Contributor(s): Professor Nick Couldry, Dr Eugenie Dugoua, Ceara Carney | Artificial intelligence is transforming the world around us, offering increased productivity and promising to help tackle difficult problems like global warming.

But behind the scenes, its environmental costs are mounting. From massive energy use to vast quantities of water required to cool data centres, AI’s footprint is growing fast. So, in an age of water scarcity and climate crisis, can we justify this technological boom?

In this episode of LSE iQ, Anna Bevan asks: Is AI destroying the planet?

She travels to a data centre in Slough to find out exactly how data centres work, and speaks to Nick Couldry, Professor of Media, Communications and Social Theory at LSE; Eugenie Dugoua, Assistant Professor in Environmental Economics at LSE; and Ceara Carney, an actor and climate activist.

This episode explores the AI sustainability paradox: can AI be both a climate solution and a climate problem? And discusses surprising ways AI is being used for good, such as catching poachers in the Serengeti.

Research

Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight it, Nick Couldry and Ulises Mejias

The Space of the World: can Human Solidarity Survive Social Media and What if it Can't? Nick Couldry

Induced innovation, inventors and the energy transition, Eugenie Dugoua and Todd D. Gerarden

Directed technological change and general purpose technologies: can AI accelerate clean energy innovation? Pia Andres, Eugenie Dugoua and Marion Dumas

Could artificial intelligence deliver a green transition? Marion Dumas

LSE iQ is a university podcast by the London School of Economics and Political Science. We’re keen to find out more about our audience so we can better tailor our content to suit your interests. With this in mind, we would be grateful if you could please take the time to fill out this short survey and share your feedback.

Contributor(s): Dr Suleman Lazarus, Professor Andrew Murray, Lisa Mills, Nikki MacLeod | This episode of LSE iQ looks at how we can avoid falling for online scams. We think it couldn’t happen to us, but incidents of online fraud are escalating at an alarming rate, affecting all areas of our day-to-day lives, from social media and dating apps to banking and business.

As AI deepfakes and impersonation tactics become more advanced, scammers are finding new ways to exploit us, leaving victims emotionally and financially devastated.

In this episode Oliver Johnson talks to a victim of a devastating romance scam, he hears about what motivates some of the fraudsters and what legal protections we have in the battle against the scammers.

Contributors: Dr Suleman Lazarus, Professor Andrew Murray, Lisa Mills, Nikki MacLeod

Research:

Fraud as Legitimate Retribution for Colonial Injustice, Dr Suleman Lazarus et al

Examining fifty cases of convicted online romance fraud offenders Dr Suleman Lazarus et al

Information Technology Law Professor Andrew Murray

Rethinking the Jurisprudence of Cyberspace Professor Andrew Murray et al

LSE iQ is a university podcast by the London School of Economics and Political Science. We’re keen to find out more about our audience so we can better tailor our content to suit your interests. With this in mind, we would be grateful if you could please take the time to fill out this short survey and share your feedback.

Contributor(s): Professor Shani Orgad, Dr Divya Srivastava, Dr Julia King, Dr Olivia Theocharides-Feldman | With the cost-of-living crisis leading to the closure of community spaces around the UK, and the pressures on urban development projects, this episode of LSE iQ asks, are we in danger of losing our communities?

Speakers: Professor Shani Orgad, Dr Divya Srivastava , Dr Julia King, Dr Olivia Theocharides-Feldman

Research links:

“Listening in times of crisis: The value and limits of radio phone-in shows” by Shani Orgad, Divya Srivastava, and Diana Olaleye https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/01634437241308729?af=R

Making Space for Girls project, with Dr Julia King and Olivia Theocharides-Feldman https://www.lse.ac.uk/Cities/research/cities-space-and-society/Making-Space-For-Girls

LSE iQ is a university podcast by the London School of Economics and Political Science.

We’re keen to find out more about our audience so we can better tailor our content to suit your interests. With this in mind, we would be grateful if you could please take the time to fill out this short survey and share your feedback.

