What do you get the guy who has everything? A 44 billion dollar social media platform apparently. Elon Musk has already been accused of union busting, shot a car into space, and become the world’s richest man. So what’s next on his to-do list? Buying Twitter of course! From Mark Zuckerberg to Elon Musk, should we be worried that our online lives are in the hands of a few super-rich men? Will cryptocurrencies and Web3 make the internet good again? And what would a people-powered internet really look like? Ayeisha is joined by Dr James Muldoon, senior lecturer in political science at the University of Exeter and Head of Digital Research at the Autonomy think tank. You can grab a copy of James' book Platform Socialism: How to Reclaim our Digital Future from Big Tech here: http://www.plutobooks.com/9780745346977/platform-socialism/ ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

In the early months of the pandemic, the government shut down whole sectors of the economy and started paying the wages of a huge proportion of Brits. Some worked from home, juggling homeschooling their kids and figuring out how to use Zoom. Others risked their health to travel to work. Meanwhile Big Tech and outsourcing companies raked in money through government contracts. What can we learn from moments when the predictable rules of economic life are suspended? Who wins and who loses in these points of crisis? And has the pandemic pushed us into a new form of capitalism? Ayeisha is joined by Sahil Dutta and Nick Taylor, lecturers in political economy at Goldsmiths University to discuss their new book "Unprecedented? How Covid-19 revealed the politics of our economy" - The book written alongside Will Davies and Martina Tazzioli is out now: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691630/unprecedented-by-william-davies-sahil-jai-dutta-nick-taylor-and-martina-tazzioli/ - Find out more about Sahil and Nick's work here: https://www.perc.org.uk/ - Further reading on the care crisis and coronavirus by Emma Dowling here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/4031-the-care-crisis ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by C. Scott and Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

A few weeks ago the chancellor presided over a spring budget which ushered in the fastest drop in living standards on record, as he told us that we “can’t protect everyone”. But this week it was revealed that his wife has avoided paying around £20 million in tax, due to her non-dom status. Accused of “rank hypocrisy” by Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak’s popularity has certainly been dented. The Sunak family hasn’t broken the law - but what does that say about the laws that govern who has to pay tax? What’s wrong with our tax system, when the chancellor can raise taxes on working people on one hand, and benefit from tax avoidance on the other? And what would fairer taxes really look like? Ayeisha is joined by Tom Peters, head of advocacy at Tax Justice UK. ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by David Powell. Music by Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, over 4 million people have fled the country. Earlier this month Priti Patel announced a visa application centre had been established en route to Calais for Ukrainians trying to come to the UK. But the centre never existed. Days later, the Home Office said it was actually in Lille, but would not reveal where. Officials then claimed that refugees in Calais could get free Eurostar tickets to travel to the centre - despite the fact that the Eurostar does not stop in Calais. A day later the centre was moved from Lille to a town 30 miles away. Why has the government response been so chaotic? What are the barriers for refugees travelling to the UK? And with an anti-refugee bill moving through Parliament, what does this mean for how we treat refugees in the future? Ayeisha is joined by Bella Sankey, director of Detention Action. Find out more about Detention Action and how you can support its work here: https://detentionaction.org.uk/ ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Ketsa and Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

At the time of recording, hundreds, and possibly thousands, of civilians have been killed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and more than 2.5m Ukranians have fled the country. The Russian army has been accused of war crimes after bombing a maternity hospital in the south. Allies of the Ukrainian president say that Russia will only back down if Europe bans the import of Russian oil and gas. But what do oil and gas have to do with the war in Ukraine? Will banning Russian fossil fuels really make Putin reconsider? And what does all this mean for soaring energy bills in the UK? Ayeisha is joined by Svitlana Romanko, Ukrainian environmental lawyer, climate activist and strategist, and spokesperson for Stand With Ukraine, and Tessa Khan, Founder and Director of Uplift, and previous guest of the podcast. - You can sign on to the Stand with Ukraine campaign here: https://www.with-ukraine.org/ - Find out more about the Putin100 campaign: https://putin100.org/#why - Read the IEA's 10-Point Plan to Reduce the European Union’s Reliance on Russian Natural Gas: https://www.iea.org/reports/a-10-point-plan-to-reduce-the-european-unions-reliance-on-russian-natural-gas - Write to your MP ahead of the spring statement to demand a Great Homes Upgrade: https://greathomesupgrade.org/campaigns/call-for-a-great-homes-upgrade-this-budget - Find out more about the Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance: https://beyondoilandgasalliance.com/ - More on the The Global Gas & Oil Network here: https://ggon.org/ - Endorse the Fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty: https://fossilfueltreaty.org/ - Visit the Reclaim Finance website: https://reclaimfinance.org/site/en/home/ - Follow Stop Cambo on Twitter: https://twitter.com/StopCambo - Tessa can be found at https://twitter.com/tessakhan ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Chris Zabriskie and Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

2022 has been dubbed the ‘year of the squeeze’ by the Resolution Foundation. In April, soaring energy bills will collide with tax increases for working people. Last month grocery prices rose at their fastest rate in eight years, and inflation is at its highest level in almost three decades. When the media talk about the ‘cost of living crisis’, what do they mean? How did we end up in a country with more food banks than branches of McDonalds? And what can the government do to make sure everyone can afford life’s essentials? Ayeisha is joined by NEF's Alfie Stirling and Sabine Goodwin, coordinator of the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN). Some of the clips used in this episode are from IFAN members, supporting people in food banks across the country. Thanks to Mairi McCallum, Joyce Leggate, Charlotte White, Betty Grant and Rajesh Makwana for sharing your experiences with us. - If you’d like to get involved in NEF’s campaign for income support, head over to the Living Income website: https://livingincome.org.uk/ - Read Pushed to the Edge: poverty, food banks and mental health, a new report by Tom Pollard and co-produced with the IFAN and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation: https://www.foodaidnetwork.org.uk/blog/mental-health ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Chris Zabriskie and Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

