Anglofuturism – Details, episodes & analysis

Marc Warner is CEO and co-founder of Faculty, a British AI company that partners with organisations to deploy artificial intelligence in the real world. After beginning his career in quantum physics research at UCL and Harvard, Marc shifted his focus to AI, believing it would be the most important science of the 21st century. Faculty first gained prominence for its fellowship program that helps PhD graduates transition into commercial data science, and later for its critical work with the NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic, using AI to predict hospital demand and resource allocation.

Calum and Tom talk to Marc Warner about:

* Britain's missed opportunities in cloud computing and foundation models, and what can still be done to ensure technological sovereignty

* The challenges of aligning AI with human values and controlling frontier models as systems become increasingly powerful

* ⁠Faculty's crucial role during COVID-19, developing world-leading predictive models that helped allocate healthcare resources and save lives

* The bureaucratic obstacles that hinder innovation in government, including procurement rules that favour foreign tech giants over British companies

* How Faculty evolved from an educational fellowship into one of the UK's leading AI companies helping organisations bridge the gap between data and effective decision-making

* How AI's economic transformation could create both extraordinary wealth and potential risks, requiring thoughtful governance approaches

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aria Babu is a researcher who has turned her attention to falling birth rates and pronatalism, offering fresh perspectives on how technological innovations like artificial wombs might address demographic challenges facing developed nations. She is @Aria_Babu on X.

Aria discusses:

- Why falling birth rates threaten many developed nations (especially South Korea at 0.7 TFR) and how this creates demographic challenges with an aging population and diminishing workforce,

- Cultural and economic factors behind declining birth rates, including intensive parenting norms, high childcare costs, changing gender roles, and the delay in family formation,

- Potential solutions including artificial wombs (which could bypass pregnancy complications and help various groups have children), policy changes to support families, and shifts in cultural attitudes toward parenthood,

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript.

Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Introduction

(00:01:23) - Pronatalism Debate

(00:04:28) - Global Birth Rates

(00:09:31) - Cultural Influences

(00:17:12) - Causes of Decline

(00:32:04) - Solutions Discussion

(00:53:21) - Artificial Wombs

(01:06:29) - Future Speculations

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Music, 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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 or Spotify. Produced by Aeron Laffere.

The government is attempting to seal its giveaway of the Chagos Islands: a crucial archipelago in the Indian Ocean that was uninhabited when the Portuguese found them, but to which Mauritius – thousands of miles away – has made a specious claim. Extraordinarily, the British government is trying to indulge that claim – and to pay billions to continue to use the island that hosts a military base.

The public has still not been given a satisfactory explanation for the giveaway, but the prime minister and the attorney general are thought to be of the view that Britain should obey a non-binding judgment by a partisan international court. That court is stacked with enemies of Britain... but the wallet inspector must be obeyed!

Starmer and co are inches away from sealing the giveaway. But they reckoned without a ruddy young Anglofurist...

Our very own Calum Drysdale!

Calum and Lord Kempsell are together launching a judicial review into the putative giveaway. As news breaks of the judicial review, Tom and Calum discuss:

• The history of the Chagos Islands
• The bizarre logic of the government
• Britain's slender hopes of keeping the islands

HMG now has 14 days to respond to Calum and Lord Kempsell.

Co-presenters: Tom Ough and Calum Drysdale

Producer: Æron Laffere

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.