Past Present Future

In part three of our series about political conversions David talks to historian David Klemperer about the people who left Trotskyism behind – and where they ended up. From 1940s America to contemporary Britain, from the Second World War to the Iraq War, from James Burnham to Claire Fox, stories of one-time revolutionaries who found themselves in a very different place. What links Trotskyism to neoconservatism? And what happens when the renegade outsiders become establishment insiders? Join us on Friday 17th April at the Regent Street Cinema in London for the second film in our new season: a screening of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut followed by a live podcast recording with David and director and campaigner Beeban Kidron. Tickets available now https://bit.ly/3O5rSEY You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time on Political Conversions: Switching Sides in the 21st Century Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In today’s episode David talks to political historian David Klemperer about a group of writers and other intellectuals who embraced and then renounced Communism before and during the Second World War. Was the pull of Communism really comparable to the experience of religious conversion? Why did so many who took up the faith at the start of the 1930s become disillusioned with it by the end of the decade? How did they justify their renunciation and what did it cost them? Why were writers and intellectuals so vulnerable to changing their minds? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time on Political Conversions: From Trotskyism to Neoconservatism Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today’s episode is the first in a new series of conversations with political historian David Klemperer about what causes people to switch sides, ideologies and worldviews – stories of political conversion. We begin with converts from socialism to fascism, looking in particular at the notorious case of Oswald Mosley. Why did he wind up in and then give up on the Labour Party? What made him ditch democratic politics for fascist violence? How does his political journey compare to other socialists turned fascists in continental Europe? Did he ever repent? Out now on PPF+: a bonus episode in which David explores the myth of the 1945 general election. Why does this event still exert such a grip on the political imagination of Labour politicians? What do they get wrong about how it really happened and what it really meant? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time on Political Conversions: Communism – The God That Failed Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In today’s episode, which was recorded in front of students, parents and teachers from three schools in Oxford, David talks to historian of America Adam Smith about whether the US might be drifting into another civil war. Are the circumstances of today in any way comparable to the 1860s? What are the faultlines in 2026 that might see America tear itself apart? If division doesn’t lead to widespread violence, how else might the federal government fail? What would it mean for the rest of us? Out tomorrow on PPF+: a bonus episode in which David explores the myth of the 1945 general election. Why does this event still exert such a grip on the political imagination of Labour politicians? What do they get wrong about how it really happened and what it really meant? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time: Political Conversions – Going Fascist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today’s episode was recorded last Wednesday in front of a live audience at Friends’ House in London, where David was joined by the BBC’s Lyse Doucet, historian Chris Clark and diplomat and writer Thant Myint-U to discuss the fate of democracy in the long run and in the short term. What does the current war mean for democracy in Iran, democracy in America and democracy in the wider world? If we are at the end of an era, what is it exactly that is coming to an end? Who gets to decide what might come next? Will it be less democracy, a different democracy or no democracy at all? This event was jointly hosted with the London Review of Books. David’s 2016 article ‘Is This How Democracy Ends?’ is available to read on the LRB website https://bit.ly/416UDUz You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time: Live Special – Another American Civil War? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today’s episode looks backwards and forwards from 1946 to explore the different ways the UK has imagined the US over time, as friend and as foe, as inspiration and as warning, as threat and as salvation. David and Robert examine how America has both illuminated and confused Britain’s view of itself for more than two hundred years, from Andrew Jackson to Donald Trump. Is there a common thread? Is there a version to be relied on? Or are we still making it up as we go along? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time: Live Special – Is This How Democracy Ends? with Lyse Doucet, Chris Clark and Thant Myint-U Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today’s episode sees the return of our occasional series with historian Robert Saunders looking at significant political anniversaries: this time it’s the 80th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s ‘Sinews of Peace’ speech given at Fulton, Missouri in March 1946. The speech is best known for introducing the idea of the ‘Iron Curtain’. What was Churchill trying to achieve? Why was his message so controversial in the United States? How did he help inaugurate the Cold War? And where was he right and where was he wrong about the ‘special relationship’? Out now on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany our recent series with Luke Kemp in which David and Luke talk about how individual experience shapes the way we imagine humanity’s fate and can motivate us to do something about it: the personal and the political. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Join us next Thursday 19th March at the Regent Street Cinema in London for the first film in our new spring and summer season: Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan, followed by a live podcast recording with author and journalist James Marriott. Tickets for this and all our screenings are available now https://www.ppfideas.com/events You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time: Two Twists and Turns of the Special Relationship Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the fourth and final conversation in this series David talks to Luke Kemp, author of Goliath’s Curse, about where we might be heading. Where does the greatest risk of global collapse lie? Who is ultimately responsible for our fate? What makes states and corporations the agents of doom? How can we humans fight back? Out tomorrow on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany this series in which David and Luke talk about how individual experience shapes the way we imagine humanity’s fate and can motivate us to do something about it: the personal and the political. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Join us this Wednesday 11th March for a joint LRB/PPF event: The Slow Death of Democracy, with Lyse Doucet, Christopher Clark and Thant Myint-U. Lyse Doucet will be discussing what she saw when she was in Iran for the BBC last month and what the war means for the prospects of democracy there and everywhere else. Tickets are available now https://www.tickettailor.com/events/londonreviewofbooks/2062789 You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Luke Kemp’s Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse is available now https://bit.ly/4aFczds Next Time: Now & Then with Robert Saunders – Churchill’s ‘Iron Curtain’ speech @80 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In today’s episode David talks to Luke Kemp, author of Goliath’s Curse, about the prospects for societal collapse in the 21st century. Are we living in a global Goliath? Is there any escape in an age when personal data has become the primary lootable resource? Does interconnectedness mean we are more vulnerable to collapse than ever? And what can we learn from the fate of Somalia? Join us on 11th March for a joint LRB/PPF event: The Slow Death of Democracy, with Lyse Doucet, Christopher Clark and Thant Myint-U. Tickets are available now https://www.tickettailor.com/events/londonreviewofbooks/2062789 You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of our episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Luke Kemp’s Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse is available now https://bit.ly/4aFczds Next Time: Societal Collapse – The Future Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In today’s episode David talks to Luke Kemp, author of Goliath’s Curse, about the strengths and weaknesses of modern states and modern structures of authority. Are modern states any different from the criminal enterprises of coercion that preceded them? Does democracy change the dynamic of societal collapse? What are the lootable resources of the modern age? And why are all states essentially empires? Tickets are on sale now for our new film season at the Regent Street Cinema in London – starting on 19th March with James Marriott talking to David about Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan. Details of all our film events are here https://www.ppfideas.com/events Join us on 11th March for a joint LRB/PPF event: The Slow Death of Democracy, with Lyse Doucet, Christopher Clark and Thant Myint-U. Tickets are available now https://www.tickettailor.com/events/londonreviewofbooks/2062789 You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of our episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Luke Kemp’s Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse is available now https://bit.ly/4aFczds Next Time: Societal Collapse – The Present Day Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today’s episode is the first in a series of conversations about what causes human societies to fall apart and what might come next. David talks to Luke Kemp, author of Goliath’s Curse, about how we build our structures of authority and how they can fail. How were human societies organised before we had governments? What drove the creation of the first hierarchies of domination? Why did rising inequality so often lead to societal collapse? What does this teach us about the vulnerability of our own societies? Out now on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany our recent exploration of the past, present and future of nuclear warfare in which David discusses John Hersey’s Hiroshima (1946), the definitive account of what it’s actually like to be on the receiving end of a nuclear attack. