Past Present Future
Past Present Future is a bi-weekly History of Ideas podcast hosted by David Runciman, creator of Talking Politics. The show explores the history of ideas spanning politics, philosophy, culture, and technology. Each episode features conversations with historians, novelists, scientists, and other thinkers about the origins, meanings, and relevance of key ideas. New episodes are released every Wednesday and Sunday.
Episodes
The Lives of the Philosophers: Iris Murdoch
Today is the final episode in our series about the relationship between twentieth-century biography and philosophy. David talks to Nikhil Krishnan about the life and thought of Iris Murdoch, a deeply philosophical novelist and a fully committed philosopher. How was Murdoch influenced by the ideas of Plato? Why did she believe that metaphysics could serve as a guide to morals? What lessons did her
The Lives of the Philosophers: Hannah Arendt
In today’s episode about the intersection between twentieth century philosophy and biography David talks to the historian and literary critic Lyndsey Stonebridge about the life and thought of Hannah Arendt. How did Arendt, who was Jewish, make sense of her passionate relationship with Martin Heidegger, who was a Nazi? How did she experience her double exile, first to France and then to the United
The Lives of the Philosophers: Elizabeth Anscombe
Today’s episode in our series about twentieth-century philosophy and biography explores the life and thought of Elizabeth Anscombe (G. E. M. Anscombe), a remarkable and remarkably uncompromising philosopher. David talks to Nikhil Krishnan about Anscombe’s relationship with Wittgenstein, her relationship with Catholicism and her fierce relationship with the truth. Why did she believe that consequen
Now & Then with Robert Saunders: Gladstone vs Disraeli Part 2 (Burnham vs Badenoch)
In the second part of David’s conversation with historian Robert Saunders about the impact of the Bulgarian crisis of 1876 on the course of British politics, they discuss how Gladstone used the controversy to plot his way back to power. What made his campaign in the Midlothian constituency a watershed in the history of parliamentary democracy? How did he overcome Queen Victoria’s resistance to ret
Now & Then with Robert Saunders: Gladstone vs Disraeli – The Bulgarian Horrors
In our occasional series with historian Robert Saunders about significant political anniversaries, we remember the appearance of a pamphlet exactly 150 years ago that changed the course of British politics. On 6th September 1876 William Gladstone published The Bulgarian Horrors: The Question of the East, which reignited and reshaped his epic rivalry with Benjamin Disraeli. What made the two m
The Lives of the Philosophers: Jean-Paul Sartre
In today’s episode exploring how twentieth-century philosophy and biography intersect David talks to philosopher and biographer Kate Kirkpatrick about Jean-Paul Sartre, a thinker whose life has been as closely scrutinised as his ideas. What made Sartre an existentialist? How was he shaped by his wartime experiences? Was he, as his critics claimed, a useful idiot for fashionable causes? Why has his
The Lives of the Philosophers: J. L. Austin
David talks to philosopher and author Nikhil Krishnan about the life and times of a little known but highly influential twentieth-century philosopher: J. L. Austin, who believed that the deepest truths lay in understanding how ordinary language worked. Why was Austin so opposed to the ideas of A. J. Ayer? How were his experiences in planning D-Day in 1944 an extension of his approach to philosophy
The Lives of the Philosophers: Camus
In our series about how twentieth-century philosophy and biography intersect, David talks to philosopher Alex Carter about the life of Albert Camus, novelist, playwright, journalist, celebrity and public intellectual. What makes Camus a philosopher as well? How was he shaped by his Algerian background? Does it make sense to call him an absurdist? How did he try to reconcile the very different part
The Lives of the Philosophers: Simone Weil
The second life we explore in our series about the twentieth-century philosophers could not be more different from the first: David talks to philosopher Alex Carter about Simone Weil, who died aged just thirty-four and lived through much political and personal hardship, some of it self-inflicted. How did her asceticism inform her philosophical outlook? Why did she believe she needed to work in a f
The Lives of the Philosophers: A. J. Ayer
Today we begin a new series exploring twentieth-century philosophy through the lives of the people behind the ideas. First up David talks to philosopher Nikhil Krishnan about A. J. Ayer, the man who helped inspire the rise and fall of logical positivism. What did Ayer discover about the nature of truth when he went to Vienna on his honeymoon? How did he manage to popularise such a technical approa
