Macrodose
By Planet B Productions
Domination Without Hegemony? w/ Juliano Fiori
Event Tickets: Political Economy in a Time of Monsters (May 12th)
Welcome back to After Order - a series from Macrodose and the Alameda institute exploring power, sovereignty, and crisis in today’s unstable world.
This week, James is joined by Juliano Fiori, Director at Alameda, to look back at the series so far, and discuss its core premise: that we’re not living through what Antonio Gramsci called an “interregnum” - a moment where the old world is dying and the new struggles to be born. Instead, that our world is now one of sustained disorder.
In his own writing, Juliano takes this one step further, arguing that the very notion of order as we’ve come to understand it is tied to the system of US hegemony that has dominated global politics since the end of the second world war.
For Juliano this “order” is not only conceptual, but material. Sustained first by the unparalleled industrial base of American capitalism, and then by its transformation into the hub of global trade and finance - secured at every turn through military might.
He argues that, in losing sight of this, progressives too often take this exception for granted, and with it the belief that its decline will organically precipitate the rise of a new stability - perhaps one governed by a more just or democratic set of institutions.
But this is not a mistake we can afford to make. With the dominance of the dollar waning, the US grip on global capital is beginning to slip. And Trump's warmongerings, from Venezuela to Iran, now appear as the violent shocks of an empire in sharp decline.
The materiality of what we once called “order” is coming to an end. So what, if anything, comes next? The continued rise of China? A patchwork of competing regional powers? And a world defined by domination without hegemony?
All that and more, in this week’s After Order.
Psychedelics - The New Frontier Of Profit w/ Kojo Koram
While James Meadway is away for the local elections, this week's Macrodose is guest-hosted by Kojo Koram - author of the upcoming book 'The Next Fix: The Winners & Losers In The Future Of Drugs'.
For today's episode, Kojo explores the changing world of psychedelics - and how we’re on the cusp of a wave of corporate interests ready to sweep in to monopolise a new market.
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Purchase a copy of Kojo's new book 'The Next Fix' here:
https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/kojo-koram/the-next-fix/9781399807715/
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
Event Tickets: The Break—Down Issue #3 Launch Party!
Event Tickets: Political Economy in a Time of Monsters
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
Listen to Death In Westminster - a new documentary podcast from Planet B Productions & Novara Media:
https://novaramedia.com/category/audio/death-in-westminster/#the-station
Power in the Periphery w/ Gabriel Tupinambá
Event Tickets: Political Economy in a Time of Monsters (May 12th)
Welcome back to After Order - a series from Macrodose and the Alameda Institute - exploring power and crisis in today’s unstable world.
In this week’s episode, we’re turning to the concept of Popular Sovereignty. At a moment when the old order is breaking down - when states are less able to guarantee rights, stability, or even the basic conditions of life - what does it mean for movements, communities, and working people to build power for themselves?
Joining James to explore that question is Gabriel Tupinambá, Senior Researcher at Alameda. In an upcoming paper titled ‘Popular Sovereignties Under Peripheral Conditions’, Gabriel looks to social movements, especially those in Brazil, to understand how communities are attempting to reclaim sovereignty on new terms.
Gains that once seemed durable - access to land, political representation, legal recognition - now appeared increasingly fragile. Right-wing forces are reorganising both inside and outside the state, and progressives are too often clinging to outdated institutions that have themselves become unstable.
Under these conditions, Gabriel argues that we need to rethink sovereignty from the ground up. Not as a juridical status, or as participation in a national project, but as something more material and immediate, the means of life itself - food, land, shelter, social reproduction - as the basis for any sustained political struggle.
Was the stability of the postwar period always more fragile than it appeared? Are the conditions long associated with the global periphery now becoming generalised across the world? And if movements today can still disrupt systems of power, why is it so much harder to build alternatives that last?
All that and more, in this week’s After Order.
Image Credits:
- Arquivo e Memória, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST)
- Sebastiao Salgado c/o https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=2560,quality=82,format=auto,fit=contain/filestore/images/after-months-of-occupation-of-the-cuiaba-plantation-by-landless-families-the-peasants-celebrate-the-official-expropriation-state-of-sergipe-brazil-1996.jpg
- Wellington Lenon c/o https://www.brasildefato.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/MST-_-Foto-Wellington-Lenon.jpg
- Gilvan Oliveria, c/o https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2024/01/22/lasdless-workers-movement-celebrates-40-years-and-becomes-the-longest-running-peasant-movement-in-brazil/
- Douglas Mansur, c/o https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2024/01/22/lasdless-workers-movement-celebrates-40-years-and-becomes-the-longest-running-peasant-movement-in-brazil/
- Eraldo Peres, c/o https://www.thenation.com/article/world/brazil-mst-landless-workers-movement/
- Alf Ribeiro, c/o https://dissentmagazine.org/article/brazils-landless-workers-rise-mst-land-occupation/
- Duda Oliva c/o https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/03_Duda-Oliva-2.jpg
- Judy Duarte c/o https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/02_Juliana-2.jpg
- Natália Gregorini c/o https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/04_Natalia-2.jpg
Artworks
BP's Iran War Mega Profits
On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at BP's mega-profits - this time as an inevitable result of the war on Iran (0:42), whether or not we could be on the verge of another 2008-style financial crisis (3:26), and the shock announcement that the UAE is leaving OPEC (9:57).
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
Event Tickets: The Break—Down Issue #3 Launch Party!
Event Tickets: Political Economy in a Time of Monsters
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
Listen to Death In Westminster - a new documentary podcast from Planet B Productions & Novara Media:
https://novaramedia.com/category/audio/death-in-westminster/#the-station
Digital Sovereignty vs Big Tech w/ Cecilia Rikap & Paolo Gerbaudo
Event Tickets: Political Economy in a Time of Monsters
Welcome back to After Order - a series from Macrodose and the Alameda Institute - exploring power, sovereignty, and crisis in today’s unstable world.
In this week’s episode, we turn to Digital Sovereignty in the age of Big Tech. What does it mean that the infrastructures underpinning our everyday lives - from search and cloud computing to communication and logistics - are owned and controlled by a tiny handful of Silicon Valley elites? What does that concentration of power mean for democracy, for states, and for the possibility of political autonomy in the digital age? And what, if anything, can we do about it?
Joining host James Meadway to explore these questions are Cecilia Rikap and Paolo Gerbaudo. Cecilia is Professor of Economics and Head of Research at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at University College London. Paolo is Senior Researcher at the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid, and author of The Great Recoil: Politics after Populism and Pandemic.
In 2025, Cecilia and Paolo co-authored a major report for the Alameda Institute titled Reclaiming Digital Sovereignty: A Roadmap to Build a Digital Stack for People and the Planet. The report sets out a bold vision: to treat digital infrastructure as a public good - one that is democratically governed, ecologically sustainable, and oriented toward social need rather than private profit.
Their argument centres on a simple but far-reaching claim, that digital infrastructure is not just technical - it’s geopolitical. From the dominance of US Big Tech to the rise of Chinese platform ecosystems, control over data, computation, and networks has rapidly become a fundamental and contested terrain of global power.
But if that’s true, then the challenge is not just to critique existing systems - it’s to build new ones. What would it take to construct a public-interest digital stack? Who has the capacity to do it? And how do you navigate a world shaped both by corporate monopolies and intensifying geopolitical competition?
In a moment where sovereignty is increasingly exercised through platforms and protocols, this question becomes unavoidable. So what would it mean to reclaim digital infrastructure?
All that and more, in today’s After Order.
Six Weeks of Fuel in Europe
On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at how Europe now has only six weeks’ worth of jet fuel supplies left (1:52), how the big six investment banks are making record profits on the back of the Iran War (7:22), and some positive news around the decline of fossil fuels, and the future of our energy markets (11:48). James also pays tribute to the life and work of economist and biographer of Keynes Robert Skidelsky.
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
Event Tickets: Break-Down Issue #3 Launch Party
Event Tickets: Political Economy in a Time of Monsters
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
Listen to Death In Westminster - a new documentary podcast from Planet B Productions & Novara Media:https://novaramedia.com/category/audio/death-in-westminster/#the-station
Order as Fiction w/ Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla
Welcome back to After Order - a series from Macrodose and the Alameda Institute - exploring power, sovereignty, and crisis in today's unstable world.
Event Tickets: Political Economy in a Time of Monsters
In this week’s show, host James Meadway is joined by Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla - political strategist, activist, Co-General Coordinator of the Progressive International, and Executive Secretary of the Hague Group, a coalition of Global South nations launched in 2025 to hold Israel accountable for its crimes in Palestine.
Varsha’s work sits at the intersection of law, empire, and resistance - as both an organiser and an intellectual, grappling with what it might mean to build a decolonial internationalism rooted in the Global South.
From Honduras, where a US corporation is suing the state for billions in a secret tribunal, to Ecuador, where an authoritarian regime with the direct assistance of the US is crushing democracy in the name of the War on Drugs, to the bombs falling on Gaza - in flagrant violation of international law - it’s clear we are living through a rupture in the global “order”.
But Varsha argues that “order”, the so called “rules-based international system”, was always and fundamentally a veneer, one that masked the systems of coercion, extraction and exploitation that uphold global capitalism.
In the context of war on Iran, it’s a particularly prescient argument. The veil has lifted, we are seeing the return of hard power across the world, and an open defiance of international institutions, from Cuba to Palestine.
