Downstream IRL: Can Capitalism Be Fixed? Aaron Bastani in Conversation With Mariana Mazzucato

Join us for our next Downstream IRL, where Aaron Bastani will be sitting down with one of the world’s most influential economists, Mariana Mazzucato, to discuss her latest book The Common Good Economy.

Our economic system is broken. The climate crisis is accelerating. Inequality is deepening. Public trust is crumbling. Wealth concentrates in fewer hands while governments scramble to fix what markets can’t do, rather than to shape them from the outset.

But what if we did things differently?

Aaron and Mariana will be discussing what it would mean to radically reimagine the economy around the ‘common good’ rather than private profit, and whether it’s possible – or indeed desirable – to fix capitalism.

What does the breakdown of the two-party system tell us about the public appetite for change? What might a serious industrial strategy for the 2030s look like? What can we learn from the success of left leadership in Mexico and Spain? Is mission-oriented innovation – from a green transition to AI – really possible? If so, why has the state been so bad at capturing the value it helps to create?

To warm things up, Ash Sarkar will first sit down with long-serving Labour MP, and former Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell. They’ll discuss whether Britain is ready for socialism in the next decade, if the Greens can offer meaningful answers and – if the system itself is broken – whether a change in political leadership is adequate.

Expect big questions, bold analysis, and the kind of conversation you simply won’t find anywhere else.

Doors will open at 6.30pm and the event will begin at 7.30pm. You’ll have the chance to grab a copy of Mariana’s book The Common Good Economy, alongside merch at our stall in the bar.