282 | Democracy for Sale

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We talk to Peter Geoghegan of openDemocracy and Jennifer Cobbe of the Trust and Technology Initiative about Cambridge Analytica, money, power and what is and isn't corrupting our democracy.  How easy is it to buy influence in British politics? Did Cambridge Analytica break the rules, or show just how little difference the rules make anyway? Who has the power to take on Facebook? Plus we discuss why the British government's failure to handle the pandemic tells us a lot about the corrosive effects of cronyism. Order Peter’s book here…

278 | Michael Sandel on the Case Against Meritocracy

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David and Helen talk to the philosopher Michael Sandel about the
damage that the idea of rewarding people on merit has done to education,
democracy and public life. Why is it wrong to try to match the best students to the best universities? What is credentialism and how has it warped the way work is rewarded? Whatever happened to the idea of the common good? Plus we discuss America's sense of itself as God's chosen nation in the age of Obama and Trump.

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277 | Robert Harris and V2

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A Sunday extra with the novelist Robert Harris to talk about the V2 campaign of terror against London during WII and the parallels with today.  Plus we discuss the big questions of counterfactual history - could Hitler really have won the war? - and we ask whether Boris Johnson is anything like his political heroes, Cicero and Churchill.

276 | Jill Lepore on the Destructive Power of Tech

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David talks to the American historian Jill Lepore about the damage new technology can do to democracy, from the 1960s to the present. Who first tried to manipulate the minds of the electorate? Where did the money come from? What happened when the same technology was applied to fighting the Vietnam War? Plus we discuss US presidential elections from 1960 to 2020: do the machines really decide who is going to win, and if he does win this time, what might Joe Biden be able to do about it?

274 | The Politics of Loneliness

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David talks to economist and author Noreena Hertz about loneliness and its impact on all our lives.  How does the experience of loneliness shape contemporary democracy?  What kind of politics could make us feel more connected?  Can technology bring us together or is it driving us further apart?  Plus we discuss the consequences of the pandemic for the future of work and the possibility of building a better world.

273 | Thomas Piketty: Three Years On

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We revisit our interview with the economist Thomas Piketty recorded the week Emmanuel Macron won the French presidency and David and Helen ask what we have learned since.  Where does Macron fit on the
left/right political spectrum?  What has his cult of personality done to French politics?  And are we anywhere nearer knowing how to tackle the problem of inequality?  The last in our series of updates from the Talking Politics archive.