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- 229 - Should we be going for growth?
Britain’s favourite broadcaster David Attenborough once said: “Anyone who thinks you can have infinite growth in a finite environment is either a madman - or an economist.” But our political leaders don’t seem to agree. Both our major political parties have made growing the economy a key metric for their success in government. So what is economic growth? How did it become so central to our understanding of the economy? And should we really be striving for infinite growth on a finite planet? Ayeisha Thomas Smith is joined by Kate Raworth, economist and author of Doughnut Economics, and Michael Jacobs, professor of political economy at the University of Sheffield. ------- Music: Under Suspicion by Lee Rosevere, Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/lee-rosevere/music-for-podcasts-serious/under-suspicion/, used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Produced by Katrina Gaffney, Margaret Welsh and James Rush The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254
Wed, 10 Apr 2024 - 53min - 228 - Spring budget reaction
We’re waiting longer than ever for hospital appointments, our kids’ schools are literally crumbling, and homelessness has sky-rocketed in the past year. This week’s spring budget was a vital chance for chancellor Jeremy Hunt to respond to the huge problems our country is facing. But instead of trying to fix any of our problems, the chancellor announced a cut to national insurance that will benefit the richest households twelve times more than the poorest. So what do Jeremy Hunt’s announcements mean for people across the UK? Why are the opposition talking about maxed out credit cards? And what needs to happen to save our public services and boost living standards for all? Ayeisha Thomas Smith is joined by Hannah Peaker, director of policy at the New Economics Foundation, and Lydia Prieg, head of economics at the New Economics Foundation ----- Music by Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/. Produced by Katrina Gaffney, Margaret Welsh and James Rush The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254
Fri, 08 Mar 2024 - 31min - 227 - Can capitalism save the climate
Worried about your carbon emissions? Don’t stress! You can pump out as much as you want - as long as you buy some offsets to balance it out. Scared of the collapse of wildlife? No problem! We can figure out how much money our ecosystems are worth, and let the market do the rest! Welcome to the logic of green capitalism. Fossil fuel giants claim to celebrate sustainability while pumping out toxic emissions. Governments are relying on carbon offsets to make their climate promises add up. And we’re told that we can fight the climate crisis with the magic of economic markets. Why have corporations got so interested in sustainability? Will carbon offsets save us - or are they just a cute accounting trick? And if wind and solar energy are so cheap, why haven’t we embraced them? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Adrienne Buller, author of The Value of a Whale: On the illusions of green capitalism, and Brett Christophers, author of The Price is Wrong: Why capitalism won’t save the planet. ------- Music by Serge Quadrado, used under Creative Commons licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Produced by Katrina Gaffney, Margaret Welsh and James Rush The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254
Thu, 29 Feb 2024 - 45min - 226 - Introducing the new chief executive of NEF
It’s 2024 and in Westminster an election is at the forefront of everyone’s minds. Step back a little further and across the UK millions of us are more concerned with how we’ll afford to pay their sky-high rent or energy bills. Zoom out further again and we see a world where billions of people are reckoning with the threat of the climate crisis. For the first episode in a new series of the New Economics podcast, Ayeisha is joined by the new chief executive of the New Economics Foundation, Danny Sriskandarajah, to discuss the biggest challenges facing the world and how we can win a new global economy. ----- Music by Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/. Produced by Katrina Gaffney, Margaret Welsh and James Rush The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: https://neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254
Tue, 13 Feb 2024 - 39min - 225 - Why antiracism means anticapitalism
The Metropolitan Police’s diversity and inclusion strategy claims it is determined to “eliminate racism and discrimination”. But the force was branded ‘institutionally racist’, and not for the first time, in an official report this spring. Recently, a Met firearms officer has been referred to prosecutors on a potential murder charge for shooting dead Black Londoner Chris Kaba last September. So, what does racism have to do with our 21st century economic system? How can we understand institutions who uphold racism while claiming to value diversity and inclusion? And what does it mean to truly be anti-racist? For the final episode of this series, Ayeisha is joined by Arun Kundnani to discuss his new book, What Is Antiracism?: And Why It Means Anticapitalism. Grab a copy of Arun's book here: https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2670-what-is-antiracism ----- Music by Chris Zabriskie and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Produced by Becky Malone, Margaret Welsh and Katrina Gaffney. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 19 Jun 2023 - 39min - 224 - Why asset managers own the world
This spring, swimmers in Kent were told to avoid ten beaches in the county due to sewage leaks. Public outrage at sewage pouring into our rivers and beaches has so far focused on water companies. But is someone else to blame? The pipes that carry sewage in Kent are not owned by Southern Water, or even Kent County Council. They belong to a massive Australian asset management firm that most of us have never heard of. Asset management firms are not household names, but they’ve come to own our energy systems, hospitals, schools, and even the pipes that supply our drinking water. So who are these shadowy companies? What even is asset management? And why are they buying up the things we need to keep our society going? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by political economist and economic geographer Brett Christophers to discuss his new book Our Lives in Their Portfolios: Why Asset Managers Own the World. Grab a copy of the book here: https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2985-our-lives-in-their-portfolios-why-asset-managers-own-the-world ----- Music by Chad Crouch and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Produced by Becky Malone, Margaret Welsh and Katrina Gaffney. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Tue, 06 Jun 2023 - 47min - 223 - A crisis of caregiving
The friend who has to cancel plans to look after their elderly mum. The colleague who leaves their phone on loud so they don’t miss a call about their disabled child. The neighbour you’ve barely seen since their partner’s diagnosis. We’re surrounded by people who are dealing with the challenges of caregiving, but they often go unseen. According to Carers UK, there could be over ten million people providing unpaid care in the UK. We’ll all have to care for someone or be cared for over the course of our lives. So why are the challenges caregivers face so overlooked? And how can we build a system that supports their wellbeing? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by writer and activist Emily Kenway to discuss her new book Who Cares: the hidden crisis of caregiving and how we solve it. Grab a copy of the book, out now: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/who-cares-the-hidden-crisis-of-caregiving-and-how-we-solve-it-emily-kenway/5956477?ean=9781472288486 ----- Music by Chris Zabriskie and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Produced by Becky Malone, Margaret Welsh and Katrina Gaffney. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 22 May 2023 - 38min - 222 - Should we all be troublemakers at work?
As the chancellor stood up in Parliament to present his spring budget in March, half a million people went on strike to demand better from their bosses. Teachers, junior doctors, Tube drivers, civil servants and more all walked out of work, in the biggest day of strike action in over a decade. As the strikes rumble on into another summer, how can workers keep up the momentum? Will new legislation make it harder to fight for better pay and working conditions? And should more of us be trying to unionise our workplaces? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by workplace organiser Lydia Hughes and researcher Jamie Woodcock, authors of Troublemaking: why you should organise your workplace. Grab a copy of Troublemaking: Why You Should Organise Your Workplace – out now www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2889-troublemaking ----- Music by Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Produced by Becky Malone, Margaret Welsh and Katrina Gaffney. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Wed, 10 May 2023 - 40min - 221 - Have we been conned by consultants?
Nurses struggling without PPE, the frantic search for hospital ventilators, even the dreaded ping from NHS test-and-trace. To most of us, these memories represent some of the worst of the Covid pandemic. But for a select few companies, they were an opportunity to make millions. Consultancy firms won over seven hundred million pounds worth of government Covid contracts to do things like run the test-and-trace system and vaccine rollout. This February, ministers dropped restrictions on Whitehall spending on consultants, allowing these firms to potentially rake in millions more. So why is the government so dependent on consultants? Whose interests do they serve? And how worried should we be about their effect on public life? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Rosie Collington, co-author of 'The Big Con: How the Consultancy Industry Weakens Our Businesses, Infantilises Our Governments and Warps Our Economies'. Grab a copy of The Big Con out now https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/451193/the-big-con-by-collington-mariana-mazzucato-and-rosie/9780241573082 ----- Music by A. A. Aalto and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Produced by Becky Malone, Margaret Welsh and Katrina Gaffney. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 24 Apr 2023 - 42min - 220 - How we can all have a home
You can’t paint your walls, you can’t have a pet, you can’t guarantee you’ll have somewhere to live in six months time. Millions of us are paying sky-high rents but struggling to make a home in a housing system where safety and security takes second place to landlords’ profits. Some private tenants face mould and broken boilers but daren’t complain. According to Shelter, complaining to your landlord about conditions in your home more than doubles your chance of being evicted. How did private renting become so prevalent? Why are the rights of tenants so weak? And what does this mean for our ability to make a home? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Vicky Spratt, housing correspondent at the i and author of Tenants, and Kieran Yates, journalist and author of the upcoming All the houses I’ve ever lived in. Further reading: - Grab a copy of Vicky's book Tenants https://profilebooks.com/work/tenants/ - Kieran's book All the houses I've ever lived in is out on the 27 April https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/All-The-Houses-Ive-Ever-Lived-In/Kieran-Yates/9781398509832 - Kojo Koram's book Uncommon wealth is available here https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/kojo-koram/uncommon-wealth/9781529338652/ - Find out more about about the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's work on home-owners and poverty https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/home-owners-and-poverty ----- Music by Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Produced by Becky Malone, Margaret Welsh and Katrina Gaffney. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 07 Apr 2023 - 39min - 219 - Right to Roam
On a sunny day in January, a ghostly figure covered in green ribbons appeared on a moor in south-west England. It was a person dressed as Old Crockern, the guardian spirit of Dartmoor. He was greeted by 3000 people who had gathered to protest a court ruling that took away the right to wild camp in the area. It was the biggest countryside access protest in living memory. The ruling reignited a long-running concern over land in England: who owns it? And who is allowed to use it? The aristocracy and landed gentry still own around thirty per cent of English land, and half of England is owned by less than one per cent of the population. How did we get here? What does land ownership have to do with wealth and power? And is there another way? Ayeisha is joined by Nadia Shaikh, naturalist, conservationist and land justice activist with Right to Roam and Frances Northrop, associate fellow at the New Economics Foundation. Further reading: - Find out more and get involved with Right to Roam https://www.righttoroam.org.uk/ - Listen to the Land for Who podcast series sharedassets.org.uk/resources/land-for-who-land-justice-podcast-series - Find out more about the Ecological Land Cooperative https://ecologicalland.coop/ - Read the Sold from Under You investigation https://council-sell-off.thebureauinvestigates.com/ ----- Music by Chad Crouch and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. With thanks to Katrina Gaffney. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 13 Mar 2023 - 40min - 218 - The UK's political battlegrounds
