Inside Lehman Brothers • 2019 • Storyville

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

58:54

Once upon a time there was a large Finnish company that manufactured the world's best and most innovative mobile phones. Nokia's annual budget was larger than that of the government of Finland and everyone who worked there shared in the windfall. But global domination cost the company its pioneering spirit and quantity gradually took over from quality, with new phone models being churned out by the dozen. Market share eroded, until in 2016, mobile phone production in Finland ceased. The Rise and Fall of Nokia is a wry morality tale for our times, told by those that lived and worked through the rollercoaster years in a company that dominated a nation.

2018 • Economics

110:01

This documentary seeks to be the ultimate Odyssey of exploration into Cannabis and its uses starting from the formation of the Endocannabinoid system in the simple sea squirt, through to its early uses, the plant's medical benefits and landing at the modern legalisation movements across the Globe. Where the billions generated in tax could be re-invested back into hospitals, roads, fire departments, scientific research, community projects and the list goes on.

2018 • Economics

58:35

In the second of this three-part series, Jacques reveals how fear remains one of the most powerful drivers of our spending. Visiting a neuroscience lab, Jacques hears from a consumer psychologist about how our brains are much more responsive to negative than to positive stimuli. He also meets some experts who have turned this knowledge into an art form, helping manufacturers make billions from our anxieties and insecurities. At the remote chateau of French anthropologist Clotaire Rapaille, Jacques learns how our sense of fear drives us in ways many of us do not understand - and how Rapaille's insights have helped companies sell us everything from SUVs to cigarettes. At the Beverley Hills pad of multimillionaire marketer Rohan Oza, he hears how Oza's connections to celebrities helped propel VitaminWater into the soft drink stratosphere, despite the fact that the product's health claims have been called into question. Jacques also confronts the men who say they are combating our most deep-seated fear - of age and decline. In Las Vegas, he mingles with the doctors and businessmen attending a global conference aimed at selling us ways to stay young and healthy, challenging them to justify their claims for the anti-aging business that has made them rich.

S1E2 • The Men Who Made Us Spend • 2014 • Economics

59:01

Wayne Pacelle, President of the Humane Society of the United States, draws a practical roadmap for how we can use the marketplace to promote the welfare of all living creatures, and how industries, innovators and consumers are coming together in this powerful social movement.

S1E6 • Curiosity Retreats: 2016 Lectures • 2016 • Economics

51:51

In recent years, the Netherlands and Belgium have become major drug trafficking hubs in Europe, with almost 80 percent of the continent's cocaine passing through Rotterdam or Antwerp. This has led to the rise of the "Mocro Mafia," criminal networks of Dutch people of Moroccan origin. These gangs began by trafficking hashish from Morocco but now use the same routes for the more profitable cocaine trade, sourced from Latin American cartels. Consequently, the "Mocro Mafia" has become one of the world's richest criminal organizations, generating an estimated fifty billion euros annually in Antwerp alone—10 percent of Belgium's budget. The violent "Mocro Mafia" gangs have unleashed a reign of terror. They kill lawyers, magistrates, journalists, all without a second thought. They have even threatened government ministers in Belgium and the Netherlands. Anyone who challenges their network is a potential target. The drug money is so pervasive within the economy that, according to some, Belgium and the Netherlands risk becoming narco-states. This threat has been taken very seriously by the authorities and the police. Public anxiety rose even further after the horrifying discovery of a torture chamber in a shipping container used as an 'underworld prison' by the gangs, as well as the murder of journalist Peter de Vries. We investigate the "Mocro Mafia," the new ultra-violent criminal organisation which is shaking Europe.

2022 • Economics