The David McWilliams Podcast

Broadcasting from the streets of Medellín, we dive into Latin America’s reaction to the stunning removal of Nicolás Maduro, and the strange new reality taking shape in Caracas. Is this regime change, an oil grab, or something far more experimental? We’re joined again by Latin America analyst Juan Gabriel Tokatlian, who argues this is the birth of something unprecedented: a U.S.-managed protectorate where Washington negotiates directly with whoever actually holds power,the military and the Chavista elite, while keeping a “second round” of force on the table. From China’s billions now stuck at the back of the queue, to the return of 17th-century-style capitalism where corporations and states move as one, we explore what Venezuelans, Colombians, and the wider region fear comes next. If Maduro is gone… who’s really in charge now — and for how long? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s 2026, and Ireland is skating on a thin economic edge. With the US retreating from Europe, American industry is stalling here, no new labs, no new factories. Our entire model of tax-light, job-rich multinational growth might be reaching its sell-by date. The housing crisis rages, younger people emigrate, and a risk-averse political class hides behind admin. We break down the "known knowns" for Ireland’s year ahead, from capacity crunches to a society shaped by contentment, not ambition. And what if Troy Parrott brings us to the World Cup, could football give us the only real growth story this year? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Venezuela once rivalled Switzerland in wealth, today it’s produced more refugees than Syria. What happened? We go straight to Buenos Aires to talk to leading Latin American analyst Juan Gabriel Tokatlian about how a petrostate collapsed without a war, why US policy is pushing the region to the edge, and what might really be behind American naval deployments off the Venezuelan coast. Is regime change in the air? And if Venezuela falls, is Cuba next? Latin America may be Washington’s backyard, but it’s about to become the world’s front line. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For 2,000 years, China has played a different game. While Europe fragmented, fought, and conquered outward, China focused inward, on standardisation, stability, and turning a vast empire into a single nation. In this episode, we explore why China emerged from 2025 stronger than any other power, why it has no interest in ruling the world, and why that restraint may be its greatest strength. From the invention of a shared written language to state exams, from imperial bureaucracy to modern supply chains, we trace how China built power by consolidating at home while quietly extending economic influence abroad. This is a story of conquest, of control, and why the West still struggles to understand a system that values internal cohesion over imperial adventure. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We usually remember Genghis Khan as history’s ultimate destroyer but what if he was also its first great economic integrator? In this episode, we rethink the Mongol Empire not as pure terror, but as the largest continuous free‑trade zone the world has ever seen, stretching from Korea to Ukraine. By reopening the Silk Road after a thousand years, the Mongols allowed ideas, technologies, and capital to flow from China to Europe; paper, gunpowder, money, insurance, trade associations, even early globalisation itself. The same networks that spread innovation also carried the Black Death, halving Europe’s population and accidentally laying the economic foundations for the Renaissance. From biological warfare to free movement of people and goods, this is the story of how a nomadic empire reshaped the global economy, and why globalization is far older, darker, and stranger than we like to admit. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.