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Pocket Dilemmas: big answers to big questions

What happened to the hopes and dreams of 1989?

Rate, review and subscribe to our podcast Pocket Dilemmas Join Jonathan Charles and Kerry Law on a journey to the region which breached the Berlin Wall and tore down the Iron Curtain in 1989. Where are the peoples of Germany, Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union three decades on? We ask in this very special episode of our Pocket Dilemmas podcast. How far have their dreams of freedoms and prosperity been realised? And what is the future for market economics, democracy and political pluralism in these EBRD regions? Our special guests, BBC Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg, author of a new documentary on the 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and EBRD Chief Economist Beata Javorcik, help us shed light on these questions and the influence exerted on them by the rise of populism. Like what you hear? Review our podcast on iTunes, email us at dilemmas@ebrd.com, or tweet us @EBRD #EBRDdilemmas You can rate, review and subscribe to Pocket Dilemma on ITunes, Spotify and Soundcloud, or wherever you get your podcasts. Episode notes: Steve Rosenberg 30 years since the Fall of berlin Wall https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-49971599 Netflix: Chuck Norris vs Communism https://www.chucknorrisvscommunism.co.uk/ Berlin Wall’s fall marked the end of the Cold War for the American public https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/11/03/berlin-walls-fall-marked-the-end-of-the-cold-war-for-the-american-public/ Eastern Europeans democracy attitudes: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/10/16/where-americans-and-europeans-agree-and-differ-in-the-values-they-see-as-important/

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  • How to make Chernobyl safe for the future

    36:41|
    Rate, review and subscribe to our podcast, Pocket Dilemmas What are the lessons to be learnt from Chernobyl? How does one decommission a power plant which has been the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident and manage its legacy? The EBRD has been working on making the Chernobyl nuclear power plant safe for over 25 years, as explained in the latest episode of the Pocket Dilemmas podcast. Taking part are: • Simon Evans of the EBRD’s Nuclear Safety team • Irina Velichko, a lead engineer at the site who joins us live from the site As usual, the hosts of the Pocket Dilemmas podcast are Jonathan Charles and Kerrie Law Like what you hear? Be sure to click the ‘like’ button and rate us on iTunes Episode notes: US Nuclear Energy Institute- released a fact sheet Chernobyl podcast- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUeHPCYtWYQ EBRD YouTube Chernobyl-https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-g1ugEHzOCqYKuSFJ49-0yL2PdaXp8SF
  • What is the future of poverty?

    29:06|
    Rate, review and subscribe to our podcast Pocket Dilemmas Earlier this year Bill Gates tweeted an infographic showing ‘how much life has improved over the last two centuries,’ particularly as measured by an apparent decline in extreme poverty. The graph provoked fierce debate amongst economists across the globe. In this episode of Pocket Dilemmas our presenters, Jonathan Charles and Kerrie Law, were joined by our Chief Economist, Sergei Guriev and the Chief Economist of the UK Department for International Development, Rachel Glennerster to discuss the past, present and future of poverty. Like what you hear? Review our podcast on iTunes, email us at dilemmas@ebrd.com, or tweet us @EBRD #EBRDdilemmas You can rate, review and subscribe to Pocket Dilemma on iTunes, Spotify and Soundcloud, or wherever you get your podcasts.
  • Mind the LGBTQI pay gap!

    34:08|
    Rate, review and subscribe to our podcast, Pocket Dilemmas How does sexual orientation affect the pay gap? While we often hear of the gender pay gap, we set about exploring how sexual preferences impact salaries and rights in the workplace and elsewhere On this week’s episode of Pocket Dilemmas we speak to Kitt Carpenter Professor of Economics at Vanderbilt University, and Cevat Aksoy, one of our economists, on the LGBTQI pay gap and were surprised by some of the findings from the research. For example, on average gay men in the United States earn 11 per cent less than heterosexual men, while lesbians earn 9 per cent more than heterosexual women. As usual, the hosts of the Pocket Dilemmas podcast are Jonathan Charles and Kerrie Law Like what you hear? Be sure to click the ‘like’ button and rate us on iTunes. You can rate, review and subscribe to Pocket Dilemma on ITunes, Spotify and Soundcloud, or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us on Twitter @EBRD #EBRDdilemmas and email us via dilemmas@ebrd.com .
  • Megatrends: Is the future already here?

    51:20|
    Rate, review and subscribe to our podcast Pocket Dilemmas We recorded the most recent episode of Pocket Dilemmas in front of a live audience in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital Sarajevo, host of last week’s 2019 Annual Meeting and Business Forum. Our presenters, Jonathan Charles and Kerrie Law, led a discussion of the most pressing challenges of our time - climate change, technology, urbanisation, resource scarcity and global power shifts- inside the country’s Parliament Building. There was also a Q&A session with the audience. The line up of guest for this episode included: • Alexia Latortue, EBRD Managing Director, Corporate Strategy • Sergei Guriev, EBRD Chief Economist, • Neil Buckley, Financial Times, Chief Leader writer • Tim Judah, Economist Correspondent for the Western Balkans, and Fellow at IWM - Institute for Human Sciences • Hemant Kanoria, Chairman and Managing Director of India’s SREI Group Also taking part were Leo Johnson, host of BBC Radio 4’s FutureProofing, Petre Shilegov, Mayor of Skopje, and Erion Veliaj, Mayor of Tirana. Like what you hear? Review our podcast on iTunes, email us at dilemmas@ebrd.com, or tweet us @EBRD #EBRDdilemmas You can rate, review and subscribe to Pocket Dilemma on ITunes, Spotify and Soundcloud, or wherever you get your podcasts.
  • Taking the cryptic out of cryptocurrencies

