After the summer of 2020, the liberal consensus was that in order to tackle racism one had to look inwards. White people had to look inside themselves and ‘do the work’. In 2023 this ethic has spread from well-meaning allies on Twitter to the HR departments of corporate behemoths like BlackRock, all while institutions that […]

Most peoples lives are defined by the exchange of labour for a wage – but what if they weren’t? What if the state gave us a regular wage with zero strings attached, to spend as we wish? Proponents of this idea call it ‘Universal Basic Income’. Aaron is joined by Will Stronge, Director of Research […]

Izzy Posen grew up in London’s Hasidic Jewish community in Stamford Hill, receiving the bare minimum of secular education in an illegal school which still practiced corporal punishment. Even with the strictures of this insular community, he developed an acute curiosity about the world, resulting in him teaching himself English and eventually leaving the community […]

The Green Party of England and Wales has made extraordinary gains in the last two decades, especially in the last round of local elections. As well as its one MP – Caroline Lucas – the Greens are also the biggest party on several councils and have a majority on Mid Suffolk District Council. Aaron is […]

For this Downstream family special, Ash is joined by Moya and Michael – contributing editors at Novara – to discuss their lives as journalists, the scandal surrounding Nick Cohen, the combustion of Vice and gal-dem and why Novara is uniquely placed to take on the mainstream media in the UK.

Most of you will agree that corporations have undue influence over our democracies, but exactly how this influence is exerted is tricky to illustrate – and that is by design. Behind innocuous sounding acronyms and worthy sounding trade agreements are the real cogs that allow the global corporate machine to corrupt societies and our guest […]

In The UK, the last few decades have shown the steepest decline in trust in the media globally, second only to Egypt. How did we get here? Is it as simple as Rupert Murdoch wielding his malice more fervently here then elsewhere? Or are there insidious cultural factors that meant our newspapers, and increasingly our […]

This weeks guest was released from jail a few weeks before the interview. He was held on remand for 109 days after being charged for ‘conspiracy to cause a public nuisance’ – all for giving a speech. He has been part of some of the most influential activist groups of the last few years including […]

The media is awash with allegations of censorship. The works of Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming have been combed through to rid them of offensive tropes and language. Who is this seemingly gratuitous raft of cultural editing in service of? A lot of the media will have you believe that it’s the ‘snowflake’. The younger […]

Aaron is joined by Mariana Mazzucato to discuss how we’ve ended up with a management consultant industry is worth around a trillion dollars, yet with few people on the street could discern exactly how that money is spent.