Macrodose

On this week's episode of Macrodose, James Meadway takes a look at: First, with warnings from both the Bank of England and IMF this week, the spectre of the AI bubble bursting is looming larger than ever before (0:35). Second, what should we make of renewed escalation in the US-China trade war (10:24).

Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.

Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at ⁠[email protected]⁠.

To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to ⁠planetbproductions.co.uk⁠.

What do the people in charge think is going to happen?

Sue Owen was enjoying her retirement until she asked her pension fund what it thought catastrophic climate change would do to the economy. Not very much, according to them. This episode follows the campaigners and experts uncovering how pension funds, governments, and the other people in charge are using misleading economics that wildly underestimates the dangers of overshooting 1.5°C - and what to do about it. 

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OVERSHOOT is a new four-part audio documentary hosted by climate researcher and policy advisor Laurie Laybourn. OVERSHOOT is produced by Planet B Productions and the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. For essays and bonus content, sign up at overshootpod.com or follow @overshootpod on social media.

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Writer and presenter: Laurie Laybourn

Researcher: Ben Shread-Hewitt

Production coordination: Daniel Norman

Script consulting: Daniel Trilling

Sound design and mix: Ben Heyderman and James Fox

Original music by Haniell

With special thanks to Aaron Thierry, Mirte Boot, James Dyke, Henry Throp, Stephen Backhouse, Sophia Lennon

This week on The Curve, James Meadway sits down with Laurie Laybourn, executive director of the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative to talk about his podcast Overshoot - a new series about how we navigate a warming world beyond 1.5C.

In the extended episode, available to Macrodose members on Patreon, James and Laurie discuss the recent Labour and Green party conferences, as well as the government's AI bill set to unleash a frenzy of data centre construction across the UK. 

Subscribe to support the show at ⁠patreon.com/Macrodose.⁠ Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.

Who’s going to clean up the mess?

Dangerous amounts of carbon have been dumped in the atmosphere - so someone has to clean up the mess. Enter the dream - or delusion - of sucking carbon out of the sky. We trace how a backup plan for tackling climate change became plan A, why fossil fuel companies love it, and the staggering scale of the carbon sucking that must now be done - and whether it can even work.

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OVERSHOOT is a new four-part audio documentary hosted by climate researcher and policy advisor Laurie Laybourn. OVERSHOOT is produced by Planet B Productions and the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. For essays and bonus content, sign up at overshootpod.com or follow @overshootpod on social media.

***

Writer and presenter: Laurie Laybourn

Researcher: Ben Shread-Hewitt

Production coordination: Daniel Norman

Script consulting: Daniel Trilling

Sound design and mix: Ben Heyderman and James Fox

Original music by Haniell

With special thanks to Aaron Thierry, Mirte Boot, James Dyke, Henry Throp, Stephen Backhouse, Sophia Lennon

If the world didn’t win, then has it lost? 

The world is overshooting 1.5°C, a level of global heating long seen as the marker of climate safety. But does that mean we’re doomed? In this opening episode, we hear the extraordinary story of how the 1.5°C goal was set, and how it shapes the ways we think about climate change. We learn why some people are now turning to fatalism and what it might really mean to navigate a truly global climate crisis.

***

OVERSHOOT is a new four-part audio documentary hosted by climate researcher and policy advisor Laurie Laybourn. OVERSHOOT is produced by Planet B Productions and the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. For essays and bonus content, sign up at overshootpod.com or follow @overshootpod on social media.

***

Writer and presenter: Laurie Laybourn

Researcher: Ben Shread-Hewitt

Production coordination: Daniel Norman

Script consulting: Daniel Trilling

Sound design and mix: Ben Heyderman and James Fox

Original music by Haniell

With special thanks to Aaron Thierry, Mirte Boot, James Dyke, Henry Throp, Stephen Backhouse, and Sophia Lennon

The world missed its goal for tackling climate change. What happens next? 

In 2015, the world agreed to limit global heating to 1.5°C. Ten years later, temperatures are spiralling beyond this and climate chaos is wreaking havoc across the globe. 

In a major four-part series, host Laurie Laybourn explores how the world ended up here and uncovers the huge misconceptions and the high-tech fantasies that hold us back. And we meet people with the ideas to navigate what comes next, from protesting pensioners to climate negotiators, Pacific islanders to pre-eminent scientists.

Coming soon. Listen from Monday 6th October. 

***

OVERSHOOT is a new four-part audio documentary hosted by climate researcher and policy advisor Laurie Laybourn. OVERSHOOT is produced by Planet B Productions and the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. For essays and bonus content, sign up at overshootpod.com or follow @overshootpod on social media.

Writer and presenter: Laurie Laybourn

Researcher: Ben Shread-Hewitt

Production coordination: Daniel Norman

Script consulting: Daniel Trilling

Sound design and mix: Ben Heyderman and James Fox

Original music by Haniell

With special thanks to Aaron Thierry, Mirte Boot, James Dyke, Henry Throp, Stephen Backhouse

Returning from spending the summer writing his new book, James looks back at the key economic stories of the summer along with some important ones you may have missed.

Plus: Javier Milei's economic experiment in Argentina has collapsed, leading to his government asking Trump’s United States for a $20 billion bailout.

Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.

Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at ⁠[email protected]⁠.

To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to ⁠planetbproductions.co.uk⁠.

As public dissatisfaction with the current government deepens & Reform UK lead in the polls, the need for a coherent, credible alternative has become increasingly urgent. To meet this moment, leading think tank the Autonomy Institute and Macrodose hosted some of the UK’s leading, activists, academics and campaigners from across the progressive spectrum, to chart the ideas and strategies needed for a transformative agenda fit for the challenges of the present and the next general election.

Speakers:
- Asad Rehman (War on Want)
- James Schneider (Progressive International)
- Ayeisha Thomas-Smith (NEON)
- John McTernan (Political strategist & commentator)
- Antonia Jennings (Centre for London)

Our final guest hosted episode of the summer comes from Quinn Slobodian - author of Hayek's Bastards.

Reading an extract from his book, he explains some of the surprising connections between the neoliberal intellectual movement and the so-called populist right that we’ve seen on the rise over the past decade.

This week on The Curve, Nick Dearden from Global Justice Now is in the hosting chair, joined by journalist and author Sarah Jaffe. They discuss the upcoming second state visit of US President Donald Trump and the tech bosses that are accompanying him.

In the extended episode, available to Macrodose members on Patreon, Nick and Sarah discuss the massive immigration raid at a Hyundai factory in Georgia.

Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.