YIMBY Pod – formerly The Abundance Agenda

We discuss a new paper looking at what went wrong with grand plans to link up an area of central England with enormous growth potential – and how we could finally, finally build it. And then we speak to Hannah Camilleri on her pitch to sell infrastructure bonds to build public support for building the bridges, roads and railway lines we need.Hannah’s piece on Arguably is here.The KCL paper on the Oxford-Cambridge Arc we discuss is here.James’s Substack is here, and this week he’ll hopefully post an article.Martin’s Substack is here, and his latest video on Scotland’s self-destructive approach to nuclear power 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 seismic shift in British energy policy announced during the budget – and wonder if the shift in priorities from ‘clean’ to ‘cheap’ means the grid decarbonisation pledge is dead. Then we speak to returning champion Thomas Ableman, who has been thinking about AI and what we can learn from the tech revolutions that gave us the railways and cars. Plus he updates on the exciting progress he’s making on his Mini Switzerland plan.Thomas’s piece on lessons on AI from a 200-year-old industry is here.James’s exhaustive long-read on how energy bills are calculated and the political choices around Net Zero are here.James’s Substack is here, and this week he wrote more about how he’s personally using AI.Martin’s Substack is here, and this week he wrote about the government’s attitude to disaster preparedness. His latest video on the Rainham Volcano 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

James tells Martin about how Transport for London is upgrading almost 9,000 buses – and why there’s an extremely tight deadline. And then we’re joined by freelance transport consultant Jon Worth to talk about his epic journey on the longest train trip it is possible to ride inside the European Union – and he tells us what he’s learned about just how integrated Europe’s railways are.Jon Worth’s #CrossBorderRail blog is here, and the video of his journey is here.James’s Substack is here, and his big iBus write-up is here.Martin’s Substack is here, and his latest video on the Rainham Volcano 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 how thanks to Britain’s lack of grid infrastructure, we’re spending millions of pounds every day on ‘balancing payments’ on the grid, and James gets surprisingly mad about it. And then former West Midlands Walking and Cycling Commissioner Adam Tranter joins us to explain why James is completely wrong in his enthusiasm for pavement robots.Pavement Overload can be found here. Our previous episode about pavement robots is here.James’s Substack is here, and he picked a fight with Amol Rajan here.Martin’s Substack is here, and his blockbuster new video on the Rainham Volcano 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 Green Party’s surprising kinda-sorta-endorsement of nuclear energy, and whether it’s a big deal or not. And then we speak to Aaron Gould, CEO of the Association for Decentralised Energy all about the prospects for building more heat networks in Britain!Martin’s Substack is here, and his blockbuster new video on the Rainham Volcano is here.James’s Substack is here, and his recent essay on AI and government 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 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