De Dépendance Podcast

How rich is too rich? In this episode, we revisit a conversation recorded at De Dépendance in 2024 with philosopher Ingrid Robeyns and economic historian Guido Alfani, two leading thinkers on wealth, inequality, and the history of capitalism. The discussion took place on the occasion of the publication of Robeyns' book  Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth  and Alfani's  As Gods...

In this episode, we bring you a recording of a special event we hosted with economic historian Arnaud Orain, whose work offers a new perspective on the history and future of capitalism. He is joined by journalist and European affairs commentator Caroline de Gruyter, one of Europe's most perceptive observers of politics and the liberal order. The conversation took place on the occasion of the D...

In this episode, we bring you a recording of a conversation hosted by De Dépendance with historian Quinn Slobodian and writer and technologist Ben Tarnoff, co-authors of the new book  Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed . Quinn Slobodian is Professor of International History at Boston University and the author of Crack-Up Capitalism ,  Hayek's Bastards , and  Globalists . Ben Tarnoff is the aut...

In this episode we are bringing you a recording of a special event we hosted with anthropologist Anna Tsing , whose work has reshaped how we think about capitalism, ecology, and life in a damaged world. Anna Tsing is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Aarhus University. She is the acclaimed author of  In the Realm of the Diamond Queen ,  Friction,  and  The...

In this episode, acclaimed sociologist and Princeton professor  Ruha Benjamin  joins De Dépendance Podcast for a compelling conversation on the occasion of her new book,  Imagination: A Manifesto . Interviewed by historian  Marianne Klerk , Benjamin explores how emerging technologies—especially algorithms and AI—shape inequality, and why we must treat imagination as a powerful site of struggle and...

In this episode, political scientist and philosopher  Lea Ypi  joins us to discuss the ideas behind her new book  Indignity: A Life Reimagined . Named one of the world’s top ten thinkers by  Prospect  magazine, Ypi draws on her upbringing in communist Albania to examine the intertwined questions of freedom, democracy, memory, and political change. Building on the success of her memoir  Free ,  Ind...

In this episode, De Dépendance editor Hani Salih  sits down with political commentator, economist, and author  Grace Blakeley  to delve into the ideas behind her new book  Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom . Blakeley argues that today’s economic, social, and democratic crises aren’t signs of a system in collapse, but the intended outcomes of a capital...

In this episode, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and creator of  The 1619 Project ,  Nikole Hannah-Jones , joins us for a powerful conversation on the state of American democracy. At a moment when history itself is being rewritten for political ends, Hannah-Jones reflects on how the stories a nation tells — and those it chooses to forget — shape its democratic foundations. Together with moderato...

In this episode, we welcome Meredith Whittaker, President of the Signal Foundation and one of the world’s leading tech critics, for a powerful conversation on privacy, surveillance, and the future of technology. Whittaker, who also co-founded the AI Now Institute, shares her insights on how surveillance and AI are deeply intertwined, and how tech giants profit from large-scale data extraction. She...

In this episode, we dive into  The Big Con , the provocative book by economists Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington, which exposes the deep entanglement between the consulting industry and the modern management of business and government. From McKinsey to PwC, the authors argue that these firms don’t just advise—they shape policy, stifle innovation, and erode accountability. In this lecture by...

In this episode, we’re joined by award-winning science journalist  Angela Saini to discuss her bold and timely book:  The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule . In this interview with historian Marianne Klerk, Saini traces the deep and complex roots of patriarchy — from the world’s earliest known human settlements to modern-day societies. Drawing on cutting-edge research in archaeology, history, and s...

Across the world, experimental predictive algorithms are being deployed that promise to prevent welfare fraud. Now for the first time, an international team of journalists gained unprecedented access to one of these "suspicion machines" in the city of Rotterdam. An investigation by Lighthouse Reports, WIRED and Vers Beton demonstrates how governments all over Europe - and municipalities li...

In this episode we talk to Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones on her groundbreaking 1619 Project. The 1619 Project is The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning reframing of American history that places slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of the countries’ national narrative. It offers a revealing new origin story for the United States, one that helps explain not only...

In this episode we listen to a lecture by and interview with urbanist and historian Davarian L. Baldwin on the occasion of his highly acclaimed book  In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities are Plundering Our Cities . Urban universities play an important and outsized role in cities. They bring diverse ideas and people together and they generate new innovations. But they also gentrify ne...

In this podcast we will listen to a lecture by Carolyn Steel, architect and author of the award-winning  Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives  and  Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World . From our foraging hunter-gatherer ancestors to the enormous appetites of modern cities, food has shaped our bodies and homes, our politics and trade, and our climate. Whether it’s the daily decision of what to e...

Twelve months. That is the time the world now has for global greenhouse gas emissions to start to fall. If not, we will miss the chance to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. According to the 2022 report on mitigation by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) the world can still hope to stave off the worst ravages of climate breakdown, but only through a “now or never” das...

In this live episode we talk to Andrea Elliott on the occasion of her Pulitzer Prize winning book 'Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City'. Elliott is an investigative journalist for The New York Times whose work documents the lives of people on the margins of power. Based on nearly a decade of reporting, Invisible Child follows eight dramatic years in the life o...

In this live edition of De Dépendance Podcast labour economist Guy Standing gives a short lecture on his book ‘The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class’. In it he provides a detailed understanding of how the situation of precarious employment affects the lives of the “Precariat”: the rapidly growing number of people facing lives of insecurity, on zero-hour contracts, moving in and out of jobs that g...

In this live edition of De Dépendance Podcast we listen to a short lecture by journalist Sarah Jaffe on her book Work Won’t Love You Back – How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted and Alone . The last decade has seen a seismic shift in attitudes towards work and the idea of labour. Whether it is through the rise of the gig economy, the rapid proliferation of the new creator economy,...

In this special live edition of De Dépendance Podcast we listen to a short lecture by sociologist Bowen Paulle on one of the most pressing social issues of our time: educational inequality. In the past education has long served the function of being the 'great equaliser': not your origin or social class, but your talent and effort would determine your level of schooling and future prospect...

In this episode we talk to Professor of International Politics Laleh Khalili on the occasion of her latest book  Sinews of War and Trade, Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula .   Khalili travelled the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean aboard gigantic container ships to investigate the secretive and sometimes dangerous world of maritime trade. What she discovered was stra...

In this episode we will talk about one of the most pressing urban issues of our time: the housing crisis. Our guest is Leilani Farha, former  UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing  and director of The Shift, a global movement to secure the human right to housing. Farha is also the central character in the acclaimed documentary  PUSH  regarding the financialization of housing. We will discu...

In this episode we talk to economic historian Aaron Benanav, researcher at Humboldt University Berlin, where he studies the history of unemployment and global labour markets. We will discuss his latest book,  Automation and the Future of Work , which is a consensus-shattering account of automation technologies and the falling demand for labour. Benanav argues that Silicon Valley titans, techno-fut...

In this episode we talk to Syrian architect and urban thinker Marwa-al-Sabouni. When war enveloped her city, Homs, she refused to leave and remained a virtual prisoner in her home for two years. In her autobiography,  The Battle for Home: The Vision of a Young Architect in Syria , al-Sabouni analyses how architecture and city planning have played a role in fueling violence and civil conflict by di...

In this episode we talk to journalist and author Cal Flyn on the occasion of her book Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape . In the book Flyn travels to the most desolate places on earth: ghost towns and exclusion zones, no man’s lands and post-industrial hinterlands – and describes what happens when nature is allowed to reclaim its space. She offers profound insight and new ec...