What does it mean to buy a concert ticket in an age of algorithms and platforms? In this episode of Cultural Economy in the Kitchen Philip Roscoe and Addie McGowan explore the hidden architectures of the concert economy with Dr Victor Pires and Dr Loïc Riom. Victor unpacks Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing as a powerful market device, where algorithms shape demand, organise time, and offer a platinum take on the age-old ploy of scalping. Loïc turns to Sofar Sounds, showing how secret concerts and the promise of “exposure” try to remake what it means to perform and be paid. Together, they reveal how platforms do far more than sell tickets or organise gigs. They actively compose the economic reality of live music, redistributing risk, value, and possibility across artists, audiences, and intermediaries. Yet their real play may not be the business of music at all. Cultural Economy in the Kitchen, the academic journal podcast from the Journal of Cultural Economy editorial collective.

What happens to trust when it goes digital? Could mistrust be more important? In this episode of Cultural Economy in the Kitchen, Philip Roscoe and Addie McGowan are joined by Kristoffer Albris, James Maguire, and Matt Spencer to explore the strange, shifting world of digital (mis)trust. From platforms and crypto to cyber security certification, mistrust emerges not as a failure but as a force that shapes systems, infrastructures, and decisions. Along the way: stories that undermine expertise, certificates no one quite believes, and the surprising idea that security might depend less on control than on care. In a digital world of scams, AI, and uncertainty, what does it mean to trust at all - and how does mistrust help that happen? The academic journal podcast from the Journal of Cultural Economy editorial collective.

From student loans to buy-now-pay-later, we are always already indebted. Debt has become an engine of everyday life, reshaping how we study, shop, work, and imagine our futures. In this episode of Cultural Economy in the Kitchen, Philip Roscoe and Addie McGowan ask what it means to live in a world where indebtedness has become a permanent condition. Addie and Philip explore the cultural economies of debt with Tamar Nir, Jessa Loomis, and Daniel Cockayne. Tamar reveals how student loans entangle individuals in state‑designed market relations, reshaping obligations and responsibilities. Jessa and Daniel unpack the rise of buy‑now‑pay‑later platforms, showing how fintech, social media, and gendered consumption cultures deepen everyday reliance on borrowing. Together, the guests reveal how debt structures social life, from higher education to household spending, in a world where it is no longer an exception but the norm. The academic journal podcast from the Journal of Cultural Economy editorial collective.

Music hasn’t escaped the grip of capital. In this episode of Cultural Economy in the Kitchen, Philip Roscoe and Addie McGowan unpack the collision of sound and finance with guests Paul Rekret and Elizabeth (Betsy) Carter. Paul takes us back to the glossy excess of late‑90s Bad Boy Records, where hip‑hop’s “sensuous abstraction” of wealth mirrored the industry’s own slide into financialised logic, weaving wealth into sound itself through aggressive sampling and a new “player” aesthetic. Thirty years later, musicians are broke. Betsy uncovers the brutal economics of today’s streaming era, where platforms chase data, labels hoard catalogues, and musicians scrape by. Listen as the conversation exposes a music economy that is both dazzling and extractive.

What do ghosts, empires, and financial capital have in common? In this episode of Cultural Economy in the Kitchen, Philip Roscoe and Addie McGowan speak with Clea Bourne, Paul Gilbert, and Eleanor Newbigin to explore how colonial legacies haunt contemporary financial systems and cultural policy. Clea and Paul unpack the “ghostly infrastructures” underpinning global finance, revealing how willed forgetfulness obscures the colonial histories embedded in today’s markets. Eleanor then turns to UK–India cultural and creative industries, showing how development narratives, soft power, and neoliberal agendas continue to reproduce hierarchy and extractive logics. Together, the conversation confronts the lingering spectres shaping political and economic life today.

What happens when parenting becomes an economic project? In this episode of Cultural Economy in the Kitchen, Philip Roscoe and Addie McGowan chat with sociologists Nina Bandelj and Joe Deville about how parenting is shaped by markets, metrics, and digital platforms. Nina discusses parental investment, emotional economies, and the pressures they create on parents trying to do the best for their kids. Through his study of childhood avoidant eating, Joe reflects on digitally mediated parenting. He explores how platform searches, expert advice, and biopedagogies mediate family mealtimes and shape parental decision‑making. Together, they reveal how contemporary parenthood is negotiated through data, devices, and cultural expectations—and how families navigate, resist, and reinterpret these forces. Academic journal podcast from the Journal of Cultural Economy editorial collective.

Climate crisis meets capital in Cultural Economy in the Kitchen: Professor Philip Roscoe and Dr Addie McGowan explore what happens when climate change collides with the world of finance. They speak with Dr Stine Engen and Professor Kristin Asdal about how climate issues are transformed into calculable financial risks through everyday tools, documents, and risk‑work in the financial sector. The conversation then turns to Dr Justin Leifso, whose work on the carbon-tax backlash in Alberta uncovers the emotional undercurrents of neoliberalism, resentment, and anti-elitism. Together, the discussions offer a vivid portrait of finance’s entanglements with planetary futures. The academic journal podcast from the Journal of Cultural Economy editorial collective.

In this episode of Cultural Economy in the Kitchen, hosts Dr Addie McGowan and Professor Philip Roscoe explore the emerging world of digital food. Joined by Dr Tanja Schneider and Dr Jeremy Brice, editors of a JCE special issue on 'digital eating', they unpack how apps, platforms and data are reshaping what eating means as a cultural and social practice. From digital veganism to food safety, expertise, and the tension between care and choice, the conversation reveals how everyday food habits are shaped by digital infrastructures and what the digital becomes when it gets messy with food.Together, the guests consider surprises, tensions and the future of eating in a platformised world. The academic journal podcast from the Journal of Cultural Economy editorial collective.

In this episode of Cultural Economy in the Kitchen, the podcast from the Journal of Cultural Economy, hosts Dr. Addie McGowan and Professor Philip Roscoe explore the fascinating world of crypto imaginaries—how cryptocurrencies embody - quite literally, encode - cultural, political, and economic visions of the future. Joining them are Dr. Lana Swartz, Dr. Andreu Belsunces, and Dr. Kobe De Keere, who unpack the neoliberal roots of crypto, its technical design principles, its role as a ‘social and cultural shapeshifter’, and the promises broken along the way’. From anarchist beginnings to techno-utopian dreams and Russia’s crisis-driven adoption, this conversation reveals how crypto is more than money. Is it a financial revolution, a neoliberal fantasy made material, or just a way out? Tune in to hear more!

In this episode, we dive into the fascinating world of design and explore how it shapes contemporary economic life. Ulises Navarro Aguiar and Karl Palmas explain how businesses use design not just to create products, but to imagine and speculate about uncertain futures. Later, Koray Caliskan takes us inside the world of digital platforms, showing how design underpins their power and influence. From startups experimenting with strategy to platforms acting as “exploratoriums,” we uncover how design drives innovation—and speculation—in today’s economy. Join us for a thought-provoking conversation about creativity, uncertainty, and the forces shaping our digital lives.