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PODCAST

Past Present Future

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.

history politics

All Episodes

58:54

The Great Political Films: The Candidate w/Chris Smith

Past Present Future ·

2024/12/15

Today’s episode is a conversation between David and the former politician Chris Smith (long-time MP and Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in Tony Blair’s first government) about The Candidate (1972), the first great political film of the 1970s. How does its portrayal of the compromises of running for office hold up today? Is it a cynical film or an inspiring one? And what lessons does it have for politics in the age of Trump?To find out about gifting a PPF+ subscription for Christmas

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60:49

The Great Political Films: Z

Past Present Future ·

2024/12/12

We resume our series on the great political films with Costa-Gavras’s Z (1969), the quintessential late 60s movie about assassination, conspiracy, street politics and police brutality. How could a film shot in Algeria and starring French actors so faithfully reconstruct a recent Greek political killing? How did it capture the spirit of the times? And what does it say about the relationship between politics as violence and politics as story-telling? To find out about our gift offerings for Christmas

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59:54

The History of Bad Ideas: Televised Leadership Debates

Past Present Future ·

2024/12/08

To finish this series of bad ideas, David tries to persuade Gary Gerstle of the futility of televised leadership debates. From Nixon vs Kennedy to Harris vs Trump, do the voters really learn anything from these supposed exchanges of ideas? Are they ever much more than a competition to avoid gaffes? And what did British politics gain when it introduced prime ministerial election debates (apart from a brief attack of Cleggmania)?A new bonus bad idea is available to accompany this series: David talks

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56:42

The History of Bad Ideas: Party Members Choosing Leaders

Past Present Future ·

2024/12/05

For our penultimate bad idea in this series, David talks to Robert Saunders about what’s gone wrong with British politics since party members got to decide who leads the party – and in some cases who gets to be prime minister. Is the problem the principle of the thing or the people who end up in charge (Corbyn, Truss)? How did reforms undertaken in the name of democracy manage to undermine democracy? And what are the alternatives? A new bonus bad idea is available to accompany this series: David

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60:37

The History of Bad Ideas: Steady State Theory

Past Present Future ·

2024/12/01

Today’s bad idea is a theory of the universe: David talks to astrophysicist Chris Lintott about Steady State Theory, the rival cosmological model to the Big Bang, which held its own for a while in the 1940s and 1950s but turned out to be unsustainable. Why did its best-known champion Fred Hoyle have so much faith in it? What did it expose about the limitations of Big Bang theory? And what does it reveal about scientific hubris and human weakness in the face of the unknown?Available now is a new

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56:44

The History of Bad Ideas: The End of History

Past Present Future ·

2024/11/28

Today’s bad idea concerns history itself: David talks to world historian Ayse Zarakol about the temptations and the pitfalls of the idea of The End of History. Francis Fukuyama popularised the phrase in 1989 at the end of the Cold War. What did his vision of the triumph of liberal democracy miss? Was it a Western fantasy or a modern fantasy or both? How has history exacted its revenge? And if history doesn’t end, does it repeat? Coming on Saturday a bonus bad idea to accompany this series: David

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58:53

The History of Bad Ideas: Modernisation!

Past Present Future ·

2024/11/24

For today’s bad idea David talks to political philosopher Alan Finlayson about what goes wrong when politicians get their hands on the concept of modernisation. Why does it leave them so in thrall to new technology? What does it miss about how change really happens? And where does the modernisation project end?Looking for Christmas presents? We have a special Xmas gift offer: give a subscription to PPF+ and your recipient will also receive a personally inscribed copy of David’s new book The History

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61:38

The History of Bad Ideas: The Marketplace of Ideas

Past Present Future ·

2024/11/21

Today’s bad idea is about how ideas get adopted, argued over and rejected: David talks to political philosopher Alan Finlayson about what’s wrong with seeing this as a competitive marketplace. From St. Paul to Citizens United, from John Stuart Mill to Jordan Peterson, what happens when ideas get turned into commodities? Who wins and who loses? And what is an ‘ideological entrepreneur’? Looking for Christmas presents? We have a special Xmas gift offer: give a subscription to PPF+ and your recipient

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56:25

The History of Bad Ideas: Nobel Prizes

Past Present Future ·

2024/11/17

For our latest bad idea with an interesting history David talks to the geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford about what’s wrong with Nobel Prizes. Why do we revere the winners of the science prizes when we know how contrived the other prizes are? What makes us so attached to this relic of an outmoded idea of scientific progress? And what happens when someone is struck down with ‘Nobelitis’?Looking for Christmas presents? We have a special Xmas gift offer: give a subscription to PPF+ and

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58:08

The History of Bad Ideas: The Silent Majority

Past Present Future ·

2024/11/14

To kick off our new series on the history of bad ideas David talks to historian Sophie Scott-Brown about the idea of ‘the silent majority’, beloved by American presidents from Nixon to Trump. Where does this idea come from? Is it conservative or revolutionary? If the majority are actually silent, how can anyone know what they are thinking? And aren’t the silent majority really the dead? Looking for Christmas presents? We have a special Xmas gift offer: give a subscription to PPF+ and your recipient

