Jim talks with Ashley Hodgson about her YouTube series "The New Enlightenment" and its heterodox perspectives on economics and social systems. They discuss Iain McGilchrist's influence & his book "The Matter with Things," economic mythology & its role in upholding the current system, the Bernays era of programmed consumerism, GDP growth myths, destructive growth value, problems with GDP, resource extraction vs other forms of growth, Galbraith's economics, corporate accountability structures, distortions in the information environment, changes in management compensation, the consumer sovereignty myth, the role of the technostructure, manufactured desires vs actual needs, behavioral economics & rationality, problems with "debunking" mindset, the meta-crisis, sense-making challenges, voice & exit rights, coherent pluralism, the "creepy utopia" problem, and much more.

Episode Transcript

The New Enlightenment (YouTube channel)

The Matter with Things, by Iain McGilchrist

JRS EP 154 - Iain McGilchrist on The Matter with Things

The Economics of Innocent Fraud, by John Kenneth Galbraith

The New Industrial State, by John Kenneth Galbraith

Debt: The First 5,000 Years, by David Graeber

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, by Shoshana Zuboff

Ashley Hodgson is an economics professor and a YouTuber. Her teaching history includes behavioral economics, health care economics, digital industries, blockchain economics, public health, ageing, and game theory, among other courses. She enjoys co-teaching as a way of fostering interdisciplinary dialogues and has co-taught courses with faculty in anthropology, psychology, statistics, and biology. Hodgson’s YouTube channel, The New Enlightenment, looks at paradigm shifts in economics, governance and knowledge systems, and parallels her own research and book writing.