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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Calum and Tom on:

• The historical background of the Chagos Archipelago, which became British territory after the Napoleonic Wars and later served as a crucial military base for the US and UK
• The forced expulsion of Chagossians from their homeland between 1967-1973, their subsequent compensation, and the ongoing legal battles over their right to return
• The international legal pressure on Britain through non-binding UN resolutions and how Mauritius has strategically leveraged international bodies to advance their claims
• Calum's pre-action letter challenging the government's deal as potentially unlawful and his arguments for why Parliament should have the final say
• Critical concerns about security implications, with fears that Chinese intelligence operations could compromise the strategic Diego Garcia military base
• Alternative visions for the islands' future, including as a space launch facility, tourism destination, or expanded British territory in the Indian Ocean

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

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We welcome Cllr Tom Jones to the KCIII. Tom serves as the Councillor for Scotton & Lower Wensleydale on North Yorkshire Council and is also an accomplished essayist.

Cllr Jones joins Calum and Tom to discuss Anglofuturism, immigration reform, and how Britain can build a more productive, high-wage future:

• The origins and appeal of Anglofuturism as both an aesthetic and political movement responding to economic stagnation and declining living standards for young Britons
• Tom Jones' immigration paper "Selecting the Best" which argues Britain's reliance on mass immigration has created a low-wage, low-productivity economy
• How "human quantitative easing"—importing cheap labor rather than investing in automation—has damaged British productivity and wages
• The car wash industry as a case study where cheap migrant labor replaced automated systems, creating exploitation and environmental problems
• The need to redirect state capacity toward strategic priorities like energy, manufacturing, and defence instead of dispersing resources
• How greater automation and selective high-skill immigration could transform Britain into a high-wage economy capable of meaningful global influence

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

Correction: At 44:30, Cllr Jones says dependents are mostly economically inactive. He has written to correct this, clarifying that while a significant portion are economically inactive, it is not more than half.

Selecting the Best: Building a Future-Focused Immigration System

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Douglas Carswell is a British politician who served as a Member of Parliament from 2005 to 2017, first as a Conservative before defecting to UKIP in 2014. A prominent Brexit campaigner and co-founder of Vote Leave, he now runs the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, a free-market think tank in the United States. Carswell is known for his advocacy of democratic reform, limited government, and economic freedom.

Calum and Tom talk to Douglas Carswell about:

• Douglas's experience in Mississippi where free-market reforms have accelerated economic growth beyond the UK's
• How Britain's "Blairite Ascendancy" of 30 years has empowered unaccountable experts and regulatory bodies that block elected officials from governing effectively
• A detailed blueprint to restore executive power through orders in council, civil service reform, and judicial restraint
• Proposals for public spending cuts of £170 billion and tax reductions including abolishing tariffs, lowering VAT, and reducing income taxes
• Addressing immigration through tighter controls and a voluntary "re-migration" program for non-contributors
• The cultural dimensions of Britain's troubles and the need to reassert Anglo-American values against cultural relativism
• How these reforms could unlock British innovation and prosperity if leaders have the courage to endure short-term pain

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

Milestones: Nine steps to restore Britain - the essay outlining Douglas Carswell's detailed proposals

Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World by Tom Holland - Mentioned by Carswell as influential to his understanding of Western values

Looking for Growth campaign - A UK initiative advocating for policies to boost British economic growth

Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson - Explores how political institutions impact economic success

The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg - Examines the changing relationship between individuals and the state

Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt - A classic text on free-market economics

State Capacity Libertarianism by Tyler Cowen - A blog post that reimagines libertarianism with a focus on effective government

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Josef Chen is the founder of KAIKAKU, a London-based company developing automation technology for restaurants. A former Imperial College student, Chen created his first Bitcoin faucet at age 13 and previously worked as the first intern at Bitpanda (Austria's first unicorn startup). After growing up working in his parents' Chinese restaurant from age six, Chen has now returned to the industry with a mission to transform it through robotics and technology.

Calum and Tom talk to Josef Chen about:

• Josef's remarkable journey from peeling potatoes in his parents' Austrian restaurant at age six to founding a cutting-edge robotics company
• How KAIKAKU's "living laboratory" approach enables rapid hardware development and real-world testing of restaurant automation
• Why specialised robots designed for specific tasks will outperform humanoid robots in practical applications
• The widespread misallocation of engineering talent in Britain, with top graduates being lured into finance instead of building tangible solutions
• How restaurant automation can free staff from mundane tasks to focus on genuine hospitality and customer experience
• Josef's vision for rebuilding Britain's engineering culture through initiatives like London Micro Grants

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

Sweetgreen’s S-1 Filing - Deep dive into a US tech-forward restaurant chain’s unit economics, vision, and automation strategy

Ocado’s AI-powered robotic arms: levelling up efficiency in online grocery and logistics - Case study of one of the few globally competitive UK hardware automation efforts

Neko Health - Example of vertically integrated tech x real-world experience design, referenced by Joseph

London Micro Grants - A live initiative for empowering grassroots builders in the UK with small-scale funding

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