Weekly Economics Podcast

During the presidential campaign, the Democratic Party warned that American democracy was under attack from Trump. Since the start of Trump two-point-0, his administration has deported pro-Palestine student protestors. He has barred Oval Office access to journalists who have used the phrase “Gulf of Mexico” rather than “Gulf of America”. And he has called for a judge blocking his orders to be impeached. With such anti-democratic forces ensconced in the White House, have US progressives failed? Have the far-right thrived because they are simply better at organising? And how can Americans come together to prevent the stripping away of their most basic rights? Hannah Peaker is joined by Marshall Ganz, legendary organiser, lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, and author of People, Power, Change: Organising for Democracy Renewal. Links: The Leading Change Network: https://leadingchangenetwork.org/ ....... Music: Canyon by A.A. Aalto, used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Produced by Katrina Gaffney and Margaret Welsh. The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

We are living in a time of contradictions. For the last forty years, our politics and media have been dominated by neoliberal, right-wing voices - yet pundits insist that the UK is dominated by a woke, left-wing elite. Our politicians claim to champion the voices of the forgotten working class - yet working-class people are not seeing better wages, housing or healthcare. And the majority of people in this country are being screwed by the economic system - yet for some reason we seem unable to secure a better future for ourselves. So where did it all go wrong? Are we really ruled over by a censorious woke mob? Or is it all a convenient story, to distract us from the real villains? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Ash Sarkar, journalist and author of Minority Rule: Adventures in the Culture War. Music by A.A Aalto (available: freemusicarchive.org), used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Produced by Katrina Gaffney and Margaret Welsh. The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

Half a year ago, the Labour Party swept into power with a huge parliamentary majority and Kier Starmer celebrated by saying that the country could “get its future back”.  Today, Labour are dogged by low approval ratings, having upset everyone from environmentalists to pensioners, farmers to small-business owners.  And just last week Reform overtook both the Conservatives and Labour in a poll of voting intentions - suggesting the public are already looking for an alternative. So, why has the public seemingly turned on the Labour Party? Should they be threatened by the rise of Reform? And how can the progressive movement push this government to create the world we want?  Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Grace Blakeley, economics commentator and author of Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom, and David Edgerton, historian and author of The Rise and Fall of the British Nation: a Twentieth Century History. Music by A.A Aalto (available: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/A_A_Aalto/Bright_Corners/Corps_Of_Discovery/), used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Produced by Katrina Gaffney and Margaret Welsh. The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

The price of your food shop rocketed because of inflation and now your mortgage is going up hundreds of pounds because the Bank of England decided to increase interest rates. You might be struggling to make ends meet and wondering why our central bank has made your life more difficult. Across the pond Donald Trump is putting pressure on the American central bank to lower its interest rates, saying he knows more about it than Federal Reserve policymakers. It might seem a tempting proposal to the average American who feels that their central bank has not provided them with the stability it is supposed to. So what is the role of central banks in all of this? Are they under threat from right-wing populism? And what are the progressive alternatives to dealing with inflation? This week Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Dominic Caddick, economist at NEF, and Sebastian Mang, senior policy advisor at NEF, to discuss. Music by A.A Aalto (available: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/A_A_Aalto/Connections/Focus/), used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Produced by Katrina Gaffney and Margaret Welsh. The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

Do you work from home? Then you're probably not doing proper work, and you're causing the UK's economic decline! At least that's what the former boss of Asda and M&S said last week. Meanwhile, gig economy Deliveroo riders have launched a new campaign for greater openness around the opaque algorithms that rule their working lives. It's clear with new technology comes new battles for workers. So what is working life like in the UK right now? After pandemic lockdowns and high inflation, have we changed our expectations of what work provides? And are unions ready to lead the fight back against bad work? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Kate Bell, assistant general secretary at the Trades Union Congress. Music by A.A Aalto (available: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/A_A_Aalto/Bright_Corners/Coast_Highway/), used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Produced by Katrina Gaffney and Margaret Welsh. The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

Last week hundreds of tractors drove through Parliament Square. It was the latest protest by UK farmers against changes to inheritance tax announced by the chancellor. From farmers' protests to the poll-tax riots in the 90s, the amount of tax we pay to the government churns up intense emotions. We want to rescue our cash-strapped public services - but most of us are reluctant to pay more tax. Do Labour's tax plans go far enough to fix our broken economy? Is the UK really a high-tax nation? And if we want an economy that meets everyone's needs, do we all just need to pay more tax? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Sara Hall, deputy director at Tax Justice UK, and Hannah Peaker, director of policy at NEF, to discuss. Music by A.A Aalto (available: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/A_A_Aalto/Bright_Corners/Corps_Of_Discovery/), used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Produced by Katrina Gaffney and Margaret Welsh. The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

