TALKING POLITICS podcast

TALKING POLITICS

Coronavirus! Climate! Brexit! Trump! Politics has never been more unpredictable, more alarming or more interesting: Talking Politics is the podcast that tries to make sense of it all. Every week David Runciman and Helen Thompson talk to the most interesting people around about the ideas and events that shape our world: from history to economics, from philosophy to fiction. What does the future hold? Can democracy survive? How crazy will it get? This is the political conversation that matters. Talking Politics is brought to you in partnership with the London Review of Books, Europe's leading magazine of books and ideas.

Coronavirus! Climate! Brexit! Trump! Politics has never been more unpredictable, more alarming or more interesting: Talking Politics is the podcast that tries to make sense of it all. Every week David Runciman and Helen Thompson talk to the most interesting people around about the ideas and events that shape our world: from history to economics, from philosophy to fiction. What does the future hold? Can democracy survive? How crazy will it get? This is the political conversation that matters. Talking Politics is brought to you in partnership with the London Review of Books, Europe's leading magazine of books and ideas.

 

#379

New Podcast: These Times

UnHerd political editor Tom McTague and Cambridge professor Helen Thompson team up to investigate the history of today’s politics — and what it means for our future. Each week they will explore the great forces, ideas and events that led us to where we are, whether in Britain, the United States, Europe or beyond. It’s a politics podcast for those who want a deeper, historical understanding of the news, to understand what has really shaped our world and why. We hope you enjoy! Don’t forget to please rate, like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts — and, of course, to get in touch with all your questions and comments so we can respond in future episodes. Email us at [thesetimes@unherd.com] (mailto:thesetimes@unherd.com) or tweet us at @thesetimespod ... Read more

11 May 2023

00 MINS

00:52

11 May 2023


#378

New Podcast: Where Are You Going?

Talking Politics producer Catherine Carr returns to her role as mic-wielder in ['Where Are You Going?'] (https://www.whereareyougoing.co.uk/) a unique storytelling podcast, delivered in bite-size episodes. Called 'utterly compelling and unique' by the Financial Times, 'engrossing' by The Times and 'riveting' by The Spectator. In each episode, Catherine interrupts people as they go about their everyday lives and asks simply; "Where are you going?" The conversations that follow are always unpredictable: sometimes funny, sometimes heart-breaking, silly, romantic or downright 'stop-you-in-your-tracks' surprising. Be transported to places around the world and into the lives of others. What story is coming next? You just never know.... 'Where Are You Going?' is produced by the team at [Loftus Media] (https://loftusmedia.co.uk/) . New episodes are published twice a week, every Tuesday and Friday. --- [Subscribe] (https://www.whereareyougoing.co.uk/subscribe) --- [Instagram] (www.instagram.com/whereareyougoingpodcast ) --- [Website] (www.whereareyougoing.co.uk ) ... Read more

24 Apr 2023

03 MINS

03:39

24 Apr 2023


#377

New Podcast: Past Present Future

Past Present Future is a new weekly podcast with David Runciman, host 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. Brought to you in partnership with the London Review of Books. New episodes every Thursday. Just subscribe to Past Present Future wherever you get your podcasts. ... Read more

21 Apr 2023

02 MINS

02:18

21 Apr 2023


#376

Finale

David, Helen and Catherine get together for our final episode, to reflect on podcastingthrough six extraordinaryyears of politics, and what it means to be ending at the beginning of a war.We talk about the current crisis, how it connects to the crises ofthe past, and where it might fit in to the crises of the future.This episode is dedicated to Finbarr Livesey and Aaron Rapport. So you don’t miss us too much… ---You can follow Catherine’s work on [Relatively] (https://www.relativelypodcast.com/) and [The Exchange] (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000ydmd) on R4. She tweets @CatherineECarr ---Read David [in the pages of the LRB] (https://www.lrb.co.uk/contributors/david-runciman?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F) ---Or check out his most recent book, [Confronting Leviathan] (https://www.waterstones.com/book/confronting-leviathan/david-runciman/9781788167826) ---Helen’s new book, [Disorder] (https://global.oup.com/academic/product/disorder-9780198864981?cc=gb&lang=en&) is now out! ---And she writes a [column for the New Statesman] (https://www.newstatesman.com/author/helen-thompson) and tweets @HelenHet20 ---Our [website] (https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/) - keep an eye out for archive curation - underway soon! In grateful memory of our colleagues [Aaron Rapport] (https://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/Staff_and_Students/dr-aaron-rapport-1) and [Finbarr Livesey] (https://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/Staff_and_Students/dr-finbarr-livesey-1) ... Read more