Last year the UK had three different prime ministers, four different chancellors and five different housing ministers. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's first minister for close to a decade, recently announced her resignation - and it’s not clear who will replace her. British politics now seems to be permanently tumultuous. And with a general election peeking over the horizon, political parties are gearing up to win over the public. What are the big ideas influencing UK politics? How much appetite does the public have for change? And what will be the key battlegrounds at the next general election? Ayeisha is joined by Anoosh Chakelian, Britain editor at the New Statesman, and James Meadway, director of the Progressive Economy Forum. - James' new book The Cost of Living Crisis (and how to get out of it)is out next month versobooks.com/books/4259-the-cost-of-living-crisis - Read Anoosh and Ben Walker's piece on the “the new social groupings of the inflation age” newstatesman.com/economy/2023/02/britain-cost-of-living-classes - More on Scottish independence in this article by Jonathon Shafi jonathonshafi.substack.com/p/after-sturgeon-a-new-era-in-scottish - Listen to James' podcast Macrodose patreon.com/Macrodose - Latest from the New Statesman podcast here newstatesman.com/podcasts ----- Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. With thanks to Katrina Gaffney. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 27 Feb 2023 - 57min - 217 - How we win a new economy - changing the rules
Note to listeners: this episode was prerecorded in September 2022. Over the last five episodes we’ve looked at how the UK is being torn apart. Our economy is built on huge inequalities: between working people and big business, between families and fossil fuel giants, between tenants and landlords, and between marginalised groups and law enforcement. Are such massive divisions in our society inevitable? Can we share the wealth hoarded by the rich? And what do we need to do to build a better future? Ayeisha is joined by Jeevun Sandher, head of economics at the New Economics Foundation, and political economist and author of The Case For A Green New Deal Ann Pettifor. - Subscribe to Ann's substack, System Change, here: https://annpettifor.substack.com/ ----- Music by Chad Crouch and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 07 Nov 2022 - 26min - 216 - How we win a new economy - fighting for our human rights
Note to listeners: this episode was prerecorded in September 2022. This summer, on a small road in south-east London, a crowd of people prevented immigration officers from detaining a local man. Protestors sat on the ground in front of the van he was held in for hours, shouting “Let him go!”. From Pollokshields to Peckham, over the last couple of years we’ve seen how people can come together to physically stop immigration raids in their communities and protect their neighbours. But with the government giving the police more powers to crack down on protests, will actions like these be able to continue? What is happening to civil liberties in the UK? And who is fighting back? Ayeisha is joined by Zehrah Hasan advocacy director at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) and Charlie Whelton, policy and campaigns officer at Liberty (@zedhas3 and @cwhelton on Twitter). Want to join the movement? You can get involved with groups like: - JCWI jcwi.org.uk - Liberty libertyhumanrights.org.uk - Migrants Organise migrantsorganise.org - SOAS Detainee Support soasdetaineesupport.co.uk - Stop Deportations @StpDeportations on Twitter - Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants lgsmigrants.com Further reading: - Who’s Paying The Price? The Human Cost Of The Rwanda Scheme by Medical justice medicaljustice.org.uk/whos-paying-the-price-report-released/ - The gal-dem guide to stopping a deportation flight by Zehrah Hasan gal-dem.com/guide-stopping-deportation-flight-immigration/ ----- Music by Chad Crouch and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 28 Oct 2022 - 47min - 215 - How we win a new economy - fixing the housing crisis with social homes
Note to listeners: this episode was prerecorded in September 2022. The cost of living scandal could force 1.7 million households into homelessness this winter, according to the charity Crisis. In the UK, we can no longer rely on social housing to protect people from sleeping rough or sofa-surfing. If you were alive in 1979, you had a 40% chance of living in an affordable council home. Today, that figure is just under 8%. What happened to all our council houses? Did Thatcher’s right to buy policy create the housing crisis we see today? And how would our lives be different if we could depend on warm, comfortable social homes? Ayeisha is joined by Becki Winson, NEF senior organiser and Suzanne Muna, secretary of the Social Housing Action Campaign (SHAC) (@RebeccaWinson and @Muna_Suz on Twitter) -Join NEF's Homes for Us Campaign https://homesforus.org.uk/ -Find out more about SHAC and get involved https://shaction.org/ ----- Music by Broke for Free and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 14 Oct 2022 - 38min - 214 - How we win a new economy - solving the cost of living and climate crises together
Note to listeners: this episode was prerecorded in August 2022. 2022: a year of extremes. During the 40 degree summer heat, roads melted and railway lines buckled. The London Fire Brigade had its busiest day since the Blitz as record temperatures led to hundreds of fires across the city. When it finally rained a month later, the Met Office warned of flood risk. But after a dangerously hot summer, we’re now worrying about whether we can afford our energy bills during a long, cold winter. This was the year that the climate crisis collided with the scandalously high cost of living. But how are the two related? Why are fossil fuel companies making bumper profits while the rest of us are worried about paying our bills? And can we stay warm while making sure oil and gas stay safely under the North Sea? Ayeisha is joined by Mika Minio-Paluello, climate and industry lead at the Trades Union Congress and Tessa Khan, environmental lawyer and founder and director of Uplift. -Want to join a union? You can find the right one for you on the TUC website: https://www.tuc.org.uk/joinunion - Get involved with the Stop Cambo/Jackdaw and Warm this Winter campaigns: https://www.stopcambo.org.uk/ and https://www.warmthiswinter.org.uk/ ----- Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 30 Sep 2022 - 44min - 213 - How we win a new economy – a hot strike summer?
Note to listeners: this episode was prerecorded in August 2022. As the first week of rail strikes came to an end in June, Google searches for the phrase “join union” had increased by 184%. News channels and politicians didn’t seem to know what to make of the broad public support for the striking rail workers. Inspired by the RMT union, the unrest spread: criminal barristers, BT workers, posties and teachers are just some of the people exploring strike action. After decades of union busting, wage stagnation and decimated rights, are workers finally saying enough is enough? Why has the public suddenly got behind striking workers? And what would happen if we held a general strike? Ayeisha is joined by the TUC's Sian Elliot and Sarah Jaffe, journalist and author of “Work Won’t Love You Back”(@SianCElliott and @sarahljaffe on Twitter). -Find out more about Sarah's work at https://workwontloveyouback.org/ -Want to join a union? You can find the right one for you on the TUC website https://www.tuc.org.uk/joinunion ----- Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 16 Sep 2022 - 45min - 212 - How we win a new economy - the end of neoliberalism?
In this mini-series of the New Economics Podcast, we’ll discover how our economy has been run over the past few years - and look at the key battlegrounds for those fighting to change the rules. Over the last few years, neoliberalism – the economic model that has dominated since Margaret Thatcher was PM – has taken a hit. Big spending and state intervention have been the name of the game, as the government scrambled to get to grips with the pandemic. While Boris Johnson gets ready to pack up his things, we still don’t know who will be replacing him in Number 10. The two final contenders, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, have been described in the press as “channelling the blue-suited ghost of Thatcher”. So, have the last few years solidified a new kind of economic mainstream? Or will Johnsonism be swept aside once the new PM has unpacked their toothbrush? In the first episode of this special mini-series we’re asking: has neoliberalism hit the buffers? Ayeisha is joined by Ellie Mae O’Hagan and Laurie Macfarlane (@elliemaeohagan and @L__Macfarlane on Twitter). -Read Laurie's piece with Christine Berry for Renewal on the Conservative's political economy: https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/renewal/vol-30-issue-2/abstract-9553/ -More on the Race Class Narrative here: https://classonline.org.uk/pubs/item/the-uk-race-class-narrative-report ----- Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 02 Sep 2022 - 47min - 211 - How did the British Empire write the rules of today’s economy?
Outside of the frenzied headlines about woke warriors cancelling Jane Austen and stately homes, we’re living in a period of renewed consideration of Britain’s colonial history. The British Empire began before the English Civil War, and shaped our country for 400 years. At its height, it covered almost a quarter of the entire world’s population. Beyond statues and street names, how is the empire still shaping our lives today? Ayeisha is joined by Dr Kojo Koram, lecturer in law at Birkbeck and author of Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire. - Grab a copy of the book here: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/kojo-koram/uncommon-wealth/9781529338652/ - Further reading from Perry Anderson here: https://www.versobooks.com/authors/81-perry-anderson - And from Tom Nairn here: https://www.versobooks.com/authors/821-tom-nairn - More from Kojo here: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745342047/empires-endgame/ ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 30 May 2022 - 49min - 210 - Who owns the internet?
What do you get the guy who has everything? A 44 billion dollar social media platform apparently. Elon Musk has already been accused of union busting, shot a car into space, and become the world’s richest man. So what’s next on his to-do list? Buying Twitter of course! From Mark Zuckerberg to Elon Musk, should we be worried that our online lives are in the hands of a few super-rich men? Will cryptocurrencies and Web3 make the internet good again? And what would a people-powered internet really look like? Ayeisha is joined by Dr James Muldoon, senior lecturer in political science at the University of Exeter and Head of Digital Research at the Autonomy think tank. You can grab a copy of James' book Platform Socialism: How to Reclaim our Digital Future from Big Tech here: http://www.plutobooks.com/9780745346977/platform-socialism/ ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 16 May 2022 - 46min - 209 - What did Covid-19 reveal about how our economy is really run?
In the early months of the pandemic, the government shut down whole sectors of the economy and started paying the wages of a huge proportion of Brits. Some worked from home, juggling homeschooling their kids and figuring out how to use Zoom. Others risked their health to travel to work. Meanwhile Big Tech and outsourcing companies raked in money through government contracts. What can we learn from moments when the predictable rules of economic life are suspended? Who wins and who loses in these points of crisis? And has the pandemic pushed us into a new form of capitalism? Ayeisha is joined by Sahil Dutta and Nick Taylor, lecturers in political economy at Goldsmiths University to discuss their new book "Unprecedented? How Covid-19 revealed the politics of our economy" - The book written alongside Will Davies and Martina Tazzioli is out now: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691630/unprecedented-by-william-davies-sahil-jai-dutta-nick-taylor-and-martina-tazzioli/ - Find out more about Sahil and Nick's work here: https://www.perc.org.uk/ - Further reading on the care crisis and coronavirus by Emma Dowling here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/4031-the-care-crisis ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by C. Scott and Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Tue, 03 May 2022 - 45min - 208 - What does the Sunak scandal tell us about our tax system?
A few weeks ago the chancellor presided over a spring budget which ushered in the fastest drop in living standards on record, as he told us that we “can’t protect everyone”. But this week it was revealed that his wife has avoided paying around £20 million in tax, due to her non-dom status. Accused of “rank hypocrisy” by Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak’s popularity has certainly been dented. The Sunak family hasn’t broken the law - but what does that say about the laws that govern who has to pay tax? What’s wrong with our tax system, when the chancellor can raise taxes on working people on one hand, and benefit from tax avoidance on the other? And what would fairer taxes really look like? Ayeisha is joined by Tom Peters, head of advocacy at Tax Justice UK. ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by David Powell. Music by Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Tue, 19 Apr 2022 - 34min - 207 - The UK's response to the refugee crisis
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, over 4 million people have fled the country. Earlier this month Priti Patel announced a visa application centre had been established en route to Calais for Ukrainians trying to come to the UK. But the centre never existed. Days later, the Home Office said it was actually in Lille, but would not reveal where. Officials then claimed that refugees in Calais could get free Eurostar tickets to travel to the centre - despite the fact that the Eurostar does not stop in Calais. A day later the centre was moved from Lille to a town 30 miles away. Why has the government response been so chaotic? What are the barriers for refugees travelling to the UK? And with an anti-refugee bill moving through Parliament, what does this mean for how we treat refugees in the future? Ayeisha is joined by Bella Sankey, director of Detention Action. Find out more about Detention Action and how you can support its work here: https://detentionaction.org.uk/ ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Ketsa and Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 04 Apr 2022 - 33min - 206 - Are fossil fuels funding the war in Ukraine?