From housebuilding to sewage systems to the NHS, private companies are deeply intertwined with our essential public services. But is partnering with big corporations the only way of improving people's lives? Is private investment a vital ingredient in economic renewal? Or will it just lead to price gouging for us and soaring profits for corporate execs? This week Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Daniela Gabor, professor of economics at SOAS, and Aveek Bhattacharya, research director at the Social Market Foundation, to discuss the role of private investment in our economy and public services. Music by A.A Aalto (available: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/A_A_Aalto/Fest/Sneak), used under Creative Commons licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Produced by Katrina Gaffney, Margaret Welsh and Amy Clancy. The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

The International Energy Agency has said that the world cannot develop any new oil and gas fields if we are to stop climate breakdown. Keir Starmer has promised that the UK will slash its emissions faster than ever before and his government is banning new licences to drill for fossil fuels in the North Sea. Drilling in the wild waters of the North Sea has been a major Scottish industry for decades. Now, its time may be coming to an end. But what about the people who depend on the industry for their livelihoods? What will happen to workers and communities in places like Aberdeen? And how do we square this with the need to kick our addiction to destructive fossil fuels? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Anna Carthy, senior policy researcher at Uplift, and Mika Minio-Paluello, industry and climate lead at the Trades Union Congress, to discuss. Music: Curious by Poddington Bear (available: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Curious/Curious/), used under Creative Commons licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/. Produced by Katrina Gaffney, Margaret Welsh and James Rush. The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

The Autumn Budget was the most significant since George Osborne implemented austerity in 2010. Rachel Reeves announced one hundred billion pounds for infrastructure, forty billion in tax rises and a whole host of policy changes, which she hopes will deliver Labour's mission of national economic renewal. But what does an extra hundred billion pounds mean for the UK? Are we finally taxing the wealthy properly? And has the chancellor gone far enough to rescue our public services? Ayeisha Thomas Smith is joined by economist James Meadway and NEF Director of Policy Hannah Peaker to discuss. Music: Caterpillar Tunnel by Poddington Bear (available: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Curious/CaterpillarTunnel/), used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Produced by Katrina Gaffney, Margaret Welsh and James Rush. The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

By the time this episode comes out, the new Labour government will have been in charge of the country for one hundred days. So what do we know about how they'll run the economy? Can they rescue our threadbare public services while promising a tight grip on government spending? And will their focus on growth deliver real change for those who need it most? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Aditya Chakrabortty, senior economic commentator at the Guardian, and Ailbhe Rea, associate editor at Bloomberg UK, for the first episode in a new series of the New Economics podcast. ....... Music: Gathering by Poddington Bear (available: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Encouraging/Gathering/), used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Produced by Katrina Gaffney, Margaret Welsh and James Rush. The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

A few weeks ago, far-right rioters gathered outside a hotel hosting asylum seekers in Rotherham and tried to set it on fire. Across the country this horrific act of violence was replicated, as mosques, libraries and people driving home from work came under attack. But in the face of this racist and Islamophobic violence, people gathered to protest the presence of the far right in their communities and to rebuild after the attacks. It was people showing solidarity with their neighbours which ultimately seemed to stem the riots. As the dust settles on the violence, how do we combat the rise of the far right? Are economic deprivation and austerity to blame for that week of violence? And can communities come together to combat racism and Islamophobia? For a one off special episode of the podcast, Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Minnie Raham, Chief Executive of Praxis, and Abi O'Connor, researcher at NEF. Find out more about: Praxis: https://www.praxis.org.uk/ Green and Black Cross: https://greenandblackcross.org/ Music: What happened in the past doesn't stay there by Lee Rosevere, Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/m... used under Creative Commons licence: cre​ativecom​mons​.org/​l​i​c​e​n​s​e​s​/​b​y​-​n​c​/4.0/.

