The Hanseatic League: Europe’s First Free Trade Zone

In this episode, we dive headfirst into one of Europe’s most brutal and under-discussed chapters: the collapse of Yugoslavia. Live from Croatia, where the scars of that war still linger, and where, 30 years on, the economic, political, and human fallout continues to echo across the continent. We explore how hyperinflation, sparked by debt-fuelled mismanagement and ethnic tension, helped tear the country apart. At one point, Yugoslavia’s army was the largest in Europe. Today, its people make up the single largest intra-EU migrant group. In Ireland alone, over 40,000 Croats were issued PPS numbers in the last five years. We walk you through the tangled roots of nationalism, the rotating presidency that doomed a federation, and how the ghost of Tito, who told Stalin to feck off in 1946, still haunts the region. We also talk Jamie Dimon, who popped up in Dublin last week declaring “Europe has lost,” and we break down what that means in GDP terms: 25 years ago, US and EU GDP per capita were neck-and-neck—now the US is 25% ahead. We trace that back to 1995 and ask: What if Yugoslavia was the first warning shot? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the podcast, we take on the two biggest issues shaping our future: immigration and housing. We begin with the looming threat of U.S. tariffs, which could hit by August 1st. A 30% levy would be catastrophic for Ireland, the most open economy in the world, with nearly €600 billion in imports and exports annually. While China retaliates in unison, Europe squabbles over wine, cars, and Big Tech. Meanwhile, Ireland, so dependent on U.S. multinationals, stands massively exposed. We then dive into the far knottier issue: immigration. Between April 2022 and 2023, 141,000 immigrants arrived in Ireland. Only 30,000 houses were built in the same period. You don’t need a PhD to see the problem, demand has tripled, while supply has collapsed. House prices are up 7% in the last three months alone, now approaching half a million euros. Construction is down, despite a 47% increase in government spending since COVID. We break the numbers down: of the 141,000, roughly 90,000 arrived via active government policy; visas, asylum, humanitarian aid. With only two people per home on average, we’d need to build 80,000 houses per year to keep up. We’re building less than half that. We’re not arguing against immigration, we need it. But policy without planning leads to crisis. If we don’t start managing immigration with data and foresight, we’ll drift into chaos.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we start with Oasis and end in Silicon Valley, via Tír na nÓg. We’re talking about the economics of not dying, and how tech billionaires are pouring billions into that dream. From Oasis belting Live Forever to Irish mythology’s take on eternal youth, we ask: why are we so obsessed with dodging death? We explore the surreal story of Brian Johnson, the tech bro spending $2 million a year trying to reverse ageing. Vegan diet, 100 supplements a day, teenage blood transfusions… all in an effort to achieve his goal of slowing his biological clock by 7.5 months every year. Meanwhile, he's founded a Don't Die movement with Discord channels, Blueprint protocols, and longevity summits. We dig into the money behind it all: the anti-ageing industry is already worth $70 billion and is projected to hit $140 billion by 2034. Google’s Calico Labs, Bezos’s $3 billion bet on Altos Labs, and a biotech unicorn called Cambrian Bio (valued at $1.8 billion) are all racing to crack the longevity code. What kind of world are we building? Is this the new Tír na nÓg, a fantasy only for the rich? We imagine a world where ageing is optional… but only if you can afford it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trieste is a city that’s belonged to everyone, and no one. This week, we go walking through a place that’s been Austrian, Italian, Yugoslav, and, at one point, technically run by the United Nations. It's a port city without a hinterland, a European crossroads where empires once collided, and identities blurred. What if this strange, stateless city is actually a glimpse of the future? Trieste thrived when borders were open and trade was fluid. It declined when nationalism took hold and lines were drawn. In a world now swinging back toward protectionism, identity politics, and hard frontiers, Trieste’s story becomes a warning. We explore how the city gave rise to Freud, Joyce, and Svevo, why it drove Mussolini mad, and what it teaches us about globalisation, ambiguity, and the power of being in-between. It’s a story about ports, poetry, and politics, where geography becomes destiny, and liminality becomes strength. As cities everywhere wrestle with who they are and who they serve, Trieste might just be the original global city: chaotic, contradictory, and decades ahead of its time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After travelling through Montreal, Bilbao, and Vilnius, cities alive with colour, sound, and soul, I returned home and felt the contrast sharply. Dublin, like many cities across the developed world, feels hollowed out. Despite booming economic growth and over €150 billion sitting idle in savings accounts, our capital is crumbling. Streets are lifeless, dereliction is everywhere, and policy seems paralysed. So what went wrong? This week, we explore how bad incentives, not bad people, kill cities. Drawing on historical revivals like Temple Bar, we propose bold 21st-century solutions: tax breaks to bring buildings back to life, amnesties to release hoarded property, and a new savings product that lets the public invest directly in urban renewal. If the private sector won’t build, let the public fund it. Then we turn to global markets, where Trump is gearing up to fire Fed Chair Jay Powell and slash interest rates. But he may learn the hard way: the bond market, not the White House, sets the tempo. If confidence cracks, long-term interest rates could skyrocket. Urban decay and global volatility are two sides of the same economic coin. Can we change course in time? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.