The Institute of Economic Affairs is one of the most powerful and secretive think tanks in the UK, known for promoting free-market Thatcherism as a solution to all of our economic woes. Who’s behind it?

This week, Kristian Niemietz, a director at the IEA and a long-time Novara Media hater, sits down with Aaron for a debate about trickle-down economics, why he’s a neoliberal, and who really funds his employer.

And who funds Novara Media? That’s easier to answer: you. Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

Donald Trump is the President-elect. Meta, Walmart and McDonald’s have forsaken previous diversity policies. Elon Musk has demanded that Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, be removed. Why is this all happening at the same time? And why do progressives have so little to offer when it comes to the economy and people’s material conditions?

Brett Christophers is a geographer, author and former management consultant. According to him, it’s the commitment of parties like Labour and the U.S. Democrats to the prevailing economic orthodoxy that means they will continue to struggle.

The ACFM gang gather for a midwinter reading of one of the most influential political tracts ever written. Download a version online and follow along as Nadia, Keir and Jem reassess The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848 by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Find the books and music mentioned in the show: https://novara.media/acfm

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Having long promised to decentralise power, Bitcoin is looking more and more like it will end up as a tool of American power under Trump.

But blockchains could also be used to empower local economies. And why should the left stay attached to a money system controlled by the state?

Sam Hart is a developer, writer, and editor of the Cryptoeconomic Systems journal. He spoke to Richard Hames about the promises and perils of the new era of blockchain technologies.

Comments, questions, corrections? [email protected]

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In Richard Curtis’ Love Actually, a selection of mainly white and middle-class Londoners seem to be living in a parallel universe – one in which the war on terror never happened and the ’90s never ended. What kinds of love are really on offer in this misty-eyed vision of modern Britain?

Following Novara FM’s investigation into Die Hard, Eleanor Penny tackles another festive Alan Rickman vehicle with Nathalie Olah, author of Bad Taste and Steal As Much As You Can.

Comments, questions, corrections? [email protected]

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On 10 December, Ash Sarkar, Michael Walker and Aaron Bastani discussed an epoch-defining year and its implications for the future. Is Starmer screwed? Are expansionist wars back? Has ‘woke’ died? Find out in our end-of-year Downstream special.

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Die Hard is a perennial of festive TV, but is it really a Christmas movie? James Butler and Eleanor Penny explore what the 1988 action comedy reveals about corporate power, class antagonism, mid-century terrorism and women in the workplace. Who is Bruce Willis’ shoeless cowboy cop out to rescue? And what is going on with Hans Gruber’s accent?

Comments, questions, corrections? [email protected]

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Just two months before a general election, Germany finds itself in a precarious position. The European project is fragile, the country’s manufacturing innovation has stalled, and Germany’s dependence on Russian resources has become, quite obviously, disastrous.

So what will happen to this once deeply consequential world power, and what does its story tell us about the future of Europe and the upending of global power in the 21st century?

Wolfgang Münchau has a thorough understanding of this story. A writer for the FT on European and German matters for over 20 years, his new book Kaput tells us an awful lot about why Germany is in the state it currently is.

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In the 2010s, we found out that we were all being watched. A series of leaks, from Wikileaks and others, revealed that our governments were conducting mass surveillance operations on their own populations. But what were the longer term consequences of those leaks? And why hasn’t something of equivalent size stepped in to replace Wikileaks since?

Stefania Maurizi is a journalist who worked with Wikileaks and Glenn Greenwald on the Edward Snowden revelations. She’s also the author of Secret Power: Wikileaks and Its Enemies.

She sat down with Richard Hames to explain how Wikileaks achieved so much, how the state tried to destroy them, and how they fought back and won.

Comments, questions, corrections? [email protected]

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When the Taliban retook all of Afghanistan in 2021, it came as a shock to much of the West. The day after the last American soldier left, journalist and filmmaker Ibrahim Nash’at flew into Kabul to spend a year filming with their senior military leadership. What he found was a Taliban drunk on power, in control of far more territory and with better weaponry than ever – courtesy of the Americans, who left it all behind.

Ibrahim joins Ash to talk about the making of Hollywoodgate, which is currently available to watch in the UK on BBC iPlayer as part of the Storyville series.

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