I opened this first autumn show in full curmudgeonly mode, talking about the season, old memories, and a moving memorial I’d just attended for a former colleague and bandmate, David. That led us into stories about music, friendship, Motown, Martha Reeves, comic art, and the strange way time seems to speed up as the years stack up. It was one of those episodes that wandered from the personal to the cultural before settling into the big themes that keep returning here: history, power, and the stories we’re told about both.The heart of the show was my conversation with John Briggs about banking, debt creation, usury, and his book Alice and the Money Tree. We talked about why the money system is so hard to explain to people, why simple stories and illustrations may work better than heavyweight economics texts, and why this issue sits underneath so many others. In the final hour, Monica Schaefer joined us with a grave update on her brother Alfred’s case in Germany, using it as a wider reflection on political prisoners, free speech, psychological warfare, and the costs of dissent. Across both conversations, the thread was the same: if we want change, we have to understand the structure beneath the surface and find better ways to communicate it clearly and courageously.Paul English Live: https://paulenglishlive.com/Paul English on Food For Thought Radio: https://www.fftradio.com/djs/paul-english/Paul English Live on Rumble: https://rumble.com/PaulEnglishLiveFood For Thought Radio: https://www.fftradio.com/FFT Schedule (including Fockham Hall / The People's Lawyer Reality Check): https://www.fftradio.com/schedule/The Global Voice: https://www.theglobalvoice.info/Euro Folk Radio: https://eurofolkradio.com/radio/UK Column: https://www.ukcolumn.org/Alice and the Money Tree by J.M. Weston Briggs: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43826082-alice-and-the-money-treeEconomics for Helen by Hilaire Belloc: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/75629/75629-h/75629-h.htmAlice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55Common Sense by Thomas Paine: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/147/147-h/147-hBleak House by Charles Dickens: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9695Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell: https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/books-by-orwell/nineteen-eighty-four/Citizen Kane on TCM: https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/titles/89Frank Bellamy Checklist Website and Blog: https://www.frankbellamy.co.uk/Heath Robinson Museum: