Alex Dryden: Debt Scandals, Climate Finance, Sanctions and the AI Bubble | S9EP6
Alex Dryden previously spent over a decade as a Global Investment Strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management and is now pursuing a PhD at SOAS as a macroeconomist and Research Fellow at the SOAS university in the Centre for Sustainable Finance, specialising in sovereign debt, financial markets and climate finance. He is a CFA charterholder and his research has been featured in the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and CNBC.We had the absolute pleasure to speak with Alex about his move from Wall Street to academia, and explored topics including why he left JP Morgan for a PhD, how debt-for-nature swaps actually work, and why he's worried about the scale of debt behind the AI boom.He is incredibly passionate about his subject, a brilliant communicator and a natural storyteller - qualities of a teacher!Hope you enjoy!
28 Sept 2026
Adam Habib: From Apartheid Prison to SOAS Vice Chancellor | Inspire Us S9EP5
Adam Habib is Director and Vice Chancellor of SOAS University of London. Born and raised in South Africa, he previously served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand, where he led the university through the Fees Must Fall protests. He is the author of Rebels and Rage, which recounts that period, and a former political activist who was arrested during apartheid's 1986 state of emergency.We had the absolute pleasure to speak with Adam about his life and career, and explored topics including growing up under apartheid, being arrested and held in solitary confinement, being deported from the US, why he sat with protesting students for 36 hours before calling in the police, balancing institutional empathy with academic freedom, and how UK universities can survive their financial headwinds.Hope you enjoy!
21 Sept 2026
Christopher Cramer: Civil War, South Africa, Development & Ethiopia | Inspire Us S9EP4
Christopher Cramer is Professor of the Political Economy of Development at SOAS University of London, where he has taught for over twenty years. He is the author of Civil War is Not a Stupid Thing, joint winner of the Edgar Graham Prize, and co-launched the Development Leadership Dialogue at SOAS in 2023. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a former Vice-Chair of the Royal African Society.We had the absolute pleasure to speak with Christopher about his career in development and explored topics on why civil war is not a stupid thing, writing economic policy for the ANC after apartheid, whether inequality really causes conflict, the end of USAID, what made Ethiopia work, and why success creates its own conflict.Hope you enjoy!
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2 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 35 / 100
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36
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0
YouTube
82
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