Forensics on Trial
In today’s episode David talks to forensic anthropologist Sue Black about what happens when forensic science and forensic expertise end up on trial in the courtroom. When and how did scientists get involved in the business of criminal prosecution? What changed with the advent of DNA testing? Is the adversarial system the best way of testing scientific evidence? Can a jury distinguish between good
The History of Bad Ideas: Overdiagnosis
We come to the end of this series of bad ideas with a conversation with neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan about the problems of living in an age of diagnosis, when all medical conditions need a label and new labels appear all the time. What happens when the classification criteria for conditions like autism and ADHD get broader and broader? Are doctors or patients driving this? When does predictive t
The History of Bad Ideas: Short-Form Video
Today’s bad idea is one with a very recent history but also a long backstory: David talks to author and journalist James Marriott about what happens when the written word gets supplanted by video and when videos get shorter and shorter. Did the rot set in with television, with YouTube or with TikTok? Is short-form video a symptom or a cause of our shrinking attention spans? What does it mean to ha
The History of Bad Ideas: Decadence
Today’s bad idea is also one that is very hard to pin down: David talks to writer and literary scholar Ian Ellison about the concept of decadence, which went from explaining the fall of ancient Rome to becoming a label modern artists wanted to claim for themselves. What makes a society decadent? Is it always a bad thing? When does decadence explain what’s happening and when does it distract from w
The History of Bad Ideas: The Romantic Hero
Today’s bad idea spans literature, film, pop culture and plenty else besides: David talks to literary critic and memoirist Catherine Taylor about what’s wrong with romantic heroes, from Byron and Heathcliff to James Dean and Jack Kerouac to Bridget Jones’s Mr Darcy and Andy Burnham. How did Romanticism give rise to the template for the brooding outsider who gets the girl? Which was the only Bronte
The History of Bad Ideas: The Electoral College
Today’s bad idea is one the United States has been stuck with for a long time: David talks to historian of America Adam Smith about the damage done by the idea of the electoral college. Why was it thought necessary by the Founders to have special electors between the voters and their choice of president? What made it a dead letter almost as soon as it was created? How has it served to distort or d
The History of Bad Ideas: Utilitarianism
Today’s episode in the history of bad ideas is about one of the central ideas in modern philosophy: utilitarianism, or the view that what matters is the greatest happiness of the greatest number. David talks to philosopher Nikhil Krishnan about how something that sounds so intuitively unobjectionable can produce some extremely objectionable outcomes. What is utility and how do we measure it? Does
The History of Bad Ideas: Political Leadership is What Counts
Today’s bad idea is a pervasive political myth: the notion that what really matters at election time is political leadership. David talks to political scientist Jane Green about why leaders are less important than they – and we – tend to think. What does shape how people choose to vote? Why do we consistently overstate what leaders can do? Did Blair or Johnson or Starmer really ‘win’ their electio
The History of Bad Ideas: Celebrity
David talks to historian and broadcaster Greg Jenner about the surprising history of the idea of celebrity, from Roman generals to 18th-century child stars to contemporary pop culture icons. How is celebrity different from fame or renown? What makes celebrity so seductive, so pervasive and, sometimes, so dangerous? Why are celebrity culture and commercial culture inextricably linked? And what are
The History of Bad Ideas: Deliverism
Today’s episode is about a bad idea with a very recent history: David talks to political historian David Klemperer about the dangers of deliverism. When did the view that delivering for the voters is a good idea become so controversial? What does it get right and what does it get wrong about how elections are decided? Has politics become more about telling the right story than about delivering the
The History of Bad Ideas: Narrative History
Today’s bad idea is a way of doing history: David talks to historian Alec Ryrie about the seductions and pitfalls of narrative history. Why do we need more Herodotus and less Thucydides? What makes so many historians believe that the meaning of a story is determined by its end? How does narrative history distort our understanding of contemporary events? And how can podcasts do it better?
