Josef Chen is the founder of KAIKAKU, a London-based company developing automation technology for restaurants. A former Imperial College student, Chen created his first Bitcoin faucet at age 13 and previously worked as the first intern at Bitpanda (Austria's first unicorn startup). After growing up working in his parents' Chinese restaurant from age six, Chen has now returned to the industry with a mission to transform it through robotics and technology.

Calum and Tom talk to Josef Chen about on:

• Josef's remarkable journey from peeling potatoes in his parents' Austrian restaurant at age six to founding a cutting-edge robotics company
• How KAIKAKU's "living laboratory" approach enables rapid hardware development and real-world testing of restaurant automation
• Why specialised robots designed for specific tasks will outperform humanoid robots in practical applications
• The widespread misallocation of engineering talent in Britain, with top graduates being lured into finance instead of building tangible solutions
• How restaurant automation can free staff from mundane tasks to focus on genuine hospitality and customer experience
• Josef's vision for rebuilding Britain's engineering culture through initiatives like London Micro Grants

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Substack. Produced by Aeron Laffere.

Sweetgreen’s S-1 Filing - Deep dive into a US tech-forward restaurant chain’s unit economics, vision, and automation strategy

Ocado’s AI-powered robotic arms: levelling up efficiency in online grocery and logistics - Case study of one of the few globally competitive UK hardware automation efforts

Neko Health - Example of vertically integrated tech x real-world experience design, referenced by Joseph

London Micro Grants - A live initiative for empowering grassroots builders in the UK with small-scale funding

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Douglas Carswell is a British politician who served as a Member of Parliament from 2005 to 2017, first as a Conservative before defecting to UKIP in 2014. A prominent Brexit campaigner and co-founder of Vote Leave, he now runs the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, a free-market think tank in the United States. Carswell is known for his advocacy of democratic reform, limited government, and economic freedom.

Calum and Tom talk to Douglas Carswell about:

• Douglas's experience in Mississippi where free-market reforms have accelerated economic growth beyond the UK's
• How Britain's "Blairite Ascendancy" of 30 years has empowered unaccountable experts and regulatory bodies that block elected officials from governing effectively
• A detailed blueprint to restore executive power through orders in council, civil service reform, and judicial restraint
• Proposals for public spending cuts of £170 billion and tax reductions including abolishing tariffs, lowering VAT, and reducing income taxes
• Addressing immigration through tighter controls and a voluntary "re-migration" program for non-contributors
• The cultural dimensions of Britain's troubles and the need to reassert Anglo-American values against cultural relativism
• How these reforms could unlock British innovation and prosperity if leaders have the courage to endure short-term pain

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Substack. Produced by Aeron Laffere.

Milestones: Nine steps to restore Britain - the essay outlining Douglas Carswell's detailed proposals

Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World by Tom Holland - Mentioned by Carswell as influential to his understanding of Western values

Looking for Growth campaign - A UK initiative advocating for policies to boost British economic growth

Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson - Explores how political institutions impact economic success

The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg - Examines the changing relationship between individuals and the state

Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt - A classic text on free-market economics

State Capacity Libertarianism by Tyler Cowen - A blog post that reimagines libertarianism with a focus on effective government

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We welcome Cllr Tom Jones to the KCIII. Tom serves as the Councillor for Scotton & Lower Wensleydale on North Yorkshire Council and is also an accomplished essayist.

Cllr Jones joins Calum and Tom to discuss Anglofuturism, immigration reform, and how Britain can build a more productive, high-wage future:

• The origins and appeal of Anglofuturism as both an aesthetic and political movement responding to economic stagnation and declining living standards for young Britons
• Tom Jones' immigration paper "Selecting the Best" which argues Britain's reliance on mass immigration has created a low-wage, low-productivity economy
• How "human quantitative easing"—importing cheap labor rather than investing in automation—has damaged British productivity and wages
• The car wash industry as a case study where cheap migrant labor replaced automated systems, creating exploitation and environmental problems
• The need to redirect state capacity toward strategic priorities like energy, manufacturing, and defence instead of dispersing resources
• How greater automation and selective high-skill immigration could transform Britain into a high-wage economy capable of meaningful global influence

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Substack. Produced by Aeron Laffere.

