160 | A Mockery of Democracy?

Are the UK's looming European elections making a mockery of democracy, or is this how democracy is meant to work?  Would cancelling them at the last minute make the situation worse?  We talk about trust in politics, the threat to the two main parties, and the knock-on effects for the rest of Europe.  Plus we discuss what can meaningfully happen before the end of October, and whether the events of the last few weeks have done permanent damage to the Tory brand.  With Helen Thompson, Catherine Barnard and Chris Bickerton.

159 | David King on Climate Repair

An extra episode in our climate season: we talk to Sir David King, former Chief Scientific Advisor to the British government, about what's now known about the scale of the threat and the urgency of the need for action. What has happened since the Paris agreement? What is the Chinese government most afraid of? What is the meaning of Extinction Rebellion? And is it time to start talking about refreezing the poles to repair the damage already done?

158 | Paul Mason on the Human Future

We talk to Paul Mason about his new book Clear Bright Future - a radical defence of the human being in the age of digital transformation and a call to political action.  The book covers a lot of ground and so do we: Trump and Nietzsche, machine learning and network effects, climate change and neoliberalism, secular humanism and Christian Enlightenment.  But no Brexit!  A conversation about the biggest political choices we face and the deep philosophical questions that lie behind them.  With Helen Thompson.

157 | The Copernican Principle

David gives the third in his series of talks about the future of democracy.  This one uses an idea from cosmology to work out where we might be in the story of democracy: are we at the beginning, in the middle or near the end?  It all depends when and where we think the story starts.  From Stonehenge to Les Miserables, from ancient Athens to Facebook, a simple idea turns out to have some surprising applications, and some important lessons for contemporary politics.

156 | Brexit Lessons

We try to draw some wider lessons from the nightmare that the Brexit process has now become.  What have we learned about the relationship between parliament and the executive?  Is there any way that the Article 50 process could have worked?  And what conclusions will other countries reach about how hard it is to leave the EU?  Plus we talk about the recent report from the Hansard Society indicating that the British public is more open than ever to the idea of a 'strong leader'.  With Helen Thompson and Kenneth Armstrong.

155 | Trump After Mueller

We catch up with Gary Gerstle in the US to assess where the Trump presidency stands after the Mueller report appeared to give him a pass.  Are there more revelations to come once the full report is available?  Can Trump take advantage of his good fortune? And who in the crowded Democratic field currently looks best placed to beat him in 2020? With Helen Thompson.