03 Mar 2022

39 MINS

39:14

03 Mar 2022


#375

Helen Thompson/Disorder

For our penultimate episode, David talks to Helen about her new book Disorder: Hard Times in the Twenty-First Century. It’s a conversation about many of the themes Helen has explored on Talking Politics over the years, from the energy transition to the perils of QE, from the travails of the Eurozone to the crisis of democracy, from China to America, from the past to the present to the future. In this book, she brings all these themes together to help make sense of the world we’re in. Talking Points: Suez is often seen as a crisis of British imperial hubris. But it’s also about energy. ---The US wanted Western European countries to import oil from the Middle East. ---But the US at the time was not a military power in the region. ---So the US essentially became a guarantor of Western European energy security, but implementation was dependent on British imperial power in the region. ---When Eisenhower pulled the plug on Suez, Europe panicked. The aftermath was hugely consequential. ---France turned to Algeria, but that went badly. ---Europe also embraced nuclear power to pursue energy self-sufficiency. ---And finally, this precipitated a turn to Soviet oil and gas and the construction of pipelines between Soviet territories and Western Europe. The shale boom was a double-edged sword: it also destabilized the alliance with Saudi Arabia and increased competition between the US and Russia. ---Meanwhile, Chinese demand has been increasing. ---The US today imports much less oil from the Persian Gulf, but the US Navy still provides energy security in the region, even though most of that oil goes to China and Japan. QE created a wholly new situation in the Eurozone. ---Everyone in the Eurozone game essentially understands that if QE is going to continue, there will be constraints around what can happen in Italian domestic politics. ---The current prime minister of Italy is the former president of the ECB. One of the risks of democracy is democratic excess. But democracies can also experience aristocratic excess. ---In US elections, people need a lot of money to compete. This means that there is not really an outlet for genuine democratic demands. Mentioned in this Episode: --- [Helen’s book, Disorder] (https://global.oup.com/academic/product/disorder-9780198864981?cc=gb&lang=en&) --- [James Macdonald, A Free Nation Deep in Debt] (https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691126326/a-free-nation-deep-in-debt) Further Learning: --- [More on Nord Stream 2] (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/07/what-have-nord-stream-2-and-gas-got-to-do-with-ukraine-standoff) --- [Helen, on how the rich captured modern democracies] (https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2022/02/the-age-of-plutocracy) --- [Helen on Ukraine for the New Statesman] (https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2022/02/ukraines-imagined-european-identity-is-irreconcilable-with-the-political-reality) --- [Why the Ukraine crisis is a modern crisis] (https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2022/02/russia-invade-ukraine-putin-strategy/621626/) And as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: [lrb.co.uk/talking] (http://lrb.co.uk/talking) ... Read more

24 Feb 2022

46 MINS

46:55

24 Feb 2022


#374

The Meaning of Macron

David talks to Shahin Vallee and Chris Bickerton about theupcoming French presidential elections.Can anything or anyone stop Macron?Whyhas French politics moved so farto the right?And what do left and right still mean in the absence of economic disagreement?Plus we discuss what the Macron years - the five that have gone and the fiveprobably still to come - have taught us about thechanging character of European politics. ... Read more

