RSA chief executive Matthew Taylor and journalist Ian Leslie are joined by this year's winner of the Nobel prize for economics (shared with Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer), Esther Duflo.

Duflo is co-author of Good Economics for Hard Times: Better Answers to Our Biggest Problems and Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at MIT, where she is co-director of the Poverty Action Lab.

In this wide-ranging interview she makes the case for how economics, when done right, can help us solve the thorniest social and political problems of our times.

Produced by James Shield.

Brought to you by the RSA.

Matthew Taylor and Ian Leslie dissect new (and sometimes controversial) research on the divide between 'anarchists' and 'centrists'; the voters who live for drama; and the real reasons people share misleading news stories online.

Plus, the similarities and differences between US and UK public opinion, as Matthew meets two of the top researchers from either side of the pond: director of the Pew Research Center, Michael Dimock; and director of the Policy Institute at King's College London, Bobby Duffy.

Links

• Anarchy in the UK (and Everywhere Else): The Ideological Roots of Populism
• A “Need for Chaos” and the Sharing of Hostile Political Rumors in Advanced Democracies
• Matthew Taylor: Populism is growing because more people than you think want chaos
• Ian Leslie: British voters are divided into anarchists and centrists – but the anarchists are calling the shots
• YouTube: King's College London event: The state of trust, facts and democracy
• YouTube: The RSA: Why We're Wrong About Nearly Everything with Bobby Duffy
• Polarised: Identity, with Francis Fukuyama (episode 11, December 2018)
• Matthew Taylor: In tackling polarisation and anger, understanding our opponents is vital. It’s also extremely hard

Produced by James Shield.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Brought to you by the RSA.

The RSA's Matthew Taylor and the author of 'Born Liars' and 'Curious', Ian Leslie, look back on the week in which BBC Parliament had more plot twists than Line of Duty.

Matthew Taylor is joined by a live Wilderness Festival audience and John Harris from The Guardian to explore the battle between the politics of hope and the politics of fear.

Hope can be a great motivating force in politics. And so can fear. In January, the teenage climate campaigner Greta Thunberg told the grown-ups at Davos: “I don’t want your hope. I want you to panic. And then I want you to act.” But on climate change and many other issues, fear can turn into fatalism. So how can we remain hopeful without losing a sense of reality?

Recorded live at Wilderness Festival on Saturday 3rd August 2019.

Produced by James Shield.

Brought to you by the RSA.

Ian Leslie and Matthew Taylor analyse Theresa May’s final major speech as prime minister and Donald Trump’s latest racist statements, and try to predict what might happen in the first weeks of a new PM. Everything is unlikely, but something has to happen. So we grade some previous predictions and have a go at making some new ones.

Plus, a new theory: the four paths to polarisation.

Twitter:

• Matthew Taylor
• Ian Leslie

Produced by James Shield.

Brought to you by the RSA.

Just as our reality has seemed to take a dystopian turn, there’s been a resurgence of political imagination. Utopian dreams have returned to the forefront of our politics.

How achievable are these utopias, especially when they collide with the realities of power and government? And what can we learn from past attempts to make dreams into reality?

Guests:

• James Meadway, former economic policy adviser to shadow chancellor John McDonnell
• Gregory Claeys, professor of the history of political thought at Royal Holloway, University of London

Presented by Matthew Taylor.

Produced by James Shield.

Brought to you by the RSA.

Matthew Taylor speaks to French political journalist Marie Le Conte about the European elections, French politics and being in the eye of a Twitter storm; and Paul Mason sets out the dual threats of fascism and fatalism.

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Produced by James Shield.

Brought to you by the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce).

At long last, for a few weeks in April, climate breakdown finally seemed to be at the top of the political agenda.

Extinction Rebellion shut down the streets. School children walked out of classes in protest at inaction from the grown-ups. Politicians – some of them, anyway – declared a climate emergency.

Does this surge of interest mark a real shift in public opinion and political will? Can the energy behind it be harnessed? And can our politicians unite against climate change in time to stop the worst of it?

This week, Matthew Taylor and Ian Leslie ask where the climate movement goes next.

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Guests

• Claire Farrell, Extinction Rebellion
• Dr Alice Bell, 10:10 Climate Action

Links

• Video of Extinction Rebellion meeting with Michael Gove
• 10:10 Climate Action
• Matthew Taylor discussing citizens' assemblies on the Extinction Rebellion podcast

Produced by James Shield.

Brought to you by the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce).

Is religion still shaping our politics? And has its decline led to a wider search for meaning in public life?

Matthew Taylor and Ian Leslie are joined by Elizabeth Oldfield, director of the think tank Theos.

Plus, reflections on the one of the hardest questions in European politics right now: 'what's happening?'

Links

• The Times, 16 April 2019: Americans lose their taste for going to church
• Theos think tank
• European Council on Foreign Relations: What Europeans Really Want: Five Myths Debunked

Produced by James Shield.

Brought to you by the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce).

Insights from three of the world's leading thinkers on how political and societal change happens: presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, 'Nudge' author Cass Sunstein, and philosopher Roberto Unger. Plus, the story of how a bar fight in the House of Commons may have inadvertently changed the course of British political history…

Presented by Matthew Taylor.

Featuring:

• Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and America’s pre-eminent presidential historian. Author of Leadership: Lessons from the Presidents from Turbulent Times.
• Cass Sunstein, co-author of Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness, on the use of behavioural economics in shaping social policy, author of How Change Happens, and Robert Walmsley Professor at Harvard.
• Roberto Mangabeira Unger, philosopher and author of The Knowledge Economy.

Produced by James Shield.

Brought to you by the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce).

We’re living through the biggest backlash against neoliberalism for 40 years, and the biggest crisis over Britain’s relationship with Europe since the Second World War. Climate breakdown and new technologies present major threats to the way we live and work.

So against that backdrop, where does the politics of conservatism – and its relationship with capitalism – go next?

Presented by Matthew Taylor.

Guests

• Economic historian Jacob Field, author of Is Capitalism Working?
• Commentator and LBC broadcaster Iain Dale

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Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

Produced by James Shield.

Brought to you by the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce).