Rowan returns to the fold this week, still without a home but at least with an 'adequate' AirBnB. Get a degree they said. Do a masters they said. Get a white-collar job they say. It'll all work out they said...

Rowan's slow-motion crushing beneath the iron wheel of capitalism sets us up quite well for Part 4 of our on-going series 'A Brief History of Neoliberalism', which is now becoming not-so brief. Last week he explored how Thatcher and Reagan spearheaded Neoliberalism in the West over the course of the 80s. This week he looks at how the political left embraced neoliberalism, through the Third Way politics of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair.

This leads us up to perhaps the defining calamity of our generation, the 2008 financial crisis... but that's for the fifth and final part, next week!

Check out Part 1: goo.gl/KVF32q

Check out Part 2: goo.gl/ta4Bk8

Check out Part 3: goo.gl/3a67ys

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We finish this week's pod with some pop culture commentary with Meanwhile On Twitter. Our friend Helen Edworthy joins us to discuss why Millennials and Generation Z are watching the Friends, recently released on Netflix, and noticing how far society's moved on from the latent misogyny and homophobia of the era. We also note how similar series since, like HOMYM, have a more cynical outlook.

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The gang are down to two this week, as Rowan walks the streets of Brussels in search of shelter. We'll keep you updated on his deteriorating life situation as events unfold.

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We follow up last week's "The History of Neoliberalism Part 2" with... you guessed it... Part 3!

Previously, Warren discussed Hayek, Friedman and the birth of neoliberalism. In this week's part, he details how and why Thatcher and Reagan spearheaded Neoliberalism in the West over the course of the 80s.

Next week, we'll wrap up the series with how neoliberalism transformed the political Left, led to the 2008 financial crisis - arguably doubling down since.

Check out Part 1: goo.gl/KVF32q

Check out Part 2: goo.gl/ta4Bk8

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We finish up with our segment Right-Wing Watch - and a chat about Jordan Peterson, a clinical psychologist and divisive cultural critic, who's recent book and TV appearances have caused a stir.

We draw attention to Peterson's use of his intellectual capital to push conservative arguments and undermine progressive causes.

He's become something of a totem for the alt-right, with lectures like "Identity Politics and the Marxist Lie of White Privelege": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfH8IG7Awk0

You can read some thorough take-downs of his positions from...

Digg - http://digg.com/2018/jordan-peterson-book-review

Viewpoint - https://www.viewpointmag.com/2018/01/23/postmodernism-not-take-place-jordan-petersons-12-rules-life/

RationalWiki - https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Jordan_Peterson

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Back by popular demand, we bring you "A Brief History of Neoliberalism pt.2"

Last week, Warren explained mainstream economics up to the 1970s. This week, he discusses Hayek, Friedman and the birth of neoliberalism - and offers a critique of their ideas. He also touches on how this philosophy was first tested out on developing countries, with terrible consequences.

Stay tuned for the third instalment next week, where he returns home and discusses how Reagan and Thatcher brought neoliberalism to western shores - continued by every government since.

Check out Pt.1 here: https://goo.gl/KVF32q

Check out Pt.3 here: https://goo.gl/4Ngu9g

If you want to read more about Hayek, check out Stephen Metcalf's recent essay: https://goo.gl/9G2TWj

Credit to Naomi Klein's 'The Shock Doctrine' for the detail on Neoliberal Chile: https://goo.gl/Kcj9df

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It's not all a history lesson though ;) We bring up a well-timed new release from The Smith Institute called "Out of Contract: Time to move on from the ‘love in’ with outsourcing and PFI". Check it out: https://goo.gl/syqdtX

We also have some comedy gold in the form of the Tories most recent attempts to appeal to young people, with a new toolkit released for meme-ing... yeh. Unfortunately they still haven't got round to addressing the whole "backing the status quo, when the status quo isn't working for young people" conundrum. Bit of a critical problem that.