Out tomo
The History of Bad Ideas: Hysteria
For the first in a new set of episodes about bad ideas with interesting histories David talks to the writer and broadcaster Helen Lewis about hysteria, an ancient idea that became a very modern diagnosis. Why was hysteria associated with both madness and saintliness? How did Charcot and then Freud use hysteria to rationalise otherwise baffling female behaviour? What happens when group hysteria tak
Where Are We Going? The Future of the Future
In the second part of their conversation about what has happened to our ideas of the future David and Ivan Krastev explore where the future is going next. Why do our expectations of what comes after us shift as we live longer and our societies age? What changes in the human understanding of the future as humans get displaced by machines? And where might we end up if we continue to fixate on end-of
Where Are We Going? The Idea of the Future
Today’s episode is the first of two with writer and political scientist Ivan Krastev exploring what has happened to our ideas of the future. When did thinking about the future become the way we defined our present? What goes wrong with democracy when we start to lose our faith in the future? Why did the end of history turn out to be an illusion? And how has Trump changed the way we experience poli
Live Film Special: Never Let Me Go w/Adam Rutherford
Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to the geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford about Mark Romanek’s 2010 film of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 novel Never Let Me Go. A story of cloning and organ donation that explores the meaning of mortality, is it science fiction, speculative fiction or something else entirely? How can a f
Now & Then with Robert Saunders: The Brexit Referendum 10 Years On
Today’s episode in our occasional series looking at significant political anniversaries explores the causes and consequences of the Brexit Referendum, which took place 10 years ago this week. David talks to historian Robert Saunders about why the referendum was called, how the vote was won and how it was lost, and what made it such a difficult decision to implement. Did the referendum change who w
Live Special: Jimmy Wales on the Lessons of Wikipedia
Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Cheltenham Science Festival: David talks to Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales about what we can learn from the astonishing success of an encyclopaedia built by its users. When and how did people realise they could trust Wikipedia? What makes Wikipedia different from Uber, Airbnb and other online businesses that depend on public trust? Are
The Great Political Fictions: HHhH
Our final great political fiction (for now!) is a meta-fiction and auto-fiction that is also a compelling work of historical reconstruction. Laurent Binet’s HHhH (2010) tells the story of Operation Anthropoid, the mission that led to the assassination of Reinhold Heydrich, the architect of the Final Solution. Why was Binet so eager to recast history as a struggle between good and evil? How does he
The Great Political Fictions: The Years
The penultimate great political fiction in this series is not strictly a fiction: it’s Annie Ernaux’s retelling of her own life in The Years (2008), thereby recapturing the story of France in the second half of the twentieth century. How can one woman’s story stand in for all the others? What does this book tell us about the passing of political time? Why do the years 1968 and 1981 mark the end of
The Great Political Fictions: The Human Factor
Today’s political fiction is a spy novel, a Cold War comedy and a meditation on the nature of good and evil: Graham Greene’s The Human Factor. Why has Greene so fallen out of fashion? What made the South African secret police his idea of pure evil? Was this book shaped by Greene’s own experiences with ‘the third man’ Kim Philby? And how did Greene prefigure the world of Slow Horses?
Out now on PP
The Great Political Fictions: The Dispossessed
Today’s great political fiction is a path-breaking work of science fiction: David explores Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed (1974), which imagines a world without the need for government or coercive authority. What makes this the most realistic of all utopias? How was Le Guin’s vision of anarchism shaped by nineteenth-century Russia and twentieth-century Israel? Why was her imagined version of po
The Great Political Fictions: The Golden Notebook Part 2 w/Catherine Taylor
In the second of two episodes about Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook, David talks to critic and memoirist Catherine Taylor about the novel’s place in the history of feminism. Is its idea of ‘free women’ meant to be ironic? Why are the things that shocked its original readers not the things that shock its readers today? What makes Lessing so much more angry about male hypocrisy than she is about
The Great Political Fictions: The Golden Notebook
In today’s episode David explores Doris Lessing’s bold and brilliant The Golden Notebook (1962), a book about female emancipation, political disillusionment and much, much more. Why did Lessing insist that the novel’s original critics misunderstood what the book was about? What makes her description of joining and then leaving the Communist Party in 1950s London different from any other account? H
The Great Political Fictions: Brave New World
For the first in a new set of episodes about some of the great political fictions of the past hundred years David explores Aldous Huxley’s much misunderstood dystopian masterpiece Brave New World (1932). How did Huxley imagine that a future society could be both horribly regimented and crazily libertarian? Why is it Pavlovian conditioning and not genetic engineering that builds the humans of the f
Live Film Special: Good Night, and Good Luck w/Helen Lewis
Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to the writer and broadcaster Helen Lewis about George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck (2005). A film about the golden age of journalism and the grim years of McCarthyism, it tells the story of Ed Murrow’s attempt to take down scaremongering and conspiracy theories. Where is McCarthyism
The Starmer Crisis in Historical Perspective – Part 2: What’s Next?
