117 | Moneyland

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We talk to Oliver Bullough about his acclaimed new book Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How to Take it Back.  Where is Moneyland?  How did London become its capital?  And will Brexit, or a Corbyn government, or another financial crash change how it operates?  A conversation about tax havens, money-laundering, the politics of corruption and the corruption of politics.  With Jason Sharman, author of The Despot's Guide to Wealth Management, and Helen Thompson.

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97 | Socialism in this Country?

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After John McDonnell said he was still committed to the socialist transformation of Britain, we ask what that might mean.  Does socialism really require the overthrow of capitalism?  What's the difference between socialism and communism?  And with successful Democratic candidates in the US starting to use the s-word in public, what does socialism have to offer in America?  Plus we talk about whether social media and social networks offer the possibility of a new kind of socialism for the twenty-first century.  With Helen Thompson, Chris Bickerton and Chris Brooke.

87 | Facebook vs the World

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With the help of John Naughton and Jennifer Cobbe we unpick the Cambridge Analytica story and get to the heart of the matter: what is Facebook doing to us and can anything make it stop?  We talk about the business of surveillance capitalism and the difference between a scandal and a crisis.  Plus how working in tech is like working on the Manhattan Project and how Cambridge Analytica is like the Australian cricket team.
 

80 | The Fundamentals

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 With stock markets swooning and financial volatility back, we talk about the deeper trends underpinning our politics and our future.  Why have British governments never managed to fix the housing crisis?  What does the state of the American economy mean for Trump's long-term prospects?  And will a period of economic growth make our politics more stable, or are the wild times set to continue?  These are the fundamentals.  With Helen, Chris Brooke and Aaron.

76 | Reformation Then and Now

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Before we get stuck into 2018, we go back to the sixteenth century to explore another technology revolution that overthrew the established order.  John Naughton recently published his 95 theses for the digital age and we talk to John about the theology of technopoly and the Church of Facebook.  Plus we're joined by Helen to discuss the parallels between the current revolt against the elites and what happened five hundred years ago.  From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg: where does this story end?