Jumping on the manosphere bandwagon.

References (in rough order of appearance)

https://www.youtube.com/@UCjUb0pALtzJwPDu67lkqHdA

Scott Galloway, Notes on Being a Man

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn06838/

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/what-did-men-do-to-deserve-this

https://ifs.org.uk/publications/conservatives-and-economy-2010-24

https://academic.oup.com/oxrep/article/41/1/105/8157931?login=false

Housing affordability report, Jan 2025 Nationwide

https://ifs.org.uk/publications/changing-cost-childcare

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-842X.2003.tb00423.x

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1359432X.2022.2106855#abstract

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6926602/

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0306180

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yl6JpVZTdM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqloPw5wp48&t=9698s&pp=ygUVY29udHJhcG9pbnRzIHR3aWxpZ2h0

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I spoke to Professor Nick Chater to discuss his provocative new book It’s on You! How the Rich and Powerful Have Convinced Us that We're to Blame for Society's Deepest Problems. As a behavoural economist, I initially went into the field because it offered an alternative to the moribund old theories of rationality and equilibrium. Yet I was gradually disappointed that behavioural approaches only tweaked the model, offering an account of how ‘biased’ individuals strayed from rationality, and how we could ‘correct’ their behaviour. The focus on individuals was retained and the thought was that solving economic and social problems only required minor tweaks to their choice environment, known as “nudging”, an approach which took off in governments and corporations across the world.

The field of behavioral economics has promised that we could solve society’s deepest problems—from the climate crisis to retirement security—by simply "nudging" individuals toward better choices. But Nick and his coauthor George Loewenstein argue that this focus on what they call the ‘individual-frame’ has been a massive distraction. In this interview, we explored how major corporations have used behavioral science as a clever sleight of hand to convince us that we are to blame for systemic failures, all while they quietly lobby against the regulations and taxes that would actually create change. We dove into why it’s time to move past the "nudge" and start rewriting the social and economic rulebook to prioritise the common good over individual responsibility, adopting what they call the ‘systems-frame’.

Nick has a lifetime of research behind him and went from, a nudge convert to a nudge heretic. I was really great to get his perspective on how that happened and how we can use behavioural science for good.

Originally recorded on Tuesday 17th March, 2026.

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We read Abundance in the UE book club (you can join by becoming a member, Patreon, etc. – check details) and I have some thoughts on why it disappointed me.

References (sorted by category)

Abundance

Abundance, Klein and Thompson

An Abundance, of Credulity, Brown https://prospect.org/2025/03/26/2025-03-26-abundance-of-credulity-klein-thompson-dunkelman-review/

Abundance for the 99 Percent, Huber et al https://jacobin.com/2025/08/klein-thompson-abundance-liberalism-socialism

What left-wing critics don’t get about abundance, Schleicher https://www.niskanencenter.org/what-left-wing-critics-dont-get-about-abundance/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

The Real Path to Abundance, Vaheesan https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-real-path-to-abundance/

Zoning

New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It, Politano https://www.apricitas.io/p/new-zealands-building-boomand-what?utm_source=publication-search

Zoning Changes Have Small Impact on Housing Supply, Brey 2023

Upzoning Chicago: Impacts of a Zoning Reform on Property Values and Housing Construction, Freemark https://yonahfreemark.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Freemark-Upzoning-Chicago.pdf

We Zoned for Density and Got Higher House Prices: Supply and Price Effects of Upzoning over 20 Years, Murray and Limb https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08111146.2022.2124966

Evaluating the long-run effects of zoning reform on urban development, Greenaway-McGrevy https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166046224000930

Zoning Change: Upzonings, Downzonings, and Their Impacts on Residential Construction, Housing Costs, and Neighborhood Demographics, Freemark

Post-Neoliberal Housing Policy, Serkin and Sitaram

https://cdn.vanderbilt.edu/vu-URL/wp-content/uploads/sites/412/2025/04/22200114/Post-Neoliberal-Housing-Policy.pdf

Other references

Spain's deadly rail accidents prompt maintenance investment debate https://www.reuters.com/world/spains-deadly-rail-accidents-prompt-maintenance-investment-debate-2026-01-23/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncQlqfD5I-k&

Tax Hero, NPR Planet Money https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/04/03/709656642/episode-760-tax-hero

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Trialling out releasing my videos in mp3 format on here!

