In today’s episode David talks to Hannah White, Director of the Institute for Government, about legislatures in general and the British parliament in particular. Are law-making bodies really being sidelined by strongarm executives? What would enable parliaments to work better? How can they better fulfil their role of scrutinising what government does? And why oh why oh why has it taken forever to reform the House of Lords?
Available from Saturday on PPF+: The second half of David’s conversation with Hannah White in which they discuss how we could get better decision-making at the heart of government. Why do politicians find it so hard to address the biggest challenges that they face? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up now to PPF+ https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus
The 2nd film in our autumn film season at the Regent Street cinema is coming up on Thursday 25thSeptember: a screening of My Dinner with Andre, followed by a live recording of PPF with playwright and screenwriter Lee Hall, creator of Billy Elliot. Tickets are available now https://bit.ly/4fWDa7V
Next Up in Fixing Democracy: Citizens’ Assemblies
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
--------
59:23
--------
59:23
Fixing Democracy: Electoral Reform
For the first episode in a new series about the ideas that could help democracy work better David talks to David Klemperer of the Constitution Society about proportional representation. How did nineteenth-century advocates of PR think it could improve democratic representation? Why did PR get adopted in some places but not in others during the twentieth century? What are the advantages of proportional systems? And when will we get serious electoral reform in the UK?
The 2nd film in our autumn season of Films of Ideas at the Regent Street cinema is coming up on Thursday 25th September: a screening of My Dinner with Andre, followed by a live recording of PPF with playwright and screenwriter Lee Hall, creator of Billy Elliot. Tickets are available now https://bit.ly/4fWDa7V
Next Up in Fixing Democracy: Parliamentary Reform
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
--------
59:04
--------
59:04
Indignity w/Lea Ypi
David talks to Lea Ypi about her new book Indignity: A Life Reimagined, which tells the story of her grandmother’s extraordinary life and in doing so uncovers the hidden history of mid-twentieth-century Europe. But it is also a book about the different philosophies of dignity and how those ideas can shape, make and break individual human lives. A conversation about death and displacement, identity and betrayal, secrecy and salvation.
Indignity: A Life Reimagined by Lea Ypi is out now – get it wherever you get your books. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/458930/indignity-by-ypi-lea/9780241661925
The 2nd film in our autumn season of Films of Ideas at the Regent Street cinema is coming up on Thursday 25th September: a screening of My Dinner with Andre, followed by a live recording of PPF with playwright and screenwriter Lee Hall, creator of Billy Elliot. Tickets are available now https://bit.ly/4fWDa7V
Next up, the start of a new series: Fixing Democracy
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
--------
1:06:48
--------
1:06:48
Dignity and Indignity w/Lea Ypi
Today’s episode is the first in a three-part conversation with philosopher and writer Lea Ypi about the idea of dignity and its role in the history of ideas and in the story of our lives. What is the difference between dignity and dignitas? How does our conception of dignity shape the ways that we think about death? And why is Kant so important for showing what the idea of dignity is capable of?
Out tomorrow on PPF+: Part 2 of this conversation, in which David and Lea explore the role of dignity in human rights and in identity politics and ask how much it matters that our politics has become so undignified. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up now to PPF+ https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus
Lea Ypi’s new book is Indignity: A Life Reimagined – get it wherever you get your books. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/458930/indignity-by-ypi-lea/9780241661925
Tickets are available now for a special recording of PPF Live at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Wednesday 15th October: Who Rules The World? Trump, Tech and the Fight for the Future. David will be talking to writer, philosopher and ex-politician Bruno Macaes plus a special guest to be announced about where the power really lies. Get your tickets now https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/events/who-rules-the-world-trump-tech-and-the-fight-for-the-future
Next time: Lea Ypi talks about her remarkable new book Indignity: A Life Reimagined
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
--------
59:59
--------
59:59
PPF+: More of What You’ve Been Missing!
In today’s episode some more highlights from the PPF+ archive of 35 bonus episodes and counting: here are a few more excerpts we think you might enjoy.
In this episode you’ll hear David talking about In the Loop and the question of why politicians do and don’t resign; Robert Saunders on the legacy of Brexit for politics in 2025; Shannon Vallor on why AI is a vision not of the future but of the past; David on the appeal of High Noon for American presidents; and Alec Ryrie on the relationship between Calvinism, Puritanism and the rise and fall of apartheid South Africa.
To get all these episodes along with the whole of our PPF+ archive, two new bonus episodes every month, plus ad-free listening and automatic sign up for our fortnightly newsletter, join PPF+ now. It’s £5 per month or £50 per year – and every subscription really helps support this podcast https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus
If you would like to gift a PPF+ subscription to someone you know who is starting college or university or a new school or who you think might be interested in what we do for whatever reason, it’s easy: sign them up here https://ppf.supportingcast.fm/gifts
Next time in Politics on Trial: Hitler vs Weimar
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Past Present Future is a bi-weekly History of Ideas podcast with David Runciman, host and creator of Talking Politics, exploring the history of ideas from politics to philosophy, culture to technology. David talks to historians, novelists, scientists and many others about where the most interesting ideas come from, what they mean, and why they matter.
Ideas from the past, questions about the present, shaping the future.
New episodes every Wednesday and Sunday.
Deutschland