Listen Up!

Why is the national dialogue not working? Was it a bad idea in the first place, or did it become a bad idea? Is it salvageable from here, and how? Mark Barnes and Tim Cohen have some ideas about what the National Dialogue should be discussing, but is not. And why is it costing so much? Wasn’t it supposed to be voluntary? We also discuss the Ukraine peace talks and the inaugural World Humanoid Robo...

It's never great to be in a position where you feel you have to refuse a bribe, but should you be insulted that the bribe on offer is very small? Mark Barnes and Tim Cohen discuss this and other questions related to South Africa’s incremental decline - and how to reverse it. The key question is whether SA’s cost of capital is too high to attract investment, and how to fix that. And would it he...

Are South Africans too nice? Do we demand too little of ourselves, constantly making excuses for our underperformance and over-congratulating ourselves on minor gains? Merchant banker Mark Barnes and journalist Tim Cohen discuss this in connection with the International Mathematics Olympiad and Johannesburg. Then there is also tariff torture, inflation, and, as always, leadership.

It's been an odd week, and not a great one. “We are moving from the rule of law to the rule of war,” says investment banker Mark Barnes in this podcast with journalist Tim Cohen. We talk crime, Transnet, debt and other cheerful topics - but also, how other nations value our fresh air. Honestly. Listen Up!

The news of the past week has been worrying, from the crisis in the police, to more news about the construction mafia, to SA getting bad press internationally. In this podcast Mark Barnes and Tim Cohen discuss South Africa’s ailments - and some good news too, like the buoyant stock market and the G20 Finance Ministers meeting in KZN achieving an agreed communique. Most importantly, given the meme-...

How does the suspension of SA’s Police Minister Senzo Mchunu change SA’s political dynamic? Would you believe in the good way? Mark Barnes and Tim Cohen discuss this dramatic topic of the hour and its future ramifications - good and bad. We also discuss how AI is actually being used, and the political lessons of the Springboks victories over Italy. Listen up!

My word is my bond, so they say.  But is the bond market telling us the truth? Mark Barnes and Tim Cohen discuss, wait for it, the bond market.  Exciting! Also … all the other stuff. The Trump tariffs trauma is back, so the subject of trade is back on the agenda.  But the story of the week is KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi throwing down the gauntlet on Police Minister Senzo M...

South Africa’s GNU is having, how should we put it, “relationship issues”. In this edition of Listen Up!, Mark and Tim have a solution: focus on the kids! That would be us, the population. And try not to focus on each other so much; divorce is impossible, so work together and not against each other. Please. Also in this helter-skelter discussion, we talk about a fundamental change in the global st...

Tim and Mark discuss the threat of WWIII and why it is best to be a South African when it does break out.

In the first of this weekly series, investment banker Mark Barnes and ranking journalist Tim Cohen talk about the G7, the government’s idea of a ‘national convention’ and, inevitably, about sport. This has been a week for high drama on the sports field, and even higher drama on the international front, and we delve into what they might mean. If you are looking for sensible, considered, and well-th...