Podcast
The Why? Curve
Hosted by Phil Dobbie · EN
Each week Phil Dobbie and Roger Hearing get to grips with one issue that impacts our lives. It could be economic, social, technological or geopolitical. Whatever the subject, they'll talk to the experts who can give help explain what's really going on. And Phil and Roger back it up with their own research and opinions. It's half an hour to get across one of the key issues of the time, and they promise, it'll never be boring.
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12episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Heading for a crash?
1w ago00:41:07Tap to summarizeA global energy crisis - and yet Wall Street is still surging at record levels. It's largely AI that's fuelling stocks, but many see it as a bubble, and of course, AI needs a lot of the energy that is becoming increasingly scarce. So does this all mean a major correction in stock prices is coming? A market crash that could make us all poorer, and shatter the prospects of economies far away from the US? Phil and Roger ask David McMillan, Professor of Finance at the University of Stirling. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →The Kindest Generation?
2w ago00:38:10Tap to summarizeIs humanity kinder now than it has ever been before? Today we are appalled at things that were commonplace only a generation ago - unmarried mothers forced to hand over their babies for adoption, gay soldiers imprisoned for their sexuality, landlords refusing black tenants. So has empathy changed us? And what has brought that about? Phil and Roger ask Dr Steve Taylor, senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University, and author of "DisConnected: The Roots of Human Cruelty and How Connection Can Heal The World" Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →Welfare or Warfare?
3w ago00:37:50Tap to summarizeCan we afford to boost national defence alongside the growing bill for benefits, health and social care? Can the UK's shaky finances cope with both? Or is there a choice to be made, as the Russian threat pushes the need for more tanks, drones and bullets? Simon French, chief economist and head of research at Panmure Gordon, takes Phil and Roger through the difficult challenges of balancing demand and capacity in the national budget Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →Poor Lebanon
Apr 1600:39:04Tap to summarizeThe bombs have stopped falling on Iran, but not on Lebanon. Israel is talking to the Lebanese government, but has not let up in its assault on Hezbollah, which continues to fire rockets into Israel. The war in the last few weeks has cost more than 2000 Lebanese lives. Lebanon has been attacked again and again by Israel over many decades. Its economy has collapsed and hundreds of thousands have lost their homes. So why is this small country the focus of so much destruction and violence? What is Hezbollah's role? And is there any hope of long-term peace? Professor John Nagle of Queen's University, Belfast, tells Phil and Roger what has happened, and what could happen next Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →Meanwhile in Ukraine
Apr 900:41:06Tap to summarizeWhile the world’s attention has been fixed on the Iran war, the conflict in Ukraine has not gone away - and what’s happened in the Gulf is changing the situation there too. Putin has more money from the rise in the oil price, and has seen the US use its diminishing stockpile of weapons against Iran rather than sending them to Ukraine. Kyiv meanwhile has made new friends in the Gulf by assisting in anti-drone warfare - new friends with deep pockets. David Galbreath, Professor of War and Technology at the University of Bath, tells Phil and Roger how all this is likely to affect the outcome of the fighting in Ukraine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →The Arab View of Trump’s War
Apr 200:35:31Tap to summarizeAs Iran gets pounded by the US and Israel, how are the Arab nations of the Gulf feeling about the resulting disaster to their economies, and the missiles and drones landing on their cities? This wasn’t a war they wanted, and they are being left to pick up the pieces, including getting access to the Straits of Hormuz to export oil and gas. Dr Mira Al Hussein, of the Centre For The Study Of Islam In The Contemporary World at Edinburgh University, joins Phil and Roger to discuss the Gulf Arabs concerns about this conflict. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →Americans Don't Like This War
Mar 2600:38:19Tap to summarizeThe Iran war is not going down well in the US. Donald Trump's MAGA movement is badly split - this was the president who promised an end to 'forever wars' and provide a stable economy, yet troops could soon be on the ground in Iran and the price of filling up your car keeps rising. So how damaging is all this going to be for the president in a year of crucial elections? Or - if he somehow wins a great victory - could it be the saving of his presidency? Phil and Roger ask Paul Whiteley, Professor of Government at the University of Essex Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →Cuba Next?
Mar 1900:34:40Tap to summarizeWith the Iran war not going entirely as planned, does Donald Trump have his eye on another easier regime-change much closer to home? Cuba has been on his to-do list for a while, but the signals are that he needs a quick win right now, and Havana fits the bill. The Communist regime there is on its knees anyway, with its oil from Venezuela cut off, and its economy falling apart, 67 years after the Castro revolution. So could Cuba cut a deal, and what would that look like? Professor Joseph Gonzalez of Appalachian State University, North Carolina, who is writing a history of US-Cuba relations, tells Phil and Roger a surprising number of Cubans would welcome a new dose of US neo-colonialism Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →The End of International Law?
Mar 1200:41:18Tap to summarizeThe US attacked Iran without even trying to get the UN onside. It’s made it pretty clear it doesn’t feel the need to work within the UN charter, or any other rules it doesn’t like. So when the world’s biggest power ignores international law and does what it wants, has the whole system broken down? Are we now in a world where nations are unconstrained? Or has that always been the case, and the rules were just a fig-leaf to conceal the realities of power politics? Phil and Roger ask Dr Ben Murphy, Deputy Director of the International Law and Human Rights Research Unit at the University of Liverpool. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →Gunboat Diplomacy?
Mar 500:36:34Tap to summarizeThe US aircraft carrier groups were in place to threaten Iran as talks were still happening - and they helped launch the war when Donald Trump felt the negotiations were not going as he hoped. Iran’s foreign minister said Trump ‘bombed the negotiating table’. So is this the new pattern in big power geopolitics? Talk, but have a big stick waiting to ensure concessions. Or is it a return to a nineteenth century imperial style of big-power domination and intimidation? Andrew Latham, Professor of Political Science at Macalester College, and Senior Washington Fellow at the Institute for Peace and Diplomacy, talks to Phil and Roger about the return of gunboat diplomacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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