Thinking in Dark Times
Episodes
How war technology shapes peace
19 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this podcast episode, I explore how wartime technologies can impact peaceful life, drawing parallels from historical conflicts. Author: Volodymyr ...
Decoding Trump’s Ukraine policy - with Christopher Atwood
19 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Since Donald Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency, Russia has drastically escalated its missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities. In January 2...
Cities without Kings: Humanity's Prehistory on Ukrainian Soil — with David Wengrow
28 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What can the deep past of Ukrainian lands reveal about the global story of humanity? Six thousand years ago, "mega-sites" flourished in what...
Ukrainian geopolitical thought - with Danylo Lubkivsky
01 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ukraine has its own tradition of geopolitical thinking — a tradition that reaches deep into the past and continues to shape the country’s strategi...
Nobel Laureate Oleksandra Matviychuk on Ukraine’s Moral Core
19 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
She is not only a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. She is not only one of the most visible human-rights defenders in Europe in recent decades. She is not o...
Why Europe’s security depends on Ukraine - with Yevhen Hlibovytskyi
30 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ukraine is not a burden for Europe — it’s a chance for Europe.Today, European security is unthinkable without Ukraine. Ukraine has the strongest a...
Timothy Snyder on why history matters — and how we get it wrong
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In September 2025, in Kyiv, a prominent American historian Timothy Snyder received the Vasyl Stus Prize — a Ukrainian award honoring the name of Vas...
Niall Ferguson on Empires, Networks, and Ukraine
13 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
SUPPORT this podcast: https://www.patreon.com/c/thinkinggg ***Are all empires equally bad? If some were better than others, what criteria can we use ...
Can Nationalism Be Good?
29 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
SUPPORT this podcast: https://www.patreon.com/c/thinkinggg ***Nationalism, for many people, is a bad word. They associate it with xenophobia, a sense...
Why Ukrainian History Matters Globally — with Yaroslav Hrytsak
25 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Yaroslav Hrytsak is one of Ukraine’s leading historians and public intellectuals. His recent book in Ukrainian, "Overcoming the Past: A Global ...
Why colonialism is more complicated than you think - with Botakoz Kassymbekova
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What’s the difference between colonialism and imperialism? What types of colonialism can we identify — and which of them are playing out in Russia...
What is Evil?
28 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, I pose a question about evil. I argue that while the relativization of the concept of evil may once have been necessary, it has now s...
Nobel-Winning Economist Joseph Stiglitz on the Failures of Neoliberalism and Sanctions Against Russia
07 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Joseph Stiglitz is a world-renowned economist and thinker who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001.I met him in Tbilisi, the capit...
Hannah Arendt on evil: what can we learn from her today? - with Marci Shore
20 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Some might argue that the concept of evil is outdated in our relativistic age. And yet—how can we speak of war crimes, cruelty, or the neglect of hu...
How to win an information war? - with Peter Pomerantsev
19 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We need a fresh perspective on propaganda. The old strategies for combating misinformation are no longer effective. Simply offering fact-checks isn’...
Ukraine and Democracy in the Global World – with Aman Sethi
04 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Democracy is fragile today. Yet it is not confined to a single place, a specific country, or a particular political system. The democratic promise rem...
Anne Applebaum on Trump, Ukraine, and Russia
28 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
SUPPORT "Thinking in Dark Times" podcast: https://www.patreon.com/c/thinkinggg We had a conversation with Anne Applebaum a few months ago on...
Thinking in Dark Times. Lessons from Ukraine. - Volodymyr Yermolenko at IWM in Vienna
23 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: https://patreon.com/thinkingggWhat lessons can we draw from the Ukrainian experience? Why is Ukraine not only a place of sufferi...
What matters during dark times? | Czyżewski, Shore, Pezuashvili, Yermolenko
14 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Do dictators rule by death and nihilism? Do they want to make us powerless - and do they succeed? Is today’s crisis also our chance?This is an onlin...
Margaret Atwood on tyrannies and the fragility of freedom
07 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Margaret Atwood is perhaps one of the greatest living writers today. Her novel "The Handmaid’s Tale" and its continuation, "The Testaments," are see...
Rethinking the 20th-century intellectual legacy - with David Rieff
24 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Which 20th-century ideas should we carry with us into the 21st century? And which of them have become obsolete?We discuss these topics during a live e...
Communism: A Critical Look
17 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, I offer a critical perspective on communism. I will argue three main points:First, while the idea of communism is built on certain co...
Talk or Fight: Agora and Agon as Political Metaphors
04 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, I argue that a healthy polity is an equilibrium between the values of agora (conversation, dialogue, exchange) and the values of agon...
What do we get wrong about the 20th century?
26 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What misconceptions do we have about the 20th century? Our inaccurate understanding of the past often leads to mistakes or inaction in the present. In...
The Re-imperialization of the World?
14 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Many anticipated that the 21st century would perpetuate the trend of the previous century, moving steadily away from imperialistic and colonial practi...
Rethinking Imperialism
13 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, I reflect on the commonalities and differences between sea imperialism and land imperialism. I also explore different forms of power ...
On freedom: Timothy Snyder in Kyiv
10 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Timothy Snyder came to Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, to present his book "On Freedom".We have had several conversations about the ideas of this...
Anne Applebaum on autocracies, pacifism, and Ukraine
05 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Anne Applebaum is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, historian, and political analyst. A few weeks ago, she was awarded the Peace Prize of ...
Thinking in Dark Times - What Is This Podcast About?
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
My name is Volodymyr Yermolenko, I am a Ukrainian philosopher who lives in Ukraine. I am launching this new podcast because I believe that Ukraine is ...