Today it’s the second of our episodes trying to make sense of what’s happening in British politics with a bit of historical perspective: this time asking what is likely to follow from the current crisis. David talks to historians Robert Saunders and David Klemperer, Hannah White from the Institute for Government and political scientist Rob Ford. Can the current electoral system survive? Are either
The Starmer Crisis in Historical Perspective – Part 1
Today it’s the first of two episodes in which we try to make sense of what’s happening in British politics with a bit of historical perspective: how did we arrive at the current crisis and what might come next? David talks to five experts to get their perspectives on the seemingly endless chaos and the deeper causes that lie behind it. You’ll hear from historians Robert Saunders, Anthony Seldon an
Where Are We Going? The Future Of Work
David talks to author and journalist Sarah O’Connor, who writes about the changing character of work for the Financial Times, to explore what is happening to the world of jobs and employment in the twenty-first century. What does work mean and why do we do it? What changed when efficiency became the primary measure of human labour? How is the age of AI changing the kind of work we all do? What com
Live Film Special: The Third Man w/Misha Glenny
Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to the writer and broadcaster Misha Glenny about Carol Reed’s 1949 masterpiece The Third Man, written by Graham Greene and featuring a notorious film-stealing performance from Orson Welles. It’s a film about friendship and betrayal, double-crosses and double lives, divided loyalties and dubi
Now & Then with Robert Saunders: The General Strike @100 Part 2
Today it’s the second part of David’s conversation with historian Robert Saunders about the meaning of the 1926 General Strike on its hundredth anniversary. How did the strike end and was its outcome a foregone conclusion? Why did the government’s political victory turn so quickly into electoral defeat? How close did Britain come to another general strike in the miners’ disputes of the 1970s and 1
Now & Then with Robert Saunders: The General Strike @100
In today’s episode David talks to historian Robert Saunders about the meaning of Britain’s one and (so far) only general strike on its hundredth anniversary. Was the strike a revolutionary event or an industrial dispute gone wrong? Who won and who lost the battle of ideas? Did it reveal something distinctive about Britain and its politics? Was this a divided nation or one that had more in common t
Live Film Special: South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut w/Beeban Kidron
Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to film director and campaigner Beeban Kidron about the 1999 film-length version of South Park. In among all the swearing and stupidity is a serious satire of censorship, moral panics and political manipulation. How did a film from the 20th century see so sharply what was coming in the 21st?
Talking … Peter Mandelson and New Labour w/Helen Thompson
In today’s episode David and Helen Thompson explore the tortured relationship between Peter Mandelson and the New Labour project that he helped to create and now seems finally to have destroyed. How has the whole history of New Labour been shaped by its origin in ideas of betrayal? Why did Tony Blair and Gordon Brown both end up depending on Mandelson while despairing of each other? What held thei
PPF+: A Taste Of What You’ve Been Missing (Taster 2)
In today’s extra episode some more highlights from the PPF+ archive in another selection we first put out last summer: here are a few more excerpts we think you might enjoy.
In this episode you’ll hear David talking about In the Loop and the question of why politicians do and don’t resign; Robert Saunders on the legacy of Brexit for politics today; Shannon Vallor on why AI is a vision not of the
PPF+: A Taste Of What You’ve Been Missing (Taster 1)
In today’s extra episode some more highlights from the PPF+ archive in a selection we first put out last summer: here are a few more excerpts we think you might enjoy.