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Join us on 11th March for a joint LRB/PPF event: The Slow Death of Democracy, with Lyse Doucet, Christopher Clark and Thant Myint-U. Tickets are available now https://www.tickettailor.com/events/londonreviewofbooks/2062789 Tickets are on sale now for our new film season at the Regent Street Cinema in London – starting on 19th March with James Marriott talking to David about Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan. Details of all our film events are here https://www.ppfideas.com/events Sign up now for our free fortnightly newsletter and you'll receive our 50th edition straight to your inbox https://www.ppfideas.com/newsletters You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of our episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Luke Kemp’s Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse is available now https://bit.ly/4aFczds Next Time: Societal Collapse – The Modern Age Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today’s episode is the third and final of David’s conversations with S. M. Amadae about nuclear weapons and nuclear war, this time looking to the future. What are the prospects for nuclear disarmament in the 21st century? How does the risk of nuclear war intersect with other existential risks, from climate change to AI? Is the world more dangerous than it has ever been? What are the grounds for hope we might still get out of this alive? Out tomorrow on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany this series of conversations in which David explores John Hersey’s Hiroshima (1946), the definitive account of what it’s actually like to be on the receiving end of a nuclear attack. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Tickets are on sale now for our new film season at the Regent Street Cinema in London – starting on 19th March with James Marriott talking to David about Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan. All the details are here https://www.ppfideas.com/events Join us on 11th March for a joint LRB/PPF event: The Slow Death of Democracy - with Lyse Doucet, Christopher Clark and Thant Myint-U. Tickets are available now https://www.tickettailor.com/events/londonreviewofbooks/2062789 You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of our episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time: Where Are We Going? Societal Collapse Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In today’s episode David talks to S. M. Amadae about what happened when the nuclear age turned into an all-consuming arms race. What is the supposed logic and the terrifying illogic behind the idea of Mutually Assured Destruction? What is the difference between M.A.D. and N.U.T.S.? Do we really believe that our leaders would press the button? And how have we managed to survive to this point – rationality, luck or merely a stay of execution? Tickets are on sale now for our new film season at the Regent Street Cinema in London – starting on 19th March with James Marriott talking to David about Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan. All the details are here https://www.ppfideas.com/events Next Time: How Will the Nuclear Age End? You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of our episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For the first in a new series of conversations exploring the future that faces us all, David talks to S. M. Amadae about what nuclear weapons and the prospect of nuclear war have done to the human condition. Was 1945 the decisive watershed in the history of humanity? What made the possibility of nuclear conflict different from previous ideas of catastrophe? How did we reconcile ourselves to the horrifying consequences of what we had built? Out now on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany our recent series What’s Wrong With Political Philosophy? in which David and Paul talk about how personal experience shapes our political and philosophical outlook – a conversation exploring luck, accidents, human frailty and human connection. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Next Time: M.A.D. and N.U.T.S. You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of our episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today’s episode explores the ideas of two late-twentieth-century thinkers who argued that political philosophy needs to be concerned with more than just justice. David talks to Paul Sagar about why Bernard Williams thought we should focus on questions about legitimacy and why Judith Shklar believed we should spend more time worrying about cruelty. Is the fundamental political question about how to achieve the best or is it about how to avoid the worst? And if it’s the second, where should we start? Out tomorrow on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany this series in which David and Paul talk about how personal experience shapes our political and philosophical outlook – a conversation exploring luck, accidents, human frailty and human connection. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening for £5 a month or £50 for the year, sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Paul Sagar’s Substack is called Diary of a Punter – it is highly recommended https://substack.com/@diaryofapunter Next Time: Where Are We Going? Nuclear Weapons You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of our episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the third part of our series David and Paul Sagar explore what the German writer and sociologist Max Weber can teach us about the pitfalls of political life and political philosophy. Why is doing politics so hard? Why is it so hard to know what to do for the best when all the options are bad ones? How can we still do our best when the only means at our disposal is violence? And where does all this leave the prospects for lasting political change? Next Time: Learning from Bernard Williams and Judith Shklar