But we’re also seeing something else. A wave of solidarity with the victims of colonial oppression, and new forms of coordination among states seeking to resist through the cracks of disorder.
So the question at the heart of today’s conversation is this: as the old fiction of order breaks down, what comes next?
And what would it mean to build a different kind of sovereignty - and a different kind of internationalism - in a world After Order?
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
Listen to Death In Westminster - a new documentary podcast from Planet B Productions & Novara Media.
Starmer's Shifting Rhetoric
On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at some changing rhetoric from Keir Starmer on the changing world we live in, and how it affects our economy. But does he really get it? (1:02), And second: how the surge in energy prices is prompting a jump in home installations of renewable energy generation (5:52).
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
Event Tickets: Political Economy in a Time of Monsters
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
Listen to Death In Westminster - a new documentary podcast from Planet B Productions & Novara Media:
https://novaramedia.com/category/audio/death-in-westminster/#the-station
The New Age of Extraction w/ Thea Riofrancos
Event Tickets: Political Economy in a Time of Monsters
Welcome back to the After Order podcast - a series from Macrodose in collaboration with the Alameda Institute.
In our opening episode, host James Meadway spoke with Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff about their book Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed, using Elon Musk as a lens to examine the intellectual contours of our emerging post-liberal moment. Together, they traced how new ideological formations may be taking shape in the aftermath of neoliberalism.
In today’s episode, we shift from those ideological roots to something more tangible, the material foundations of contemporary capitalism, and in particular, the accelerating green energy transition.
To explore this, James is joined by Thea Riofrancos, author of Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism. As governments and corporations race to decarbonise the global economy, demand for critical minerals such as lithium has surged dramatically. Yet as Thea’s work shows, this transition is not simply a story of technological progress or environmental necessity. It is also opening up new frontiers of extraction - reshaping landscapes, transforming communities, and reconfiguring geopolitical relations in the process.
At the centre of this conversation lies a pressing question: can the shift to renewable energy avoid reproducing the same extractive dynamics that defined the fossil-fuel era? And are we witnessing the emergence of a new form of “green capitalism” that carries forward many of the old logics under a different guise?
In a world After Order, where crises no longer appear as temporary disruptions but as enduring conditions, the stakes of these questions are difficult to overstate.
Cheaper Drones, Fewer Profits
TICKETS: Political Economy in a Time of Monsters
On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at a surprising side effect of the war on Iran. As shares in arms manufacturers take an unexpected dip, has this conflict actually damaged the Western arms industry?
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
Listen to Death In Westminster - a new documentary podcast from Planet B Productions & Novara Media:
https://novaramedia.com/category/audio/death-in-westminster/#the-station
Neoliberalism’s Last Man w/ Quinn Slobodian & Ben Tarnoff
Welcome to the After Order podcast - a new series from Macrodose and the Alameda Institute.
This series emerges from Alameda’s ongoing After Order research project, which begins from a simple but unsettling proposition, that we may no longer be living through an interregnum between stable systems, but in a period defined by recurring crises - a time after stable orders.
Over the coming weeks, host James Meadway will sit down with leading thinkers from around the globe, exploring topics from the decline of American hegemony and the rise of a multipolar world, to the struggle to reclaim digital sovereignty from Big Tech, and the geopolitical tensions emerging from the global energy transition under green capitalism.
We’ll ask, where does power actually lie in a world after order, and what new pathways might still be opened within it?
In today's episode, James meets with Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff to discuss their new book, Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed.
Using Elon Musk as a lens, Quinn and Ben unpack what they call Muskism - a new political-economic logic emerging out of the ashes of neoliberalism, and one that might - just as Fordism did a century earlier - provide a roadmap to the ideological terrain of our present moment.
If the neoliberal era is coming to an end, can Muskism help us interpret the ensuing disorder? And what can be done to push back against it?
A DOGE For The Left?
On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at the latest economics fall-out from the war on Iran (2:25), oil thieves in East Anglia, and how they are a harbinger of the near future (11:14), and Verdant - a new think tank launched by James himself (14:22).
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
Listen to Death In Westminster - a new documentary podcast from Planet B Productions & Novara Media:
https://novaramedia.com/category/audio/death-in-westminster/#the-station
UK Food resilience:
https://www.uea.ac.uk/about/news/article/uk-food-needs-radical-transformation-on-scale-not-seen-since-second-world-war
https://nationalpreparednesscommission.uk/publications/just-in-case-7-steps-to-narrow-the-uk-civil-food-resilience-gap/
Verdant's first report on government efficiency sacings:
https://www.verdantthinking.org/publications/wastenot
The Third Gulf War
On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at how the ongoing Iran war forms part of a longer story of US decline (0:45), why a direct consequence of the war is higher borrowing costs for government (7:50), and what the UK government actually doing in response to the crisis (12:22).
