Macrodose

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 fre...

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...

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...

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; perk...

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...

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 (14:4...

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...

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? Rea...

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 th...

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,...

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....

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. Un...

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.c...

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)...

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...

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 p...

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 roadb...

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 recorde...

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 mi...

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 ze...

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. ...

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 f...

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 undere...

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&#...

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 eve...