As geopolitical tensions persist, global trade dynamics are becoming increasingly complex—and many leaders find themselves on tenterhooks. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, Cindy Levy and Shubham Singhal, two global coleaders of McKinsey’s geopolitics work, join Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly to discuss how to move forward amid rapidly reconfiguring trade relationships—regardless of the way current tariff talks play out.

This conversation has been adapted from our McKinsey Live series.

Articles mentioned:

The ‘attention equation’: Winning the right battles for consumer attention

State of the Consumer 2025: When disruption becomes permanent

Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw

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The US housing crunch is bad—and it’s getting worse. Wider access to safe, affordable homes is vital to enabling economic mobility for all Americans—and to harnessing what McKinsey Partner JP Julien, a leader of the McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility, calls a “massive” untapped economic opportunity. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, JP joins Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly to discuss what’s causing the crisis in affordable housing, who’s most affected, and what both public- and private-sector leaders can do to effect fast but lasting change.

Articles mentioned:

The State of Aviation 2025

Global Private Markets Report 2025: Braced for shifting weather

Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw

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Leaders worldwide are moving fast to deploy AI at scale. But scaling AI means more data centers—and data centers consume vast quantities of energy. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, McKinsey’s Jesse Noffsinger and Pankaj Sachdeva speak with Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly about what needs to happen to build new, bigger data centers quickly, as well as to sate their growing hunger for power.

Articles mentioned:

A generational shift: The future of foreign aid

Risk rebalancing: Five important geopolitical-risk questions for CIOs

Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw

See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information