An empire is at its most dangerous when it’s failing. With less and less to lose it continues to try to do the impossible by doubling down on past mistakes.

But history tells us that empires fall from within. If so, technically how does a modern empire meet its inevitable fate?

Author Charlie Robinson joins host Ross Ashcorft to discuss the fall of the American Empire.

When economist Thomas Picketty released his book ‘Capital in the 21Century’ people clambered to get a copy. The filmmaker Justin Pemberton has since made the film – in it he points hard to how rentier capitalism has disenfranchised the west.

Host Ross Ashcroft caught up with Kiwi director Justin Pemberton to understand what needs to change if we want 21st Century capital to serve, not enslave us.

We live in times where we are acutely aware of prejudice which we rightly point a finger at.

But why is it that we are less likely to acknowledge the three fingers pointing back at ourselves that flag our unintentional bias?

Behavioural scientist and author Pragya Agarwal joins host Ross Ashcroft to unravel the basis behind unconscious bias.

You can ignore some of the people some of the time... but if you create an economy that ignores and marginalises the most vulnerable, then those who live in the places that seemingly don’t matter eventually take their revenge.

How do we bring people back across the margin and create a system where all can prosper - not just those in big cities? KAKAnomics festival founder Jan Inge Reilstad and LSE Professor of Economic Geography Andrés Rodríguez-Pose join host Ross Ashcroft to discuss.

It was the biblical economist Norm Franz who said “Gold is the money of kings, silver is the money of gentlemen, barter is the money of peasants – but debt is the money of slaves.”

We are living through one of the greatest monetary experiments in modern history where monetising debt is enslaving millions.

But is there a silver lining to the cloud of massive monetary debasement? Economist and writer David Morgan, alongside Goldcore founder Mark O’Byrne, join host Ross Ashcroft to find it.

We always hear that the business world is ‘dog eat dog’. But when did you last see a dog eating a dog?

Dogs – like humans – are pack animals who seek cooperation and loyalty. So now that we can’t afford the corporate dog fight anymore, should we look to the cooperative movement to create the brave new workplace?

Political economist and author Jessica Gordon Nembhard joins host Ross Ashcroft to delve into alternatives.

The phrase ‘lions led by donkeys’ was used to describe the British front line solders of WW1 – they were the brave lions who were sent to their deaths by incompetent and indifferent leaders.

After years of austerity, raging inequality and now, a mismanaged pandemic, could the British electorate claim that they too are led by a political class of donkeys?

In a world of short-termism and consumption – reputation and legacies are often defined by private number plates, flashy watches and prime real estate.

But these small material trappings rarely satisfy a deeper yearning... So as we career - often unhappily - through the 21st Century, what are we missing? Philosopher and author Roman Krznaric joins Ross Ashcroft to uncover.

A heady mix of precarious employment, stagnant wages, diminished opportunities and a contracting economic pie has pushed many people to the limit.

This means how people experience the world and how politicians and spin doctors explain the world creates a mismatch and an anger – that is what the economists Eric Lonergan and Mark Blythecall call Angrynomics.

US National security has turned into a racket. Enemies and bogeymen are invented with monotonous regularity to justify massive budgets and kickbacks to insiders.

But with so much domestic US turmoil how long can this swindle go on?

Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by investigative historian and journalist Gareth Porter to discuss the state of national security and how the US’s track record on foreign policy has got us into this situation.