National

Axios Re:Cap is revisiting some of this year’s biggest stories and what they say about where technology, business, politics and more are headed in 2022. 

Axios cofounder and CEO Jim VandeHei joins Axios Re:Cap senior producer Naomi Shavin to talk about what journalists got right and wrong in 2021 and what challenges lie ahead for the industry next year.

2021's challenges for journalism

Axios cofounder and CEO Jim VandeHei on what journalists got right and wrong in 2021.

Journalism

Axios Re:Cap

Podcasts

Alison Snyder, managing editor and author of Axios Science, joins Axios Re:Cap senior producer Naomi Shavin to discuss a major research trend that flew under the radar this year: increased public and private funding for trials looking into therapeutic psychedelics.

The year psychedelics went mainstream

Governments and biotech companies are pouring money into therapeutic psychedelics research.

Medical research

Policy and demographics reporter Stef Kight joins Axios Re:Cap senior producer Naomi Shavin to discuss the immigration challenges President Biden faces and how his policies are playing out at the U.S. southern border and among his critics. 

Biden's big immigration challenges

Biden promised immigration reform — but his first year has been beset by challenges.

Immigration reform

Health care reporter Caitlin Owens joins Axios Re:Cap senior producer Naomi Shavin to discuss living alongside COVID in 2021 and all of the vaccine, antiviral and variant developments this year brought.

Reflecting on a second year of COVID

It was the year vaccines rolled out to the public — but variants have posed new challenges.

COVID-19

Felix Salmon, Axios’ chief financial correspondent and author of Axios Capital, joins Axios Re:Cap senior producer Naomi Shavin to talk about why nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are now mainstream and his predictions for the future of blockchain technologies.

A big year for blockchain

Why nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are now mainstream and predictions for the future of blockchain technologies.

Blockchain

Miriam Kramer, author of Axios Space and host of How It Happened: The Next Astronauts, joins Axios Re:Cap senior producer Naomi Shavin to discuss the space missions that made headlines this year and where the private space industry is headed.

The great space race of 2021

Axios' Miriam Kramer discusses the space missions that made headlines this year and where the private space industry is headed.

Space

Elon Musk

Alayna Treene, political reporter and co-author of Axios Sneak Peek, joins Axios Re:Cap senior producer Naomi Shavin to talk about her experience covering Congress in 2021 and where things stand heading into next year's midterms. 

Covering Washington in 2021

Revisiting a historic year in Washington with political reporter Alayna Treene.

Congress

President Biden has made the COVID-19 crisis and a post-Trump return to national unity and traditional democratic ideals his top priorities. From vaccinations to stimulus to schools, Biden is seeking bipartisan compromise while showing a willingness to use executive authority and bare Democratic majorities in the U.S. House and Senate to implement his policies. Republican leaders are navigating deep party divisions over if and how to move beyond former President Trump.

Politics & Policy

Sara Fischer, author of Axios Media Trends, joins Axios Re:Cap senior producer Naomi Shavin to discuss why the Facebook Papers' news cycle was so bad for Facebook — and where its parent company, Meta, goes from here.

Facebook’s year of failing upwards

Examining Facebook's ambitions as a company in the wake of the Facebook Papers.

Facebook

Online grocery delivery is a booming business thanks to the pandemic, but there are hidden costs to 10- to 15-minute grocery delivery, including a toll on how urban space is used.

Host Erica Pandey discusses what it takes to make these services possible with Greg Lindsay, a senior fellow at MIT’s Future Urban Collectives Lab.

The hidden costs of instant grocery delivery services

Online grocery delivery is a booming business thanks to the pandemic.

Food delivery

Hedge fund billionaire and antiquities collector Michael Steinhardt will have to repatriate 80 objects in his collection, all collected illegally. This case shines a spotlight on the problem of looters who steal antiquities, the dealers who trade in them, and the collectors who hoard them.

Host Felix Salmon is joined by antiquities researcher Christos Tsirogiannis of Aarhus University in Denmark, who worked with law enforcement on the Michael Steinhardt case. 

Editor's note: The original audio and web copy for this episode stated that Michael Steinhardt had to repatriate 80 stolen objects. The total is 180, not 80.

What’s lost when antiquities are stolen

How looters, dealers and collectors prevent archeologist research and rob people of their history.

Archaeology

More Axios Re:Cap episodes

Dan Primack unpacks the business story of the day and why it matters.