As a listener of The Break Down, chances are you’re living in a political system that could be defined as “liberal”. But what does “liberalism” really describe? Is it about democracy? Free markets? The protection of individual freedom? Ask ten different people, and you’re likely to get ten different answers. 

According to Chris Shaw, liberalism can boiled down to a system oriented around the “bourgeoisie” or, to put it more simply, the “middle classes”, in which technocratic governance is preferred to the messiness of politics, in which the individual takes precedence over the collective, and in which the protection of markets and private enterprise takes priority. 

In this episode, Chris breaks down the ways in which liberalism has placed a stranglehold over our political imaginations; why this is so crucial when it comes to the climate crisis; and what a climate politics that takes class seriously would look like.

Chris Shaw is an Associate at the University of Sussex and former Director of Research at Climate Outreach, where he spent nearly a decade developing strategies for communicating climate change. His most recent book is called “Liberalism and the Challenge of Climate Change”.

In this episode of Macrodose, guest host Isabelle Ferreras delves into the often-overlooked contradiction at the heart of modern democratic societies: while we live in democratic states, our workplaces are far from democratic. Isabelle explores the concept of "economic bicameralism" as a solution to bridge this gap and extend democratic principles into the workplace. She argues that if we truly value democracy, we must reconsider how power is distributed in the firms where we spend the majority of our lives.

You can order Democratizing the Corporation:The Bicameral Firm and Beyond, here from Verso Books: https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/3080-democratizing-the-corporation?srsltid=AfmBOorXp_sAFhpYJ2UZUWLbFyNO4sZvrMDiS-oZ2RVRFSm7jnh9EpCf

On this week's Macrodose, Eleanor Shearer takes us in a deep dive into AI and the enormous processing power that goes into sculpting vast quantities of data. How does the ownership and control of computing power define the very nature of our digital economy? What can we realistically do to prevent the monopolisation of compute by Big Tech? And is there a role for the government in sculpting the landscape of AI development - remaking tech for people, not for profit?

Eleanor Shearer is a senior research fellow at the London-based think tank Commonwealth. She is also a novelist by night, and you can find my debut book River Sing Me Home here: tinyurl.com/ymuthwaj

A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grateful. If you have the means and enjoy our work, head over to ⁠⁠patreon.com/Macrodose⁠⁠ and subscribe today.

Find our socials, newsletter and more here:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠linktr.ee/macrodosepodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at ⁠⁠⁠⁠macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk⁠⁠⁠⁠

For more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠planetbproductions.co.uk⁠⁠

To celebrate our 6 month anniversary, we're unlocking some of our favourite Macrodose Extra episodes from our Patreon. For many more like this, head over to patreon.com/Macrodose and subscribe today!

MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics.

In this episode, James Meadway talks to Yanis Varoufakis about the crisis facing the U.K economy, austerity 2.0 and the era of Cloud Capitalism.

Varoufakis is an academic, economist and politician. He formerly served as the Greek Minister of Finance from January to July 2015 in the Syriza government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, and is currently a sitting member of the Greek Parliament for MeRA25, a progressive political party which he founded it in 2018.Yanis is also a founder of the Progressive International - seeking to ally and organise progressive movements worldwide, and DiEM25 - a transnational movement to reform the European Union.

To celebrate our 6 month anniversary, we're unlocking some of our favourite Macrodose Extra episodes from our Patreon. For many more like this, head over to patreon.com/Macrodose and subscribe today!

MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics. In today's episode, James Meadway speaks to labour journalist Sarah Jaffe about the wave of strikes we’ve seen this year - from nurses, rail workers and posties here in the U.K, to teachers, Amazon workers, and Starbucks employees over in the United States. What’s new about the latest wave of labour action and why is it happening now?

Sarah is the author of two wonderful books - Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted and Alone (2021), and Necessary Trouble, Americans in Revolt (2016). She is also a co-host of Dissent magazine’s Belabored podcast, as well as a columnist at The Progressive.

MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics. Subscribe today at patreon.com/macrodose to hear the full version of this interview, as well as our episodes with Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis, labour journalist Sarah Jaffe, and former finance trader Gary Stevenson.

You’ll also gain access to our upcoming interviews with housing reporter Vicky Spratt, and economist Isabella Weber.