Contributor(s): Dr Phillip Rode, Professor Rachel Aldred, Dr Chris Tennant, Indira Ray | This episode of LSE iQ looks at whether we should still be driving, whether public transport in cities has helped alleviate the need to drive and how driverless cars are still a distance away from really helping solve the issue of the number of cars on the road. Speakers: Dr Phillip Rode, Professor Rachel Aldred, Dr Chris Tennant and Indira Ray.

LSE iQ is a university podcast by the London School of Economics and Political Science.

We’re keen to find out more about our audience so we can better tailor our content to suit your interests. With this in mind, we would be grateful if you could please take the time to fill out this short survey and share your feedback.

Contributor(s): Professor Gwyn Bevan, Dr Kate Bayliss, Jo Bateman | This episode of LSE iQ explores a national scandal: widespread illegal sewage dumping by our privatised water companies, and why they are all under criminal investigation.

Speakers: Professor Gwyn Bevan, Dr Kate Bayliss, Jo Bateman

Research links:

How Did Britain Come to This? A century of systemic failures of governance by Gwyn Bevan: https://press.lse.ac.uk/site/books/m/10.31389/lsepress.hdb/

Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated: The persistence of neoliberalism in Britain by Kate Bayliss et al, European Journal of Social Theory: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13684310241241800

LSE iQ is a university podcast by the London School of Economics and Political Science.

We’re keen to find out more about our audience so we can better tailor our content to suit your interests. With this in mind, we would be grateful if you could please take the time to fill out this short survey and share your feedback.

Contributor(s): Dr Helen Sharman, Dr Jill Stuart, Dr Dimitrios Stroikos | What kind of possibilities does this new space age bring—and what dangers should we be worried about?

Can any nation seize possession of the moon? Could it be mined? Is there junk in space? And whatever happened to that flag that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planted on the moon fifty five years ago?

To find out more, Maayan Arad speaks to Dr Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut in space who flew aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz TM-12 in 1991. He also talks to Dr Jill Stuart, an expert in the politics, ethics and law of outer space exploration and exploitation and Visiting Fellow in LSE’s Department of Government, and Dr Dimitrios Stroikos, LSE Fellow in the Department of International Relations and Head of the Space Policy Programme at LSE IDEAS.

Contributors

Dr Helen Sharman, first British astronaut

Dr Jill Stuart, Visiting Fellow at LSE’s Department of Government

Dr Dimitrios Stroikos, LSE Fellow in the Department of International Relations at LSE and Head of the Space Policy Programme at LSE IDEAS.

LSE iQ is a university podcast by the London School of Economics and Political Science.

We’re keen to find out more about our audience so we can better tailor our content to suit your interests. With this in mind, we would be grateful if you could please take the time to fill out this short survey and share your feedback.

Contributor(s): Professor Esther Duflo, Elizabeth Lewis Channon, Khari Motayne, Professor Sir Christopher Pissarides | While there are always rumours about who might win a Nobel Prize every year, there is no short list for the globally revered academic awards. This means that winning one always comes as a complete surprise. In this episode of LSE iQ, we explore what it’s like to win the prestigious prize and how it changes your life.

The Nobel Prizes were established in 1900 at the behest of Alfred Nobel, a Swedish Chemist, Inventor and Industrialist, known in particular for his invention of dynamite. In his will he stated that his fortune was to be used to reward those who have made the most significant contributions to humanity. The prizes would recognise achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. The prize for economics would come much later in 1968. The prizes are awarded in October every year.

Sue Windebank and Charlotte Kelloway talk to two Nobel Laureates, Professor Esther Duflo and Sir Christopher Pissarides, as well as to the family of the first black person to win the Nobel Prize in Economics, Sir Arthur Lewis.

 

Contributors

Professor Esther Duflo

Elizabeth Lewis Channon

Khari Motayne

Sir Christopher Pissarides

 

Research

Professor Esther Duflo published papers

Sir Christopher Pissarides published papers

Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour , Manchester School, by Sir W. Arthur Lewis

The theory of economic growth, University Books, by Sir W. Arthur Lewis

 

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Contributor(s): Nina Rousille, Camille Landais, Jane Garvey | This episode of LSE iQ explores whether gender pay gap reporting, pay transparency and tackling gender norms can reduce the gender pay gap.

