Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Past Present Future

In part two of our series about how transhumanism shaped our world, David talks to Duncan Bell about what happened when sci fi dreams started to become reality. What changed when space travel turned from fantasy to fact? Did supercomputers herald new human possibilities or the prospect of human obsolescence? Why did transhumanism move from the left to the right of the political spectrum? And who believed that freezing their own heads was a good idea? A reminder we have a pair of new educational courses to accompany two of our series – The Great Essays and The Lives of the Philosophers. These courses are free for anyone who wants to use them and offer recall tests, extensive reading guides, discussion topics and essay questions for further reading, writing and exploration around the subjects of our podcasts. For use in schools, colleges or just in your spare time. To explore these courses simply go to https://ppfideas.com/courses You can find out everything else you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes – on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time on The History of Transhumanism: Silicon Valley. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today it’s the first episode in a new series about the weird and wonderful world of transhumanism: the idea that human beings can be transformed by technology and machines. David talks to historian of ideas Duncan Bell about transhumanism as science and as science fiction, as accurate prophecy and as outright lunacy. How did the idea have its origins in Darwinism? Why did the early transhumanists tend to be socialists? What made H. G. Wells such an influence on supposedly respectable scientists? And how does all this foreshadow the world of Silicon Valley today? A reminder that we have a pair of new educational courses to accompany two of our series – The Great Essays and The Lives of the Philosophers. These courses are free for anyone who wants to use them and offer recall tests, extensive reading guides, discussion topics and essay questions for further reading, writing and exploration around the subjects of our podcasts. For use in schools, colleges or just in your spare time. To explore these courses simply go to https://ppfideas.com/courses You can find out everything else you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes – on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time on The History of Transhumanism: Spaceships, Supercomputers and Frozen Heads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For the final episode in our series on living in an ageing world David talks to Lyndsey Stonebridge about one of the most interesting and challenging of all writers on the subject of old age – Simone de Beauvoir. Why did Beauvoir believe that we are all duplicitous about the elderly? How did she experience her own ageing body and the prospect of her own death? What did she learn from watching Sartre age and die? And what makes her a prophet for the world we live in today? Lyndsey Stonebridge’s 'Old Women: A History of Our Future' will be published next year. Out now on PPF+: part two of David’s conversation with Samuel Moyn about the problem of gerontocracy. How can older people be encouraged to stop hoarding wealth and power? Is socialised care the solution? And is that ever going to happen in a place like America? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening – and to help support everything we do – subscribe to PPF+ no https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus You can find out everything else you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus our free online courses and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes – on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time: The Curious History of Transhumanism Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In today’s episode for our series about living in ageing societies, David talks to historian and legal scholar Samuel Moyn about the problem of gerontocracy, aka the rule of the old. Why do older generations now have so much wealth and so much power? Why is this particularly true in the United States? Is the real problem elderly politicians or elderly voters? Do the young stand a chance any more? Out tomorrow on PPF+: part two of this conversation in which David and Sam try to move from diagnosis to cure. How can older people be encouraged to stop hoarding wealth and power? Is socialised care the solution? And is that ever going to happen in a place like America? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening – and to help support everything we do – subscribe to PPF+ no https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Gerontocracy in America by Samuel Moyn is out now https://bit.ly/4ymCEss You can find out everything else you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus our free courses and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in An Ageing World: Simone De Beauvoir on Old Age Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In today’s episode of our series about the significance of longer human lives David talks to the doctor and writer Richard Coker about the meaning of the event that comes for all of us in the end: death. Are we finding it harder to talk about and face up to mortality? How do doctors think about death, having seen so much of it? Is the line between life and death getting harder to draw? What is the price we pay for putting off death as long as we can? Richard Coker’s Timor Mortis: How We Live With Death is available wherever you get your books https://bit.ly/4yTUeE4 Available now: a pair of new educational courses to accompany two of our series – The Great Essays and The Lives of the Philosophers. These courses are free for anyone who wants to use them and offer recall tests, extensive reading guides, discussion topics and essay questions for further reading, writing and exploration around the subjects of our podcasts. For use in schools, colleges or just in your spare time. To explore these courses simply go to https://ppfideas.com/courses You can find out everything else you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time on An Ageing World: The Problem of Gerontocracy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

