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Jill Lepore on Trump, Guns and the Red Mirage
Episode 29
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…
2 years, 2 months ago
The Leviacene: Defining Our Times
Episode 28
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 r…
2 years, 2 months ago
History of Ideas: Umberto Eco
Season 1 Episode 27
This week’s episode in our series on the great essays and great essayists explores Umberto Eco’s ‘Thoughts on Wikileaks’ (2010). Eco writes about wha…
2 years, 2 months ago
Rethinking Democracy w/ Lea Ypi
Episode 26
This week David and Lea resume their conversation – and their differences of opinion – about how to understand politics in the modern world. What is …
2 years, 2 months ago
Mary Beard on Caesar, Augustus & Zuckerberg
Episode 25
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 …
2 years, 2 months ago
Zadie Smith on Dickens, Hypocrisy & Justice
Episode 24
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 Dic…
2 years, 3 months ago
History of Ideas: David Foster Wallace
Season 1 Episode 23
This week’s episode in our series on the great political essays is about David Foster Wallace’s ‘Up, Simba!’, which describes his experiences followi…
2 years, 3 months ago
Animal Farm and Other Allegories
Episode 22
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 h…
2 years, 3 months ago
The Other 9/11: Chile & Allende
Episode 21
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 democrac…
2 years, 3 months ago
The Handover
Episode 20
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…
2 years, 4 months ago