17 Feb 2022

45 MINS

45:27

17 Feb 2022


#373

The Meaning of Boris Johnson

David, Helen and Chris Brooke have one more go at making sense of the tangled webthat is British politics.CanJohnson reallysurvive, and even if he does, can his brand ever recover?Is this a scandal, is it a crisis, or is it something else entirely?Does history offer any guide to what comes next?Pluswe explore whatmight be thereally big lessons from the last two years of Covid-dominated politics. Talking Points: It’s obvious why Boris is a problem, but it’s not clear who would replace him. ---There will probably need to be a decisive marker, either the May local elections or the police report could be it. ---The strategic question for the Conservative party is, can it win enough seats to form a stable majority government? Boris won’t go voluntarily. But can he survive? ---Newer MPs are not loyal to Johnson, but older ones are more wary of defenestrating a leader who won big majorities. ---A lot of people have left number 10. It will be hard for him to govern. In 2015, Ed Miliband was leading in the headline polls. But there were signs of weakness. ---Labour wasn’t winning local elections. And Cameron was polling better on two key questions: leadership and the economy. ---Labour has now moved ahead on both. ---It would still be hard for Labour to win an overall majority, but defeat in local elections might spook the Conservatives. The politics of scandal are different from the politics of crisis. ---Scandals change how politics are conducted, but they don’t usually trash the party’s reputation. ---Helen thinks that it is a politics of chaos. This particular scandal is bound up in Johnson’s appeal. ---On most issues, the outrage of the other side works for Johnson. ---Outrage about the parties is different: Johnson was a hypocrite. ---He has trashed his own brand this time, but he still doesn’t think the game is over. Were the pandemic years a dress rehearsal for the politics of climate change? ---To reach net zero, governments will need to ask people to make sacrifices. Will future politics be a politics of limits? ---The pandemic has also deepened generational divides. Mentioned in this Episode: --- [Recent polling data] (https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/united-kingdom/) Further Learning: --- [Isaac Chotiner asks David about hypocrisy and Partygate] (https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-hypocrisy-undid-boris-johnson) --- [Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Labour optimism] (https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/dec/26/rachel-reeves-labour-strongest-position-in-10-years) --- [David on Dominic Cummings’ blog] (https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jan/14/intoxicating-insidery-and-infuriating-everything-i-learned-about-dominic-cummings-from-his-10-a-month-blog) --- [From the archive… Who is Boris Johnson?] (https://play.acast.com/s/talkingpolitics/whoisborisjohnson-) And as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: [lrb.co.uk/talking] (http://lrb.co.uk/talking) ... Read more

10 Feb 2022

52 MINS

52:56

10 Feb 2022


#372

Putin’s Next Move

David and Helen talk to Shashank Joshi, Defence Editor of the Economist, about what Vladimir Putin hopesto get out of the Ukraine crisis and what anyone can do to stop him.Is some sort of invasion inevitable?Is Russia’s goal to sow dissent or to achieve regime change?What leverage does the rest of world have over Putinand his allies?Plus we explore where the roots of the crisis lie: in 2014, in the end of the Cold War, or even earlier still? Talking Points: What does Putin want from Ukraine? ---He wants to stop Ukraine’s westward shift, which is about more than NATO. ---Ukraine was probably not ever going to join NATO. In that regard, Putin already has what he wants. ---What else is he upset about? Britain is building a naval base on the Sea of Azov. Britain and the UK are training Ukrainian troops. Weapons are flowing in, too. ---Putin worries about Ukraine becoming a more militarily and economically capable actor. What would Putin count as a success in the current crisis? ---Logistically speaking, Putin could stay there for months. But he has troops from the Eastern military district there, who can’t. And the weather will change after March. ---Perhaps the biggest problem is psychological: backing down would look like giving in. ---Does Russia want regime change? Kiev seems less convinced about the imminence of an invasion. ---Are they deluded? ---They definitely want to avoid panic, especially economic panic. What is different today from 2014? ---Ukraine is in an even worse economic position. ---Ukraine is a transit gas state; Putin has been trying to end that for a long time, and he is getting close with the near completion of Nordstream. ---Another difference is America’s position in the world. NATO allies should still feel reasonably secure. ---But in middle areas, such as Ukraine, or the countries in central Asia, things are less certain. Mentioned in this Episode: --- [Shashank’s latest for the Economist: How big is Russia’s military buildup around Ukraine?] (https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2022/01/31/how-big-is-russias-military-build-up-around-ukraine) --- [More on Biden’s global posture review] (https://www.swp-berlin.org/en/publication/the-biden-administrations-global-posture-review) --- [An interview with Dmitri Trenin: are we on the brink of war?] (https://carnegiemoscow.org/commentary/86304) Further Learning: --- [Our last episode with Shashank] (https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/blog/2020/217-trump-vs-iran-is-it-for-real) --- [More on javelin missiles in Ukraine] (https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/01/26/ukraine-missile-russia-baltics-biden/) --- [More on the Russia-Belarus integration] (https://carnegiemoscow.org/commentary/85749) And as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: [lrb.co.uk/talking] (http://lrb.co.uk/talking) ... Read more

03 Feb 2022

50 MINS

50:39

03 Feb 2022


#371

The Next Big Thing

David talks to John Naughton about what’s coming next in the tech revolution and where it’s taking us. From quantum computing to cryptocurrency, from AI to the Internet of Things: what’s hype, what’s for real and how will it shape our politics. Plus we discuss what China understands about technology that the rest of the world might have missed. Talking Points: The metaverse is the next big thing in Silicon Valley. It feels like the logical conclusion of prevailing trends. ---This is not actually a radical break. ---The gaming industry is developing the metaverse. And big tech is investing heavily in gaming. ---The metaverse bypasses many elements of the real world that people like Zuckerberg are keen on, such as government regulation. What will be the next big technological shift? Are we in a kind of lull? ---The internet of things has not gone away. ---Blockchain, which enables crypto, is still a significant technology. ---Proponents of Web3 want to disrupt centralized control of the Internet. Does the Chinese system show us that there is another choice on technology? ---The general view of autocracy is that it can’t be done. The problem is imperfect information. ---Has technology made it possible to escape the autocrat’s trap? Technology has undeniably changed our lives, but the liberatory promise does not seem to have been realized. ---When will technology give us control over our own time? ---The kind of capitalism that drives the tech industry is unstable unless it grows. ---The relentlessness of consumer society is antithetical to a particular kind of creativity and a particular kind of politics. Mentioned in this Episode: --- [John’s column for the Observer] (https://www.theguardian.com/profile/johnnaughton) --- [Neal Stephennson, Snow Crash] (https://www.waterstones.com/book/snow-crash/neal-stephenson/9780241953181) --- [John on TP talking about Libra] (https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/blog/2019/172-libra) --- [Keynes’ essay, ‘Economic possibilities for our grandchildren’] (http://www.econ.yale.edu/smith/econ116a/keynes1.pdf) --- [History of Ideas, Hannah Arendt on Action] (https://play.acast.com/s/history-of-ideas/arendtonaction) --- [The Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy] (https://www.mctd.ac.uk/) Further Learning: --- [What is the metaverse, exactly?] (https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-the-metaverse/) --- [What is Web3?] (https://www.npr.org/2021/11/21/1056988346/web3-internet-jargon-or-future-vision) --- [More on Microsoft’s takeover of Activision Blizzard] (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jan/18/microsofts-activision-plan-shows-gaming-will-be-at-heart-of-metaverse) And as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: [lrb.co.uk/talking] (http://lrb.co.uk/talking) ... Read more

27 Jan 2022

42 MINS

42:33

27 Jan 2022


#370

American Civil War?

One year on from Joe Biden’s inauguration David and Helen talk with Gary Gerstle about what’s gone wrong. What is the strategy behind this presidency?Has it tried to do too much or too little? And are the dark warnings of another American civil war really plausible? Plus we discuss whether the original American Civil War should really be used as the template for political breakdown. Talking Points: It’s hard to be a transformational president when your congressional margin is as slim as Biden’s is. ---Are critics being too harsh? Unemployment is down, the pandemic recovery was quicker than anticipated, and there is a broader renegotiation of work conditions for lower-paid workers. But these are not the seismic shifts many hoped for. ---Biden may want to be a transformational president, but the conditions do not suit transformational politics. ---Did an overreading of Trump’s incompetence on the pandemic inflate expectations of Biden? What would Biden’s presidency look like if Democrats did not have a majority in the Senate? ---The unexpected victories in Georgia have also led to heightened scrutiny of the holdout Democrats, Sinema and Manchin. Republican senators seem to be getting a free pass. Are fears about a looming American civil war overblown? ---What do we mean by civil war? The idea of the federal government fighting a group of secessionist states seems inconceivable. ---The notion of factions vying for control over the center is somewhat more plausible. ---The American Civil War was not just about tribalism or ideology. There were incompatible political economic systems. ---The very fact that the United States has had a Civil War, however, is still part of American politics. As T.S. Eliot said, ‘Serious civil wars never come to an end.’ ---Will the burgeoning discourse around illegitimate election results actually translate into more overt political violence in the future? Mentioned in this Episode: --- [Biden’s recent speech on voting rights] (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/01/11/remarks-by-president-biden-on-protecting-the-right-to-vote/) --- [Barbara Walter’s book, How Civil Wars Start] (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/315/315950/how-civil-wars-start/9780241429754.html) --- [Gary’s forthcoming book, The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order] (https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-neoliberal-order-9780197519646?q=gary%20gerstle&lang=en&cc=us) Further Learning: --- [Is Civil War coming to America?] (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/18/books/review/how-civil-wars-start-barbara-f-walter-the-next-civil-war-stephen-marche.html) --- [More on Merrick Garland’s investigation] (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/05/merrick-garland-us-capitol-attack-investigation) --- [Eric Foner for the LRB on the electoral college] (https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n10/eric-foner/the-corrupt-bargain) And as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: [lrb.co.uk/talking] (http://lrb.co.uk/talking) ... Read more