At the time of recording, hundreds, and possibly thousands, of civilians have been killed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and more than 2.5m Ukranians have fled the country. The Russian army has been accused of war crimes after bombing a maternity hospital in the south. Allies of the Ukrainian president say that Russia will only back down if Europe bans the import of Russian oil and gas. But what do oil and gas have to do with the war in Ukraine? Will banning Russian fossil fuels really make Putin reconsider? And what does all this mean for soaring energy bills in the UK? Ayeisha is joined by Svitlana Romanko, Ukrainian environmental lawyer, climate activist and strategist, and spokesperson for Stand With Ukraine, and Tessa Khan, Founder and Director of Uplift, and previous guest of the podcast. - You can sign on to the Stand with Ukraine campaign here: https://www.with-ukraine.org/ - Find out more about the Putin100 campaign: https://putin100.org/#why - Read the IEA's 10-Point Plan to Reduce the European Union’s Reliance on Russian Natural Gas: https://www.iea.org/reports/a-10-point-plan-to-reduce-the-european-unions-reliance-on-russian-natural-gas - Write to your MP ahead of the spring statement to demand a Great Homes Upgrade: https://greathomesupgrade.org/campaigns/call-for-a-great-homes-upgrade-this-budget - Find out more about the Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance: https://beyondoilandgasalliance.com/ - More on the The Global Gas & Oil Network here: https://ggon.org/ - Endorse the Fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty: https://fossilfueltreaty.org/ - Visit the Reclaim Finance website: https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/home/ - Follow Stop Cambo on Twitter: https://twitter.com/StopCambo - Tessa can be found at https://twitter.com/tessakhan ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Chris Zabriskie and Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 21 Mar 2022 - 40min - 205 - Tackling the cost of living crisis
2022 has been dubbed the ‘year of the squeeze’ by the Resolution Foundation. In April, soaring energy bills will collide with tax increases for working people. Last month grocery prices rose at their fastest rate in eight years, and inflation is at its highest level in almost three decades. When the media talk about the ‘cost of living crisis’, what do they mean? How did we end up in a country with more food banks than branches of McDonalds? And what can the government do to make sure everyone can afford life’s essentials? Ayeisha is joined by NEF's Alfie Stirling and Sabine Goodwin, coordinator of the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN). Some of the clips used in this episode are from IFAN members, supporting people in food banks across the country. Thanks to Mairi McCallum, Joyce Leggate, Charlotte White, Betty Grant and Rajesh Makwana for sharing your experiences with us. - If you’d like to get involved in NEF’s campaign for income support, head over to the Living Income website: https://livingincome.org.uk/ - Read Pushed to the Edge: poverty, food banks and mental health, a new report by Tom Pollard and co-produced with the IFAN and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation: https://www.foodaidnetwork.org.uk/blog/mental-health ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Chris Zabriskie and Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 07 Mar 2022 - 44min - 204 - Tackling the energy crisis
Families are bracing for less and less money to get by as energy bills rise this spring. In the fifth richest country in the world, pensioners are skipping meals so they can afford their heating bills, and parents are only switching the heating on when their children are at home. At the same time, fossil fuel companies like BP and Shell made their biggest profit in years. What do these two things have to do with each other? Why are energy bills soaring? And what can the government do to make sure everyone can afford to heat their homes? We’re no longer the Weekly Economics Podcast because episodes will now be coming to you every fortnight. But as always we’ll be discussing the more important economic issues with a variety of interesting voices. For the first episode of the New Economics Podcast, Ayeisha is joined by Dr Joseph Baines, senior lecturer in international political economy at King’s College London and Abby Jitendra, principal policy manager on energy at Citizens Advice. -If you're worried about paying your energy bills, you can get in touch with Citizens Advice on their website: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/ -To get involved in NEF’s campaign to retrofit Britain’s cold and draughty homes, head over to the Great Homes Upgrade website: https://greathomesupgrade.org/ ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Bobby Richards and Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 21 Feb 2022 - 41min - 203 - Closing the Covid-19 vaccination gap
Coronavirus cases are once again rising in Europe and across the world. The World Health Organisation has said that countries shouldn’t be giving out booster jabs for the rest of the year, but in the UK we’re offering third shots to people as young as 40. Meanwhile, only 3% of people in low-income countries have had a single dose. Covid vaccines may have prevented hundreds of thousands of deaths in the UK, but who is missing out on the global vaccine rollout? Why can’t poorer countries get hold of the Covid vaccine? And how can we change the rules of our international economy so that everyone is protected during the pandemic? For the last episode of the series, Ayeisha is joined by Achal Prabhala, writer, researcher, and coordinator of the AccessIBSA project, and Saiorse Fitzpatrick, advocacy manager at STOPAIDS. - Listen to a previous episode on vaccine nationalism with Miriam Brett and Tahir Amin https://neweconomics.org/2021/02/weekly-economics-podcast-vaccine-nationalism - Read more about the WTO proposal by India and South Africa to temporarily waive intellectual property on Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and related technologies. Talks on this due to take place in Geneva on the 30th November have now been postponed. https://www.twn.my/title2/intellectual_property/trips_waiver_proposal.htm - Support the People's Vaccine https://peoplesvaccine.org/ - Follow STOPAIDS on Twitter - the hashtag for the ice cream action Ayeisha mentioned in this episode is #Iscreamvaccine https://twitter.com/STOPAIDS - For more from Achal, head to the AccessIBSA website https://accessibsa.org/ - For more on Covid-19 vaccines, the TRIPS waiver and more, go to the Third World Network website https://www.twn.my/ ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Asthmatic Astronaut and Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 29 Nov 2021 - 45min - 202 - The future of work
A record number of employees have quit their jobs in recent months, in what’s been dubbed the Great Resignation. Newspapers report that it’s part of post-Covid demand for flexible working and better work life balance. After last year, where up to a quarter of the UK workforce was paid not to work through the furlough scheme, are we reassessing our relationship to our jobs? How does work impact our health and sense of self? And should we improve our working conditions - or try to abolish work altogether? Ayeisha is joined by Amelia Horgan, assistant lecturer at the school of philosophy and art history, University of Essex, and author of Lost in Work. - Grab a copy of Amelia's book: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745340913/lost-in-work/ - Listen back to past episodes on outsourcing and the impacts of the economy on mental health: https://neweconomics.org/section/podcasts - Read Ayeisha's piece for the second issue of the New Economics Zine: https://neweconomics.org/2020/10/this-is-your-brain-on-neoliberalism - Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/103/1038399/the-second-sex/9780099595731.html - Find out more about Lauren Berlant's Cruel Optimism: https://www.dukeupress.edu/cruel-optimism - Take a look at the Antiwork subreddit here: https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/ - Read Capital Realism by Mark Fisher: https://bookshop.org/books/capitalist-realism-is-there-no-alternative/9781846943171 ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 19 Nov 2021 - 37min - 201 - Is our digital economy breeding misogyny?
In August this year Jake Davison, a 22-year-old from Plymouth, went on a shooting rampage that left six dead, including his mother and himself. In the aftermath it emerged that Davison had been a member of ‘incel’ forums online. He’s not the first mass shooter to have links to online groups espousing extreme hatred of women. Since Elliot Rodger killed six people in California in 2014, self-proclaimed ‘involuntary celibates’ have carried out multiple mass murders, mostly in North America. What’s driving this extreme misogyny? Is incel ideology on the rise? And are Big Tech companies to blame for allowing these groups to thrive online? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined Debbie Ging, associate professor in the school of communications at Dublin City University. - Find out more about Zizi Papacharissi's work on affective publics oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/1…999736 - Michael Kimmel's book Angry White Men is available here uk.bookshop.org/books/angry-white…era/9781568589619 - Read Amnesty's report on Toxic Twitter www.amnesty.org/en/latest/researc…-women-chapter-1/ - The New Patriarchs of Digital Capitalism by Ben Little and Alison Winch is available here www.routledge.com/The-New-Patriarc…ok/9780367260156 - Find out more about Debbie Ging's work www.dcu.ie/communications/people/debbie-ging ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Poddington Bear and Chris Zabriskie under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 12 Nov 2021 - 47min - 200 - Trans Liberation
If you read mainstream media coverage of the issues facing transgender people in the UK, you’ll see a lot of fevered discussion of pronouns, bathroom access, and confusing legislation like the Gender Recognition Act. The media tells one story - but the other side of the coin is that half of trans people in the UK are unemployed and one in four have experienced direct healthcare discrimination. When we focus on bathrooms and pronouns, what other conversations are shut down? What are the economic issues facing trans people today? And is trans liberation really a class issue? Ayeisha is joined by Nim Ralph, community activist, writer, trainer and facilitator. - Read Fergal O'Dwyer's interview with Nim in the third issue of the New Economics Zine: neweconomics.org/2021/08/why-trans-liberation-is-a-class-issue - Read the Albert Kennedy lgbtq+ youth homelessness report: https://www.akt.org.uk/report - Find gal-dem's investigation into transphobia in the gender-based violence sector here: https://gal-dem.com/transphobia-in-sexual-violence-services/ - Grab a copy of Shon Faye's new book, The Transgender Issue: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/315/315349/the-transgender-issue/9780241423141.html ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Poddington Bear and Chris Zabriskie under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 05 Nov 2021 - 53min - 199 - Is austerity back?
At the height of the pandemic, politicians promised to do whatever it took to keep the economy going, and introduced emergency support like the furlough scheme. But now those measures have been cut and the conversation has turned to “fixing the public finances”, ending “reckless borrowing'' and preventing “soaring debt”. The word austerity hasn’t featured yet but it’s all feeling a bit familiar, isn’t it? So, what do these phrases actually mean? Should we really be worried about things like government borrowing and public debt? And what are some of the alternative ways of thinking about our economy? Ayeisha is joined by Dora Meade, head of messaging at the New Economy Organisers Network (NEON), and Frank van Lerven, senior economist at NEF. ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Poddington Bear and Christian Bjoerklund under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Tue, 26 Oct 2021 - 42min - 198 - What really happens at a UN climate summit?
In a few weeks’ time, 25,000 people will descend on Glasgow. They are coming for the UN climate summit, also known as Cop26. The delegates might not have the pleasure of sampling the city’s mac-and-cheese pies or a dram of whiskey. Instead they will meet with others from around the world to try and agree new ways to bring down greenhouse-gas emissions. So what happens at a UN climate conference? Are negotiators in an events centre really going to stop runaway climate change? And what should we look out for once the Glasgow conference begins? Ayeisha is joined be Nathan Thanki, co-coordinator at the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice. - Find out more about the COP26 Coalition: https://cop26coalition.org/ ----- Music by Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 15 Oct 2021 - 47min - 197 - The Great Homes Upgrade
The UK has the draughtiest and oldest housing in Western Europe. And our gas boilers pump out twice as much carbon dioxide as all of the country’s power stations. Do we need to upgrade the UK’s homes? Why is our housing powering the climate crisis? And how can we make sure everyone’s home is warm, clean and green - whether we rent a flat or own a castle? Ayeisha is joined by Chaitanya Kumar, head of environment and the green transition at NEF, and Martin Heath, director of Basingstoke Energy Services Co-op. - Find out more about the Great Homes Upgrade campaign: https://greathomesupgrade.org/ ----- Music by Candlegravity and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 08 Oct 2021 - 35min - 196 - Can we prevent living standards plummeting this winter?
