dollar Deal

The trucking industry has long been dominated by older white men. But as those truckers steer toward retirement, who will replace them? 
 
On today’s Big Take podcast, host Sarah Holder hits the road with Bloomberg’s Jaewon Kang, who’s been exploring how one company is trying to transform its trucking workforce. And we hear from MIT’s Chris Caplice, DAT Freight and Analytics’ Dean Croke and two Walmart truckers about what’s working for the industry and the challenges it faces on the road ahead.
 
Read more: Walmart’s $115,000 Starting Pay and Better Rigs Draw Women to Trucking
 
Hosted by Sarah Holder Produced by Julia Press Reported by Jaewon Kang Edited by Tracey Samuelson Fact-checking by Rachael Lewis-Krisky Engineering by Katie McMurran
 
Senior Producer: Naomi Shavin Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer

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Truckers Are Aging Out. Who Will Replace Them?

Treating cancer is a massive business. In 2024 alone, cancer treatments generated at least $200 billion in worldwide sales for the pharmaceutical industry, more than the obesity drug rush. But a Bloomberg News analysis showed that fewer than half of treatments reviewed — some of which have painful side effects — have been shown to extend patients’ lives.
 
On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg senior healthcare reporter Robert Langreth takes host David Gura inside what some doctors call the “cancer-industrial complex” — from the regulatory landscape that ushered in a wave of lucrative new drugs to the damaging financial and health impacts some treatments can have on patients.
 
Read more:
 
Cancer Drugs Cost More Than Ever. They Often Don’t Extend Lives.
 
The Implants Were Supposed to Dissolve. They Didn’t.
 
Pharma Is Pushing $200,000 Cancer Drugs When Cheaper Doses May Work
 
Cancer Doctors Are Making a Fortune Off Drug-Trial Participants
 
One Generic Cancer Drug Costs $35. Or $134. Or $13,000.

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Many Cancer Drugs Don’t Extend Life

The Philippines is no stranger to typhoons, but this year’s storms exposed something far uglier: a vast corruption scandal.
 
On today’s Big Take Asia Podcast, host K. Oanh Ha speaks to Bloomberg’s Andreo Calonzo and Rosalind Mathieson about how billions of dollars earmarked for flood control vanished and what the crisis means for the country’s political and economic stability.

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The $2 Billion Flood Control Scandal Rocking the Philippines

All year, the jobs market, consumer sentiment, AI and inflation flashed warning signs about the economy — but 2025 managed to avoid a recession.
 
On today’s Big Take podcast, host Sarah Holder talks with Bloomberg’s Stacey Vanek Smith and Moody’s Analytics Mark Zandi to understand what this year’s wonky economy can tell us as we head into 2026 and what to watch for in the new year.
 
Read more: US Recession Risk Is Receding as We Move Into 2026

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Wait, Weren’t We Supposed to Have a Recession in 2025?

Mustafa Suleyman co-founded AI lab DeepMind when he was just 26 years old. Four years later, it was acquired by Google for a reported $400 million. 

He is now head of Microsoft’s AI unit, where he just unveiled a new superintelligence team tasked with creating an AI that can outperform humans at all tasks.

In this conversation with Mishal Husain, Suleyman talks about the decisions society has to make about AI, the white-hot war over tech talent and the competition with other tech bros. 
 
00:00 - Introduction from Mishal Husain
02:20 - Suleyman’s daily use of AI
04:52 - Stoicism and the magic of AI
05:50 - Defining superintelligence
07:35 - The AI Wild West
09:20 - Humans misusing technology
11:43 - Promise of abundance, universal basic income
14:30 - Suleyman’s family and decision to drop out of Oxford
19:37 - "Decisions we make may have very lasting consequences”
21:04 - Exploring the ‘broligarchy’
22:28 - His view of Sam Altman and Open AI
24:11 - Conversations with Demis Hassabis about Gemini 3
26:15 - “I’m sort of a centrist these days”
28:09 - AI containment and the role of government 
29:58 - Microsoft’s revised deal with OpenAI: “It is a shift for us”
31:42 -The talent war and ‘Zuck’s’ pay packages
34:12 - Circular deals in AI: “Watching it carefully”
36:22 - “I really want to nail medical superintelligence”
37:36 - Suleyman on using AI for emotional support
40:21 - The UK lacks the “hustle culture” of Silicon Valley
42:13 - AI news reporters: “We’re exploring everything”
 
