On this week’s Macrodose James Meadway takes a close look at a seemingly inevitable win for Labour in the upcoming UK general election - what will this actually mean over the next 5 years (1:34)? Get your ticket for the New Media for a New Economy Conference here: tinyurl.com/y8m7kw88 A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grateful. If you have the means and enjoy our work, head over to patreon.com/Macrodose and subscri...
May 29, 2024•13 min
On today’s episode James Meadway is joined by Olivier De Schutter to discuss his new book The Poverty of Growth - a concise and well evidenced argument against the idea that economic growth is the route out of poverty. Olivier was UN Special Rapporteur on The Right to Food, a member of the UN Comity on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and is an internationally recognised expert on food systems, poverty and international law. You can grab a copy of his book here: tinyurl.com/y4xa2ymp A massi...
May 24, 2024•28 min
On July 26th Macrodose is partnering with Verso Books and the Dig podcast for a special live event over at the Union Chapel in Islington, London. Host Dalia Gebrial will be joined by political scientist Thea Riofrancos, climate justice activist Asad Rehman and anthropologist Jason Hickel, to talk about all things economic, from the era of neoliberalism to green colonialism, and the decline of the unipolar world. And we'll be followed by a live cross-over recording of the Dig and Verso podcasts, ...
May 22, 2024•2 min
On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: today’s UK inflation figures - what can we expect and do the numbers tell the full story (1:32) and a listener question - why has Zimbabwe decided to back its currency using gold (10:18)? Get your ticket for the New Media for a New Economy Conference here: tinyurl.com/y8m7kw88 A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grateful. If you have the means and enjoy our work, h...
May 22, 2024•20 min
On this week’s Macrodose, Polly Smythe takes a look at an upcoming vote at an Amazon Warehouse on whether to unionise. If the workers vote yes, then for the first time in the UK Amazon will be forced to recognise a trade union. What are workers at the Coventry site up against? Why is Amazon such a crucial battleground for the future of the labour movement? And what lessons can we learn from this latest organising attempt? Polly Smythe is an industrial correspondent at Novara Media, where I spend...
May 15, 2024•15 min
On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: another Labour Party U-Turn as Keir Starmer guts the “New Deal for Workers” (1:47), and a proposed global mining merger - how is the climate crisis reshaping the largest institutions of capitalism (10:47)? A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grateful. If you have the means and enjoy our work, head over to patreon.com/Macrodose and subscribe today. Find our socials,...
May 08, 2024•16 min
On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: a warning from the world bank that inflation could start rising again this year (0:46), a new report showing that climate change is creating serious health hazards for 70% of the world's workers (6:21) and as climate-flation hits the front pages of 2 major papers this week - has public awareness hit a tipping point (12:33)? A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grate...
May 01, 2024•16 min
** Check out the video version of this podcast on our YouTube channel - youtu.be/O5xSeNmF-v0 ** On today’s episode James Meadway is joined by Raj Patel and Jason W Moore for a revisit of their book A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: a guide to capitalism, nature and the future of the planet. Raj Patel is an award-winning author, film-maker and academic. He is a Research Professor in the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin. Jason W. Moore is an ...
Apr 26, 2024•40 min
On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down new research that shows the world will lose one fifth of its income to climate change over the next 25 years (1:45), the skyrocketing price of insurance in the UK (7:21) and some allegedly good news - the London stock exchange hits a record high (14:56). Grab you ticket for the PTO live show here: tinyurl.com/3zhu4ve6 A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grateful. If...
Apr 24, 2024•18 min
This week on Macrodose Hannah Proctor leads us on an exploration of burnout . What are the origins of the term, and how can political movements and people on the frontline endure in the face of defeat. Hannah Proctor is a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, interested in histories and theories of radical psychiatry. She is a member of the editorial collective behind Radical Philosophy , and has been published in Jacobin , Tribune , The New Inquiry and else...
Apr 17, 2024•18 min
On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down a new report over in the US which lays out the climate risks to nuclear power (0:44), a look at how the scarcity of data will squash the dreams of machine learning (9:55) and a new campaign for Basic Income for Farmers (15:50). Basic income for farmers report: tinyurl.com/5n6hecpe A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grateful. If you have the means and enjoy our work...