Over 11m people have been furloughed in the last 16 months, and almost 6m are currently on universal credit. But over the next week, the government’s main emergency policies to help people through the pandemic will end. People on furlough will find out if their jobs are still waiting for them, and people on universal credit will find their benefits cut by £20 a week. The government seems to be acting like we’re out of the woods of the pandemic - but are we really? With over a million people still furloughed, energy bills going up, and benefit cuts kicking in, what kind of winter are we facing? And how can we make sure everyone has enough to live on for the rest of the pandemic and beyond? Back with a brand new series, Ayeisha is joined by Kate Bell, head of rights, international, social and economics at the TUC, and NEF senior economist Sarah Arnold. - Read the TUC's proposal on a more progressive way to fund social care here: https://www.tuc.org.uk/research-analysis/reports/new-deal-social-care-new-deal-workforce - Read Sarah's piece on reforming our social security system here: https://neweconomics.org/2021/09/beyond-the-20-uplift-options-for-reforming-uc ----- Music by Chris Zabriskie and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 01 Oct 2021 - 32min - 195 - Where did our immigration system come from?
This week a controversial deportation flight took off for Jamaica. Legal challenges meant that only a tenth of the 90 people due to be deported were on the plane. The planned deportation included people whose lawyers said they had a right to stay in the UK under the Windrush rules, or who had arrived in the UK as children. Critics say that our immigration system is unnecessarily cruel. But what is its origin story? How has it changed over time? And what does it have to do with Britain’s colonial history? In this final episode of the series, Ayeisha is joined by Ian Sanjay Patel, LSE fellow in human rights and author of We’re Here Because You Were There: Immigration and the End of Empire. You can grab a copy of Ian's book here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3700-we-re-here-because-you-were-there ----- Music by Blue Dots Session and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 13 Aug 2021 - 40min - 194 - Fighting the climate crisis in the courts
With the COP26 global climate conference coming up later this year, we’re spending five episodes this series looking at pressing climate issues. In this episode we’re talking about taking the fossil fuel industry to court. Last week, a government spokesperson said that we should freeze leftover bread and stop rinsing dishes before we put them in the dishwasher to tackle the climate crisis. Meanwhile, the government has approved a new oil field in the North Sea that we’d need to reforest the whole of England in order to offset. Greenpeace has threatened the government with legal action over the new oil field, and they’re not the only ones trying to fight the climate crisis in the courts. So what legal challenges should we be paying attention to? How do they work? And what do they have to do with the climate movement at large? Ayeisha is joined by Tessa Khan, international climate change and human rights lawyer, and founder and director of Uplift. -Support the Stop Cambo (https://twitter.com/StopCambo) and Paid to Pollute (https://twitter.com/paidtopollute) campaigns -Read up on the successful lawsuit against Shell in the Hague https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/may/26/court-orders-royal-dutch-shell-to-cut-carbon-emissions-by-45-by-2030 -Find out more about the ongoing case against RWE https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/04/global-heating-to-blame-for-threat-of-deadly-flood-in-peru-study-says ----- Music by Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 06 Aug 2021 - 31min - 193 - Fast Fashion
With the COP26 global climate conference coming up later this year, we’re spending five episodes this series looking at pressing climate issues. In this episode we’re talking fast fashion. Summer is here and Love Island is all over the telly. The show’s sexy singles are competing for big prize money, and the inevitable sponsorship deals with fast fashion brands like Shein, Boohoo and Pretty Little Thing. But these companies have been accused of exploiting their workers and polluting the environment. Our t-shirt label might say ‘made in China’, but the raw materials and finished product have often travelled around the globe before it ends up in our wardrobes. How have we ended up with such a complicated system? What are the costs for our environment, and the people who make our clothes? And what can the fashion industry tell us about how our global economy works? In this episode Ayeisha is joined by Maxine Bédat, director of New Standard Institute and author of Unraveled: the life and death of a garment. - Grab a copy of Maxine's book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/611479/unraveled-by-maxine-bedat/ - Find out more about the New Standard Institute: https://www.newstandardinstitute.org/ ----- Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Tue, 03 Aug 2021 - 51min - 192 - How can we tackle the climate crisis while levelling up?
With the COP26 global climate conference coming up later this year, we’re spending five episodes this series looking at some of the biggest climate issues. In this episode we’re talking about a just transition. Last week, the prime minister travelled to Coventry to set out his post-pandemic vision for the country. It was anticipated as a flagship moment for the government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda, but critics decried the speech as all talk, no action. This comes a month after the Committee on Climate Change said the UK is facing a similar problem when it comes to achieving our net zero targets: lots of ambition, but no detailed plans to get there. So, we need more action on tackling inequality and the climate crisis, but can we do both at the same time? How do we ensure communities aren’t left behind in the move to a low-carbon economy? And what does a successful green transition actually look like for workers in high-carbon industries? Kirsty Styles is back in the presenting seat covering for Ayeisha. She's is joined by Luke Murphy, head of the environmental justice commission and associate director at the Institute for Public Policy Research, and Rebekah Diski, senior researcher at NEF. - For some similar themes, listen back to the episode with Alice Bell on Greenwashing https://soundcloud.com/weeklyeconomicspodcast/greenwashing - Find out more about IPPR’s Environmental Justice Commission https://www.ippr.org/research/publications/fairness-and-opportunity - Read NEF’s analysis on potential job losses in aviation https://neweconomics.org/2020/06/at-least-70-000-jobs-in-aviation-and-aviation-supply-chains-at-risk - Read NEF’s report Powering the Just Transition https://neweconomics.org/2021/06/powering-the-just-transition ----- Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 23 Jul 2021 - 36min - 191 - A climate conversation between two generations
With the COP26 global climate conference coming up later this year, we’re going to spend five episodes this series looking at some of the biggest climate issues. We kicked things off last week with Alice Bell explaining everything you need to know about greenwashing. This week the conversation is about the climate movement with activists from two generations. The modern environmental movement has been around for over 50 years. And over the last couple, it’s been reinvigorated by a new generation of young student climate strikers. After a deadly heatwave swept the western US and Canada, and temperatures in Jacobabad, Pakistan soared to a life-threatening 52 degrees last week, how can activists communicate the connection between these events and the climate crisis? Is the new wave of activists more willing to talk about colonialism and capitalism? And what challenges is the climate movement facing today? This week, we’re hosting a conversation between climate activists from two different generations. One is Ann Pettifor, director of PRIME and the author of The Case for the Green New Deal, and the other is Izzy Warren, teenage climate activist and member of the UK Student Climate Network. - Find out more about the Green New Deal Group https://greennewdealgroup.org/ - Read The Case for a Green New Deal by Ann Pettifor https://www.versobooks.com/books/3102-the-case-for-the-green-new-deal - Visit the Rainforest Action Network's website https://www.ran.org/ - More on the Jubilee 2000 campaign here https://www.advocacyinternational.co.uk/featured-project/jubilee-2000 - Read Izzy Warren's blog on the Science museum occupation https://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/06/21/greenwashing-shell-science-museum-failing-young-people/ - More from Ann Pettifor on the Prime Economics website https://www.primeeconomics.org/ - Follow the UK Student Climate Network (@UKSCN1) and the UK Student Climate Network London (@ukscn_london) on Twitter ----- Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 09 Jul 2021 - 42min - 190 - Greenwashing
With the COP26 global climate conference coming up later this year, we’re going to spend the next five episodes of the podcast looking at some of the biggest climate issues – starting this week with greenwashing. Last month 20 young people and scientists attempted to occupy London’s Science Museum. They were protesting the fact that a new exhibition on the climate crisis was being sponsored by Shell. Protestors accused Shell of using their sponsorship to ‘greenwash’ its reputation. The occupation ended after the museum swiftly called 40 police officers out to remove them. Greenpeace has recently said that we’re living in “a golden age of greenwashing” and the Treasury set up a new group to clamp down on the practice in the financial sector. But what is greenwashing? Why are companies like Coca Cola and H&M suddenly desperate to prove their green credentials? And is it lulling us into a false sense of security that we’re tackling the climate crisis? Ayeisha is joined by Alice Bell, director of communications at Possible and author of the upcoming book, Our Biggest Experiment: A History of the Climate Crisis which is available to pre-order now: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/our-biggest-experiment-9781472974778/ ----- Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 02 Jul 2021 - 36min - 189 - The Police Bill
Throughout the spring, hundreds of thousands of people across the country marched, signed petitions, and spoke out against the catchily-titled Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. Critics say the Bill would curb our freedom of speech and assembly by giving the police new powers to crack down on protest. The Bill was successfully delayed - but it’s due to resurface in Parliament next week. So what’s actually in the Police Bill? How will it affect Black and other people of colour? And why is the government pushing it through Parliament now? Ayeisha is joined by Zehrah Hasan, barrister, & founding member and director of Black Protest Legal Support and Becka Hudson, PhD researcher at UCL and Birkbeck, and criminal justice campaigner. -Read Who dreamt up the police bill? The police, of course by Same Knights https://novaramedia.com/2021/03/25/who-dreamt-up-the-police-bill-the-police-of-course/ -Find out more about Black Protest Legal Support and follow them on Twitter https://blackprotestlaw.org/ @blkprotestlegal -Follow Legal Sector Workers United (UVW) on Twitter @LSWUnited -For updates on Kill the Bill actions, follow Sisters Uncut @SistersUncut and Black Lives Matter UK @ukblm -Find out more about the 4FRONT project https://www.4frontproject.org/ ----- Music by Candlegravity, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 18 Jun 2021 - 51min - 188 - Culture Wars
This week, the front page of the Daily Mail screamed “Outrage as Oxford students plan to axe queen”. In reality, a group of postgrads voted to take down a portrait of the queen in a single common room, in a single Oxford college, because of the portrait’s association with the UK’s colonial history. Whether it’s the interior decor of student common rooms or athletes taking the knee in support of Black Lives Matter, by the time you listen to this podcast, new outrages are constantly emerging. How did we get here? In the middle of a pandemic, why do these debates take up so much media space? And how should progressives respond? The Weekly Economics Podcast is back and for the first episode of the new series, Ayeisha is joined by Hanna Thomas Uose, principal consultant at Align and David Wearing, senior teaching fellow at SOAS and associate lecturer at Birkbeck. -Read the report "Divide and Rule: How the 'culture wars' are a reactionary backlash constructed to distract us, and how to respond" by NEON and Align https://neweconomyorganisers.org/divide-and-rule-how-the-culture-wars-are-a-reactionary-backlash-constructed-to-distract-us-and-how-to-respond/ -For similar themes, listen back to the Weekly Economics Podcast on the future of conservatism https://neweconomics.org/2019/07/weekly-economics-podcast-the-new-prime-minister -Watch Akala discussing knife crime on GMB https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvS78MlAXAQ -Read the Parekh Report by the Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain https://www.runnymedetrust.org/companies/29/74/Future-of-Multi-Ethnic-Britain-The.html -Grab a copy of David's book "AngloArabiaWhy Gulf Wealth Matters to Britain" https://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509532032 ------ Music by Blue Dot Sessions under Creative Commons license. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 11 Jun 2021 - 43min - 187 - What will Biden’s America look like?