In the recent European elections, the far right won unprecedented gains. From the success of the AfD in Germany, to Le Pen's National Rally in France, the elections saw nationalist and eurosceptic parties sweep up nearly a quarter of the seats in the European parliament. In the UK, the next general election is just days away. Voters will be heading to the polls against a backdrop of decades of economic failure, crumbling public services and a cost of living crisis that has left more than four in 10 households unable to afford life's essentials. But you wouldn't know it from the way a lot of our political leaders are talking. Voters are being told, yet again, that times are tough, government spending power is weak, and there is no magic money tree. Oh, and of course, it really is time to crack down on migration, once and for all. So, how can we understand the promises, or lack thereof, of the people vying for our votes, within a broader context of political upheaval across Europe? In a time of such great need, why are Labour and the Conservatives offering so little? And as the dust settles on the European elections, is the UK really an anomalous country leaning the left, while our continental neighbours lurch rightward? This week, Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Yanis Varoufakis - economist, academic, formally Greece's finance minister, and author of a number of critical books, the latest of which is Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism. They discuss: how do we build a Pan-European progressive movement that can win? ....... Music: Melting Ground by Jangwa, used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Produced by Amy Clancy, Margaret Welsh and James Rush. The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

We live under an invisible ideology. It tells us that we are not citizens but consumers. That intervening in the free market compromises our freedom. That we are all millionaires-in-waiting - and if we are struggling to make ends meet, then we only have ourselves to blame. This is capitalism on steroids. But few of us can even identify the doctrine we live under. It's called “neoliberalism”, and it's been the dominant economic ideology for the past four decades. So what does this ideology have to tell us about the world? How is neoliberalism shaping our democracy? And what has almost half a century of neoliberalism done to our lives? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by George Monbiot, journalist and co-author of the new book The Invisible Doctrine: the secret history of neoliberalism, to discuss: how do we tell a new story about neoliberalism? ....... Music by Inaequalis is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ Produced by Amy Clancy, Margaret Welsh and James Rush. The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent or NEF. New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

In February, the prime minister warned that “mob rule is replacing democratic rule” in the UK. He encouraged police to take action on pro-Palestine protests which, he said, had descended into “intimidation, threats, and planned acts of violence”. Over 50 organisations responded by accusing this government of placing draconian restrictions on the right to protest. A UN expert has claimed that before the 1930s, it was almost unheard of for peaceful protesters to be imprisoned in the UK. But last year two climate protestors who scaled a bridge on the Dartford Crossing received the longest sentences for peaceful protest in modern British history. Are we witnessing a protest crackdown? Why are politicians referring to some protest groups as “extremists” and “militants”? And how can we defend the right to protest? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Akiko Hart, Director of Liberty, and Audrey Cherryl Mogan, Criminal Defence and Civil Liberties Barrister. ....... Music by Aldous Ichnite, used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Produced by Amy Clancy, Margaret Welsh and James Rush. The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

Three years' ago, the Conservative Party celebrated their best local elections performance since 2008. But after last week's local elections in England and Wales, the Telegraph called the results a “dire day” for the Conservatives. Now that the dust has settled, we're taking a closer look. Local elections aren't just about Count Binface and potholes. With the next general election creeping ever closer, journalists and political wonks were watching these elections like hawks. So who were the big winners and losers? Has the rise of metro mayors increased democracy in England? And what does this all mean for the next general election? Hannah Peaker is joined by joined by Dr Abi O'Connor, senior researcher at the New Economics Foundation and Jack Shaw, fellow at the Bennet Institute for Public Policy. ------- Music: Thoughtful by Lee Rosevere, Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/lee-rosevere/music-for-podcasts-playful/more-questions-than-answers/, used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Produced by Katrina Gaffney, Margaret Welsh and James Rush The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

Almost three million people in the UK are unemployed and unable to work because they are ill or disabled. According to the right-wing media, these people aren't nearly as unwell as they claim. Meanwhile a UN committee warned that disabled people in the UK are subjected to a “traumatising” benefits system. We have a social security system that's been stripped to the bone and millions of people are struggling to afford the essentials as a result, yet both of the main political parties are desperate to be seen as “tough on benefits”. So what's gone wrong with our social security system? Why are politicians so intent on alienating those who rely on it? And how can we build a system that gives everyone the support they need? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Kaliya Franklin, freelance disability policy expert and campaigner, and Mikey Erhardt, campaigner at Disability Rights UK. ------- Music: Thoughtful by Lee Rosevere, Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/lee-rosevere/music-for-podcasts-serious/thoughtful-2/, used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Produced by Katrina Gaffney, Margaret Welsh and James Rush The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