Our guest today is Richard Seymour. Richard is a writer, broadcaster and the author of numerous books, including: Against Austerity, Corbyn: The Strange Rebirth of Radical Politics, and The Twittering Machine.

This winding discussion focuses on Richard's most recent book, The Disenchanted Earth: Reflections on Ecosocialism & Barbarism. We discuss the politics of climate breakdown, and the kinds of political subjectivities that must be made through, and in the face of, such existential ecological crisis.

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: the possibility of price caps on essential goods from the Tories (2.07), Rachel Reeves’ speech in Washington DC to lay out her vision for the economy, are Labour turning to Bidenomics (9.44)? And a listener question - how do we balance the need to grow more food in Britain, with the need to build more houses (16.18)? 

This week at Macrodose we’re celebrating our six month anniversary. We’ve really enjoyed bringing you Macrodose each week and this wouldn’t have been possible without you! 

A massive thank you to The Lipman-Miliband Trust for supporting our work. Their help has been a major step towards this show being sustainable in the long term but we still need your help. If you have the means, head over to patreon.com/Macrodose and subscribe today.

We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: the looming prospect of another summer of droughts, what’s next for the UK's failing water systems (0:43), last year’s mass broadband cancellations (4:52) and a listener question  - what are some good examples of countries taxing assets properly (9:50)?

A massive thank you to The Lipman-Miliband Trust for supporting our work. Their help is a major step towards this show being sustainable in the long term but we still need your help. If you have the means, head over to patreon.com/Macrodose and subscribe today.

We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: Greedflation - what is it and what are the mainstream missing (0:46), the impact of sanctions on developing economies (7:50) and a listener question - what should we be pushing to see from the next Labour manifesto (12:15)?

You can find CEPR’s report on sanctions here: https://bit.ly/42WCb0x

A massive thank you to The Lipman-Miliband Trust for supporting our work. Their help is a major step towards this show being sustainable in the long term but we still need your help. If you have the means, head over to patreon.com/Macrodose and subscribe today.

We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: the return of no-deposit mortgages and what they show us about our housing market (1:07), how the steep drop in China’s imports could spell trouble for the rest of the world (6:36) and what the return of El Nino might mean for inflation and interest rates across the globe (13:29).

A massive thank you to The Lipman-Miliband Trust for supporting our work. Their help is a major step towards this show being sustainable in the long term but we still need your help. If you have the means, head over to patreon.com/Macrodose and subscribe today.

We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk

On a special episode of Macrodose, James Meadway is joined by James Butler to discuss the coronation of Britain’s new King. What makes Charles III tick? What are the ideological influences behind the new King? And what does that mean for the future of our economy?

A massive thank you to The Lipman-Miliband Trust for supporting our work. Their help is a major step towards this show being sustainable in the long term but we still need your help. If you have the means, head over to patreon.com/Macrodose and subscribe today.

For any questions or queries, leave a comment or get in touch at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: food inflation (0:42), why AI is fuelling resource conflicts (6:51) and Chile's plans to nationalise lithium, what does that mean for the future of climate politics (11:37)?

A massive thank you to The Lipman-Miliband Trust for supporting our work. Their help is a major step towards this show being sustainable in the long term but we still need your help. If you have the means, head over to patreon.com/Macrodose and subscribe today.

For any questions or queries, leave a comment or get in touch at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk

MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics. Subscribe today at patreon.com/macrodose to hear the full version of this interview, as well as our recent episodes with Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis, labour journalist Sarah Jaffe, and former finance trader Gary Stevenson. 

You’ll also gain access to our upcoming interviews with FT reporter Yuan Yang and contributing editor to the LRB, James Butler.

Our guest today is Gargi Bhattacharyya. Gargi is Professor of Sociology in the Institute for Connected Communities at the University of East London. They are also an activist, organiser and author of Rethinking Racial Capitalism, an account of the entanglement between capitalism and racism, which tracks their historical interconnections as a route to better understanding their interactions today.. 

Gargi is also author of We the Heartbroken, a new book out just this month from Hajar Press. In it they explore the role of emotion, grief and tragedy in building solidarity - and argue that  heartbreak can become the class consciousness of our time. 

In this interview we touch on both of these works. We started by discussing the concept of racial capitalism. What does the term mean, and why does Gargi think it is a useful framework for understanding the economy today?