In this episode you’ll hear David talking to Helen Thompson about Apocalypse Now, David exploring Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, unpicking the relationship between The Futurist Manifesto and fascism, reflecting on Claude Lanzmann’s e
PPF+: A Taste Of What You’ve Been Missing (Taster 3)
Today’s episode features some recent highlights from PPF+ where we have just released our 50th bonus episode. In this selection you’ll hear philosopher Paul Sagar talking about his personal experiences of good and back luck; David talking about what changed for Hiroshima and the world in the moments after the bomb fell; historian of film Harrison Whittaker on the link between It’s A Wonderful Life
Orwell’s War: Frozen In Time (1942-43)
Today’s episode in our series about how George Orwell tried – and failed – to make sense of WW2 looks at his response to the vast lurches of fortune from 1942-43 as Hitler’s plans for world domination started to fall apart. Why was Orwell convinced that the summer of 1942 was the last chance for revolution? What persuaded him that Stafford Cripps was the man of the hour? How did his hopes fall apa
Orwell’s War: False Dawn (1940-41)
Today’s episode in our new series about how George Orwell tried – and failed – to make sense of WW2 as it was happening looks at the events of 1940 and 1941, from the collapse of France to Hitler’s invasion of Russia. Why did Orwell write in March 1940 that there is something ‘deeply appealing’ about Hitler? What convinced him that Churchill ‘must go’? How close did Britain get to revolution in th
Orwell’s War: The Nightmare (1938-39)
Today’s episode is the first in a new series about how the greatest political writer of the 20th century tried – and failed – to make sense of the central political event of the century. How did George Orwell respond in real time to the epochal events of the Second World War and how do his struggles relate to the uncertainties of our own time? What did he get right, what did he get wrong and what
Live Film Special: Metropolitan w/James Marriott
Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to author and journalist James Marriott about Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan, which dissects the lives, loves and reading habits of a group of well-to-do young New Yorkers during deb party season. It is a film about being young and feeling old and fearing that you don’t have a future any more.
Political Conversions: Switching Sides in the 21st Century
In the final episode of this series David talks to political historian David Klemperer about how political conversion works today. Is this a post-ideological age or have the ideologies simply changed? Is switching sides easier or harder in the age of social media? Who or what might play the role once performed in political conversions by the Soviet Union? Are we still capable of changing our minds
Political Conversions: From Trotskyism to Neoconservatism
In part three of our series about political conversions David talks to historian David Klemperer about the people who left Trotskyism behind – and where they ended up. From 1940s America to contemporary Britain, from the Second World War to the Iraq War, from James Burnham to Claire Fox, stories of one-time revolutionaries who found themselves in a very different place. What links Trotskyism to ne
Political Conversions: Communism – The God That Failed
In today’s episode David talks to political historian David Klemperer about a group of writers and other intellectuals who embraced and then renounced Communism before and during the Second World War. Was the pull of Communism really comparable to the experience of religious conversion? Why did so many who took up the faith at the start of the 1930s become disillusioned with it by the end of the d
Political Conversions: Going Fascist
Today’s episode is the first in a new series of conversations with political historian David Klemperer about what causes people to switch sides, ideologies and worldviews – stories of political conversion. We begin with converts from socialism to fascism, looking in particular at the notorious case of Oswald Mosley. Why did he wind up in and then give up on the Labour Party? What made him ditch de
Live Special: Another American Civil War?
In today’s episode, which was recorded in front of students, parents and teachers from three schools in Oxford, David talks to historian of America Adam Smith about whether the US might be drifting into another civil war. Are the circumstances of today in any way comparable to the 1860s? What are the faultlines in 2026 that might see America tear itself apart? If division doesn’t lead to widesprea
Live Special: Is This How Democracy Ends? w/Lyse Doucet, Chris Clark & Thant Myint-U
Today’s episode was recorded last Wednesday in front of a live audience at Friends’ House in London, where David was joined by the BBC’s Lyse Doucet, historian Chris Clark and diplomat and writer Thant Myint-U to discuss the fate of democracy in the long run and in the short term. What does the current war mean for democracy in Iran, democracy in America and democracy in the wider world? If we are
Now & Then with Robert Saunders: The Twists and Turns of the Special Relationship
Today’s episode looks backwards and forwards from 1946 to explore the different ways the UK has imagined the US over time, as friend and as foe, as inspiration and as warning, as threat and as salvation. David and Robert examine how America has both illuminated and confused Britain’s view of itself for more than two hundred years, from Andrew Jackson to Donald Trump. Is there a common thread? Is t
Now & Then with Robert Saunders: Churchill’s ‘Iron Curtain’ Speech @80
Today’s episode sees the return of our occasional series with historian Robert Saunders looking at significant political anniversaries: this time it’s the 80th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s ‘Sinews of Peace’ speech given at Fulton, Missouri in March 1946. The speech is best known for introducing the idea of the ‘Iron Curtain’. What was Churchill trying to achieve? Why was his message so contr
Where Are We Going? Societal Collapse – The Future
In the fourth and final conversation in this series David talks to Luke Kemp, author of Goliath’s Curse, about where we might be heading. Where does the greatest risk of global collapse lie? Who is ultimately responsible for our fate? What makes states and corporations the agents of doom? How can we humans fight back?
