Past Present Future23 Nov 2025

The Rise and Fall of Homo Sapiens

Today’s episode explores some very big picture history: David talks to palaeontologist and science writer Henry Gee about the story of the human species from origin to peak to inevitable decline. When and how did Homo sapiens see off the competition from its rivals in the human and animal world? Why did that point mark the start of an inexorable drift towards extinction? In what ways are our strengths as a species also our fatal weaknesses? And how near are we to the end? Part two of this conversation, which takes the story of human species from the hunter-gatherer period to the present and beyond to explore how long we have left, 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 Henry Gee’s The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire is available wherever you get your books https://bit.ly/4pshODe Read more by David about depopulation and human extinction in the current issue of the London Review of Books https://bit.ly/43FEwiO There are still a few tickets remaining for the next film in our autumn 'Films of Ideas' season at the Regent Street Cinema in London: join us on Friday 28th November for a screening of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind followed by a live recording of PPF with special guest Beeban Kidron https://bit.ly/4a78KyZ Next time – Now & Then with Robert Saunders: Thatcher @100 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(325)

The History of Bad Ideas: Political Leadership is What Counts

Today’s bad idea is a pervasive political myth: the notion that what really matters at election time is political leadership. David talks to political scientist Jane Green about why leaders are less i...

22 Juli 0s

The History of Bad Ideas: Celebrity

David talks to historian and broadcaster Greg Jenner about the surprising history of the idea of celebrity, from Roman generals to 18th-century child stars to contemporary pop culture icons. How is ce...

19 Juli 1h 8min

The History of Bad Ideas: Deliverism

Today’s episode is about a bad idea with a very recent history: David talks to political historian David Klemperer about the dangers of deliverism. When did the view that delivering for the voters is ...

15 Juli 56min

The History of Bad Ideas: Narrative History

Today’s bad idea is a way of doing history: David talks to historian Alec Ryrie about the seductions and pitfalls of narrative history. Why do we need more Herodotus and less Thucydides? What makes so...

12 Juli 56min

The History of Bad Ideas: Hysteria

For the first in a new set of episodes about bad ideas with interesting histories David talks to the writer and broadcaster Helen Lewis about hysteria, an ancient idea that became a very modern diagno...

8 Juli 58min

Where Are We Going? The Future of the Future

In the second part of their conversation about what has happened to our ideas of the future David and Ivan Krastev explore where the future is going next. Why do our expectations of what comes after u...

5 Juli 58min

Where Are We Going? The Idea of the Future

Today’s episode is the first of two with writer and political scientist Ivan Krastev exploring what has happened to our ideas of the future. When did thinking about the future become the way we define...

1 Juli 1h 1min

Live Film Special: Never Let Me Go w/Adam Rutherford

Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to the geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford about Mark Romanek’s 2010 film of Kazuo...

28 Juni 56min