267 | Twilight of Democracy

David talks to the writer Anne Applebaum about her highly personal new book, which charts the last twenty years of broken friendships and democratic failure.  We start in Poland with the story of what happened to the high hopes for Polish democracy, including what we've learned from this week's presidential election.  But we also take in Trump and Brexit, Hungary and Spain. What explains the prevalence of conspiracy theories in contemporary politics? Why are so many conservatives drawn to the politics of despair?  Is history really circular?  And is democracy doomed?

243 | Ebola, COVID and the WHO

David and Helen talk this week with Amy Maxmen, senior reporter at Nature. Amy has covered the Ebola epidemic in Western Africa and now COVID-19 in the US.  Does she see comparisons between the two?  What explains the failures of the US response?  Can the WHO still make a difference?  Plus we explore the implications of the growing politicisation of science.  When did data become so divisive?

230 | Co-operation or Conflict?

This week we try to assess whether the Covid-19 pandemic is driving the world together or pushing it further apart.  From US-China relations to tensions within the EU, we discuss how coronavirus is exacerbating existing tensions and how it might overcome them.  Are we going to see new forms of international co-operation?  What does it mean for globalisation?  And is the politics of competence making a comeback? With Helen Thomson and Hans Kundnani from Chatham House.

227 | Adam Tooze on the Crisis

We talk to Adam Tooze in New York about the possible impact of coronavirus on the global financial and political system.  How does this crisis compare to the financial crisis of 2008?  What are the implications for the future of the Eurozone?  And what have we learned already about the shift in power from the US to China?  Plus we talk to Helen Thompson in London about how it intersects with the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.  The first of a series of conversations about the biggest event of our times. Updated overnight

179 | Talking Politics Guide to ... Being a Civil Servant

We talk to public policy expert Dennis Grube about the changing character of the civil service, from Victorian mandarins and Yes, Minister to the current battles over Brexit in the age of Twitter. Senior civil servants increasingly find themselves in the public eye, expected to communicate their views. Has this politicised the advice they give?

166 | Jared Diamond

We talk to the author of Guns, Germs and Steel about his new book on nations in crisis.  Jared Diamond argues that personal crises are a good way of thinking about national ones.  He tells us about one of his own personal crises and we see whether the lessons really apply to politics.  Plus we discuss what's gone wrong with political leadership in the US and we explore what it would take to tackle the global environmental crisis.