Out tomorrow on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany this series in which David a
Where Are We Going? Societal Collapse – The Present Day
In today’s episode David talks to Luke Kemp, author of Goliath’s Curse, about the prospects for societal collapse in the 21st century. Are we living in a global Goliath? Is there any escape in an age when personal data has become the primary lootable resource? Does interconnectedness mean we are more vulnerable to collapse than ever? And what can we learn from the fate of Somalia?
Join us on 11th
Where Are We Going? Societal Collapse – The Modern Age
In today’s episode David talks to Luke Kemp, author of Goliath’s Curse, about the strengths and weaknesses of modern states and modern structures of authority. Are modern states any different from the criminal enterprises of coercion that preceded them? Does democracy change the dynamic of societal collapse? What are the lootable resources of the modern age? And why are all states essentially empi
Where Are We Going? Societal Collapse – Origins
Today’s episode is the first in a series of conversations about what causes human societies to fall apart and what might come next. David talks to Luke Kemp, author of Goliath’s Curse, about how we build our structures of authority and how they can fail. How were human societies organised before we had governments? What drove the creation of the first hierarchies of domination? Why did rising ineq
Where Are We Going? Nuclear War Part 3
Today’s episode is the third and final of David’s conversations with S. M. Amadae about nuclear weapons and nuclear war, this time looking to the future. What are the prospects for nuclear disarmament in the 21st century? How does the risk of nuclear war intersect with other existential risks, from climate change to AI? Is the world more dangerous than it has ever been? What are the grounds for ho
Where Are We Going? Nuclear War Part 2
In today’s episode David talks to S. M. Amadae about what happened when the nuclear age turned into an all-consuming arms race. What is the supposed logic and the terrifying illogic behind the idea of Mutually Assured Destruction? What is the difference between M.A.D. and N.U.T.S.? Do we really believe that our leaders would press the button? And how have we managed to survive to this point – rat
Where Are We Going? Nuclear War Part 1
For the first in a new series of conversations exploring the future that faces us all, David talks to S. M. Amadae about what nuclear weapons and the prospect of nuclear war have done to the human condition. Was 1945 the decisive watershed in the history of humanity? What made the possibility of nuclear conflict different from previous ideas of catastrophe? How did we reconcile ourselves to the ho
What’s Wrong with Political Philosophy? Learning from Bernard Williams and Judith Shklar
Today’s episode explores the ideas of two late-twentieth-century thinkers who argued that political philosophy needs to be concerned with more than just justice. David talks to Paul Sagar about why Bernard Williams thought we should focus on questions about legitimacy and why Judith Shklar believed we should spend more time worrying about cruelty. Is the fundamental political question about how to
What’s Wrong with Political Philosophy? Learning from Max Weber
In the third part of our series David and Paul Sagar explore what the German writer and sociologist Max Weber can teach us about the pitfalls of political life and political philosophy. Why is doing politics so hard? Why is it so hard to know what to do for the best when all the options are bad ones? How can we still do our best when the only means at our disposal is violence? And where does all t
What’s Wrong with Political Philosophy? Learning from Adam Smith
In the second episode in our short series about how the history of ideas can help with the deepest puzzles of politics, David talks to political theorist Paul Sagar about the eighteenth-century polymath Adam Smith. Normally thought of as the original champion of free-market economics, Smith was far more interested in history, human psychology and the problems inherent in all political systems. Wha
What’s Wrong with Political Philosophy? Learning from Aristotle
Today it’s the first episode in a new series asking why contemporary political philosophy struggles to make sense of the deepest problems of politics and exploring how the history of ideas might help. David talks to political theorist Paul Sagar about why looking for justice might be the wrong place to start. Instead, Paul suggests we start with Aristotle, for whom the search for justice was the p
Talking Geopolitics with Helen Thompson: The Weirdness of American Power Part 2
