Past Present Future

Épisodes

• 
  The Lives of the Philosophers: Hannah Arendt 16.09.2026 53min

  In today’s episode about the intersection between twentieth century philosophy and biography David talks to the historian and literary critic Lyndsey Stonebridge about the life and thought of Hannah Arendt. How did Arendt, who was Jewish, make sense of her passionate relationship with Martin Heidegger, who was a Nazi? How did she experience her double exile, first to France and then to the United States? What made sense of her own identity? What explained the terrible turbulence and traumas of the twentieth century? And what did it all mean for the human condition? Lyndsey Stonebridge’s We Are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience is available wherever you get your books https://bit.ly/4hgyGLH You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in the Lives of the Philosophers: Iris Murdoch Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The Lives of the Philosophers: Elizabeth Anscombe 13.09.2026 1h 1min

  Today’s episode in our series about twentieth-century philosophy and biography explores the life and thought of Elizabeth Anscombe (G. E. M. Anscombe), a remarkable and remarkably uncompromising philosopher. David talks to Nikhil Krishnan about Anscombe’s relationship with Wittgenstein, her relationship with Catholicism and her fierce relationship with the truth. Why did she believe that consequentialism was capable of corrupting the young? And why did she insist that Harry Truman was a war criminal? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in the Lives of the Philosophers: Hannah Arendt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Now & Then with Robert Saunders: Gladstone vs Disraeli Part 2 (Burnham vs Badenoch) 09.09.2026 55min

  In the second part of David’s conversation with historian Robert Saunders about the impact of the Bulgarian crisis of 1876 on the course of British politics, they discuss how Gladstone used the controversy to plot his way back to power. What made his campaign in the Midlothian constituency a watershed in the history of parliamentary democracy? How did he overcome Queen Victoria’s resistance to return to the premiership? What was the legacy of his rivalry with Disraeli? And what are the parallels with Andy Burnham’s path to the prime ministership and his possible rivalry with Kemi Badenoch today? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in The Lives of the Philosophers: Elizabeth Anscombe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Now & Then with Robert Saunders: Gladstone vs Disraeli – The Bulgarian Horrors 06.09.2026 56min

  In our occasional series with historian Robert Saunders about significant political anniversaries, we remember the appearance of a pamphlet exactly 150 years ago that changed the course of British politics. On 6th September 1876 William Gladstone published The Bulgarian Horrors: The Question of the East, which reignited and reshaped his epic rivalry with Benjamin Disraeli. What made the two men such different kinds of politicians? How did the question of empire split political and public opinion? Who were the winners and losers from this showdown? Was this the dawn of a new age of populism? Out now on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany our series on the lives of twentieth-century philosophers in which David talks to Kate Kirkpatrick about the life and thought of Simone de Beauvoir, existentialist, feminist, memoirist and controversialist. What made Beauvoir the person she became? 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 upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time: Now & Then with Robert Saunders – Gladstone vs Disraeli Part 2 (Burnham vs Badenoch) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The Lives of the Philosophers: Jean-Paul Sartre 02.09.2026 54min

  In today’s episode exploring how twentieth-century philosophy and biography intersect David talks to philosopher and biographer Kate Kirkpatrick about Jean-Paul Sartre, a thinker whose life has been as closely scrutinised as his ideas. What made Sartre an existentialist? How was he shaped by his wartime experiences? Was he, as his critics claimed, a useful idiot for fashionable causes? Why has his reputation suffered since his death and where does it stand now? Out tomorrow on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany this series in which David talks to Kate Kirkpatrick about the life and thought of Simone de Beauvoir, existentialist, feminist, memoirist and controversialist. What made Beauvoir the person she became? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Kate Kirkpatrick is the author of Becoming Beauvoir: A Life https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/becoming-beauvoir-9781350047174/ You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time: Now & Then with Robert Saunders – Gladstone vs Disraeli Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The Lives of the Philosophers: J. L. Austin 30.08.2026 1h 1min

  David talks to philosopher and author Nikhil Krishnan about the life and times of a little known but highly influential twentieth-century philosopher: J. L. Austin, who believed that the deepest truths lay in understanding how ordinary language worked. Why was Austin so opposed to the ideas of A. J. Ayer? How were his experiences in planning D-Day in 1944 an extension of his approach to philosophy? What made people so frightened of him? And how did such a conventional man have such an unconventional influence on thinkers from California to Cambridge? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in The Lives of the Philosophers: Jean-Paul Sartre Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The Lives of the Philosophers: Camus 26.08.2026 58min

  In our series about how twentieth-century philosophy and biography intersect, David talks to philosopher Alex Carter about the life of Albert Camus, novelist, playwright, journalist, celebrity and public intellectual. What makes Camus a philosopher as well? How was he shaped by his Algerian background? Does it make sense to call him an absurdist? How did he try to reconcile the very different parts of his extraordinary life? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in The Lives of the Philosophers: J. L. Austin They can't harm you, if they can't find you! Use code ppf at the link below  and get 60% off annual plans: ⁠https://incogni.com/ppf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The Lives of the Philosophers: Simone Weil 23.08.2026 1h 2min

  The second life we explore in our series about the twentieth-century philosophers could not be more different from the first: David talks to philosopher Alex Carter about Simone Weil, who died aged just thirty-four and lived through much political and personal hardship, some of it self-inflicted. How did her asceticism inform her philosophical outlook? Why did she believe she needed to work in a factory and fight in the Spanish civil war to be true to her beliefs? When and how does her philosophy morph into theology? Was she a saint?   You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com   Next time in The Lives of the Philosophers: Albert Camus Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The Lives of the Philosophers: A. J. Ayer 19.08.2026 1h 3min

  Today we begin a new series exploring twentieth-century philosophy through the lives of the people behind the ideas. First up David talks to philosopher Nikhil Krishnan about A. J. Ayer, the man who helped inspire the rise and fall of logical positivism. What did Ayer discover about the nature of truth when he went to Vienna on his honeymoon? How did he manage to popularise such a technical approach to his subject? What was left of philosophy when he had finished with it? And what does Ayer’s taste for football, sex and celebrity tell us about his attitude to the life of the mind? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in The Lives of the Philosophers: Simone Weil Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Forensics on Trial 16.08.2026 1h

  In today’s episode David talks to forensic anthropologist Sue Black about what happens when forensic science and forensic expertise end up on trial in the courtroom. When and how did scientists get involved in the business of criminal prosecution? What changed with the advent of DNA testing? Is the adversarial system the best way of testing scientific evidence? Can a jury distinguish between good science, bad science and junk science? And what might have gone wrong in the case of Lucy Letby? Sue Black’s An Expert Witness is available now wherever you get your books https://bit.ly/45hcTge Out now on PPF+: a final bad ideas bonus episode in which geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford explains what’s wrong with genealogy: why does wanting to know where we come from lead us down so many blind alleys? 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 upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time a brand-new series: The Lives of the Philosophers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The History of Bad Ideas: Overdiagnosis 12.08.2026 59min

  We come to the end of this series of bad ideas with a conversation with neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan about the problems of living in an age of diagnosis, when all medical conditions need a label and new labels appear all the time. What happens when the classification criteria for conditions like autism and ADHD get broader and broader? Are doctors or patients driving this? When does predictive testing do more harm than good? Why does advocacy for sufferers get in the way of good health? Is de-diagnosis achievable? The Age of Diagnosis by Suzanne O’Sullivan is available now https://bit.ly/3U1ZwOu Out tomorrow on PPF+: a bad ideas bonus episode in which geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford explains what’s wrong with genealogy: why does wanting to know where we come from lead us down so many blind alleys? 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 upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time: Forensics on Trial Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The History of Bad Ideas: Short-Form Video 09.08.2026 1h

  Today’s bad idea is one with a very recent history but also a long backstory: David talks to author and journalist James Marriott about what happens when the written word gets supplanted by video and when videos get shorter and shorter. Did the rot set in with television, with YouTube or with TikTok? Is short-form video a symptom or a cause of our shrinking attention spans? What does it mean to have a TikTok prime minister? And is there any way to get people reading again?  The New Dark Ages by James Marriott is out next month https://bit.ly/3TJR7zd You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus upcoming events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in The History of Bad Ideas: Overdiagnosis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The History of Bad Ideas: Decadence 05.08.2026 56min

  Today’s bad idea is also one that is very hard to pin down: David talks to writer and literary scholar Ian Ellison about the concept of decadence, which went from explaining the fall of ancient Rome to becoming a label modern artists wanted to claim for themselves. What makes a society decadent? Is it always a bad thing? When does decadence explain what’s happening and when does it distract from what’s happening? Was Weimar Germany the best of decadence or the worst of it? And how decadent are we today? Out now on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany this series in which David talks to political historian David Klemperer about the idea of social credit, which promised to save the world in the 1920s and 1930s and ended up doing nothing of the sort. A fascinating story of cranks, conspiracy theorists and crypto-fascists with curious echoes in Silicon Valley today. 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 including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in The History of Bad Ideas: Short-Form Video Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The History of Bad Ideas: The Romantic Hero 02.08.2026 56min