20 Jan 2022

53 MINS

53:39

20 Jan 2022


#369

Two Topics for 2022

To kick off the new year David and Helen are joined by historian Robert Saunders to talk about two possible trends for the next twelve months.Could Labour and the Lib Dem’s really find electoral common ground to defeat the Tories? And is Netzero scepticism about to become a serious force on the British right?A conversation about history, coalitions, energy prices, populism and the return of Nigel Farage. Coming up on Talking Politics: Biden one year on. Talking Points: By-elections and opinion polls suggest that the Conservative Party might be in trouble. ---Labour did badly in the by-elections but it is doing better in the polls. ---Is there a way of getting the Tories out without some combination of Lib Dem and Labour opposition? ---The Lib Dems can win in seats where Labour is not competitive. ---There are no prospects for the Labour Party becoming the largest party, given the situation in Scotland, without the Lib Dems taking seats from the Conservatives. ---The Lib Dems struggle when Labour is perceived as being too far to the left. What complicates things now is the Scottish question. ---The prospect of a Labour-SNP coalition presents a different type of problem. ---Should the parties stand down candidates? Can you compel tactical voting? Should you? Is there potential for serious opposition to climate-centric politics in the coming years? ---There is a growing, although still constrained, opposition to net zero politics on the right. Farage wants to stoke this. ---It’s not exactly climate skepticism, but rather skepticism over the policies put forward to tackle it. ---This is already happening in Australia and the United States, but these are countries where fossil fuel producers have a lot of power. ---This is emerging now because of what is happening with energy prices. Is there an unoccupied political space between techno-utopianism and net zero skepticism? ---Johnson is keen on the green-growth strategy, but so far, the evidence on green jobs is not that convincing. ---Covid showed us that the public can take more realism than politicians often assume. Mentioned in this Episode: --- [Keir Starmer’s new year speech] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llq-WvonlL0) --- [Michael Crick’s forthcoming biography of Nigel Farage] (https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/One-Party-After-Another/Michael-Crick/9781471192296) --- [Robert’s Twitter account] (https://twitter.com/redhistorian?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor) Further Learning: --- [More on Conservative opposition to Net Zero] (https://www.politico.eu/article/climate-change-skeptics-united-kingdom-science-deniers-rebrand/) --- [Helen on the timid political debate over green energy] (https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2021/07/why-britain-s-timid-green-politics-shows-it-not-taking-energy) --- [Adam Tooze on realism, progressivism, and Net Zero] (https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-newsletter-17) And as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: [lrb.co.uk/talking] (http://lrb.co.uk/talking) ... Read more

06 Jan 2022

49 MINS

49:15

06 Jan 2022


#368

Boris: The Ghost of Christmas Present

David and Helen talk through what’s going on with the prime minister, the pandemic and the state of British politics.Is Johnson still in touch with public opinion on Covid?Why is hypocrisy more toxic than lying?What are the historical parallels - if any - for the Tories recent by-election disasters?Plus we try to decide what 2021 will be remembered for politically in the years to come. ... Read more

23 Dec 2021

49 MINS

49:51

23 Dec 2021


#367

1848 and All That

David and Helen talk to historian Chris Clark about the 1848 revolutions and what they teach us about political change. What explains the contagiousness of the revolutionary moment?Is it possible to combine parliamentary reform with street politics?Where does counter-revolution get its power? The revolutions of 1848 started with a small civil war in Switzerland in 1847. ---In 1848, there was a cascade of simultaneous uprisings across the continent. There were the spring revolutions; then in the summer, the liberal and conservative wings began to fight each other. ---In the autumn, counter revolutions began in earnest. But the left revived itself, launching revolution 2.0. Finally, in the summer of 1849, the counter revolution largely prevailed. These were revolutions about political and social order, but also about national order. ---The Hungarians, for example, declared independence from Vienna and fought not just against the Austrians but against a range of other nationalities. What accounts for the simultaneity of these revolutions? ---A continent-wide socio-economic crisis began with an agrarian crisis in 1845. Food became much more expensive at a time when people spent most of their money on food. ---The agrarian crisis then triggered a downturn in trade and consumption. Why wasn’t there a revolution in Britain? ---One reason is that the country was so efficiently policed. ---Another is that Britain was able to export potentially problematic people to the colonies. ---The imperial economy also allowed them to outsource price-shock problems. The forces of counterrevolution were primarily those of monarchism and money. ---Europe already had an order, the order of 1815; monarchs wanted to restore it. ---Revolutions are spontaneous, but counterrevolutionaries can bide their time strategically. ---The liberal great powers didn’t support the revolutions, but the conservative ones supported the counter revolutions. ---You can also read this as the death throes of the counterrevolutionary order. They won’t make common cause again. The revolutions of 1848 combined radical street politics with legislative politics. The institutional side of the revolution seemed to win. ---Constitutions proliferated after 1848. ---The tense relationship between the street and representative processes is at the core of what these revolutions were about. --- [Chris’ lecture on the 1848 revolutions for the LRB] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=782P0YcOOOQ) --- [And his LRB essay] (https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n05/christopher-clark/why-should-we-think-about-the-revolutions-of-1848-now) --- [From our archives… Why Constitutions Matter with Linda Colley] (https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/blog/2021/322-why-constitutions-matter) --- [In Our Time on the Taiping Rebellion] (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yqvqt) --- [Our History of Ideas series… Marx and Engels on Revolution] (https://play.acast.com/s/history-of-ideas/marxandengelsonrevolution) --- [And Rosa Luxemburg on Revolution] (https://play.acast.com/s/history-of-ideas/luxemburgonrevolution) --- [The TP guide to… European Union before the EU] (https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/blog/2019/182-talking-politics-guide-to-european-union-before-the-eu) ... Read more

