John Gray and David Runciman on Finding Meaning in a Post-Liberal World

John Gray and David Runciman on Finding Meaning in a Post-Liberal World

John Gray is one of the UK’s most important and influential political thinkers. Sceptical of ideas about progress and the perfectibility of human nature, he is an arch critic of liberalism, believing that history moves in cycles rather than inexorably towards a better future. For this episode of Intelligence Squared he is joined by David Runciman, a political scientist known for his clear analysis of modern political complexities. Together they explore the themes of Gray’s new book The New Leviathans: Thoughts After Liberalism, which looks at the world of the 2020s through the prism of the great 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes, famous for saying that without government, life would be ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. Traversing 20th-century Russia, India and China, and referencing thinkers from Nietzsche and Hegel to Pinker and Fukuyama, Gray shares his realist vision for what the future may hold and explains how, in a world of absurdity, meaning can be found not in grandiose ideas but in more modest ethics. We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to podcasts@intelligencesquared.com or Tweet us @intelligence2. And if you’d like to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, as well as ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content, early access and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared. Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Debate: Sanctions Don’t Work as a Tool of Foreign Policy

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How does a nation’s language shape its identity? Hannah Kent on her year in Iceland

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Temelkuran is a brilliant writer, finding humour, hope and humanity in the darkest corners of our current malaise.’ – BRIAN ENO Ece Temelkuran is the award winning Turkish writer and author who was f...

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Are we living in a world designed to hijack our brains? In this episode, Dr Emma Yhnell speaks to international best-selling author Nicklas Brendborg about how supernormal stimuli have become the nor...

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On today’s episode, an episode from our friends at Sotheby's exploring the remarkable collection of Leonard A. Lauder, one of the greatest collectors and benefactors of the arts in America. At its cen...

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Is This the Twilight of American Supremacy? Simon Jenkins on Why the World Needs the USA

Is This the Twilight of American Supremacy? Simon Jenkins on Why the World Needs the USA

The United States of America is younger than the British Museum and Guinness - in 2026 it celebrates its 250th birthday. How did this vast melting pot of people and ideas come to dominate global polit...

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Olivia Laing on Passion and Heartbreak in the Golden Age of New Italian Cinema

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Olivia Laing is an internationally acclaimed writer and critic. They are the author of eight books, including The Lonely City, Everybody and the Sunday Times bestseller The Garden Against Time. Laing’...

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