Macrodose

This week we are very excited to bring you a recording of the live event we hosted with the Verso and Dig podcasts last Friday at the Union Chapel in Islington.  The Union Chapel is the most beautiful venue and it was a joy to share the evening with so many of you. Thank you to Dalia Gebrial who chaired the event and our panelists James Meadway, Thea Riofrancos and Asad Rehman. A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grateful. If you have the means and enjoy our work, head over to ⁠⁠patreon.com/Macrodose⁠⁠ and subscribe today. Find our socials, newsletter , merch and more here:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠linktr.ee/macrodosepodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at ⁠⁠⁠⁠macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠planetbproductions.co.uk⁠⁠

If you listen to this podcast, chances are you’ve heard of the global target of “net zero emissions” by 2050. You’ve probably also heard about how off track we are from meeting it. But what if I told you we’re even more off track than you might think, because thanks to some effective lobbying, governments don’t have to count the emissions from their militaries, despite their being some of the world’s foremost consumers of fossil fuels. Like me, you might be wondering how that happened, and what special treatment for the military might mean for our ability to tackle climate and ecological crisis. Here to answer these questions and many more is Khem Rogaly, Senior Researcher at Common Wealth, our partners in The Break Down. In today’s episode, we break down the complex, often hidden, but vitally important relationship between militaries and the climate crisis, from their long-standing role in upholding the fossil fuel economy to the enormous extent to which governments prioritise military spending over other urgent tasks — not least addressing a climate crisis that makes us all more insecure.

On this week's Macrodose, Adam Elliot Cooper takes a close look at prisons. What can we learn when we begin to think about the prison through an economic lens? What is the role of mass incarceration in our economy? And what can the relationship between crime and capitalism tell us about the world we are living in today? Adam Elliot-Cooper is a lecturer in public and social policy at Queen Mary University, London. He is also the author of Black Resistance to British Policing tinyurl.com/54e5yhsn and co-author of Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British State tinyurl.com/2nb77awb A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grateful. If you have the means and enjoy our work, head over to ⁠⁠patreon.com/Macrodose⁠⁠ and subscribe today. Find our socials, newsletter and more here:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠linktr.ee/macrodosepodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at ⁠⁠⁠⁠macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠planetbproductions.co.uk⁠⁠

On this week's Macrodose, Eleanor Shearer takes us in a deep dive into AI and the enormous processing power that goes into sculpting vast quantities of data. How does the ownership and control of computing power define the very nature of our digital economy? What can we realistically do to prevent the monopolisation of compute by Big Tech? And is there a role for the government in sculpting the landscape of AI development - remaking tech for people, not for profit? Eleanor Shearer is a senior research fellow at the London-based think tank Commonwealth. She is also a novelist by night, and you can find my debut book River Sing Me Home here: tinyurl.com/ymuthwaj A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grateful. If you have the means and enjoy our work, head over to ⁠⁠patreon.com/Macrodose⁠⁠ and subscribe today. Find our socials, newsletter and more here:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠linktr.ee/macrodosepodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at ⁠⁠⁠⁠macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠planetbproductions.co.uk⁠⁠

Capitalism could not exist without the power and structure of the law — that’s the simple but radical argument made by my guest today, Katharina Pistor, law professor at Columbia University, and the author of The Code of Capital: How The Law Creates Wealth and Inequality.  On today’s episode, we break down how the law ‘encodes’ capital and invisibly structures our world, from giving corporations the rights of a person, to obscure treaties that allow fossil fuel giants to sue governments when they attempt to act on climate. Ultimately, Adrienne asks Katharina whether the law can be harnessed as a force for progress on climate and ecological crisis, and what needs to change to break the legal deadlock. Katharina Pistor is a professor at Columbia University Law School, where she is the Director of the Center on Global Legal Transformation. She is the author of several celebrated books, most recently of The Code of Capital (Princeton University Press).

