YIMBY Pod – formerly The Abundance Agenda

We explain why The Abundance Agenda has a new name! James digs into a crazy story about how about how one village was almost cut off from civilisation for an entire year by… badgers. And the reason why is more infuriating than you think. And Martin tells the story of the biggest infrastructure project you’ve never heard of.* Plus we speak to Michael Hill from Britain Remade, about how to reconcile the need for Net Zero with the reality that China manufactures almost all of our renewable energy technology.Michael has written five pieces on China and energy – the first one is here. (Then check out parts two, three, four and five!)James’s post on how he rebooted his social life is here.Martin’s newsletter is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!YIMBY Pod is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

On The Abundance Agenda this week, a special look back at four of our favourite segments from the show in 2025.James’s newsletter is here. (He wrote last week about why it’s time to reboot Back to The Future…)You can find Martin’s newsletter here, and his YouTube channel here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

This week, we’re hosting a Christmas Quiz – all about transport, infrastructure, urbanism… and all the stuff we usually talk about, basically.The quiz master is Only Connect question-writer Stephen Jorgenson-Murray.On James’s team we have the excellent YouTuber CityEd! (We particularly love his video about Manchester.)And Martin is joined by comedian, author, and QI Elf Andrew Hunter Murray! His most recent book is A Beginner’s Guide To Breaking And Entering.James’s newsletter is here. (He wrote about how Labour should reach out to gamers this week…)You can find Martin’s newsletter here, and his YouTube channel here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

James explains why the National Grid’s queuing system is maddeningly broken – and how the government is trying to fix it. Martin takes us back to World War II to tell the story of an extraordinary railway bridge in Weston-super-Mare. And we speak London Assembly Member James Small-Edwards to dig into his new report, Gridlocked, which explains why data centres and new homes are forced to fight for a constrained electricity supply in London.James’s newsletter is here, and his post about tech that annoys him is here.You can find Martin’s newsletter here, and his YouTube channel here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

The London Assembly has called for the Mayor to restart HS2 planning, so we dig into Crossrail 2 – and how construction has already (sort of) started. Martin has been down in the dumps, literally, and has been figuring out why Oxfordshire has an enormous pile of rubbish dumped just off the A34. We have a very quick chat with Chris Curtis MP, who has been down to Ebbsfleet to see where the ‘jumping spiders’ have thwarted building a major new town centre. And we speak to Laura Ryan from the Tony Blair Institute about her important new paper, proposing new national laboratories designed to create new ‘disruptive’ technologies.James’s piece on how he uses AI (and why the haters are wrong) is here.You can find Martin’s newsletter here, and his YouTube channel here.Our episode where we have a big fight about AI is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

We dig into the findings from the Independent Nuclear Taskforce led by John Fingleton, on why Britain is so bad at building nuclear energy, and what we can do to fix it. And we speak to Shadow Secretary of State For Energy Security and Net Zero, Claire Coutinho, about why she has taken the abundance pill, why she advocates making energy cheap – and why she wants to repeal the Climate Change Act.You can find Martin’s newsletter here, and his YouTube channel here.James’s piece on why everyone is getting the new Twitter geolocation feature wrong is here, and what he liked – and loathed – about the Budget here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

Martin digs into fascinating new public opinion research from CaSE about attitudes towards research and development. James looks at newly announced planning changes to make it easier to build near train stations – and why the government wants to stop theatres from vetoing development. And we speak to Fabian Chessell from the DATA Alliance about why the government needs to get better at sharing data… with itself.Martin’s fantastic video on the HS2 ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ is here, and his newsletter is here.James’s piece on why he’s worried about who follows Starmer is here.Tym’s piece on self-driving cars is here.Morgan Wild on municipal bond markets is here.Relevant previous episodes:* Our interview with CaSE’s Alicia Greated – which also features a section on the Cambridge Sewage Works we mentioned.* Why Fabian made a deep-cut reference to Old Bridge Way.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

James explains why Manchester should bid for the Olympics as an insurance policy for Northern Powerhouse Rail. And we speak to architect Ivan Jordan about why the way we protect historic buildings is broken – and why the listed system needs replacing.James’s newsletter is here.Martin’s newsletter is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

Martin makes the surprisingly persuasive case for building a tunnel to the Isle of Wight. And we speak to Ed Jennings, founder and editor of Kent Current about the maddening story of how NIMBY concerns killed a significant battery storage facility, and just how much worse Reform is making things in Kent, now that the party is in charge of Kent County Council. The answer might surprise you!You can find James’s newsletter here, and Martin’s newsletter here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

Martin tells us the jaw-dropping story of a bridge built for HS2 which is even more egregious than the infamous bat tunnel. This is seriously not to be missed. James explains how a clever new database could make driving much less annoying. And we speak to Lord Ben Gascoigne, Chairman of the Built Environment Select Committee in the House of Lords, about the findings from the first module of the inquiry into New Towns.You can find Martin’s newsletter, which includes his post on the Bridge to Nowhere – and many pictures – here.James’s newsletter and post on digital traffic orders is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!The Abundance Agenda is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com