  Today’s bad idea spans literature, film, pop culture and plenty else besides: David talks to literary critic and memoirist Catherine Taylor about what’s wrong with romantic heroes, from Byron and Heathcliff to James Dean and Jack Kerouac to Bridget Jones’s Mr Darcy and Andy Burnham. How did Romanticism give rise to the template for the brooding outsider who gets the girl? Which was the only Bronte sister to see through the myth? Why do romantic heroines get such a raw deal by comparison? And why does this idea lead to so much bad male behaviour? Out tomorrow on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany this series in which David talks to political historian David Klemperer about the idea of social credit, which promised to save the world in the 1920s and 1930s and ended up doing nothing of the sort. A fascinating story of cranks, conspiracy theorists and crypto-fascists with curious echoes in Silicon Valley today. 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 including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in The History of Bad Ideas: Decadence Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The History of Bad Ideas: The Electoral College 29.07.2026 56min

  Today’s bad idea is one the United States has been stuck with for a long time: David talks to historian of America Adam Smith about the damage done by the idea of the electoral college. Why was it thought necessary by the Founders to have special electors between the voters and their choice of president? What made it a dead letter almost as soon as it was created? How has it served to distort or discredit electoral outcomes? When, if ever, will it be replaced and if so by what? Out now on PPF+: part two of David’s conversation with Nikhil Krishnan about the political pitfalls of utilitarianism: from what it means for democracy to how it was used to justify colonialism. 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 including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in The History of Bad Ideas: The Romantic Hero Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The History of Bad Ideas: Utilitarianism 26.07.2026 58min

  Today’s episode in the history of bad ideas is about one of the central ideas in modern philosophy: utilitarianism, or the view that what matters is the greatest happiness of the greatest number. David talks to philosopher Nikhil Krishnan about how something that sounds so intuitively unobjectionable can produce some extremely objectionable outcomes. What is utility and how do we measure it? Does being a utilitarian actually make you happier? Whose pleasure and pain gets to count? And what happens when killing an innocent person will save many others … should we do it? Out tomorrow on PPF+: part two of this conversation in which David and Nikhil explore some of the political implications of utilitarianism from what it means for democracy to how it was used to justify colonialism. 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 including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in The History of Bad Ideas: The Electoral College Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The History of Bad Ideas: Political Leadership is What Counts 22.07.2026 58min

  Today’s bad idea is a pervasive political myth: the notion that what really matters at election time is political leadership. David talks to political scientist Jane Green about why leaders are less important than they – and we – tend to think. What does shape how people choose to vote? Why do we consistently overstate what leaders can do? Did Blair or Johnson or Starmer really ‘win’ their elections? Can Andy Burnham buck the trend? 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 including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in The History of Bad Ideas: Utilitarianism Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The History of Bad Ideas: Celebrity 19.07.2026 1h 8min

  David talks to historian and broadcaster Greg Jenner about the surprising history of the idea of celebrity, from Roman generals to 18th-century child stars to contemporary pop culture icons. How is celebrity different from fame or renown? What makes celebrity so seductive, so pervasive and, sometimes, so dangerous? Why are celebrity culture and commercial culture inextricably linked? And what are the lessons from the celebrity of Michael Jackson? 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 including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in The History of Bad Ideas: Political Leadership is What Counts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The History of Bad Ideas: Deliverism 15.07.2026 56min

  Today’s episode is about a bad idea with a very recent history: David talks to political historian David Klemperer about the dangers of deliverism. When did the view that delivering for the voters is a good idea become so controversial? What does it get right and what does it get wrong about how elections are decided? Has politics become more about telling the right story than about delivering the right benefits? And is Andy Burnham a deliverist, a post-deliverist or something else? Out now on PPF+ a bonus episode to accompany this series: David talks about what’s wrong with the idea of ‘the news’ and how it corrupts us all. 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 including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in The History of Bad Ideas: Celebrity Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  The History of Bad Ideas: Narrative History 12.07.2026 56min

  Today’s bad idea is a way of doing history: David talks to historian Alec Ryrie about the seductions and pitfalls of narrative history. Why do we need more Herodotus and less Thucydides? What makes so many historians believe that the meaning of a story is determined by its end? How does narrative history distort our understanding of contemporary events? And how can podcasts do it better? Out tomorrow on PPF+ a bonus episode to accompany this series: David talks about what’s wrong with the idea of ‘the news’ and how it corrupts us all. 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 including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in The History of Bad Ideas: Deliverism Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices