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The Peter McCormack Show

The Peter McCormack Show

By: Peter McCormack
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The Peter McCormack Show - politics, macro, Bitcoin and AI, long-form interviews. Twice-weekly conversations about money, power, and the shifts reshaping the next decade.


Peter McCormack interviews politicians, economists, investors, journalists, founders and Bitcoiners. Past guests include Liz Truss, Lyn Alden, Curtis Yarvin, Matt Goodwin, Mike Green, Balaji Srinivasan, Rupert Lowe, Firas Modad, Scott Horton, Jeff Booth, Connor Leahy, Andrea Miotti, Neema Parvini, Dr Tim Gregory and Simon Dixon.


Recurring threads: the debt and inflation endgame, UK political collapse and what comes after, Reform and the populist wave, the Middle East and the American war machine, AI safety and the race for superintelligence, energy and net zero, Bitcoin adoption and policy, and the slow-motion decline of Western institutions.


Long-form - most episodes run 60 to 120 minutes. New episodes 2 to 3 times per week. Video on YouTube and Spotify.


Host: Peter McCormack, a retired rapper from Bedford, UK, trying to understand this crazy world.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peter McCormack Political Science Politics & Government Social Sciences
Episodes
  • #223 - Sir David Spiegelhalter - "I Immediately Distrust Every Number In The News"

    #223 - Sir David Spiegelhalter - "I Immediately Distrust Every Number In The News"
    Oct 22 2026
    Sir David Spiegelhalter is one of the world’s leading statisticians, Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at Cambridge University and author of The Art of Uncertainty. Having served on public inquiries into mass murder (Harold Shipman) and systemic healthcare failures, he has spent decades analysing how data is used - and misused - in society.In this episode, Sir David breaks down the mechanics of numerical manipulation in media, why "objective truth" is a flawed concept and how we can protect ourselves from confirmation bias. We discuss:•⁠ ⁠Why you should immediately distrust any statistic you hear in the news.•⁠ ⁠⁠How mathematical algorithms helped catch Britain’s most prolific serial killer. •⁠ ⁠⁠How simple linguistic tricks make identical statistics sound terrifying or reassuring. •⁠ ⁠⁠The breakdown of public trust during COVID-19 and the error of simplistic messaging. •⁠ ⁠⁠"Hedgehogs vs. Foxes": The mental framework that separates terrible forecasters from super-forecasters. •⁠ ⁠⁠The rise of AI "black boxes" in healthcare, weather, and business forecasting. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 - I Can Make Any Number Look Frightening00:03:08 - The System That Could Have Caught Shipman00:06:45 - Can You Mislead People With The Truth?00:09:54 - Your Own Bias Does The Work00:15:33 - Sitting In The Middle Of The COVID Argument00:17:52 - What The Public Got Wrong About Vaccines00:19:37 - Safe And Effective Was The Wrong Message00:20:56 - The Experiment On A Thousand People00:25:00 - What The Data Says About Lockdowns00:30:25 - The Government Threw Its Weight Around00:31:02 - I Cannot Forgive The Fear Mongering00:34:08 - Children Have Never Been Safer00:36:28 - Trustworthy, Not Trusted00:37:34 - How The Productivity Figures Went Wrong00:41:28 - Predicting The Crowd At Real Bedford00:48:20 - Will AI Replace Statisticians?00:50:03 - Musk's 20% Chance01:01:39 - The Model That Predicts When You Die01:05:05 - What AI Did To Mathematicians01:15:00 - Hedgehogs And Foxes- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -CONTACT PETE› Website – http://petermccormack.com› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact› Email – me@petermccormack.com› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/CONNECT WITH DAVID SPIEGELHALTER› Website – https://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~david/› The Art of Uncertainty – https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/447230/the-art-of-uncertainty-by-spiegelhalter-david/9780241658628› X/Twitter – https://x.com/d_spiegelSPONSORS› IREN – https://www.iren.com/› Quo – https://quo.com/pete- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePMFILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/› https://x.com/curttayloruk/EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK› https://x.com/ConorM04- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    1 hr and 25 mins
  • #222 - David Wood - We are The Last Generation Of Normal Humans