Watch this podcast here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe4PRejZgr0Ns_wjGlmjlPz0cded0nTYS
 
You can find the written version of this interview with Mishal’s notes on Bloomberg Weekend: https://www.bloomberg.com/latest/weekend-interview
 
Contact The Mishal Husain Show mishalshow@bloomberg.net
 
Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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Weekend Listen: The Man Driving Microsoft’s New AI Strategy

Depending on who you talk to, AI is the key to remaking industries and jobs – or a bubble ripe to pop. And if you’re an investor, you’re already exposed.
 
So what’s the best strategy for investing in AI now? On today’s Big Take podcast, host Sarah Holder and Bloomberg personal finance reporter Suzanne Woolley talk to experts – ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood, Fidelity International’s Taosha Wang, Allspring Global Investments’ Michael Smith and Janus Henderson Investors’ Denny Fish – about coming AI investment waves and potential warning signs. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How to Invest in AI Right Now

From rising costs to shifting markets, American farmers are struggling to make ends meet. Now, the White House is stepping in.
 
On today’s Big Take podcast, David Gura sits down with Bloomberg agriculture Reporter Erin Ailworth and a fifth-generation farmer to discuss President Trump’s $12 billion farm aid plan. What prompted the move, which sectors will be eligible and how ongoing tensions between the US and China have upended the market for certain crops and shifted how the US exerts its influence overseas.
 
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-08/us-farmers-say-12-billion-bailout-won-t-end-industry-slump 

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A Fifth-Generation Farmer on Trump’s $12B Bailout

On Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee cut rates by 25-basis points. It was the scenario a lot of close watchers of the Federal Reserve expected — but what comes after this Fed Meeting is an open question.
 
With President Trump poised to name Chair Jerome Powell’s replacement by early 2026, both markets and the Federal Reserve itself could start to look to Trump’s nominee for guidance. Kevin Hassett has emerged as the front-runner for the role, who currently serves as director on Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers.
 
On Today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg Economics’ Chief US Economist Anna Wong joins host Sarah Holder to break down the economic impact of the latest rate cut and what the Federal Reserve could look like next year if Hassett is nominated to succeed Powell.
 
Read more: Fed Cuts Rates With Three Dissents, Projects One Cut in 2026

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The Fed Just Cut Rates Again. Here’s What’s Ahead for 2026

The US tariff war with China sent American companies scrambling to find alternative manufacturing hubs. India looked promising until the White House upended everything. 
 
On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, K. Oanh Ha heads to India, where she goes inside two toy factories scrambling to adapt to Washington’s shifting trade policies. How sky-high tariffs are undercutting India’s ambitions to take China’s crown as the world’s factory floor and forcing American manufacturers to make a tough choice. 
 
Read more: Cutting Ties With China Is Harder Than Companies Expected
 
Further listening: An American Toymaker Struggles to Break Up With China
The American Toymaker Suing Trump Over Destructive Tariffs

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India Wanted to Become The World’s Toymaker. Then Tariffs Happened

At this point in the war between Israel and Hamas, it’s difficult to get more than anecdotal evidence out of Gaza. Almost every organization that once provided aid and monitored civilian welfare is no longer allowed in — or has ceased operations. Very few journalists are left there. 

But reports of a civilian population facing a hunger crisis are widespread.
 
To understand the reality on the ground, host David Gura talked to Bloomberg’s Israel bureau chief Ethan Bronner, UN reporter Magdalena Del Valle and Gaza reporter Fares Alghoul to understand how a hunger crisis unfolded there despite months of warnings.
 
Read more: 
 
How Gaza Descended Into a Hunger Crisis, Explained 
 
Israel Intends to Fully Take Over Gaza Despite Global Isolation

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How The Hunger Crisis in Gaza Unfolded Despite Months of Warnings

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