There’s a new president in the Oval Office and he’s ready to make some changes. Joe Biden wants the start of his presidency to be defined by rejoining the Paris climate agreement, vaccinating the country against Covid-19, and pulling the American economy out of a crisis. But will this be enough to tackle the problems that led to the Trump presidency? Is Biden too concerned about building bridges with the Republican Party? And is America finally ready to start taking the climate emergency seriously? In the final episode of this series, Ayeisha is joined by Kate Aronoff, staff writer at the New Republic, and author of the upcoming book Overheated: how capitalism broke the planet - and how we fight back. Kate's book is out in the UK on the 13th May: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kate-aronoff/overheated/9781568589473/?lens=bold-type-books ----- Music by Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 - 42min - 186 - Changing the rules of our economy to stop environmental breakdown
There are just eight months left until the UK hosts the UN Climate Conference. And despite Boris Johnson’s insistence that we will have a green recovery from the pandemic, in the last month there have been a number of climate related controversies, including around the construction of a new coal mine in Cumbria, the Leeds Bradford airport expansion, and plans to cut air passenger duty on domestic flights. Why can’t the economic status quo deal with the climate emergency? What has the fresh attention on climate actually achieved? And what can the pandemic teach us about the climate crisis? In this episode Ayeisha is joined by Laurie Laybourn-Langton, co-author of the new book Planet On Fire, and NEF trustee. -Planet on Fire by Mathew Lawrence and Laurie Laybourn-Langton is out on the 20th April, you can preorder a copy on the Verso website: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3702-planet-on-fire -Find out more about Laurie's work here: https://laurielaybourn.com/ -Head to the Common Wealth website to read about all the work Mathew Lawrence is doing on democratic ownership: https://www.common-wealth.co.uk/ ----- Music by Christian Bjoerklund and Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 19 Mar 2021 - 47min - 185 - How can we make sure everyone has enough to live on?
Last week a video circulated of 800 people queuing for a food bank in Wembley. Volunteers at the London Community Kitchen said that the number was not uncommon. In Rishi Sunak’s recent budget, he announced that the furlough scheme and the temporary £20 increase to universal credit would continue until the autumn. But even with these measures, it’s obvious that huge numbers of people in the UK are struggling. Furlough has held back a wave of unemployment - but what happens when the scheme ends? Will some jobs not come back after the pandemic? And what about the estimated 3 million people who’ve fallen through the cracks of the government’s Covid support? In this episode Ayeisha is joined by NEF CEO Miatta Fahnbulleh and Sonali Joshi, co-founder of Excluded UK. -For more on NEF's work around strengthening our social security system, head to our website: https://neweconomics.org/campaigns/living-income -More on info about Excluded UK available on their website https://www.excludeduk.org/excluded-uk-an-inclusive-alliance-for-the-excluded ----- Music by Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 12 Mar 2021 - 38min - 184 - Why should we care what big tech does with our data?
From the A-level algorithm scandal, to parents taking on YouTube, to making Facebook and Google pay for news, people are fighting back against the way big tech companies and governments use our data. So what are companies like Google and Facebook actually doing with our personal data? Is the pandemic being used to surrender our data to private companies? And what role can big tech workers and users play in fighting back? In this episode Ayeisha is joined by Duncan McCann, senior researcher at NEF, Carissa Veliz, associate professor at the Faculty of Philosophy and the Institute for Ethics in AI at Oxford University and Cori Crider, lawyer, investigator and co-founder of Foxglove. -You can read more about Carissa's work, including a survey she did with Siân Brooke on privacy-related negative experiences, on her website https://www.carissaveliz.com/research -Read the article in Glamour Magazine on the risks of 'sharenting' https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/child-privacy-social-media-risks -For more on some of the issues discussed, listen back to this episode of the podcast from 2019 with Safiya Umoja Noble, author of Algorithms of Oppression https://neweconomics.org/2019/05/weekly-economics-podcast-algorithms-of-oppression-live -Duncan's work on data and privacy can be found on the NEF website https://neweconomics.org/profile/duncan-mccann -Watch James Bridle's TED talk on the way YouTube is targeting children with its content here https://www.ted.com/talks/james_bridle_the_nightmare_videos_of_children_s_youtube_and_what_s_wrong_with_the_internet_today -Read more about Duncan's case against YouTube for the above https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54140676 -You can preorder Carissa's book Privacy is Power now https://www.carissaveliz.com/books -Head to the Foxglove website to find out more about how Cori and others are standing up to big tech https://www.foxglove.org.uk/ ----- Music by SANMI and Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 08 Mar 2021 - 52min - 183 - What's Brexit done to fishing and farming?
We were supposed to have cast off the shackles of EU rules around farming and fishing. Brexit was sold as a ‘sea of opportunity’. And yet, tonnes of British meat have been left rotting at European ports, while Scottish fishers have had to make a 72-hour round trip to land their catch in Denmark. The PM has said these are just “teething problems”. But are they really? What’s it been like for UK fishers and farmers since we left the EU? And is there a chance we can use Brexit to make our food system better? In this episode, Ayeisha is joined by Chris Williams, NEF Associate Fellow. -To hear more from small-scale fishers on their hopes and concerns for the industry post-Brexit, watch this video: https://neweconomics.org/2018/10/fishing-after-brexit-voices-from-the-coast -You can also listen to Chris talking to fishermen about their experiences on this Radio 4 documentary: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000rm92 -Find out more about the Eastbourne Fishing Quay on our website: https://neweconomics.org/2020/08/light-on-the-horizon-the-story-of-the-eastbourne-fishing-quay -If you just can’t get enough Brexit chat, make sure you revisit our Brexit episode from last series, with Marley Morris of IPPR: https://neweconomics.org/2020/10/weekly-economics-podcast-whats-going-on-with-brexit -For fishing puns and more, Chris is on Twitter at @MarineEconomics ----- Music by Blue Dot Session and Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Tue, 02 Mar 2021 - 31min - 182 - Vaccine Nationalism
By the middle of January, 49 wealthy countries had administered 39 million doses of the Covid vaccine. But the world’s poorest countries had only done 25 jabs, all of them in just one country: Guinea. Not 25 million, not 25,000 - just 25. Why can’t some countries get hold of the vaccine? Why are rich countries buying more doses than they need? And are we seeing the rise of ‘vaccine nationalism’? In this episode, Ayeisha is joined by Miriam Brett, director of research and advocacy at Common Wealth and Tahir Amin, co-executive director of Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge. -For more, read Common Wealth's report on what's wrong with our IP system: https://www.common-wealth.co.uk/interactive-digital-projects/ip-infogram -And Tahir's piece for Foreign Affairs is available here: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2021-01-29/folly-hoarding-knowledge-covid-19-age ----- Music by Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 15 Feb 2021 - 39min - 181 - Is outsourcing out of control?
Meagre food packages for kids on free school meals. A £22bn track and trace system that isn’t fit for purpose. And people asked to travel hundreds of miles for a Covid test. What do all of these things have in common? They’ve all been outsourced to the private sector. But why are these vital services being run by the private sector? Are the allegations of cronyism true? And who’s making money out of all this? Ayeisha is joined by New Statesman’s Britain editor, Anoosh Chakelian and David Hall, founder of the Public Services International Research Unit at the University of Greenwich. For more on this area, you can listen to a previous episode we did with Cat Hobbs, director of We Own It campaign, Hilary Wainwright, co-editor of Red Pepper magazine and Sahil Dutta from Goldsmiths University on Public Ownership: https://soundcloud.com/weeklyeconomicspodcast/public-ownership-20 ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 05 Feb 2021 - 39min - 180 - Exposing the truth about modern slavery
From Sports Direct warehouses to nail bars, awareness-raising campaigns warn that modern slavery is happening all around us. Over Christmas, fashion brand Boohoo cut ties with 64 garment suppliers in Leicester after it came out that factories were paying their workers as little as £3.50 an hour. And this month the foreign secretary said he would clamp down on companies who used forced labour in their supply chains. But how useful is the concept of ‘modern slavery’? What kinds of exploitation does it disguise? And what does it say about how we’ve designed our economy? For the first episode of a new series of the Weekly Economics Podcast, Ayeisha is joined by Emily Kenway, author of new book The Truth About Modern Slavery. Grab a copy of Emily's book, out now with Pluto Books: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745341224/the-truth-about-modern-slavery/ ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 29 Jan 2021 - 40min - 179 - Finding hope during and after the pandemic
Joe Biden has defeated Donald Trump to win the US election. Test results from around the world suggest that a coronavirus vaccine is on the horizon. Over the past month there have been more bright spots than usual in a difficult, painful year. At the same time, with the number of coronavirus deaths at their highest since May, many parts of the country still subject to severe restrictions and unemployment skyrocketing, many of us are hesitant to declare that the worst days are behind us. So, how has this year affected our mental health? How can progressives stay well enough to fight for change? And have we forgotten how to feel hopeful? Ayeisha is joined by researcher and author, Christine Berry and Farzana Khan, executive director and co-founder of Healing Justice London. If you have been affected by anything discussed in this episode, you can contact the Samaritans for free at 116 123 or visit https://www.samaritans.org/ Further reading/watching from this episode: -The Impact of COVID 19 on Disabled Women from Sisters of Frida: http://www.sisofrida.org/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-disabled-women-from-sisters-of-frida/ -Healing Justice London: https://healingjusticeldn.org/ -NEON Movement Building Webinar on the History of Mutual Aid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDZzURoU9Z8&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=NEON -Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/hope-in-the-dark-untold-histories-wild-possibilities/9781782119074 -Joanna Macy, Active Hope https://uk.bookshop.org/books/active-hope-how-to-face-the-mess-we-re-in-without-going-crazy/9781577319726 ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Poddington Bear and Chris Zabriskie under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Tue, 01 Dec 2020 - 53min - 178 - Should we work less after the pandemic?
Setting up a desk area in the kitchen, Zoom call-induced headaches, or getting furloughed and paid to not do any work - this year has shaken up the world of work like never before. The pandemic has made us reimagine how work fits into our economy and our lives. So, with 79% of business leaders and nearly two-thirds of the public open to bringing in a shorter working week in light of the pandemic, should we be thinking more about working less? Could a shorter working week help us recover from coronavirus? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Alfie Stirling, NEF Director of Research and Chief Economist, and Anna Coote, Principal Fellow at NEF to discuss their new book with Aidan Harper, The Case for a Four-Day Week. The book will be out on the 27th November, go to the Polity website to grab a copy https://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509539642 ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Poddington Bear and Blue Dot Sessions under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 16 Nov 2020 - 38min - 177 - Should we shake up taxes to recover from the pandemic?
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said that Britain faces new tax rises in the wake of the pandemic. But over the summer Labour’s shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds warned against increasing taxes during an economic crisis. Meanwhile, new research has found that increasing numbers of Tory voters are in favour of higher taxes. So, what do Labour and the Conservatives think about tax rises? Should we be changing the tax system during a recession? And if taxes do rise, who should be paying the most? Ayeisha is joined by Robert Palmer, executive director of Tax Justice UK and Anoosh Chakelian, Britain editor at the New Statesman. -Find out more on Tax Justice UK's work on tax and public opinion here: https://www.taxjustice.uk/tax-and-public-opinion.html -Read the report Living on Different Incomes in London: Can public consensus identify a 'riches line'? https://www.trustforlondon.org.uk/publications/can-public-consensus-identify-a-riches-line/ ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Poddington Bear and Ketsa under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 06 Nov 2020 - 43min - 176 - The US election narrative war
The US presidential election is less than a fortnight away - and Donald Trump and Joe Biden are pulling out all the stops to get the votes. But after a chaotic debate forced moderators to cut the candidates’ mics to stop them interrupting each other, it’s hard to get a grip on what messages they’re trying to get across. How have the different campaigns been selling themselves? Will Biden’s attacks on Trump be a winning strategy? And how should progressives be pushing for change? Ayeisha is joined by communications expert and principle at ASO Communications, Anat Shenker-Osario. Resources available at https://asocommunications.com/ and https://raceclassnarrativeaction.com/ ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Poddington Bear and Chris Zabriskie under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 23 Oct 2020 - 46min - 175 - What's going on with Brexit?
