On November 17th 2023 I appeared on an episode of Melvyn Bragg's BBC Radio 4 show, 'In Our TimeLink opens in a new window'Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window. The episode was on Thorstein Veblen, and it explored his critique of social processes of pecuniary emulation in the Gilded Age of late nineteenth-century US politics, culminating in the twin economic phenomena of conspicuous leisure and conspicuous consumption. I was invited onto the show in particular to discuss the politics that underpinned Veblen's economic theory. My fellow panellists were Professor Bill Waller from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY and Dr Mary Wrenn from the University of the West of England.