Past Present Future

American Elections: The Republican Convention

21 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week we check back in with Gary Gerstle to discuss what’s been happening in American politics after a tumultuous week. What does it say about ...

The Great Political Fictions: Hamilton

18 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Our series concludes with a musical: Lin-Manuel Miranda’s wildly popular and increasingly controversial Hamilton (2015). What does it get right a...

The Great Political Fictions: American Wife

14 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The penultimate episode in our fictions series is about Curtis Sittenfeld’s American Wife (2008), which re-imagines the life of First Lady Laura B...

The Great Political Fictions: The Line of Beauty

11 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Our political fictions series returns with Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty (2004), which is set between Thatcher’s two dominant general e...

UK General Elections: 2024

06 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

To wrap up our series David and Robert attempt some instant history on the election result that’s just happened: in some ways predictable, in others...

UK General Elections: 2019

04 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For election day, David and Robert discuss the previous general election in December 2019, which saw Boris Johnson win a decisive victory under the sl...

UK General Elections: 1997

03 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this extra episode for election week David talks to historian Robert Saunders about the last great Labour landslide of 1997, when Tony Blair won t...

UK General Elections: 1979

30 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s pivotal UK election is the one that brought Margaret Thatcher to Downing Street in 1979. David talks to historian Robert Saunders about how ...

UK General Elections: 1945

27 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s episode on pivotal UK elections David talks to historian Robert Saunders about the first great Labour landslide of 1945 and how it change...

UK General Elections: 1906

23 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The first episode in our new series with historian Robert Saunders on pivotal general elections is about the Tory disaster and Liberal triumph of 1906...

The Great Political Fictions: The Handmaid’s Tale

20 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For the final episode in the current series, David discusses Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), her unforgettable dystopian vision o...

The Great Political Fictions: Midnight’s Children

16 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the penultimate episode of the current part of our Fictions series, David explores Salman Rushdie’s 1981 masterpiece Midnight’s Children, the g...

The Great Political Fictions: Atlas Shrugged

13 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode David discusses Ayn Rand’s insanely long and insanely influential Atlas Shrugged (1957), the bible of free-market entrepreneurial...

The Great Political Fictions: Mother Courage and Her Children

09 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Bertolt Brecht’s classic anti-war play was written in 1939 at the start of one terrible European war but set in the time of another: the Thirty Year...

The Great Political Fictions: The Time Machine

06 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine (1895) isn’t just a book about time travel. It’s also full of late-19th century fear and paranoia about what evo...

The Great Political Fictions: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

02 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) is a story that it’s easy to know without really knowing it at all. This week’s episode explores all the ways that...

The Great Political Fictions: Phineas Redux

30 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week's great political novel is Anthony Trollope’s Phineas Redux (1874), his lightly and luridly fictionalised account of parliamentary polaris...

The Great Political Fictions: Middlemarch (part 2)

26 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This second episode about George Eliot’s masterpiece explores questions of politics and religion, reputation and deception, truth and public opinion...

The Great Political Fictions: Middlemarch (part 1)

23 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Our series on the great political novels and plays resumes with George Eliot’s Middlemarch (1872), which has so much going on that it needs two epis...

The History of Bad Ideas: Mesmerism

19 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For our last episode in this series David is joined by Helen Lewis to discuss Mesmerism – aka animal magnetism – an eighteenth-century method of...

The History of Bad Ideas: The Death of the Author

16 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For our penultimate episode in this series David talks to Kathleen Stock about Roland Barthes’s idea of the Death of the Author (1967). Once very f...

The History of Bad Ideas: Anti-Suffragettes

12 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of our series on the lingering hold of bad ideas David talks to the writer and broadcaster Helen Lewis about the arguments made at the...

The History of Bad Ideas: Taxonomy

09 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For the latest episode in our series about the hold of bad ideas, we welcome back the geneticist Adam Rutherford to talk about Linnaean taxonomy, a se...

The History of Bad Ideas: Antisemitism

05 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s bad idea is one with a very long history: David talks to the historian Christopher Clark about antisemitism and the reasons for its endles...

The History of Bad Ideas: Facebook Friends

02 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s episode about seemingly good ideas gone badly wrong David talks to the philosopher and journalist Kathleen Stock about Facebook Friends, ...