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
Listen to Death In Westminster - a new documentary podcast from Planet B Productions & Novara Media:
https://novaramedia.com/category/audio/death-in-westminster/#the-station
Warflation
On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at the disruption to global food supplies that surge in oil prices is now causing (2:01), how fossil fuel companies are profiteering from the crisis (5:51), and why the fresh enthusiasm for motorhome ownership is an unexpected side-effect of climate change (10:40).
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
Listen to Death In Westminster - a new documentary podcast from Planet B Productions & Novara Media:
https://novaramedia.com/category/audio/death-in-westminster/#the-station
Come to the 'Dark Money' launch event on March 19th:
https://dice.fm/event/oevl5r-dark-money-how-billionaires-destroyed-britain-and-how-to-make-them-pay-19th-mar-earth-london-tickets
Iran, Food & Fertiliser
On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at the how the US-Israel war on Iran will impact global food prices (3:07), and how data centres are the newest target in modern warfare (9:47).
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
Apply for Planet B's Digital Content Lead job opportunity: https://planet-b-productions.homerun.co/digital-content-lead/en
Listen to Death In Westminster - a new documentary podcast from Planet B Productions & Novara Media:
https://novaramedia.com/category/audio/death-in-westminster/#the-station
Free Gifts w/ Alyssa Battistoni
Capitalism is often defended on the basis of freedom — “free markets”, free choice, as well as being credited with producing the wealth and material abundance that has freed countless people from poverty.
Marx, meanwhile, described workers under capitalism as “free in the double sense”: “free” to sell their labour power in the market, and “free” or divorced from the means of production: the land, machinery or materials to sustain themselves on their own. In other words: not particularly free, at all.
We can add to this the countless things that are, within market systems, “free” insofar as they are assigned no value, from the free gifts of nature to uncompensated environmental destruction and the unpaid labour that creates and sustains life.
What, then, does freedom really mean within a capitalist society? When wealth is so vastly unequal, can it really be argued that market exchange is “free” in any real sense? And when the harms of our economic actions are invisible in the prices we pay—from deforestation to child labour—can we really be said to be making “free choices”? These are the questions at the heart of Alyssa Battistoni’s book Free Gifts. In this episode, she joins Adrienne to talk about value, the politics of nature, and how we might live freely in a finite world.
The Illegal War On Iran
On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at the US and Israel’s illegal war on Iran (1:18), and the stark international economic constraints now facing the UK (9:37).
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
Apply for Planet B's Digital Content Lead job opportunity: https://planet-b-productions.homerun.co/digital-content-lead/en
Trump's Tariffs Shot Down
On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at the US supreme court shooting down Trump’s tariff bonanza (1:00), how a global hotel chain is preparing for climate change affecting their business (7:45), and the possible “green shoots” of the UK’s economic recovery (11:14)
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
Climate Change Shakes Food Security
On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at fresh warnings that climate change is coming straight for your supermarket shelf (0:40), and a rare piece of good climate news - from India - where a solar boom is helping leapfrog the old, fossil-fuelled path to industrialisation (8:26).
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
Beyond Techno-Optimism w/ David Edgerton
In this episode of The Break–Down, Deputy Editor John Merrick is joined by historian and author David Edgerton to discuss how his historical work has shaped his understanding of the climate crisis, the rise of China as both a major emitter and a green tech powerhouse, the retro revivalism of the British right, and the ubiquity of AI boosterism.
The history of the climate crisis is often told as a story about technology. Growing out of the dark satanic mills of the Industrial Revolution and accelerating with new forms of production and consumption in the mid-twentieth century, we are frequently told that it is technological development and innovation that got us into this mess.
But technology is also presented as the way out: a new green industrial revolution, expanded nuclear power, or even forms of geoengineering are held up as solutions.
In this conversation, Edgerton asks whether a more nuanced history of technology and production might tell us something different about the politics of the climate crisis. And whether it might help us imagine paths beyond fossil-fuelled capitalism altogether.
Past Peak Coal
On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at how coal use has now passed it's peak since the industrial revolution (0:41), how far short the world is from adapting to the costs of climate change (6:59), and some dodgy claims being made to support the UK government’s rush to roll out data centres (13:07).
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
China's Global Reserve Currency Push
On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at how China is pushing for an end to the dollar’s domination as the global reserve currency (0:35) and how resource constraints in the world economy are pushing governments to build up stockpiles of essentials (10:32).
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
How Wall St. Gambles on Your Future w/ Ann Pettifor
In the latest episode of The Break–Down, host Adrienne Buller is joined by renowned economist Ann Pettifor to discuss her new book, The Global Casino: How Wall Street Gambles with People and Planet.