You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of our episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the second episode in our short series about how the history of ideas can help with the deepest puzzles of politics, David talks to political theorist Paul Sagar about the eighteenth-century polymath Adam Smith. Normally thought of as the original champion of free-market economics, Smith was far more interested in history, human psychology and the problems inherent in all political systems. What does it mean to live in a commercial society? How should we understand the promise and pitfalls of equality? Where does human liberty come from? And why has the Adam Smith Institute made a mockery of his name? Next time: Learning from Max Weber You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of our episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today it’s the first episode in a new series asking why contemporary political philosophy struggles to make sense of the deepest problems of politics and exploring how the history of ideas might help. David talks to political theorist Paul Sagar about why looking for justice might be the wrong place to start. Instead, Paul suggests we start with Aristotle, for whom the search for justice was the problem not the solution. So what should we do instead? To keep up with what’s coming next and for more news about the podcast do follow us on Bluesky: @ppfideas.bsky.social Next time: Learning from Adam Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today’s episode is the second part of David’s conversation with Helen Thompson about what makes living in a world dominated by the United States so strange. What has changed about American power in the twenty-first century? Is Trump a deviation from the norm or is he simply an extension of it? Why does Greenland matter? And what is at stake as the contest between the US and China ramps up to the next level? Next Time: What’s Wrong with Political Philosophy? Incogni Special Offer for PPF listeners: https://incogni.com/pastpresentfuture (then use code PPF for 60% off annual plans) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The first of a two-part conversation in which David talks to Helen Thompson about how to understand the extraordinary and unlikely power of the United States, from its origins to its current incarnation. How strange would it once have seemed to live in a world dominated by a state from the Western hemisphere? When did the US overcome its natural disadvantages to achieve superpower potential? What does the rest of the world get wrong about how American power actually operates? And what might come next? A reminder that the second part of David’s conversation with Glen Rangwala about the trial and execution of Saddam Hussein is available now on PPF+. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ today https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Next Time: The Weirdness of American Power Part 2 – Trump and the Future Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For the final episode in this series David talks to historian and political scientist Glen Rangwala about the trial and execution of Saddam Hussein in 2006. What plans did the Americans have for Saddam before the Iraq war began? How was it decided what to charge him with once he had been captured? Did his trial exacerbate rather than overcome the sectarian divisions tearing Iraq apart? Was justice served? Part 2 of this conversation, in which David and Glen discuss the circumstances of Saddam’s execution and the legacy of his fate for the politics of Iraq and the wider world, is available tomorrow on PPF+. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Next time: Talking Geopolitics with Helen Thompson – The Weirdness of American Power Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For the penultimate episode in this series David examines the criminal trial of O. J. Simpson in 1995 to ask what it reveals about how power really works in America. How did the prosecution fail to grasp what was really happening in the courtroom? Did jury selection decide the outcome of the case before it had even begun? Why was the massive volume of evidence against Simpson something that worked in his favour? And how does the legacy of the Simpson trial help explain the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House? Next time: The Trial and Execution of Saddam Hussein Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In today’s episode David explores the trial that gripped China at the end of 1980: the case against the three men and one woman accused of being responsible for the worst excesses of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). How did the court try to hold Mao’s followers responsible for the catastrophe while exculpating Mao himself? How did Mao’s widow Jiang Qing fight back? Who were the others in the dock and what were they doing there? And what made the trial emblematic of the new direction China was taking? Next time in Politics on Trial: O. J. Simpson vs the Evidence Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today’s episode is about the epic battle between Muhammad Ali and the US government over its attempt to draft him during the Vietnam war and what happened when that fight reached the US Supreme Court. What were Ali’s grounds for claiming to be a conscientious objector? How did that argument cut across wider questions of race, religion and power? Why did the Supreme Court change its original decision against Ali to find unanimously in his favour? And who won and who lost as a result? Out now on PPF+: Part two of