Brexit - remember it? Way back in the distant past of 2019 it felt like it was all the newspapers could talk about. It might feel like it’s done and dusted, but the process is still rumbling on. We’ve got an Internal Market Bill that the government itself admits will break international law. MPs just voted through a Bill refusing to guarantee food and farming standards after we leave the EU. And apparently we’re moving the UK border to Kent. So, what exactly is going on? What will happen when the transition period ends on New Years Eve? And what does it all mean for the UK economy? Ayeisha is joined Marley Morris, Associate Director for Immigration, Trade and EU relations at the Institute for Public Policy Research. ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Poddington Bear and Christian Bjoerklund under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 16 Oct 2020 - 34min - 174 - Building a caring economy
“We want to build back greener as we recover from Covid-19” - that was the message this week at the Prime Minister’s Conservative Party Conference speech. But in all the talk of wind turbines and technology, the place of care in our economic recovery didn’t really get a look in. Why is care often so overlooked when we think about the economy? And how would our lives change if we put care at the centre of our economic decisions? Ayeisha is joined by Jo Littler, Professor of Social Analysis and Cultural Politics at City University of London, Marion Sharples, Project Manager and Researcher at the Women’s Budget Group and NEF Senior Economist, Sarah Arnold. The Care Manifesto: The Politics of Interdependence is available on the Verso website https://www.versobooks.com/books/3706-care-manifesto Read the final report of the Commission on a Gender-Equal Economy https://wbg.org.uk/commission/ ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Poddington Bear and Blue Dot Sessions under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 09 Oct 2020 - 34min - 173 - Is competition killing us?
Our track-and-trace system will be “world-beating”. The development of the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine is “months ahead” of its competitors around the world. This is how politicians and the media have been talking about our lines of defence against the coronavirus pandemic. But when facing up to a global problem that connects us all, why is competition the only language we have to talk about it? How has competition come to define our economy and society? What do we miss out on when we focus on competition? And is there a way out? Ayeisha is joined by Michelle Meagher, author of new book, Competition is Killing Us and Grace Blakeley, staff writer at Tribune and author of upcoming book, The Corona Crash: How the Pandemic will Change Capitalism. Grab a copy of Michelle's book https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/315/315772/competition-is-killing-us/9780241423011.html Grace's book is out on the 27th October https://www.versobooks.com/books/3723-the-corona-crash ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Tue, 06 Oct 2020 - 33min - 172 - Can unions transform the economy?
Amid the coronavirus crisis, the number of people becoming members of a union has skyrocketed. Unison reported 65,000 new members since the start of the year, and in the last six months, 50,000 people have joined the National Education Union. The TUC worked with the chancellor to create the furlough scheme, and teaching unions were partly responsible for the government U-turn over face masks in schools. It certainly looks like union influence has had a boost, as they fight against redundancies and for the health and safety of their members. But what about outside of the workplace? Can unions and their members change the rules of the economy? Ayeisha is joined by Alice Martin and Annie Quick, authors of Unions Renewed: Building Power in an Age of Finance. Grab a copy of the book at https://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509539116&subject_id=2 ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Poddington Bear and David Hillowitz, used under Creative Commons licence. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 25 Sep 2020 - 32min - 171 - Covid-19 and global capitalism
It’s a cliche by now to say that Covid-19 has upended our economy. Industries have ground to a halt, and are only just beginning to start up again. Just this week the UK plunged into recession, with the worst drop in GDP of any G7 nation. But what about outside the G7? How have the effects of Covid ricocheted around the global economy? In the last few episodes we’ve heard how Covid-19 has affected government spending, unemployment, and the hostile environment in the UK. For this episode, we want to look farther afield at how the pandemic is affecting economies across the world - especially in the Global South. Ayeisha is joined by Dr Tobias Franz, Lecturer in Economics at SOAS and Shreya Nanda, Economist at the Centre for Economic Justice at the Institute for Public Policy Research. ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Poddington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 14 Aug 2020 - 34min - 170 - How do we win a green recovery?
We’re facing two global crises. We have scientific evidence for how to deal with both of them, but governments aren’t acting quickly enough. They both show how we are all more connected than we previously thought. And to tackle them will require massive changes in how we run our economy. The first problem is Covid-19. The other, though it’s fallen off the front pages, is as urgent as ever: the climate crisis. How do we keep climate in the picture? Should we bail out struggling polluting industries? And how can we make sure our Covid recovery is green? In this episode of the Weekly Economics Podcast, Ayeisha is joined by Chaitanya Kumar, Head of Environment and the Green Transition at the New Economics Foundation and Fatima Zahra-Ibrahim, co-director of Green New Deal UK. Read new NEF report on decarbonising the Bank of England's corporate QE programme here: https://bit.ly/30yURpe Vice investigation into company bailouts is available here: https://bit.ly/33HFtcd Write to your MP to stop blank cheque bailouts on the Build Back Better website: https://bit.ly/30yRVZM ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Poddington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 07 Aug 2020 - 40min - 169 - Where does conservatism go next?
For most of the last decade, the Conservative government has said they want to cut government spending to balance the books as they rolled out austerity nationwide. But since the start of lockdown, something seems to have changed. The chancellor keeps saying “this is not the time for ideology” as he announces new, expensive schemes to keep the economy afloat. So - what’s going on? It’s not the first time that politicians have announced ‘the end of austerity’. But, with the government paying the wages of up to a third of the UK workforce through the furlough scheme, has something shifted? Has the government truly moved ‘beyond ideology’? Will austerity be back - but by another name? And where does conservatism go from here? In this episode of the Weekly Economics Podcast Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by NEF CEO Miatta Fahnbulleh and Director of Research & Advocacy at Common Wealth Miriam Brett. ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Chad Crouch and Poddington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 03 Aug 2020 - 34min - 168 - Can we avoid a tsunami of job losses?
It feels like every day there are new dire predictions of the state of the UK economy and jobs. Last week we discovered that the number of paid employees in Britain has plunged by 650,000 since the start of the pandemic. As the furlough scheme winds down, the Office for Budget Responsibility says 1.4 million furloughed people are at risk of unemployment. And almost a third of companies plan to cut jobs in the next three months. So, did the job retention scheme save jobs or just delay the inevitable? How are unions supporting workers during this time? And what can we do to avoid a tsunami of job losses? In this episode of the Weekly Economics Podcast Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Alfie Stirling, Head of Economics at the NEF and Nikki Pound, Policy and Campaigns Support Officer at the TUC. ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Jahzzar, used under Creative Commons licence. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Wed, 22 Jul 2020 - 35min - 167 - Do police and prisons keep us safe?
At the end of June Keir Starmer said of Black Lives Matter protesters in an interview: “Nobody should be saying anything about defunding the police.” At the same time, the UK government announced four new prisons. Olympic athlete Bianca Williams has said she felt like “being black is a crime” after she was stopped and handcuffed by police while driving in London. And last week it emerged that the Met police carried out 22,000 stop-and-searches on young Black men during lockdown. Some campaigners, especially in the US, are talking about defunding the police. But what does that actually mean? Should campaigners be calling for it in the UK? And do police and prisons really keep us safe? In this episode Ayeisha is joined by Dr. Adam Elliot-Cooper, research associate in sociology at the University of Greenwich and board member of the Monitoring Group. References: Read "Are Prisons Obsolete?" by Angela Y. Davis https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/angela-y-davis-are-prisons-obsolete Find out more about Black Visions Collective https://www.blackvisionsmn.org/ Read the report "Race and Racism in English Secondary Schools" by Dr Remi Joseph-Salisbury https://www.runnymedetrust.org/projects-and-publications/education/racism-in-secondary-schools.html Find out more about United Family and Friends Campaign https://uffcampaign.org/ Visit Community Actions on Prison Expansion's website for more info https://cape-campaign.org/ Go to https://movementforjustice.co.uk/ for more on Movement for Justice You can learn more about JENGbA's work at https://jointenterprise.co/ Cradle Community are fundraising for healing and transformative justice work in the UK. If you donate, you can get an abolitionist package including their new zine "how to be an abolitionist today". More info here https://www.instagram.com/p/CCa1VtVhZXK/?igshid=hgtrn7bhwlc4 ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Tue, 14 Jul 2020 - 37min - 166 - The Hostile Environment during coronavirus
The end of June marked the anniversary of the arrival of the Windrush Generation in the UK, and sparked renewed conversations about the Hostile Environment. It’s been reported that UK immigration policies have stopped migrants from getting healthcare during the Covid-19 pandemic, despite a government exemption from immigration checks and fees. Just this week, MPs passed a new immigration bill which ends freedom of movement and introduces a point-based system instead. So, how has the Hostile Environment affected people, particularly during the pandemic? Have migrants been hit harder by Covid-19? And what does the new immigration bill mean for migrant communities in the UK? We’re back for a new series of the Weekly Economics Podcast, Ayeisha is joined by Zoe Gardner, Policy Advisor at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), and Akram Salhab, Advocacy and Campaigns Officer at Migrants Organise. Take a look at the New Deal on Migration on the JCWI's website https://www.jcwi.org.uk/news/we-need-a-new-deal-on-migration Read new research from Migrants Organise, Medact and NEF looking at how the Hostile Environment is preventing migrants accessing healthcare during the pandemic https://bit.ly/38ooewJ More from Migrants Organise on their website https://www.migrantsorganise.org/ ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 03 Jul 2020 - 38min - 165 - Gary Younge on the global black liberation uprisings
The death of George Floyd three weeks ago at the hands of Minneapolis police officers sparked a fresh wave of Black Lives Matter protests across the world. In the US, calls to defund the police have won victories and across Europe leaders are taking down statues of slave traders and reviewing national school curricula. Here in the UK, hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets, despite government warnings and coronavirus restrictions. So, why has this explosion of protest happened now? Does this mark a new moment in our collective conversation on race, racism and the role of the police? And once this moment of the whirlwind passes, how can protestors make sure we achieve lasting change? For this special one-off episode Ayeisha is joined by Gary Younge, writer, broadcaster, and professor of sociology at the University of Manchester. Read Gary's piece in the New Statesman here: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/06/we-cant-breathe Read Nadine El-Enay's piece in openDemocracy here: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/calls-to-make-britain-great-again-are-drawing-on-pseudo-intellectual-defences-of-/ ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Chris Zabriskie, used under Creative Commons licence. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Wed, 17 Jun 2020 - 43min - 164 - The future of social care after Coronavirus
10,000 care home residents have died from Covid-19, more than a third of all Covid-19 deaths. On Wednesday it was reported that the death toll is likely to be double the official figure. The death rate amongst social care staff is double that of the general working age population. So the big question is; what’s gone wrong with social care? On this episode Ayeisha is joined by Sarah Bedford, head of social policy at NEF, to talk about coronavirus and social care. References in this epsiode: We care workers face a terrible decision: risk people's lives or go without pay. Guardian Opinion, 08/05/20 https://bit.ly/2Lu6HbE Time to Care: A Unison report into homecare. 2012 https://bit.ly/2z217L3 If you’re desperate for more, we’ll be following up this discussion in an online briefing over Zoom on Thursday 21 May. We’ll be talking to Sarah again, as well as Unison Organiser Conor McGurran, Emeritus Professor of Economics at The Open University Sue Himmelweit and Founder of Equal Care Co-op Emma Back. Register for your place here: https://bit.ly/3bBnEvE ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Poddington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 15 May 2020 - 34min - 163 - How to organise under lockdown
