Meeting People

I'm delighted to welcome back Fred Harrison for a second appearance on Meeting People following the release of his new book Cheating: The Human Project and its Betrayal. In it he argues that " the withdrawal of Rent from its social function is the root cause of the persistent collapse of civilisations ".  We unpack this bold claim over the course of our conversation.  Across history...

Could Scotland have become Singapore-on-the-Clyde in 2014 had it voted for independence? Is Boris Johnson possibly Britain's worst ever Prime Minister? Does structural reform only happen in times of crisis and how deep is the economic rot that has set in? The British economy is far more centralised and state-run than most people realise. I recently sat down with Ewen Stewart who is the Direct...

Professor Bryan Caplan coined the Ideological Turing Test which measures whether a person truly understands an opposing political or ideological viewpoint. To help us pass the test when it comes to conservatism as a school of political thought, Ed West takes us from St Augustine to today whilst making some challenging observations from a position of both deep knowledge and ideological humility. We...

Gemma Herbertson is the founder of Neuro Frontiers an online learning platform dedicated to empowering individuals to understand and harness the power of Neuroplasticity therapies. These powerful tools, if properly uses, can maintain, restore, improve, and even create brain function. In 2012 Gemma invented the Exchange Breathing Method to help tackle her baby boy who was suffering from relentless...

Ve Dewey is a globally networked executive design leader whose CV is as long as at is impressive.  We discussed design thinking, how to develop good taste, AI (of course), and looking at the world's problems through a design systems lens. Her career has been at the intersection of technology, design, and innovation, with success across industry, the third sector, and academia.  She curated th...

Andrew Phemister is a Lecturer in British and Irish History at Kings College London. Our conversation centred around his book Land and Liberalism: Henry George and the Irish Land War (Cambridge University Press, 2023). Are human beings intrinsically good that need unshackling from bureaucratic, corporatist rent seeker to flourish?  Do ideas have a causative historical role or is everything explain...

In May 1916 three men caked in blood, dirt, blisters, and sweat arrived at the Stromness Whaling Station on South Georgia Island in the Atlantic Ocean suffering from severe exhaustion.  They had endured a journey both by boat and on foot from Antarctica that was harrowing and miraculous in equal measure. In charge of the three men was Sir Ernest Shackleton, one of history’s most famous explorers a...

Dr Eamonn Butler is the co-founder of the Adam Smith Institute and has dedicated decades of service in spreading economic freedom. He is the author of several books including 'Foundations of a Free Society', 'The Condensed Wealth of Nations', and 'The Best Book on the Market'. Our conversation includes his latest book "An Introduction to Schools of Economic Thoug...

Rosina Dorelli is Making Education Great Again. Why? Because schools are failing our children by crushing their sense of wonder through standardised testing and mindless clerical work. “Teaching to the exam” won’t cut it in the 21st Century.  As a mother, artist, entrepreneur, and teacher Rosina describes Creativity as a human right. To champion this she is the founder of the Biophilic Education A...

James Baxter-Derrington is a writer, journalist, cricket fan and Investment Editor at The Telegraph. Our discussion began with his notorious article arguing that Bitcoin is worthless before evolving into a broader conversation on Value. We also talked about the role of legacy media in the face of online platforms, podcasts and citizen journalism. I asked James how to get Britain and the West out i...

It took the humiliation of enemy ships raiding the Medway River in Kent to shake the political establishment into urgency in June 1667.  During the Second Anglo-Dutch War, Britain* realised that in order stand a chance against its enemy it had to replicate the Dutch ability to source low cost financing. Ship building was expensive and time consuming after all. Thus the City of London was born. Do...

Isabelle was previously chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury and now serves as Principal at Ridley Hall a theological college in Cambridge.  We discuss the meaning of justice and mercy, the pursuit of purpose for mental health, and what can be learned from old stories such as the Book of Judges and the Book of Ruth. We also touch on some of the potential failings of the Anglican church but als...

