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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.

Take back your personal data with Incogni! Use code ppf at the link below and get 60% off annual plans: https://incogni.com/ppf

Past Present Future

Today’s episode in our series about how George Orwell tried – and failed – to make sense of WW2 looks at his response to the vast lurches of fortune from 1942-43 as Hitler’s plans for world domination started to fall apart. Why was Orwell convinced that the summer of 1942 was the last chance for revolution? What persuaded him that Stafford Cripps was the man of the hour? How did his hopes fall apart in 1943? And where did the ideas for 1984 first come from?

Out tomorrow on PPF+: the final episode in this series exploring how Orwell tried to make sense of the end of the war, from a Labour election victory he didn’t see coming to a new ‘cold war’ that he anticipated before anyone else. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

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 – PPF+: Some Of What You’ve Been Missing (Taster 3)
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Orwell’s War: Frozen In Time (1942-43)

Today’s episode in our new series about how George Orwell tried – and failed – to make sense of WW2 as it was happening looks at the events of 1940 and 1941, from the collapse of France to Hitler’s invasion of Russia. Why did Orwell write in March 1940 that there is something ‘deeply appealing’ about Hitler? What convinced him that Churchill ‘must go’? How close did Britain get to revolution in the summer of 1940? Where did the revolution go?

You can listen to David’s earlier episode about Orwell’s The Lion and the Unicorn from our Great Political Essays series on our website here ⁠⁠https://www.ppfideas.com/episodes/history-of-ideas%3A-george-orwell⁠⁠. Or scroll down in your podcast app to find it, originally broadcast on 3rd August 2023.

To hear David’s conversation with Alec Ryrie about The Age of Hitler subscribe to PPF+ to get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening ⁠https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus⁠. We put that one out as a PPF+ bonus on 5th July 2025.

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Orwell’s War: False Dawn (1940-41)

Today’s episode is the first in a new series about how the greatest political writer of the 20th century tried – and failed – to make sense of the central political event of the century. How did George Orwell respond in real time to the epochal events of the Second World War and how do his struggles relate to the uncertainties of our own time? What did he get right, what did he get wrong and what did he fail to understand at all? How did a writer who had vigorously opposed the war before it started find himself defending it as soon as it was underway? Who or what did he really want to win? And what did Orwell believe was worse than fascism?

Join us this Friday 17th April at the Regent Street Cinema in London for the second film in our new season: a screening of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut followed by a live podcast recording with David and director and campaigner Beeban Kidron. Tickets available now ⁠https://bit.ly/3O5rSEY⁠

And find details of all our upcoming film events here ⁠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 on Orwell’s War: False Dawn (1940-41)
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Orwell’s War: The Nightmare (1938-39)

Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to author and journalist James Marriott about Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan, which dissects the lives, loves and reading habits of a group of well-to-do young New Yorkers during deb party season. It is a film about being young and feeling old and fearing that you don’t have a future any more. Is it all over for the UHBs – the urban haute bourgeoisie? Has history left them behind? Or can one more drink, one more after-party and one more conversation about Jane Austen show them the way to a better tomorrow?

Join us on Friday 17th April at the Regent Street Cinema in London for the next film in our spring and summer season: a screening of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut followed by a live podcast recording with David and director and campaigner Beeban Kidron. Tickets available now ⁠https://bit.ly/3O5rSEY⁠

And find details of all our upcoming film events here ⁠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: Orwell’s War
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Live Film Special: Metropolitan w/James Marriott

In the final episode of this series David talks to political historian David Klemperer about how political conversion works today. Is this a post-ideological age or have the ideologies simply changed? Is switching sides easier or harder in the age of social media? Who or what might play the role once performed in political conversions by the Soviet Union? Are we still capable of changing our minds?

Join us on Friday 17th April at the Regent Street Cinema in London for the second film in our new season: a screening of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut followed by a live podcast recording with David and director and campaigner Beeban Kidron. Tickets available now https://bit.ly/3O5rSEY

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: PPF Live Film Special – Metropolitan w/James Marriott
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Political Conversions: Switching Sides in the 21st Century

In part three of our series about political conversions David talks to historian David Klemperer about the people who left Trotskyism behind – and where they ended up. From 1940s America to contemporary Britain, from the Second World War to the Iraq War, from James Burnham to Claire Fox, stories of one-time revolutionaries who found themselves in a very different place. What links Trotskyism to neoconservatism? And what happens when the renegade outsiders become establishment insiders?

Join us on Friday 17th April at the Regent Street Cinema in London for the second film in our new season: a screening of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut followed by a live podcast recording with David and director and campaigner Beeban Kidron. Tickets available now https://bit.ly/3O5rSEY

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 on Political Conversions: Switching Sides in the 21st Century
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Political Conversions: From Trotskyism to Neoconservatism

In today’s episode David talks to political historian David Klemperer about a group of writers and other intellectuals who embraced and then renounced Communism before and during the Second World War. Was the pull of Communism really comparable to the experience of religious conversion? Why did so many who took up the faith at the start of the 1930s become disillusioned with it by the end of the decade? How did they justify their renunciation and what did it cost them? Why were writers and intellectuals so vulnerable to changing their minds?

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 on Political Conversions: From Trotskyism to Neoconservatism
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Political Conversions: Communism – The God That Failed

Today’s episode is the first in a new series of conversations with political historian David Klemperer about what causes people to switch sides, ideologies and worldviews – stories of political conversion. We begin with converts from socialism to fascism, looking in particular at the notorious case of Oswald Mosley. Why did he wind up in and then give up on the Labour Party? What made him ditch democratic politics for fascist violence? How does his political journey compare to other socialists turned fascists in continental Europe? Did he ever repent?

Out now on PPF+: a bonus episode in which David explores the myth of the 1945 general election. Why does this event still exert such a grip on the political imagination of Labour politicians? What do they get wrong about how it really happened and what it really meant? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

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 on Political Conversions: Communism – The God That Failed
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Political Conversions: Going Fascist

In today’s episode, which was recorded in front of students, parents and teachers from three schools in Oxford, David talks to historian of America Adam Smith about whether the US might be drifting into another civil war. Are the circumstances of today in any way comparable to the 1860s? What are the faultlines in 2026 that might see America tear itself apart? If division doesn’t lead to widespread violence, how else might the federal government fail? What would it mean for the rest of us?

Out tomorrow on PPF+: a bonus episode in which David explores the myth of the 1945 general election. Why does this event still exert such a grip on the political imagination of Labour politicians? What do they get wrong about how it really happened and what it really meant? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

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: Political Conversions – Going Fascist
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Live Special: Another American Civil War?

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?
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Political Conversions: Switching Sides in the 21st Century

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