Macrodose

On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at how the US dollar’s prominence as the world’s reserve currency is facing more tests (0:36), and how the AI boom is under pressure with data centre power constraints to soaring chip prices (11:24).
Subscribe to support the show at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/Macrodose.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at ⁠macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk⁠.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to ⁠⁠⁠planetbproductions.co.uk⁠⁠⁠.
Listen to Death In Westminster - a new documentary podcast from Planet B Productions & Novara Media:⁠⁠https://novaramedia.com/category/audio/death-in-westminster/#the-station

On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at how nuclear power plants are being shut down because of a rapidly breeding organism invading its systems (0:33), and the striking rise in government borrowing costs right across the world (3:20).
Subscribe to support the show at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/Macrodose.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at ⁠macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk⁠.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to ⁠⁠⁠planetbproductions.co.uk⁠⁠⁠.
Listen to Death In Westminster - a new documentary podcast from Planet B Productions & Novara Media:⁠⁠https://novaramedia.com/category/audio/death-in-westminster/#the-station

On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at a bank that holds an unconventional asset that has come a cropper with rising temperatures (0:38), the growing commercial opportunity for new freight routes due to melting ice in the arctic (5:59), and how data centres are struggling to keep up with the demands of AI training (10:27).
Subscribe to support the show at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/Macrodose.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at ⁠macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk⁠.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to ⁠⁠⁠planetbproductions.co.uk⁠⁠⁠.
Listen to Death In Westminster - a new documentary podcast from Planet B Productions & Novara Media:⁠⁠https://novaramedia.com/category/audio/death-in-westminster/#the-station

"If you go together and if you fight for it, then you are visible."
Over the last four episodes of this series, we've heard about the daily struggles, exhaustion, the invisibility, and the structures that keep these burdens in place. In our final episode, we ask cleaners themselves what resistance looks like.
From “Justice for Janitors” across the Atlantic, to the Cleaners Parliament in the Netherlands,this episode traces the rise of worker-led organising—and shows how cleaners are turning isolation into solidarity, and silence into a demand for justice that can no longer be ignored.
In this episode, we hear from:🗣️Khadija Hiati, who started as a cleaner and went on to serve as President of the Dutch Cleaners' Parliament from 2011 to 2024. She describes the shock of being disrespected on her very first day—and why she decided to fight back, becoming a trailblazer for women with migration backgrounds.
🔥Herrie Hoogenboom, a veteran union organiser in the Netherlands who helped shape the Cleaners' Parliament campaign. He explains why the movement "radicalised" his views on politics, why they called it a "parliament" to give workers dignity, and how they organised sit-ins, strikes, and a historic demonstration of 800 undocumented workers.
🇺🇸🇲🇽Valery Alzaga, who brought the legendary Justice for Janitors (J4J) organising model from the United States to Europe. She shares the non-negotiable principles of the campaign: workers must lead the decisions, unions must research their opposition better than they know themselves, and when the "nice way" fails, escalation is justified.
🇩🇪 Zeynep Bicici (returning from Episode 4), President of UNI Europa Property Services, on Germany's "uprising of the invisibles"—the strike where women dared to make themselves visible and demand proper pay and respect.
🎧 Unsung Cleaners is a podcast by UNI Europa, co-funded by the European Commission. The show is produced by Seden Anlar. Interviews and narration by Gail Rego. Project coordination and interpretation by Alessia Mora and Mark Bergfeld. Special thanks to all the cleaners and union organisers who shared their stories and to dubbers Seden Anlar and Alessia Mora.

On this week's Macrodose, James Meadway looks at how British supermarkets warn of the looming food crisis (0:34), how Japan could be the canary in the economic coalmine (7:24), and how extreme heat is making nuclear power unreliable (14:48).
Subscribe to support the show at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/Macrodose.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Your pledge is a donation supporting free public education; perks are thank-you gifts for your support.
Got a question or comment? Reach out to us at ⁠macrodose@planetbproductions.co.uk⁠.
To learn more about the work we do at Planet B Productions, head to ⁠⁠⁠planetbproductions.co.uk⁠⁠⁠.
Listen to Death In Westminster - a new documentary podcast from Planet B Productions & Novara Media:⁠⁠https://novaramedia.com/category/audio/death-in-westminster/#the-station