Folgen

  • Revenge of the Nerds

    Revenge of the Nerds
    Feb 19 2026
    For forty years, the software engineer was the hero of the modern economy. That era may now be ending, fast. In this episode, we argue that software engineers are becoming the horses of the 21st century. Just as the steam engine replaced animal labour, AI is now eating the lunch of human coders, automating what was once seen as elite, technical, and irreplaceable. Stock markets are already reacting, wiping value from software-heavy firms as investors realise that AI’s economic value will be measured the same way steam engines were: by how much labour they eliminate. We trace this moment through history, from the Industrial Revolution to the rise of the nerd after 1984, and ask what happens when an entire generation’s promised career suddenly looks like drudge work dressed up as genius. As 'vibe coding' replaces programming languages, and English replaces hieroglyphic code, technical skill is being commoditised at speed. AI is also stripping the human element out of markets, trading, and commerce itself, replacing noisy, emotional trading floors with silent machines trading in milliseconds. As technical skills lose their mystique, the economy may swing back toward the very things machines can’t replicate: empathy, creativity, comedy, poetry, and human judgment.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
    Mehr anzeigen Weniger anzeigen
    37 Min.
  • What Happens to an Economy When Credit Stops Flowing?

    What Happens to an Economy When Credit Stops Flowing?
    Feb 17 2026
    Credit is the lifeblood of a modern economy. When it expands, ideas turn into companies, small builders become employers, and innovation compounds. When it contracts, the damage is slower, quieter, and far harder to see. In this episode, we trace what happens when banks stop lending and money stops doing its real work. Using Ireland as a case study, we show how domestic credit has collapsed since the crash, from banks lending 160% of deposits at the peak of the Celtic Tiger to barely 40% today, and why that matters far more than headline GDP figures. Drawing on history, from the silver mines of Potosí to Spain’s long decline, we explain why money is never neutral, why credit fuels growth in ways governments cannot replicate, and how multinational windfalls can mask a dangerously hollowed-out private economy. The result may look like prosperity, but it behaves more like stagnation.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
    Mehr anzeigen Weniger anzeigen
    40 Min.
  • Can the New Fed Boss Shrink QE Without Crashing Everything?

    Can the New Fed Boss Shrink QE Without Crashing Everything?
    Feb 12 2026
    If central banks “control money,” why do we still get credit booms, banking crises, and bubbles, and what can a new Fed chair actually do about it? Who actually controls money, the central bank, commercial banks, or the markets? We break money into two parts: currency and finance . Once you see that split, a more unsettling reality appears: central banks can set the price of money (interest rates), but they don’t directly control the quantity, because commercial banks create new money every time they approve a loan. From fractional reserve banking and the “pull” model of credit creation, to why Treasuries sit at the centre of the whole machine, we explain what central banks actually do Can Kevin Warsh tighten and cut at the same time? Markets moved on a single sentence. The politics want low rates. The plumbing wants discipline. Only one of those can win.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
    Mehr anzeigen Weniger anzeigen
    44 Min.
  • Why Did Bitcoin Crash Again? The Scam That’s Been Around Since Dante

    Why Did Bitcoin Crash Again? The Scam That’s Been Around Since Dante
    Feb 10 2026
    Not even “thermodynamically sound energy through time and space” makes Bitcoin money. In this episode, we take another hammer to the sacred cow of crypto and ask a simpler question: what does money actually have to do to count as money? We revisit our infamous chat with Michael Saylor at peak crypto-poetry, then go where all good monetary debates should go; back to the original forgers and the original punishments. Dante put counterfeiters near the bottom of hell for a reason: mess with money and you mess with civilisation. We break down why Bitcoin’s fixed supply is exactly what stops it functioning as a currency, why volatility turns it into a hoarding game, and why “stablecoins” are less innovation than rebranded old finance. Crypto generates no income, finances no productive activity, and gives you no legal claim on anything, it’s a tradable gamble powered by belief, momentum, and the greater fool theory. We start with Dante, detour through Archimedes, and end with Isaac Newton, and the madness of crowds.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
    Mehr anzeigen Weniger anzeigen
    40 Min.
  • Swipe Left on Society: Singledom, Sexless Men, and the New Politics of Loneliness with Aideen McQueen

