Food production and consumption • 2011

22:06

Over 10% of the world's electricity comes from nuclear power. But with radioactive waste and the threat of nuclear meltdown, are we playing with fire?

S1E8 • History 101 • 2020 • Economics

118:48

The people with power in Britain reveal how their decisions shook our politics, transformed our economy and reshaped society in the decade following the 2008 financial crisis. Chapter 1: The Government and the Bank of England took drastic action to save the UK economy in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Insiders from the world of finance reveal how decisions made to solve the crisis allowed them to 'make out like bandits". From bailing out the banks to pursuing a faster, deeper austerity than any other country, Britain's policymakers shatter the status quo in a desperate bid to save the economy. This first of two programmes features first-hand accounts from key players, reliving the moments when the big decisions were taken. Chapter 2: The government and the Bank of England are forced to react to the economic shocks brought on by Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic. Theresa May enters office in the aftermath of Brexit, setting her sights on tax-dodgers, bloated executive pay and unethical multi-national companies. But as May struggles to implement Brexit, wealth inequality and executive pay are increasing while average wages are barley growing, sparking anger and protests. After May fails to get her Brexit deal through Parliament, Boris Johnson enters office promising to "level up" the UK economy but his plan is derailed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

2022 • Economics

49:57

Ambassador Henry Crumpton, a veteran CIA operative with experiences on the front line of America's initial campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan, considers the paradigm shift caused by the increased role of non-state actors in the Mid-East and other issues facing that region and the world.

8/10 • Curiosity Retreats: 2014 Lectures • 2014 • Economics

58:42

Jacques reveals how the lessons learned from selling to children were used to make childlike consumers of us all. From the rise of product-driven kids’ TV in the 80s, to the man who designed cars that appealed to children, and the contemporary creators of games that hook adults, Jacques asks how spending turned into a game – one that we can’t stop playing.

S1E3 • The Men Who Made Us Spend • 2014 • Economics

53:27

What makes an entire country take self destructive decisions of eating unhealthy, smoking cigarettes & going to war? In 1916, Woodrow Wilson ran on a platform strongly opposing US entry into WWI. But just a few months after taking office, the United States declared war on Germany. Soon after, the American people, so firmly opposed to the war just a year earlier, were enthusiastic supporters. What happened? The short answer: Sustained consumption of propaganda! PROPAGANDA: THE MANUFACTURE OF CONSENT is a revealing documentary about how public relations grew out of wartime propaganda-and a portrait of one of the key architects of the field, Edward Bernays. The nephew of Sigmund Freud, Bernays refined the techniques used so successfully during the war to sell products to consumers, and ultimately to sell capitalism itself to workers. Public relations was also critical in building support for the New Deal, and in the pushback against it from the National Association of Manufacturers, which created materials including films aimed at children on the glories of manufacturing. Bacon and eggs as part of a hearty breakfast? The work of Bernays on behalf of a bacon company. Cigarettes as a sign of women's liberation? Bernays, again. Casting the democratically elected government of Guatemala as a Communist threat to justify US invasion on behalf of the United Fruit Company? Once more, Bernays. There was nothing shadowy about Bernays. He wrote a book detailing his techniques and discusses them in an archival interview with Bill Moyers from 1983, where we see his pride in hijacking the women's suffrage movement in order to sell more cigarettes—one of many illuminating moments in this film. Featuring Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges, Public Relations Museum co-founder Shelley Spector, historian Stuart Ewen, sociologist David Miller, and Bernays' daughter Anne, PROPAGANDA offers an insightful look into the development of public relations techniques, and how they continue to affect us today.

2017 • Economics

108:42

'Inside Job' provides a comprehensive analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse.

2010 • Economics