The History of Bad Ideas: The Gold Standard

28 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the second episode in our series on bad ideas David talks to the political economist Helen Thompson about the gold standard, which was meant to a...

The History of Bad Ideas: Eugenics

25 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For the first episode in our new series about the hold of bad ideas David talks to the geneticist and science broadcaster Adam Rutherford about eugeni...

The History of Freedom w/Lea Ypi: Liberation Movements

21 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In our final episode David and Lea discuss liberation movements, from post-colonial liberation to women’s liberation, gay liberation and animal libe...

The History of Freedom w/Lea Ypi: Existentialism and Psychoanalysis

18 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the penultimate episode in this series David and Lea discuss two twentieth-century philosophies of freedom and the human psyche. What can existen...

The History of Freedom w/Lea Ypi: Anarchism and Nihilism

14 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In our series about different ideas of freedom David and Lea have reached anarchism and nihilism. What is the positive vision of human freedom behi...

The History of Freedom w/Lea Ypi: What is the Free Market?

11 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest episode of our series about different ideas of freedom David and Lea explore what makes the free market free – and where it fails. Ho...

The History of Freedom w/Lea Ypi: Kant, Enlightenment and Peace

07 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode in our series about ideas of freedom David and Lea explore Immanuel Kant’s vision of rational freedom and perpetual peace. Why wa...

The History of Freedom w/ Lea Ypi: Machiavelli and Political Liberty

04 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

History of Freedom w/ Lea Ypi: Machiavelli and Political Liberty For the third episode in our series about ideas of freedom David and Lea discuss M...

The History of Freedom w/Lea Ypi: The Ancients - Socrates, Seneca & Jesus

31 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In episode two of our new series David and Lea explore some ancient ideas of freedom and ask what they mean today. What can Socrates teach us about t...

The History of Freedom w/Lea Ypi: Why Does It Matter?

28 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the first episode of our new series about the history of freedom, David and Lea discuss what the idea means to them and why it matters so much. Wh...

Introducing PPF+

27 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sign up now for bonus episodes and ad-free listening – and help support the podcast.  www.ppfideas.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for ...

American Elections: 2008

24 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For our final episode in this series, David and Gary discuss the election of 2008, which saw Barack Obama’s extraordinary ascent to the presidency. ...

American Elections: 1980

21 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Our series on the Ideas Behind American Elections has reached 1980 and the election of Ronald Reagan. David and Gary discuss whether Jimmy Carter was...

American Elections: 1936

17 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The election of 1936 saw FDR re-elected in a landslide. It was also an election in which fundamental questions about the future direction of America ...

American Elections: 1912

14 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We’ve reached the twentieth century and today’s episode is about the decisive election of 1912. David and Gary discuss the year when the Republ...

American Elections: 1896

10 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This episode in our series on the Ideas Behind American Elections looks at 1896, when a single speech nearly upended American politics. The speech wa...

American Elections: 1860

07 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the third episode in our series on the Ideas Behind American Elections David and Gary talk about what was maybe the most significant election of al...

American Elections: 1828

03 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For the second episode in our new series on the Ideas Behind American Elections, David and Gary discuss 1828: the first great populist election, which...

American Elections: 1800

29 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the first episode of our new series on the Ideas Behind American Elections, David and historian Gary Gerstle explore the presidential contest of 18...

Q & A: Shakespeare, Gulliver and Trump

25 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In an extra episode this week David answers your questions about the most recent series of the History of Ideas - in particular about the political le...

The Great Political Fictions: Fathers and Sons

22 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week’s Great Political Fiction is Ivan Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons (1862), the definitive novel about the politics – and emotions – of in...

The Great Political Fictions: Mary Stuart

15 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week’s Great Political Fiction is Friedrich Schiller’s monumental play Mary Stuart (1800), which lays bare the impossible choices faced by tw...

The Great Political Fictions: Gulliver’s Travels

08 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week’s episode on the great political fictions is about Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726) – part adventure story, part satire ...

The Great Political Fictions: Coriolanus

01 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the first episode of our new series on the great political fictions, David talks about Shakespeare’s Coriolanus (1608-9), the last of his tragedi...

The End of Enlightenment

25 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week David talks to Richard Whatmore and Lea Ypi about what caused the loss of faith in the idea of Enlightenment at the end of the eighteenth ce...