Between the lack of PPE for key workers, growing numbers forced onto universal credit, and worries about worker safety both now and after lockdown, there’s plenty to be angry about. So has Covid-19 led to a new wave of organising? What does organising look like under lockdown? How does the boom in mutual aid networks fit into this? And will the demands made during the pandemic lead to lasting change after it’s over? On this episode Ayeisha looks at what lockdown and the pandemic mean for organising with NEF Senior Organiser Becki Winson. If you’re hungry for more, we’ll be following up this discussion in an online briefing over Zoom on Thursday 14 May. We’ll be talking to Becki again, as well as organisers Sarah Jaffe, Vik Chechi-Ribeiro and Minda Burgos-Lukes. Register for your place here https://bit.ly/3djB1Sq ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Candlegravity, used under Creative Commons licence. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 08 May 2020 - 32min - 162 - Coronavirus and the legacy of austerity
In the last few months we’ve seen the government promise billions in support for people and businesses impacted by coronavirus. Supporters of austerity claim the last decade of cuts is what enabled the government to put money into these schemes now. But is this true? Some of our public services were barely able to cope, even before the virus struck. And so what effect did austerity have on our pandemic preparedness? And now that we’re entering another recession, will the government turn to austerity once again? On this episode Ayeisha looks at Covid-19, austerity, and how we can respond to this crisis differently with NEF senior economist, Frank van Lerven. If you’re craving more chat about this, we’ll be following up this discussion in an online briefing over Zoom on Thursday 7 May. We’ll be talking to Frank again, as well economists Eric Lonergan & Johnna Montgomerie. Register for your place here https://bit.ly/2xt0qK8 ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by A. A. Aalto and Poddington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 01 May 2020 - 25min - 161 - Childcare under lockdown
The lockdown period has been extended for at least another three weeks. Schools and nurseries remain closed, except to a few children. Many parents are at home trying to balance work with looking after their kids. But some are still being asked to pay for childcare they aren’t using. And some childcare staff are still having to go into work, often for very low pay. What’s gone wrong with childcare? How are key workers and childcare staff managing? And are parents being asked to bail out a broken childcare system? On this episode of the Weekly Economics Podcast, Ayeisha looks at what Covid-19 and lockdown means for childcare with Lucie Stephens. If you’re hungry for more, we’ll be following up this discussion in an online briefing over Zoom on Thursday 30 April. We’ll be talking to Lucie, as well as Christine Berry and Zoe Raven, Chief Executive of Acorn Early Years Foundation. Register for your place here https://bit.ly/3eN1KYW ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by The Polish Ambassador and Poddington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 24 Apr 2020 - 26min - 160 - Renters, homelessness and coronavirus
During lockdown, the message everywhere is to stay home. But what should you do, when you don’t have a secure place to live? At the end of last month, the government gave councils 48 hours to house all rough sleepers in their areas. There was also a temporary ban on evictions put in place and a call for landlords to be ‘compassionate’ in their dealings with their tenants. But has the government gone far enough? What else could they do to make sure no one loses their home during the pandemic? And can we really end rough sleeping just like that? To discuss this week, Ayeisha is joined by Joe Beswick, Head of Housing at NEF. If you’re hungry for more on this topic, we’ll be following up this discussion in an online briefing over Zoom on Thursday 23rd April. We’ll be talking to NEF senior research Hanna Wheatley and other experts to be announced. Register for your place on the briefing here https://bit.ly/3ak0g50 ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Poddington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 17 Apr 2020 - 26min - 159 - Fixing the Social Safety Net
As nationwide lockdown continues and parts of the economy grind to a halt, the chancellor has announced a package of measures to support people struggling with the economic fallout of coronavirus. But is it enough? Or have 10 years of cuts broken our social security system beyond repair? The Weekly Economics Podcast is back, to dive into the economics of the Covid-19 crisis. This week Ayeisha is joined by Sarah Arnold, NEF’s senior economist. If you’re hungry for more on this topic, we’ll be following up this discussion in an online briefing over Zoom on Thursday 16th April . We’ll be talking to Sarah again and also Caroline Molloy, editor at openDemocracy. Register to join the briefing here https://bit.ly/3eacvV9 ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Poddington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 10 Apr 2020 - 26min - 158 - The Budget, climate and coronavirus
Last week, the big red briefcase was handed over to new Chancellor, Rishi Sunak. But many of Sunak’s Budget promises were overshadowed by new measures to deal with the coronavirus. With the stock market hitting a four-year low, the outbreak is pushing us towards recession. So what do we know about the government’s economic plans? Are they doing enough to avoid a recession? And in focusing on coronavirus, what other crises are they ignoring? In this special episode, recorded shortly after the Budget, Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Alfie Stirling, NEF’s Head of Economics, and Carys Roberts, Executive Director of IPPR. ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Chad Crouch, used under Creative Commons licence. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Tue, 17 Mar 2020 - 28min - 157 - Election 2019
The election is just around the corner and the outcome will determine the future of the country, and the shape of the economy. So what are the parties planning to do if they win power? How radical are their policies? And what are the differences in their economic agenda? For our last episode of 2019 Ayeisha is joined by Anoosh Chakelian, Britain Editor of the New Statesman and co-host of the excellent New Statesman podcast, and Miatta Fahnbulleh, chief executive of the New Economics Foundation. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 02 Dec 2019 - 55min - 156 - How to fix the childcare system
The childcare system in England is broken. Our nurseries are among the most expensive in the world, but our childcare professionals are some of the lowest paid workers in society. For a long time, government policy on childcare has been badly thought out and severely underfunded. More recently, big international chains have moved into the sector. So, what should be done? How would we fix the childcare system? And what would it mean for families, and for the country, if we finally got it right? This week Ayeisha is joined by Helen Penn, Visiting Professor at the UCL Institute of Education, Amy Martin, Creative Director of Impact Hub Birmingham, and Lucie Stephens, Head of Co-production at NEF. ALSO: Last chance to register to vote! Register by 11.59pm on Tuesday 26 November: https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote Register if you haven’t got a fixed or permanent address: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/register-to-vote-if-you-havent-got-a-fixed-or-permanent-address
Mon, 25 Nov 2019 - 34min - 155 - Universal Basic Services
Our public services are in dire need of investment. The question of how much investment has loomed large over the first weeks of the election campaign. But in the middle of a debate over competing spending plans, isn’t it also time to ask what we want our public services to actually do for us? That’s the view of group of economists and campaigners who are pushing for something called ‘Universal Basic Services’ – a radical expansion of high-quality public services for all to areas like transport, childcare and social care. More than 70 years after the creation of the welfare state and the NHS, is it time to reimagine the public services we should all expect? Ayeisha is joined by NEF Principal Fellow Anna Coote and openDemocracy Economics Editor Laurie Macfarlane.
Wed, 20 Nov 2019 - 39min - 154 - Hostile Environment: how immigrants became scapegoats
How did the word immigrant become such a loaded term? How did the public conversation about immigration become so toxic? And is there another way forward – an alternative to the hostile environment? This week we're at SOAS, part of the University of London, with a live audience and Maya Goodfellow, author of the new book, ‘Hostile Environment: How immigrants became scapegoats’. https://www.versobooks.com/books/3064-hostile-environment Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Tue, 12 Nov 2019 - 1h 11min - 153 - Algorithms of Oppression
We're away this week recording our exciting live event with Maya Goodfellow for the podcast next week. In the meantime we're listening back to a live episode we recorded in April. Safiya Umoja Noble is an associate professor at UCLA and author of Algorithms of Oppression: How Algorithms Reinforce Racism. She joined Kirsty Styles for a revealing look at how all kinds of negative biases are embedded in the algorithms that increasingly shape our world. If you want to find out more about this topic, check out: Safiya Umoja Noble, Algorithms of Oppression nyupress.org/9781479837243/algo…hms-of-oppression/ Safiya Umoja Noble, Social Inequality Will not be Solved by an app www.wired.com/story/social-inequ…-solved-by-an-app/ Sarah Roberts, Behind the Screen yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300235…3/behind-screen Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/shos…1610395694/ Content warning: in this episode there is discussion of sexual content and pornography that some listeners might find offensive. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Thu, 07 Nov 2019 - 58min - 152 - The stories that broke the economy, and the stories that can fix it
Some common lines you’ll hear about the economy: we all put money in, or take it out. Some people pay their fair share, but others don’t. We can’t overspend – putting public spending on the national credit card would be irresponsible. But not all of those lines are strictly true and the way we talk about the economy affects the way we think about its future. This week on the podcast: what we’re really talking about when we talk about the economy. Ayeisha is joined by Anat Shenker-Osorio – communications expert, researcher and author of ‘Don’t Buy It: the trouble with talking nonsense about the economy’, and Ellie Mae O’Hagan – journalist and author of the forthcoming book on the collapse of the centre ground. Check out Anat's Brave New Words podcast at https://bravenewwordspod.com You can find the Framing the Economy report at https://neweconomics.org/2018/02/framing-the-economy-2 Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 28 Oct 2019 - 40min - 151 - How to make the 4-day week happen
It’s one of the most important inventions of the 20th century. But unlike the phone, the car, computers and indoor plumbing, the weekend is still stuck in the 1930s. As productivity increased, the promise of shorter working hours always seemed just out of reach. But now, there’s a campaign to make the 4-day week a reality within our lifetimes. Obviously many people would love to work less. But what would it mean for the economy? And what would it take to make it a reality? Back for a brand new series, Ayeisha is joined by Alfie Stirling, Head of Economics and Aidan Harper, Researcher at the New Economics Foundation. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 21 Oct 2019 - 32min - 149 - The rent is too high
More and more of us are renting for longer – not by choice, but by necessity. In cities especially, more people are renting into their thirties, forties and beyond, sometimes raising children in rented flats with no long-term security. But what if we could do something about it? Could rent controls be the answer? With Hanna Wheatley and Eva Freeman. Donate to the New Economics Foundation: https://neweconomics.org/donate Rent controls report: https://neweconomics.org/2019/07/rent-control Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Music this week is by Chris Zabriskie and Podington Bear. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Wed, 14 Aug 2019 - 31min - 148 - The myth of meritocracy
It’s the story we’re all told when we’re growing up. Work hard at school so you can get into a good university. Work hard at university so you can get a good job. Get a masters degree – taking on more student debt – if you really want to mark yourself out. Work hard at the office so you can get ahead. But what if that’s not the real story? Social mobility in the UK is stagnating. Class privilege is entrenched. Boris Johnson is the twentieth prime minister to go to Eton. What if the idea of Britain as a meritocracy is a myth? To answer this question, Ayeisha is joined by Jo Littler, a reader in sociology at City University of London and author of ‘Against Meritocracy’, and Sam Friedman, associate sociology professor at LSE and author of ‘The Class Ceiling: Why It Pays To Be Privileged’. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Music this week is by Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Tue, 06 Aug 2019 - 29min - 147 - The new PM and the future of Conservatism
This week the UK got a new prime minister, and the Conservative party got a new leader. After nine years in government, will this be a pivotal moment in history, or a last gasp? Apart from a more hard-line stance on Brexit and a few Winston Churchill statuettes, what will the new PM be bringing to the job? Ayeisha discusses Boris Johnson and the future of Conservatism with Christine Berry, co-author of the book ‘People Get Ready’ and former director of policy and government here at NEF, and Andy Beckett, features writer at the Guardian. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Fri, 26 Jul 2019 - 41min - 146 - Is wellbeing the new GDP?