Correction: At 44:30, Cllr Jones says dependents are mostly economically inactive. He has written to correct this, clarifying that while a significant portion are economically inactive, it is not more than half.

Selecting the Best: Building a Future-Focused Immigration System

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The government is attempting to seal its giveaway of the Chagos Islands: a crucial archipelago in the Indian Ocean that was uninhabited when the Portuguese found them, but to which Mauritius – thousands of miles away – has made a specious claim. Extraordinarily, the British government is trying to indulge that claim – and to pay billions to continue to use the island that hosts a military base.

The public has still not been given a satisfactory explanation for the giveaway, but the prime minister and the attorney general are thought to be of the view that Britain should obey a non-binding judgment by a partisan international court. That court is stacked with enemies of Britain... but the wallet inspector must be obeyed!

Starmer and co are inches away from sealing the giveaway. But they reckoned without a ruddy young Anglofurist...

Our very own Calum Drysdale!

Calum and Lord Kempsell are together launching a judicial review into the putative giveaway. As news breaks of the judicial review, Tom and Calum discuss:

• The history of the Chagos Islands
• The bizarre logic of the government
• Britain's slender hopes of keeping the islands

HMG now has 14 days to respond to Calum and Lord Kempsell.

Co-presenters: Tom Ough and Calum Drysdale

Producer: Æron Laffere

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1768, Captain Cook set sail with secret instructions: to find the last unknown continent, theorised to lie at the globe's most southern extreme.

More than 250 years later, that continent remains protected by an international treaty. Britain's slice is about eight times as big as Britain itself – and its exposed rock makes it the best part of Antarctica for mining.

The British Antarctica Territory (BAT), in short, could make Britain fabulously wealthy. The treaty is up for discussion in 2048. But other countries want that slice...

Tom and Calum discuss the BAT's history, current state, and future – a Anglofuturist's dream.

Tom's Telegraph article on the topic: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/23/the-antarctic-oil-bonanza-that-could-save-britain/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The thatch has been combed... the pint glasses are squeaky-clean... and the Anglofuturism podcast is back! Tom and Calum are once again broadcasting from the King Charles III orbital thatched pub. Today we welcome Lawrence Newport, darling of the British progress movement and bane of vicious dogs.

Lawrence got the government to ban the XL bully – a savage breed of dog with a horrific record of violence. Having dispatched the dogs, he is now coming for the Nimbys and the criminals via two new campaigns: Looking for Growth and Crush Crime. Lawrence and his colleagues are, in our view, some of the country's most important practitioners of practical Anglofuturism.

Lawrence, Tom and Calum talk about the most effective ways to bring down crime, whack up infrastructure, and force the government to do things it doesn't want to do. We also hear the inside story of the XL bully campaign.

LFG: https://lookingforgrowth.uk/

Crush Crime: https://crushcrime.org/

Audio editing by Calum Drysdale and Aeron Laffere.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this series finale, Calum and Tom welcome Samo Burja to the King Charles III Space Station.

Samo is an analyst whose highly-regarded San Francisco-based consultancy views history as being shaped by 'live players'.

When was Britain last a live player? What kind of activity would be required to wrench us off our course towards oblivion?

Samo also discussed his plan for making Britain the wealthiest country in the world: seek energy abundance, prospect Antarctica, and become the compute capital of the world. Oh, and spend the entire NHS budget on drug discovery.

Read Bismarck Brief here:

https://brief.bismarckanalysis.com/

And read Palladium, the magazine Samo runs here:

https://www.palladiummag.com/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rian Chad Whitton is a research analyst specialising in automation, industrial policy, and energy markets at Bismarck Analysis who writes on Substack under the name Doctor Syn and won the TXP Progress Prize for his essay on British energy policy.

Rian discusses:

• How British industry declined from being the first Promethean nation to losing competitiveness due to loss of empire, high wages, and poor policy decisions like industrial deglomeration
• Why manufacturing remains crucial for national security, productivity growth, and regional equality despite the push toward services
• How Britain could revitalise industry through lower electricity costs, nuclear power expansion, and promoting large industrial conglomerates similar to South Korean chaebols

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.