Renegade Inc.: Recent Episodes
Renegade
At Renegade Inc. we see the world differently. Bringing together the most exciting thinkers, writers, leaders, and creators, we explore the most urgent topics of the day.
And propose inspiring new ways to do things.
Contrary to political group think it was actually access private debt not public debt that brought the economy crashing down.
But today private debt is again raging and nobody seems to want to address the issue.
On the latest episode of Renegade Inc, co-founder and presenter, Ross Ashcroft sits down with anthropologist and writer, David Graeber and former chairman of the now abolished Financial Services Authority, Lord Turner to discuss what is preventing us from talking about the taboo that is Britain’s private debt problem.
- Broadcast September 2017 -
Read & Watch: https://renegadeinc.com/britains-private-debt-problem/
One of the biggest Western foreign policy adventures in recent years is something that is underreported in the media. So-called ‘intervention’ in Libya has created a failed state that is riven with extremists all vying for power.
So we ask: was this really an epic foreign policy mistake? Or was destroying Libya just another day at the office for politicians, shortsighted bureaucrats, and vulture corporates who continually try to enforce global economic supremacy?
Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by Dr. Matthew Alford, teaching fellow in politics at University of Bath, and Dr. Tim Coles, director and founder of Plymouth Institute for Peace Research.
- Broadcast June 2018 -
Read & Watch: https://renegadeinc.com/looting-libya/
Britain’s MI5 has always maintained that the UK is just four away meals from anarchy. So with fractured supply chains, rising costs, and failing agricultural policy, how worried should the Brits – who are net importers of food – be?
Ross Ashcroft is joined by agricultural analyst Michael Raw to discuss our national food security.
- Broadcast April 2022 -
Read & Watch: https://renegadeinc.com/uk-food-security-a-fork-in-the-road/
One thing Theresa May will be remembered for is her treatment of the British police. When she was Home Secretary, Mrs May brutally cut more than a fifth of all funding to police forces. The unofficial diktat was that the police should do more with less, a mystifying statement that almost guarantees a demoralised and thus compliant workforce.
So is this what she wanted? Or was there another motive to this act? A political move maybe, that would begin the privatisation of Britain’s police force.
Joining us to discuss the ongoing privatisation that the police and other public services are subject to, is the activist and campaigner with South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group, John Grayson, and senior lecturer of criminology at Sheffield University, Adam White.
- Broadcast January 2018 -
Read & Watch: https://renegadeinc.com/profits-or-policing/
George Orwell famously said journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations. In a world festooned with PR exercises and reputation management, was Mr Orwell overly cynical, or was he well ahead of his time?
With print media’s business model in free fall, newspaper proprietors are increasingly desperate to find ways to ensure financial viability. The problem with this approach is that corporate interests can and often do trump the interests of readers.
Joining us to discuss how free the UK press really is are the lecturer in journalism and media studies at Birkbeck College, Justin Schlosberg, and the editor of Open Media at openDemocracy, James Cusick.
- Broadcast July 2018 -
Read & Watch: https://renegadeinc.com/not-free-press/
“Economics has failed,” is a phrase that is becoming more common by the day, the result of the current economic paradigm of neoliberalism.
But economist, Professor Michael Hudson says economics has not failed at all. It is working perfectly well, according to the rules upon which it has been set.
On this week’s episode of Renegade Inc, we explore the cover story of neoliberal economics.
- Broadcast October 2017 -
Read & Watch: https://renegadeinc.com/j-is-for-junk-economics/
The production of money is ultimately the struggle for control over resources, wealth, people and our environment. But there is a surprising level of ignorance around how banks create money out of thin air and the benefits which flow from it.
Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by the economist and author of the recent book The Production of Money, Ann Pettifor and founder of banking platform Seascader, Steven Round, to examine how money actually works.
- Broadcast April 2017 -
Read & Watch: https://renegadeinc.com/money-for-nothing/
Crime and punishment have always been bedfellows. But what if many of the assumptions that we make around the justification of that punishment are simply false?
Joining us to discuss the current state of the British prison system and what can be done to improve it, former prison monitor and criminologist, Faith Spear and Dr David Scott, senior lecturer in criminology at the Open University.
Read & Watch: https://renegadeinc.com/our-prisoners-dilemma/
If you think the War on Terror is an expensive exercise, everything about it pales into insignificance when we talk about the bigger war on our doorstep – the War on Drugs. More than a century of conflict, confiscation, court cases and incarceration later… and still there’s no end in sight.
Isn’t it now time to readdress this challenge by using different language, laws and leadership? Or is the War on Drugs so entrenched that vested interests and authorities are blind to reframing it?
Ross Ashcroft joins the writer and author of ‘Chasing The Scream’, Johann Hari, and the former undercover police officer turned drug campaigner and writer of the book ‘Good Cop, Bad War’, Neil Woods.
