Episode summary: An immigration reporter’s chance encounter in the desert reveals how borders shape our actions, our beliefs, and the way we see the world around us.

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Episode summary: Eric Gordon has spent his career as an social scientists trying to understand how city governments can use technology to better engage their citizens. But he’s learned that technology doesn’t matter if governments aren’t willing to listen and citizens don’t feel listened to. Add to...

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Episode summary: Laurie Taylor talks to Louise Ryan, Professor of Sociology at the London Metropolitan University, about her oral history of the Irish nurses who were the backbone of the NHS for many years. By the 1960s approximately 30,000 Irish-born nurses were working across the NHS, constituting...

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Episode summary: Send us a text The price system solves a profound coordination problem by communicating dispersed knowledge that no central planner could ever fully access or comprehend. We explore Hayek’s insight about how prices serve as both information and incentives, allowing self-interested a...

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Episode summary: It’s been over three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the human toll is growing on both sides.Recently, politicians and journalists have declared a grim milestone, one million Russian casualties.But is this number accurate? Tim talks to Seth Jones, from the Ce...

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Episode summary: Laurie Taylor talks to Nina Khrushcheva, Professor of International Affairs at The New School in New York City about her research into the propaganda formulas deployed by Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin over the last two decades. As the great granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev, the P...

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Episode summary: A century-old shipwreck, a sea of glass, and the lifeboats that were never meant to save you.

Episode summary: Send us a text The make-or-buy decision is a fundamental aspect of economics that applies to businesses, households, and nations, with the U.S. penny providing a fascinating case study in economic inefficiency. • It costs 2.72 cents to manufacture one penny, representing a loss of 1...

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Episode summary: Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and role of one of the most significant figures in early 20th Century German history. Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934) had been famous since 1914 as the victorious commander at the Battle of Tannenberg against Russian invaders, soon burnishing...

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Episode summary: Forget the museums—try a McDonald’s instead

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