We’ve all heard the refrain. Whenever a politician proposes a policy that might genuinely improve people’s lives — free and fast buses, affordable housing, large-scale renewable energy — the response is immediate: we can’t afford it. Media pundits and technocrats fixate on national debt, balanced budgets and the need not to “spook” the ever-mysterious bond vigilantes.
This obsession doesn’t just dominate public debate — it paralyses action on the very challenges we urgently need to confront, from transforming our energy system to properly funding care for the most vulnerable.
As this episode makes clear, it’s also profoundly misleading.
The Global Casino traces the extraordinary power of Wall Street, revisits Keynes’s legacy, and asks a fundamental question: what is money, really? For Ann Pettifor, money is an extraordinary human invention — one that could be used to reshape our world for the better, rather than to enrich a powerful few.
In today’s episode, she explains how — and why it matters now more than ever.
Mark Carney Drops Kayfabe
On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s blockbuster speech at the World Economic Forum (0:57), the UK government’s long-delayed report on global biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and national security (7:43), and how China’s expansion in the Arctic may well be threatening Russia’s sphere of influence, more than that of the United States (14:47).
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
Planet B, the production company that brings you Macrodose, is hiring a new Head of Production: https://planet-b-productions.homerun.co/head-of-production/en
Trump's Tariff Tantrum Over Greenland
On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at the worsening trade and tariff war over Trump’s plans for Greenland (1:24), some positive climate news from India and China, where coal-fired power generation has fallen for the first time in decades (13:13), and an interesting new report on AI productivity (15:23).
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
Planet B, the production company that brings you Macrodose, is hiring a new Head of Production: https://planet-b-productions.homerun.co/head-of-production/en
Iran Crisis & Trump vs. The Fed
On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at the climate change context behind the current protests in Iran (1:05), and Donald Trump’s bustup with federal reserve chair Jerome Powell (10:12).
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
Planet B, the production company that brings you Macrodose, is hiring a new Head of Production: https://planet-b-productions.homerun.co/head-of-production/en
Venezuela, Greenland, and the New Resource Colonialism
For the first Macrodose episode of 2026, James Meadway takes a look at US President Donald Trump's operation in Venezuela and the seizure of the nation's leader Nicolas Maduro (1:26). Plus Trump's posturing about his desires to annex Greenland (7:39).
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
The 2025 Review w/ Faiza Shaheen & Kojo Koram
On this week's macrodose - a special lookback at the tumultuous year that was 2025, and the various twists and turns for our global economy.
James Meadway is joined by Faiza Shaheen — author, economist and Executive Director of Tax Justice UK — and Kojo Koram, author, Professor at Loughborough University, and host of Death in Westminster, a forthcoming narrative series about inequality in the UK, produced by Planet B Productions.
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
Approaching Peak Oil
On this week's episode of Macrodose, James Meadway takes a look at how the drive to produce and consume more is creating a monumental trail of waste (0:33), and what the impacts of surpassing ‘peak’ demand in oil will be (5:09).
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
The BREAK—DOWN: Lula’s Dilemma w/ Sabrina Fernandes
The Break—Down returns! This week Adrienne returns for a fascinating conversation with Brazilian sociologist, political economist, author, and activist, Sabrina Fernandes.
When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, or Lula, was re-elected as the President of Brazil in 2022, defeating Jair Bolsonaro in a tense election, the Brazilian left and many around the world breathed an almost literal sigh of relief. Under Bolsonaro, Brazil’s ecological and climate record was scorched, with deforestation in the Amazon reaching record highs.
Hopes were high, and for good reason: Lula campaigned on the rights of the working class and Brazil’s Indigenous peoples; under his watch deforestation quickly began to fall; and at COP27 in Egypt he declared in no uncertain terms: "Brazil is back."
Yet Lula’s record so far is complex, particularly when it comes to the challenges and perceived trade-offs of economic development and the climate, all while managing powerful competing forces in Brazilian politics.
As COP30 begins in Belém Brazil, Adrienne is joined by Sabrina Fernandes, an economic sociologist and head of research at the Alameda Institute, to discuss her essay “Lula’s Dilemma”, which she wrote for the second print issue of the BREAK—DOWN, on the complexities of Brazilian ecological politics, the power of big agri-business and what we can expect from Brazil’s leadership of this year’s climate conference.
Further reading: Sabrina Fernandes, Lula’s Dilemma, The BREAK—DOWN
Subscribe to the BREAK—DOWN for just £15/year.
Budget Breakdown Special w/ Carys Afoko and Hannah Peaker
In a special Budget crossover episode, James Meadway is joined by Carys Afoko, Host of Over the Top and Under the Radar, and Hannah Peaker, deputy chief executive at the New Economics Foundation, and occasional host of their New Economics Podcast.
Together, they give their reaction to Rachel Reeves' budget that could seal her and Keir Starmer's future.
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
Reeves' Budget Blunders w/ Antonia Jennings
This week on The Curve, James Meadway is joined by Antonia Jennings - chief executive at the centre for London.