Read & Watch: https://renegadeinc.com/war-on-drugs/
When we talk about consumerism, the emotive arguments for and against are always black and white. Consumerism is painted as unnecessary and low or no growth is seen as the optimum state for people and planet. But what if acquiring objects and possessions is intrinsic to human nature? What if, in reality, the consumerism argument is far more nuanced, which should make us rethink how we spend, what we buy and which things are most important to us.
We have hit peak stuff and when that admission comes from the head of sustainability at the Swedish retailer, Ikea you know that consumers are tapped out. So as self-storage units buckle under the pressure of housing things we don’t need and our environment pays the price, we question the consumerist boom that has gripped the world.
Joining us to work out where next for consumer spending and give historical context to the rampant consumerism we seem to love is the author of ‘The Empire of Things‘, Professor Frank Trentmann.
Read & Watch: https://renegadeinc.com/empire-of-things/
For every dollar of aid poor countries receive, they lose 10 dollars to multinational tax havens. They pay around $200 billion per year in debt service to banks in rich countries.
Writer and anthropologist, Jason Hickel whose book, ‘The Divide’, debunks the myths around inequality and poverty, joined co-founder and presenter Ross Ashcroft on this week’s episode of Renegade Inc. to discuss why aid programs are deliberately keeping 60% of the world’s population in poverty.
Read & Watch: https://renegadeinc.com/the-divide/
One of the most divisive terms in the English language today is the phrase ‘conspiracy theory’. Its stigma has a chilling effect on people and the label subtly has the power to shut down enquiring minds and with them any inconvenient conversations.
But where did the term come from and how does this catch-all phrase affect independent thinkers, international debate and the media today?
In 2004, Professor of Media Studies at New York University, Mark Crispin Miller was labelled as a conspiracy theorist for claiming that the right stole the election from John Kerry, to elevate George W Bush to power. Today, the author of ‘Loser Take All’ and ‘Fooled Again’ says the term ‘fake news’ is being used as a US propaganda exercise to expedite war with Russia.
Read & Watch: https://renegadeinc.com/conspiracy-theories/
Why are so many people – globally – so disengaged with their job? We’re all working harder and longer yet many people are doing work they feel is meaningless. So we ask what’s wrong with employment?
Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by writer and commentator Elaine Glaser and author of Bullsh*t Jobs and anthropologist David Graeber.
Read & Watch: https://renegadeinc.com/brave-new-workplace/
Economics and the schools that teach it have been wrong for such a long time that its students have collectively embraced a mythical model that does not account for the role of money, banks, debt or land.
Renegade economist and friend of the show, Professor Steve Keen recently took the stage at the Sunday Papers event in London to discuss what you’re not being told about the global economy.
Read & watch: https://renegadeinc.com/sunday-papers-mainstream-economists-live-in-a-parallel-universe/
Most people who work in developed nations know that there’s something badly wrong in their economy even if they can’t fully articulate it. Many people feel they have to work harder and longer just to stand still. There always seems to be an economic headwind that denies fair return on the hours we put in.
So what is this formless force that pushes against us? And why is it such a different story for people who work in the financial industries who after such collective failure in 2008 are once again squeezing Main Street for every penny?
Host, Ross Ashcroft, met up with Author, Rana Foroohar, to discuss.
Read & Watch: https://renegadeinc.com/makers-v-takers/
The creative industries are worth about 10 million pounds an hour to the UK economy. Globally now, all governments recognize the importance of this enigmatic sector to drive their growth.
But are creativity and commercial forces compatible? If they are, why is all the advertising we see today internationally, so incredibly bland? Why has Hollywood lost its originality, and has big data and ad tech removed risk-taking from the creative process?
Host, Ross Ashcroft, met up with author and ad agency copywriter, Dave Trott, to discuss.
Watch & read: https://renegadeinc.com/whats-killing-creativity/
Queen Elizabeth visited the London School of Economics and asked why no economist saw the financial crisis coming. The professors were unable to answer her simple question but did admit that at every stage, someone was relying on someone else and everyone thought that they were doing the right thing.
Since that exchange, the realisation has dawned on many that it is the discipline of economics itself that is the problem. Until economics is fixed, mainstream economists will continue to fly blind. And we will continue to foot the bill.
In the latest episode of Renegade Inc, economist and author Kate Raworth discusses her book, ‘Doughnut Economics’, and calls for an ‘economic reformation’.
Read & Watch: https://renegadeinc.com/doughnut-economics/
Since the 2008 financial crisis, the UK authorities have been absolutely toothless when it comes to prosecuting bankers who’ve broken the law.
But is this just incompetence? Or is our regulatory system designed in a way that means that victims fall through the gaps, while banks are permitted to operate above the law?
Joining us on the episode this week is former Met Detective who fell victim to the Royal Bank of Scotland’s long-running scheme to defraud its small-business customers, Andy Keats, and researcher & campaigner, Joel Benjamin.
Watch & read: https://renegadeinc.com/white-collar-crime-mind-the-gap/
The ongoing super feud between America and Russia has caused colossal collateral damage internationally, and everyone will feel the effects of the fallout. But what if there is a project that Russia and the US can collaborate on that would bring peace, progress, and prosperity?
