FT and Brown University economists debate banking culture, the eurozone, and US-China trade.
FT Alphachat treats business and economics as institutional problems, not market chatter. Episodes move through banking accountability, the eurozone, China policy, German exports, and online culture with patient questions and serious guests.
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FT Alphachat is a weekly panel and interview show, recorded partly at Brown University's Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance, that pairs Financial Times journalists with academic economists and policy experts for a single deep-dive conversation per episode. Host Brendan Greeley frames most episodes and is joined at times by FT Alphaville writers Jemima Kelly and Colby Smith, who conduct their own guest interviews. Recurring economic themes include banking regulation and post-2008 culture, eurozone monetary policy and the euro's structural viability, Germany's export-led growth model and its exposure to China, and US-China trade friction over industrial policy and currency. Guests are typically academic economists, central-bank-adjacent researchers, and think-tank analysts — figures like Ashoka Mody, Waltraud Schelkle, Brad Setser, and Freya Beamish — brought on to argue competing positions rather than simply explain a topic. Mark Blyth, a political economist associated with the Rhodes Center, appears across multiple episodes as a recurring interlocutor. Episodes run 35-45 minutes and favor sustained, multi-voice debate over short news hits, with hosts pushing guests to disagree on specifics like eurozone reform or bank governance. On occasion the show steps outside economics proper, as in an interview with writer Angela Nagle on online culture wars and the Christchurch attack. The show suits listeners already comfortable with macroeconomic and financial terminology rather than newcomers seeking a primer. Production is straightforward spoken-word audio with no narrative or scripted segments beyond host framing.
Made for: Listeners with existing grounding in macroeconomics and financial policy who want extended, multi-guest debate rather than introductory explainers.
What sets it apart: Pairs FT journalists with academic economists from Brown University's Rhodes Center for sustained panel debate on a single theme, rather than short news-recap interviews.
Alphachat is the conversational podcast about business and economics produced by the Financial Times in New York. Each week, FT hosts and guests delve into a new theme, with more wonkiness, humour and irreverence than you'll find anywhere else Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
FT Alphachat traces how monetary policy, trade models, and institutional incentives produce consequences far beyond markets.
FT Alphachat follows economic systems into the institutions and political choices that keep them running. Brendan Greeley's questioning moves from responsibility inside banks after the financial crisis to China's managed currency, Germany's export model, and the structural…
Brendan Greeley turns your "but who pays for that?" reflex into a full economic argument.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A sober look at how online culture wars moved from forum in-jokes into politics, media and real-world harm.
Angela Nagle's conversation with Jemima Kelly looks at the point where online culture war stops being niche internet behavior and starts shaping politics, media coverage and real violence.
A sharp discussion of why bank culture still comes down to accountability after the crisis.
Banking culture after the financial crisis is framed here as a question of responsibility, not etiquette. Brendan Greeley starts with a blunt contrast: Iceland put people in jail, the United States did so after the savings and loan crisis and Enron, but not after 2008.
A sharp eurozone debate that turns productivity, capital flows and crisis scars into live economic pressure.
The eurozone's structural problem gets a brisk, useful airing here: what can the ECB really do for weaker economies when growth is soft, bank stress is visible and countries no longer have their own currencies to devalue?
A focused FT Alphachat episode on China's managed currency, state-backed competition, and the market signals investors should watch.
FT Alphachat turns China policy into a market story, starting with Marco Rubio's question about whether U.S. companies can compete when Chinese rivals may have state backing, then moving into the mechanics of China's managed currency.
A sharp look at Germany's export model as China moves from customer to industrial threat.
FT Alphachat's "Germany's China shock" reframes Germany's export-led model as a strategic vulnerability, not just a macroeconomic habit. The episode links high national savings, budget surpluses, restrained wage income, and weak domestic demand to Germany's dependence on foreign…
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Christchurch is where the episode begins.
FT Alphachat host Brendan Greeley sits with Stuart McIntosh of the Group of 30, Nick LaPan (former superintendent of financial institutions for Canada), and Elizabeth St.
The ECB is nervous about growth.
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Germany's model suddenly looks less settled.