David’s conversation with Robert Saunders about the fight over Irish Home Rule: how close did Britain get to an actual civil war in 1914 before another war intervened? To hear this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Next time in Politics on Trial: The Gang of Four Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today’s episode in our occasional series with historian Robert Saunders on significant political anniversaries looks at the event that blew British politics apart at the start of 1886. The ‘Hawarden Kite’ – when William Gladstone’s son Herbert floated the idea that his father had committed to Irish Home Rule – split the Liberal party, upended political allegiances and set the country on the path to potential civil war. How did it happen? Why were passions running so high on the question of Ireland? And how does it all compare to Brexit? Out tomorrow on PPF+: Part 2 of David’s conversation with Robert in which they take the story of the fight over Irish Home Rule up to the crisis of 1912-1914. How close did Britain come to an actual civil war? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Next time in Politics on Trial: Muhammad Ali vs. the Draft Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An extra episode to accompany our Films of Ideas series: David explores The Designated Mourner by Wallace Shawn, the writer and co-star of My Dinner with Andre. How did a play first performed in 1996 turn into a prophetic text for our times? How was it shaped by Shawn’s experiences in Central America and his view of Reagan’s America? What makes it one of the greatest of all contemporary political fictions? Next time – Now & Then with Robert Saunders: Home Rule for Ireland! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today it’s the last in our series of live episodes recorded at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to film director and campaigner Beeban Kidron about Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), a much-loved film that’s also chock full of interesting ideas. Is memory the same as identity? Are all relationships founded on manipulation? What happens when we try to curate our mental distress? How should we resist the tech panacea of a painless existence? Who gets to choose what we remember and what we forget? Next time: The Designated Mourner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The fourth episode in our season of live recordings from the Regent Street Cinema is about another film that explores the relationship between biography and philosophy: Derek Jarman’s Wittgenstein (1993), which tells the story of an extraordinary life in a way that is both light and profound. David talks to writer and philosopher Nikhil Krishnan about Ludwig Wittengenstein’s ideas of war, science, truth, freedom, sexuality, language, loyalty and communism and how they are portrayed on screen. Does the life explain the ideas or do the ideas explain the life? Next time: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind w/Beeban Kidron Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today’s episode in our season of live recordings from the Regent Street Cinema looks at the biopic of a revolutionary: Margaretha von Trotta’s Rosa Luxemburg (1986), which explores the deeply unstable relationship between the personal and the political. David talks to writer and philosopher Lea Ypi (Free, Indignity) about where biography ends and philosophy begins and whether revolutionary politics requires the leading of a revolutionary life. What was Rosa Luxemburg’s true cause? Who or what betrayed her and her ideas? And how does her legacy live on? Out now on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany this series in which David and film historian Harrison Whitaker discuss the greatest Christmas film of ideas: Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life, which is much more than just a seasonal tearjerker. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Next time: Wittgenstein w/Nikhil Krishnan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The second episode in our live series from the Regent Street Cinema explores Louis Malle’s My Dinner with Andre (1981), in which two men discuss the meaning of theatre, capitalism, love, science, faith and freedom over a meal. David talks to playwright and screenwriter Lee Hall (Billy Elliot, Rocketman) about how a great film can be made out of a single conversation. Who was the real Andre? How scripted was the dialogue? Who won the argument? And why has this film had such an extraordinary afterlife? Out tomorrow on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany this series in which David and film historian Harrison Whitaker discuss the greatest Christmas film of ideas: Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life, which is much more than just a seasonal tearjerker. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus If you are looking for last minute Christmas presents we have 6- and 12-month gift subscriptions to PPF+ giving access to all our bonus episodes, ad-free listening and automatic sign-up to our fortnightly newsletter – which can be delivered to the recipient of your choice on Christmas Day! ⁠https://ppf.supportingcast.fm/gifts⁠ Next time: Rosa Luxemburg w/Lea Ypi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today it’s the first in our series of live episodes recorded at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to the crime writers Nicci Gerrard and Sean French (aka Nicci French) about Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope (1948), based on Patrick Hamilton’s play of the same name, itself based on the real-life case of Leopold and Loeb. What is the true subject of this film: murder, sex, morality or something else? Why is James Stewart so hopelessly miscast? And how does all this connect to Nietzsche? If you are still looking for Christmas presents we have 6- and 12-month gift subscriptions to PPF+ giving access to all our bonus episodes, ad-free listening and automatic sign-up to our fortnightly newsletter – which can be delivered to the recipient of your choice on Christmas Day! ⁠https://ppf.supportingcast.fm/gifts⁠ Next time: My Dinner with Andre w/Lee Hall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today’s episode explores the trials of Nelson Mandela, variously charged by South Africa’s apartheid state with treason, incitement, illegal foreign travel, sabotage and conspiracy across a decade that saw him more often in court than out. How did Mandela defend himself? What changed from his first trial to his last? Could any justice be found in a system of blatant oppression? And what happens when the line between lawyer, defendant and prisoner becomes impossibly blurred? The final film in our season at the Regent Street Cinema in London is coming up on Friday 19th December: a screening of David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method followed by a live recording of PPF with writer, psychoanalyst and feminist Susie Orbach. Do join us – tickets are still available https://bit.ly/3KHBp3g Next time we start our season of Films of Ideas: Hitchcock’s Rope w/Nicci Gerrard and Sean French Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today’s episode is about a momentous trial and the incendiary book that followed: the trial was of Adolf Eichmann, convicted by an Israeli court in 1961 of orchestrating the Holocaust, and the book was Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963), which questioned the grounds on which he was prosecuted. What did Arendt mean by ‘the banality of evil’? Why was she convinced that the case against Eichmann was badly misjudged? Was the trial really intended to serve as a history lesson? And if it was, what was it designed to teach? Next time in Politics on Trial: Nelson Mandela vs Apartheid Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today we return to our series about epoch-making trials with the case of the book they tried and failed to ban. In 1960 Penguin Books was prosecuted at the Old Bailey under the new Obscene Publications Act (1959) over its plans to produce a cheap, unexpurgated edition of D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover. How did the prosecution try to persuade the jury that the book was a menace to public morals? Who were the expert witnesses called in its defence? What were the decisive arguments? And why was the judge’s summing-up such a mistake? Out tomorrow on PPF+: David discusses the book at the heart of the case. Was Lady Chatterley’s Lover really all about sex? Or was it all about class? Or was it in fact about something else entirely? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus If you are looking for Christmas presents we have 6- and 12-month gift subscriptions to PPF+ giving access to all our bonus episodes, ad-free listening and automatic sign-up to our fortnightly newsletter – which can be delivered to the recipient of your choice on Christmas Day! https://ppf.supportingcast.fm/gifts Plus we have gorgeous PPF canvas tote bags and bone china PPF mugs, all available now https://www.ppfideas.com/merch Next time in Politics on Trial: Eichmann in Jerusalem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

David talks to novelist Ian McEwan, who was our first ever guest on PPF, about how the future will view our present once the disasters we are brewing come to pass. How might humanity scrape through the rest of the century? Will future generations see us as intellectually vibrant or essentially trivial? If we turn out to be unknowable to those who follow us, does that mean we are unknowable to ourselves? A wide-ranging conversation about how past, present and future co-exist in time. Ian McEwan’s latest novel is What We Can Know https://bit.ly/4ogYN5u If you are looking for Christmas presents we have 6- and 12-month gift subscriptions to PPF+ giving access to all our bonus episodes, ad-free listening and automatic sign-up to our fortnightly newsletter – which can be delivered to the recipient of your choice on Christmas Day! https://ppf.supportingcast.fm/gifts Plus we have gorgeous PPF canvas tote bags and bone china PPF mugs, all available now https://www.ppfideas.com/merch Next time in Politics on Trial: Lady Chatterley’s Lover Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today’s episode is the second part of David’s conversation with historian Robert Saunders about the life and legacy of Margaret Thatcher. What is the meaning of Thatcherism in the twenty-first century? Why is she still such a polarising figure? Was she a distinctively British political phenomenon? Which politicians can plausibly claim to be channelling her example today? If you are looking for Christmas presents, how about a gift subscription to PPF+? You can choose between 6- and 12-months subscriptions – giving access to our entire archive of bonus episodes, plus two new bonuses every month, ad-free listening and automatic sign-up to our fortnightly newsletter – to be delivered to the recipient of your choice on Christmas Day. All the details you need are here https://ppf.supportingcast.fm/gifts Next Time: Novelist Ian McEwan on imagining the present as a future past Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices