Past Present Future Podcast

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!

In today’s episode David talks to @alanrenwick.bsky.social from UCL’s Constitution Unit about the pros & cons of referendums. How can they be used to open up political debate? When does a democratic question need to be put direct to the people?

Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!

In today’s episode David talks to @alanrenwick.bsky.social from UCL’s Constitution Unit about the pros & cons of referendums. How can they be used to open up political debate? When does a democratic question need to be put direct to the people?

Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

Thanks Phil! @robertsaunders.bsky.social is a national treasure (or should be).

David Runciman reviewing @tommctague.bsky.social 's new book in the LRB is the birthday present I didn't know I wanted.

David Runciman · Down the Rabbit Hole: Britain’s Europe Problem From Macmillan to Wilson to Heath to Thatcher to Major to Blair to Cameron, a succession of prime ministers persuaded...

‘A succession of prime ministers persuaded themselves that their country was somehow different from the rest: it could pick and choose from the menu of European options in the way that suited it best. They were all mistaken.’

David Runciman on the road to Brexit:

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Now & Then with Robert Saunders: From Kinnock to Corbyn to Starmer 225

What happened to Militant after the 1980s?

How did Tony Blair invent "Old Labour"?

Why did Neil Kinnock speak highly of Momentum?

And has Keir Starmer learned the wrong lessons from Kinnock?

Part 2 of our discussion of the radical left from the 1980s to 2025.
www.ppfideas.com/episodes/now...

😆

Now & Then with Robert Saunders: From Kinnock to Corbyn to Starmer 225

Today on @ppfideas.bsky.social, it's the second part of our conversation on the radical left since the 1980s.

In Part 1, we discussed Neil Kinnock, Liverpool & the Militant Tendency.

Today, we talk about the 90s, Corbynism, Momentum & "Your Party". Hope you enjoy!
www.ppfideas.com/episodes/now...

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!

The second part of David’s conversation with @robertsaunders.bsky.social marking the 40th anniversary of Neil Kinnock’s party conference speech attacking the Militant tendency takes the story up to the present and beyond.

Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

"You end in the grotesque chaos of a Labour council - a Labour council! - hiring taxis to scuttle round a city, handing out redundancy notices to its own workers!"

40 years on, I joined @ppfideas.bsky.social to discuss Neil Kinnock's blistering assault on Militant.
www.ppfideas.com/episodes/now...

Us too!! This is what we like to hear!🤣

Now & Then with Robert Saunders: Neil Kinnock vs Militant 224

"I’ll tell you what happens with impossible promises..."

It's 40 years since Neil Kinnock tore into Militant at the Labour Party conference.

I joined David Runciman on @ppfideas.bsky.social to talk about Kinnock, Trotskyism & the legacy of THAT speech today. Enjoy!
www.ppfideas.com/episodes/now...

Have a listen - we certainly get to that part too!

Thanks Nigel, and good idea - noted!

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!

Today in our occasional series with @robertsaunders.bsky.social we explore the lasting consequences of a speech delivered 40 years ago this week - Labour leader Neil Kinnock’s excoriating attack on Militant at his party’s conference in 1985.

Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

A fantastic screening and discussion last night of ‘My Dinner with Andre’ with Lee Hall.

We’ll be putting this and all the others in our live Films of Ideas series out as episodes over Christmas.

Two down, four to go.

Fancy joining us?

🎟️ Info & tickets here: www.ppfideas.com/events

I used to revere My Dinner with Andre. I thought it was some kind of high point for cerebral New Hollywood introspection, for downtown Manhattan intellectual self-confidence. The kind of cool New Yorker dialogue that the rest of us were just meant to admire. Then, a few years ago I decided, in a flash, watching it again, that actually it was a terrible, pretentious, involuted mess. The worst of American intellectual hubris. A dreadful, contemptible work of art. And it was kind of a relief (I gave it one star on Letterboxd and moved on). Then, last night, I went to see it again, at a live event put on by David Runciman for his Past Present Future podcast, and now I’m all over the place. I might have to write a proper review. Runciman’s guest, playwright Lee Hall, opened up the movie’s complexities, providing historical, theatrical and biographical context that gives the bloody thing a new validity for me. Blimey. Might have to revise that Letterboxd rating too.

It's forty years since i first saw My Dinner with Andre. I keep changing my mind. Last night I think I did so again, thanks to David Runciman and the @ppfideas.bsky.social crew who put on a screening at the Regent Street Cinema

Love that we got you rethinking it Steve!

Thanks Kevin!

No!!

Come join us tonight!

Who Rules The World? Trump, Tech and the Fight for the Future | Cheltenham Festivals David Runciman is joined by politician, journalist and philosopher Bruno Maçães for a live episode of Past Present Future, the history of ideas podcast. Fr

🚨 Booking open for a new PPF live recording event!

"Who Rules The World? Trump, Tech & the Fight for the Future"

📆 8pm Wednesday 15th October
📍 Cheltenham Literature Festival
🎙️ With @brunomacaes.bsky.social and *special-can't-announce-yet-guest!!*

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!

In today’s episode on how to fix democracy David talks to political scientist @fromagehomme.bsky.social about how to stop governments rigging elections around the world, from Africa to the United States. What makes an election free and fair?

Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

Maybe because times are on fire but I think this PPF series on democracy is the best yet!

Coming up David, coming up!

Thanks Alinag, plenty more to come!

Claudia @cchwalisz.bsky.social does a brilliant job here of explaining the politics and practicalities of citizens' assemblies

My Dinner with Andre + Live Recording of Past Present Future Podcast with David Runciman, Lee Hall My Dinner With Andre (1981): Directed by Louis Malle and staring Wallace Shawn and the eponymous Andre Gregory, this is a film about the power of conversation and the challenge of new ideas. Somehow i...

Next in our Films of Ideas series of screenings & live recordings:

📅 Thurs 25 Sep
📍 Regent St Cinema, London
🎬 My Dinner With Andre

Come see how two people chatting in a restaurant can change the way the world appears & maybe change what you believe in.

www.regentstreetcinema.com/movie/my-din...

Brilliant podcast by David Runciman and @cchwalisz.bsky.social asking all the right questions on deliberation, random selection and citizen assemblies. Best enjoyed in combination with @oliverescobar.bsky.social insightful paper: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!

David talks to @cchwalisz.bsky.social, founder & CEO of Democracy Next, about how citizens’ assemblies could help fix what’s wrong with democracy. Where does the idea of a jury of citizens chosen at random to answer political questions come from?

Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com