On average across the globe, for every pound earned by a man, a woman earns around 80 pence, according to a 2023 report from the United Nations.

But despite huge advances in access to education, the labour market, and the introduction of the UK Equality Act of 2010, which guarantees equal pay for men and women doing equal work, those figures have pretty much remained the same for the past two decades. Still, the gender pay gap - the difference between the average earnings of men and women - endures. So, how can we solve it?

Anna Bevan talks to broadcaster Jane Garvey about the impact of gender pay gap reporting and what happened to her after the BBC was forced to publish its gender pay gap report.

She also speaks to Nina Rousille, the Executive Director of LSE’s Hub for Equal Representation and Assistant Professor of Economics at MIT, about the role of the Ask Gap and pay transparency, and Camille Landais, Professor of Economics at LSE about the Child Penalty.

Research

The Role of the Ask Gap in Gender Pay Inequality by Nina Rousille

The Child Penalty by Camille Landais, Henrik Kleven and Gabriel Leite-Mariante, also displayed here

Who has the power to address the child penalty globally? LSE Festival online exhibition

LSE iQ is a university podcast by the London School of Economics and Political Science.

We’re keen to find out more about our audience so we can better tailor our content to suit your interests. With this in mind, we would be grateful if you could please take the time to fill out this short survey and share your feedback.

Contributor(s): Elizabeth Ingleson, John Van Reenen, Ashley Tellis | A shining city on a hill. America the beautiful. The United States has long been mythologised as the land of dreams and opportunity. And since the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s it has been undisputedly the most powerful nation on earth. But is it a fading force? The idea of an America in decline has gained traction in recent years and has, of course, been capitalized on by President Trump. Is America’s ‘greatness’ under threat?

In this episode of LSE iQ, a collaboration with the LSE Phelan US Centre's podcast, The Ballpark, Sue Windebank and Chris Gilson speak to LSE’s Elizabeth Ingleson and John Van Reenen and Ashley Tellis from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Contributors

Elizabeth Ingleson

John Van Reenen

Ashley Tellis

 

Research

Made in China: When US-China Interests Converged to Transform Global Trade by Elizabeth Ingleson

The Fall of the Labor Share and the Rise of Superstar Firms by David Autor, David Dorn, Lawrence F Katz, Christina Patterson and John Van Reenen, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2020.

Revising U.S. Grand Strategy Toward China by Robert D. Blackwill and Ashley J. Tellis

 

LSE Phelan United States Centre: https://www.lse.ac.uk/United-States

Listen to The Ballpark podcast: https://www.lse.ac.uk/united-states/the-ballpark/Podcasts; LSE Player, Spotify; Soundcloud

Related interviews on The Ballpark with guests on this episode

Dr Ashley Tellis - The Future of US-China Competition

Dr Elizabeth Ingleson - Made in China: When US-China Interests Converged to Transform Global Trade

Contributor(s): Professor Christopher Coker | For the late Professor Christopher Coker the answer lay in the rise of a new political entity, the civilizational state. In an episode of LSE iQ which explored China’s position in the world in the coming century, Professor Coker talked about this, the potential for war between the United States and China and what that might look like.

 

Christopher Coker, was Professor of International Relations at LSE for almost four decades, and co-Director of LSE IDEAS, LSE’s foreign policy think tank. He was a scholar of war and warfare. This episode of LSE iQ is a lightly edited version of our 2019 interview recorded before the COVID pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It is dedicated to his memory.

 

 

Contributors

 

Professor Christopher Coker

 

Research

The Rise of the Civilizational State by Christopher Coker

 

The Improbable War, China, the United States and the Logic of Great Power Conflict by Christopher Coker

LSE iQ is a university podcast by the London School of Economics and Political Science.