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Why J.S. Mill Matters w/ Tara Westover
Episode 10
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 Religion changed Tara’s life: she explains what happe…
Published on 2 years, 6 months ago
Are There Too Many People?
Episode 9
This week David talks to science writer Meehan Crist about Thomas Malthus and the perennial question of overpopulation. Malthus wrote 225 years ago and was wrong about almost everything, yet his idea…
Published on 2 years, 6 months ago
History of Ideas: Hume
Season 1 Episode 8
For the second episode in this season of History of Ideas, David discusses the Scottish philosopher David Hume and explores how eighteenth-century arguments about the national debt can help make sens…
Published on 2 years, 6 months ago
Rawls, Capitalism & Justice
Episode 7
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 justice. Did Rawls provide a prescription for the on…
Published on 2 years, 7 months ago
Live Special: The American Century w/ David Miliband
Episode 6
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, present and future of American power. What explain…
Published on 2 years, 7 months ago
AI: Can the Machines Really Think?
Episode 5
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 machine intelligence? If these machines aren’t thinkin…
Published on 2 years, 7 months ago
History of Ideas: Montaigne
Season 1 Episode 4
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 invented a whole new way of writing and being read. …
Published on 2 years, 7 months ago
Living Behind the Iron Curtain
Episode 3
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 Europe, measured by economic prosperity and sporti…
Published on 2 years, 7 months ago
How Dallas Saw the Future
Episode 2
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 crisis and the future of a world hooked on fossil fuels…
Published on 2 years, 8 months ago
The Novel that Unravels Democracy
Episode 1
David talks to Ian McEwan about Italo Calvino’s The Watcher (1963), one of the greatest of all works of political fiction. Challenging, disturbing, redemptive: this is a book about who gets to count …
Published on 2 years, 8 months ago