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The Carrillion collapse is the big news of the week - how did it happen? Is this just the latest symptom of a neoliberal ideology gone too far?

Speaking of Neoliberalism, Warren is pleased to present "A Brief History of Neoliberalism, Part 1". He summarises what it's all about, and kicks off our history less with mainstream economics up to the 1970s. Next week, he'll directly tackle the birth of neoliberalism and its imposition across the developing world.

Check out Pt.2 here: https://goo.gl/jaNZZA

Check out Pt.3 here: https://goo.gl/4Ngu9g

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Finally, algorithm changes at Facebook will mean businesses have to pay a lot more to get seen on your news feed. Why have they done this? How will this effect the ability of great podcasts to promote themselves? What about less important stuff like, yno, quality journalism vs russian bot networks?

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We're back! Hope you enjoyed the holidays, we're kicking off with a feature on one of our favourite topics...

Millennials. We're vilified as spoilt, idle, and perpetually in childhood. We did everything we were supposed to: got an education, work experience, applied for tens of jobs, and even tried to start our own businesses. Many of us have been struggling at this for over a decade...

And yet we still can barely afford rent - let alone purchase a house. We're frequently competing against more experienced generations applying for entry level jobs. Even those with a masters degree find themselves in insecure work with low pay, weird hours, and no clear path of progression.

No wonder so many are needing support from a parental safety net. But even that stereotype misrepresents the majority of Millennials: who never went to university, who's parents won't let them live at home and can't support them with a down-payment.

"What if the problem isn't us?" asked Michael Hobbes of Huffiington Post Highline. "What if the world is fundamentally different to the one our boomer parents are expecting us to succeed in?"

We interview Michael to discuss his most recent article "Millennials are Screwed", one of our favourite articles of recent months. His article focuses on the USA, but so many of these issues are familiar in any developed country. We need to see the issues clearly, hold the boomers accountable, and fix things through serious paradigm and policy change.

If you do one thing this week, check out his article below:

http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/poor-millennials/

Also, Michael tweets: https://twitter.com/RottenInDenmark

...and makes consistently great content: https://michaelhobbes.contently.com/

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Also on the pod this week:

- Big Thinking: A chat with cybersecurity expert Jonathan Humphries on the recently discovered Spectre/Meltdown vulnerabilities, and their implications for geopolitics. He's up for Q&A at a later point, so be sure to send in your questions.

- Meanwhile on Twitter: We can't resist a laugh about PIxelated Boat's 'Gorilla Channel' tweet (https://goo.gl/6NVpUu) fooling so many people. What is more damning - that too many on the Twitter Left do not pause to check their sources, or that something so crazy about the current POTUS is totally believable.

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For our second Christmas break interview release, we've got the full version of the interview Rowan did with Clement Nocos, an abridged version of which appears on Episode 2 (goo.gl/zUCTv1).

Clement talks about his experience working for Canadian politician Jagmeet Singh after interviewing him for GQ, what it's like to work in Canadian politics, and how young people can get involved in the process. This full version gives a bit more detail on Clement's own motivations and experiences, bringing it all even more to life.

Check out Clement's work for GQ: https://www.gq.com/contributor/clement-nocos

Follow him on twitter: https://twitter.com/amaturhistorian

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A little bonus pod for you here - the full version of one of our favourite interviews of the series with Martin Kirk, co-founder of /TheRules; an international collective of activists and thinkers seeking to challenge the root causes of poverty, and promote system-change for a more sustainable future.

You heard an abridged version of this a few weeks ago (S02E07: https://tinyurl.com/y8nwbcf2) but Martin had so much more to say on the free trade, development and growth narratives of modern capitalism. Fascinating stuff that we thought you'd like to hear.

