Podcast Episodes
Back to Search
What if… Scotland Had Voted for Independence?
Season 7 Episode 116
For our last episode in this series of historical counterfactuals, David talks to the historian Ben Jackson about what might have happened if the 201…
1 year, 3 months ago
What if… The Berlin Wall Hadn’t Fallen?
Season 7 Episode 115
Our counterfactuals series moves forward to 1989: David talks to Lea Ypi about what might have happened if the Berlin Wall hadn’t fallen when it did.…
1 year, 3 months ago
What if… The 1919 Paris Peace Conference Had Actually Kept the Peace?
Season 7 Episode 114
David talks to historian Margaret MacMillan, author of the prize-winning Peacemakers, about whether the 1919 Paris Peace Conference deserves its repu…
1 year, 4 months ago
What If… The Russian Revolution Hadn’t Been Bolshevik?
Season 7 Episode 113
Today’s episode is another big early twentieth-century counterfactual: David talks to the historian of Russia Edward Acton about how the Russian Revo…
1 year, 4 months ago
What If… Franz Ferdinand Had Survived Sarajevo?
Season 7 Episode 112
We return to our series on historical counterfactuals with the big one: how might WWI have been avoided? David talks to Chris Clark, author of The Sl…
1 year, 4 months ago
Fifteen Fictions for Summer re-release: Hamilton
Season 8 Episode 111
Our Great Political Fictions re-release concludes with a musical: Lin-Manuel Miranda’s wildly popular and increasingly controversial Hamilton (2015).…
1 year, 4 months ago
Fifteen Fictions for Summer re-release: American Wife
Season 8 Episode 110
The penultimate episode in our Great Political Fictions re-release is about Curtis Sittenfeld’s American Wife (2008), which re-imagines the life of F…
1 year, 4 months ago
Fifteen Fictions for Summer re-release: The Line of Beauty
Season 8 Episode 109
Today’s Great Political Fiction is Alan Hollinghurst’s The Line of Beauty (2004), which is set between Thatcher’s two dominant general election victo…
1 year, 4 months ago
Fifteen Fictions for Summer re-release: The Handmaid’s Tale
Season 8 Episode 108
For the twelfth episode in our Great Political Fictions re-release, David discusses Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), her unforgettable d…
1 year, 4 months ago
Fifteen Fictions for Summer re-release: Midnight’s Children
Season 8 Episode 107
In today’s Great Political Fiction David explores Salman Rushdie’s 1981 masterpiece Midnight’s Children, the great novel about the life and death of …
1 year, 4 months ago