Past Present Future

Today’s episode was recorded last Wednesday in front of a live audience at Friends’ House in London, where David was joined by the BBC’s Lyse Doucet, historian Chris Clark and diplomat and writer Thant Myint-U to discuss the fate of democracy in the long run and in the short term. What does the current war mean for democracy in Iran, democracy in America and democracy in the wider world? If we are at the end of an era, what is it exactly that is coming to an end? Who gets to decide what might come next? Will it be less democracy, a different democracy or no democracy at all?

This event was jointly hosted with the London Review of Books. David’s 2016 article ‘Is This How Democracy Ends?’ is available to read on the LRB website https://bit.ly/416UDUz

You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com

Next Time: Live Special – Another American Civil War?
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Today’s episode looks backwards and forwards from 1946 to explore the different ways the UK has imagined the US over time, as friend and as foe, as inspiration and as warning, as threat and as salvation. David and Robert examine how America has both illuminated and confused Britain’s view of itself for more than two hundred years, from Andrew Jackson to Donald Trump. Is there a common thread? Is there a version to be relied on? Or are we still making it up as we go along?

You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com

Next Time: Live Special – Is This How Democracy Ends? with Lyse Doucet, Chris Clark and Thant Myint-U
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Today’s episode sees the return of our occasional series with historian Robert Saunders looking at significant political anniversaries: this time it’s the 80th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s ‘Sinews of Peace’ speech given at Fulton, Missouri in March 1946. The speech is best known for introducing the idea of the ‘Iron Curtain’. What was Churchill trying to achieve? Why was his message so controversial in the United States? How did he help inaugurate the Cold War? And where was he right and where was he wrong about the ‘special relationship’?

Out now on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany our recent series with Luke Kemp in which David and Luke talk about how individual experience shapes the way we imagine humanity’s fate and can motivate us to do something about it: the personal and the political. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

Join us next Thursday 19th March at the Regent Street Cinema in London for the first film in our new spring and summer season: Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan, followed by a live podcast recording with author and journalist James Marriott. Tickets for this and all our screenings are available now https://www.ppfideas.com/events

You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com

Next Time: Two Twists and Turns of the Special Relationship
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In the fourth and final conversation in this series David talks to Luke Kemp, author of Goliath’s Curse, about where we might be heading. Where does the greatest risk of global collapse lie? Who is ultimately responsible for our fate? What makes states and corporations the agents of doom? How can we humans fight back?

Out tomorrow on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany this series in which David and Luke talk about how individual experience shapes the way we imagine humanity’s fate and can motivate us to do something about it: the personal and the political. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

Join us this Wednesday 11th March for a joint LRB/PPF event: The Slow Death of Democracy, with Lyse Doucet, Christopher Clark and Thant Myint-U. Lyse Doucet will be discussing what she saw when she was in Iran for the BBC last month and what the war means for the prospects of democracy there and everywhere else. Tickets are available now https://www.tickettailor.com/events/londonreviewofbooks/2062789

You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com

Luke Kemp’s Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse is available now https://bit.ly/4aFczds

Next Time: Now & Then with Robert Saunders – Churchill’s ‘Iron Curtain’ speech @80
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In today’s episode David talks to Luke Kemp, author of Goliath’s Curse, about the prospects for societal collapse in the 21st century. Are we living in a global Goliath? Is there any escape in an age when personal data has become the primary lootable resource? Does interconnectedness mean we are more vulnerable to collapse than ever? And what can we learn from the fate of Somalia?

Join us on 11th March for a joint LRB/PPF event: The Slow Death of Democracy, with Lyse Doucet, Christopher Clark and Thant Myint-U. Tickets are available now https://www.tickettailor.com/events/londonreviewofbooks/2062789

You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of our episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com

Luke Kemp’s Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse is available now https://bit.ly/4aFczds

Next Time: Societal Collapse – The Future
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