Capitalism could not exist without the power and structure of the law — that’s the simple but radical argument made by my guest today, Katharina Pistor, law professor at Columbia University, and the author of The Code of Capital: How The Law Creates Wealth and Inequality. 

On today’s episode, we break down how the law ‘encodes’ capital and invisibly structures our world, from giving corporations the rights of a person, to obscure treaties that allow fossil fuel giants to sue governments when they attempt to act on climate. Ultimately, Adrienne asks Katharina whether the law can be harnessed as a force for progress on climate and ecological crisis, and what needs to change to break the legal deadlock.

Katharina Pistor is a professor at Columbia University Law School, where she is the Director of the Center on Global Legal Transformation. She is the author of several celebrated books, most recently of The Code of Capital (Princeton University Press).

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: falling house prices and how they fit with the broader economic crisis (2:04), why AI is unlikely to replace you but might make your job much worse (8:07) and a new masterplan for the Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales (12:16).

A massive thank you to The Lipman-Miliband Trust for supporting our work. Their help is a major step towards this show being sustainable in the long term but we still need your help. If you have the means, head over to patreon.com/Macrodose and subscribe today.

For any questions or queries, leave a comment or get in touch at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down the real world impact of cryptocurrencies (1:35), the economic turmoil in Sri Lanka and role of the IMF and World Bank (9:41), and a claim from the IMF that interest rates and inflation are going to come down - but do we believe them (15:58)?

A massive thank you to The Lipman-Miliband Trust for supporting our work. Their help is a major step towards this show being sustainable in the long term but we still need your help. If you have the means,  head over to patreon.com/Macrodose and subscribe today.

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down France’s historic climate protests over new mega reservoirs (0:49), a new study on how the way we use our time has changed over the last 40 years (7:42) and the world bank publish their report on what’s happening to economic growth across the globe (11:41).

MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics. Subscribe today at patreon.com/macrodose to hear the full version of this interview, as well as our recent episodes with Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis, labour journalist Sarah Jaffe, and former finance trader Gary Stevenson. You’ll also gain access to our upcoming interviews with FT reporter Yuan Yang and academic and writer Gargi Bhattacharyya.

Our guest today is Rosie Collington. Rosie is a political economist, writer, and researcher at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, University College London. She is also the co-author, alongside economist Marianna Mazzucato, of the new book: the Big Con: how the consulting industry weakens our businesses, infantilizes our governments and warps our economies.

I met up with Rosie recently over at UCL to talk all things public sector, outsourcing, and the political economy of the state.

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down the economics behind the current strikes in France (0:52), the Deutsche Bank share price crash amidst speculation it is hiding losses (6:30) and “shrinkflation” - how the current crisis is affecting the size of your Mars Bar (9:12).

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: Credit Suisse and the threat of another financial crisis (1:29) and what ecological breakdown means for our financial systems (13:09).

James is joined by former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell for a special bonus episode of Macrodose reacting to yesterday's Budget. 

www.patreon.com/Macrodose

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: today’s budget, what to look out for and why the government is playing it down (1:28), and the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, should we be worried (8:15)?

https://www.patreon.com/Macrodose

FULL EPISODE available at: patreon.com/Macrodose

MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics. Subscribe today to hear our recent interviews with Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis, labour journalist Sarah Jaffe, and former finance trader Gary Stevenson.

You’ll also gain access to our upcoming interviews with author Rosie Collington and FT reporter Yuan Yang.

Our guest today is Tom Mills. Tom is a Lecturer in Sociology at Aston University, and author of The BBC: The Myth of a Public Service. A book about the past, present and future of the BBC, how it shapes our understanding of the economy and society, and why we urgently need to rethink our public digital media ecosystem.

Tom is also chair of Media Reform UK, a campaign for a more democratic and accountable media, where diversity, public interest and ethical journalism come before the private gain of a few media moguls.

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down a new report showing the importance of involving fossil fuel industry workers in the green transition (0:48),  recognition from the Bank of England that it is capitalists, not workers, driving inflation (6:28) and a report on the dire consequences of Britain’s awful childcare provision on the gender pay gap (10:32).

This week on Macrodose, as James takes a summer break, Olly Haynes breaks down the weekend's French election results, in which the New Popular Front left alliance surprisingly emerged as the largest party ahead of Le Pen's RN and Macron's Ensemble.

