YIMBY Pod – formerly The Abundance Agenda

We talk through two of the highlights in Andy Burnham’s conference speech – his pitch to build historic quantities of council housing, and plans to create “GB Grid’. Martin gets a birthday treat in the form of some intriguing news about enemies of the pod Natural England. And we speak to economist Omer Bor about his fascinating piece ‘Britain wants to build homes near trains it can’t afford to run’.
James wrote up his longer thoughts on Andy Burnham’s conference speech, and a deep dive into which MPs are the most and least memorable in Westminster.
Martin wrote ‘The AI Apocalypse is Extremely Boring Now’, and his YouTube channel is here – a new video is dropping tomorrow!
Try James’s two stupid games: MP Recall and MP Chain!
Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!
YIMBY Pod is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!
You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

We talk about how progress sometimes has winner and losers, by looking at the case of someone who is almost uniquely screwed by the new Universal theme park. Then we follow up on three things we’ve talked about on the pod – on-street EV charging, environmental delivery plans and… how the bloody Prime Minister has cast doubt on Heathrow’s third runway again, after it all seemed like it was happening. And we speak to Anya Martin about her fascinating new paper, arguing that we need to create an autonomous vehicle tax now – before it’s too late!
James wrote up his Guardian debunking here, and covers two other bad data centres stories too.
James wrote about how access to AI compute is a social justice issue (and don’t forget to check out last week’s post about why we should turn East Anglia into Britain’s Shenzhen.)
Martin’s wrote ‘The AI Apocalypse is Extremely Boring Now’, and his YouTube channel is here.
And try James’s two stupid games: MP Recall and MP Chain!
Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!
YIMBY Pod is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!
You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

We try to channel the spirit of Tim Harford and debunk some rather strange numbers in the Guardian’s data centre reporting. Then we speak to James Howat from ThinkLabour about how bringing back municipal bond markets to get Britain building again.
James wrote up his Guardian debunking here, and covers two other bad data centres stories too.
Martin’s Substack is here, and his YouTube channel is here.
Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!
YIMBY Pod is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!
You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

The government has discovered a new weapon to fight the British state’s sluggishness – an angry letter. And we speak to policy consultant Adam Tyndall about the latest on Heathrow’s third runway, and just how close we are to it actually happening.
James recently wrote about data centres again, picking a fight with the Guardian in the process.
Martin’s Substack is here, and his YouTube channel is here.
The letter we discussed on the show is here.
Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!
YIMBY Pod is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!
You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com

We talk about the security implications of the latest AI advances – and how the British government should respond to threat. And more importantly, James claims victory in his argument with Martin over AI. Then we speak to the brilliant Jonn Elledge about his new book, 31 Inventions that Built Our World.
James recently wrote about the national security case for building data centres, and how to fix Top Gear.
Martin’s Substack is here, and his YouTube channel is here.
Don’t forget to tell your friends about the pod – and leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts!
YIMBY Pod is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and hopefully wherever you get your podcasts!
You can find James on Bluesky here, and Martin here.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.abundancepod.com