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54:38

The History of Bad Ideas: The Silent Majority

Past Present Future ·

2024/11/14

To kick off our new series on the history of bad ideas David talks to historian Sophie Scott-Brown about the idea of ‘the silent majority’, beloved by American presidents from Nixon to Trump. Where does this idea come from? Is it conservative or revolutionary? If the majority are actually silent, how can anyone know what they are thinking? And aren’t the silent majority really the dead?Looking for Christmas presents?We have a special Xmas gift offer: give a subscription to PPF+ and your recipient

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1:21:12

American Elections: 2024: The Meaning of Trump’s Triumph

Past Present Future ·

2024/11/09

For the final (extended) episode in our American Elections series David talks to Gary Gerstle about the historical significance of Donald Trump’s decisive victory this week. Was this election and its outcome unprecedented in American history or are there parallels to guide us? Can Trump be both an existential threat to American democracy and a politician it’s possible for his opponents to work with? What is the likely shape of the new political order that his administration represents? And will

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54:09

The Great Political Films: The Battle of Algiers

Past Present Future ·

2024/11/07

For the last episode in this season of great political films David explores Gillo Pontecorvo’sThe Battle of Algiers(1966), which changed the face of political movie-making forever. Filmed to look like archive footage, featuring actual participants in the events it describes, and showing both sides of the vicious contest between insurgents and counter-insurgents, it humanises a horrifying conflict.It also raises the question: where is the line between realism and rage?Coming on Saturday: a new bonus

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50:36

The Great Political Films: Dr Strangelove & Fail Safe...

Past Present Future ·

2024/11/03

This episode is about two great films on the same dark theme: David talks to American historian Jill Lepore about Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove and Sidney Lumet’s Fail Safe, which appeared within a few months of each other in 1964.Both films explore what might happen if America’s nuclear defence system went rogue.One is grimly hilarious; the other is utterly terrifying.Which packs the biggest punch today?Looking for Christmas presents? We have a special Xmas gift offer: give a subscription to

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53:39

The Great Political Films: The Leopard w/ Lucia...

Past Present Future ·

2024/10/31

For today’s great political film David discusses Luchino Visconti’sThe Leopard(1963) with the Italian historian of ideas Lucia Rubinelli. How did a communist aristocrat from Milan come to make a film about a Sicilian prince? How did Burt Lancaster get cast in the leading role? Is this a political film or a film against politics? And what is the real meaning of the celebrated line: ‘If we want things to stay as they are, things must change…’?Looking for Christmas presents? We have a special Christmas

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1:00:00

The Great Political Films: The Manchurian Candidate

Past Present Future ·

2024/10/27

Today’s great political film is John Frankenheimer’s masterpiece of Cold War paranoiaThe Manchurian Candidate(1962), which came out the week of the Cuban Missile Crisis. It’s a 1960s movie about 1950s fears: brainwashing, the Korean War, McCarthyism, all shot through with Kennedy-era anxieties about sexual potency and psychoanalysis. Who’s a Soviet agent? Who’s a mummy’s boy? And it managed to anticipate what was coming next in American politics: the age of assassination.A new bonus episode to

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50:42

The Great Political Films: The Life and Death of...

Past Present Future ·

2024/10/24

In today’s episode David discusses Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), a great patriotic anti-war film made in the depths of WWII.Why did Churchill want the film’s production stopped and was he right to suspect it was about him? What does the film say about the politics of nostalgia and the illusions of heroism?And how is Blimp’s moustache like Kane’s Rosebud?A new bonus episode to accompany this series is out on Saturday: David explores why so many

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52:47

The Great Political Films: Citizen Kane

Past Present Future ·

2024/10/20

Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941) is many people’s favourite film of all time, including Donald Trump’s.Why does Trump love it so?What does he get right and what does he get wrong about the trajectory of the life of Charles Foster Kane?What does the film reveal about the relationship between celebrity, influence and political power?And why is Rosebud not the real mystery at the heart of this story?Like Kane, want more stuff?To get PPF merch – either an ethically-sourced canvas tote bag or a bone

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53:17

The Great Political Films: Mr Smith Goes to Washington

Past Present Future ·

2024/10/17

Today’s great political film is Frank Capra’s Mr Smith Goes to Washington (1939), a much-loved tale of the little guy taking on the corrupt establishment.But there’s far more to it than that, including an origin story that suggests Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) might not be what he seems.From filibusters to fascism, from the New Deal to America First, from Burton K. Wheeler to Harry S. Truman, this is a heart-warming film that still manages to go to the dark heart of American politics.To hear our

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50:51

The Great Political Films: La Grande Illusion

Past Present Future ·

2024/10/13

For the first episode in our new series David explores Jean Renoir’sLa Grande Illusion(1937), a great anti-war film that is also a melancholy meditation on friendship between enemies, love across borders, and the inevitability of loss.What, in the end, is the great illusion: war itself, or the belief that we can escape its baleful consequences?Our bonus episode with Chris Clark on how Europe’s elites sleepwalked into war in 1914 is available on PPF+. Sign up now for just £5 per month or £50 a year

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