Capitalism moves mountains, sometimes literally. It’s unchallenged as the world’s dominant economic system. And yet, in its current form, capitalism is on trial as it hasn’t been for at least half a century. People across the political spectrum are questioning the status quo. Millions, young people especially, now see capitalism as the problem, not the solution. Others fear throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
In Scene on Radio Season 7, Capitalism, host and producer John Biewen and co-host Ellen McGirt—longtime business and economics reporter and Editor in Chief of Design Observer Magazine—outline the history of capitalism, from its emergence in Europe 500 years ago up to the present. And they explore alternatives, from reforms of capitalism as we know it to more radical transformations.
The Story Editor for Capitalism is Loretta Williams.
Season 7 Trailer: Capitalism
Welcome to Season 7: Capitalism. The world’s dominant economic system is on trial as it hasn’t been for at least half a century. This season tells the story of capitalism — how people with power built and shaped it over time. We’ll also explore what to do now that many people see capitalism as the ...
S7 E1: Market Failure
Introduction to our 7th season: Capitalism. The world’s dominant economic system is on trial as it hasn’t been for at least half a century. Millions, young people especially, now see capitalism as the problem, not the solution. Others fear throwing out the baby with the bathwater. By John Biewen, with co-host Ellen McGirt. Interviews with John Fullerton, ...
S7 E2: BC: Before Capitalism
To fully grasp capitalism, it helps to understand the system it replaced – and the most meaningful differences between feudalism and capitalism. We visit the British Isles of the Middle Ages. By John Biewen, with co-host Ellen McGirt. Interviews with Karen Dempsey, Ben Jervis, and Eleanor Janega. Story editor: Loretta Williams. Music by Michelle Osis, Lilli Haydn, Alex ...
S7 E3: Ships, Swords, and Fences
From the voyages of Columbus and Vasco da Gama to colonial conquest and the Atlantic Slave Trade, to the privatization of land in western Europe: humanity’s turn toward the capitalist world we live in now.By John Biewen, with co-host Ellen McGirt. Interviews with Jayati Ghosh, Jason Hickel, Jessica Moody, Charisse Burden-Stelly, Silvia Federici, and Eleanor Janega. Story ...
S7 E4: Invisible Hand Guy?
Economic change happens in a cultural context. We trace the tectonic shifts in the Western mind that made capitalism thinkable — in part through a look at two Enlightenment thinkers: Baruch Spinoza and Adam Smith. (The real Smith, not the one often held up as the patron saint of unfettered capitalism.)By John Biewen, with co-host Ellen McGirt. Interviews with Kate Rigby, ...
S7 E5: A New Thing in Human History
An age of invention and mass production, propelled by a new mechanism – the corporate research lab – leads to a surge in material wealth like the world has never seen. How does a new nation, the United States, overtake its parent as the leader of the capitalist order? And what does it all mean ...
S7 E6: Thirty Glorious Years
How the balance of power shifted, for a time, in the decades after World War II, and led to a better kind of capitalism – if you think prosperity being broadly shared is a good thing. By John Biewen, with co-host Ellen McGirt. Interviews with Eric Rauchway and Brad DeLong. Thanks to the Studs Terkel Archive ...
S7 E7: Gilded Age 2.0
After 40 years of neoliberalism, most Americans of every political stripe agree that the economy is “rigged” in favor of corporations and the wealthy. But we may not know the half of it.By John Biewen, with co-host Ellen McGirt. Interviews with Nancy MacLean, Edward Balleisen, Brad DeLong, Marjorie Kelly, and Oren Cass.Story editor: Loretta Williams. ...
S7 E8: The People’s Pushback
Over several decades, a growing number of people in the United States and elsewhere – especially younger people – have turned against capitalism. The reasons are not hard to find.Reported by Lewis Raven Wallace and produced by John Biewen, with co-host Ellen McGirt. Interviews with Esteban Kelly, Josh Bivens, Malaika Jibali, and Evan Caldwell.Story editor: ...
S7 E9: At the Tipping Point
In 1972, a team of young scientists at MIT published a study exploring what would happen to human civilization if people kept pursuing endless economic growth on a finite planet. They weren’t just disbelieved, they were ridiculed. The story of Donella Meadows and The Limits to Growth.Reported and produced by Katy Shields and Vegard Beyer, with co-hosts ...
S7 Ep10: The Extracted
A visit to West Africa and Western Europe to look at the cocoa trade. Did the colonial side of early capitalism – Western countries getting rich at the expense of poorer nations – ever change, or does it continue today? Reported by Ugochi Anyaka-Oluigbo and written by Ugochi and Loretta Williams, with co-hosts John Biewen and ...
S7 E11: Better Capitalism?
In the first of two episodes looking at responses to capitalism’s failings, we look at reforms aimed at making the current economic system more humane, fair, effective, and sustainable.By John Biewen with co-host Ellen McGirt. Interviews with Lutz Schwenke, Jordi Llatje i Espinal, Marjorie Kelly, Oren Cass, Jayati Ghosh, John Fullerton, and Rick Alexander.Story editor: Loretta Williams. ...
S7 E12: Reimagined Economies
In our season finale, we visit with people on two continents who are turning core structures of capitalism on their heads – or, at least, sideways. By John Biewen, with co-host Ellen McGirt. Interviews with John Fullerton, Ander Exteberria, Deseree Fontenot, Corrina Gould, Regan Pritzker, Dana Kawaoka-Chen, Mateo Nube, and Marjorie Kelly.Story editor: Loretta Williams. ...