Olly unpacks how the French left snatched a tentative victory from the jaws of defeat, potential outcomes of the gridlock, and a mixture of hope and warning signs for the future of France.

A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grateful. If you have the means and enjoy our work, head over to ⁠patreon.com/Macrodose⁠ and subscribe today.

Find our socials, newsletter and more here:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠linktr.ee/macrodosepodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at ⁠⁠⁠⁠macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk⁠⁠⁠⁠

For more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠planetbproductions.co.uk⁠

On this week’s Macrodose James Meadway breaks down: the sudden disappearance of tomatoes and other fruit and veg from Britain’s supermarkets (0:45), how leading Tory ministers split are on the future of the economy (7:42) and the Labour Party's new plans for growth, do they really add up (11:00)?

FULL EPISODE available at: patreon.com/Macrodose

MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics. Subscribe today to hear our recent interviews with Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis, labour journalist Sarah Jaffe, and former finance trader Gary Stevenson.

You’ll also gain access to our upcoming interviews with author Rosie Collington and FT reporter Yuan Yang.

Our guest today is Professor Richard Wolff. Professor Wolff is Economics Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School University in New York City. He is a co-founder and active contributor of Democracy at Work and the host of the weekly show Economic Update with Richard Wolff which is syndicated on over 120+ radio stations in the US and available to stream online.

He is also the author of numerous books, including, most recently, The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself. 

On this week’s Macrodose James Meadway breaks down: the news of a budget surplus, and just how far the official narrative stretches economic truths (0.40s), and the results of the U.K’s largest 4-day working week trial (6.21)

To celebrate hitting 100 Macrodose subscribers on Patreon.com this week, we’re unlocking the full version of one of our favourite Macrodose Extra interviews - on inflation, Covid economics and tackling inequality, with Gary Stevenson. Thank you to everyone who’s taken the time to support Macrodose so far, without you this show would not be possible.

MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics. Subscribe today to hear our recent interviews with Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis, labour journalist Sarah Jaffe, and climate campaigner/author Kate Aronoff.

You’ll also gain access to our upcoming interviews with author Rosie Collington, FT reporter Yuan Yang, and public economist Richard Wolff.

Our guest today is Gary Stevenson. Gary is a former city trader turned campaigner who made millions of pounds working at Citibank, betting that inequality would keep getting worse. He is now the host of the popular Youtube channel, Gary’s economics - where his short videos provide insight into how the economy is broken, how the rich are getting richer and what we can do to fix it.

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: the news that the UK narrowly avoided dipping into recession at the end of last year (1:42), a deeper dive into what that actually means for you in real terms (5:10) and how all this is hurting your local pub (11:35).

FULL EPISODE available at: patreon.com/Macrodose

MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics. Subscribe today to hear our recent interviews with Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis, labour journalist Sarah Jaffe, and former finance trader Gary Stevenson.

You’ll also gain access to our upcoming interviews with author Rosie Collington, FT reporter Yuan Yang, and public economist Richard Wolff.

Our guest today is Kate Aronoff. Kate is a staff writer at the New Republic, and author of the wonderful book Overheated: How capitalism broke the planet and how we fight back.

In the book, Kate traces a damning account of the financial forces that have hijacked and commodified the crisis of climate breakdown over recent decades, and shares a bold vision of what it will take, politically and economically, to face this existential threat head-on. This interview is about those intertwined histories of financialisation and climate denialism. How has the economic logic around the climate crisis shifted in recent years?

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: new figures that signal positive news for the US economy (0:48), how good news for the US might be bad news for the rest of the globe (6:09) and the recent record-breaking profits made by fossil fuel producers (10:55).

You can register here (https://bit.ly/3YAtp5J) for a free ticket for the launch of The Cost of Living Crisis (and how to get out of it), a vital book James has co-authored with Doug Nicholls and Professor Costas Lapavitsas.

On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down the economics behind the UK’s recording-breaking wave of strikes (0:42), how these compare to other strike movements around the world (4:43), and a new report from the BBC that finds issues with the “impartiality” of its economics reporting (12:32). 

FULL EPISODE available at: patreon.com/Macrodose

MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics. Subscribe today to hear our recent interviews with Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis, labour journalist Sarah Jaffe, and former finance trader Gary Stevenson.

You’ll also gain access to our upcoming interviews with climate activist and author Kate Aronoff, FT reporter Yuan Yang, and public economist Richard Wolff.