Britain's favourite broadcaster David Attenborough once said: “Anyone who thinks you can have infinite growth in a finite environment is either a madman - or an economist.” But our political leaders don't seem to agree. Both our major political parties have made growing the economy a key metric for their success in government. So what is economic growth? How did it become so central to our understanding of the economy? And should we really be striving for infinite growth on a finite planet? Ayeisha Thomas Smith is joined by Kate Raworth, economist and author of Doughnut Economics, and Michael Jacobs, professor of political economy at the University of Sheffield. ------- Music: Under Suspicion by Lee Rosevere, Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/lee-rosevere/music-for-podcasts-serious/under-suspicion/, used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Produced by Katrina Gaffney, Margaret Welsh and James Rush The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

We're waiting longer than ever for hospital appointments, our kids' schools are literally crumbling, and homelessness has sky-rocketed in the past year. This week's spring budget was a vital chance for chancellor Jeremy Hunt to respond to the huge problems our country is facing. But instead of trying to fix any of our problems, the chancellor announced a cut to national insurance that will benefit the richest households twelve times more than the poorest. So what do Jeremy Hunt's announcements mean for people across the UK? Why are the opposition talking about maxed out credit cards? And what needs to happen to save our public services and boost living standards for all? Ayeisha Thomas Smith is joined by Hannah Peaker, director of policy at the New Economics Foundation, and Lydia Prieg, head of economics at the New Economics Foundation ----- Music by Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/. Produced by Katrina Gaffney, Margaret Welsh and James Rush The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

Worried about your carbon emissions? Don't stress! You can pump out as much as you want - as long as you buy some offsets to balance it out. Scared of the collapse of wildlife? No problem! We can figure out how much money our ecosystems are worth, and let the market do the rest! Welcome to the logic of green capitalism. Fossil fuel giants claim to celebrate sustainability while pumping out toxic emissions. Governments are relying on carbon offsets to make their climate promises add up. And we're told that we can fight the climate crisis with the magic of economic markets. Why have corporations got so interested in sustainability? Will carbon offsets save us - or are they just a cute accounting trick? And if wind and solar energy are so cheap, why haven't we embraced them? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Adrienne Buller, author of The Value of a Whale: On the illusions of green capitalism, and Brett Christophers, author of The Price is Wrong: Why capitalism won't save the planet. ------- Music by Serge Quadrado, used under Creative Commons licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. Produced by Katrina Gaffney, Margaret Welsh and James Rush The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

It's 2024 and in Westminster an election is at the forefront of everyone's minds. Step back a little further and across the UK millions of us are more concerned with how we'll afford to pay their sky-high rent or energy bills. Zoom out further again and we see a world where billions of people are reckoning with the threat of the climate crisis. For the first episode in a new series of the New Economics podcast, Ayeisha is joined by the new chief executive of the New Economics Foundation, Danny Sriskandarajah, to discuss the biggest challenges facing the world and how we can win a new global economy. ----- Music by Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/. Produced by Katrina Gaffney, Margaret Welsh and James Rush The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: https://neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

The Metropolitan Police's diversity and inclusion strategy claims it is determined to “eliminate racism and discrimination”. But the force was branded ‘institutionally racist', and not for the first time, in an official report this spring. Recently, a Met firearms officer has been referred to prosecutors on a potential murder charge for shooting dead Black Londoner Chris Kaba last September. So, what does racism have to do with our 21st century economic system? How can we understand institutions who uphold racism while claiming to value diversity and inclusion? And what does it mean to truly be anti-racist? For the final episode of this series, Ayeisha is joined by Arun Kundnani to discuss his new book, What Is Antiracism?: And Why It Means Anticapitalism. Grab a copy of Arun's book here: https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2670-what-is-antiracism ----- Music by Chris Zabriskie and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Produced by Becky Malone, Margaret Welsh and Katrina Gaffney. 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

This spring, swimmers in Kent were told to avoid ten beaches in the county due to sewage leaks. Public outrage at sewage pouring into our rivers and beaches has so far focused on water companies. But is someone else to blame? The pipes that carry sewage in Kent are not owned by Southern Water, or even Kent County Council. They belong to a massive Australian asset management firm that most of us have never heard of. Asset management firms are not household names, but they've come to own our energy systems, hospitals, schools, and even the pipes that supply our drinking water. So who are these shadowy companies? What even is asset management? And why are they buying up the things we need to keep our society going? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by political economist and economic geographer Brett Christophers to discuss his new book Our Lives in Their Portfolios: Why Asset Managers Own the World. Grab a copy of the book here: https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2985-our-lives-in-their-portfolios-why-asset-managers-own-the-world ----- Music by Chad Crouch and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Produced by Becky Malone, Margaret Welsh and Katrina Gaffney. 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

