Anglofuturism Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

You are currently directly above an energy source that is clean, available all day long, and – at least at our current Kardashev level – all but limitless. Naturally, the British government has approximately zero interest in it. But they will soon, because transformational geothermal energy is getting closer.

The main obstacle, currently, is the difficulty of harnessing the extreme heat that one finds several miles below the Earth's surface. It melts electronics and resists the creation of pipework, meaning that it's very difficult to sustainably pump fluid in and out.

Our latest guest is John Clegg, a technologist and geothermal expert who is making progress in developing high-heat electronics. John joins us in our orbital space pub to tell us about the new frontiers in geothermal, the best way of making it work for Britain, and the most mind-boggling engineering feat in the history of Dorset.

Learn more about Hephae Energy Technology, of which John is CTO, via their website, or subscribe to their monthly newsletter here.

https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/hephae-energy-technology-7076836521588207616/

https://www.hephaeet.com/

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Britain's birthrate is far below replacement rate. What does this mean for our future? Why has it happened? Via which apparently nutty ideas can we reverse the situation? And why was our guest trying to rack up "micro-marriages"?

Aria Babu, think-tanker and pro-natalist, joins us in the King Charles III Space Station. Aria is a champion of artificial wombs and a sharp thinker on everything relating to fertility – including the love life of Taylor Swift.

Aria's Substack: https://www.ariababu.co.uk/

Aria's X profile: https://twitter.com/Aria_Babu

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The Victorians carpeted Britain in rail, went on majestic sprees of housebuilding, pioneered underground rail and coal power stations, and built magnificent subterranean sewerage. Their ancestors cancelled most of HS2, haven't built a reservoir for thirty years, lets Nimbyism run amok, and can't even electrify all our trains, let alone swap them for maglev.

How can we redress this generational embarrassment? Sam Dumitriu, of the think-tank Britain Remade, believes it's possible to revive the Victorian spirit and turn Britain back into a nation of doers. He joins us in the King Charles III Space Station to discuss his ideas.

Grab your trowels – we're going building.

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It's widely felt that the British buildings and townscapes have, since the Second World War, become uglier and of lower quality.

From their tasteful half-timbered space station, Tom and Calum ask Samuel Hughes, an academic and aestheticist, about the causes of those complaints. We discuss the inherent characteristics of architectural beauty, the divergence of taste between architecture students and the rest of us, and the future of the British built environment. Are natural materials making a comeback? What about robotically-crafted ornament? And with what level of ferocity should we crush the Nimbys?

We also prevail on Samuel to tell us what Britain can learn from arresting built enviroments of fiction.

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The cost of getting mass into space is tumbling. The economic opportunities of being in space are multiplying. Where does this leave Britain?

Alas, our country holds the ignominious record of being the only country to get rid of a vertical-launch space programme. But we're turning the situation around – and could take advantage of the changing circumstance by embarking on an exciting megaproject.

Our second guest, Peter Hague, is a leading space blogger. His idea? Building a super spaceport – one that's big enough to accommodate Starship, which is SpaceX's gamechanging flagship.

We discuss the practicalities of the super spaceport, and what its construction could do for Britain.

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In this episode, we are visited in our thatched space station by a wunderkind economist who wants to turn a portion of the North Sea into a Wales-sized island. Duncan McClements is that economist, and you can find his blog, co-authored with Jason Hausenloy, below.

https://modelthinking.substack.com/p/a-new-atlantis

Editing by Calum Drysdale and Aeron Laffere. Our thanks to Cherie Chun for her help with the cover art.

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Rian Chad Whitton is a research analyst specialising in automation, industrial policy, and energy markets at Bismarck Analysis who writes on Substack under the name Doctor Syn and won the TXP Progress Prize for his essay on British energy policy.

Rian discusses:

• How British industry declined from being the first Promethean nation to losing competitiveness due to loss of empire, high wages, and poor policy decisions like industrial deglomeration
• Why manufacturing remains crucial for national security, productivity growth, and regional equality despite the push toward services
• How Britain could revitalise industry through lower electricity costs, nuclear power expansion, and promoting large industrial conglomerates similar to South Korean chaebols

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Samo Burja is the founder and president of Bismarck Analysis, an industrial analysis and consulting firm studying failing organizations, and the author of "Great Founder Theory" which explores how exceptional individuals shape history by creating innovative institutions rather than merely steering events. He also chairs the editorial board of Palladium Magazine.

Samo discusses:

• How organisations decline when they shift goals to match diminished capabilities instead of pursuing bold visions, illustrated by NASA's evolution from space exploration to Earth observation
• Why social technologies (like trust networks) are as crucial as material technologies in driving innovation and economic growth, with religious communities like Protestant merchants historically enabling trade through shared values
• Britain's potential to regain global prominence through ambitious projects like nuclear energy, Antarctic resource development, and AI compute infrastructure, but only with live players who break from institutional scripts

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The thatch has been combed... the pint glasses are squeaky-clean... and the Anglofuturism podcast is back! Tom and Calum are once again broadcasting from the King Charles III orbital thatched pub. Today we welcome Lawrence Newport, darling of the British progress movement and bane of vicious dogs.

Lawrence got the government to ban the XL bully – a savage breed of dog with a horrific record of violence. Having dispatched the dogs, he is now coming for the Nimbys and the criminals via two new campaigns: Looking for Growth and Crush Crime. Lawrence and his colleagues are, in our view, some of the country's most important practitioners of practical Anglofuturism.

Lawrence, Tom and Calum talk about the most effective ways to bring down crime, whack up infrastructure, and force the government to do things it doesn't want to do. We also hear the inside story of the XL bully campaign.

LFG: https://lookingforgrowth.uk/

Crush Crime: https://crushcrime.org/

Audio editing by Calum Drysdale and Aeron Laffere.

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Calum and Tom on:

• The history of British Antarctic exploration, from Captain Cook's mission to find Terra Australis to Shackleton's heroic survival after the Endurance was trapped in ice,
• The geopolitical status of Antarctica, including Britain's territorial claims, the 1959 Antarctic Treaty that prohibits mining and militarisation, and how this could change after 2048,
• The potential economic value of the British Antarctic Territory with its vast untapped resources (oil, gas, gold, and other minerals) and whether Britain should develop these resources before other nations claim them.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Substack. Produced by Aeron Laffere.

The Antarctic oil bonanza that could save Britain – but we need to get there before Argentina

Labour should look to the relics of empire for growth

China-Russia cooperation blocks Antarctic conservation proposals

China opens Antarctic station south of Australia, New Zealand

Antarctic Monitoring Tools in Action

Economic resources — Antarctica

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