Podcast Index

Podcasts

Browse podcasts by category, open recent episodes, and download audio to listen offline.

Past Present Future

Politics

Past Present Future

David Runciman

Where Are We Going? The Future of the Future

July 05, 2026 12:00am 58 min

In the second part of their conversation about what has happened to our ideas of the future David and Ivan Krastev explore where the future is going next. Why do our expectations of what comes after us shift as we live l...

Where Are We Going? The Idea of the Future

July 01, 2026 12:00am 1:01

Today’s episode is the first of two with writer and political scientist Ivan Krastev exploring what has happened to our ideas of the future. When did thinking about the future become the way we defined our present? What ...

Live Film Special: Never Let Me Go w/Adam Rutherford

June 28, 2026 12:00am 56 min

Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to the geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford about Mark Romanek’s 2010 film of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 nov...

Now & Then with Robert Saunders: The Brexit Referendum 10 Years On

June 24, 2026 12:00am 1:03

Today’s episode in our occasional series looking at significant political anniversaries explores the causes and consequences of the Brexit Referendum, which took place 10 years ago this week. David talks to historian Rob...

Live Special: Jimmy Wales on the Lessons of Wikipedia

June 21, 2026 12:00am 57 min

Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Cheltenham Science Festival: David talks to Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales about what we can learn from the astonishing success of an encyclopaedia built by ...

The Great Political Fictions: HHhH

June 17, 2026 12:00am 58 min

Our final great political fiction (for now!) is a meta-fiction and auto-fiction that is also a compelling work of historical reconstruction. Laurent Binet’s HHhH (2010) tells the story of Operation Anthropoid, the missio...

The Great Political Fictions: The Years

June 14, 2026 12:00am 56 min

The penultimate great political fiction in this series is not strictly a fiction: it’s Annie Ernaux’s retelling of her own life in The Years (2008), thereby recapturing the story of France in the second half of the twent...

The Great Political Fictions: The Human Factor

June 10, 2026 12:00am 1:00

Today’s political fiction is a spy novel, a Cold War comedy and a meditation on the nature of good and evil: Graham Greene’s The Human Factor. Why has Greene so fallen out of fashion? What made the South African secret p...

The Great Political Fictions: The Dispossessed

June 07, 2026 12:00am 1:02

Today’s great political fiction is a path-breaking work of science fiction: David explores Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed (1974), which imagines a world without the need for government or coercive authority. What make...

The Great Political Fictions: The Golden Notebook Part 2 w/Catherine Taylor

June 03, 2026 12:00am 1:01

In the second of two episodes about Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook, David talks to critic and memoirist Catherine Taylor about the novel’s place in the history of feminism. Is its idea of ‘free women’ meant to be ir...

The Great Political Fictions: The Golden Notebook

May 31, 2026 12:00am 1:00

In today’s episode David explores Doris Lessing’s bold and brilliant The Golden Notebook (1962), a book about female emancipation, political disillusionment and much, much more. Why did Lessing insist that the novel’s or...

The Great Political Fictions: Brave New World

May 27, 2026 12:00am 1:05

For the first in a new set of episodes about some of the great political fictions of the past hundred years David explores Aldous Huxley’s much misunderstood dystopian masterpiece Brave New World (1932). How did Huxley i...

Live Film Special: Good Night, and Good Luck w/Helen Lewis

May 24, 2026 12:00am 1:02

Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to the writer and broadcaster Helen Lewis about George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck (2005). A film about ...

The Starmer Crisis in Historical Perspective – Part 2: What’s Next?

May 20, 2026 12:00am 1:03

Today it’s the second of our episodes trying to make sense of what’s happening in British politics with a bit of historical perspective: this time asking what is likely to follow from the current crisis. David talks to h...

The Starmer Crisis in Historical Perspective – Part 1

May 17, 2026 12:00am 1:13

Today it’s the first of two episodes in which we try to make sense of what’s happening in British politics with a bit of historical perspective: how did we arrive at the current crisis and what might come next? David tal...

Where Are We Going? The Future Of Work

May 13, 2026 12:00am 1:02

David talks to author and journalist Sarah O’Connor, who writes about the changing character of work for the Financial Times, to explore what is happening to the world of jobs and employment in the twenty-first century. ...

Live Film Special: The Third Man w/Misha Glenny

May 10, 2026 12:00am 56 min

Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to the writer and broadcaster Misha Glenny about Carol Reed’s 1949 masterpiece The Third Man, written by Graham ...

Now & Then with Robert Saunders: The General Strike @100 Part 2

May 06, 2026 12:00am 1:01

Today it’s the second part of David’s conversation with historian Robert Saunders about the meaning of the 1926 General Strike on its hundredth anniversary. How did the strike end and was its outcome a foregone conclusio...

Now & Then with Robert Saunders: The General Strike @100

May 03, 2026 12:00am 59 min

In today’s episode David talks to historian Robert Saunders about the meaning of Britain’s one and (so far) only general strike on its hundredth anniversary. Was the strike a revolutionary event or an industrial dispute ...

Live Film Special: South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut w/Beeban Kidron

April 29, 2026 12:00am 1:08

Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to film director and campaigner Beeban Kidron about the 1999 film-length version of South Park. In among all the...

Submit Your Favorite Station

Fill in the form below. Make sure to select both Country and Genres.

Name
Category
Hold Ctrl (Cmd on Mac) to select multiple.
Streaming URL
Logo (JPG, JPEG or PNG)

Contact us

Send us a message below. We will get back to you within 24 hours.

Subject
Your name
Email address
Station or page URL
Message
What is 10 plus 17?
We also attach your country, browser, current page, and device details to help us investigate issues.