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David Runciman

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.

Past Present Future

David talks to novelist Ian McEwan, who was our first ever guest on PPF, about how the future will view our present once the disasters we are brewing come to pass. How might humanity scrape through the rest of the century? Will future generations see us as intellectually vibrant or essentially trivial? If we turn out to be unknowable to those who follow us, does that mean we are unknowable to ourselves? A wide-ranging conversation about how past, present and future co-exist in time.

Ian McEwan’s latest novel is What We Can Know https://bit.ly/4ogYN5u

If you are looking for Christmas presents we have 6- and 12-month gift subscriptions to PPF+ giving access to all our bonus episodes, ad-free listening and automatic sign-up to our fortnightly newsletter – which can be delivered to the recipient of your choice on Christmas Day! https://ppf.supportingcast.fm/gifts

Plus we have gorgeous PPF canvas tote bags and bone china PPF mugs, all available now https://www.ppfideas.com/merch

Next time in Politics on Trial: Lady Chatterley’s Lover 
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Ian McEwan on the Present as Future Past

Today’s episode is the second part of David’s conversation with historian Robert Saunders about the life and legacy of Margaret Thatcher. What is the meaning of Thatcherism in the twenty-first century? Why is she still such a polarising figure? Was she a distinctively British political phenomenon? Which politicians can plausibly claim to be channelling her example today?

If you are looking for Christmas presents, how about a gift subscription to PPF+? You can choose between 6- and 12-months subscriptions – giving access to our entire archive of bonus episodes, plus two new bonuses every month, ad-free listening and automatic sign-up to our fortnightly newsletter – to be delivered to the recipient of your choice on Christmas Day. All the details you need are here https://ppf.supportingcast.fm/gifts

Next Time: Novelist Ian McEwan on imagining the present as a future past 
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Now & Then with Robert Saunders: Thatcher@100 – Her Legacy

Today’s episode in our occasional series about momentous political anniversaries with historian Robert Saunders looks at the life and legacy of Margaret Thatcher one hundred years on from her birth. What made Thatcher such a distinctive politician? What did she believe in before she became prime minister? How did her time is power alter her political outlook? And did she succumb to her own myth in the end?

Out now on PPF+: Part 2 of David’s conversation with Henry Gee about the rise and fall of Homo sapiens – how near are we to the end? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

We would love to hear from anyone who uses this podcast in an educational setting – teachers, lecturers or students – to help us understand what other educational resources we can add and what would be helpful. Do get in touch with your comments, ideas and suggestions https://www.ppfideas.com/contact 

Next time: Thatcher@100 – Her Legacy
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Now & Then with Robert Saunders: Thatcher@100 – Her Life

Today’s episode explores some very big picture history: David talks to palaeontologist and science writer Henry Gee about the story of the human species from origin to peak to inevitable decline. When and how did Homo sapiens see off the competition from its rivals in the human and animal world? Why did that point mark the start of an inexorable drift towards extinction? In what ways are our strengths as a species also our fatal weaknesses? And how near are we to the end?

Part two of this conversation, which takes the story of human species from the hunter-gatherer period to the present and beyond to explore how long we have left, is available tomorrow on PPF+. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

Henry Gee’s The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire is available wherever you get your books https://bit.ly/4pshODe

Read more by David about depopulation and human extinction in the current issue of the London Review of Books https://bit.ly/43FEwiO

There are still a few tickets remaining for the next film in our autumn 'Films of Ideas' season at the Regent Street Cinema in London: join us on Friday 28th November for a screening of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind followed by a live recording of PPF with special guest Beeban Kidron https://bit.ly/4a78KyZ

Next time – Now & Then with Robert Saunders: Thatcher @100
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The Rise and Fall of Homo Sapiens

Part two of David’s conversation with historian Chris Clark asks whether the best historical insights into Trump-like leadership come from comparison with kings or commoners, democrats or dictators. Does Trump’s leadership style share much if anything with an epoch-making politician like Bismarck? Should Trump’s public persona be understood as standing outside the norm of presidential politics or as quintessentially American? And what can we learn from a close reading of his magnum opus, The Art of the Deal?