Together they discuss Rachel Reeves' upcoming budget blunders (1:36).
In the full version of the show available exclusively to Patreon supporters, James and Antonia also discuss the series of changes to Britain's asylum system announced this week by home secretary Shabana Mahmood (28:24), and how energy companies have recorded record profits in the UK (42.38)
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
COP30 & Adapting To A Warming World
On this week's episode of Macrodose, James Meadway takes a look at the context surrounding the world's climate negotiations as delegates gather in Brazil for COP30 (1:26), and how the world is looking to adapt to a hotter global climate (8:00).
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
Mamdani's Momentous Win w/ Sarah Jaffe
This week on The Curve, James Meadway is joined by author and journalist Sarah Jaffe who has covered New York politics extensively.
Together, they discuss Zohran Mamdani's momentous victory in New York's mayoral election and what it means for the future of economic populism on the left.
In the full episode James and Sarah also discuss UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves signalling that she's planning tax rises in the upcoming budget.
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Semiconductors & Artificial Intelligence w/ Richard Jones
James Meadway is away this week but we wanted to leave you with this important conversation from June 2023, directly relevant to the current fears that the AI bubble is about to burst. It's with Richard Jones - professor of materials physics and innovation policy at the University of Manchester, and a fellow at the royal society - and the conversation is about semiconductors - a material roadblocks to AI expansion.
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
![[OVERSHOOT] Episode 5: Overshoot LIVE](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_episode400/30648790/30648790-1761305269349-80db3a45c008.jpg)
[OVERSHOOT] Episode 5: Overshoot LIVE
Overshoot affects everything - where do we start?
In this bonus episode, a panel of leading climate thinkers and doers discuss the implications of 1.5C overshoot for law, geopolitics, activism, and more.
Host Laurie Laybourn is joined by Arlo Brady (Freuds), Olivia Lazard (Berggruen Institute), Harj Narulla (Doughty Street Chambers), and Clover Hogan (Force of Nature).
The conversation was recorded in front of a live audience at the Freuds Group HQ in London. It has been edited for conciseness.
***
OVERSHOOT is a new four-part audio documentary hosted by climate researcher and policy advisor Laurie Laybourn. OVERSHOOT is produced by Planet B Productions and the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative.
Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. For essays and bonus content, sign up at overshootpod.com or follow @overshootpod on social media.
Writer and presenter: Laurie Laybourn
Researcher: Ben Shread-Hewitt
Production coordination: Daniel Norman
Script consulting: Daniel Trilling
Sound design and mix: Ben Heyderman and James Fox
Original music by Haniell
With special thanks to Freuds for hosting us and Ren Balogun and the team, as well as all those who joined us. Apologies to those whose questions we had to cut from the edit; there just wasn’t enough room!
War, Climate Crisis and the Economy w/ Transition Security Project
Today we are posting a bonus episode recorded by our friends over at Transition Security Project. In this fascinating discussion, former Macrodose guests Laleh Khalili and Thea Riofrancos are joined by Stephen Semler, co-founder of Security Policy Reform Institute, and Ilias Alami, Assistant Professor in the Political Economy of Development at the University of Cambridge, to discuss how Western military industrial complexes are threatening the climate transition.
Transition Security Project is a new research centre founded jointly by Common Wealth and the Climate and Community Institute, focused on developing alternative approaches to security and collaborating with trade unions on just transition plans for the military industry.
Find their work here: https://transitionsecurity.org
Chair:
* Laleh Khalili is Director of the Centre for Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter, where she researches empire, extractivism and maritime trade. Her books include Sinews of War and Trade, Extractive Capitalism and Heroes and Martyrs of Palestine. Laleh is a fellow of Transition Security Project.
Speakers:
* Stephen Semler is the co-founder of Security Policy Reform Institute, a think tank that works to align US foreign policy with working-class interests. He is an expert at Forum on the Arms Trade and writes for the Quincy Institute, Security in Context and his newsletter, Polygraph. Stephen is a fellow of Transition Security Project and the author of a forthcoming essay on the class politics of the military industrial complex.
* Thea Riofrancos is Associate Professor of Political Science at Providence College, where she works on resource extraction, climate crisis and the global energy transition. She is the author of Extraction and Resource Radicals. Thea is Strategic Co-Director of Climate and Community Institute, which cohosts Transition Security Project.
* Ilias Alami is Assistant Professor in the Political Economy of Development at the University of Cambridge, where he writes about state capitalism, geopolitics, and the green transition. He is the author of The Spectre of State Capitalism and Money, Power and Financial Capital in Emerging Markets. Ilias is a fellow of Transition Security Project and the author of a forthcoming essay on AI, imperialism and resource conflicts.
