The enduring value of gold, Ireland's infrastructure woes & bumper banking profits

This week on the Taking Stock Podcast: Mandy speaks to freelance journalist, Josefina Salomon about the election of Javier Milei, Argentina’s new far-right president; Over the last few days Everton football club was hit by a 10-point deduction after an independent commission’s ruling, Mandy is joined by Martin Lipton, Chief Sports Reporter at The Sun to explore the implications for the club and for the Premier League as a whole; and OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman has announced his return to OpenAI just days after he was fired by the board, tech journalist Chris Stokel-Walker joins Mandy with the details.

David Cameron was catapulted back into British politics this week; what does it say about Rishi Sunak/s leadership struggles and what now for the embattled Tory Party? This week on Taking Stock Mandy Johnston talks to Sir John Curtice about the state of the British Government. Ireland is struggling to cut emissions to say the least. But what can be done? David Mc Gee from PwC and Muireann Lynch from the ESRI share their views. And ‘Buying Silence; How Oligarchs, Corporations and Plutocrats use the law to gag their critics’ the author of a new book on the subject David Hooper chats to Mandy about the growing trend of lawsuits designed to censor.

Trump on Trial; this week on Taking Stock Mandy Johnston talks to Joe Miller of the Financial Times to hear what it was like in court in NYC this week. Things sound like they are ‘Maxed-out’ at Dublin Airport and likely to stymie airlines’ growth in 2024; Mandy looks behind the facts and figures with Ellie Donnelly of the Business Post Plus, the ‘WeWork’ story; Mandy looks at what it says about the cult of the CEO and about office culture in 2023 when she chats to Elliot Brown Co-author of ‘The Cult of We’.

This week on Taking Stock Mandy Johnston asks are we really trying to get away from Fossil Fuels? With news of a Mega Oil deal in the US Mandy asks what does it tell us about the transition to green energy when she talks to Energy Editor at the Financial Times Jamie Smyth. As comic legend John Cleese takes up a role with GB News and Boris Johnson set to become a presenter soon, we look at the people and finance behind the controversial opinion-led station when Mandy talks to Professor of Communications at the University of Westminster Steven Barnett.   And finally ‘DEINFLUENCER’ made it to the dictionary this week so Mandy takes a look at the  tricks of the trade that make you and me buy stuff you never really wanted and never mind needed when she talks to journalist Brianna Parkins.

This week on Taking Stock Mandy Johnston takes a look at the eventful first year in power for Italian PM Giorgia Meloni when she chats to Mark Lowen the BBC News Southern Europe correspondent. Mandy also looks at the use and misuse of social media in the Israel/Palestine conflict when she talks to Sophia Khatsenkova the Tech and Disinformation Correspondent for Euronews. And with more and more people eschewing typical ‘retirement’ Mandy talks to Michael Skapinker a leadership educator and Louisa Meehan a workplace expert about changing the narrative around ‘stopping work’.