This week on Macrodose, as James takes a summer break, Olly Haynes breaks down the weekend's French election results, in which the New Popular Front left alliance surprisingly emerged as the largest party ahead of Le Pen's RN and Macron's Ensemble. Olly unpacks how the French left snatched a tentative victory from the jaws of defeat, potential outcomes of the gridlock, and a mixture of hope and warning signs for the future of France. A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers, your support keeps the show running and we are very grateful. If you have the means and enjoy our work, head over to ⁠patreon.com/Macrodose⁠ and subscribe today. Find our socials, newsletter and more here:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠linktr.ee/macrodosepodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at ⁠⁠⁠⁠macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠planetbproductions.co.uk⁠

Today's episode of Election Economics is a post-election debrief - hosted by Ayeisha Thomas-Smith who is joined by Phil Burton-Cartledge. They touched on their immediate reactions and analysis of the results, if the Tory losses were inevitable, what next for a Labour government, and the openings & contradictions of the new political UK landscape. Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is host of the New Economics Podcast for the New Economics Foundation and Executive Director at NEON, the New Economy Organisers Network Phil is the author of The Party's Over: The Rise and Fall of the Conservatives from Thatcher to Sunak from Verso Books and is a senior lecturer in Sociology at Derby University. Phil has written extensively about the decline of the Tory party for Tribune and Jacobin, as well as on his blog, All That Is Solid. TICKETS to our MACRODOSE LIVE event on July 26th: ⁠https://unionchapel.org.uk/venue/whats-on/versothe-dig-live-podcast-with-jeremy-corbyn-laleh-khalili⁠ A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers. You can support the show at: ⁠⁠patreon.com/Macrodose We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at: ⁠⁠⁠macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk

Today's episode of Election Economics is a crossover show with Politics Theory Other, where PTO host Alex Doherty invited James Meadway and Richard Seymour to discuss their outlooks on the post-election political horizon in the UK. They discussed potential new right-wing formations between Reform and the Conservatives, the echoes of populism and anti-populism in this campaign, the left-wing purges of the Labour party and the nuances of the current overlapping ecological and social crises. Politics Theory Other is a podcast with a focus on radical politics, critical theory and history - you can listen wherever you get your podcasts, and support their work over at their Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/poltheoryother Alex Doherty is writer and host of Politics Theory Other. Richard Seymour is a writer and broadcaster, and founding editor of Salvage magazine. His most recent work is 2022's The Disenchanted Earth: Reflections on Ecosocialism and Barbarism. TICKETS to our MACRODOSE LIVE event on July 26th: ⁠https://unionchapel.org.uk/venue/whats-on/versothe-dig-live-podcast-with-jeremy-corbyn-laleh-khalili⁠ A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers. You can support the show at: ⁠patreon.com/Macrodose We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at: ⁠⁠⁠macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk

Today on Macrodose Election Economics, James is joined by Polly Smythe, to unpack her research on the links between oil, gas and arms companies and 31 Labour MP candidates. They also touch on the upcoming organizing and union ballots with Amazon workers in the UK. Polly is a writer and journalist, and currently the labour movement correspondent for Novara Media. You can read Polly's full pieces for Novara here: https://novaramedia.com/2024/06/13/meet-the-labour-candidates-lobbying-for-oil-gas-and-arms-companies/ https://novaramedia.com/2024/06/21/amazon-says-gmb-leaflets-could-be-a-hazard-amid-union-busting-allegations/ TICKETS to our MACRODOSE LIVE event on July 26th: ⁠https://unionchapel.org.uk/venue/whats-on/versothe-dig-live-podcast-with-jeremy-corbyn-laleh-khalili⁠ A massive thank you to all of our existing Patreon subscribers. You can support the show at: ⁠patreon.com/Macrodose We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or get in touch at: ⁠⁠⁠macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk

What would you say a human life is worth? According to the US government, for an American it’s about $7.2 million, compared with the global average of approximately $1.3 million. If you’re Swiss though, you’re worth a pretty penny at $9.4 million. While these estimates might sound absurd, they're really important to understand: these kinds of figures and the models that produce them are a core part of how mainstream economics understands and shapes policy, and they have had a significant role in shaping our approach to the climate crisis. Indeed, as Adrienne and celebrated economist Ha-Joon Chang break down in today's episode, mainstream economics gets a lot wrong, and has proven strikingly ill-equipped for addressing a challenge like climate and ecological crisis, not least through its tendency to reduce complex decisions to abstracted cost-benefit analyses. Ha-Joon Chang is an economist and Professor at SOAS University of London. Ha-Joon has been an advisor to several international organisations, and is the author of many books, most recently ‘Edible Economics’.