Econ to Icon

What's This Podcast
About?

What does it actually take to turn economic thinking into real-world change? Not in the textbook sense, but in the messy, political, human sense, where the best analysis can still get killed in a Treasury meeting, where losing an election at five in the morning in a leisure centre is how a career ends, and where a pension reform you care about has to be disguised as a Lib Dem concession before it gets through. Econ to Icon is a podcast about the people who have lived that gap between economic theory and economic reality. Hosted by economist Paul Johnson and careers coach Michael Kell, it brings together figures who have shaped British economic life from the inside — as ministers, civil servants, journalists, regulators, and advisors — and asks them not just what they did, but what it was actually like. The conversations go places that policy papers don't. Steve Webb describes the precise moment he decided to enter politics — watching a Conservative hold a seat on election night, furious at his own mild-mannered IFS neutrality. Sharon White reflects on implementing austerity while working inside the Treasury that designed it, and what she wished had been done differently. Stephanie Flanders talks about the vertigo of going live on the BBC economics editor, knowing that someone in the audience will catch you if you're wrong. Tim Harford explains how he wrote his first book with no agent, no publisher, no journalism experience — just 80,000 words and a conversation over coffee. Amelia Fletcher navigates two parallel careers — competition economist and indie rock musician — and finds they're less different than you'd think. Dan Corry reveals how a shadow budget designed to reassure voters instead handed the Conservative Party its most effective attack line. Each episode covers the substance — pension reform, the minimum wage, digital regulation, austerity trade-offs — but always alongside the human story: the turning points, the moments of doubt, the unexpected ways careers actually unfold. If you're interested in economics, in public policy, or simply in how people build careers that matter, Econ to Icon offers something rare: candour from people who were genuinely in the room.

Podcast Copyright

2026