Every day we take around 20,000 breaths, most of them in cities where the air is shaped by traffic, industry and global infrastructure. Today almost the entire world’s population already lives in places where air pollution exceeds World Health Organization guidelines, and by 2050 nearly two-thirds of humanity is expected to live in urban areas. From the deadly London smog of 1952 to the winter haze over Delhi and the historic smog that once covered Los Angeles, cities reveal how modern urban life quietly transforms the atmosphere above us. This episode explores the invisible layer of air that millions of people breathe every day and the systems that shape it.

This episode examines developments around the Strait of Hormuz, a key maritime chokepoint for global energy trade. Recent security incidents involving commercial vessels, together with increased regional attention around Iran and the US, are influencing shipping routes, oil flows and maritime logistics.

Season 4 opens with a look at the most invisible layer of the global system: the atmosphere. This episode explores how modern industry, energy production, and transportation have quietly turned the air into a vast repository of economic waste. Understanding this hidden interaction between the economy and the atmosphere is the starting point for the new season of Beyond the Business.