#184 - Helen Pluckrose - Liberalism, Free Speech & the Authoritarian Turn
06/17/2026 | 1h 26 mins.
Helen Pluckrose joins me to discuss how liberalism was lost and why free speech, individual liberty and viewpoint diversity need to be defended from both the authoritarian left and the authoritarian right.
Helen explains why liberalism does not mean “left wing”, why it is better understood as the opposite of authoritarianism, and how critical social justice, identity politics and language policing have changed the way people think, speak and behave. We discuss woke ideology, DEI, equality vs equity, trans rights, queer theory, free speech, institutional capture and why suppressing ideas usually makes them more powerful.
We also get into whether Britain needs a liberal revolution, how the anti-woke movement can become authoritarian itself, and why the future may depend on liberals on the left and right defending freedom within their own tribes.
TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 - What Liberalism Really Means 00:00:48 - How Did We Lose the 90s? 00:03:13 - Phones, Algorithms and Anxiety 00:08:11 - What Has Changed? 00:11:16 - Woke and Language Policing 00:13:57 - Liberalism vs Authoritarianism 00:20:57 - How Liberalism Was Lost 00:23:39 - Why Freedom Must Be Maintained 00:25:33 - Can Institutions Stay Liberal? 00:28:43 - Who Represents Liberalism Today? 00:31:28 - DEI and Discrimination 00:35:10 - Equality vs Equity 00:39:29 - Is Pro-Trans Misogynistic? 00:41:38 - Reality, Safety and Liberalism 00:46:03 - Queer Theory and Biological Reality 00:49:26 - How Civil Rights Became Language Policing 00:55:06 - A Radical Defence of Freedom 00:58:51 - Woke Corporatism 01:03:21 - The Problem With Anti-Woke 01:10:48 - Why Suppressing Speech Backfires 01:13:37 - Do We Need a Liberal Revolution? 01:18:03 - Can Sanity Return? 01:21:00 - The Liberal Case on Immigration 01:24:17 - Liberalism as the Higher Value
#183 - Chris Summerfield - AI, Memory & the Race to Superintelligence
06/09/2026 | 1h 16 mins.
I talk to Chris Summerfield about what artificial intelligence reveals about the human mind, and what the brain still does better than today’s AI systems.
We discuss why LLMs feel human, how models are trained to be helpful and agreeable, why memory and continual learning remain major unsolved problems in AI, and how sleep helps humans consolidate knowledge. They also explore agentic AI systems, rogue behaviour, reward hacking, misalignment, superintelligence, education, jobs, and whether AI will make humans more capable or less in control.
TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 - Can AI Learn Like Biology? 00:01:29 - Is AI Becoming Human? 00:04:31 - What AI Reveals About the Brain 00:06:01 - Why LLMs Don’t Remember Like Humans 00:09:38 - Sleep and Human Memory 00:13:46 - The Biggest Unsolved Problem in AI 00:15:34 - From DeepMind to Modern AI 00:20:49 - Are Humans Just Predicting the Next Word? 00:23:25 - Do We Understand What LLMs Are Doing? 00:24:16 - One of My AIs Went Rogue 00:28:07 - Misalignment and Reward Hacking 00:33:18 - Could AI Develop Self-Interest? 00:36:24 - What Happens When AIs Coordinate? 00:38:30 - Are Humans Biological Computers? 00:39:15 - Is Ideology a Hallucination? 00:47:46 - What Is Intelligence? 00:54:20 - AI and the Education Problem 00:56:53 - The First Rung of the Career Ladder 01:04:52 - Optimist, Pessimist or Pragmatist? 01:16:01 - The Wild Ride Ahead
#182 - Julian Jessop - Big Government Broke the Growth Model
06/06/2026 | 1h 6 mins.
Julian Jessop joins me to discuss what has gone wrong with the British economy and whether the country can still turn things around.
Julian argues that Britain’s problems are largely self-inflicted: weak productivity, high taxes, too much regulation, poor energy policy, a bloated state and politicians choosing popular policies over evidence. We discuss why the state has become too big, why the tax system is holding back growth, and why government intervention in housing, energy and the labour market is making people poorer.
I also ask Julian about Reform, the Greens, Labour, the Conservatives, Makerfield, Liz Truss, Milei, the NHS, digital ID, Brexit, AI, free markets and whether Britain still has a path back to economic sanity.
TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 - The State Got Too Big 00:00:57 - What Went Wrong With Britain? 00:03:16 - Productivity, Policy Mistakes and AI 00:04:43 - Did Covid Make Government Too Powerful? 00:06:25 - Is Democracy the Problem? 00:08:10 - Vibe-Based Policy 00:10:21 - Young People and the First Job Problem 00:13:06 - Can Britain Turn This Around? 00:15:36 - Protest Votes and Broken Politics 00:17:29 - Reform’s Policies Under Scrutiny 00:20:15 - The State Helps Big Business 00:21:40 - Britain’s 90 Taxes 00:23:03 - Thatcher, Liz Truss and Economic Competence 00:26:20 - Why Free Markets Are a Hard Sell 00:30:15 - Could Poland Overtake Britain? 00:30:41 - Short-Term Politics and Weak Leadership 00:39:46 - What Is Extreme Now? 00:42:00 - Do Voters Understand the Trade-Offs? 00:45:57 - Does Britain Need a Milei? 00:48:24 - How Big Should the State Be? 00:49:40 - Why People Defend the NHS 00:54:01 - Why Government Tech Fails 00:55:09 - Makerfield, Burnham and Reform 01:01:49 - Restore’s Opportunity 01:04:24 - What Gives Julian Hope?
