The Oil Machine • 2022

58:28

In the first of this three-part series investigating consumer spending, Jacques reveals how the concept of 'product lifespan' holds the key to our ever-churning consumerism. Exploring the historical origin of planned obsolescence, when some of the world biggest electrical manufacturers formed a light bulb cartel in the 1920s, Jacques reveals how products that are essential to our modern lifestyles are still made to break. During his investigation, Jacques uncovers the process by which a crucial transformation happened and attitudes towards spending were transformed. Instead of needing new goods because our old ones were broken, we learned to want them for reasons of fashion and aspiration - awaking a consumer appetite that could never be satisfied. In the US, he visits a recycling centre where brand-new high-tech goods are destroyed before they have even come out of the box. Jacques also meets some of the companies that encourage consumers to be dissatisfied with what they have and encourage purchases as part of an ever-faster cycle of 'upgrades'. He asks a senior IKEA executive why, despite the company's commitment to sustainability, it still encourages repeated discarding and purchasing. Jacques also talks to a former senior Apple employee who reveals how the company's new focus on fashion, with its colourful iPhones, keeps us buying even when technological innovation slows.

S1E1 • The Men Who Made Us Spend • 2014 • Economics

93:47

Jan Leeming narrates a look at controversies, scandals and surprises in TV, film, music and politics in 1988, including Salman Rushdie's book The Satanic Verses igniting a literary and religious firestorm and Ian Paisley daring to heckle the Pope. On the global stage, US president Ronald Reagan and USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachev reshaped geopolitics, while a soundbite from Tory MP Edwina Currie dented the UK's confidence in eggs, leading to a nationwide salmonella scare.

S1E4 • Controversially: That Was the Year that Was • 2023 • Economics

58:48

The federal welfare state controlled American capitalism until the 1973 oil crisis and recession, which led to the election of the ultra-liberal Ronald Reagan. At the dawn of the computer revolution, a generation of entrepreneurs, including Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, emerged in Silicon Valley around Stanford University, which combined public and private research.

S1E3 • American Capitalism – The Cult of Wealth • 2023 • Economics

48:03

Indonesia is one of the most volcanically active countries in the world--the island of Java alone has 45 active volcanoes, which could erupt at any time. Descend into some of the world's most volatile craters with scientist Tom Pfeiffer, who is hell-bent on photographing rare volcanic phenomenon.

S2E3 • Volcanic Odysseys • 2016 • 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

21:13

Oil has brought great wealth to the Middle East and ignited major wars. Is it a blessing or a curse for the region, as well as the rest of the world?

S1E5 • History 101 • 2020 • Economics