On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at how the first signs of the incoming “Godzilla” el nino (6:29), how the big tech market crash could finally be arriving (0:47), and a listener question on what public investment looks like in a high-interest world (12:17).

Chuang (18 May 2020), “Free to move, forced to move: The present state of the hukou system”. http://chuangcn.org/2020/05/free-to-move/

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 how tech firms are cutting back AI spending after blowing budgets on it (0:42), how progressives are taking on the UK political culture of bond market fear (6:23), and how a recent change in China’s welfare system will have global consequences (10:06).

Chuang (18 May 2020), “Free to move, forced to move: The present state of the hukou system”. http://chuangcn.org/2020/05/free-to-move/

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

We're celebrating the launch of The BREAK—DOWN's spring issue, Airborne! On May 6th, The BREAK—DOWN hosted a live podcast where editor Adrienne Buller was joined by Geoff Mann, Daniela Gabor and Oliver Eagleton to discuss climate crisis through and beyond the contents of AIRBORNE.

ISSUE #3: Airborne

The engines of industrial production that power the modern economy release vast quantities of carbon and pollutants into the air, seeping into our soil, our water, and even our bodies. Air pollution alone is responsible for around ten million deaths each year. And yet this everyday emergency has not fundamentally reshaped how we understand our place in the world.

This issue explores the tensions between global causes and local effects, between the invisible and the immediate, by looking closely at the air itself: the medium that surrounds us, connects us, and sustains life, even as it is increasingly contested and compromised.

Featuring essays by Adam Almeida and Shruti Iyer on the inequalities of air pollution across time and place, from New York to India; Zsuzsanna Ihar on a spaceport in the outer Hebrides; Vera Huwe on the political history of air travel; Mae Losasso on the origins of “the environment” in airborne chemical warfare; Cecilia Rikap on Big Tech and the cloud; Drew Pendergrass on complexity and planning; Natasha Heenan on the politics of climate repair; a photo essay by Amelie David and Ségolène Ragu on the fight for clean air and energy in Beirut under renewed military assault; and an interview with journalist David Wallace-Wells.

Go to The BREAK—DOWN's website to ⁠become a member⁠ and get your copy of their latest issue - and follow their ⁠socials⁠.

On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at how the question of adaptation to our changing climate has returned amidst Britain experiencing another heatwave (0:58), and how market-led solutions to adaptation will only entrench further inequality (6:48).

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 how talk of the bond markets is back after Andy Burnham announced his byelection candidacy and ambitions for Number 10 (0:44), a note on “Godzilla El Nino” - as the world is set to be hit by the mother of all weather disruptions (5:49), and reports that the UK government is pushing to cap the price of essential foods (9:36).

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

Today's episode is the final in Season One of AFTER ORDER. It was recorded as a live show in collaboration with the Alameda Institute at the Art House in Bethnal Green, East London, earlier this week.

The conversation is hosted by Juliano Fiori (Alameda), featuring James Meadway (Macrodose), Clara Mattei (University of Tulsa), and Aditya Chakrabortty (The Guardian).

Together they explore the idea that we are no longer living between stable political and economic systems, but through an era defined by overlapping and ongoing crises.

From economic turbulence to geopolitical fragmentation, many of the frameworks that once made sense of the world are breaking down. The discussion asked what might replace them - and how we rethink political economy for a world shaped by uncertainty, conflict, and rapid technological change.

Across the evening, the panel reflected on what these shifts mean for power, politics, and the possibilities for building a different future.

It is your support that makes this show possible. Pleases consider becoming a subscriber today: patreon.com/Macrodose.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

To learn more about the work we do, head to ⁠planetbproductions.co.uk⁠.

On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at how the political turmoil around Starmer's ailing premiership is affecting the UK’s economic outlook (0:38), and how governments around the world will respond to the current chaotic state of the global economy (7:04).

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

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.