#181 - Tom Bilyeu - AI, Bitcoin & the Rigged Economy
06/03/2026 | 1h 25 mins.
Tom Bilyeu joins me to discuss debt, money printing, broken politics, AI, Bitcoin and why the economy feels rigged against ordinary people.
Tom argues that every empire eventually faces the same test: whether it can hold the power of the money printer without printing itself into oblivion. We talk about inflation, the debt cycle, asset prices, populism, Britain’s decline, and why the working and middle class are being squeezed.
We also get into AI and the future of work. I talk through my own recent experience building a system in seven days that would once have taken a full team and hundreds of thousands of pounds, and Tom explains how AI has already changed the structure of his business.
TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 - The Economy Is Rigged 00:01:09 - Are We Driving Off a Fiscal Cliff? 00:03:04 - Debt, Money Printing and Inflation 00:04:36 - The Final Boss of Economics 00:07:02 - America’s Founding and Wealth Extraction 00:10:19 - Can America Be Saved? 00:11:46 - Economics Has Physics 00:16:06 - Debt, Cancellation and Freedom 00:19:03 - The Thucydides Trap 00:21:42 - Politics Has Not Been Disrupted 00:25:15 - Populism and the Shrinking Pie 00:29:07 - Asset Inflation Is Vile 00:35:59 - UK Politics Is Breaking Down 00:40:36 - Is Sweden Really Socialist? 00:42:40 - Where Is the Hope? 00:50:16 - Tom’s View on Bitcoin 00:53:17 - Peter’s AI Eureka Moment 00:57:56 - How AI Changed Tom’s Business 01:03:02 - The Four Futures of AI 01:12:56 - Is Reality a Simulation? 01:24:34 - Tom’s Final Warning
#180 - Frank Wright - Reality Is Radicalising People
05/29/2026 | 2h 35 mins.
Frank Wright joins me after going viral for saying that reality, not extremism, is radicalising people.
We discuss Britain’s decline, Restore, Reform, immigration, national identity, liberal democracy, working-class dignity, debt, inflation, the failure of our institutions, and why Frank believes this is the last chance to save the nation.
I push Frank on what it actually means to restore Britain, how you build a big enough tent, why nationhood matters, and how we avoid this ending in conflict.
Whatever your politics, Frank has clearly touched a nerve - and I wanted to understand why.
TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 - Reality Is Radicalising People 00:01:01 - Frank’s Viral Week 00:03:28 - Why People Refuse to See Reality 00:06:44 - Feminism, Childcare and Family 00:10:04 - Propaganda in the West 00:16:30 - Factists, Fascists and Utopia 00:21:09 - Liberal Rights and Reality 00:29:59 - What Does Frank Wright Want? 00:36:31 - What Radicalised Frank? 00:44:53 - Reform, Restore and Machine Politics 00:49:04 - Rupert Lowe and “I Don’t Care” 00:52:23 - The Cost of Saying Nothing 00:54:45 - Reform vs Restore 01:00:27 - Is Populism Enough? 01:14:49 - Surrogacy and the Commodification of Life 01:18:38 - Who Really Runs Britain? 01:24:03 - The Cost of Truth 01:27:23 - Are We Finished? 01:33:22 - Why Nationhood Matters 01:38:16 - Working-Class Dignity 01:47:00 - Restore in Makerfield 01:57:22 - Will Frank Wright Become an MP? 02:04:23 - Why Government Can’t Govern 02:18:21 - Debt, Inflation and the Middle Class 02:29:45 - Frank’s Final Warning
The Peter McCormack Show - politics, macro, Bitcoin and AI, long-form interviews. Twice-weekly conversations about money, power, and the shifts reshaping the next decade.Peter McCormack interviews politicians, economists, investors, journalists, founders and Bitcoiners. Past guests include Liz Truss, Lyn Alden, Curtis Yarvin, Matt Goodwin, Mike Green, Balaji Srinivasan, Rupert Lowe, Firas Modad, Scott Horton, Jeff Booth, Connor Leahy, Andrea Miotti, Neema Parvini, Dr Tim Gregory and Simon Dixon.Recurring threads: the debt and inflation endgame, UK political collapse and what comes after, Reform and the populist wave, the Middle East and the American war machine, AI safety and the race for superintelligence, energy and net zero, Bitcoin adoption and policy, and the slow-motion decline of Western institutions.Long-form - most episodes run 60 to 120 minutes. New episodes 2 to 3 times per week. Video on YouTube and Spotify.Host: Peter McCormack, a retired rapper from Bedford, UK, trying to understand this crazy world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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