    #222 - David Wood - We are The Last Generation Of Normal Humans
    Oct 19 2026
    Dave Wood is a pioneer of the smartphone industry, former senior executive at PPsion and Symbian and Chair of London Futurists. Having predicted the smartphone revolution in the 1990s, he now maps out the next radical phase of human evolution - from the reversal of biological aging to artificial superabundance. Moving away from sensationalised doomsday narratives, Dave breaks down why humanity is approaching the end of "normal" unaugmented existence and how technological breakthroughs in the coming decades will make biological death optional. We discuss:•⁠ ⁠Why this is likely the last decade of "normal" unaugmented human beings. •⁠ ⁠⁠How early smartphone pioneers accurately predicted large touchscreens but missed social media addiction. •⁠ ⁠⁠The concept of "Longevity Escape Velocity" and why biological death can be abolished. •⁠ ⁠⁠Why people are psychologically terrified of contemplating the end of aging. •⁠ ⁠⁠How humans will spend decades inside vibrant, simulated digital worlds. The reality of AI agents breaking out across the internet and the need for chip-level guardrails. •⁠ ⁠⁠How "Sustainable Superabundance" could make energy, health, and basic necessities too cheap to meter.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 - The Last Generation Of Normal Humans00:01:56 - Building The First Smartphone00:05:23 - Nobody Will Carry A Large Device00:06:55 - The Risks We Actually Worried About00:10:35 - Did We Fail The Phone Test?00:14:34 - The Anxious Generation00:18:03 - You Have To Use The Steering Wheel00:22:34 - Monitoring Built Into The Chips00:24:21 - Small Risks, Bigger Risks, Biggest Risks00:29:23 - We Killed Them To Build A House00:31:11 - They Knew It Was A Simulation00:32:38 - What Happens When AI Gets A Body00:33:46 - The Cult That Released Sarin Gas00:37:33 - Terminator, Ready Player One Or Matrix?00:39:12 - If This Is A Simulation, They're Evil00:43:44 - Living As Long As You Want To00:47:36 - Longevity Escape Velocity00:49:42 - A Thousand Years Old, Looking 2200:53:57 - What The Singularity Actually Means01:03:04 - Sustainable Superabundance01:12:22 - We Need A House Of AI- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -CONTACT PETE› Website – http://petermccormack.com› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact› Email – me@petermccormack.com› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/CONNECT WITH DAVID WOOD› London Futurists – https://londonfuturists.com/› Blog – https://dw2blog.com/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/dw2SPONSORS› IREN – https://www.iren.com/› Arch Public – https://archpublic.com/peter› Ledn – https://www.ledn.io/peter› Venice AI – https://venice.ai/lp/mccormack/oct19- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePMFILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/› https://x.com/curttayloruk/EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK› https://x.com/ConorM04- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    1 hr and 17 mins
  • #221 - Prof Lewis Dartnell - How To Rebuild Human Society After An Apocalypse

    #221 - Prof Lewis Dartnell - How To Rebuild Human Society After An Apocalypse
    Oct 14 2026
    Lewis Dartnell is an astro-biologist, Professor of Science Communication at the University of Westminster and the author of The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch. His research is on whether microbial life could survive the radiation on Mars. His books are about something closer to home: how little any of us understand about the world we depend on.Lewis and I run the thought experiment properly. If you woke up tomorrow and civilisation had gone, what kills you first, where do you go, how long does a supermarket actually keep you alive and how many people do you need before you can rebuild anything at all? The answer to one of those is 55 years and it is not the one you expect.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -TIMESTAMPS:00:00:00 - The Big Red Reset Button00:04:26 - Get Out Of The Cities00:08:14 - A Supermarket Keeps You Alive 55 Years00:09:48 - You Need 10,000 People00:13:21 - We Outsourced All The Handiwork00:17:45 - You Have To Preserve Everything00:19:19 - Every Technology Is A Weapon00:23:14 - The One Thing He Would Take00:25:41 - Mechanical AI00:28:35 - Resilient And Fragile At The Same Time00:32:38 - We Invent Because We Are Lazy00:34:05 - The Gasifier Stove00:37:57 - The Cars That Ran On Wood00:42:03 - Making Glass From A Bag Of Sand00:51:38 - He Made His Own Photograph00:55:43 - Printing A Page From Scratch00:59:47 - The Kindle Apocalypse Plan01:05:39 - Could We Actually Live On Mars?01:11:48 - The Radiation Problem01:19:02 - The Next Book- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -CONTACT PETE› Website – http://petermccormack.com› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact› Email – me@petermccormack.com› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/CONNECT WITH LEWIS DARTNELL› Website – https://lewisdartnell.com/› The Knowledge – https://the-knowledge.org/› X/Twitter – https://x.com/Lewis_DartnellSPONSORS› IREN – https://www.iren.com/› Quo – https://quo.com/pete› Arch Public – https://archpublic.com/peter- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePMFILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/› https://x.com/curttayloruk/EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK› https://x.com/ConorM04- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    1 hr and 21 mins
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