Activities and Outputs
'In Our Time' Episode on Thorstein Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class, BBC Radio 4
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.
'In Our Time' Episode on David Ricardo's Principles of Political Economy, BBC Radio 4
On March 25th 2021 I appeared on an episode of Melvyn Bragg's BBC Radio 4 show, 'In Our Time'Link opens in a new window. The episode was on David Ricardo, and it explored his distrust of the landlord class and his use of free trade models as an economic counterpoise to the landlords' political control of parliament. I was invited onto the show in particular to show how Ricardo's economics can be read politically. My fellow panellists were Professor Richard Whatmore from the University of St Andrews and Dr Helen Paul from the University of Southampton.