    Swipe Left on Society: Singledom, Sexless Men, and the New Politics of Loneliness with Aideen McQueen
    Feb 5 2026
    We think the biggest cultural shift of the last 15 years is inflation, immigration, or housing. It isn’t. It’s singledom, a shockwave moving through Western societies since the smartphone slid into our pockets and quietly rewired how we meet, desire, commit, and build a life. On today’s episode, we unpack the numbers that should make policymakers sit upright: around half of men and 43% of women aged 25–35 now have no partner, and the trend has worsened sharply in just the past decade. If coupling rates had simply held steady since 2017, there would be tens of millions fewer single people across the West. When the basic social unit shifts, everything built on top of it shifts too, housing demand, tax systems, politics, even how communities function. To explore the lived reality behind the data, we’re joined by comedian Aideen McQueen, whose hit show Waiting for Texto captures the emotional truth behind the statistics: the fatigue, the marketplace logic of dating, the compromise dilemma, and the strange modern paradox where people deeply want partnership, yet struggle to find a path to it.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
    Mehr anzeigen Weniger anzeigen
    49 Min.
  • Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference with Rutger Bregman

    Stop Wasting Your Talent and Start Making a Difference with Rutger Bregman
    Feb 3 2026
    In a world where “might is right” is having an ugly little renaissance, Rutger Bregman returns as the perfect antidote: a stubborn, data-backed case that humans are cooperative, that culture is malleable, and that your career doesn’t have to be a slow-motion betrayal of your ideals. We talk about his new book Moral Ambition, and the “Bermuda Triangle of talent” of consulting, finance, and corporate law. Along with the quietly shocking stat that one in four people doubts their job is socially meaningful. We revisit the 1970s Irish banking strike, when the banks shut for months… and the economy kept moving on trust, IOUs, and community glue. If trust is money, and stories shape human behaviour, what happens when we start telling a better story, and actually act on it?

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
    Mehr anzeigen Weniger anzeigen
    48 Min.
  • Ireland’s American Problem: The Jockey, the Horses, and the End of the Easy Money Era

    Ireland’s American Problem: The Jockey, the Horses, and the End of the Easy Money Era
    Jan 29 2026
    Ireland has spent the last two decades riding a unique position: European by treaty, American by economics, a “bridgehead” for US multinationals into the EU, and a country whose prosperity has quietly depended on America’s outsized pull on global capital. But if the US and Europe drift into a real rupture, Ireland becomes the uncomfortable jockey straddling two horses heading in opposite directions. In this episode, we map the cold numbers behind Ireland’s exposure, exports, FDI, and the corporate tax windfall, and then pivot to a genuinely optimistic idea: using the last of the US windfall not just to cushion the future, but to build it. Think infrastructure now, and a Schumpeter-style startup fund that turns the country into an innovation machine before the sugar daddy’s money slows down.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
    Mehr anzeigen Weniger anzeigen
    38 Min.
  • The Great Global Rebalancing: How Trump's America is Losing its Grip on the World's Capital with Sony Kapoor

    The Great Global Rebalancing: How Trump's America is Losing its Grip on the World's Capital with Sony Kapoor
    Jan 27 2026
    Everyone watched Trump at Davos and thought they were seeing American power. We think they were seeing something else: a flashing warning light. The core idea of this podcast is simple: diversification is the oldest rule in investing, and the world has ignored it. We’ve funnelled a staggering share of global capital into the United States, treating U.S. markets and Treasuries like the default “safe” option. But now, with Trump openly threatening tariffs on anyone who dares to sell U.S. assets, the message is out in the open: America knows capital flight is the real threat. We start with an origin story, Henry Lowenfeld, the overlooked pioneer of diversification, and use it to decode what’s happening now: a long-overdue global rebalancing. Then we’re joined by financial strategist Sony Kapoor, who makes the case that U.S. assets are increasingly being priced not as a safe haven, but as a political risk, and that a weaker dollar, new hedging demand, and a search for opportunity outside America could reshape markets for a generation.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
    Mehr anzeigen Weniger anzeigen
    45 Min.