India: The Modi Question • 2023

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

59:09

Jamie Bartlett reveals how Silicon Valley's mission to connect the world is disrupting democracy, helping plunge us into an age of political turbulence. Many of the Tech Gods were dismayed when Donald Trump - who holds a very different worldview - won the American presidency, but did they actually help him to win? With the help of a key insider from the Trump campaign's digital operation, Jamie unravels for the first time the role played by social media and Facebook's vital role in getting Trump into the White House. But how did Facebook become such a powerful player? Jamie learns how Facebook's vast power to persuade was first built for advertisers, combining data about our internet use and psychological insights into how we think. A leading psychologist then shows Jamie how Facebook's hoard of data about us can be used to predict our personalities and other psychological traits. He interrogates the head of the big data analytics firm that targeted millions of voters on Facebook for Trump - he tells Jamie this revolution is unstoppable. But is this great persuasion machine now out of control? Exploring the emotional mechanisms that supercharge the spread of fake news on social media, Jamie reveals how Silicon Valley's persuasion machine is now being exploited by political forces of all kinds, in ways no one - including the Tech Gods who created it - may be able to stop.

S1E2 • Secrets of Silicon Valley • 2017 • Economics

119:59

Dominion uses drones, hidden and handheld cameras to expose the dark underbelly of modern animal agriculture, questioning the morality and validity of humankind's dominion over the animal kingdom. While mainly focusing on animals used for food, it also explores other ways animals are exploited and abused by humans, including clothing, entertainment and research.

2018 • Economics

72:05

This documentary travels through a world of joblessness, debt, and economic uncertainty to the sovereign nation of the plutocrats, where each crisis seems to offer a new business opportunity. In America, where the 2008 financial meltdown cost $4 trillion in economic output, fortunes were made by the very people who precipitated the disaster while millions lost their homes and their savings. Austerity in Europe, economic stagnation in Asia, a lost generation of the young and unemployed - signs we are living through a fundamental global reorganization, the result of which no-one can predict. The world of the 1% has arrived, and the wealth gap is now greater in many countries than during the Gilded Age, the era of the Rockefellers, Carnegies and Vanderbilts. Can our stressed democracies deal with the fallout? Or have governments simply become instruments of the new elite?

2017 • 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

176:13

The TV series "Mad Men" gave us a glimpse into the world of US advertising. Ch 1. The 1950s Now see how advertisements in the 1950s tantalised Americans with visions of futuristic homes and cars. Ch 2. The 1960s This was the era at the heart of the TV series 'Mad Men' when Madison Avenue tapped into the growing counter-cultural movement, using irreverence and wit, and changed advertising forever. Ch 3. The 1970s A golden age in America's ad world, full of creativity and a love affair with non-conformity. But it was also fraught with new challenges, including a growing mistrust amongst consumers. Ch 4. The 1980s It's the Reagan Era, and American political confidence fuels an era of heavy consumption. The creative geniuses on Madison Avenue find new ways of attracting a booming consumer spend.

2019 • Economics