John Prideaux
speaker
643 appearances
3 recordings
1 series
first heard Jun 2026
last heard 19 Jun
John Prideaux’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 3.
Appearances
The Intelligence from The Economist · Tocqueville Road Trip: 1. Game of chance · 13 Jun 2026
podcast
She lives about a mile to the east of Lincoln Centre on Park Avenue.
Her block has a livery doorman and a canopy over the pavement.
The lift opens straight into an apartment full of art and books and colour.
On the face of it, Barbara might not seem like a walking advertisement for equality of conditions.
And her lifestyle definitely tends towards the aristocratic.
Glittering soarees, upscale friends, nights watching Cosi Fantuti and Rigoletto.
But look closely and you can find all sorts of democratic forces at play here.
For one thing, Barbara isn't trying to hoard her money or shore up a dynasty.
She seems intent on spending it all before she dies.
As well as her philanthropic activity, she recently commissioned an artist called Machine Dazzle to design a tomb for her, or to be precise, for her and her late husband, who died in twenty twenty one.
It will be a seven foot long wave of love, decorated with a shield of Achilles, crossed skis, books, a violin, and a running horse.
It's easy to imagine Europeans of a certain class scoffing at this.
So trashy, so American.
But I think Tocville would see something else here.
He was deeply impressed by America's estate laws, and
These ensured that fortunes didn't simply pass on to the eldest son, as they did in aristocratic societies, instead they had to be shared among all surviving children equally.
The idea that wealth is something to be earned, enjoyed, and then broken up and redistributed is equality of conditions in action.
And we can find it woven into other parts of Barbara's story too.
Because she didn't inherit her fortune from her parents.
She trained as a secretary when she was a young woman.
Showing 441–460 of 643 · page 23 of 33
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