Families are bracing for less and less money to get by as energy bills rise this spring. In the fifth richest country in the world, pensioners are skipping meals so they can afford their heating bills, and parents are only switching the heating on when their children are at home. At the same time, fossil fuel companies like BP and Shell made their biggest profit in years. What do these two things have to do with each other? Why are energy bills soaring? And what can the government do to make sure everyone can afford to heat their homes? We’re no longer the Weekly Economics Podcast because episodes will now be coming to you every fortnight. But as always we’ll be discussing the more important economic issues with a variety of interesting voices. For the first episode of the New Economics Podcast, Ayeisha is joined by Dr Joseph Baines, senior lecturer in international political economy at King’s College London and Abby Jitendra, principal policy manager on energy at Citizens Advice. -If you're worried about paying your energy bills, you can get in touch with Citizens Advice on their website: https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/ -To get involved in NEF’s campaign to retrofit Britain’s cold and draughty homes, head over to the Great Homes Upgrade website: https://greathomesupgrade.org/ ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Bobby Richards and Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

Coronavirus cases are once again rising in Europe and across the world. The World Health Organisation has said that countries shouldn’t be giving out booster jabs for the rest of the year, but in the UK we’re offering third shots to people as young as 40. Meanwhile, only 3% of people in low-income countries have had a single dose. Covid vaccines may have prevented hundreds of thousands of deaths in the UK, but who is missing out on the global vaccine rollout? Why can’t poorer countries get hold of the Covid vaccine? And how can we change the rules of our international economy so that everyone is protected during the pandemic? For the last episode of the series, Ayeisha is joined by Achal Prabhala, writer, researcher, and coordinator of the AccessIBSA project, and Saiorse Fitzpatrick, advocacy manager at STOPAIDS. - Listen to a previous episode on vaccine nationalism with Miriam Brett and Tahir Amin https://neweconomics.org/2021/02/weekly-economics-podcast-vaccine-nationalism - Read more about the WTO proposal by India and South Africa to temporarily waive intellectual property on Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and related technologies. Talks on this due to take place in Geneva on the 30th November have now been postponed. https://www.twn.my/title2/intellectual_property/trips_waiver_proposal.htm - Support the People's Vaccine https://peoplesvaccine.org/ - Follow STOPAIDS on Twitter - the hashtag for the ice cream action Ayeisha mentioned in this episode is #Iscreamvaccine https://twitter.com/STOPAIDS - For more from Achal, head to the AccessIBSA website https://accessibsa.org/ - For more on Covid-19 vaccines, the TRIPS waiver and more, go to the Third World Network website https://www.twn.my/ ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Asthmatic Astronaut and Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

A record number of employees have quit their jobs in recent months, in what’s been dubbed the Great Resignation. Newspapers report that it’s part of post-Covid demand for flexible working and better work life balance. After last year, where up to a quarter of the UK workforce was paid not to work through the furlough scheme, are we reassessing our relationship to our jobs? How does work impact our health and sense of self? And should we improve our working conditions - or try to abolish work altogether? Ayeisha is joined by Amelia Horgan, assistant lecturer at the school of philosophy and art history, University of Essex, and author of Lost in Work. - Grab a copy of Amelia's book: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745340913/lost-in-work/ - Listen back to past episodes on outsourcing and the impacts of the economy on mental health: https://neweconomics.org/section/podcasts - Read Ayeisha's piece for the second issue of the New Economics Zine: https://neweconomics.org/2020/10/this-is-your-brain-on-neoliberalism - Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/103/1038399/the-second-sex/9780099595731.html - Find out more about Lauren Berlant's Cruel Optimism: https://www.dukeupress.edu/cruel-optimism - Take a look at the Antiwork subreddit here: https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/ - Read Capital Realism by Mark Fisher: https://bookshop.org/books/capitalist-realism-is-there-no-alternative/9781846943171 ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Poddington Bear under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

In August this year Jake Davison, a 22-year-old from Plymouth, went on a shooting rampage that left six dead, including his mother and himself. In the aftermath it emerged that Davison had been a member of ‘incel’ forums online. He’s not the first mass shooter to have links to online groups espousing extreme hatred of women. Since Elliot Rodger killed six people in California in 2014, self-proclaimed ‘involuntary celibates’ have carried out multiple mass murders, mostly in North America. What’s driving this extreme misogyny? Is incel ideology on the rise? And are Big Tech companies to blame for allowing these groups to thrive online? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined Debbie Ging, associate professor in the school of communications at Dublin City University. - Find out more about Zizi Papacharissi's work on affective publics oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/1…999736 - Michael Kimmel's book Angry White Men is available here uk.bookshop.org/books/angry-white…era/9781568589619 - Read Amnesty's report on Toxic Twitter www.amnesty.org/en/latest/researc…-women-chapter-1/ - The New Patriarchs of Digital Capitalism by Ben Little and Alison Winch is available here www.routledge.com/The-New-Patriarc…ok/9780367260156 - Find out more about Debbie Ging's work www.dcu.ie/communications/people/debbie-ging ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Poddington Bear and Chris Zabriskie under Creative Commons license. Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF! The Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org