Independence Day for the UK, again?

We usually remember Genghis Khan as history’s ultimate destroyer but what if he was also its first great economic integrator? In this episode, we rethink the Mongol Empire not as pure terror, but as the largest continuous free‑trade zone the world has ever seen, stretching from Korea to Ukraine. By reopening the Silk Road after a thousand years, the Mongols allowed ideas, technologies, and capital to flow from China to Europe; paper, gunpowder, money, insurance, trade associations, even early globalisation itself. The same networks that spread innovation also carried the Black Death, halving Europe’s population and accidentally laying the economic foundations for the Renaissance. From biological warfare to free movement of people and goods, this is the story of how a nomadic empire reshaped the global economy, and why globalization is far older, darker, and stranger than we like to admit. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ireland controls seven times more sea than land, and with the Atlantic blowing 25% stronger winds than the North Sea, we sit on one of the greatest untapped energy jackpots on Earth. This episode dives into the staggering 600 gigawatt potential of offshore wind off Ireland’s coast, enough to power every home and factory in the EU, several times over. So why haven’t we built a new offshore wind farm in 20 years? From floating turbines to fiscal unions, Dutch perpetual bonds to data centres in the Burren, we break down how wind could be Ireland’s next IDA moment, if we can overcome our engineering phobia and stop thinking like a museum. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Europe is under pressure militarily, economically, and politically. NATO spending is up 45% since 2014. Germany’s exports to China have dropped 11% in a single year. France is bracing for a possible far-right presidency. Here in Ireland, neutrality suddenly feels less like a principle and more like a liability. In this episode, we ask: is Europe still a power bloc, or just a museum with great croissants? From Russian disinformation to Chinese green tech dominance, we break down the numbers behind Europe’s strategic decline, and what Ireland needs to wake up to before it’s too late. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Around the world, people feel poorer, even when the numbers say we’ve never been richer. In Ireland, GDP is soaring, household wealth has more than doubled since 2014, and yet most families are pinned to their collar. Why? Because the official poverty line is €33,600, but it now takes at least €52,000 a year just to stay afloat. That’s a 40% gap between what’s measured and what’s felt. Rent has passed €2,000 a month, groceries are up 16% in a year, childcare can cost over €1,000 monthly, and still we’re told the economy is “booming.” Inspired by Michael Green’s viral Substack and Kyla Scanlon’s “vibecession,” we unpack the growing chasm between income and cost, and how it’s fuelling backlash, burnout, and political blowback from New York to Newbridge. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’re diving into the economics of borders, the lines we pretend are ancient but were mostly scratched into the earth by soldiers, surveyors and empire-builders with rulers. From Ukraine’s shifting frontlines to Dublin’s Herzog Park, to Northern Ireland’s uneasy edges, we trace how geography becomes politics. Then we go back to the original culprit: William Petty, Cromwell’s cartographer, the man who mapped Ireland in 13 months and turned land into an asset class. His Down Survey redrew Ireland and created the blueprint for colonialism, capitalism and the straight-line borders that still ignite conflict from Central Asia to the Middle East. We follow the rulers, the rebellions, the dispossession and the economics behind every “line in the sand.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.