Our guest today is Kojo Koram. Kojo is a Senior Lecturer at Birkbeck School of Law, University of London. He is the author of Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire, a tour de force on the legacies of Empire and how they shape modern Britain, which was nominated for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2022.

Kojo is also the co-author of Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British State, which was published in 2021, and star of the recent short-film for openDemocracy, Boomerang: how the legacies of empire are breaking Britain’s economy - which you can find on Youtube.

In this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down the shift away from the dominance of the dollar (0:41), what this means for US economic power (3:13), and a call from noble-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz to tackle wealth inequality (11.26).

Today's episode of Election Economics is a post-election debrief - hosted by Ayeisha Thomas-Smith who is joined by Phil Burton-Cartledge. They touched on their immediate reactions and analysis of the results, if the Tory losses were inevitable, what next for a Labour government, and the openings & contradictions of the new political UK landscape.

Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is host of the New Economics Podcast for the New Economics Foundation and Executive Director at NEON, the New Economy Organisers Network

Phil is the author of The Party's Over: The Rise and Fall of the Conservatives from Thatcher to Sunak from Verso Books and is a senior lecturer in Sociology at Derby University. Phil has written extensively about the decline of the Tory party for Tribune and Jacobin, as well as on his blog, All That Is Solid.

TICKETS to our MACRODOSE LIVE event on July 26th: ⁠https://unionchapel.org.uk/venue/whats-on/versothe-dig-live-podcast-with-jeremy-corbyn-laleh-khalili⁠

A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers. You can support the show at: ⁠⁠patreon.com/Macrodose

We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at: ⁠⁠⁠macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk

On this week’s episode of Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down talk of a “polycrisis” at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the threat of default as the US breaches it’s debt ceiling, and a new report from the think tank Autonomy exploring the future of work in the era of climate breakdown.

FULL EPISODE available at: patreon.com/Macrodose

MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics. Subscribe today to hear our recent interviews with Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis and labour journalist Sarah Jaffe, as well as upcoming interviews with author Kojo Koram, FT reporter Yuan Yang, and public economist Richard Wolff.

Our guest today is Gary Stevenson. Gary is a former city trader turned campaigner who made millions of pounds working at Citibank, betting that inequality would keep getting worse. He is now the host of the popular Youtube channel, Gary’s economics - where his short videos provide insight into how the economy is broken, how the rich are getting richer and what we can do to fix it.

In this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: the European Central Bank’s report of a wage bounce in Europe (0.37), the odious debt regimes crippling the economies of the Global South (7.09), and a new survey from the Resolution Foundation that reveals the extent of the cost-of-living crisis in Britain (13.46).

In the latest episode of MACRODOSE, James Meadway breaks down a new IMF forecast that predicts China’s economic downturn, a set of predictions for our economic future from multinational asset manager Blackrock, and asks what’s happening to the wealth of the tech billionaires?

FULL EPISODE available at: patreon.com/Macrodose

MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics. Subscribe today to hear our recent interview with Yanis Varoufakis, as well as upcoming interviews with former finance trader Gary Stevenson, academic Kojo Koram and public economist Richard Wolff.

In today's episode James Meadway speaks to labour journalist Sarah Jaffe about the wave of strikes we’ve seen this year - from nurses, rail workers and posties here in the U.K, to teachers, Amazon workers, and Starbucks employees over in the United States. What’s new about the latest wave of labour action and why is it happening now?

Sarah is the author of two wonderful books - Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted and Alone (2021), and Necessary Trouble, Americans in Revolt (2016). She is also a co-host of Dissent magazine’s Belabored podcast, as well as a columnist at The Progressive.

On this week’s MACRODOSE James Meadway takes a look at a new House of Lord’s report on economic inactivity (0:52s), the financial waste of Covid contracts (7:03) and an unexpected move by Japan’s central bank (12:16).

Head over to Patreon.com/Macrodose to access all of our MACRODOSE EXTRA content, including James' recent interview with Yanis Varoufakis.

On this week’s episode James Meadway breaks down the public sector pay dispute (1:27), Sunak’s move to further deregulate finance (9:05), and the interest rate hikes by central banks (14:48).

FULL EPISODE available at: patreon.com/Macrodose

MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics. Subscribe today to hear our upcoming interviews with labour journalist Sarah Jaffe, former finance trader Gary Stevenson, academic Kojo Koram and economist Richard Wolff. 

