Dangerously Reasonable - The Mallen Baker Show

It has been the sort of week that will be referred to in decades, even centuries, hence as being one that was a turning point in history. There is a lot to come, but let's see if we can make sense of where we have gotten to in just the last few days.

In the US, in the UK and the EU - the proposed shift from internal combustion cars to electric vehicles is starting to become a major factor in a big political shift that's going on. What's driving it (pun not intended!), and just how far is it going to go in rocking our old political assumptions? Let's have a look.

This week, Rishi Sunak just announced pushing back of a few net zero targets - but much more significantly signalled a shift in campaign positioning that has thrust the issue to the centre of the conflict between the two main parties in advance of the general election. Labour leader Keir Starmer now has to work out if this is a great opportunity, or a poison-laden trap. It's a more subtle question than the ideologues on either side think it is.

More mainstream voices are starting to be raised highlighting the likely outcome for where America is currently headed. One of them is Ray Dalio, the billionaire investor whose book 'Principles for dealing with a changing world order' identified the cycles that inevitably define the rise and fall of empires. Let's have a look at what he has to say.

Elon Musk is so often at the centre of every important issue or controversy - he is a techno-optimist, he is pro-free speech, he is desperate for man to colonise Mars - you name it. He is also powerful on the world stage. And somewhat unaccountable. Is that a problem? Let's discuss.

Two months in to Ukraine's counter-offensive, and so far - while there have been gains - they are well short of what people had hoped for. The implication is that this war is going to last years not months, notwithstanding the unexpected. How does that realisation begin to change the landscape - for Russia, for Ukraine, for the West?

Over time, how we understand an ongoing issue, and aim to act on it, will evolve and change. We've been in the same phase on climate change for several decades - but right now it seems as though we may be entering the transition to the next phase. In this podcast, we look at why that may be, but why it will reach America later than many other places.

Maybe companies should have values. But should they have the sort of values that are about holding powerful corporations to account, or the ones that turn powerful corporations into policeman over how we live our lives? There's nuance to be had, but a crucially important distinction not many commentators are making right now.

This week was the 75th anniversary of Britain's health service, which people have said to themselves for decades is "the envy of the world". Well, maybe once. But now it costs more money than most, for worse actual health outcomes. What went wrong - and does anyone dare even discuss it in public?

It wasn't a coup, but it looked like a coup. Putin wasn't bothered, but he certainly looked bothered. Really, it was just a protest. The sort of protest where you destroy military planes on the way. So just what HAS been going on in Russia this week, and what does it mean?