If you’ve been listening to the Weekly Economics Podcast for a while, you’ll know that we think there’s much more to economics than GDP. But it still dominates the way politicians and much of the press talk about the economy. Now though, there are lots of new proposals for measuring what counts. So what should replace GDP? And how would it change society? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith discusses with Guardian economics correspondent Richard Partington and NEF fellow Annie Quick. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Music this week is by Mr. Frisby's Beat Pocket and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 15 Jul 2019 - 31min - 145 - Generation Left
The polls show that while previous generations became more conservative with age, millennials are staying left wing for longer. And age and education now seem to be the big dividing line in our politics, replacing class as the key division. So what’s going on? And what are the political implications of Generation Left? That’s our big question on the Weekly Economics Podcast this week and to help us answer it, Ayeisha is joined by Keir Milburn, author of Generation Left, and lecturer in political economy and organisation at University of Leicester, and Shelly Asquith, a political advisor at Unite the Union. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Music this week is by Covox and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 08 Jul 2019 - 38min - 144 - What should the climate movement do next?
It’s been a busy year for the climate movement since last summer’s scorching heatwave. Extinction Rebellion shut down the streets, the school strikes saw thousands of young people take a stand, and the Green New Deal has shot to the top of the political agenda – for now, at least. Last month Parliament passed a motion to declare an ‘environment and climate change emergency’. Meanwhile, Theresa May is trying to use the last weeks of her premiership to build some sort of legacy, including a new target for net zero climate emissions by 2050. So, against that backdrop, what should the climate movement do next? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined this week by Hannah Martin from Greenpeace and Green New Deal UK. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Music this week is by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 01 Jul 2019 - 29min - 143 - Inclusive Ownership
Last month, the owner of a chain of British hi-fi shops did something unusual. Julian Richer, the founder of Richer Sounds, gave away control of the company to the employees, and even gave them each a £1,000 cash bonus for every year they’ve worked there. It’s a rare move for company owners to give up their wealth. Is this just generosity, or could it actually be good for business? And could it also be good economics, and even good for the planet? We’re back for a brand new series of the Weekly Economics Podcast and this week we’re getting excited about inclusive ownership. Ayeisha is joined by Marjorie Kelly, Executive Vice President and Senior Fellow of The Democracy Collaborative in the US, and Mathew Lawrence, director of the think tank Common Wealth and co-author of a NEF report about inclusive ownership funds. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Music this week is by A. A. Aalto and Podington Bear The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 24 Jun 2019 - 40min - 142 - Algorithms of Oppression (Live)
Algorithms have a huge influence on the way that we see the world. We increasingly understand news through social media — as libraries shut down more of our knowledge is found with the click of a search engine rather than in books or classrooms. But the algorithms that underpin our every interaction with the digital world are not neutral. They are created by humans, and reflect the biases of the people who write them. We hosted Safiya Umoja Noble, author of Algorithms of Oppression, to discuss her recent book with Kirsty Styles for this live episode of the podcast. If you want to find out more about this topic, check out: Safiya Umoja Noble, Algorithms of Oppression https://nyupress.org/9781479837243/algorithms-of-oppression/ Safiya Umoja Noble, Social Inequality Will not be Solved by an app https://www.wired.com/story/social-inequality-will-not-be-solved-by-an-app/ Sarah Roberts, Behind the Screen https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300235883/behind-screen Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/shoshana-zuboff/the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism/9781610395694/ Content warning: in this episode there is discussion of sexual content and pornography that some listeners might find offensive.
Wed, 29 May 2019 - 58min - 141 - A Beginner's Guide to Neoliberalism: 7 – Changing the Rules
It’s been 4 years since Kirsty Styles and James Meadway told the story of neoliberalism, from Hayek to Thatcher to the end of history. But now, the band is back together, alongside NEF chief executive Miatta Fahnbulleh. It’s 2019, the world is on fire, and it’s time to change the rules. Music by Christian Bjoerklund, Mr Frisby's Beat Pocket, and Chris Zabriskie. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Tue, 21 May 2019 - 40min - 140 - A Beginner's Guide to Neoliberalism: 6 - The Alternatives
Kirsty Styles and James Meadway talk about the alternatives to neoliberalism. This episode was recorded back in August 2015, which feels like a million years ago. We still think it's worth listening to, but a lot has changed since then. The good news is, James and Kirsty will be back for a brand new update episode next week, bringing us bang up to date on the alternatives. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 13 May 2019 - 13min - 139 - A Beginner's Guide to Neoliberalism: 5 - The End of History?
James Meadway and Kirsty Styles discuss how neoliberalism lives on today. This episode was recorded back in August 2015 and a lot has changed since then. The good news is James and Kirsty will be back for a brand new episode in a couple of weeks’ time, telling the story of the backlash against neoliberalism over the past few years. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Tue, 07 May 2019 - 12min - 138 - A Beginner's Guide to Neoliberalism: 4 – Acceptable in the 80s
James Meadway and Kirsty Styles explain how neoliberalism took hold in the UK in the 1980s. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Music by Chris Zabriskie (www.chriszabriskie.com), sanmi (www.freemusicarchive.org/music/sanmi) and Christian Bjoerklund (www.freemusicarchive.org/music/Christ…n_Bjoerklund) used under Creative Commons Licence. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 29 Apr 2019 - 12min - 137 - A Beginner's Guide to Neoliberalism: 3 – World Domination
James Meadway and Kirsty Styles explain how neoliberalism came to dominate economies around the globe. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Music by Chris Zabriskie (www.chriszabriskie.com), sanmi (freemusicarchive.org/music/sanmi/) and Christian Bjoerklund (freemusicarchive.org/music/Christian_Bjoerklund/) used under Creative Commons Licence. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 22 Apr 2019 - 12min - 136 - A Beginner's Guide to Neoliberalism: 2 – The House That Hayek Built
Economist James Meadway and journalist Kirsty Styles continue their 6-part miniseries about neoliberalism. In part 2, they tell the story of how the once obscure ideas of theorist Friedrich Hayek moved from the fringe to the mainstream, ushering in the age of neoliberalism. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Music by Chris Zabriskie (www.chriszabriskie.com) and sanmi (www.freemusicarchive.org/music/sanmi/) used under Creative Commons Licence. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 15 Apr 2019 - 12min - 135 - A Beginner's Guide to Neoliberalism: 1 – The Basics
For the next 6 weeks, we’re doing something a bit different. We’re telling the story of neoliberalism, from the beginning. We call it A Beginner’s Guide to Neoliberalism. We first ran the series back in 2015, but it’s as relevant as ever. It’s presented by the journalist Kirsty Styles alongside James Meadway, who at the time was chief economist at the New Economics Foundation. In part 1, James and Kirsty start with a history of our economic system, the difference between capitalism and neoliberalism, and examine how neoliberalism came to dominate modern day economics. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Music by Chris Zabriskie and sanmi used under Creative Commons Licence. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 08 Apr 2019 - 13min - 134 - What explains the knife crime epidemic? With Gary Younge
Knife crime is at a nine-year high. Everyone agrees: something must be done. Some politicians want more police on the streets, or tougher sentences. Others want cuts to mental health services to be reversed. One MP has suggested every knife in Britain should have a built-in GPS tracker – good luck with that. But knife crime it is a complex issue, and young people’s lives depend on policymakers getting it right. So today, Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is taking a big-picture look at the issue with one of the journalists who’s covered it more than perhaps any other: the Guardian’s editor-at-large, Gary Younge. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. Music this week is by Candlegravity and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 18 Mar 2019 - 34min - 133 - How to shockproof the economy
It’s hard to listen to the news at the moment without hearing some kind of warning about economy. Nearly all of those warnings focus on one thing – Brexit. It’s true that lots of people think Brexit is risky – but in the clamour to define what Brexit means, could we be blindsided by something else? Obviously it’s difficult to predict exactly how and when another shock to the economy might happen. But is there more we could be doing to get the economy ready for whatever might be around the corner? Guest host Hanna Wheatley is joined by NEF's Head of Economics Alfie Stirling and Senior Economist Sarah Arnold. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Wed, 13 Mar 2019 - 32min - 132 - Rewind: Can we bring down house prices without crashing the economy?
We’re away this week, but in the meantime thought we’d listen back to one of our favourite episodes from last year. If house prices are too high for people to be able to buy houses, how can we bring them down? And can we do it without upsetting homeowners and crashing the economy? Beth Stratford is a PhD student at Leeds University. Last February she published a blog post at OpenDemocracy that was so interesting we knew we had to get her on the podcast to talk about it. She argues it just might be possible to lower house prices without crashing the economy. Joe Beswick, head of housing and land here at the New Economics Foundation, joined Beth and Ayeisha Thomas-Smith, to chat through the idea. We hope you enjoy! And we’ll be back next week with a brand new episode. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield and Huw Jordan. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 04 Mar 2019 - 36min - 131 - What's the deal with the Green New Deal?
The Green New Deal has rocketed to the top of the agenda in the US. It's an ambitious plan, spearheaded by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to decarbonise the US economy and eliminate economic insecurity at the same time. But in fact the Green New Deal has some of its origins here at the New Economics Foundation. So what's the story behind the development of the idea? And how would a Green New Deal actually work, both in the UK and across the pond? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined this week by: - Ann Pettifor, director of Prime Economics and one of the co-authors of the Green New Deal report published by NEF in 2008; - Miatta Fahnbulleh, chief executive of the New Economics Foundation; - Waleed Shahid, communications director of the Justice Democrats, who also worked on the campaign to elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. Music this week is by Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 - 45min - 130 - Public Ownership 2.0
Public ownership is back on the agenda. Opinion polls show high levels of support for taking all kinds of things back into public hands, from the railways to water to energy, and the Labour party is committed to a vast expansion of public ownership. But if privatisation has failed, what kind of public ownership should replace it? As the critics of nationalisation are quick to say, British Rail wasn’t that great. What should be done differently this time? If these services were nationalised, would the state even know how to run them? And are there other ways of putting them back in public hands? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Cat Hobbs, director of We Own It campaign, Hilary Wainwright, co-editor of Red Pepper magazine and fellow of the Transnational Institute, and Sahil Dutta, lecturer in political economy at Goldsmiths University. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. Music this week is by Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 18 Feb 2019 - 32min - 129 - What would a progressive border policy look like?
The Windrush scandal outraged the nation last year. But last week the Home Office reinstated deportation flights to Jamaica for criminal offenders who they say are foreign nationals. Meanwhile, parliament passed a new immigration bill last month, promising to control the “number and type” of people coming to the UK. The home secretary came under fire for proposing a £30,000 income threshold for EU immigrants. A lot of the debate we hear about immigration is made in economic terms. But it’s also about identity, race and belonging. It can be hard at the moment to imagine that a more humane immigration policy might be possible, but that’s exactly what we’re trying to do this week. Guest host Dave Powell is joined by chief exec of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants Satbir Singh, executive director of War on Want Asad Rehman, and Maya Goodfellow, author of a forthcoming book on Britain's immigration policies. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. Music: Eklektik Ensemble, A.A. Aalto and Podington Bear, licenced under Creative Commons. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org
Mon, 11 Feb 2019 - 29min
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