Ross Ashcroft is joined by filmmaker Rick Minnich and InterContinental Railway Chief Advisor Scott Spencer to discuss how the InterContinental railway project would connect former foes to trade with one another, generating commerce, not conflict, for everyone.
Whatever the outcome in Ukraine, one thing is for sure: The economic reverberations will be felt by everyone for years to come, as the world divides between the West and a rapidly re-shaping Eurasia.
Ross Ashcroft is joined by economist Michael Hudson to discuss trade, sanctions, dollar hegemony, and the emergence of a multipolar world.
If you listen to Western leaders or the corporate media, you’d believe that Russia is by far the most evil and regressive country on the planet and therefore needs to be sanctioned back to the Stone Age as punishment. But how much of this rhetoric is based on fact rather than the fear of the Russian bear coming out of hibernation into our interdependent multipolar world?
Ross Ashcroft is joined by professor of Slavic studies Vladimir Golstein and filmmaker Andrei Nekrasov to discuss Russia’s past, present, and future.
There seems to be one rule for me yet another for thee. It’s this hypocrisy that the author Charlie Robinson takes on in his most recent book: Hypocrazy. His argument is clear: as much as the powers-that-be tell us that things are normal, there is no alternative, and this is the natural order of events – it really isn’t. None of what we are experiencing is ‘normal’ and, more importantly, there is an alternative.
All this geopolitical hot air was always going to be about gas, and, predicting that, before all the horse trading and brinkmanship began, we caught up with two independent energy experts, Irina Slav and Ben Aris. They cut through the noise and give some useful context to the fundamental problems Europe and the UK now face to – quite literally – keep the lights on.
After so many military blunders, NATO and the neo-cons’ credibility is in tatters. Yet their unhinged rhetoric continues and is supported by a doting corporate media. Vladimir Putin recently commented that the “citizens of Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia have seen how peaceful NATO is.” So whilst these decimated countries try to rebuild, is it time for us to question the narrative fed to us by so-called Western humanitarians? Ross Ashcroft is joined by analyst and former Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter, and foreign policy analyst and media critic Michael Averko to discuss the Ukraine crisis.
What do you do when inflation is so high that your people are having to choose between heating and eating? Well, logically you should admit that your economic management has been poor. The reality? Western nations are now looking around the world for a war…
Ross Ashcroft is joined by financial expert Matthias Weik and Alex Krainer, founder of Krainer Analytics, to discuss how to navigate the uncertain times ahead.
We all know that we are being watched, listened to, tracked, traced, and monitored. Ross Ashcroft is joined by Peter Bloom, author of ‘Monitored: Business and Surveillance in a Time of Big Data’, to discuss an important question: who ensures that people in positions of power and those with corporate monopolies remain accountable?
There are just three words that make any right-thinking British person convulse. Those words are 'Sir Tony Blair.’
With only 14% of Britons approving of former-PM Blair’s knighthood and a petition to have it rescinded garnering well over a million signatures, it is clear that the ‘honours’ system is anything but democratic, and in urgent need of reform.
Ross Ashcroft speaks with politician George Galloway and convenor of Stop the War Coalition Lindsey German, about why Tony Blair’s knighthood should be revoked.
It’s unlikely that you’ve heard of it, but it’s likely that you’re part of it. As neoliberalism rages on, the human scrap heap gets bigger and bigger, and this is creating a dangerous new class called the Precariat.
Ross Ashcroft is joined by Prof. Guy Standing to discuss the growing Precariat and why the political class should be taking them seriously.
The league tables that cause plenty of consternation amongst the Western political classes show the Nordic countries constantly on top in education, media freedom, lack of corruption, happiness and quality of life. Ross Ashcroft is joined by geographer and author of Finntopia Danny Dorling to discuss how do they got there, how they stay there, and why the UK hasn’t managed to emulate their success.
Famously, the broadcaster and natural historian David Attenborough said that someone who believes in infinite growth is ‘either a madman or an economist.’ One of the big problems we face today is that in our hunt for growth, mainstream economics has been taken over by madmen. But not everyone has fallen for it… We speak to writer and activist Christian Felber about how to build an ‘Economy for the Common Good’.
With the US invasion of Afghanistan coming to end and Iran joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the Middle East, otherwise known as West Asia, is seeing major shifts in geopolitical power dynamics.
Ross Ashcroft is joined by Beirut-based journalist and analyst Sharmine Narwani, and journalist and investigative historian Gareth Porter to discuss the future of West Asia and the end of US hegemony.
The word ‘degrowth’ was suspiciously absent from the COP26 talking shop, but unless you’re actively talking about degrowth, you’re just peddling corporate, political and billionaire propaganda.
Ross Ashcroft is joined by political economist Jason Hickel to discuss why, when it comes to growth, less really is more.
After spending so much of his academic career systematically disproving the many myths peddled by mainstream economists, Professor Steve Keen has written a manifesto.