The friend who has to cancel plans to look after their elderly mum. The colleague who leaves their phone on loud so they don't miss a call about their disabled child. The neighbour you've barely seen since their partner's diagnosis. We're surrounded by people who are dealing with the challenges of caregiving, but they often go unseen. According to Carers UK, there could be over ten million people providing unpaid care in the UK. We'll all have to care for someone or be cared for over the course of our lives. So why are the challenges caregivers face so overlooked? And how can we build a system that supports their wellbeing? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by writer and activist Emily Kenway to discuss her new book Who Cares: the hidden crisis of caregiving and how we solve it. Grab a copy of the book, out now: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/who-cares-the-hidden-crisis-of-caregiving-and-how-we-solve-it-emily-kenway/5956477?ean=9781472288486 ----- Music by Chris Zabriskie and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Produced by Becky Malone, Margaret Welsh and Katrina Gaffney. 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

As the chancellor stood up in Parliament to present his spring budget in March, half a million people went on strike to demand better from their bosses. Teachers, junior doctors, Tube drivers, civil servants and more all walked out of work, in the biggest day of strike action in over a decade. As the strikes rumble on into another summer, how can workers keep up the momentum? Will new legislation make it harder to fight for better pay and working conditions? And should more of us be trying to unionise our workplaces? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by workplace organiser Lydia Hughes and researcher Jamie Woodcock, authors of Troublemaking: why you should organise your workplace. Grab a copy of Troublemaking: Why You Should Organise Your Workplace – out now www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2889-troublemaking ----- Music by Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Produced by Becky Malone, Margaret Welsh and Katrina Gaffney. 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

Nurses struggling without PPE, the frantic search for hospital ventilators, even the dreaded ping from NHS test-and-trace. To most of us, these memories represent some of the worst of the Covid pandemic. But for a select few companies, they were an opportunity to make millions. Consultancy firms won over seven hundred million pounds worth of government Covid contracts to do things like run the test-and-trace system and vaccine rollout. This February, ministers dropped restrictions on Whitehall spending on consultants, allowing these firms to potentially rake in millions more. So why is the government so dependent on consultants? Whose interests do they serve? And how worried should we be about their effect on public life? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Rosie Collington, co-author of 'The Big Con: How the Consultancy Industry Weakens Our Businesses, Infantilises Our Governments and Warps Our Economies'. Grab a copy of The Big Con out now https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/451193/the-big-con-by-collington-mariana-mazzucato-and-rosie/9780241573082 ----- Music by A. A. Aalto and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Produced by Becky Malone, Margaret Welsh and Katrina Gaffney. 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

You can't paint your walls, you can't have a pet, you can't guarantee you'll have somewhere to live in six months time. Millions of us are paying sky-high rents but struggling to make a home in a housing system where safety and security takes second place to landlords' profits. Some private tenants face mould and broken boilers but daren't complain. According to Shelter, complaining to your landlord about conditions in your home more than doubles your chance of being evicted. How did private renting become so prevalent? Why are the rights of tenants so weak? And what does this mean for our ability to make a home? Ayeisha is joined by Vicky Spratt, housing correspondent at the i and author of Tenants, and Kieran Yates, journalist and author of the upcoming All the houses I've ever lived in. Further reading: - Grab a copy of Vicky's book Tenants https://profilebooks.com/work/tenants/ - Kieran's book All the houses I've ever lived in is out on the 27 April https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/All-The-Houses-Ive-Ever-Lived-In/Kieran-Yates/9781398509832 - Kojo Koram's book Uncommon wealth is available here https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/kojo-koram/uncommon-wealth/9781529338652/ - Find out more about about the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's work on home-owners and poverty https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/home-owners-and-poverty ----- Music by Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Produced by Becky Malone, Margaret Welsh and Katrina Gaffney. 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