Dr Kristian Niemitz is Head of Political Economy at the Institute of Economic Affairs. Our conversation covered his many works including "Socialism: the failed idea that never dies", "Imperial Measurement: a cost-benefit analysis of western colonialism" and "Universal Healthcare without the NHS".  We discussed his journey from "teenage Commie" to classical l...

Paul Crawford is the pioneer and world's first professor of Health Humanities. Our conversation covered his years of work on how creative practices can enhance well-being in and out of the clinic.  Alongside his academic work, he's also an entertaining fiction writer. His second novel, The Wonders of Doctor Bent is out this week. Without wishing to sound dramatic, I was inspired to learn...

Professor Robert Tombs is one of the world’s most accomplished historians. Our conversation covered questions not just relevant to today but of concern to prior and future generations.  Winston Churchill’s advice is to “Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft” but can we truly learn from history?  What is the role of academia and professional historians in infor...

In 2009 Mark Evison was shot whilst leading a patrol in Helmand Province. Having been flown back to England, his mother Margaret was faced with no choice but to turn off his life support machine.  She now runs the Mark Evison Foundation which enables adolescents from state schools to undertake challenges. In one of my most difficult conversations yet, we talk about Mark’s life, coping with the gri...

Ben is a smart and thoughtful investor who frequently gives thousands of people valuable insights on financial markets through his social media channels and radio appearances. The conversation started with a walking tour of Ben’s favourite spots in London (to avoid sitting in meeting rooms) and then opened out to a range of topics.  We discussed his take on the experience economy, VR headsets, cor...

My latest guest Eugene Malthouse has done cutting edge work in behavioural science for the likes of Nobel prize winner Richard Thaler.  MOUTHFUL ALERT: He is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics. Eugene also founded the Collective Decision-Making and Culture Lab (CDMCL) – an interdisciplinary group of 71 researchers based in 38 countries worldwide – whic...

I confess coming to this conversation as a sceptic. An 18.6 year property cycle feels too deterministic and over-reliant on backfitting data to support a fallacious narrative. Even if it’s true, how actionable is it? However, having sat down with Akhil Patel to discuss his book “The Secret Wealth Advantage: How you can Profit from the Economy’s Hidden Cycle”, I left more open-minded.  He explained...

As people who have been kind enough to follow the pod know, I seek to converse with adventurous, rebellious (and sometimes courteous) free spirits. Not only does my latest guest, Nigel McGilchrist fit this endeavour, but so does the subject of his new book – a biography of ancient Greek polymath Pythagoras*.  Nigel has dedicated his life to understanding and teaching the ancient world having lived...

What do The Queen's Gambit, L.A. Confidential, The Wire, and Chinatown have in common? The baddies are attempting to free ride on other people's hard work through buying land. For my latest episode, I interviewed Fred Harrison who is an economist of the Georgist School. On a long journey to understanding why living standards are falling in the developed world, to date I've misidenti...

It's not often one gets to sit down with a bona fide Renaissance Man. When not restoring vintage furniture in Northern California, Sasha Papadin is a singer, songwriter, DJ, producer, and instrumentalist. He also is one of the most erudite people I know.  We start our conversation with Sasha's origins, recounting how his father, a poet, evaded national service in the Soviet Union during...

The more reductive amongst us have bucketed autism as a disability and drag on resources. The reality is that it is much more. In one of the most challenging but fulfilling conversations I’ve had since starting the podcast I sat down with Sophie Beeley, author of Raising Daisy, a Substack that draws on her experience as mother to a wonderful girl that was diagnosed with “autism spectrum disorder”...

Peter Botting has been an indispensable ally of politicians, c-suite executives, and founders over many years. As the CEO of a FTSE 250 company put it " When it's a big gig. When it really matters, you call for Peter ." It was great that he answered my call to come on the podcast as I learned a lot from a career that informed a fascinating discussion on how to make change in the wor...

In 2012, Mrs Mkonde borrowed £13 from the MicroLoan Foundation to expand her business (a single tomato stall) to help feed her eight children and pay for their education. She received training and business skills. Today she is an employer with a maize mill and ambitions to fulfil larger orders through warehousing and transportation. This is one example of over 450,000 female borrowers who have bee...