YIMBY Pod – formerly The Abundance Agenda

James gets annoyed his new build was saddled with old technology. Martin tells the story of the surprisingly futuristic British wine industry. And we speak to Thomas Ableman about his proposal for Mini-Switzerland, a plan that could make rural trains and buses… actually good?!James’s newsletter is here, his latest on our geospatial data mess is here.Martin’s newsletter is here, and his latest video is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!YIMBY Pod is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

James talks about how Rachel Reeves’ plan to give mayor a slice of income tax could help get infrastructure built. Martin digs into two more BBC Local Democracy Reporting Service stories with an alarming NIMBY slant. And we speak to Simon Kaye, Director of Policy and Research at Re:State, about his new report, arguing for a more powerful London Mayor and fewer London boroughs!James’s newsletter is here.Martin’s newsletter is here, and his latest video is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!YIMBY Pod is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

James argues that Reform’s idea about politicising the Civil Service could be good, and begs everyone not to hate him. Martin tells the maddening story of his local playground, and how two years on kids are still not allowed to use it. And we speak to Laurel Boxall and Neil Ross from Public First about text and data mining (TDM), aka the eternal AI/copyright debate.Laurel and Neil’s TDM report is here.James’s newsletter is here.Martin’s newsletter is here, and his latest video is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!YIMBY Pod is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

James tells Martin the story of Open Safely, an incredible tool that scientists can now use to research country-wide NHS GP data. And we speak to energy policy guru Adam Bell, partner at Stonehaven, ex-head of the government’s energy strategy, and writer of the excellent Unbalancing Mechanism Substack about the wild complexity of pricing energy as we transition to Net Zero.James’s newsletter is here. This week he wrote about proportional representation.James wrote about Open Safely here.Martin’s newsletter is here, and his Old Bridge Way video is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!YIMBY Pod is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

Chris Lintott, Oxford astrophysicist and presenter of The Sky at Night, warns about looming UK science funding cuts and champions curiosity-driven research. The conversation covers threats to astronomy jobs and capacity. They also spotlight Cornwall’s lithium and geothermal potential and the long-awaited pedestrianisation of Oxford Street.

Arch-Remainer James discovers why re-aligning with Europe could spell doom for Britain’s critical fixes to how we build nuclear power plants. Martin updates us on the drama at Dobbins Lane in Wendover, and how HS2 and the council have landed on an insane solution to a stupid problem. And we speak to Phil Tinline about his fascinating new paper, Power Failure: A new theory of Power.James’s newsletter is here. His piece on vibe-coding is here.Martin’s newsletter is here, and his big pothole video is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!YIMBY Pod is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

How just one planning objection scuppered a neighbourhood battery storage project in Banbury – and what this says about how much money councils are wasting on vexatious complaints. Why Europe needs its own independent space launch capability if we want an abundant future. And we speak to Zion Lights, author of the new book Energy is Life, about how we’re already living abundant lives – and how we can persuade degrowthers of the error of their ways.James’s newsletter is here. His piece on whether Reform can ever be YIMBY is here.Martin’s newsletter is here, and his big pothole video is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!YIMBY Pod is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

A new study casts doubt on whether AI really will be a big productivity boost, so Martin and James have their AI argument again. A small tweak in how the government determines value for money could have big implications for new infrastructure like railways.And we speak to Alexander Iosad and Eleni Arzoglou from the Tony Blair Institute about their fascinating new paper, Public Service Reform in the Age of AI.Our previous AI episode is here, and our previous discussion about the cancelled plans to move Cambridge Sewage Works is here.James’s newsletter is here. His piece on AI growth zones is here.Martin’s newsletter is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!YIMBY Pod is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

Martin bursts open the maddening story of how the new Universal theme park is worrying Anglian Water… and how nobody seems to have anticipated this? James talks about his big day grandstanding at the London Assembly’s Planning and Regeneration Committee – and explains how he was almost thwarted by a spider. And we speak to Eamonn Ives from The Entrepreneurs Network about his new research into the contribution of foreign-born founders to the British economy – and how we can make our immigration regime actually support growth.Martin’s latest video, on the Badger Road, is here.James’s newsletter is here.Martin’s newsletter is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!YIMBY Pod is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

Martin digs into the NIMBY drama at Bristol Zoo… and then enters the lion’s den himself, and attends a meeting of his Parish Council. James goes full neoliberal shill talking about Darren Jones’ proposals for fixing the Civil Service. And we speak to policy guru Tim Leunig, Chief Economist at NESTA, to learn how he thinks about policymaking, and why we should build a massive electricity cable from Texas to the UK.Martin’s latest video, on the Badger Road, is here.Darren Jones’s speech is here.An explanation of the Postcode Address File issue is here.James’s newsletter is here.Martin’s newsletter is here.Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!YIMBY Pod is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com