The Prospect Podcast

The country feels stuck. But can Britain prosper again? On the Prospect podcast this week, Prospect editor Philip Collins is joined by Ravi Gurumurthy to discuss this question.

Ravi is CEO of Nesta, which is a research foundation and “innovation agency”. He is a lead non-executive of the Department for Energy and Net Zero and sits on the board of NHS England. Writing in a personal capacity, he also penned the cover story in this month’s magazine (which you can read in full here.)

Phil and Ravi discuss what changes the current government could make to re-energise the country, and debate everything from housing to data. Can the UK get the energy for a transformation?
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Would you want to work with a robot? A new technological revolution is underway—but what that revolution looks like, and where it takes us, is still being determined.

This week, Ellen and Alona are joined by Sarah O’Connor, award-winning reporter and associate editor at the Financial Times, whose new book We Are Not Machines charts how AI is shaping the workplace.

Sarah shares her experience working alongside robots in an Amazon warehouse in the midlands, visiting a Swedish mine, and learning from the controllers of driverless lorries. She examines the impacts of technology on workers and asks: what makes a bad relationship between a human and a machine—and what makes a good one?

She argues that machines will never be able to replace the rich talents of a human—and explains how we can actively shape the future of AI and its impact on us.

Sarah's book We Are Not Machines is published by Allen Lane. To read more on this topic, click here.
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From nurseries to nursing homes, private equity increasingly affects all of us.

This week, Ellen and Alona are joined by journalist Hettie O’Brien, who investigates the rise of private equity in her book The Asset Class: How Private Equity Turned Capitalism Against Itself.

Hettie traces the rise of private equity partnerships and their profound impact on our economy. She tells the story of how the buyout of railway arches resulted in rising rents and small local businesses being forced out in London.

She also discusses how it influences key services like healthcare and housing, often resulting in increased costs—as well as the shocking effects on outcomes, such as mortality rates in care homes.

Why are these firms shielded from accountability? And, as societal inequality widens, what reforms need to be made?
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Although the world seems full of war and conflict, love—of all kinds—is everywhere. This week, Ellen and Alona are joined by Sally Hayden, award-winning journalist and author of This is Also a Love Story: Searching for Good in a Divided World.

As a reporter, Sally has witnessed first-hand the consequences of human brutality, as well as moments of hope. She shares stories from across the globe, from Ukraine to Japan to Syria.

Having lived in Lebanon since 2024, she also discusses life under Israeli bombardment and the tragically mundane items she finds buried amongst the rubble.

In the modern age, is empathy under attack? And why does her book include a bank robbery as an example of love? Listen to find out.

To read Sally’s Beirut diary, click here or head to prospectmagazine.co.uk.
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This month our family of writers is in a whimsical mood: Vitali Vitaliev reflects on the very different purpose toilet paper once had in Soviet Ukraine, while Anglican priest Alice Goodman laments the poor quality of the Church’s Cheeky Pandas cartoons for children. Actor and writer Sheila Hancock suffers terrible stage fright, while Sarah Collins celebrates the human antidepressants in her local community. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.