Find out more: https://therules.org/

Follow them at: https://twitter.com/TheRulesOrg

Check out their blog: http://blog.therules.org/

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We'll be back in the new year with full episodes. Til then:

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After relaunching a few months back, we’ve spent a lot of time tightening up the podcast. We exhaustively write and research a feature every week and introduced a number of recurring segments. Warren and Raj have spent many hours cutting and tightening each Season 2 episode, getting the run time down and keeping everything taut.

Well, we didn’t do any of that this episode.

After drinking a little too much wine and hastily pulling together our big talking points for the year, we just got online and started to freestyle chat about politics again. We cover the generational divide, the many elections of 2017, digital politics, our recurring political enemies and a little more information about how we relaunched the podcast to focus on the future of politics.

Warren also went wild with beds, including some of our favourite tracks of 2017.

Check it out here: https://open.spotify.com/user/1151257509/playlist/7qlrVvGeoWCsOSuXilruUy

Thanks to everybody for listening and all the guests we’ve had this year. We’ll be back next year with some more great guests and interesting features.

In the meantime, you can check out the full archive here: http://www.rowan-emslie.com/connected-and-disaffected-podcast-about-the-future-of-politics/

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A lot of time is spent trying to understand economic and political mechanisms. Deregulation, cutting tax, privatisation, GDP growth etc... But relatively little time is spent examining why those mechanisms are being adopted.

What is the end goal of capitalism?

Warren spoke to Martin Kirk, co-founder of /The Rules (https://therules.org), who is working to expose 'the why' (more than 'the how') of capitalism - and so break open our imaginations.

He points out that we are in a time of transition - the Neoliberal consensus is certainly collapsing (https://tinyurl.com/yan6ulcy) - and new ideas have an opportunity to gain traction.

So how do you make sure the new ideas are better, smarter, more sustainable? Understand the narratives; bring movements from around the world together; and build a new, modern system that values ecology and diversity.

/The Rules on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRulesOrg

Martin Kirk on Twitter: https://twitter.com/martinkirk_co

Jeremy Rifkin's Zero Marginal Cost Society: https://www.thezeromarginalcostsociety.com/

Basic Income on the Blockchain: https://joincircles.net/

Puerto Rico & Basic Income: https://tinyurl.com/y7gl7lal

RIGHT WING WATCH

- The Brexit impact assessment reports that definitely, 100% existed right up until they didn't.

- Taking a closer look at the 'successes' of the Brexit Deal and finding... not much, tbh.

MEANWHILE ON TWITTER

Raj takes us into the world of Patreon and their recent price hike. The pressure of venture capital is behind this, we can see a complete change in the Patreon model towards small groups of bigger donors supporting content. Goodbye small-scale, grassroots support...

Let's see if that works.

Funding content producers online is a problem that lots of companies are trying to solve. Media, music, art, podcasts - there is an awful lot to enjoy online that we're struggling to figure out how to pay for.

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The UNFCCC COP23 in Bonn concluded a fortnight ago with little in the way of fanfare from the press... but is it fair to say that nothing happened? We chatted to Hiro Ito, climate adviser to the Japanese embassy in Germany, about the nature of these conferences, and the key narratives the rest of us mortals should focus on.

Week in Bulls!*t is back on the menu, with a week of Royal Engagement Mania(TM) bringing out the Robespierre in Warren, accompanied by some good old-fashioned dog-whistle racism from the tabloid press.

We also follow-up last week's feature on the blockchain and cryptocurrency by answering questions and comments submitted by listeners, and Rowan and Warren debate increasing interest in Direct Democracy.

You can check Raj's feature on blockchain at the 16:50 mark of last week's episode:

https://soundcloud.com/connectedanddisaffected/s2e05-cryptocurrency-rules-everything-around-me

Also read Rowan's thoughts on blockchain-enabled direct democracy:

http://www.rowan-emslie.com/blockchain-revolution-for-government-s02e05/

Check out Bill McKibben's excellent article on how political will, not technology, is what's needed to tackle climate change:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/bill-mckibben-winning-slowly-is-the-same-as-losing-w512967

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