To start our new series about what it means to live in a world of ageing populations, David talks to geneticist Adam Rutherford about the benefits and pitfalls of increasing longevity. Are GLP-1s – drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro – miracle cures that will extend human lifespans? What happens if longer lives do not coincide with better health? How far can life extension be pushed? And who wants to live forever anyway? Available now: a pair of new educational courses to accompany two of our series – The Great Essays and The Lives of the Philosophers. These courses are free for anyone who wants to use them and offer recall tests, extensive reading guides, discussion topics and essay questions for further reading, writing and exploration around the subjects of our podcasts. For use in schools, colleges or just in your spare time. To explore these courses simply go to https://ppfideas.com/courses Out now on PPF+: ‘Podcast University’, a bonus episode to accompany the launch of our new educational courses in which David lays out the thinking behind them and his own ideas about the relationship between what he used to do as a university teacher and what we do now on PPF. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening – and to help support and keep freely available our educational work – subscribe to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus You can find out everything else you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in An Ageing World: The Meaning of Death They can't harm you, if they can't find you! Use code ppf at the link below  and get 60% off annual plans: https://incogni.com/ppf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 novels try to teach about the nature of love and the sovereignty of the good? Was hers a good life? **Available now: a pair of new educational courses to accompany two of our series – The Great Essays and The Lives of the Philosophers. These courses are free for anyone who wants to use them and offer recall tests, extensive reading guides, discussion topics and essay questions for further reading, writing and study around the subjects of our podcasts. For use in schools, colleges or just in your spare time. To explore these courses simply go to https://ppfideas.com/courses Out tomorrow on PPF+: ‘Podcast University’, a bonus episode to accompany the launch of our new educational courses in which David lays out the thinking behind them and his own ideas about the relationship between what he used to do as a university teacher and what we do now on PPF. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening – and to help support and keep freely available our educational work – subscribe to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus. You can find out everything else you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including all PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time the start of a new series – An Ageing World: Increasing Longevity and its Consequences Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 States? What made sense of her own identity? What explained the terrible turbulence and traumas of the twentieth century? And what did it all mean for the human condition? Lyndsey Stonebridge’s We Are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience is available wherever you get your books https://bit.ly/4hgyGLH You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in the Lives of the Philosophers: Iris Murdoch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 consequentialism was capable of corrupting the young? And why did she insist that Harry Truman was a war criminal? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in the Lives of the Philosophers: Hannah Arendt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 return to the premiership? What was the legacy of his rivalry with Disraeli? And what are the parallels with Andy Burnham’s path to the prime ministership and his possible rivalry with Kemi Badenoch today? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in The Lives of the Philosophers: Elizabeth Anscombe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 men such different kinds of politicians? How did the question of empire split political and public opinion? Who were the winners and losers from this showdown? Was this the dawn of a new age of populism? Out now on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany our series on the lives of twentieth-century philosophers in which David talks to Kate Kirkpatrick about the life and thought of Simone de Beauvoir, existentialist, feminist, memoirist and controversialist. What made Beauvoir the person she became? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time: Now & Then with Robert Saunders – Gladstone vs Disraeli Part 2 (Burnham vs Badenoch) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 reputation suffered since his death and where does it stand now? Out tomorrow on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany this series in which David talks to Kate Kirkpatrick about the life and thought of Simone de Beauvoir, existentialist, feminist, memoirist and controversialist. What made Beauvoir the person she became? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Kate Kirkpatrick is the author of Becoming Beauvoir: A Life https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/becoming-beauvoir-9781350047174/ You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time: Now & Then with Robert Saunders – Gladstone vs Disraeli Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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? What made people so frightened of him? And how did such a conventional man have such an unconventional influence on thinkers from California to Cambridge? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in The Lives of the Philosophers: Jean-Paul Sartre Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 parts of his extraordinary life? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in The Lives of the Philosophers: J. L. Austin They can't harm you, if they can't find you! Use code ppf at the link below  and get 60% off annual plans: ⁠https://incogni.com/ppf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 factory and fight in the Spanish civil war to be true to her beliefs? When and how does her philosophy morph into theology? Was she a saint?   You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com   Next time in The Lives of the Philosophers: Albert Camus Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 approach to his subject? What was left of philosophy when he had finished with it? And what does Ayer’s taste for football, sex and celebrity tell us about his attitude to the life of the mind? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in The Lives of the Philosophers: Simone Weil Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 science, bad science and junk science? And what might have gone wrong in the case of Lucy Letby? Sue Black’s An Expert Witness is available now wherever you get your books https://bit.ly/45hcTge Out now on PPF+: a final bad ideas bonus episode in which geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford explains what’s wrong with genealogy: why does wanting to know where we come from lead us down so many blind alleys? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time a brand-new series: The Lives of the Philosophers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 testing do more harm than good? Why does advocacy for sufferers get in the way of good health? Is de-diagnosis achievable? The Age of Diagnosis by Suzanne O’Sullivan is available now https://bit.ly/3U1ZwOu Out tomorrow on PPF+: a bad ideas bonus episode in which geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford explains what’s wrong with genealogy: why does wanting to know where we come from lead us down so many blind alleys? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time: Forensics on Trial Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 have a TikTok prime minister? And is there any way to get people reading again?  The New Dark Ages by James Marriott is out next month https://bit.ly/3TJR7zd You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in The History of Bad Ideas: Overdiagnosis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 what’s happening? Was Weimar Germany the best of decadence or the worst of it? And how decadent are we today? Out now on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany this series in which David talks to political historian David Klemperer about the idea of social credit, which promised to save the world in the 1920s and 1930s and ended up doing nothing of the sort. A fascinating story of cranks, conspiracy theorists and crypto-fascists with curious echoes in Silicon Valley today. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in The History of Bad Ideas: Short-Form Video Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 sister to see through the myth? Why do romantic heroines get such a raw deal by comparison? And why does this idea lead to so much bad male behaviour? Out tomorrow on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany this series in which David talks to political historian David Klemperer about the idea of social credit, which promised to save the world in the 1920s and 1930s and ended up doing nothing of the sort. A fascinating story of cranks, conspiracy theorists and crypto-fascists with curious echoes in Silicon Valley today. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in The History of Bad Ideas: Decadence Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 discredit electoral outcomes? When, if ever, will it be replaced and if so by what? Out now on PPF+: part two of David’s conversation with Nikhil Krishnan about the political pitfalls of utilitarianism: from what it means for democracy to how it was used to justify colonialism. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in The History of Bad Ideas: The Romantic Hero Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 being a utilitarian actually make you happier? Whose pleasure and pain gets to count? And what happens when killing an innocent person will save many others … should we do it? Out tomorrow on PPF+: part two of this conversation in which David and Nikhil explore some of the political implications of utilitarianism from what it means for democracy to how it was used to justify colonialism. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in The History of Bad Ideas: The Electoral College Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 elections? Can Andy Burnham buck the trend? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in The History of Bad Ideas: Utilitarianism Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 lessons from the celebrity of Michael Jackson? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in The History of Bad Ideas: Political Leadership is What Counts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 right benefits? And is Andy Burnham a deliverist, a post-deliverist or something else? Out now on PPF+ a bonus episode to accompany this series: David talks about what’s wrong with the idea of ‘the news’ and how it corrupts us all. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in The History of Bad Ideas: Celebrity Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 tomorrow on PPF+ a bonus episode to accompany this series: David talks about what’s wrong with the idea of ‘the news’ and how it corrupts us all. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in The History of Bad Ideas: Deliverism Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 takes hold? And why do we still find it so hard to do without these kinds of labels? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in The History of Bad Ideas: Narrative History Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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-the-world scenarios? From future utopias to future dystopias and all that lies between. You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in The History of Bad Ideas: Hysteria w/Helen Lewis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 political time? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time: The Future of the Future Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 film set in a wholly familiar version of late 20th-century Britain feel so otherworldly? And are we ultimately meant to pity the donors we are watching or to identify with them? Out now on PPF+: part 2 of David’s conversation with Robert Saunders on the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum exploring how we got from there to here: is the state of British politics today a direct result of what happened in June 2106? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time In Where Are We Going?: The History and Future of the Future w/Ivan Krastev Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 we were or did it reveal who we are? And is it too soon to know what it all meant? Out tomorrow on PPF+: part two of this conversation in which David and Robert explore how we got from there to here, looking at the twists and turns of British politics over the last ten years and asking whether the state of British politics today is a consequence of what happened in June 2016. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time: Live Film Special – Never Let Me Go w/Adam Rutherford Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 there wider lessons for how we might do democracy differently? And what will happen to Wikipedia in the age of AI? Jimmy Wales’s book The Seven Rules of Trust is available now https://bit.ly/3Q4KuWT You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time: Now & Then with Robert Saunders – The Brexit Referendum 10 Years On Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 deal with all the evil that followed from this heroic attempt to do good? What makes his Nazis different from the ones to be found in other twenty-first century novels?   Join us on Friday 19th June at the Regent Street Cinema in London for the final film in our current season: a screening of Never Let Me Go followed by a live podcast recording with geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford. Tickets available now https://bit.ly/4x641XC   You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com   Next Time: PPF Live – Jimmy Wales on the Lessons of Wikipedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 idealism? What comes next? Join us on Friday 19th June at the Regent Street Cinema in London for the final film in our current season: a screening of Never Let Me Go followed by a live podcast recording with geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford. Tickets available now https://bit.ly/4x641XC You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in Great Political Fictions: HHhH Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 PPF+: our latest bonus episode in which David talks to Luke Kemp, author of Goliath’s Curse, about whether and how Ursula Le Guin’s vision of a stateless world matches up to his own. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Join us on Friday 19th June at the Regent Street Cinema in London for the final film in our current season: a screening of Never Let Me Go followed by a live podcast recording with geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford. Tickets available now https://bit.ly/4x641XC You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in Great Political Fictions: The Years Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 political freedom so coloured by the Cold War? And where does Oppenheimer fit in? Out tomorrow on PPF+: a bonus episode in which David talks to Luke Kemp, author of Goliath’s Curse, about whether and how Le Guin’s vision of a stateless world matches his own. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Join us on Friday 19th June at the Regent Street Cinema in London for the final film in our current season: a screening of Never Let Me Go followed by a live podcast recording with geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford. Tickets available now https://bit.ly/4x641XC You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in Great Political Fictions: The Human Factor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 male brutality? And what else by Lessing should we all read? Read more by Catherine on Doris Lessing in this recent essay published in Aeon https://aeon.co/essays/what-we-can-learn-from-doris-lessings-experiments-in-living Join us on Friday 19th June at the Regent Street Cinema in London for the final film in our current season: a screening of Never Let Me Go followed by a live podcast recording with geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford. Tickets available now https://bit.ly/4x641XC You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in Great Political Fictions: The Dispossessed Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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? How did a book about mental disintegration capture the essence of the age?  Out now on PPF+: a bonus episode about George Orwell’s 1984. Why does a book that is out of date and out of time still haunt everyone who reads it today? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Join us at the Cheltenham Science Festival this Wednesday 3rd June for a live recording of the podcast with David in conversation with Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, to talk about trust, democracy and knowledge in a divided world. There are a few tickets still available: book now https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/events/the-politics-of-trust-lessons-from-wikipedia You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in The Great Political Fictions: The Golden Notebook Part 2 w/Catherine Taylor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 future? What makes the book eerily prophetic of 21st-century consumer culture? And where does Shakespeare fit in? Do scroll back in your feed for many more earlier episodes of The Great Political Fictions! Out tomorrow on PPF+: a bonus episode about the other great English-language dystopia of the last century – George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Why does a book that is out of date and out of time still haunt everyone who reads it today? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in Great Political Fictions: The Golden Notebook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 at work today? What’s happened to cancel culture? How was early TV like podcasting? And is George Clooney a hero for our times? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in Great Political Fictions: Brave New World Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 – or both – of the two main parties about to be replaced? Does Britain need proper devolution? And where do things stand on the prospect of Farage as PM? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time: Live Film Special – Good Night, and Good Luck w/Helen Lewis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 and David Klemperer along with Hannah White from the Institute for Government and political scientist Rob Ford. How did it all go so wrong for Keir Starmer so quickly? Is this about his failings or is there something much bigger going on? Out now on PPF+: the second part of David’s conversation with Sarah O’Connor in which they discuss what happens when humans and machines work together: do they become more like us or do we become more like them? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time: The Starmer Crisis in Historical Perspective Part 2 – What Comes Next? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 comes next? Out tomorrow on PPF+: Part 2 of this conversation in which David and Sarah discuss what happens when humans and machines increasingly work together: are they becoming more like us or are we becoming more like them? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Sarah O’Connor’s new book is We Are Not Machines: The Fight for the Future of Work – it will be out in June and is available for pre-order now https://bit.ly/3R3nIyz You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time: The Plight of Keir Starmer in Historical Perspective Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 dubious moralities. It is also all about Vienna, a city with a double life of its own. Everyone involved in this film had something to hide: the question is, what? Join us on Wednesday 20th May at the Regent Street Cinema in London for the next film in our spring and summer season: a screening of George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck followed by a live podcast recording with David and writer and broadcaster Helen Lewis. Tickets available now https://bit.ly/4wfM5tb  You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time: Where Are We Going? The Future of Work Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 1980s? And what are the prospects for a general strike today? Join us at the Cheltenham Science Festival on Wednesday 3rd June for a live recording of the podcast with David in conversation with Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, to talk about trust, democracy and knowledge in a divided world. Tickets available now https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/events/the-politics-of-trust-lessons-from-wikipedia You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time: Live Film Special – Misha Glenny on The Third Man Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 than it realised? Join us at the Cheltenham Science Festival on Wednesday 3rd June for a live recording of the podcast with David in conversation with Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, to talk about trust, democracy and knowledge in a divided world. Tickets available now https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/events/the-politics-of-trust-lessons-from-wikipedia You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time: The General Strike @100 Part Two - The Legacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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? And how does the satire look now in the age of big tech and social media madness? Plus philosopher Paul Sagar gives us his grand theory of South Park. You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time: Now & Then with Robert Saunders – The General Strike @100 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 their relationships together and what caused them to fall apart? Out tomorrow on PPF+: the second part of this conversation in which David and Helen bring the story up to the present: how does the drama ultimately end? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Join us on Wednesday 6th May at the Regent Street Cinema in London for the third film in our new season: a screening of The Third Man followed by a live podcast recording with writer and broadcaster Misha Glenny. Tickets available now https://bit.ly/3O5rSEY You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time: South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut w/Beeban Kidron Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 future but of the past; David on the appeal of High Noon for American presidents; and Alec Ryrie on the relationship between Calvinism, Puritanism and the rise and fall of apartheid South Africa. To get these and all of our bonus episodes plus all future bonuses and ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now. It’s £5 per month or £50 for the year and you will be helping this podcast to keep going and growing. You can also gift a 6-month or a 12-month PPF+ subscription: https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time: Helen Thompson on Peter Mandelson and New Labour Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices