For the next 6 weeks, we’re doing something a bit different. We’re telling the story of neoliberalism, from the beginning. We call it A Beginner’s Guide to Neoliberalism. We first ran the series back in 2015, but it’s as relevant as ever. It’s presented by the journalist Kirsty Styles alongside James Meadway, who at the time was chief economist at the New Economics Foundation. In part 1, James and Kirsty start with a history of our economic system, the difference between capitalism and neoliberalism, and examine how neoliberalism came to dominate modern day economics. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Music by Chris Zabriskie and sanmi used under Creative Commons Licence. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

Knife crime is at a nine-year high. Everyone agrees: something must be done. Some politicians want more police on the streets, or tougher sentences. Others want cuts to mental health services to be reversed. One MP has suggested every knife in Britain should have a built-in GPS tracker – good luck with that. But knife crime it is a complex issue, and young people’s lives depend on policymakers getting it right. So today, Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is taking a big-picture look at the issue with one of the journalists who’s covered it more than perhaps any other: the Guardian’s editor-at-large, Gary Younge. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. Music this week is by Candlegravity and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

It’s hard to listen to the news at the moment without hearing some kind of warning about economy. Nearly all of those warnings focus on one thing – Brexit. It’s true that lots of people think Brexit is risky – but in the clamour to define what Brexit means, could we be blindsided by something else? Obviously it’s difficult to predict exactly how and when another shock to the economy might happen. But is there more we could be doing to get the economy ready for whatever might be around the corner? Guest host Hanna Wheatley is joined by NEF's Head of Economics Alfie Stirling and Senior Economist Sarah Arnold. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

We’re away this week, but in the meantime thought we’d listen back to one of our favourite episodes from last year. If house prices are too high for people to be able to buy houses, how can we bring them down? And can we do it without upsetting homeowners and crashing the economy? Beth Stratford is a PhD student at Leeds University. Last February she published a blog post at OpenDemocracy that was so interesting we knew we had to get her on the podcast to talk about it. She argues it just might be possible to lower house prices without crashing the economy. Joe Beswick, head of housing and land here at the New Economics Foundation, joined Beth and Ayeisha Thomas-Smith, to chat through the idea. We hope you enjoy! And we’ll be back next week with a brand new episode. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield and Huw Jordan. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

The Green New Deal has rocketed to the top of the agenda in the US. It's an ambitious plan, spearheaded by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to decarbonise the US economy and eliminate economic insecurity at the same time. But in fact the Green New Deal has some of its origins here at the New Economics Foundation. So what's the story behind the development of the idea? And how would a Green New Deal actually work, both in the UK and across the pond? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined this week by: - Ann Pettifor, director of Prime Economics and one of the co-authors of the Green New Deal report published by NEF in 2008; - Miatta Fahnbulleh, chief executive of the New Economics Foundation; - Waleed Shahid, communications director of the Justice Democrats, who also worked on the campaign to elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. Music this week is by Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

Public ownership is back on the agenda. Opinion polls show high levels of support for taking all kinds of things back into public hands, from the railways to water to energy, and the Labour party is committed to a vast expansion of public ownership. But if privatisation has failed, what kind of public ownership should replace it? As the critics of nationalisation are quick to say, British Rail wasn’t that great. What should be done differently this time? If these services were nationalised, would the state even know how to run them? And are there other ways of putting them back in public hands? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Cat Hobbs, director of We Own It campaign, Hilary Wainwright, co-editor of Red Pepper magazine and fellow of the Transnational Institute, and Sahil Dutta, lecturer in political economy at Goldsmiths University. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. Music this week is by Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

The Windrush scandal outraged the nation last year. But last week the Home Office reinstated deportation flights to Jamaica for criminal offenders who they say are foreign nationals. Meanwhile, parliament passed a new immigration bill last month, promising to control the “number and type” of people coming to the UK. The home secretary came under fire for proposing a £30,000 income threshold for EU immigrants. A lot of the debate we hear about immigration is made in economic terms. But it’s also about identity, race and belonging. It can be hard at the moment to imagine that a more humane immigration policy might be possible, but that’s exactly what we’re trying to do this week. Guest host Dave Powell is joined by chief exec of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants Satbir Singh, executive director of War on Want Asad Rehman, and Maya Goodfellow, author of a forthcoming book on Britain's immigration policies. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. Music: Eklektik Ensemble, A.A. Aalto and Podington Bear, licenced under Creative Commons. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

This Thursday is Time To Talk Day, a day meant to encourage people to talk about mental health. But what are the wider social and economic factors that are causing poor mental health in the first place? Is the economy itself damaging our mental health? Is modern life making us sick? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith talks to Hana Riaz, who is researching the impact of gentrification on mental health, New Economics Foundation organiser Becki Winson, and NEF wellbeing researcher Annie Quick. If you, or someone you know, have been affected by mental health issues, the following organisations may be able to help: The Mental Health Foundation provides a guide to Mental Health problems, topical issues and treatment options via their website. http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/ Mind provides advice and support on a range of topics including types of mental health problem, legislation and details of local help and support in England and Wales. http://www.mind.org.uk/ Phone: 0300 123 3393 (weekdays 9am - 6pm) YoungMinds offers information, support and advice for children and young people. Help for concerned parents of those under 25 is offered by phone. Phone: 0808 802 5544 (Mon–Fri 9.30am-4pm) http://www.youngminds.org.uk/ Inspire (Northern Ireland Association for Mental Health) provides local services to support the mental health and wellbeing of people across Northern Ireland. http://www.inspirewellbeing.org/ Phone: 028 9032 8474 SAMH (Scottish Association for Mental Health) can provide general mental health information and signpost you to your local services. Phone: 0141 530 1000 (Mon-Fri 9 – 5) http://www.samh.org.uk/ Community Advice & Listening Line offers emotional support and information on mental health and related matters to people in Wales. Phone: 0800 132 737 (24/7) or text "help" to 81066 http://www.callhelpline.org.uk/

Last week saw a record number of the world's elite flying their private jets to Davos for the World Economic Forum. Oxfam reported that in the 10 years since the financial crisis, the number of billionaires around the world has nearly doubled. It’s fair to say, the economy isn’t working for everyone. Every week on this podcast we look at a different economic problem and how to solve it, but what if economics itself – the way we teach it, talk about it and think about it – is the real problem? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by three people working to democratise economics and change how it's taught across the country: co-director of Rethinking Economics Maeve Cohen, Chief Exec of Economy Joe Earle, and Polly Trenow from the Women's Budget Group. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Produced by James Shield. Music: Podington Bear and Mr Frisby's Beat Pocket, licenced under Creative Commons. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

Two years ago, nurses and doctors warned that the annual NHS winter crisis was now 'the new normal'. In the cold weather, hospitals were overwhelmed by patients that they did not have the space to treat. But we've had a milder winter this year. Is the same true for the health service? Two weeks ago, the prime minister announced a new 10 year plan for the NHS in England, promising ‘world class’ care. But critics say nothing much has changed – and that the NHS will continue to lurch from crisis to crisis. This week, we're taking the NHS's temperature with nurse and campaigner Danielle Tiplady, lead organiser of Just Treatment Diarmaid McDonald, and NEF senior researcher Daniel Button.  Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! Read the Just Treatment report: https://justtreatment.org/s/The-Peoples-Prescription-Final-online.pdf Listen to our previous NHS episode: https://soundcloud.com/weeklyeconomicspodcast/happy-birthday-nhs Produced by James Shield. Music: Podington Bear and Mekaan under Creative Commons. The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org