16 Dec 2021

52 MINS

52:32

16 Dec 2021


#366

Supply Chains, Inflation & the Metaverse

In a special episode recordedlive at the Bristol Festival of Economics, David and Helen talk to Ed Conway, Economics Editor at Sky News, about thebiggest challenges facing the global economy.How will the supply chain crisis be fixed? Isinflation the threat it appears?Can the world economic system really weanitself off coal?Plus we discuss whether Mark Zuckerberg’smetaverse will everescape the brute facts of economic material reality. ... Read more

02 Dec 2021

56 MINS

56:33

02 Dec 2021


#365

Where is China Heading?

Helen and David talk to Cindy Yu, host of the Chinese Whispers podcast, about the trajectory of Chinese politics. What is Beijing’s political strategy for Hong Kong and Taiwan?Is Xi Jinping really a socialist?Can the CCP escape its history?Plus, what’s the real reason Xi didn’t show up in Glasgow? Talking Points: Before the pandemic, the central questions about China in the West revolved around Hong Kong. Now we don’t talk about it so much. ---Both the West and China itself seem to think that China has the situation under control. ---The pandemic made protest harder. It also meant that the media on the ground was focusing on something else. ---Beijing called the financial companies’ bluff: they didn’t leave when the political situation got worse. China is trying to repair its territorial claims. ---In some ways, the situation in Hong Kong has made conflict with Taiwan more likely. One country, two systems no longer seems plausible. ---The window of reunification may be closing. ---Xi would probably not want to go in for a long, drawn-out war. This is a precarious situation: the risks of miscalculation are enormous. ---What would the West need to do to preemptively deter China? ---It’s not clear that this would actually be good for China. The CCP apparatus is incredibly opaque. ---That said, it appears that the party is more unified now than it was before. ---Xi is delivering, and if he continues to do so, he will probably not face too much pushback within the party. ---There was a domestic reason for Xi to skip COP: it coincided with the Sixth Plenum. How ideological is Xi’s project? ---China is moving away from pragmatism, not necessarily because of Xi Jinping thought. ---Ideology is most evident in economics. ---Xi is now talking about common prosperity after decades of rampant inequality. ---The policies associated with common prosperity probably would not fly in the West. ---Xi thinks that fixing economic problems is one way to head off social problems. Mentioned in this Episode: --- [Cindy’s podcast, Chinese Whispers] (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/chinese-whispers/id1522448504) --- [Cindy’s podcast episode with Oriana Skylar Mastro] (https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/will-xi-invade-taiwan-) --- [Victor Shih at UC San Diego] (https://gps.ucsd.edu/faculty-directory/victor-shih.html) Further Learning: --- [More on the Biden-Xi virtual summit] (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/16/xi-biden-virtual-summit-us-china-conflict-taiwan-hong-kong) --- [The Talking Politics Guide to… The Chinese Communist Party] (https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/blog/2019/176-talking-politics-guide-to-the-chinese-communist-party) And as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: [lrb.co.uk/talking] (http://lrb.co.uk/talking) ... Read more

