• Could Scotland have become Singapore-on-the-Clyde in 2014 had it voted for independence?
• Is Boris Johnson possibly Britain's worst ever Prime Minister?
• Does structural reform only happen in times of crisis and how deep is the economic rot that has set in?

The British economy is far more centralised and state-run than most people realise. I recently sat down with Ewen Stewart who is the Director of the Institute of International Monetary Research at the University of Buckingham. He sits on the UK Growth Commission and is also a director of the think tank, Global Britain. He believes we have one shot to turn around Britain's malaise and revive areas such as healthcare, defence, and manufacturing.

As recently as the Falklands War, Britain was able to deploy 23 frigates and destroyers - roughly one third of its surface fleet. Today it is defenceless in the North Atlantic. Most European countries offer healthcare which is free at the point of need. Whereas Britain tops the quartile rankings in terms of health spending, it sits at the bottom in terms of service.

With an immigration policy that Charles Ponzi would be proud of, well over 50% of GDP government spending and a brain drain is underway with more tax rises on the horizon.

We discuss what needs to be done to turn things around from a policy perspective to revive a sense of dynamism and energy.

You can find out more about the IIMR and the Growth Commission here:
https://mv-pt.org/
https://www.growth-commission.com/

This podcast was produced by @Mattjcooper with music composed by @lovermanxoxoxo .

Professor Bryan Caplan coined the Ideological Turing Test which measures whether a person truly understands an opposing political or ideological viewpoint.

To help us pass the test when it comes to conservatism as a school of political thought, Ed West takes us from St Augustine to today whilst making some challenging observations from a position of both deep knowledge and ideological humility. We cover many subjects including:

The Broken Age Curve: Why, contrary to historic beliefs, people born from the mid-1970s onward are entering middle age without adopting traditional conservative voting habits or lifestyles.

Human Nature & The Blank Slate: Exploring the ultimate divide between the progressive belief in human perfectibility and the darker, Augustinian view of mankind as inherently flawed.

The Media, Academia, and Status: How conservatism became a "low-status" viewpoint in the arts, media, and universities, and why academia breeds such bitter ideological battles.

The Post-Christian Right: The rise of secular right-wing subcultures, the "Manosphere," and how the collapse of traditional religious frameworks is leading to political sectarianism.

Unintended Consequences: A look at how well-meaning regulations—from rent controls to modern slavery legislation—frequently backfire in the real world.

Ed's substack, The Wrong Side of History is an entertaining, funny, and educational forum which he describes as "political-commentary-with-history." The latter being his great passion which shines through in his posts.

You can find him it here https://www.edwest.co.uk/ or on X https://x.com/edwest.

This podcast was produced by Matt Cooper (https://linktr.ee/thisismattcooper) with music composed by Loverman (https://open.spotify.com/artist/6mH930VvONxn76Kqpnixjy).

Gemma Herbertson is the founder of Neuro Frontiers an online learning platform dedicated to empowering individuals to understand and harness the power of Neuroplasticity therapies.

These powerful tools, if properly uses, can maintain, restore, improve, and even create brain function.

In 2012 Gemma invented the Exchange Breathing Method to help tackle her baby boy who was suffering from relentless seizures. Up to 500 a week.

Our conversation covers her journey into the field of Neuroplasticity driven by a relentless pursuit of making her son's life better. She gives some practical advice on how to improve brain function and I'm also the beneficiary of some on-air therapy! Gemma's story of turning adversity into a lifelong commitment to learning and public service is one for us to admire and emulate.

You can learn more about Neuro Frontiers here: https://neurofrontiers.org/

This podcast was produced by Matt Cooper (https://linktr.ee/thisismattcooper) with music by Loverman (https://open.spotify.com/artist/6mH930VvONxn76Kqpnixjy).

Ve Dewey is a globally networked executive design leader whose CV is as long as at is impressive.

We discussed design thinking, how to develop good taste, AI (of course), and looking at the world's problems through a design systems lens.

Her career has been at the intersection of technology, design, and innovation, with success across industry, the third sector, and academia.

She curated the inaugural design HR role at Mattel, supporting 400+ creatives during the company’s cultural and digital transformation; leading multi-million dollar global rebrands.

