Power: A User's Guide
Arts & Ideas4 Jun 2025

Power: A User's Guide

Political power can take many forms, from the top-down model of the Roman Empire, to operating in the democratic politics of today, to the possibilities offered by new technologies for more horizontal power structures in the future.

Matthew Sweet is joined on a stage at the Hay Festival by historian Tom Holland, whose new translation of Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars examines Roman power politics from the inside; Guto Harri, who saw the inside workings of power as Downing Street Director of Communications; Adam Greenfield, whose book Lifehouse looks at local networks of mutual aid that have emerged in response to climate crisis; and political philosopher Sophie Scott-Brown - whose book The Radical Fifties: Activist Politics in Cold War Britain is out in July.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Episoder(2000)

Uncertainty

Uncertainty

Anne McElvoy and guests discuss the issue of uncertainty from scientific discovery and the space race to the shifting geopolitical landscape and how it can act as a catalyst for creativity. She's join...

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A pinch of salt

A pinch of salt

Free Thinking looks at today's world with "a pinch of salt" tonight. From stories in the bible to desalination plants, preserving food to salt taxes: how does salt help us think about the past and pre...

28 Feb 202556min

Malcolm X, life changes and flexible thinking

Malcolm X, life changes and flexible thinking

Matthew Sweet and guests discuss changing course in life, flexible thinking and keeping an open mind with writer and curator Ekow Eshun, philosopher Sophie Grace Chappell, journalist Stephen Bush, aut...

21 Feb 202535min

All we need is love

All we need is love

From classical thinking to the romcom films in cinema today: Why do we yearn to find our "other half" but struggle with the reality of long term relationships? To discuss Rana Mitter is joined by: Dr ...

14 Feb 202556min

Repetition

Repetition

Matthew Sweet with art critic TJ Clark, who has written about the importance of repeated viewing for appreciating a work of art; philosopher and film historian Lucy Bolton, who's seen a re-issue of Ch...

7 Feb 202556min

Decision Making

Decision Making

Matthew Sweet and guests talk about about the tools and processes of decision making today and through history. Justine Greening is a former Secretary of State for Education who is now working on soci...

31 Jan 202550min

Diaries

Diaries

“A diary is not only a text: it is a behaviour, a way of life, of which the text is a by-product", says the French theorist Philipe Lejeune. From ancient Babylon to journalling today, politicians' jot...

24 Jan 202556min

Knowing When To Stop

Knowing When To Stop

What tactics are justified in political campaigning from suffragettes to climate action? When is an art work finished? Do the moderation of Aristotle and Epicurus offer us a way of navigating life? Ch...

10 Jan 202557min

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