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For decades, the world has run on oil. Then this year, the war on Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz, and a fifth of the world’s oil and gas trade stopped.

The result was a scramble to buy solar panels from China. In March alone it shipped 68 gigawatts abroad, nearly three times all the solar Britain has ever installed.

Its own firms barely make a profit, and now they’re building factories across the Global South. Is this the end of the oil age, and of the American one?

Tim Sahay co-directs the Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab at Johns Hopkins and co-writes The Polycrisis with Kate Mackenzie. He tells Richard Hames how China became the world’s dominant electrostate, why its clean-tech firms are fleeing a price war at home, and what the Belt and Road 2.0 means for the rest of the world.

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In 2007, Richard Murphy, a chartered accountant of 42 years, accurately foresaw the global financial crisis. Today, in 2026, he believes we are heading for an even greater crash. And if the AI bubble bursting coincides with escalating war in West Asia, and the impacts of climate change turbocharged by El Niño, he warns the results could be ‘cataclysmic’.

On Downstream this week, Aaron Bastani sits down with the rogue accountant, tax justice campaigner, university professor and financial whistleblower, to discuss the coming polycrisis. 

Will the AI bubble bursting be more like the dot com bubble or the 2008 crash? Why are governments including Britain’s telling us to stock up on water and food supplies? And are the Treasury’s claims that there are limits to spending based in truth, or just an excuse for cowardly leadership? 

Tickets for the next Downstream IRL at EartH Hackney with Ash Sarkar and Owen Jones on November 16th are available here: https://dice.fm/event/g5v25a-novara-medias-downstream-irl-the-fall-of-the-west-16th-nov-earth-london-tickets?lng=en-US

In the Mao era, ‘barefoot doctors’ got just a few months of training before being sent out to straighten broken bones and administer vaccines.

Now China’s researchers make world-class cancer drugs, cheap surgical robots and cutting edge brain-computer interfaces. Its doctors make AI-powered avatars of themselves to deal with ever more patients.

But China is growing old before it grows rich. Cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular problems are ballooning. And its aging crisis is coming on faster because of the legacy of its one-child policy. How will China adapt?

Ruby Wang worked on the NHS Covid frontline before becoming Head of Health at the British Embassy in Beijing. And now she’s written The China Cure: The Rise of Biotech, AI Medicine and a Global Health Superpower.

She tells Richard Hames how China got from barefoot doctors to high-tech hospitals, what it learned from Covid, and what the NHS could learn from China.

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0:00 Intro02:48 China’s Medical Transformation9:31 China’s Zero-Covid Response and the Barefoot Doctors22:32 Bone Glue, Artemisinin and Traditional Chinese Medicine34:42 Covid QR Codes vs UK Track and Trace, and AI in Chinese Healthcare45:16 NHS vs China: Digital Health Records and Drug Development55:40 Chinese Surgical Robots and Brain-Computer Interfaces1:06:50 China’s Ageing Population, Falling Birth Rate and Who Pays for Healthcare

You’ve probably heard of Boots Riley’s work – Sorry To Bother You starring LaKeith Stanfield was a surprise hit, and his series I’m A Virgo got picked up by Amazon Prime. But the Oakland-raised rapper-turned-director doesn’t just want you to leave the cinema having had a good time: he wants you to start a revolution.

His new film I Love Boosters – starring the incredibly charming Keke Palmer – is about three women who shoplift from high end boutiques, and sell the clothes at a cut price in the hood. But it wouldn’t be a Boots Riley film if it stopped there. What starts as a paean to shoplifters turns into a story of working class shop floor organisation – and international communist action.

Is all art propaganda? Is shoplifting a revolutionary act? What role does style play in the revolution? And what’s it like being the most high profile communist in Hollywood, in Trump’s America?

Spoilers Warning: Information about the plot is disclosed at 17:50 – 19:20, 26:40 – 27:50, and 54:10 – 54:50.

00:00 Introduction

00:53 What’s It Like Being a Communist in Hollywood?

02:24 The Contradictions of Having Radical Politics Under Capitalism

03:23 “Suits for Rage”: The Contradictions We All Embody

08:27 How Boots Riley Became Communist

09:03 Exposing Injustice Isn’t Enough: Action is Needed

11:24 What Actually Makes People Join Movements?

13:08 Hollywood’s Problem With Radical Politics

20:10 On Craft, Creativity and Alienation

23:08 Boots Riley’s Superhero Origin Story

31:00 General Strike Now!

35:02 Every Film Is Political

42:28 Is the Right Better at Propaganda?

48:05 How the Cops Manufactured a Shoplifting Panic

53:08 It’s All Propaganda

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Ever felt like an imposter? Jem, Nadia and Keir offer a weird-left analysis of confidence – from market dynamics and private school to the power of positive thinking – with ideas from Barbara Ehrenreich, Dale Carnegie and Foucault.

For the musical version of this episode – featuring Wiley, Dolly Parton and Gloria Gaynor – head to our SoundCloud:

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