On a sunny day in January, a ghostly figure covered in green ribbons appeared on a moor in south-west England. It was a person dressed as Old Crockern, the guardian spirit of Dartmoor. He was greeted by 3000 people who had gathered to protest a court ruling that took away the right to wild camp in the area. It was the biggest countryside access protest in living memory. The ruling reignited a long-running concern over land in England: who owns it? And who is allowed to use it? The aristocracy and landed gentry still own around thirty per cent of English land, and half of England is owned by less than one per cent of the population. How did we get here? What does land ownership have to do with wealth and power? And is there another way? Ayeisha is joined by Nadia Shaikh, naturalist, conservationist and land justice activist with Right to Roam and Frances Northrop, associate fellow at the New Economics Foundation. Further reading: - Find out more and get involved with Right to Roam https://www.righttoroam.org.uk/ - Listen to the Land for Who podcast series sharedassets.org.uk/resources/land-for-who-land-justice-podcast-series - Find out more about the Ecological Land Cooperative https://ecologicalland.coop/ - Read the Sold from Under You investigation https://council-sell-off.thebureauinvestigates.com/ ----- Music by Chad Crouch and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. With thanks to Katrina Gaffney. 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

Last year the UK had three different prime ministers, four different chancellors and five different housing ministers. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's first minister for close to a decade, recently announced her resignation - and it's not clear who will replace her. British politics now seems to be permanently tumultuous. And with a general election peeking over the horizon, political parties are gearing up to win over the public. What are the big ideas influencing UK politics? How much appetite does the public have for change? And what will be the key battlegrounds at the next general election? Ayeisha is joined by Anoosh Chakelian, Britain editor at the New Statesman, and James Meadway, director of the Progressive Economy Forum. - James' new book The Cost of Living Crisis (and how to get out of it)is out next month versobooks.com/books/4259-the-cost-of-living-crisis - Read Anoosh and Ben Walker's piece on the “the new social groupings of the inflation age” newstatesman.com/economy/2023/02/britain-cost-of-living-classes - More on Scottish independence in this article by Jonathon Shafi jonathonshafi.substack.com/p/after-sturgeon-a-new-era-in-scottish - Listen to James' podcast Macrodose patreon.com/Macrodose - Latest from the New Statesman podcast here newstatesman.com/podcasts ----- Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. With thanks to Katrina Gaffney. 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

Note to listeners: this episode was prerecorded in September 2022. Over the last five episodes we've looked at how the UK is being torn apart. Our economy is built on huge inequalities: between working people and big business, between families and fossil fuel giants, between tenants and landlords, and between marginalised groups and law enforcement. Are such massive divisions in our society inevitable? Can we share the wealth hoarded by the rich? And what do we need to do to build a better future? Ayeisha is joined by Jeevun Sandher, head of economics at the New Economics Foundation, and political economist and author of The Case For A Green New Deal Ann Pettifor. - Subscribe to Ann's substack, System Change, here: https://annpettifor.substack.com/ ----- Music by Chad Crouch and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. 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

Note to listeners: this episode was prerecorded in September 2022. This summer, on a small road in south-east London, a crowd of people prevented immigration officers from detaining a local man. Protestors sat on the ground in front of the van he was held in for hours, shouting “Let him go!”. From Pollokshields to Peckham, over the last couple of years we've seen how people can come together to physically stop immigration raids in their communities and protect their neighbours. But with the government giving the police more powers to crack down on protests, will actions like these be able to continue? What is happening to civil liberties in the UK? And who is fighting back? Ayeisha is joined by Zehrah Hasan advocacy director at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) and Charlie Whelton, policy and campaigns officer at Liberty (@zedhas3 and @cwhelton on Twitter). Want to join the movement? You can get involved with groups like: - JCWI jcwi.org.uk - Liberty libertyhumanrights.org.uk - Migrants Organise migrantsorganise.org - SOAS Detainee Support soasdetaineesupport.co.uk - Stop Deportations @StpDeportations on Twitter - Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants lgsmigrants.com Further reading: - Who's Paying The Price? The Human Cost Of The Rwanda Scheme by Medical justice medicaljustice.org.uk/whos-paying-the-price-report-released/ - The gal-dem guide to stopping a deportation flight by Zehrah Hasan gal-dem.com/guide-stopping-deportation-flight-immigration/ ----- Music by Chad Crouch and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. 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

Note to listeners: this episode was prerecorded in September 2022. The cost of living scandal could force 1.7 million households into homelessness this winter, according to the charity Crisis. In the UK, we can no longer rely on social housing to protect people from sleeping rough or sofa-surfing. If you were alive in 1979, you had a 40% chance of living in an affordable council home. Today, that figure is just under 8%. What happened to all our council houses? Did Thatcher's right to buy policy create the housing crisis we see today? And how would our lives be different if we could depend on warm, comfortable social homes? Ayeisha is joined by Becki Winson, NEF senior organiser and Suzanne Muna, secretary of the Social Housing Action Campaign (SHAC) (@RebeccaWinson and @Muna_Suz on Twitter) -Join NEF's Homes for Us Campaign https://homesforus.org.uk/ -Find out more about SHAC and get involved https://shaction.org/ ----- Music by Broke for Free and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. 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

