

Macrodose
Planet B Productions
Your weekly fix of everything economics. Hosted by James Meadway.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Feb 28, 2023 • 10min
The Rise and Fall of American Capitalism w/ Professor Richard Wolff
FULL EPISODE available at: patreon.com/Macrodose
MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics. Subscribe today to hear our recent interviews with Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis, labour journalist Sarah Jaffe, and former finance trader Gary Stevenson.
You’ll also gain access to our upcoming interviews with author Rosie Collington and FT reporter Yuan Yang.
Our guest today is Professor Richard Wolff. Professor Wolff is Economics Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School University in New York City. He is a co-founder and active contributor of Democracy at Work and the host of the weekly show Economic Update with Richard Wolff which is syndicated on over 120+ radio stations in the US and available to stream online.
He is also the author of numerous books, including, most recently, The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself.

Feb 22, 2023 • 15min
From Fiscal Black Hole to Budget Surplus?
On this week’s Macrodose James Meadway breaks down: the news of a budget surplus, and just how far the official narrative stretches economic truths (0.40s), and the results of the U.K’s largest 4-day working week trial (6.21)

Feb 20, 2023 • 49min
UNLOCKED Betting Against the Future: the economics of inequality w/ Gary Stevenson
To celebrate hitting 100 Macrodose subscribers on Patreon.com this week, we’re unlocking the full version of one of our favourite Macrodose Extra interviews - on inflation, Covid economics and tackling inequality, with Gary Stevenson. Thank you to everyone who’s taken the time to support Macrodose so far, without you this show would not be possible.
MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics. Subscribe today to hear our recent interviews with Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis, labour journalist Sarah Jaffe, and climate campaigner/author Kate Aronoff.
You’ll also gain access to our upcoming interviews with author Rosie Collington, FT reporter Yuan Yang, and public economist Richard Wolff.
Our guest today is Gary Stevenson. Gary is a former city trader turned campaigner who made millions of pounds working at Citibank, betting that inequality would keep getting worse. He is now the host of the popular Youtube channel, Gary’s economics - where his short videos provide insight into how the economy is broken, how the rich are getting richer and what we can do to fix it.

Feb 15, 2023 • 14min
The UK avoids recession, just…
On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: the news that the UK narrowly avoided dipping into recession at the end of last year (1:42), a deeper dive into what that actually means for you in real terms (5:10) and how all this is hurting your local pub (11:35).

Feb 13, 2023 • 14min
Profiting from Apocalypse: the economics of climate breakdown w/ Kate Aronoff
FULL EPISODE available at: patreon.com/Macrodose
MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics. Subscribe today to hear our recent interviews with Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis, labour journalist Sarah Jaffe, and former finance trader Gary Stevenson.
You’ll also gain access to our upcoming interviews with author Rosie Collington, FT reporter Yuan Yang, and public economist Richard Wolff.
Our guest today is Kate Aronoff. Kate is a staff writer at the New Republic, and author of the wonderful book Overheated: How capitalism broke the planet and how we fight back.
In the book, Kate traces a damning account of the financial forces that have hijacked and commodified the crisis of climate breakdown over recent decades, and shares a bold vision of what it will take, politically and economically, to face this existential threat head-on. This interview is about those intertwined histories of financialisation and climate denialism. How has the economic logic around the climate crisis shifted in recent years?

Feb 8, 2023 • 15min
I want to be in America
On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down: new figures that signal positive news for the US economy (0:48), how good news for the US might be bad news for the rest of the globe (6:09) and the recent record-breaking profits made by fossil fuel producers (10:55).
You can register here (https://bit.ly/3YAtp5J) for a free ticket for the launch of The Cost of Living Crisis (and how to get out of it), a vital book James has co-authored with Doug Nicholls and Professor Costas Lapavitsas.

Feb 1, 2023 • 16min
The largest wave of strikes in a generation, but will they win?
On this week’s Macrodose, James Meadway breaks down the economics behind the UK’s recording-breaking wave of strikes (0:42), how these compare to other strike movements around the world (4:43), and a new report from the BBC that finds issues with the “impartiality” of its economics reporting (12:32).

Jan 30, 2023 • 10min
Making Neoliberalism: the economics of Empire w/ Kojo Koram
FULL EPISODE available at: patreon.com/Macrodose
MACRODOSE EXTRA takes you behind the scenes to go in-depth with some of the leading voices from the world of economics. Subscribe today to hear our recent interviews with Greek politician Yanis Varoufakis, labour journalist Sarah Jaffe, and former finance trader Gary Stevenson.
You’ll also gain access to our upcoming interviews with climate activist and author Kate Aronoff, FT reporter Yuan Yang, and public economist Richard Wolff.
Our guest today is Kojo Koram. Kojo is a Senior Lecturer at Birkbeck School of Law, University of London. He is the author of Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire, a tour de force on the legacies of Empire and how they shape modern Britain, which was nominated for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2022.
Kojo is also the co-author of Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British State, which was published in 2021, and star of the recent short-film for openDemocracy, Boomerang: how the legacies of empire are breaking Britain’s economy - which you can find on Youtube.

Jan 25, 2023 • 15min
Dedollarisation, Bretton Woods III, and a global wealth tax?
This podcast discusses the shift away from the dominance of the dollar, the potential emergence of a new international monetary system, the impact of the US dollar's dominance in the global economy, and the proposal for significant tax increases on the super-rich.

Jan 18, 2023 • 20min
Polycrisis at Davos, US in debt, and deadly heatwaves
This podcast discusses the 'polycrisis' at the World Economic Forum, the US debt ceiling threat, and explores the future of work in the era of climate breakdown.


