Episode 007
Bring back the captains of industry
Rian Chad Whitton
0:00
Show notes
Rian Chad Whitton is a research analyst specialising in automation, industrial policy, and energy markets at Bismarck Analysis who writes on Substack under the name Doctor Syn and won the TXP Progress Prize for his essay on British energy policy.
Rian discusses:
How British industry declined from being the first Promethean nation to losing competitiveness due to loss of empire, high wages, and poor policy decisions like industrial deglomeration
Why manufacturing remains crucial for national security, productivity growth, and regional equality despite the push toward services
How Britain could revitalise industry through lower electricity costs, nuclear power expansion, and promoting large industrial conglomerates similar to South Korean chaebols
Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Read the transcript.
Timestamps
(00:00:00) - Introduction
(00:01:44) - British Industry History
(00:06:50) - Current Industry Status
(00:12:47) - R&D and Innovation
(00:19:35) - Service Economy Debate
(00:25:18) - Military and Manufacturing
(00:32:23) - Industrial Policy Models
(00:45:30) - Automation and Jobs
(00:55:33) - Education and Skills
(00:59:23) - Conclusion
More episodes
Keep listening.
Episode 57
Speculative aesthetics in the algorithmic age
Mat Dryhurst
We are not in the King Charles III Space Station this week. We are in Harriet Green’s sister station, which is a less reliable bit of lore but a more useful studio. Into it comes Mat Dryhurst: English conceptual artist, Berlin resident, collaborator with...
Listen to episode
Episode 56
How to build a city on the moon
Nicholas Boys Smith
From the thatched-roofed orbital pub of the King Charles III Space Station — a structure Nicholas Boys Smith gamely declines to call a pastiche — Tom and Calum welcome the campaigner for architectural beauty, founder of Create Streets, and former co-chair,...
Listen to episode
Episode 55
The US has broken with decades of international consensus by issuing its own mining permits for the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a potato field of metallic nodules the size of Western Europe at the bottom of the Pacific. Tom, who has found his next...
Listen to episode