What if the world is actually getting better — and we just can't see it? In this episode, host Jordan Williams sits down with Marian Tupy, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and founder of HumanProgress.org, to challenge the doom and gloom dominating today's headlines. Drawing on his books Super Abundance and 10 Global Trends Every Smart Person Should Know, Tupy makes a data-driven case that life expectancy, poverty, child mortality, and war are all trending in the right direction — and explains why our brains are wired to miss it.

From the hidden costs of Net Zero and NIMBYism, to the real story behind American inequality, housing affordability for young New Zealanders, and what AI might mean for the future of work, this is a wide-ranging conversation about progress, freedom, and what it takes to build a better world. A must-listen for anyone who suspects the catastrophists might be missing something important.

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Our latest Taxpayers’ Union–Curia poll sent Wellington into a frenzy at the beginning of March. But in this week’s Taxpayer Talk, Peter Williams sits down with Curia founder - and Taxpayers’ Union co-founder - David Farrar to separate the signal from the spin.

Are polls actually driving political decisions, or just measuring them? And why do politicians pay attention, even when they ignore the results?

David lifts the lid on how polling really works (spoiler: no, they’re not ringing every Kiwi every night), why the trend matters more than any single headline-grabbing poll, and which numbers actually tell you if a government is in trouble.

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The New Zealand Initiative Chair Roger Partridge joins Taxpayer Talk with Peter Williams to discuss a new report arguing New Zealand could unlock more than $24 billion for essential infrastructure by recycling mature Crown-owned commercial assets.

Roger explains how redirecting capital tied up in government-owned companies such as Air New Zealand, Kiwibank and the mixed ownership electricity generators could help fund hospitals, schools, roads and water systems — without raising taxes or increasing public debt. Drawing on the successful New South Wales model, he outlines how a ring-fenced National Infrastructure Fund could convert government commercial holdings into the infrastructure New Zealand urgently needs.

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