162 | Adam Tooze on US vs China

An extra episode with Adam Tooze to catch up on the latest in the US/China trade wars.  What's really at stake and what does Trump want?  Is this about economics or security?  What does it say about the future of capitalism?  And where does Joe Biden fit in?  With Helen Thompson.

161 | President Bernie?

We talk about socialism in America: where it comes from, what it means, why it's so associated with Bernie Sanders and whether it can actually reach the White House.  What's the difference between democratic socialism and social democracy?  How would the workers gain control of businesses like Facebook and Amazon?  Who are the workers these days anyway?  Plus, we ask what a Sanders vs Trump contest would actually be like.  With Adom Getachew, from the University of Chicago, and Gary Gerstle.

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.