Note to listeners: this episode was prerecorded in August 2022. 2022: a year of extremes. During the 40 degree summer heat, roads melted and railway lines buckled. The London Fire Brigade had its busiest day since the Blitz as record temperatures led to hundreds of fires across the city. When it finally rained a month later, the Met Office warned of flood risk. But after a dangerously hot summer, we're now worrying about whether we can afford our energy bills during a long, cold winter. This was the year that the climate crisis collided with the scandalously high cost of living. But how are the two related? Why are fossil fuel companies making bumper profits while the rest of us are worried about paying our bills? And can we stay warm while making sure oil and gas stay safely under the North Sea? Ayeisha is joined by Mika Minio-Paluello, climate and industry lead at the Trades Union Congress and Tessa Khan, environmental lawyer and founder and director of Uplift. -Want to join a union? You can find the right one for you on the TUC website: https://www.tuc.org.uk/joinunion - Get involved with the Stop Cambo/Jackdaw and Warm this Winter campaigns: https://www.stopcambo.org.uk/ and https://www.warmthiswinter.org.uk/ ----- Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. 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

Note to listeners: this episode was prerecorded in August 2022.  As the first week of rail strikes came to an end in June, Google searches for the phrase “join union” had increased by 184%. News channels and politicians didn't seem to know what to make of the broad public support for the striking rail workers. Inspired by the RMT union, the unrest spread: criminal barristers, BT workers, posties and teachers are just some of the people exploring strike action. After decades of union busting, wage stagnation and decimated rights, are workers finally saying enough is enough? Why has the public suddenly got behind striking workers? And what would happen if we held a general strike? Ayeisha is joined by the TUC's Sian Elliot and Sarah Jaffe, journalist and author of “Work Won't Love You Back”(@SianCElliott and @sarahljaffe on Twitter). -Find out more about Sarah's work at https://workwontloveyouback.org/ -Want to join a union? You can find the right one for you on the TUC website https://www.tuc.org.uk/joinunion ----- Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. 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 this mini-series of the New Economics Podcast, we'll discover how our economy has been run over the past few years - and look at the key battlegrounds for those fighting to change the rules. Over the last few years, neoliberalism – the economic model that has dominated since Margaret Thatcher was PM – has taken a hit. Big spending and state intervention have been the name of the game, as the government scrambled to get to grips with the pandemic. While Boris Johnson gets ready to pack up his things, we still don't know who will be replacing him in Number 10. The two final contenders, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, have been described in the press as “channelling the blue-suited ghost of Thatcher”. So, have the last few years solidified a new kind of economic mainstream? Or will Johnsonism be swept aside once the new PM has unpacked their toothbrush? In the first episode of this special mini-series we're asking: has neoliberalism hit the buffers? Ayeisha is joined by Ellie Mae O'Hagan and Laurie Macfarlane (@elliemaeohagan and @L__Macfarlane on Twitter). -Read Laurie's piece with Christine Berry for Renewal on the Conservative's political economy: https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/renewal/vol-30-issue-2/abstract-9553/ -More on the Race Class Narrative here: https://classonline.org.uk/pubs/item/the-uk-race-class-narrative-report ----- Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. 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

Outside of the frenzied headlines about woke warriors cancelling Jane Austen and stately homes, we're living in a period of renewed consideration of Britain's colonial history. The British Empire began before the English Civil War, and shaped our country for 400 years. At its height, it covered almost a quarter of the entire world's population. Beyond statues and street names, how is the empire still shaping our lives today? Ayeisha is joined by Dr Kojo Koram, lecturer in law at Birkbeck and author of Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire. - Grab a copy of the book here: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/kojo-koram/uncommon-wealth/9781529338652/ - Further reading from Perry Anderson here: https://www.versobooks.com/authors/81-perry-anderson - And from Tom Nairn here: https://www.versobooks.com/authors/821-tom-nairn - More from Kojo here: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745342047/empires-endgame/ ----- 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

