Macrodose

On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at likely next prime minister Andy Burnham and his economic agenda for Britain (0.43), the current heatwave gripping the UK and large parts of the rest of Europe (9:30), and the daft idea of putting data centres in space (13:00).Heatstrike: heatstrike.notion.siteSubscribe 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

Last night, after more than 100 days since the US and Israel went to war against Iran, the US and Iran reached a partial framework for peace. When the war began at the end of February, it was all but impossible to make sense of the irrational explosion of violence. In the months since, that sense of irrationality has hardly ebbed, not least as the economic impacts of the war and resulting closures of the Strait of Hormuz—on food and oil prices, and on the supply of goods like ammonia and aluminium—have begun to bite.The destructiveness of this war is clear. Less clear is what it could mean for the future of an industry at the heart of the region and the conflict: oil.Our guest today is Laleh Khalili, a Professor of Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter and author of several books, including Sinews of War and Trade. In this episode, she breaks down the mess of the US-Israeli war on Iran, shifting relations among the region’s petro-states, the US as an empire in decline, and the future of global energy.

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?

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

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/enListen to Death In Westminster - a new documentary podcast from Planet B Productions & Novara Media: https://novaramedia.com/category/audio/death-in-westminster/#the-station