About

Invisible Handcuffs: Unchaining Economics is a podcast series launched in May 2026, hosted by Katy Shields with music, art, and production by Philipp Melchers.

The interviews will form the basis of a documentary for the screen we are working on in tandem, which we hope to release within the year.

The project follows on from a documentary podcast series co-produced and narrated by Katy, back in 2023, which delved into the controversy behind the 1972 MIT study The Limits to Growth, and how attacks by economists ensured it would be ignored by the powers that be: https://tippingpoint-podcast.com/

More than 50 years on, we are unfortunately tracking closely to the scenario foreseen by the young MIT scientists. And yet mainstream economics — the 'language' of politics — continues to use models and theories that assume infinite growth, ignore nature and unpaid care and treat 'markets' as sacrosanct. They have arguably become an excuse for austerity politics that have widened inequalities, fuelled extreme inequality and cost-of-living crises — and placed hopes of meeting our ecological crises further out of reach.

Thus, we believe we cannot have a chance of meeting these crises if we do not also expose the system upholding the discipline of economics — and find ways to intervene and reform (or reclaim) it.

For further background, check out this series of essays by Katy (originally posted last year on Medium) here and this 6-minute video explainer on our YouTube site.

We'll be posting a weekly interview here, each week, as well as other ad-hoc video and written content. By subscribing you can be sure to receive news about latest episodes and content as soon as we publish it.

All of our content is free and open access, however, if you have the means please consider a paid subscription.

We are grateful to all supporters!

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