Rory Stewart: What Does it Mean to be a 21st-Century Tory?

18 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week David talks to Rory Stewart about his life in politics and the history of the ideas behind his political philosophy. What does it mean to b...

The End of the UK?

11 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week David talks to the political scientist Mike Kenny about the possible fate of the United Kingdom. What makes the UK such an unusual politica...

History of Ideas 12: Ta-Nehisi Coates

05 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 12 in our series on the great essays is about Ta-Nehisi Coates’s ‘The Case for Reparations’, published in the Atlantic in 2014. Black A...

History of Ideas 11: Umberto Eco

04 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 11 in our series on the great essays explores Umberto Eco’s ‘Thoughts on Wikileaks’ (2010). Eco writes about what makes a true scandal,...

History of Ideas 10: David Foster Wallace

03 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 10 in our series on the great essays is about David Foster Wallace’s ‘Up, Simba!’, which describes his experiences following the doomed ...

History of Ideas 9: Joan Didion

02 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 9 in our series on the great essays is about Joan Didion's 'The White Album' (1979), her haunting, impressionistic account of the fracturing o...

History of Ideas 8: Susan Sontag

01 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 8 in our history of the great essays is about Susan Sontag’s ‘Against Interpretation’ (1963). What was interpretation and why was Sonta...

History of Ideas 7: James Baldwin

31 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 7 in our series on the great essays is about James Baldwin’s ‘Notes of a Native Son’ (1955), an essay that combines autobiography with a...

History of Ideas 6: Simone Weil

30 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 6 in our series on the great essays is about Simone Weil’s ‘Human Personality’ (1943). Written shortly before her death aged just 34, i...

History of Ideas 5: George Orwell

29 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 5 in our series on the great essays is about George Orwell. His wartime essay ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’ (1941) is about what it does – ...

History of Ideas 4: Virginia Woolf

28 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode 4 in our series on the great essays is about Virginia Woolf’s masterpiece ‘A Room of One’s Own’ (1929). David discusses how an essay ...

History of Ideas 3: Thoreau

27 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode three in our series about the great political essays is about Thoreau’s ‘Civil Disobedience’ (1849), a ringing call to resistance agains...

History of Ideas 2: Hume

26 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode two in our series on the great essays is about David Hume. How can eighteenth-century arguments about the national debt help make sense of Ame...

History of Ideas 1: Montaigne

25 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Episode one in our series on the great essays is about Montaigne, the man who invented a whole new way of writing and being read. From the fear of de...

History of Ideas Q&A

21 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For our last episode before Christmas David answers some of your questions about the History of Ideas series – What would Dickens have made of Trump...

The Art of the Essay

14 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As we wrap up our History of Ideas series David discusses what makes a great essay and whether the best contemporary writing is as good as what went b...

Something’s Got to Give

07 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week David talks to the economists Dieter Helm and Diane Coyle about the challenges of building sustainability into the way we live now. Why is ...

Democracy Q&A w/ Lea Ypi

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week David and Lea answer your questions about democracy. When does democratic freedom shade over into anarchy? What’s the connection between d...

History of Ideas: Ta-Nehisi Coates

23 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the penultimate episode in our series on the great essays, David talks about Ta-Nehisi Coates’s ‘The Case for Reparations’, published in the ...

Democracy vs Nationalism w/ Lea Ypi

16 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest instalment of David’s ongoing conversation with Lea Ypi about the past, present and future of democracy they discuss whether democrati...

Jill Lepore on Trump, Guns and the Red Mirage

09 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week David talks to the historian and essayist Jill Lepore about where the chaotic last decade of American politics fits into the longer history ...

The Leviacene: Defining Our Times

02 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week David explores a different way of thinking about the current epoch: what if this isn’t the Anthropocene but the Leviacene? Who or what is...

History of Ideas: Umberto Eco

26 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week’s episode in our series on the great essays and great essayists explores Umberto Eco’s ‘Thoughts on Wikileaks’ (2010). Eco writes a...

Rethinking Democracy w/ Lea Ypi

19 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week David and Lea resume their conversation – and their differences of opinion – about how to understand politics in the modern world. What...

Mary Beard on Caesar, Augustus & Zuckerberg

12 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week David asks Mary Beard what the Roman Empire can tell us about the nature of unaccountable power, then and now. How did Roman emperors rule ...