Khem Rogaly, Patrick Bigger and Lorah Steichen from Transition Security Project offer brief responses to each speaker.
Will The Budget Be The End Of Starmer? w/ Nicholas Beuret
This week on The Curve, James Meadway is joined by Nicholas Beuret - author of Or Something Worse:Why We Need to Disrupt the Climate Transition.
Together, they discuss mounting speculation over the upcoming budget and the longevity of Keir Starmer's premiership.
In the extended episode, available to Macrodose members on Patreon, they discuss Nicholas' new book on how the push for net zero has become a new arena for class conflict, and also respond to a listener question on government debt.
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
![[OVERSHOOT] Episode 4: Derailment](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_episode400/30648790/30648790-1760916017048-9b387d437e7f1.jpg)
[OVERSHOOT] Episode 4: Derailment
How can we be resilient to what comes next?
One of Spain’s worst disasters was driven by climate change. But it ended up boosting climate deniers. This episode explores how to avoid this, what it really means to prepare for a world above 1.5°C, and why governments are clinging to fantasy preparation plans. And we hear the stories of how we can stay focused on navigating the growing climate storm.
***
OVERSHOOT is a new four-part audio documentary hosted by climate researcher and policy advisor Laurie Laybourn. OVERSHOOT is produced by Planet B Productions and the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative.
Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. For essays and bonus content, sign up at overshootpod.com or follow @overshootpod on social media.
***
Writer and presenter: Laurie Laybourn
Researcher: Ben Shread-Hewitt
Production coordination: Daniel Norman
Script consulting: Daniel Trilling
Sound design and mix: Ben Heyderman and James Fox
Original music by Haniell
With special thanks to Aaron Thierry, Mirte Boot, James Dyke, Henry Throp, Stephen Backhouse, Sophia Lennon
Is the AI Bubble about to burst?
On this week's episode of Macrodose, James Meadway takes a look at: First, with warnings from both the Bank of England and IMF this week, the spectre of the AI bubble bursting is looming larger than ever before (0:35). Second, what should we make of renewed escalation in the US-China trade war (10:24).
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
![[OVERSHOOT] Part 3: The Minsky Moment](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_episode400/30648790/30648790-1760271795628-5a0505a6f3481.jpg)
[OVERSHOOT] Part 3: The Minsky Moment
What do the people in charge think is going to happen?
Sue Owen was enjoying her retirement until she asked her pension fund what it thought catastrophic climate change would do to the economy. Not very much, according to them. This episode follows the campaigners and experts uncovering how pension funds, governments, and the other people in charge are using misleading economics that wildly underestimates the dangers of overshooting 1.5°C - and what to do about it.
***
OVERSHOOT is a new four-part audio documentary hosted by climate researcher and policy advisor Laurie Laybourn. OVERSHOOT is produced by Planet B Productions and the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative.
Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. For essays and bonus content, sign up at overshootpod.com or follow @overshootpod on social media.
***
Writer and presenter: Laurie Laybourn
Researcher: Ben Shread-Hewitt
Production coordination: Daniel Norman
Script consulting: Daniel Trilling
Sound design and mix: Ben Heyderman and James Fox
Original music by Haniell
With special thanks to Aaron Thierry, Mirte Boot, James Dyke, Henry Throp, Stephen Backhouse, Sophia Lennon
A Warming World Beyond 1.5C w/ Laurie Laybourn
This week on The Curve, James Meadway sits down with Laurie Laybourn, executive director of the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative to talk about his podcast Overshoot - a new series about how we navigate a warming world beyond 1.5C.
In the extended episode, available to Macrodose members on Patreon, James and Laurie discuss the recent Labour and Green party conferences, as well as the government's AI bill set to unleash a frenzy of data centre construction across the UK.
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
![[OVERSHOOT] Part 2: Carbon Suckers](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_episode400/30648790/30648790-1759747877127-45285aa967efe.jpg)
[OVERSHOOT] Part 2: Carbon Suckers
Who’s going to clean up the mess?
Dangerous amounts of carbon have been dumped in the atmosphere - so someone has to clean up the mess. Enter the dream - or delusion - of sucking carbon out of the sky. We trace how a backup plan for tackling climate change became plan A, why fossil fuel companies love it, and the staggering scale of the carbon sucking that must now be done - and whether it can even work.
***
OVERSHOOT is a new four-part audio documentary hosted by climate researcher and policy advisor Laurie Laybourn. OVERSHOOT is produced by Planet B Productions and the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative.
Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. For essays and bonus content, sign up at overshootpod.com or follow @overshootpod on social media.
