Dominique Olivier
Profits in America, job losses everywhere: the asymmetric AI problem
As artificial intelligence begins reshaping the labour market, the real risk may lie in the turbulent gap between jobs lost and jobs created. The uncomfortable question is whether our economic safety nets are built for disruption at this speed and scale. Is AI just Internet 2.0, or something far more worrying for policymakers? Dominique Olivier explores this topic.
Dominique Olivier
The problem with obedience
One of history's most unsettling experiments shows us that ethics tend to fall by the wayside when people are "following orders".
Is this inherent flaw in humanity an area where AI might have the moral upper hand? Dominique Olivier explores this concept by taking us through Stanley Milgram's famous experiment from the 1960s. As always, the history books teach us a valuable lesson.
Dominique Olivier
The money that makes the medallist
If you’ve ever watched an Olympic podium ceremony and thought, “Wow, must be nice,” you’re not alone. But the truth is far less glamorous than the gold glinting under those stadium lights. Behind every medal is a paper trail of budgets, grants, sponsorships and support staff invoices. Somewhere in a government office, there's a spreadsheet that makes the Minister of Sport choke on a coffee. Dominique Olivier explores the money that makes the medallist.
Dominique Olivier
The Pony Express: you can’t outrun progress
From galloping horses to "typing..." bubbles, we’ve spent centuries chasing faster ways to communicate. Clarity, it turns out, hasn’t kept the same pace. Still, a difficult recent WhatsApp exchange reminded Dominique Olivier that it used to be much harder to send a message. This is the tale of the Pony Express.
Dominique Olivier
When bad art becomes good tourism
From Ecce Homo to Ecce Mono, this is the story of how a mildly shocking attempt at art restoration became an internet meme and subsequently a tourism opportunity for the town of Borja. Dominique Olivier tells this tale of the journey from failure to fame.
Dominique Olivier
What does Barbra Streisand have in common with Swedish pirates?
Humans are curious creatures. Tell us something is forbidden and suddenly it’s the only thing we want to see. Hide information and we’ll dig for it. Try to erase something and we’ll screenshot it, repost it, remix it, and turn it into a meme before the PR company has finished drafting the apology statement. Dominique Olivier explains the root of the "Streisand effect" and other examples just like it.
Dominique Olivier
Boring business billions
The world’s richest people aren’t always building apps or chasing disruption. Here are three stories that reveal how unglamorous industries keep minting billionaires. From billboards to pig farming and car mats, there are many ways to make it big.
Dominique Olivier
The plant that monopolised Christmas
A festive staple with a surprisingly cutthroat backstory, the poinsettia’s rise to Christmas royalty is tangled up with colonial meddling, corporate monopolies, and a global plant arms race. This is the unlikely tale of how a fragile Mexican shrub became one of the most powerful products in the modern holiday economy, as told by Dominique Olivier.
Dominique Olivier
19 November 2025: the last day that we could trust our eyes
A shift in AI has severed the link between images and reality. Now we’re left navigating a world where our eyes can’t keep up. Tapping into her art school days and a famous book named Ways of Seeing, Dominique Olivier contemplates the latest jump forward in AI image generation - and what it means for trust on the internet.
Dominique Olivier
The man who sold a country that didn’t exist
This is the tale of the rise and fall of a nation that existed only on paper, and the man who convinced thousands that it was real. Dominique Olivier entertains and shocks you with the story of Gregor MacGregor, one of the most extraordinary frauds in history.
Dominique Olivier
The South Sea bubble: a financial crash to remember
If you’ve been watching the current frenzy around artificial intelligence - the breathless predictions, the overnight billionaires, the declarations that civilisation is either saved or doomed - you may feel a faint sense of déjà vu as you read Dominique Olivier's tale of The South Sea Company bubble. It even caught out Sir Isaac Newton!
