# How Britain Became as Poor as Mississippi Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/lost-debate-4428349/how-britain-became-as-poor-as-mississippi Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/lost-debate-4428349/how-britain-became-as-poor-as-mississippi.md Podcast: [Lost Debate](https://stenobird.com/podcast/lost-debate-4428349) Published: 2026-06-17T20:01:00+00:00 Episode link: https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/LDI1934014236.mp3 Audio file: https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/LDI1934014236.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/lost-debate-4428349/episodes/how-britain-became-as-poor-as-mississippi Duration seconds: 2903 ## Resource Britain was once one of the world’s economic success stories. Today, parts of the UK are no richer than Mississippi. Atlantic staff writer Idrees Kahloon joins Ravi Gupta to unpack Britain's stunning decline: 18 years of wage stagnation, the fallout from austerity and Brexit, crumbling public services, sky-high housing costs, and the rise of Nigel Farage's Reform Party. They also discuss whether standardized testing is making a comeback in American higher education—and what that says about merit, inequality, and elite institutions. Leave us a voicemail with your thoughts on the show! 201-305-0084⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@LostDebate Follow Ravi at @RaviMGupta Notes from this episode are also available on Substack: https://thelostdebate.substack.com/ Read more from Ravi on Substack: https://realravigupta.substack.com Follow The Branch at @thebranchmedia Listen to more episodes of Lost Debate on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lost-debate/id1591300785 Listen to more episodes of Lost Debate on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7xR9pch9DrQDiZfGB5oF0F Listen to Where the Schools Went: https://thebranchmedia.org/show/where-the-schools-went/ ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/lost-debate-4428349/episodes/how-britain-became-as-poor-as-mississippi/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/lost-debate-4428349/how-britain-became-as-poor-as-mississippi.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.