Next time: The Rise and Fall of Homo sapiens
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Trump-like Leadership in German History w/Chris Clark: Part 2 – Chancellor, Tyrant, Emperor?

Today’s episode is the first of a two-part conversation with historian Chris Clark exploring how German history might help us understand Trump-like leadership, but not through looking at the Nazi period. Instead, David and Chris explore the character and leadership style of Kaiser Wilhelm II, a monarch with many Trumpian qualities. Was Wilhelm a populist or an elitist? Did he know what he was doing and what he was saying? Or was he out of his depth? Plus, how did his maverick and mercurial behaviour impact on those around him trying to run the country - and how did it help lead his country to ruin?

Next time on Trump-like leadership in German History: Chancellor, Tyrant, Emperor?
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Trump-like Leadership in German History w/Chris Clark: Part 1 – Kaiser Wilhelm II?

Today’s episode is the second part of David’s conversation with historian Julian Jackson about the case of Marshal Pétain and the crimes of the Vichy regime. Did Pétain really play a ‘double game’ in which he tried to deceive the Nazis? How then to explain the vicious antisemitism of the Vichy regime? Why did the fate of France’s Jews not get more attention at Pétain’s trial? And how does the case of Pétain and the question of Vichy still resonate in French politics today? 

Julian Jackson’s France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain is available wherever you get your books https://bit.ly/4oTHcRP

Next Time: Chris Clark on Trump-like leaders from German history (and it’s not the one you think!)
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Politics on Trial: France on Trial Part 2 – Vichy vs the Jews

Today’s episode is the first of two on the extraordinary treason trial of Marshal Pétain in the summer of 1945 that ended up putting wartime France in the dock. David talks to historian of modern France Julian Jackson about how Pétain found himself so quickly charged with treason and who was judging him. What was the essence of Pétain’s crime? Conspiracy? Surrender? Collaboration? Complicity in genocide? And what on earth was his defence?

Julian Jackson’s France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain is available wherever you get your books https://bit.ly/4oTHcRP

Available now on PPF+: our second episode on the Moscow Show Trials in which David and Edward Acton discuss the 1938 trial of Nikolai Bukharin, the most celebrated defendant of them all, whose case inspired some of the world’s great political literature. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ today https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

Next time in Politics on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain Part 2
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Politics on Trial: France on Trial – Pétain vs De Gaulle

Today’s episode is the first of two exploring the origins, conduct and legacy of the Moscow Show Trials that Stalin staged from 1936-38. David talks to historian of Russia Edward Acton about what motivated these grotesque spectacles, how the defendants were chosen, how their confessions were extracted, why the rhetoric was so violent and who was fooled by what they saw and heard. Plus: how did the trials of these few lead to the murders of so many?

Available tomorrow on PPF+: our second episode on the Moscow Show Trials in which David and Edward discuss the 1938 trial of Nikolai Bukharin, the most celebrated defendant of them all, whose case inspired some of the world’s great political literature. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ today https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

Next time in Politics on Trial: De Gaulle vs Pétain
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Politics on Trial: The Moscow Show Trials

We return to our series about the most significant trials in history with the trial of the twentieth century: Scopes ‘Monkey’ (1925), which was meant to be about a Tennessee schoolteacher but became a battle between science and religion and everything in between. What made it such a blockbuster showdown? Who really won and who really lost? And how are arguments from one hundred years ago still roiling American politics today? 

To get our free fortnightly newsletter delivered to your inbox with guides, clips and much more to accompany all our episodes sign up now https://www.ppfideas.com/newsletters

Next time in Politics on Trial: the Moscow Show Trials
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Ian McEwan on the Present as Future Past

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