Feedback welcome, hope you enjoy this video which was a lot of fun to make (albeit late)

References (in rough order of appearance)

How to Make Realistic Predictions About AI, Tantham https://curveshift.net/p/how-to-make-realistic-predictions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8enXRDlWguU&

‘Large AI models are cultural and social technologies’, Farrell et al.

Artificial Intelligences, Herbert Simon

Debunking Economics, Keen

https://www.mic.com/articles/107896/scientists-finally-prove-why-pop-music-all-sounds-the-same

The Dorito Effect, Shatzker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRq0pESKJgg&

The Stock Market is a Conventional Wisdom Processor: Why Trump’s Tariffs Crashed the Stock Market While the Trump Musk Payments Crisis Hasn’t (Yet), Tankus https://www.crisesnotes.com/content/files/2025/04/The-Stock-Market-is-a-Conventional-Wisdom-Processor-Why-Trump-s-Tariffs-Crashed-the-Stock-Market-While-the-Trump-Musk-Payments-Crisis-Hasn-t--Yet-.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqlbn2nPO-A&

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/09/job-market-hell/684133/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJW4-cOZt8A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW2Zr8Q6Xqw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xeMak4RqJA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zfN9wnPvU0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E6p3J9dko8&

An Existing, Ecologically-Successful Genus Of Collectively Intelligent Artificial Creatures, Kuipers

AI Integration Is the New Moat, Tim O’Reilly https://www.oreilly.com/radar/integration-is-the-new-moat/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvpw4_O25eU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3HpdNGvJDc&

notes on the industrialisation of decision making, Davies https://substack.com/home/post/p-177016285

the only message the channel can carry is a scream, Davies https://substack.com/home/post/p-151264334

The AI Circular Economy, Blakeley https://substack.com/@graceblakeley/p-176721998

The Case Against Generative AI, Zitron https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-case-against-generative-ai/

The Map is Eating the Territory: The Political Economy of AI, Farrell https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-political-economy-of-ai

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8reiauyQCM

Further reading

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4pWuwQq8M8Gzf9F9U0AYZW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjZofJX0v4M&list=WL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pzLhWCxH_g&list=WL

AI As a Normal Technology, Arvind Narayanan & Sayash Kapoor https://knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-as-normal-technology

Originally released 09/01/26

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Had another chat with Helena about the recent UK budget. As always, her encyclopedic knowledge astounds me!

Originally recorded on November 28th, 2025

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Helena runs the channel NoJusticeMTG. She is an active streamer on Twitch and comments extensively on UK politics and economics. With the UK budget coming on November 26th, Rachel Reeves is constrained by her promises to balance the budget while not increasing income tax. Helena and I will discuss the UK economy, austerity, balanced budget ideas, and what we might see economically from this Labour Government. We had chatted a bit via our respective streams but never had a chance to properly discuss things. This was a really fun talk which covered everything UK politics and economics, Helena's knowledge is inimitable plus she's a great conversaionalist! We'll probably chat again after the budget to see where things are headed.

Originally recorded on November 18th, 2025.

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William B. Thorne is a PhD candidate at The CUNY Graduate Center who is researching the effects of rent control. We had a good chat about the pros and cons of this controversial policy.

His website: https://wbthorne.com/

My recent article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/rent-control-is-fine-actually

Originally recorded on October 20th, 2025.

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Brett Scott is an anthropologist and former financier who has been working on changing the global financial system since the days of Occupy Wall Street. We read his 2013 book The Heretics Guide to Global Finance in the UE reading club (available to £5+ tier Patrons!) and we really enjoyed it, so I thought I’d ask Brett to reflect over a decade later. I also took a look at his newer book, Cloud Money, on the dominance of fintech in the financial world today. We had a wide-ranging discussion about the future of finance.

Originally recorded on Tuesday 5th August, 2025.

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