David McWilliams (born 1966) is an Irish economist, writer, and journalist. Since 1999, he has been a broadcaster, writer, economic commentator and documentary-maker. He has written five books, The Pope’s Children , The Generation Game, Follow the Money, The Good Room and Renaissance Nation, and written regular columns for the Irish Times and Irish Independent.
McWilliams has a reputation for explaining economic ideas with memorable phrases or stock characters, most famously “breakfast roll man”.
The aim of this weekly podcast is to make economics easy, uncomplicated and accessible. With the world at a political, technological and financial tipping point, economics has never been so important to all of us and yet, it’s made inaccessible and complicated by so many.
I’ve always thought what is complicated is rarely important and what is important is rarely complicated.
That will be our motto.
Every week we are going to tease out some big economic or political issue facing us, not just here in Ireland but in Europe and further afield. Globalisation has brought us all together. We all face similar challenges whether you live in Dublin, London, Minnesota or Milan.
If you would like to enjoy all of our content ad-free and have early access to episodes, subscribe to DMCW+ on Apple Podcast.
If you would like to support the show, please consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/DavidMcWilliams.
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Trieste is a city that’s belonged to everyone, and no one. This week, we go walking through a place that’s been Austrian, Italian, Yugoslav, and, at one point, technically run by the United Nations. It’s a port city without a hinterland, a European crossroads where empires once collided, and identities blurred. What if this strange, stateless city is actually a glimpse of the future? Trieste thrived when borders were open and trade was fluid. It declined when nationalism took hold and lines were drawn. In a world now swinging back toward protectionism, identity politics, and hard frontiers, Trieste’s story becomes a warning. We explore how the city gave rise to Freud, Joyce, and Svevo, why it drove Mussolini mad, and what it teaches us about globalisation, ambiguity, and the power of being in-between. It’s a story about ports, poetry, and politics, where geography becomes destiny, and liminality becomes strength. As cities everywhere wrestle with who they are and who they serve, Trieste might just be the original global city: chaotic, contradictory, and decades ahead of its time.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.