He joins Ross Ashcroft on Renegade Inc to detail a blueprint that will allow us to reboot our relationship with the economy, each other, and with the plundered planet on which we all entirely depend.
It is incredibly rare that the BBC ever admits that one of their reports on Douma in Syria failed to meet the Corporation's editorial standards for accuracy by reporting false claims… Blink and you’d have missed this admission, but we didn’t, and it adds to a volley of misreporting that has dogged journalism and peace in the Middle East for decades.
Ross Ashcroft is joined by political scientist Dr. Piers Robinson and journalist Vanessa Beeley to discuss the crumbling narrative around the alleged Douma chemical attack.
Understandably, whenever we hear “Get off my land” it’s met with incredulity. But that phrase does depict the mindset of many landowners who go to extraordinary lengths to keep people off what they deem to be theirs… However without proper access to land we have no ability to have an intimate understanding of nature, or ourselves…so is it now time to reclassify trespass as a revolutionary act?
Ross Ashcroft meets Nick Hayes, author of ‘The Book of Trespass’ in Oxfordshire to discuss how land monopoly is at the root of social inequality in the UK.
The explosion of QE, the epic monetisation of debt, the rise of cryptocurrencies, frothy stock markets, and furlough schemes all seem to imply we have an endless supply of money. But it also means that we now see money very differently.
In a world where we know the price of everything but the value of nothing, Ross Ashcroft speaks to economist Dr. Howard Nicholas to help us understand what money really is.
With China’s increasing wealth, Western investors want some of the action… One of those investors is a bullish gentleman called George Soros. However, the Chinese are acutely aware that with Western investment comes inequality – so as Beijing begins to rethink how to do proper economic growth, we ask whether China will learn from Western mistakes.
Ross Ashcroft is joined by economist and author Michael Hudson to discuss the West’s attempts to turn China neoliberal.
Here’s the new British university business model: charge students full price for their course and their campus accommodation, then deliver only around 15% of the course while restricting access to their digs. And now the masterstroke: rebrand all this as “blended online learning” and claim ‘because Covid’ there’s no alternative. It’s a massive money-maker!
Ross Ashcroft is joined by student campaigners Ben Dusserre-Robinson, of cross-university action group Pause or Pay UK, and Annette Tshisekedi, of Queen Mary University of London’s QMUL Rent Strike, to discuss just how egregious the unholy trinity between funding-obsessed chancellors, overpaid administrators, and rent-seeking landlords has really become.
Afghanistan is known as the graveyard of empires. After a 20-year war that has cost tens of thousands of lives and over $2 trillion, the US is the latest country to retreat from the country after a failed invasion.
Ross Ashcroft is joined by former Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter to discuss the military context, and analyst Alex Krainer to talk geopolitics and geostrategy.
Hubris in The West today means we think we are so advanced that we can escape the collapse of complex societies. Our recent history has cemented an air of invincibility, but if you look closely, all the signs are present that the empire is far more vulnerable than we think. So, is our societal decline preordained, or will we be the first civilization to cheat the inevitable?
Ross Ashcroft is joined by anthropologist and historian Dr. Joseph Tainter to discuss what we can learn from our past about how and why complex societies collapse.
Since Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom, South Africa has faced hurdle after hurdle – politically and economically. Mandela’s release from prison unified the nation; however, the incarceration of the last president, Jacob Zuma, lit a national tinderbox. Ross Ashcroft is joined by filmmaker Rehad Desai, whose documentary ‘How to Steal a Country’ investigates how South Africa and her people have been looted by shadowy fixers, venal politicians and dodgy corporate deals that have all but bankrupted the country.
This week Prof. Richard Werner joins Ross Ashcroft to cover all things banking: Japanification, the Weimar Republic, Central Bank digital currencies, credit creation, the war on cash, crypto, gold, the date of the next crash, and – most importantly – your personal sovereignty…
As the Russian Proverb goes: There is nothing more permanent than a temporary solution. Quantitative Easing was introduced to buy central bankers time so they could fix the structural problems in the economy. But quickly, QE became the solution to every possible economic hiccup. Temporary QE has now become the permanent problem which has juiced asset prices, created epic amounts of private debt, and left most of us poorer… Ross Ashcroft is joined by Professor Richard Werner, who first coined the term Quantitative Easing, to discuss what went wrong.
There has never been a more dangerous time to be a whistleblower. Western governments are working in concert to enact legislation that conceals their wrongdoing. Ten days ago, during sentencing, drone whistleblower Daniel Hale said, “I am here because I stole something that was never mine to take – precious human life.” Hale was sentenced to 45 months in prison.
He joins a growing list that includes Jeffrey Sterling. Mr Sterling, a former CIA agent who was sentenced to 42 months in prison under the Espionage Act, joins Ross Ashcroft on Renegade Inc to tell his story…
Within the global economy, winners and losers can be split into two specific groups: the Have Nots and the Have Yachts. For the yachties… They get the wind of cheap money printing constantly filling their sails, which allows them to speculate, juice asset prices and end up with yet more yachts. However, the have-nots have to sit marooned and becalmed awaiting some imaginary trickle-down cash that never comes.
Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by economist Frank Shostak and investor and author Mitch Feierstein to discuss how Western leaders, policy makers and central bankers have managed to create such a divide…
In an information age in which most media brands deliberately nail their colours to the mast, one organisation – which that has just reached its 200-year anniversary – still can’t explain what it really stands for. The Guardian is loved by some, hated by others, but when it comes to an editorial standpoint, its mercurial choices have left many flummoxed.
Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by Des Freedman and Justin Schlosberg to discuss ‘Capitalism’s Conscience: 200 Years of The Guardian’. Edited by Freedman and with a chapter by Schlosberg, the book takes an in-depth look at both the newspaper’s journalism and its political values.
One of the biggest Covid-19 casualties on a global level has been education. But what many have missed during the pandemic is that the crisis in higher education is being ruthlessly exploited.
Management teams and consultants think they can now –without all that pesky academic consultation– make mega bucks by cementing a fully neo-liberal educational regime. What could possibly go wrong?
Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by Peter Fleming, author of 'Dark Academia: How Universities Die,’ to discuss the future of higher education.
One of the most complicated geopolitical areas to lucidly explain is events in the Middle East – many pundits try to do so using think tank briefings from the comfort of their own country.
So that we could get truly independent insight, we caught up with the veteran war correspondent and political analyst Elijah J. Magnier, who has been on the ground in the Middle East for nearly four decades.
He joins Ross Ashcroft on Renegade Inc to discuss what the latest American bombing campaign means for the wider region.
The rise of hyper-individualism and an I, Me, Mine culture has encouraged two personality types to dominate business and politics. Where money, power, and status lie, the corporate psychopath and the narcissist can reliably be found relentlessly chasing so-called success at the expense of everyone else.
Ross Ashcroft is joined by journalist & social philosopher Anne Manne, and professor of management and author Clive Boddy, to discuss corporate psychopaths and the rise of narcissism in society.
Dr. Lawrence C. Smith is one of the world’s leading climate scientists and author of 'Rivers of Power and The New North'.
He joins Ross Ashcroft this week to discuss a common theme in the books: how looking at the past is the only way to anticipate the future.
So as climate breakdown begins to bite, how will it reshape our societies, economics and politics…?
It was the Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde who said “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.” Today much of the ugliness remains but the timespan has shrunk from six months to just a few weeks… Fast fashion has boomed but at the expense of garment makers, consumers and the environment.
Ross Ashcroft is joined by Dana Thomas & Dr. Patsy Perry to discuss the true cost of fast fashion.
Over the last few years the subject of money has come into sharp focus. Increasingly we want to know: who creates it, who issues it, who controls it, and importantly, who decides who gets it first…
The simple paradox is why, with so much money now created, do we still have so much inequality and poverty?
Ross Ashcroft is joined by author and financial activist Brett Scott to discuss how much we really know about the dynamics of money.
In ‘Poverty Safari’ – his first award-winning book – writer and rapper Darren McGarvey paints an honest picture of Britain’s class divide. In his forthcoming book, ‘The Social Distance Between Us’, he takes his argument further. He claims the pandemic has laid bare the contours of class inequality, but it has also shown us that, if the will is there, political and economic mechanisms do exist to solve poverty and inequality.
Darren McGarvey joins host Ross Ashcroft to discuss what lessons we can learn from the pandemic and how to move forward from here.
You would think that the sixth largest economy in the world would be able to organise itself to provide decent school meals for its children, but alas… the UK has faltered. It’s astonishing that the Manchester United number 10 has done more for hungry schoolchildren than the occupant of Number 10. The former knows all about childhood hunger; the latter thinks the so-called free market can deliver everything. Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by the founder of School Food Matters, Stephanie Slater, and Johnbosco Nwogbo from ‘We Own It’ to discuss whether we should be relying on the free market to solve childhood hunger.
There’s nothing like the idea of unionised workers to make the predatory capitalist convulse – for them, precarious employment is profitable.
But what if this subjugation and short-termism had its time, particularly as younger generations of workers increasingly see the benefits of trade unions?
Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by labor law specialist Carolyn Jones and Carolyn Steinhoff of Amazon Labour Union to ask if the tide has turned on those companies who have long exploited workers to swell their bottom line
It is claimed that the silver market is one of the most manipulated markets in the world. It is also claimed that there is a drastic shortfall between how much of the precious metal is above the ground versus how much has been sold in paper contracts. So, is this the year that sends the silver price to the Moon? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by silver guru David Morgan and Ivan Bayoukhi to find out if the so-called silver stackers are about to have their long-awaited moment in the Sun.
Less than 100 days into his presidency, Joe Biden is already angling for war with Russia…
The excuse? Ukrainian sovereignty.
But Russia has 200 years of experience when it comes to Western forces piling up troops against its borders – and it’s led to a series of devastating wars. And again today, we are seeing the highest number of NATO and US troops stationed close to the Russian border.
Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by analyst Alex Krainer and author Dmitry Orlov to discuss why the real reason behind this growing tension is something quite different.
Gentrification and spiralling house prices are pushing generations all over the world into both debt and out of cities. We are seeing housing, which should be a human right and a social good, slowly being financialised into an asset class by banks played with on stock markets. Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by the filmmakers of the documentary ‘Push’ - Lailani Farha and Fredrik Gertten to understand what is going to make our homes become more expensive and out of reach and what we can do about it. RT UK is a channel based in London covering British news and politics, protests and interviews with people who make a difference.
The much-quoted linguist Noam Chomsky said, “We shouldn’t be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas.”
Yet in the age of individualism, we have often confused good ideas with a search for a hero. This ego festival has created saviour complexes that have become so pernicious they have derailed the most well-intentioned plans.
Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by journalist and author Jordan Flaherty and Degan Ali, the director of Adeso, to look beyond the saviour models that have been killing us for too long.
It was the American writer Gore Vidal who cynically quipped, “It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.” This perfectly sums up the US’ desire for global domination. But will the US Oligarchy remain unsatisfied with its success and continue to push for the failure of other countries?
Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by journalist Ben Norton to explore whether there is any stopping the insatiable quest for US so-called superiority and exceptionalism.
Government temporary measures are rarely temporary.
In a surveillance age, very few people know that travel passports were initially meant to be temporary but World War I brought in harsh restrictions on the freedom of movement. So what consequences will emerge from new immunity or vaccine passports?
Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by Alexis Hancock and David Nolan to discuss if these ‘temporary’ downsides will become the norm as we gradually forget that freedom is a natural condition?
The trauma created by the pandemic has understandably meant we’re looking for rapid solutions to complex problems.
Rich Western countries have bought up most of the supply of vaccines in a headlong rush to protect their own populations.
But isn’t the key to universal public health access to medicine for all?
Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by public health activist Achal Prabhala and Andrea Taylor from the Global Health Innovation Center to ask if this blinkered approach will end up costing everyone much more.
The Biden administration has wasted no time in showing that it, too, is going to continue the great American tradition of the 'forever war'. So, will there be another unjustified precursor to the next US-led conflict?
Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by Robert Fantina and Piers Robinson to ask if American citizens have grown suspicious of forever wars abroad – especially when there is so much economic demise and division at home?
For over 20 years the United States was allowed to use Shannon airport as a military base, a permission granted to them by the Irish government.
Two Renegades hopped over the fence of a base from which the US used to wreak havoc across the world. Arrested and sent to court, they managed to turn the case on its head, as in the end, it was the Irish foreign policy that was put on trial.
Members of European Parliament and Activists Clare Daly & Mick Wallace join host Ross Ashcroft to tell the full story.
The disaster has been dubbed the Amazon Chernobyl. Between 1964 and 1992, the oil company Texaco, later acquired by Chevron in 2001, was allegedly responsible for the dumping of over 30bn gallons of toxic waste and crude oil into the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador.
The impact on local communities has been devastating, destroying livelihoods and causing a spike in cancer and birth defects.
Lead US attorney for the indigenous plaintiffs Steven Donziger joins host Ross Ashcroft to unfold.
A year on for the beginning of the pandemic we reconnect with Professor Steve Keen to talk climate breakdown, fraudulent economics, the so-called Great Reset and how we can think about charting a different course...
There is just one word that causes everyone in Washington to convulse... Professor of Wellbeing Economics Paul Frijters and journalist Matthew Ehret join host Ross Ashcroft to discuss America's need for a new enemy and Cold War 2.0.
All you ever hear business leaders calling for is certainty... the problem with this is that the only thing in life that’s certain is uncertainty. So how does philosophy allow us to navigate uncertain times?
Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by business philosopher & author Anders Indset to unfold.
For decades we have been brainwashed into believing that unlimited growth is good.
Economic growth is apparently the holy grail rooted in outdated measurements like GDP and arbitrary stock market digits... But what if these assumptions are wrong and actually for our well-being and the future of the planet we have to redefine success and embrace degrowth?
Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by economic anthropologist Jason Hickel and global justice activist Asad Rehman to unpick.
Capitalism’s central plank is that competition is king creating a level playing field that champions only the best products, the most efficient services and the most effective people.
Yet a cursory glance around the business world shows us that corporates don’t like competition – they aggressively protect their monopiles which stifles products, shrinks services and prevents personal accountability. So what if this so-called competition is actually killing us…
Joining Ross Ashcroft is author and lawyer Michelle Meagher to discuss.
Most of us are trapped in the cult of busy. Packed schedules, immediate gratification, wall to wall Zoom calls and the incessant ding of your so-called smart device.
It’s not making us happy and all the associated consumption is trashing the planet for those who aren’t here yet...So how do we free ourselves from this tyranny and become Time Rebels…
Author and philosopher Roman Krznaric joins host Ross Ashcorft to discuss.
We all can see we live in a world of misallocated capital. But we also live in a society of misallocated labour.
We disproportionately praise and pay those who work with their heads yet when it comes to people who work with their hearts or with their hands they end up with crumbs in comparison – so how did the cult of the knowledge worker become so pervasive?
Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by journalist and author David Goodhart to discuss.
However you look at it, 2020 was a train wreck. So as we look forward to 2021, we wanted to get political and economic insight from two friends of the show.
Chris Williamson and Michael Hudson share their views on what we can look out for in the new year.
The only person who won 2020 was the lead adviser to the Conservative Party, Rafe Hubris, BA Oxon.
Rafe, by his own admission, is the most promising 24 year old in the country and definitely the most classic.
The retrospective in a year that has been quite quiet and straight forward.
In this programme we look back and bring together the best of some of our guests so you can re-live 2020 in glorious technicolour...
Journalist, publisher, activist, son, partner, father and human being...Regardless of what you think of Julian Assange – should anyone be tortured in a British prison?
Journalist Taylor Hudak joins host Ross Ashcroft to discuss one of the biggest moments in the history of free speech.
George Orwell said it was a book that everyone should read...
Published in 1914 The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists detailed crushing poverty, squalor and inequality in the UK. Cut to 2020 Sophie and Scarlett Rickard have re-written, illustrated and re- released the book because sadly today it is as relevant as it was in the early 1900’s.
The author and illustrator join host Ross Ashcroft to explore how the classic book remains so relevant.
Stephen Vizinczey says all a great power has to do to destroy itself is persist in doing the impossible...
Like bankruptcy, societies and complex systems collapse slowly then all at once. The cycles that civilisations go through are well documented and whilst in hindsight it’s glaringly obvious to understand what drove the breakdown, in real time we are often too close and too invested trying to be relevant, to recognise our own demise.
Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by journalist Indi Samarajiva to discuss how this collapse has come about.
The green new deal is painted as an unaffordable far left pipe dream. It has been politically maligned to preserve the status quo at a time when we know that establishment economists have got all climate breakdown projections completely wrong...
So surely the question we should be asking is simple: how much is it going to cost us not to do this?
Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by author and economist Ann Pettifor to discuss.
If there is one thing the world has learnt during the latest American election jamboree it's that the US is far from the world’s greatest democracy.
But regardless of whether the White House is red or blue what is certain is that America will continue attempts to spread her version of democracy around the world...
Doug Henwood and Ariel Gold join host Ross Ashcroft to discuss what to expect from the new presidency.
The pandemic has physically isolated everyone... but another epidemic has been with us for longer than this virus.
The loneliness epidemic is a silent killer that breeds in large groups of people. Toxic social media, polarised politics and decades of neoliberal economics have pushed communities to breaking point... the question now:
How do we avert the lonely century? Economist and author Noreena Hertz joins Ross Ashcroft to discuss.
Attacks on human rights and freedom of speech are at the centre of the Julian Assange extradition case, but why then has the press coverage been so minimal?
The case may split opinion, but punishing Assange and others for bringing to public attention serious violations by our governments, is averting our attention away from the bigger picture.
Journalist Richard Medhurst joins host Ross Ashcroft to discuss.
It’s said in the gospel of Matthew that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. But what happens when the rich men are the pastors?
Today the Prosperity Gospel has conflated Christianity with Capitalism - the business model is to sell access, success and salvation… and if you don’t buy it you get... well hellish damnation.
Host Ross Ashcorft is joined by economist Mary Wrenn to discuss the Prosperity Gospel.
What if the racism and inequality that America faces today are not accidental but actually happened by design?
Many people assume that racial segregation in the US happened organically – but it simply didn’t. What if there were unconstitutional plans to segregate black and white families by using planning laws and the housing market.
Author Richard Rothstein joins host Ross Ashcroft to delve into the history of housing segregation and what can be done about it today.
Amazing weather, beautiful beaches, plentiful natural resources, great standards of living and a fantastic education system... Australia deserved the title “The Lucky Country”.
But today Australians are world champions in private debt, the country presides over a massive housing affordability crisis and inequality rages – so what went wrong down under?
Real Estate commentator Asher Spira and Financial strategist Tony Locantro join host Ross Ashcorft to discuss.
Belmarsh prison’s most famous resident Julian Assange said “Nearly every war that has started in the past 50 years has been a result of media lies.”
In 1960 the writer Albert Camus said “The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants.”
Both statements are correct and interwoven so when will we finally see through the spin to ensure there’s no more war? Labor rights lawyer and peace activist Dan Kovalik joins host Ross Ashcroft to discuss.
For many years all European banks have been in poor shape. The corona pandemic has merely exposed the glaring fault lines of some of the world’s most clunky and inefficient banking systems.
The question we should all be asking is: after the bailouts of 2008, are we now prepared for the European bail ins of the 2020’s.
Author Alex Krainer and University of Helsinki Professor of Economics Tuomas Malinen join host Ross Ashcroft to discuss the upcoming crisis and provide us with some potential solutions.
Kweku Adoboli served his time for white collar crime in the UK. The last time we caught up with him he was being pursued for deportation by The Home Office.
Under the Hostile Environment Policy the then home secretary decided that although he’d served his time - and lived in the UK for the majority of his life - he was to be deported to his native Ghana.
Almost 2 years on, host Ross Ashcroft catches up with him to talk about debt, deportation and economic depressions.
In the nepotistic UK it is not what you know, it’s who you know and where you’ve been to university.
The aura that surrounds Oxbridge shines brightly – but scratch the surface and you find a different story driven by snobbery and backbiting. So are universities educating our best people or have they become mere networking facilities for big business and politics?
Ethnographer & author Lisa McKenzie with Biography & Fiction author Dr. Paula Byrne join host Ross Ashcroft to discuss.
An empire is at its most dangerous when it’s failing. With less and less to lose it continues to try to do the impossible by doubling down on past mistakes.
But history tells us that empires fall from within. If so, technically how does a modern empire meet its inevitable fate?
Author Charlie Robinson joins host Ross Ashcorft to discuss the fall of the American Empire.
When economist Thomas Picketty released his book ‘Capital in the 21Century’ people clambered to get a copy. The filmmaker Justin Pemberton has since made the film – in it he points hard to how rentier capitalism has disenfranchised the west.
Host Ross Ashcroft caught up with Kiwi director Justin Pemberton to understand what needs to change if we want 21st Century capital to serve, not enslave us.
We live in times where we are acutely aware of prejudice which we rightly point a finger at.
But why is it that we are less likely to acknowledge the three fingers pointing back at ourselves that flag our unintentional bias?
Behavioural scientist and author Pragya Agarwal joins host Ross Ashcroft to unravel the basis behind unconscious bias.
You can ignore some of the people some of the time... but if you create an economy that ignores and marginalises the most vulnerable, then those who live in the places that seemingly don’t matter eventually take their revenge.
How do we bring people back across the margin and create a system where all can prosper - not just those in big cities? KAKAnomics festival founder Jan Inge Reilstad and LSE Professor of Economic Geography Andrés Rodríguez-Pose join host Ross Ashcroft to discuss.
It was the biblical economist Norm Franz who said “Gold is the money of kings, silver is the money of gentlemen, barter is the money of peasants – but debt is the money of slaves.”
We are living through one of the greatest monetary experiments in modern history where monetising debt is enslaving millions.
But is there a silver lining to the cloud of massive monetary debasement? Economist and writer David Morgan, alongside Goldcore founder Mark O’Byrne, join host Ross Ashcroft to find it.
We always hear that the business world is ‘dog eat dog’. But when did you last see a dog eating a dog?
Dogs – like humans – are pack animals who seek cooperation and loyalty. So now that we can’t afford the corporate dog fight anymore, should we look to the cooperative movement to create the brave new workplace?
Political economist and author Jessica Gordon Nembhard joins host Ross Ashcroft to delve into alternatives.
The phrase ‘lions led by donkeys’ was used to describe the British front line solders of WW1 – they were the brave lions who were sent to their deaths by incompetent and indifferent leaders.
After years of austerity, raging inequality and now, a mismanaged pandemic, could the British electorate claim that they too are led by a political class of donkeys?
In a world of short-termism and consumption – reputation and legacies are often defined by private number plates, flashy watches and prime real estate.
But these small material trappings rarely satisfy a deeper yearning... So as we career - often unhappily - through the 21st Century, what are we missing? Philosopher and author Roman Krznaric joins Ross Ashcroft to uncover.
A heady mix of precarious employment, stagnant wages, diminished opportunities and a contracting economic pie has pushed many people to the limit.
This means how people experience the world and how politicians and spin doctors explain the world creates a mismatch and an anger – that is what the economists Eric Lonergan and Mark Blythecall call Angrynomics.
US National security has turned into a racket. Enemies and bogeymen are invented with monotonous regularity to justify massive budgets and kickbacks to insiders.
But with so much domestic US turmoil how long can this swindle go on?
Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by investigative historian and journalist Gareth Porter to discuss the state of national security and how the US’s track record on foreign policy has got us into this situation.
The governor of the bank of England is a public servant. He recently claimed that the UK almost went bankrupt at the beginning of the Coronavirus Pandemic. But how does a country that issues its own currency go bust?
The statistics are shocking: 55,000 mothers are pushed out of their jobs every year for being pregnant or needing maternity leave. 77% are actively discriminated against and almost half of all working mums say they earn less now than before they had kids. So how do we end the motherhood penalty?
Jane Elliot is best known as the teacher who, on April 5, 1968, the day afterMartin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, put her third-grade students through a bold exercise to teach them about racial prejudice.
For almost 50 years she has been challenging preconceived ideas about racism and asking why anyone would judge a fellow human being on the colour of their skin. So why are we still here? Host Ross Ashcroft is joined by American political activist Ajamu Baraka, and author and editor of the Black Agenda Report Margaret Kimberley to discuss the ongoing racial tensions in America.