The Freewheeling Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Almost three years to the day since the previous episode of The Freewheeling Podcast, I'm thrilled to tell you that I'll be back next week to start Season Two.

We've got a great series coming up, starting on Thursday with Daniel Knowles, author of Carmaggedon.

It's a fascinating conversation - please do join me!

My guest this week is Chris Stark, the CEO of the Climate Change Committee.

His job is to set the national carbon budget and then report to Parliament on whether we’re on track to hit net zero.

Earlier this year, his committee praised the Government for its ambition in setting targets but warned that ‘time was running out’ for the delivery plans to meet those targets.

He joins me on The Freewheeling Podcast to talk about how the carbon budgets are set, what needs to happen for surface transport to hit net zero, how the grid will cope with electric vehicles and whether the Transport Decarbonisation Plan is up to the job.

Horace Dediu doesn’t just “get” micromobility, he invented the very word “Micromobility”!

Back in 2015, he saw the transformational potential of small, motorised vehicles and has been championing their adoption ever since.

Who better to discuss this global revolution with than the man who first saw it coming?

Horace is an analyst and founder of Asymco, the Critical Path and Micromobility Industries.

In this week’s podcast, we talk about the potential of micromobility and the impact on traditional public transport. In the process, we also cover a lot of innovation theory.

Horace is one of the global leaders of the Micromobility movement, so this is a fascinating episode.

Brianne Eby is an expert in transport policy who, in her role as Senior Policy Analyst at US transportation thinktank Enotrans, advises the federal Government, state Governments and local Governments.

Last year she did a major piece of research into congestion pricing but we also talk about the wider environment for change in public transport globally.

Brianne has a unique vantage point, both on one of the world’s largest transport markets in the US, and the global transport policy scene.

So I do hope you enjoy this week’s episode of The Freewheeling Podcast!

Charles Read teaches economics and history at Cambridge University. His areas of interest include pandemics, famines, financial crises and, on a brighter note, all things related to transport. Trains, planes, ships and cars have fascinated him since an early age.

Recently, he has written several articles about the future of transport after covid-19. Before the pandemic decimated the industry, he edited The Economist‘s award-winning travel blog, Gulliver, and reported for the print edition of the paper from over 25 countries spanning 3 continents.

We discuss the rebound from Covid and dive into history to explore various historic crises and transitions.

My guest Dyan Crowther has run a traditional rail franchise, a non-revenue risk rail franchise, a region of Network Rail and now leads Britain’s only High Speed line at HS1.

With experience of such a mix of incentives, systems and structures, she is the ideal person to talk to about running a railway in the post-Williams era.

Should companies have a wider purpose?

Professor Alex Edmans has written extensively on why capitalism is the best way to grow the pie for everyone, but how companies can only succeed with a wider social purpose.

The tensions between public and private are a constant feature of transport and in today's discussion we explore the role of wider corporate purpose in improving outcomes.

After - finally - discovering what the Williams Shapps Plan for Rail actually said, I got together with Sir Michael Holden to discuss it.

After all, who better to pick it apart than someone who’s actually run trains for the Government.

Michael Holden has first-hand experience of the strengths and weaknesses of both public and private sector, having twice been the Government’s go-to guy for bringing trains into the public sector when private sector franchisees collapsed.

We talk through the strengths and weaknesses of Williams.

Join us for a wide-ranging discussion of the potential and pitfalls of the biggest change to the railways for 30 years.

Professor Kate Jeffery is a global leader in the neuroscience of navigation. By monitoring the brains of rats as they move about a box, she can start to figure out how our brains learn where we are - and how we create a mental map of the world.

In this discussion, we talk about how the brain works, the different parts of the brain used for navigation, why some of us navigate completely differently to others - and why all tube stations should have compass points underground.

Kate Jeffery is Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience at University College London.

Giles Fearnley has founded two successful independent transport businesses and ended his career running the country’s biggest bus group.

What has he learned from Blazefield, Prism and First? Are the things that drive growth the same as those that create a shareholder return? Is there a future for the big bus groups? Do we have a problem with short-termism?

Giles looks back at his career to try to answer some of these questions - ending with a clarion cry on the importance of localism.