145 | Green New Deal?

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This week we talk about another side of capitalism: the innovation economy.  Can capitalism deal with climate change?  How much depends on the role of the state?  And who will pay?  We compare the Green New Deal to FDR's original version: does history show us how to get this done?  With Bill Janeway, author of Doing Capitalism in the Innovation Economy, Diane Coyle and Helen Thompson.  Plus: David and Helen catch up with the latest comings and goings in British politics: are the two main parties starting to break apart?  More - much more - next week.

144 | The Nightmare of Surveillance Capitalism

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We talk to Shoshana Zuboff about The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, her game-changing account of what's gone wrong with the world of big tech and how to fix it.  What is surveillance power and why is it destroying the things we value?  How have we allowed this to happen?  Where will the resistance come from?  Plus we ask whether the real problem here is technology or capitalism itself.  With John Naughton.

143 | The Wall

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This week David talks to John Lanchester about his new novel depicting Britain after a climate catastrophe and encircled by a vast wall that must be defended at all costs.  Where does this nightmarish vision come from?  How closely does it track what we know about climate change?  And what does it tell us about our political choices now and in the future?  Plus we discuss the relationship between climate and  capitalism.  https://amzn.to/2Sx7PAD

142 | Back to Brussels

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An extra episode as David and Helen try to work out where we've got to with Brexit after this week's votes in the Commons.  Can Tory unity hold?  Can EU unity hold?  Something's got to give - but what?  And when?

141 | The Problem with Political Leaders

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This week marks the 100th anniversary of one of the most influential lectures ever given on politics: Max Weber's 'Politics as a Vocation', first delivered in Munich on 28 January 1919.  David and Helen talk with Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's former chief of staff, about some of its lessons for the age of Brexit.  Where have all the good leaders gone?  Is the party system to blame?  Are we suffering from an excess of conviction or a lack of conviction?  And who will be responsible if we see a return to violence?  Recorded before a live audience at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

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140 | Trump and the Shutdown

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With the US government still shut, we compare this standoff to shutdowns of the past and try to work out what happens next.  What is Trump's game?  Can the two parties hold together?  And why aren't the workers taking to the streets?  Plus we weigh up where things stand with the Mueller investigation, the race for the democratic nomination and Trump's shifting policy on Syria.  It's all connected!  With Helen Thompson and Gary Gerstle.