How Dallas Saw the Future

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 t ...  Show more

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 intuit ...  Show more

Tom and Dominic are back with Helen Thompson for a second episode on the history of oil, its impact and how it shapes geopolitics. Tune in to hear about the impact of oil production on US Politics, its importance to the history and current situation in Ukraine, and what we can l ...  Show more

For our penultimate episode, David talks to Helen about her new book Disorder: Hard Times in the Twenty-First Century. It’s a conversation about many of the themes Helen has explored on Talking Politics over the years, from the energy transition to the perils of QE, from the trav ...  Show more

In the first of a short series of episodes, Helen and David do their best to answer your questions about anything and everything. Here, it's the geopolitics of vaccines, Germany as a 'useful idiot', the Great Game in the 21st century, oil prices, green finance and the risks and r ...  Show more

Tom and Dominic are joined by Helen Thompson, Professor of Political Economy at the University of Cambridge, to talk about the incredible influence of oil over the last couple of centuries. Discussion covers the first oil well ever drilled, how it's hard to overestimate Hitler's ...  Show more