Today’s episode is the second part of David’s conversation with Helen Thompson about what makes living in a world dominated by the United States so strange. What has changed about American power in the twenty-first century? Is Trump a deviation from the norm or is he simply an extension of it? Why does Greenland matter? And what is at stake as the contest between the US and China ramps up to the n
Talking Geopolitics with Helen Thompson: The Weirdness of American Power
The first of a two-part conversation in which David talks to Helen Thompson about how to understand the extraordinary and unlikely power of the United States, from its origins to its current incarnation. How strange would it once have seemed to live in a world dominated by a state from the Western hemisphere? When did the US overcome its natural disadvantages to achieve superpower potential? What
Politics on Trial: The Trial and Execution of Saddam Hussein
For the final episode in this series David talks to historian and political scientist Glen Rangwala about the trial and execution of Saddam Hussein in 2006. What plans did the Americans have for Saddam before the Iraq war began? How was it decided what to charge him with once he had been captured? Did his trial exacerbate rather than overcome the sectarian divisions tearing Iraq apart? Was justice
Politics on Trial: O. J. Simpson vs the Evidence
For the penultimate episode in this series David examines the criminal trial of O. J. Simpson in 1995 to ask what it reveals about how power really works in America. How did the prosecution fail to grasp what was really happening in the courtroom? Did jury selection decide the outcome of the case before it had even begun? Why was the massive volume of evidence against Simpson something that worked
Politics on Trial: The Gang of Four vs the New China
In today’s episode David explores the trial that gripped China at the end of 1980: the case against the three men and one woman accused of being responsible for the worst excesses of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). How did the court try to hold Mao’s followers responsible for the catastrophe while exculpating Mao himself? How did Mao’s widow Jiang Qing fight back? Who were the others in the doc
Politics on Trial: Muhammad Ali vs. the Draft
Today’s episode is about the epic battle between Muhammad Ali and the US government over its attempt to draft him during the Vietnam war and what happened when that fight reached the US Supreme Court. What were Ali’s grounds for claiming to be a conscientious objector? How did that argument cut across wider questions of race, religion and power? Why did the Supreme Court change its original decisi
Now & Then with Robert Saunders: Home Rule for Ireland! - The Kite
Today’s episode in our occasional series with historian Robert Saunders on significant political anniversaries looks at the event that blew British politics apart at the start of 1886. The ‘Hawarden Kite’ – when William Gladstone’s son Herbert floated the idea that his father had committed to Irish Home Rule – split the Liberal party, upended political allegiances and set the country on the path t
Films of Ideas extra: The Designated Mourner
An extra episode to accompany our Films of Ideas series: David explores The Designated Mourner by Wallace Shawn, the writer and co-star of My Dinner with Andre. How did a play first performed in 1996 turn into a prophetic text for our times? How was it shaped by Shawn’s experiences in Central America and his view of Reagan’s America? What makes it one of the greatest of all contemporary political
Films of Ideas: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind w/Beeban Kidron
Today it’s the last in our series of live episodes recorded at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to film director and campaigner Beeban Kidron about Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), a much-loved film that’s also chock full of interesting ideas. Is memory the same as identity? Are all relationships founded on manipulation? What happens when we try to curat
Films of Ideas: Wittgenstein w/Nikhil Krishnan
The fourth episode in our season of live recordings from the Regent Street Cinema is about another film that explores the relationship between biography and philosophy: Derek Jarman’s Wittgenstein (1993), which tells the story of an extraordinary life in a way that is both light and profound. David talks to writer and philosopher Nikhil Krishnan about Ludwig Wittengenstein’s ideas of war, science,
Films of Ideas: Rosa Luxemburg w/Lea Ypi
Today’s episode in our season of live recordings from the Regent Street Cinema looks at the biopic of a revolutionary: Margaretha von Trotta’s Rosa Luxemburg (1986), which explores the deeply unstable relationship between the personal and the political. David talks to writer and philosopher Lea Ypi (Free, Indignity) about where biography ends and philosophy begins and whether revolutionary politic