In our first episode James Meadway talks to Yanis Varoufakis about the crisis facing the U.K economy, austerity 2.0 and the era of Cloud Capitalism. 

Varoufakis is an academic, economist and politician. He formerly served as the Greek Minister of Finance from January to July 2015 in the Syriza government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, and is currently a sitting member of the Greek Parliament for MeRA25, a progressive political party which he founded it in 2018. 

Yanis is also a founder of the Progressive International - seeking to ally and organise progressive movements worldwide, and DiEM25 - a transnational movement to reform the European Union.

On this week’s episode of Macrodose James Meadway breaks down the G7-backed price cap on Russian oil (0.41), the warning from the National Farmers' Union that Britain is sleepwalking into a food crisis (4:32), and the results of an experiment in a 4-day working week (10:22).

On this week’s episode of Macrodose James Meadway breaks down the economics behind the strikes that are spreading across the U.K, from the railways, to teachers to nurses and oilworkers (0.49s). We take a historical view on this new wave of industrial action (7:10), and then reflect on the U.K’s worsening energy crisis, examining how record levels of debts could push households over the edge this winter (10:55).

Today's episode of Election Economics is a crossover show with Politics Theory Other, where PTO host Alex Doherty invited James Meadway and Richard Seymour to discuss their outlooks on the post-election political horizon in the UK.

They discussed potential new right-wing formations between Reform and the Conservatives, the echoes of populism and anti-populism in this campaign, the left-wing purges of the Labour party and the nuances of the current overlapping ecological and social crises.

Politics Theory Other is a podcast with a focus on radical politics, critical theory and history - you can listen wherever you get your podcasts, and support their work over at their Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother

Alex Doherty is writer and host of Politics Theory Other.

Richard Seymour is a writer and broadcaster, and founding editor of Salvage magazine. His most recent work is 2022's The Disenchanted Earth: Reflections on Ecosocialism and Barbarism.

TICKETS to our MACRODOSE LIVE event on July 26th: ⁠https://unionchapel.org.uk/venue/whats-on/versothe-dig-live-podcast-with-jeremy-corbyn-laleh-khalili⁠

A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers. You can support the show at: ⁠patreon.com/Macrodose

We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at: ⁠⁠⁠macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk

On the first episode of Macrodose James Meadway breaks down the the OECD warning that the UK’s growth prospects are the worst of all the G7 countries (1:06); the austerity 2.0 measures of Rishi Sunak’s government (6:05); and the new IMF report on inflation, which debunks the idea that advanced economies, like the UK, are experiencing rising prices due to an increase in worker pay (13:05).

We’re living through a time of unprecedented economic turmoil.

From war, to the pandemic, to supply chain failures and climate breakdown, it is everyday people who are being made to bear the brunt of the crises.

The pace of events can seem overwhelming and confusing. The old ways of understanding our economy don’t seem to fit any more, and the economics establishment is out of ideas.

But these crises aren’t going away, and we aren’t going to return to the era of economic stability.

Macrodose is a new weekly podcast that seeks to chart our way through these turbulent times, and build a vision for a just, sustainable and progressive future.

Each week, we’ll bring you a 15 minute update on the key economic stories making the news, and the analysis you need to make sense of them.

It’s time to set the story straight.

Join James Meadway every Wednesday morning for Macrodose: Your weekly fix of everything economics.

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Today on Macrodose Election Economics, James is joined by Polly Smythe, to unpack her research on the links between oil, gas and arms companies and 31 Labour MP candidates. They also touch on the upcoming organizing and union ballots with Amazon workers in the UK.

Polly is a writer and journalist, and currently the labour movement correspondent for Novara Media.

You can read Polly's full pieces for Novara here: https://novaramedia.com/2024/06/13/meet-the-labour-candidates-lobbying-for-oil-gas-and-arms-companies/

https://novaramedia.com/2024/06/21/amazon-says-gmb-leaflets-could-be-a-hazard-amid-union-busting-allegations/

TICKETS to our MACRODOSE LIVE event on July 26th: ⁠https://unionchapel.org.uk/venue/whats-on/versothe-dig-live-podcast-with-jeremy-corbyn-laleh-khalili⁠

A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers. You can support the show at: ⁠patreon.com/Macrodose

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