She was also a leader of product marketing at Adobe, where she established a new creative marketing programme in Europe. At the Royal College of Art she collaborated on evolving a neuroscience-based leadership model.

You can find Ve on LinkdedIn and Instagram:

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/vanessadewey
https://www.instagram.com/vandewcandew/

Andrew Phemister is a Lecturer in British and Irish History at Kings College London. Our conversation centred around his book Land and Liberalism: Henry George and the Irish Land War (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

• Are human beings intrinsically good that need unshackling from bureaucratic, corporatist rent seeker to flourish?
• Do ideas have a causative historical role or is everything explained by technology, materialism, kings and queens?
• What is the history of radical thought, liberalism and the concept of natural rights?
• What relevance do Arnold Schwarzenegger and Total Recall have to Adam Smith's three factors of production?

Andrew is a very engaging, entertaining, and articulate thinker who fleshed out some difficult questions through the lens of one of the most popular but now almost forgotten economists - Henry George.

You can find more about Andrew's work here:

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/andrew-phemister

This podcast was produced by Matt Cooper (https://linktr.ee/thisismattcooper) with music composed by Loverman (https://open.spotify.com/artist/6mH930VvONxn76Kqpnixjy)

In May 1916 three men caked in blood, dirt, blisters, and sweat arrived at the Stromness Whaling Station on South Georgia Island in the Atlantic Ocean suffering from severe exhaustion.

They had endured a journey both by boat and on foot from Antarctica that was harrowing and miraculous in equal measure. In charge of the three men was Sir Ernest Shackleton, one of history’s most famous explorers and leaders.

In my latest conversation I discuss what is known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration with David Cornell. In 2009 David went to the South Pole a hundred years after his great grandfather embarked on the Nimrod expedition that was led by Shackleton.

He took me through Shackleton’s Boat Journey which has been described as the greatest story ever told. Our conversation covered what it takes to get to the South Pole as well as the leadership skills that Ernest Shackleton showed time and again through loyalty and care to his men right until his during his final attempt to reach the Pole.

Since that Centenary Expedition, David helped launch the Shackleton Foundation which provides seed funding and support to early stage social ventures with a primary focus on benefiting young people in the UK.

A narrative of decline is permeating the developed world. Hopefully conversations like this one with David can revivify the spirit of adventure as an antidote to all the negativity and noise

You can find out more about the Shackleton Foundation click here: https://shackletonfoundation.org/

This podcast was produced by MattCooper with music composed by Loverman.

Rosina Dorelli is Making Education Great Again. Why? Because schools are failing our children by crushing their sense of wonder through standardised testing and mindless clerical work. “Teaching to the exam” won’t cut it in the 21st Century.

As a mother, artist, entrepreneur, and teacher Rosina describes Creativity as a human right. To champion this she is the founder of the Biophilic Education Alliance and creator of a new schools curriculum inspired by Leonardo da Vinci.

In my most important conversation to date, we discussed her take on what’s wrong with the education system, both state and private, as well as the current rollout of her curriculum in schools.

The people who have made the most positive impact on the world in history have been interdisciplinary thinkers not siloed experts (the poem from the 1997 Apple advert summarises this well*).

Whilst year on year exam grades have consistently improved education (with a small “e”) is demonstrably on the operating table. Rosina’s movement will equip the next generation to solve the big problems of our time.

Thank you to Iain McGilchrist for making me aware of Rosina and her work. Here are more details on the Biophilic Education Alliance and the Da Vinci Life Skills curriculum:

https://www.biophiliceducation.com/

https://davincilifeskills.com/

This podcast was produced by Matt Cooper with music composed by Loverman.

*“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

James Baxter-Derrington is a writer, journalist, cricket fan and Investment Editor at The Telegraph. Our discussion began with his notorious article arguing that Bitcoin is worthless before evolving into a broader conversation on Value. We also talked about the role of legacy media in the face of online platforms, podcasts and citizen journalism. I asked James how to get Britain and the West out if its current malaise and on topic after topic his thoughtful responses made this one of my favourite conversations to date.

You can find James's articles at the Telegraph here or on X as @jamesbaxterd.