We are in a drastically different world from the one most of us grew up in. This has been proven by the rapid escalation in the events in the Middle East over the last six weeks.

No longer are we in a world where, essentially, the US run the show. And this has huge global implications, especially for Europe.

Philip Pilkington is a macroeconomist and podcaster who co-hosts the ‘Multipolarity’ podcast. He sat down with Aaron Bastani to talk about what we get wrong about China, cheap high quality weapons technology and what we can learn from the Treaty of Versailles.

Discussion of climate change mainly focuses on mitigating rising temperatures, de-carbonising and getting to ‘net zero’.

Author and broadcaster Gaia Vince argues that we also need to focus on how we’ll deal with with’s already happening and about to get much much worse: huge swathes of the planet becoming uninhabitable and 2 billion people needing to find somewhere new to live.

She argues the solution to this problem is a radical reframing of how we think about migration.

She sat down with Aaron to talk wet bulb temperatures, demographic aging and the Japanese nappy market.

Gaia’s book Nomad Century is available from Penguin.

From his radical youth in 1970s Italy to his research as one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists, Carlo Rovelli is as comfortable talking politics as he is explaining quantum theory.

He sat down with Aaron to talk about the future of Europe, his theory of white holes, and why we’re not actually living in a simulation. His book White Holes: Inside The Horizon is available from Penguin.

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For this end-of-year edition of Downstream, the Novara Media team look back on the biggest stories of the year. Ash Sarkar is joined by Moya Lothian-McLean, Michael Walker and Owen Jones to talk about the Labour Party, the climate crisis, the rise of AI and the war on Gaza.

From clouds brightening to prospects dimming, it’s a conversation with a surprisingly high level of off-brand festive cheer. This conversation was recorded live in London on 7th December.

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A huge thank you to everyone who has chosen to back our journalism this year. You’ve made everything we do possible. https://novara.media/support

Asset management companies like Blackrock, Vanguard and Macquarie have avoided real scrutiny for decades, but their secretive activities are starting to attract attention from political researchers and academics. What do these companies do, and what risk do they pose to society?

Author and academic Brett Christophers sets out to answer this question in his new book, Our Lives in Their Portfolios: Why Asset Managers Own the World. He sat down with Aaron for a crash course in the world of asset management, discussing the dangers of financialisation, how UK infrastructure has been gutted by privatisation, and what we can learn from the case of the City of Chicago vs. Morgan Stanley.

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A huge thank you to everyone who has chosen to back our journalism this year. You’ve made everything we do possible. https://novara.media/support

Daniel Levy has had a front row seat at some of the most consequential peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine in the last two decades, as president of the U.S./Middle East Peace Project and as an adviser to former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak.

He sat down with Ash Sarkar to talk about the failure of the Oslo Accords, the central role of Gulf monarchies in negotiations, and how Israel responds to being labelled as an apartheid state.

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Blindboy Boatclub is the Irish broadcaster, author and musician behind The Blindboy Podcast, a massively popular podcast mixing short fiction, comedy and interviews. His new short story collection, Topographia Hibernica, is inspired by the human, animal and emotional geography of Ireland.

Blindboy sat down with Ash for a freewheeling discussion about everything from Eminem’s ’90s style and the situation in Palestine to why cats are magical.

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To really understand what’s going in Israel, you need to get your history straight. Rashid Khalidi is one of the foremost historians of the Middle East and the author of several books on the region’s history, including The Hundred Years’ War On Palestine.

On the day of the ceasefire in Gaza, he guides Ash through the history of the Zionist project that created Israel and the basic facts of the 75-year struggle for Palestinian independence.

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Zarah Sultana is one of the youngest MPs in Parliament and has faced intense hostility from the right of the Labour Party since Keir Starmer’s ascent to leader.

The MP for Coventry South sat down with Ash Sarkar to talk about the reality of being a Muslim woman in the Labour Party, her interactions with Starmer’s office, the Islamophobia she faces in the public sphere, and why the majority of her Labour colleagues voted against a ceasefire in Gaza.

We’re heading towards a cashless society. With the dominion of Visa and Mastercard showing no sign of shrinking, it’s becoming increasingly necessary to scrutinise what this shift towards virtual money really means.

Brett Scott is an author and former banker who is deeply committed to evaluating the dangers of removing cash as a payment system. He sat down with Aaron to talk about Bitcoin, gold and the central paradox at the heart of modern libertarianism. His new book, Cloudmoney: Why the War on Cash Endangers Our Freedom, is available from Penguin.

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Novara Media’s supporters keep us entirely free to access. We don’t have any ad partnerships or sponsored content. Become a supporter: https://novara.media/support