18 Nov 2021

47 MINS

47:31

18 Nov 2021


#364

Climate Ambition vs Energy Reality

David and Helen talk to Jason Bordoff, Dean of the Columbia Climate Schooland former SpecialAssistant to Barack Obama, about climate, COP26 and the enormous challenges of the energytransition.How can we balance the need for energy security with the need to wean the world off its dependency on fossil fuels?Why is China still so reliant on coal?Who will pay for the energy needs of the developing world?Plus, just how scared are the oil companies of public opinion?You can read more of Jason’s work [here] (https://foreignpolicy.com/author/jason-bordoff/) . Talking Points: Energy transition will require a lot of capital investment. ---Clean energy tends to be more capital intensive in the short term; although the long-term operating costs are lower. ---Private capital needs to be mobilized to make this happen. ---Can large financial institutions forgo significant returns if oil prices go back up? There is a clash between climate ambition and energy reality. ---The reality is that, despite tremendous advances in clean energy, oil and gas usage are still going up. ---The more the ambition is elevated, the bigger this gap becomes. During a lockdown that shut down half of the global economy, carbon emissions only fell 6%. ---To reach the 1.5 degree target, emissions need to decrease much more quickly. ---We might start seeing more disruptive and ambitious policies on the table in coming years. Or, maybe not. ---When questions of energy affordability, reliability, and security come into tension with climate ambition, there is a risk that climate ambition will lose. ---Is increasing efficiency enough, or will energy consumption also need to go down? In many parts of the world, energy use will actually need to increase in the coming decades. ---What is needed to make significant investments in clean energy in the developing world financially viable? Some people, like John Kerry, hoped that the U.S. and China might find a point of consensus on climate. ---In practice, that has not really happened. ---Could economic competition be a more effective driver than cooperation? If we always see high oil prices as a political problem that we can’t afford, then how will we get to the point at which we allow high prices to reduce demand? ---The United States is the world’s largest oil producer, but the U.S. government has much less control over American oil and gas producers than OPEC states do. ---Should we be talking more about energy and less about climate? Mentioned in this Episode: --- [The Columbia Climate School] (https://climate.columbia.edu/) --- [Jason’s recent article in Foreign Policy on energy in the developing world] (https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/10/29/cop26-climate-summit-developing-countries-energy-glasgow/) --- [Jason, on why everything you think about the geopolitics of climate change is wrong] (https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/10/05/climate-geopolitics-petrostates-russia-china/) --- [Jason’s podcast, Columbia Energy Exchange] (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/columbia-energy-exchange/id1081481629) Further Learning: <ul><li> [How much will it cost the UK to reach net zero?] (https://www.ft.com/content/b02b9d51-3e0c-435c-9b53-774ee12ea277) </li><li><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/12/china-coal-fired-plants-uk-cop26-climate-summit-global-phase-out" rel="noopener... ... Read more

04 Nov 2021

51 MINS

51:55

04 Nov 2021


#363

Hilary Mantel

In a special episode recorded in front of a live audience, Helen and David talk to Hilary Mantel about power, monarchy andpoliticalintrigue. From the Tudors to the present, from Henry VIII to Boris Johnson, from Thomas Cromwell to Dominic Cummings.A fascinatinginsight into politics and the writer’s imagination, from one of thegreatestmodern novelists. Mentioned in this Episode: --- [Mantel Pieces, a new collection of Hilary’s LRB essays] (https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/mantel-pieces-royal-bodies-and-other-writing-from-the-london-review-of-books-hilary-mantel) --- [‘Royal Bodies’ (from 2013)] (https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v35/n04/hilary-mantel/royal-bodies) --- [The Wolf Hall trilogy] (https://www.waterstones.com/product/the-wolf-hall-trilogy/hilary-mantel/9780008424510) --- [A Place of Greater Safety] (https://www.waterstones.com/book/a-place-of-greater-safety/hilary-mantel/9780008329730) --- [David and Helen on Hilary Mantel (from April 2020)] (https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/blog/2020/236-in-praise-of-hilary-mantel) And as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: [lrb.co.uk/talking] (http://lrb.co.uk/talking) ... Read more