Zadie Smith on Dickens, Hypocrisy & Justice

05 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week David talks to the novelist Zadie Smith about Charles Dickens: what he means to her, why we still read him, and what’s missing from the Di...

History of Ideas: David Foster Wallace

28 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week’s episode in our series on the great political essays is about David Foster Wallace’s ‘Up, Simba!’, which describes his experiences ...

Animal Farm and Other Allegories

21 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week David talks to novelists Adam Biles and John Lanchester about the timeless appeal of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Why has it retained its...

The Other 9/11: Chile & Allende

14 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week is the fiftieth anniversary of the coup in Chile that ended the life of Salvador Allende and marked the temporary death of Chilean democracy...

The Handover

07 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week Lea Ypi joins David to talk about some of the ideas in his new book, The Handover: How We Gave Control of Our Lives to Corporations, States ...

The Great Essays: Q & A

03 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this bonus episode David answers some of your questions about our series on the great political essays and essayists, from Montaigne to Joan Didion...

History of Ideas: Joan Didion

31 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For the last episode in our summer season on the great twentieth-century essays and essayists, David discusses Joan Didion's 'The White Album' (1979),...

History of Ideas: Susan Sontag

24 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This episode in our history of the great essays and great essayists is about Susan Sontag’s ‘Against Interpretation’ (1963). What was interpret...

History of Ideas: James Baldwin

17 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week David discusses James Baldwin’s ‘Notes of a Native Son’ (1955), an essay that combines autobiography with a searing indictment of Amer...

History of Ideas: Simone Weil

10 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week’s episode in our series on the great essays and great essayists is about Simone Weil’s ‘Human Personality’ (1943). Written shortly ...

History of Ideas: George Orwell

03 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week David discusses George Orwell’s ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’ (1941), his great wartime essay about what it does – and doesn’t – me...

History of Ideas: Virginia Woolf

27 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week our history of the great essays and great essayists reaches the twentieth century and Virginia Woolf’s masterpiece ‘A Room of One’s Ow...

From Lincoln to Trump: What Happened to the Republican Party?

20 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week David talks to American historian Gary Gerstle about the shape-shifting journey of the US Republican Party, from the Civil War to the battle...

History of Ideas: Thoreau

13 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For the third episode in this series about the great political essays, David explores Thoreau’s ‘Civil Disobedience’ (1849), a ringing call to r...

Whose Space is it Anyway?

06 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week we talk to astrophysicist Chris Lintott and writer Tom Stevenson about the threat from outer space: is it the asteroids, is it the aliens, o...

Why J.S. Mill Matters w/ Tara Westover

29 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week David talks to Tara Westover and the philosopher Clare Chambers about the enduring legacy of John Stuart Mill. Reading Mill’s Essays on R...

Are There Too Many People?

22 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week David talks to science writer Meehan Crist about Thomas Malthus and the perennial question of overpopulation. Malthus wrote 225 years ago an...

History of Ideas: Hume

15 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For the second episode in this season of History of Ideas, David discusses the Scottish philosopher David Hume and explores how eighteenth-century arg...

Rawls, Capitalism & Justice

08 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week Daniel Chandler and Lea Ypi join David to talk about the legacy of the great American political philosopher John Rawls and his theory of jus...

Live Special: The American Century w/ David Miliband

01 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week’s episode was recorded live at the Hay Festival, where David was joined on stage by David Miliband and Helen Thompson to discuss the past,...

AI: Can the Machines Really Think?

25 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Gary Marcus and John Lanchester join David to discuss all things AI, from ChatGPT to the Turing test. Why is the Turing test such a bad judge of mach...

History of Ideas: Montaigne

18 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For the first episode in the new series of History of Ideas – on the great essays and the great essayists – David discusses Montaigne, the man who...

Living Behind the Iron Curtain

11 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week David talks to Katja Hoyer and Lea Ypi about life under communism. East Germany was the most successful of the communist states of Eastern ...

How Dallas Saw the Future

04 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week David talks to Helen Thompson about Dallas and the end of oil. How did the world’s most popular soap opera come to explain the energy c...

The Novel that Unravels Democracy

27 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

David talks to Ian McEwan about Italo Calvino’s The Watcher (1963), one of the greatest of all works of political fiction. Challenging, disturbin...