Apr 10, 2024•19 min
On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down Britain's ever failing water system and how to fix it (0:53), how AI is feeding colonial forms of exploitation (7:41) and climateflation - how new research shows prices are only likely to increase (14:25). A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grateful. If you have the means and enjoy our work, head over to patreon.com/Macrodose and subscribe today. Find our socials, ...
Apr 03, 2024•18 min
On today’s episode James Meadway is joined by Brett Christophers and Adrienne Buller to discuss the economics of the green energy transition, asking how we could finance it and what’s stopping us? They talked “market failures”, “maladaptation” and the future of economics: growth and degrowth. Brett Christophers is professor of human geography at Uppsala University’s Institute for Housing and Urban Research. Grab his latest book ‘The Price is Wrong: Why capitalism won’t save the planet’ here: tin...
Apr 02, 2024•1 hr 10 min
On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Mais Lecture and what it tells us about a future Labour government (0:40) and a listener question - how do we stop the wealthy holding governments hostage by threatening to take their money out of the country (9:34)? A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grateful. If you have the means and enjoy our work, head over to patreon.com/Macro...
Mar 27, 2024•16 min
On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down Britain’s Risotto Crisis (1:28), and a listener question - how does the global market for fossil fuels actually work (7:35)? Grab your free ticket the upcoming book launch of 'The Exhausted of the Earth' by Ajay Chaudhary in conversation with Dalia Gebrial tinyurl.com/9r8chfu9 Find the full MACRODOSE READING LIST here: uk.bookshop.org/shop/macrodosepod - for each book you buy from the list Macrodose gets 10% of what you pay, so for every book y...
Mar 20, 2024•16 min
On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down talk of an economic bounce-back in the United States and what’s driving it (0:47), how interest rates in the Global North helping to fuel a “silent debt crisis” in the Global South (6:41), and a listener question - should the Bank of England really be independent of government (15:07)? Find the full MACRODOSE READING LIST here: uk.bookshop.org/shop/macrodosepod - for each book you buy from the list Macrodose gets 10% of what you pay, so for eve...
Mar 13, 2024•22 min
On this week’s Macrodose, BUDGET SPECIAL! James Meadway is joined by Stella Tsantekidou to give an immediate reaction to today's budget announcement by UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt. Stella Tsantekidou is a former Labour Party advisor and head of policy for the criminal justice charity, Catch-22. Find the full MACRODOSE READING LIST here: uk.bookshop.org/shop/macrodosepod - for each book you buy from the list Macrodose gets 10% of what you pay, so for every book you buy, you’ll be supporting our ind...
Mar 06, 2024•39 min
On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down chocflation - why Easter Egg prices are so high (2:07), how the world is becoming uninsurable as climate change meets capitalism (8.40) and a listener question - how do the Office for Budget Responsibility make their economic forecasts (15:02)? Find the full MACRODOSE READING LIST here: uk.bookshop.org/shop/macrodosepod - for each book you buy from the list Macrodose gets 10% of what you pay, so for every book you buy, you’ll be supporting our ...
Feb 28, 2024•21 min
On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down the real meaning of the news that the UK has entered a recession (0:51), the geopolitical consequences of the vast amount of energy required to run the digital economy (8:36) and the apparent return of inflation (13:31). You can listen to our interview with Richard Jones, Why you should care about semiconductors , here tinyurl.com/yz44s2sd or by searching on your podcast app Find the full MACRODOSE READING LIST here: uk.bookshop.org/shop/macrod...
Feb 21, 2024•19 min
Today's episode is hosted by author and labour journalist Sarah Jaffe who is joined by two thinkers whose work on money, neoliberal capitalism, the state and its discontents, cryptocurrency, conspiracy theories, and so much more have overlapping and fascinating insights for how we see the political world today. Quinn Slobodian's most recent book is Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World without Democracy published by Metropolitan Books in the US, Penguin in the UK and else...
Feb 20, 2024•1 hr 47 min
On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down the Labour Party abandoning their £28bn green investment pledge (2:14), the farmers' protests across Europe (10:33) and a listener question - why are supermarkets so keen on us using their loyalty cards (17:42)? Check out EnBloc at enbloc.uk Find the full MACRODOSE READING LIST here: uk.bookshop.org/shop/macrodosepod - for each book you buy from the list Macrodose gets 10% of what you pay, so for every book you buy, you’ll be supporting our ind...
Feb 14, 2024•22 min
On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down the economic consequences of the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea to global trade (1:46) and a recent report from the New York Times suggesting the Biden administration in the US is looking to take action on profiteering by US food suppliers (10:20). Find the full MACRODOSE READING LIST here: uk.bookshop.org/shop/macrodosepod - for each book you buy from the list Macrodose gets 10% of what you pay, so for every book you buy, you’ll be supporting o...
Feb 07, 2024•15 min
On this week’s Macrodose Nick Bano gives an alternative perspective on the housing crisis. Throwing out the usual talk of supply, demand, and financialisation, and instead focusing on the underlying dynamic that is actually responsible for producing property values - the relationship between landlords and tenants. Nick is a writer and a Barrister who specialises in representing homeless people, residential occupiers, and destitute and migrant households. His debut book Against Landlords: How to ...
Jan 31, 2024•19 min•Ep. 61
Welcome to this very first episode of Macrodose Roundtable, the show where we go in depth with some of the brightest minds from the world of economics and ecology. Macrodose roundtables are an opportunity to expand some of the ideas introduced in our main show, in a longer form, multi-guest format. Today's episode is hosted by author and labour journalist Sarah Jaffe and looks at the political economy of Palestine. We situate Palestine in the wider context of the global economy, and hear what da...
Jan 29, 2024•1 hr 17 min
On this week’s Macrodose Yanis Varoufakis provides the compelling argument that capitalism has been killed and replaced by a new economic system - Technofeudalism. Yanis is an economist, politician, formerly Greece’s finance minister and author of several books, including most recently Technofuedalism: What Killed Capitalism. You can grab a copy via our reading list linked below. Find the full MACRODOSE READING LIST here: uk.bookshop.org/shop/macrodosepod - for each book you buy from the list Ma...
Jan 24, 2024•19 min•Ep. 60
On this week’s Macrodose Nick Dearden takes us on a deep dive into the the history of the pharmaceutical industry - asking how it became the leviathan it is today, why it has been able to assert its unchecked geopolitical influence across the world, and whether there is anything that can be done to loosen its grip on global health. Nick is the director of Global Justice Now, and a campaigner on issues of Global Justice for over two decades. He is also author of “Pharmanomics: How Big Pharma Dest...
Jan 17, 2024•16 min•Ep. 59
On this week’s Macrodose Dalia Gebrial takes us on a deep dive into the gig economy (1:54). What are the real costs of the platform promise? Who is losing out, why and how? And what explains its meteoric rise? Dalia Gebrial is lecturer at King's College London and co-host of Novara Live at Novara Media. Her research focuses on race, work and technology. Sign up to our newsletter The Fix : mailchi.mp/45d9275470d6/macrodose Find the full MACRODOSE READING LIST here: uk.bookshop.org/shop/macrodosep...
Jan 10, 2024•18 min•Ep. 58
On this week’s Macrodose we bring you our second and final holiday special before we return to the regular show next week. We’ve picked 3 more of our favourite stories from the last year. First, should we worry about government debt (0:44)? Second, is Brexit to blame for food shortages (7:37)? And finally a look at the real environmental cost of cryptocurrencies (14:28). Sign up to our newsletter The Fix : mailchi.mp/45d9275470d6/macrodose Find the full MACRODOSE READING LIST here: uk.bookshop.o...
Jan 03, 2024•23 min
On this week’s Macrodose we bring you a selection of our favourite stories of the last year. First, from “planetary boundaries” to doughnut economics - are there quantifiable limits to our exploitation of nature (0:40), next Greedflation - what is it and what are the mainstream missing (7:09) and finally a listener question - Universal Basic Income vs Universal Basic Services (14:11). Sign up to our newsletter The Fix : mailchi.mp/45d9275470d6/macrodose Find the full MACRODOSE READING LIST here:...
Dec 27, 2023•24 min
On this week’s Macrodose, Asad Rehman takes us on a journey through COPs past (1:28), present (8:07) and future (14:13). Asad has attended a staggering 15 COPs and was in attendance this year at COP28, helping coordinate the global climate justice movements. He is also the Director of War on Want, a London based charity challenging the root causes of poverty, inequality and injustice through partnership with social movements in the UK, and across the Global South. Sign up to our newsletter The F...
Dec 20, 2023•22 min•Ep. 55