***
Writer and presenter: Laurie Laybourn
Researcher: Ben Shread-Hewitt
Production coordination: Daniel Norman
Script consulting: Daniel Trilling
Sound design and mix: Ben Heyderman and James Fox
Original music by Haniell
With special thanks to Aaron Thierry, Mirte Boot, James Dyke, Henry Throp, Stephen Backhouse, Sophia Lennon
![[OVERSHOOT] Part 1: Uncharted Territory](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_episode400/30648790/30648790-1759747757954-8ebbb2a1814b.jpg)
[OVERSHOOT] Part 1: Uncharted Territory
If the world didn’t win, then has it lost?
The world is overshooting 1.5°C, a level of global heating long seen as the marker of climate safety. But does that mean we’re doomed? In this opening episode, we hear the extraordinary story of how the 1.5°C goal was set, and how it shapes the ways we think about climate change. We learn why some people are now turning to fatalism and what it might really mean to navigate a truly global climate crisis.
***
OVERSHOOT is a new four-part audio documentary hosted by climate researcher and policy advisor Laurie Laybourn. OVERSHOOT is produced by Planet B Productions and the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative.
Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. For essays and bonus content, sign up at overshootpod.com or follow @overshootpod on social media.
***
Writer and presenter: Laurie Laybourn
Researcher: Ben Shread-Hewitt
Production coordination: Daniel Norman
Script consulting: Daniel Trilling
Sound design and mix: Ben Heyderman and James Fox
Original music by Haniell
With special thanks to Aaron Thierry, Mirte Boot, James Dyke, Henry Throp, Stephen Backhouse, and Sophia Lennon
Overshoot: Navigating a world beyond 1.5°C – trailer
The world missed its goal for tackling climate change. What happens next?
In 2015, the world agreed to limit global heating to 1.5°C. Ten years later, temperatures are spiralling beyond this and climate chaos is wreaking havoc across the globe.
In a major four-part series, host Laurie Laybourn explores how the world ended up here and uncovers the huge misconceptions and the high-tech fantasies that hold us back. And we meet people with the ideas to navigate what comes next, from protesting pensioners to climate negotiators, Pacific islanders to pre-eminent scientists.
Coming soon. Listen from Monday 6th October.
***
OVERSHOOT is a new four-part audio documentary hosted by climate researcher and policy advisor Laurie Laybourn. OVERSHOOT is produced by Planet B Productions and the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative.
Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. For essays and bonus content, sign up at overshootpod.com or follow @overshootpod on social media.
Writer and presenter: Laurie Laybourn
Researcher: Ben Shread-Hewitt
Production coordination: Daniel Norman
Script consulting: Daniel Trilling
Sound design and mix: Ben Heyderman and James Fox
Original music by Haniell
With special thanks to Aaron Thierry, Mirte Boot, James Dyke, Henry Throp, Stephen Backhouse
The Natural Economy
Returning from spending the summer writing his new book, James looks back at the key economic stories of the summer along with some important ones you may have missed.
Plus: Javier Milei's economic experiment in Argentina has collapsed, leading to his government asking Trump’s United States for a $20 billion bailout.
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to planetbproductions.co.uk.
LIVE - The Policies and Politics We Need w/ Autonomy Institute
As public dissatisfaction with the current government deepens & Reform UK lead in the polls, the need for a coherent, credible alternative has become increasingly urgent. To meet this moment, leading think tank the Autonomy Institute and Macrodose hosted some of the UK’s leading, activists, academics and campaigners from across the progressive spectrum, to chart the ideas and strategies needed for a transformative agenda fit for the challenges of the present and the next general election.
Speakers:
- Asad Rehman (War on Want)
- James Schneider (Progressive International)
- Ayeisha Thomas-Smith (NEON)
- John McTernan (Political strategist & commentator)
- Antonia Jennings (Centre for London)
Hayek's Bastards w/ Quinn Slobodian
Our final guest hosted episode of the summer comes from Quinn Slobodian - author of Hayek's Bastards.
Reading an extract from his book, he explains some of the surprising connections between the neoliberal intellectual movement and the so-called populist right that we’ve seen on the rise over the past decade.
Trump's Second State Visit w/ Nick Dearden & Sarah Jaffe
This week on The Curve, Nick Dearden from Global Justice Now is in the hosting chair, joined by journalist and author Sarah Jaffe. They discuss the upcoming second state visit of US President Donald Trump and the tech bosses that are accompanying him.
In the extended episode, available to Macrodose members on Patreon, Nick and Sarah discuss the massive immigration raid at a Hyundai factory in Georgia.
Subscribe to support the show at patreon.com/Macrodose. Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
The Decline of the Bandung Spirit w/ Kevin Ochieng Okoth
Our third guest hosted episode of the summer comes from Kevin O'Koth - author of Red Africa: Reclaiming Revolutionary Black Politics.
Reading an extract from his book, he takes a look at the Bandung Conference – a pivotal 1955 gathering of leaders from Asia and Africa, united in their resistance to colonialism and their vision for a new, non-aligned world.