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

If you read mainstream media coverage of the issues facing transgender people in the UK, you'll see a lot of fevered discussion of pronouns, bathroom access, and confusing legislation like the Gender Recognition Act. The media tells one story - but the other side of the coin is that half of trans people in the UK are unemployed and one in four have experienced direct healthcare discrimination. When we focus on bathrooms and pronouns, what other conversations are shut down? What are the economic issues facing trans people today? And is trans liberation really a class issue? Ayeisha is joined by Nim Ralph, community activist, writer, trainer and facilitator. - Read Fergal O'Dwyer's interview with Nim in the third issue of the New Economics Zine: neweconomics.org/2021/08/why-trans-liberation-is-a-class-issue - Read the Albert Kennedy lgbtq+ youth homelessness report: https://www.akt.org.uk/report - Find gal-dem's investigation into transphobia in the gender-based violence sector here: https://gal-dem.com/transphobia-in-sexual-violence-services/ - Grab a copy of Shon Faye's new book, The Transgender Issue: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/315/315349/the-transgender-issue/9780241423141.html ----- 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

At the height of the pandemic, politicians promised to do whatever it took to keep the economy going, and introduced emergency support like the furlough scheme. But now those measures have been cut and the conversation has turned to “fixing the public finances”, ending “reckless borrowing'' and preventing “soaring debt”. The word austerity hasn't featured yet but it's all feeling a bit familiar, isn't it? So, what do these phrases actually mean? Should we really be worried about things like government borrowing and public debt? And what are some of the alternative ways of thinking about our economy? Ayeisha is joined by Dora Meade, head of messaging at the New Economy Organisers Network (NEON), and Frank van Lerven, senior economist at NEF. ----- Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. Music by Poddington Bear and Christian Bjoerklund 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 a few weeks' time, 25,000 people will descend on Glasgow. They are coming for the UN climate summit, also known as Cop26. The delegates might not have the pleasure of sampling the city's mac-and-cheese pies or a dram of whiskey. Instead they will meet with others from around the world to try and agree new ways to bring down greenhouse-gas emissions. So what happens at a UN climate conference? Are negotiators in an events centre really going to stop runaway climate change? And what should we look out for once the Glasgow conference begins? Ayeisha is joined be Nathan Thanki, co-coordinator at the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice. - Find out more about the COP26 Coalition: https://cop26coalition.org/ ----- Music by Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. 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

The UK has the draughtiest and oldest housing in Western Europe. And our gas boilers pump out twice as much carbon dioxide as all of the country's power stations. Do we need to upgrade the UK's homes? Why is our housing powering the climate crisis? And how can we make sure everyone's home is warm, clean and green - whether we rent a flat or own a castle? Ayeisha is joined by Chaitanya Kumar, head of environment and the green transition at NEF, and Martin Heath, director of Basingstoke Energy Services Co-op. - Find out more about the Great Homes Upgrade campaign: https://greathomesupgrade.org/ ----- Music by Candlegravity and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. 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

Over 11m people have been furloughed in the last 16 months, and almost 6m are currently on universal credit. But over the next week, the government's main emergency policies to help people through the pandemic will end. People on furlough will find out if their jobs are still waiting for them, and people on universal credit will find their benefits cut by £20 a week. The government seems to be acting like we're out of the woods of the pandemic - but are we really? With over a million people still furloughed, energy bills going up, and benefit cuts kicking in, what kind of winter are we facing? And how can we make sure everyone has enough to live on for the rest of the pandemic and beyond? Back with a brand new series, Ayeisha is joined by Kate Bell, head of rights, international, social and economics at the TUC, and NEF senior economist Sarah Arnold. - Read the TUC's proposal on a more progressive way to fund social care here: https://www.tuc.org.uk/research-analysis/reports/new-deal-social-care-new-deal-workforce - Read Sarah's piece on reforming our social security system here: https://neweconomics.org/2021/09/beyond-the-20-uplift-options-for-reforming-uc ----- Music by Chris Zabriskie and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. 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

This week a controversial deportation flight took off for Jamaica. Legal challenges meant that only a tenth of the 90 people due to be deported were on the plane. The planned deportation included people whose lawyers said they had a right to stay in the UK under the Windrush rules, or who had arrived in the UK as children. Critics say that our immigration system is unnecessarily cruel. But what is its origin story? How has it changed over time? And what does it have to do with Britain's colonial history? In this final episode of the series, Ayeisha is joined by Ian Sanjay Patel, LSE fellow in human rights and author of We're Here Because You Were There: Immigration and the End of Empire. You can grab a copy of Ian's book here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3700-we-re-here-because-you-were-there ----- Music by Blue Dots Session and Podington Bear, used under Creative Commons licence. Researched by Margaret Welsh. Produced by Becky Malone. 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