Radical with Amol Rajan

This week, Shiv Malik, the man behind the proposals for ‘Forest City 1’, takes your questions. He’s a former investigative journalist turned campaigner: instead of writing another book about Britain’s housing crisis, he’s trying to build his way out of it.
Forest City is his ambitious pitch for Britain’s first new city in more than 50 years: a million-person settlement east of Cambridge, with around 400,000 homes, new rail links and thousands of acres of new woodland.
We hear Shiv talk about his own background and credentials, whether ‘Forest City’ is actually affordable, and if people can shift their mindset in favour of a new kind of city living. Plus, what will Shiv’s “beautiful” new homes actually look like?
GET IN TOUCH:
WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480
Email: radical@bbc.co.uk
Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Monday and Thursday.
Amol Rajan presents the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He also hosts University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was the BBC’s media editor and editor of The Independent.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Rufus Gray, Oscar Pearson, and Julian Paszkiewicz. Digital production was by Jonathan Greer. Technical production was by Leona Gasper. The series producer is Rufus Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

This week, Amol is joined by the author and journalist Shiv Malik, to discuss his plan to build a new mega-city from scratch in East Anglia.
In 2010 Shiv Malik wrote a book called the Jilted Generation, which argued that anyone born since 1979 has been robbed of their future because of how expensive home ownership has become.
Now, he’s dedicating his life to a plan for a new city that he thinks will save Britain, and prove that we can be builders again.
Shiv wants to build ‘Forest City’ on 45,000 acres of farmland in East Anglia. His vision is one of Canary Wharf style sky-scrapers surrounded by England’s largest nature reserve of 12,000 acres, with 400,000 affordable homes for one million people.
The ambitious project has got some big economists and architects very excited. But people living in the proposed area are extremely upset by the prospect, with some experts saying it isn’t even logistically possible.
We put those challenges to Shiv, and find out why he thinks that his radical idea is necessary not just for housing British people, but also rebuilding British ambition.
GET IN TOUCH:

- WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480
- Email: radical@bbc.co.uk
Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and Monday.
Amol Rajan presents the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 and hosts University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was the BBC’s media editor and the editor of The Independent newspaper.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Rufus Gray, Oscar Pearson, and Julian Paszkiewicz. Digital production was by Leona Gasper. Technical production was by Mike Regaard. The series producer is Rufus Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

Kate Raworth believes that mainstream economists have got it wrong for decades. For her, reducing everything to a simple measure of gross domestic product and increasing that number every year is a huge mistake that is harming both people and planet.
In 2017 she proposed a radical alternative in a book called ‘Doughnut Economics’. It proposes a new economic model that priortises social and environmental needs instead of how much we produce and consume.
Many of you asked us to invite her on the podcast, and you've also sent in your questions - so we put them to her.
We get Kate’s view on whether it's possible to build long term consensus for her approach at a time when people want short term solutions and whether there is a better metric to measure economic success. We also hear her assessment of universal basic income, and a former Radical guest challenges Kate’s fundamental beliefs on economic growth.
GET IN TOUCH

* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480
* Email: radical@bbc.co.uk

Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Monday and Thursday.

Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Oscar Pearson and Julian Paszkiewicz. Digital production was by Daniel Raza. Technical production was by Mike Regaard. The series producer is Rufus Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

What if growth wasn’t the main goal for economic prosperity? Kate Raworth, the author and economist behind Doughnut Economics, tells Amol why she thinks that measuring success by GDP growth is unsustainable, immoral, and an unfit economic model for the 21st century. Kate’s thesis goes against centuries of economic consensus and has radical ideas for how to overhaul the system by prioritising nature and wellbeing. She argues that real abundance is possible, but only if we learn from nature and live within the planet’s limits.
GET IN TOUCH:
* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480
* Email: radical@bbc.co.uk
Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and Monday.
Amol Rajan presents the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 and hosts University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was the BBC’s media editor and the editor of The Independent newspaper.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Oscar Pearson and Julian Paszkiewicz. Digital production was by Daniel Raza. Technical production was by Mike Regaard. The series producer is Rufus Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

This week, Amol is joined by Ben Cohen, one half of the team behind Ben & Jerry's ice cream, who stopped by on his way to the South by Southwest festival to answer your questions. They include queries on whether ethics is more important to business success than a good product? Can companies be trusted to fulfil corporate responsibilities without government oversight? And how does he square his ethical stance with the fact that his ice cream is an ultra processed food?
* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480
* Email: radical@bbc.co.uk
Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Monday and Thursday.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Tom Smithard and Oscar Pearson. Technical production was by Mike Regaard. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.