Tantalizingly little is known of Xi Jinping, whose nearly two-hour speech at the Chinese Communist Party congress recently doubled down on his intentions to remain China’s leader for the foreseeable future (and to stick to his controversial zero-COVID policy). What is known of the elusive 69-year-old has been skilfully compiled into an eight-episode podcast by Sue-Lin Wong, of The Economist. The series starts at the beginning, tracing Xi’s turbulent past, and chronicles his road to the top job, interviewing authors, journalists, and people who knew Xi and his family at every step of the way. —Julia Vitale