Past Present Future

David Runciman

The History of Ideas Podcast

  • 51 minutes 21 seconds
    The Great Political Films: Do The Right Thing

    Our political films season has reached the late 1980s with Do The Right Thing (1989), Spike Lee’s searing take on racial tension on a Brooklyn block on a boiling hot summer’s day. How does a fight over pizza turn into a full-blown riot? With everyone feeling exploited, who is really to blame? And where do Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X – not to mention Jesse Jackson Jr. – fit in?

    Out now: two new bonus episodes on PPF+ to accompany this series: Shoah part one and Shoah part two, exploring Claude Lanzmann’s path-breaking, harrowing, unforgettable 9-hour documentary about the Holocaust. Sign up to PPF+ to get all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

    Next time: Fight Club w/ Helen Lewis

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    26 December 2024, 6:00 am
  • 54 minutes 52 seconds
    The Great Political Films: Kagemusha

    Today’s great political film is Akira Kurosawa’s epic of war and deception Kagemusha (1980). Set in late sixteenth-century Japan it tells the story of a thief tasked with impersonating a warlord. Can physical resemblance translate into political authority? How far does the conspiracy need to go? And who in the end is the real criminal?

    Out now: two new bonus episodes on PPF+ to accompany this series: Shoah part one and Shoah part two, exploring Claude Lanzmann’s path-breaking, harrowing, unforgettable 9-hour documentary about the Holocaust. Sign up to PPF+ to get all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

    Next time: Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing

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    22 December 2024, 6:00 am
  • 54 minutes 9 seconds
    The Great Political Films: Jeanne Dielman

    Today’s great political film is Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), voted the greatest film of all time in the 2022 Sight and Sound poll. A classic of feminist cinema it is also a film about the meaning of time and the illusions of choice. How can a movie which shows a woman peeling potatoes in real time have you on the edge of your seat? If the personal is the political, what do three days in the life of a Belgian housewife tell us about the true nature of power?

    Coming this weekend on PPF+: two new bonus episodes to accompany this series: Shoah part one and Shoah part two, exploring Claude Lanzmann’s path-breaking, harrowing, unforgettable 9-hour documentary about the Holocaust. Sign up to PPF+ to get all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

    Next time in our regular slot: Kagemusha (1980)

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    19 December 2024, 6:00 am
  • 58 minutes 54 seconds
    The Great Political Films: The Candidate w/Chris Smith

    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 and beyond just click on the link https://ppf.supportingcast.fm/gifts

    Next time: Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (voted the greatest film of all time in the 2022 Sight and Sound critics’ poll) 

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    15 December 2024, 6:00 am
  • 1 hour 49 seconds
    The Great Political Films: Z

    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 and beyond visit the gift page on our website https://www.ppfideas.com/gifts

    Next time: The Candidate (1972) w/Chris Smith

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    12 December 2024, 6:00 am
  • 59 minutes 54 seconds
    The History of Bad Ideas: Televised Leadership Debates

    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 to Lucia Rubinelli about what’s wrong with the idea of sovereignty. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up now to PPF+ https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

    To find out about our gift offerings for Christmas and beyond visit the gift page on our website https://www.ppfideas.com/gifts

    The latest edition of the PPF newsletter is out now - sign up to get it every fortnight https://www.ppfideas.com/newsletters 

    Next time: The Great Political Films resumes with Z (1969)

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    8 December 2024, 6:00 am
  • 56 minutes 42 seconds
    The History of Bad Ideas: Party Members Choosing Leaders

    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 talks to Lucia Rubinelli about what’s gone wrong with the idea of sovereignty. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up now to PPF+ https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

    To find out about our gift offerings for Christmas and beyond visit the gift page on our website https://www.ppfideas.com/gifts

    Next Bad Idea: Televised Leadership Debates

    Past Present Future is part of the Airwave Podcast Network

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    5 December 2024, 6:00 am
  • 1 hour 37 seconds
    The History of Bad Ideas: Steady State Theory

    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 bonus bad idea to accompany this series: David talks to Lucia Rubinelli about what’s gone wrong with the idea of sovereignty. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

    Next Bad Idea: Party Members Choosing Leaders

    Past Present Future is part of the Airwave Podcast Network

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    1 December 2024, 6:00 am
  • 56 minutes 44 seconds
    The History of Bad Ideas: The End of History

    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 talks to Lucia Rubinelli about what’s gone wrong with the idea of sovereignty. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

    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 of Ideas. Find out more https://www.ppfideas.com/gifts

    Next Bad Idea: Steady State Theory

    Past Present Future is part of the Airwave Podcast Network

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    28 November 2024, 6:00 am
  • 58 minutes 53 seconds
    The History of Bad Ideas: Modernisation!

    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 of Ideas. Find out more https://www.ppfideas.com/gifts

    Next Bad Idea: The End of History

    Past Present Future is part of the Airwave podcast network.

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    24 November 2024, 6:00 am
  • 1 hour 1 minute
    The History of Bad Ideas: The Marketplace of Ideas

    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 will also receive a personally inscribed copy of David’s new book The History of Ideas. Find out more https://www.ppfideas.com/gifts

    To sign up for the latest edition of our free fortnightly newsletter, out tomorrow, join our mailing list https://www.ppfideas.com/newsletters

    Next Bad Idea: Modernisation!

    Past Present Future is part of the Airwave podcast network.

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    21 November 2024, 6:00 am
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