28 Oct 2021

53 MINS

53:36

28 Oct 2021


#362

Free with Lea Ypi

David talks with Lea Ypi about her astonishing new memoir Free: Coming of Age at the End of History, which tells the story of her childhood in Stalinist Albania and what came after.It’s a tale of family secrets, political oppression and the promise of liberation - and a profound meditation on what it really means to be free.From Marxism to liberalism and back again, this is aconversation that brings political ideas to life.Lea Ypi is Professor ofPolitical Theory at the LSE and [Free ] ( https://bit.ly/3jjOf74) has been shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize Talking Points: Albania was a socialist country that went through various alliances. ---By the time that Lea was born, it was largely isolated. ---The dominant narrative was that Albania was a country surrounded by empires, which stood on the moral high-ground. ---In other words, it was socialist and anti-imperialist but also fiercely nationalist. For Albania, the key year was not 1989 but 1990. ---Initially, dissidents were described as ‘hooligans.’ ---In December 1990, protesters requested political pluralism. How do we conceptualize freedom? ---People in Western countries often relate to non-liberal societies by conceptualizing themselves as liberators. ---What does freedom mean in a limit-case like Albania? ---There is a risk of paternalism in the dominant liberal conceptions of freedom. There are always margins of dissidence. ---What does it feel like to suddenly gain freedom in the liberal sense? How does this affect relations between generations? For Lea, freedom is about being the author of your own fate, even when it seems overdetermined. ---Studying political ideas can make one a nihilist, or you can choose to believe that there is something about humans that is inherently moral. ---In other words, freedom is moral agency. Mentioned in this Episode: --- [Lea’s new book, Free] (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320/320869/free/9780241481851.html) --- [Lea on political legitimacy in Marxist perspective] (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ejop.12500) --- [Book tickets for our upcoming event with Hilary Mantel] (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/subjectobject-2-the-power-behind-the-throne-tickets-171074156407) Further Learning: --- [Lea in the Guardian on growing up in Europe’s last communist state] (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/09/spies-lies-and-doublethink-lea-ypi-on-growing-up-in-europes-last-communist-state) --- [More on Albania after the fall of communism from the FT] (https://www.ft.com/content/b5455f0f-33a9-480e-9027-6884cc25faa4) --- [More on Enver Hoxha] (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/30/enver-hoxha-iron-fist-of-albania-blendi-fevziu-review) --- [More on the Albanian-Soviet split] (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07075332.2019.1620825) --- [Lea talks to David and Helen about states of emergency] (https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/blog/2020/233-states-of-emergency) --- [TP History of Ideas on Fukuyama and the ‘End of History’] (https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/blog/2018/120-francis-fukuyama) ... Read more

21 Oct 2021

56 MINS

56:51

21 Oct 2021


#361

German Lessons

David and Helen are joined by Politico’s chief Europe correspondent Matthew Karnitschnig to explore the consequences of the German elections.Who were the real winners and losers?Are there lessons for centre-left parties in other countries, including the Labour Party in Britain?And what are the choices facing Germany as it decides on its place in an increasingly unstable world?Plus we ask whether this was a Covid election.If not, why not? Talking Points: What was surprising about the German elections? ---To expect something is different from seeing it actually happen. Do campaigns make a difference to election outcomes? ---In this case, it looks like it did. It was pretty clear that Laschet was a poor candidate. ---Laschet’s response to the floods was a turning point. Scholz prevailed because of his experience—he isn’t perceived as a change candidate. ---The SPD base has moved to the left, but Scholz is more of a centrist. ---The CDU, on the other hand, was much less stable. Most German voters wanted change, and yet it is the continuity Merkel candidate who is most likely to become the next chancellor. ---This reflects grand coalition politics. Merkel pushed the Christian Democrats into the space of the Social Democrats. ---But the initiative to form this government is coming from the change parties: the Greens and the FDP. The parties seem to believe that their differences are bridgeable. ---The two smaller parties are more popular among younger people. ---Change might be driven from below. ---The larger party only has about 26 percent; this gives the other parties more leverage. ---What kind of change would be embraced by both the FDP and the Greens? Mentioned in this Episode: --- [Peter Tiede on German schadenfreude in the Times] (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/oh-the-delicious-schadenfreude-germans-grin-at-britains-labour-shortages-and-fuel-crisis-9xf9zwdbr) --- [The German election results] (https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2021/sep/26/german-election-results-exit-poll-and-possible-coalitions) --- [What are the coalition options after Germany’s election?] (https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-election-coalition-options/) Further Learning: --- [Matthew Karnitschnig on Olaf Scholz, the ‘teflon candidate’] (https://www.politico.eu/article/olaf-scholz-teflon-candidate-germany-election-2021/) --- [More on Merkel’s legacy for the FT] (https://www.ft.com/content/dab5f894-b914-4978-b962-a1a9c1cee985) --- [More on Germany policy towards China] (https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/05/rethinking-german-policy-towards-china) --- [Background on the Scholz money-laundering scandal] (https://www.ft.com/content/32a73baa-4ada-43cc-a2e6-8b2884634931) --- [Our most recent episode on Germany] (https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/blog/2021/317-after-merkel-what) Hear more of Matthew on Politico's podcast on European politics, [EU Confidential] (https://www.politico.eu/eu-confidential-podcast/) , which he hosts. And as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: [lrb.co.uk/talking] (http://lrb.co.uk/talking) ... Read more

07 Oct 2021

53 MINS

53:37

07 Oct 2021