2019-20
Highlights from the projects I worked on between July 2019 and June 2020. This entry was shortlisted in the news and current affairs category at the Audio Production Awards 2020.
00:00-12:30: Murder in the Kingdom in the Sky. A prime minister accused of having his wife assassinated and replacing her with “Grace Mugabe on steroids”, and the time presenter Manveen Rana had to flee Lesotho at speed with BBC interview footage hidden in her shoe.
12:30-17:31: Stories of Our Times launch episode.
17:31-20:00: Could the tech giants get us out of lockdown? David Aaronovitch and the Sunday Times’ correspondent in Silicon Valley, Danny Fortson, on Apple and Google’s plan to turn every smartphone on the planet into a contact tracer in the next few months. And whether that particular genie can ever be put back in the bottle.
2018-19
Highlights from the projects I worked on between July 2018 and June 2019. This entry won the silver award in current affairs at the Audio Production Awards 2019.
00:00-03.30: Polarised from the RSA. Have feelings taken over the world? Have we lost our collective grip on rationality? And what can a panic about nothing at Oxford Circus last year tell us about our relationship with the truth? With author of ‘Nervous States’, William Davies.
03:30-08.15: The Weekly Economics Podcast from the New Economics Foundation. The Green New Deal has rocketed to the top of the agenda in the US. It’s an ambitious plan, spearheaded by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to decarbonise the US economy and eliminate economic insecurity at the same time. But in fact the Green New Deal has some of its origins at NEF. So what’s the story behind the development of the idea? And how would a Green New Deal actually work, both in the UK and across the pond?
08:17-16:30: Polarised. Anger is all the rage in our politics, but is anger itself the problem? With Claire Fox.
16:30-20:00: Polarised. Matthew Taylor speaks to French political journalist Marie Le Conte about being in the eye of a Twitter storm.
2017-18
Highlights from the projects I worked on between July 2017 and June 2018 for the RSA, CLASS and the New Economics Foundation. This entry won the bronze award in current affairs at the Audio Production Awards 2018.
Running order:
00:00-02:21: The beginning of the first episode of ‘Polarised’ from the RSA, setting out what the series aims to do. All of the themes raised in this intro are explored over the course of the series.
02:21-04:17: This clip opens Faiza Shaheen’s 3-part ‘CLASS on Class’ miniseries, setting out the story we’ve been told about class politics over the past 20 years.
04:17-08:19: Back to ‘Polarised’, and Matthew Taylor talks to sociologist Paula Surridge about whether there’s now a deeper and more important divide in British politics than left vs right.
08:19-09:50: A clip from episode 2 of ‘CLASS on Class’, as Faiza Shaheen uses the Great British Class Survey to find out whether her own story (the daughter of a Fijian car mechanic, she got into Oxford and now runs a think tank) proves social mobility is alive and well.
09:50-12:17: Faiza’s brother and sister tell the story of how they became class conscious.
12:17-15:00: Gary Younge joins the Weekly Economics Podcast for a special long-form interview on his reporting from ‘Middletown, America’, class, race and gun control. The podcast takes a broad view of what counts as economics, treating it not as a complicated science but as something that runs through all aspects of political life.
2015-16
Highlights from the projects I worked on between July 2015 and June 2016. This entry won me Best Newcomer and Best Podcast Producer at the Audio Production Awards 2016, to my eternal shock.
Running order:
00.00-02.43: Introduction, A Beginner’s Guide to Neoliberalism
The New Economics Foundation wanted a short, lively intro for its separate ‘Beginner’s Guide to Neoliberalism’ podcast feed, to introduce new listeners to our hosts and give them a taste of what was to follow during the six-part miniseries. Improvised chat based on my direction.
02.43-06.39: Episode 2, A Beginner’s Guide to Neoliberalism – ‘The House That Hayek Built’
The second of a six-part miniseries, telling the story of the economist who shot from obscurity to shaping the world we live in today. During recorded soundchecks we settle our guests while picking up off-topic chat to throw into the episode – giving this one a bit more of an accessible opener.
06.39-09.08: Episode 57, Weekly Economics Podcast – Fully Automated Luxury Communism
Asked what his vision for the future global economy looked like, Greece’s former finance minister said simply, “Star Trek”. Economics can be futuristic and fantastical, as this episode proves.
09.08-14.37: Ecuador special, Weekly Economics Podcast
Excerpt from a 44 min special feature. The story of a bunch of 30-something economists who suddenly found themselves catapulted into government. I waded through hours of interviews, wrote the script and worked with two economics experts to help them front the episode.