    29:03|
    Rate, review and subscribe to our podcast, Pocket Dilemmas What is the future of money? Are cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin a modern-day miracle or a mirage? We invited our very own Stuart Trow and Zeynep Gurguc from Imperial College London to help us resolve this week’s dilemma on our podcast Pocket Dilemmas. We also talked to Jelena Madir, Chief Counsel and our main blockchain expert, and Urmas Peiker, the founder of Funderbeam, the world's first primary and secondary marketplace for earlystage investments, secured by the blockchain. As usual, the hosts of the Pocket Dilemmas podcast are Jonathan Charles and Kerrie Law Like what you hear? Review our podcast on iTunes, email us at dilemmas@ebrd.com, or tweet us @EBRD #EBRDdilemmas You can rate, review and subscribe to Pocket Dilemma on ITunes, Spotify and Soundcloud, or wherever you get your podcasts. - #AskDraghi: “A euro today is a euro tomorrow” – can the same be said for #bitcoin? - Liberland : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberland - Discussing IBM’s foray into blockchain – based payment systems -- https://www.cnbc.com/bitcoin/ - Funderbeam clip - Mt. Gox faced questions long before crisis: Sources – https://www.cnbc.com/2014/03/30/mtgox-faced-questions-long-before-crisis-sources.html - The US dollar to reign supreme for decades to come -- https://www.cnbc.com/2014/04/24/future-of-money-what-currencies-will-look-like-in-25-years.html
  • Age against the machine and the future of work

    30:04|
    Rate, review and subscribe to our podcast Pocket Dilemmas What is the future of work? How will technology, automation and AI change our jobs and will we and our children actually have jobs the way we do now? Will, in fact, the future be a battle between us and the machines? This week we have Jason Furman from Harvard Kennedy School and our Chief Economist Sergei Guriev as our guests to help us resolve this dilemma on our podcast Pocket Dilemmas. As usual, the hosts of the Pocket Dilemmas podcast are Jonathan Charles and Kerrie Law. Like what you hear? Review our podcast on iTunes, email us at dilemmas@ebrd.com, or tweet us @EBRD #EBRDdilemmas You can rate, review and subscribe to Pocket Dilemma on ITunes, Spotify and Soundcloud, or wherever you get your podcasts. - War of the Worlds (The Eve of the War) – Jeff Wayne (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eCAphdQPck) - AI isn’t taking our jobs – but it is changing how we recruit – Brian Peccarelli (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/01/ai-is-changing-the-way-we-recruit) - Will a robot take your job? – BBC news (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-34066941) - Our soft skills can keep robots in their place – Ed Conway (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/our-soft-skills-can-keep-robots-in-their-place-hzzp609hl) - Global unemployment hits lowest point for 4 decades – Steve Johnson (https://www.ft.com/content/1e8f4cf4-f257-11e8-ae55-df4bf40f9d0d) - 5 things I’m telling my kids to prepare for in the future – Stephane Kasriel (https://www.fastcompany.com/90247298/5-things-im-telling-my-kids-to-prepare-them-for-the-future) - Work in transition – EBRD Transition Report 2018-2019 ( https://www.ebrd.com/transition-report-201819) - Are we living in a time of unprecedented migration? Hein de Haas (https://sharingperspectivesfoundation.com/video-lecture/video-1/)
  • Should algorithms rule the world?

    28:04|
    Rate, review and subscribe to our podcast Pocket Dilemmas Should algorithms rule the world? Maybe they do so already and we just never noticed. Will they in fact do a better job than mere humans? What are the ethical implications of the algorithm use for the policy makers? Embed We invited Jonnie Penn, Google Technology Policy fellow, and Dawn Duhaney, Partnerships Manager at UK Wellcome Trust to be our guests and help us resolve this dilemma on our podcast Pocket Dilemmas. As usual, the hosts of the Pocket Dilemmas podcast are Jonathan Charles and Kerrie Law Like what you hear? Review our podcast on iTunes, email us at dilemmas@ebrd.com, or tweet us @EBRD #EBRDdilemmas You can rate, review and subscribe to Pocket Dilemma on ITunes, Spotify and Soundcloud, or wherever you get your podcasts. - Measuring the new economy – 2014 OECD report (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/341889/725159/OECD+Manual+Measuring+the+Digital+Economy/6418c566-4074-4461-9186-9ad509bc4a4d) - Kirk Bansak, the Immigration Policy Lab (IPL) at Stanford University, https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-01/su-i-aaf011218.php - What is an algorithm? https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/articles/z3whpv4
  • The Brexit dilemma and its impact on the EBRD regions

    51:03|
    Episode One, dedicated to the origins of Brexit and its impact on the EBRD regions ( over 30 economies inside and outside the EU), was recorded in front of a live audience at our headquarters at the heart of the City of London on 3rd April and you can now listen to it here. Are there winners and losers? What do people outside the EU think about Brexit? We have all the answers here. The Pocket Dilemma hosts, Jonathan Charles and Kerrie Law, welcomed a great line up of guests, including: Sergei Guriev, EBRD Chief Economist Elina Ribakova, Deputy Chief Economist, IIF, Visiting Fellow, Bruegel Michael Kitson, Senior Lecturer in International Macroeconomics, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge Tweet: @EBRD #EBRDdilemma Email us your dilemma: dilemmas@ebrd.com Notes: Mythbusters EU: https://blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/euromyths-a-z-index/ The rise of word Brexit: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37896977