Episodes
Wednesday Jan 03, 2024
LOOKING BACK OVER 2023 & FORWARD TO 2024 - INTERESTING TIMES 73
Wednesday Jan 03, 2024
Wednesday Jan 03, 2024
In this podcast, we look aback over 2023 and offer our prognostications for 2024. Amongst themes discussed are war, environment, economy and geopolitics. [Free. 52 minutes.]
Saturday Jun 17, 2023
BORIS JOHNSON’S PERFECT POST-TRUTH MOMENT - INTERESTING TIMES 66
Saturday Jun 17, 2023
Saturday Jun 17, 2023
In this podcast, we reflect on the resignation of Boris Johnson from the UK parliament after having been found by the Commons Privileges Committee to have lied to Parliament. We take it that Johnson's subsequent and immediate appointment on a six-figure salary as a columnist for the Daily Mail is significant as a kind of culmination of the UK's deep immersion in post-truth confusion, which has for some time been an advantageous state for global oligarchs in a time of wide-spread unrest. [Free. 26 minutes.]
Saturday Jun 10, 2023
AI - THREAT OR PROMISE?
Saturday Jun 10, 2023
Saturday Jun 10, 2023
In this podcast, we discuss AI and its recent emergence into the public sphere. We examine four main aspects of AI; what the term 'AI' signifies, the knowledge status of its products, the political and economic ramifications of AI, especially its role in automation, and its position in current affairs public discourse. [Free. 61 minutes.]
Sunday May 21, 2023
NAT-C OR NAZI? INTERESTING TIMES 65
Sunday May 21, 2023
Sunday May 21, 2023
In this rather long podcast, we analyse various moments from the National Conservatism conference which was recently held in London, and some of the commentary that has ensued. We focus on the ideological substrate of the organising group, The Edmund Burke Foundation which is named after the 18th Century writer and Parliamentarian who is often hailed as the founder of both UK and US conservatism. [This despite Burke belong to the Whigs rather than Tories.] We ask, is this movement fascist and/or dangerous?" [Free. 96 minutes.]
Wednesday Mar 01, 2023
CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCIES - INTERESTING TIMES 62
Wednesday Mar 01, 2023
Wednesday Mar 01, 2023
In this podcast, I examine the development of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) by many of the world's central banks, including the Bank of England, and its possible ramifications. I examine both liberal (in the original sense) and right wing anxieties about the dystopian possibilities of this development and conclude, that though the anxieties are well-founded, they are easily misdirected into culture wares and other divide and rule distractions. [Free. 57 minutes.]
Tuesday Feb 14, 2023
A UNIVERSE OF DISCOURSE?
Tuesday Feb 14, 2023
Tuesday Feb 14, 2023
What is a universe of discourse? In this podcast, I attempt an answer, followed by an appraisal of the uses and abuse the concept might be put to. (Click the link to buy me a coffee.) [Free. 23 minutes.]
Tuesday Oct 04, 2022
EIE, A GLIMMER OF HOPE - INTERESTING TIMES 59
Tuesday Oct 04, 2022
Tuesday Oct 04, 2022
In this podcast, we appraise the recent demonstrations in 50 UK towns and cities by the Enough is Enough movement, which has largely been instigated by a number of active trade unions to combat the cost of living crisis. We find the broad base of the movement encouraging as well as its grounding in the lived experience of the working class, economically understood. Click BUY ME A COFFEE to make a small donation. [Free. 23 minutes.]
Thursday Nov 04, 2021
ADVENTURES IN THE TWITTERVERSE - IMPENDING REVOLUTION?
Thursday Nov 04, 2021
Thursday Nov 04, 2021
In this podcast, we consider the uses and dangers of social media for arriving at an ongoing understanding of our world. We particularly examine the zone of rage which is Twitter and a few current issues that are making a splash there. These are; outrage at the UK government changing the rules for investigating and sanctioning MPs' misconduct so that a Tory MP gets away with earning £100k per year for lobbying (allegedly), that there is widespread anger at the government voting to allow pollution of UK rivers and the sea, that there are many personal reports of depression at the general withering of hope as a direct consequence of Tory rule, and that the COP26 is so far merely dispensing 'greenwash'. In passing, we mourn the death or adequationist truth.[Free. 31 minutes.]
Wednesday Sep 08, 2021
MONEY & TAX IN QUESTION - INTERESTING TIMES 40
Wednesday Sep 08, 2021
Wednesday Sep 08, 2021
This podcast is a response to two events of the 7th September 2021. These are the beginning of El Salvador's policy to recognise Bitcoin as legal tender and UK PM Johnson's announcement in Parliament of tax measures to ostensibly finance much needed social care provisions. In the second case, rather than getting into the weeds of the actual policy announced by Johnson, the podcast focusses on the way in which certain assumptions about the nature of tax and money are uncritically accepted by politicians, media and economists. I draw on Stephanie Kelton's The Deficit Myth. [Free. 30 minutes.]
Monday May 03, 2021
DEMOCRACY FOR SALE - BOOK REVIEW
Monday May 03, 2021
Monday May 03, 2021
In this podcast, I review Peter Georghegan's recent book Democracy for Sale. This book deals with our kleptocratic politics and is well written, rigorously referenced and consequently very useful as an aid to our understanding of our situation. [Free. 29 minutes.]