Anglofuturism

Calum and Tom on: - The history of British Antarctic exploration, from Captain Cook's mission to find Terra Australis to Shackleton's heroic survival after the Endurance was trapped in ice, - The geopolitical status of Antarctica, including Britain's territorial claims, the 1959 Antarctic Treaty that prohibits mining and militarisation, and how this could change after 2048, - The potential economi...

Today we welcome Lawrence Newport, darling of the British progress movement and bane of vicious dogs. Lawrence discusses: - His successful campaign to ban XL Bully dogs after identifying their disproportionate role in fatal attacks and overcoming resistance from animal welfare organisations, - His Looking For Growth initiative to streamline infrastructure development through legislation that bypas...

Samo Burja is the founder and president of Bismarck Analysis , an industrial analysis and consulting firm studying failing organizations, and the author of "Great Founder Theory" which explores how exceptional individuals shape history by creating innovative institutions rather than merely steering events. He also chairs the editorial board of Palladium Magazine . Samo discusses: - How organisatio...

Rian Chad Whitton is a research analyst specialising in automation, industrial policy, and energy markets at Bismarck Analysis who writes on Substack under the name Doctor Syn and won the TXP Progress Prize for his essay on British energy policy . Rian discusses: How British industry declined from being the first Promethean nation to losing competitiveness due to loss of empire, high wages, and po...

You are currently directly above an energy source that is clean, available all day long, and – at least at our current Kardashev level – all but limitless. Naturally, the British government has approximately zero interest in it. But they will soon, because transformational geothermal energy is getting closer. The main obstacle, currently, is the difficulty of harnessing the extreme heat that one f...

Aria Babu is a researcher who has turned her attention to falling birth rates and pronatalism, offering fresh perspectives on how technological innovations like artificial wombs might address demographic challenges facing developed nations. She is @Aria_Babu on X. Aria discusses: - Why falling birth rates threaten many developed nations (especially South Korea at 0.7 TFR) and how this creates demo...

The Victorians carpeted Britain in rail, went on majestic sprees of housebuilding, pioneered underground rail and coal power stations, and built magnificent subterranean sewerage. Their ancestors cancelled most of HS2, haven't built a reservoir for thirty years, lets Nimbyism run amok, and can't even electrify all our trains, let alone swap them for maglev. How can we redress this generational emb...

It's widely felt that the British buildings and townscapes have, since the Second World War, become uglier and of lower quality. From their tasteful half-timbered space station, Tom and Calum ask Samuel Hughes , an academic and aestheticist, about the causes of those complaints. We discuss the inherent characteristics of architectural beauty, the divergence of taste between architecture students a...

The cost of getting mass into space is tumbling. The economic opportunities of being in space are multiplying. Where does this leave Britain? Alas, our country holds the ignominious record of being the only country to get rid of a vertical-launch space programme. But we're turning the situation around – and could take advantage of the changing circumstance by embarking on an exciting megaproject....

In this episode, we are visited in our thatched space station by a wunderkind economist who wants to turn a portion of the North Sea into a Wales-sized island. Duncan McClements is that economist, and you can find his blog, co-authored with Jason Hausenloy, below. https://modelthinking.substack.com/p/a-new-atlantis Editing by Calum Drysdale and Aeron Laffere. Our thanks to Cherie Chun for her help...