The Incompetence of Boris Johnson
This week we talk about the politics of incompetence: when does it matter and when can politicians get away with it. Have repeated u-turns during the pandemic damaged the government? Has Nicola Sturge...
10 Sep 202046min
The Politics of Loneliness
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...
3 Sep 202044min
Thomas Piketty: Three Years On
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 ...
27 Aug 202042min
Has Covid Rescued Europe?
This week we look at the big changes in European politics during the crisis and ask who has managed to turn it around. Is Italy now a model for crisis management? Has there been a reorientation in Ger...
20 Aug 202042min
Judith Butler: Then and Now
This week two conversations with the feminist theorist and writer Judith Butler: one recorded the week Trump won the presidency in 2016 and one recorded a few days ago, as his presidency (just maybe) ...
13 Aug 202059min
Brexit, Trump and Aldershot FC
This week David and Helen talk with the historian David Kynaston about his diary of the 2016-17 season in football and in politics, when a lot happened both to the world and to his beloved Aldershot F...
6 Aug 202043min
Whose Work is it Anyway?
David and Helen talk with Diane Coyle about what the pandemic has revealed about the changing nature of work. Who is doing more of it? Who is still getting paid for it? Which jobs are not coming back?...
30 Jul 202042min
Revisiting Yuval Harari
This week we go back to the first ever interview we recorded for Talking Politics, when David talked to Yuval Noah Harari in 2016 about his book Homo Deus. That conversation touched on many of the the...
23 Jul 202045min
