Past Present Future Podcast

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! In today’s episode for our series about the plight facing universities David talks to political theorist @profafinlayson.bsky.social about what’s happened to higher education in the UK since 1945. It is a story of massive expansion. Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! Today’s episode is part 2 of David's conversation with historian William Whyte about how universities have survived for nearly a thousand years. Can institutions that have adapted to just about everything adapt to the digital revolution as well? Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

Very interesting. Especially liked the description of the Reformation as “a seminar that got out of hand”

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! We start a new series about the long history and current predicament of universities by going back to the beginning. David talks to historian William Whyte about the origin story of the university nearly one thousand years ago. Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

Thanks to @adamrutherford.bsky.social for reminding me of the Darwin quote “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.”

BONUS EPISODE OUT NOW! In this PPF+ bonus we conclude our series about transhumanism by exploring where things stand today. David talks to @duncanbell.bsky.social about existential risk, warnings of AI apocalypse and dreams of living forever. Join PPF+ now: www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

BONUS EPISODE OUT NOW! In this PPF+ bonus we conclude our series about transhumanism by exploring where things stand today. David talks to @duncanbell.bsky.social about existential risk, warnings of AI apocalypse and dreams of living forever. Join PPF+ now: www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

This series has been outstanding. @duncanbell.bsky.social is one of your very best guests. The influence of sci-fi on Silicon Valley is especially striking. "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world" --perhaps the end of the world.

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! Today’s episode in our series about transhumanism and its astonishing influence looks at how it helped build Silicon Valley. David talks to @duncanbell.bsky.social about what happened when California became the centre of transhumanist operations. Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

Episode 2 is now out, covering the middle decades of the twentieth century and into the 1970s and 80s...

Having a great Sunday morning 🧡

Sorted now! 💪🏻

🚨 Spotify Listeners! 🚨 There's a glitch in the system which is showing today's new episode as a PPF+ bonus - which it isn't! Please bear with us - we are trying to get it sorted and you should be able to listen on the free PPF feed soon 🤞🏻

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! In part 2 of our series about how transhumanism shaped our world, David talks to @duncanbell.bsky.social about what happened when sci fi dreams started to become reality. What changed when space travel turned from fantasy to fact? Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! Today it’s the 1st in a new series about the weird & wonderful world of transhumanism: the idea that human beings can be transformed by technology and machines. David talks to historian of ideas @duncanbell.bsky.social about where it all began. Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! Today it’s the 1st in a new series about the weird & wonderful world of transhumanism: the idea that human beings can be transformed by technology and machines. David talks to historian of ideas @duncanbell.bsky.social about where it all began. Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

Really fascinating discussion on ageing 👇

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! For the final episode in our series on living in an ageing world David talks to @lyndseystonebri.bsky.social about one of the most interesting and challenging of all writers on the subject of old age – Simone de Beauvoir. Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

BONUS EPISODE OUT NOW! Today’s PPF+ bonus episode is part two of David’s conversation with @samuelmoyn.bsky.social about the growing wealth and power of older generations and what can be done about it. Join PPF+ now: www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! In today’s episode for our series about living in ageing societies, David talks to historian and legal scholar @samuelmoyn.bsky.social about the problem of gerontocracy, aka the rule of the old. Do the young stand a chance any more? Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

Such an wonderful opportunity to talk to David on his extraordinary podcast. @ppfideas.bsky.social Many thanks and grateful to be part of a fascinating series.

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! Today in our series about longer human lives David talks to the doctor & writer @richardcoker.bsky.social about the meaning of the event that comes for us all in the end: death. Are we finding it harder to talk about and face up to mortality? Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! To start our new series about what it means to live in a world of ageing populations, David talks to geneticist @adamrutherford.bsky.social about the benefits and pitfalls of increasing longevity. Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

Sign up to our newsletter today! All the nuggets to accompany our most recent eps, plus David Writes on P(doom) PR: are these ‘sycophantic muppets’ really going to wipe out humanity? Could the sycophancy in fact be their secret weapon? It’s fortnightly and free! 🔗 www.ppfideas.com/newsletters

Sign up to our newsletter today! All the nuggets to accompany our most recent eps, plus David Writes on P(doom) PR: are these ‘sycophantic muppets’ really going to wipe out humanity? Could the sycophancy in fact be their secret weapon? It’s fortnightly and free! 🔗 www.ppfideas.com/newsletters

Not my normal field but something I’ve been studying for a while - drugs, healthspan, lifespan and longevity. Always a pleasure speaking with David.

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! To start our new series about what it means to live in a world of ageing populations, David talks to geneticist @adamrutherford.bsky.social about the benefits and pitfalls of increasing longevity. Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

To mark Progressive Review's relaunch, we've put together a collection of the greatest hits from @ippr.org's various journals since 1994 - all free to read. Including Jürgen Habermas, Thomas Piketty, Helen Thompson, David Runciman, Will Davies & Jean Seaton. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...

🚨 Check out the new courses we've just launched to accompany our Philosophers and Great Essays series! For anyone wanting to go deeper into some of what we cover. Completely free for anyone to use. And more to come. Do please spread the word! www.ppfideas.com/courses

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! Today is the final episode in our series about the relationship between 20th-century biography & philosophy. David talks to Nikhil Krishnan about the life & thought of Iris Murdoch, a deeply philosophical novelist & a fully committed philosopher. Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

This is an absolutely fabulous discussion. Thanks @lyndseystonebri.bsky.social. One for you @lilyrchadwick.bsky.social.

Your discussion of Hannah Arendt is both entertaining and informative (to coin a phrase). The subject plus the erudition you both bring makes it a wonderful, enlightening listen. Great series. Thank you.

This was such - in the Arendtian sense - FUN.

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! In today’s episode about 20th century philosophy and biography David talks to the historian and literary critic @lyndseystonebri.bsky.social about the life and thought of Hannah Arendt. What did it all mean for the human condition? Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

What a lovely post, thanks Adam - and thanks for listening! 🎧

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! Today in our series about 20th-century philosophy & biography we explore the life & thought of Elizabeth Anscombe, a remarkable & remarkably uncompromising philosopher. David talks to Nikhil Krishnan about her fierce relationship with the truth. Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

This week on @ppfideas.bsky.social, we explore "Gladstone, Disraeli & the Bulgarian Horrors": the last great battle between the two towering politicians of the Victorian age. It's a story of empire, religion, mass protest & soaring oratory. Here's a quick taster...🧵 www.ppfideas.com/episodes/now...

This is more or less the emergency* historical podcast I was asking for a couple of months back when @robertsaunders.bsky.social first drew the comparison with Midlothian. Great stuff. *but judicious and with scholarship

"Remember that the sanctity of life in the hill villages of Afghanistan among the winter snows is as inviolable in the eye of Almighty God as can be your own". In part 2 of Gladstone v Disraeli on empire, we explore the great Midlothian Campaign & the 1880 election! www.ppfideas.com/episodes/now...

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! In the second part of David’s conversation with historian @robertsaunders.bsky.social about the impact of the Bulgarian crisis of 1876 on the course of British politics, they discuss how Gladstone used the controversy to plot his way back to power. Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! In our occasional series with @robertsaunders.bsky.social about significant political anniversaries, we remember the appearance of a pamphlet 150 years ago that changed the course of British politics. Was this the dawn of a new age of populism? Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

A new statue of British prime minister William Gladstone was unveiled in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria earlier this year. Find out why in this week's @ppfideas.bsky.social: a story of three empires, two great popular movements, the origins of "jingoism" & the last great battle between Gladstone & Disraeli

The "Bulgarian Horrors" would bring Gladstone roaring out of retirement to renew his long struggle with Disraeli. It's an amazing story, in which war with Russia, the future of India, the safety of the British constitution and the souls of the British people were all at stake. Hope you enjoy it!

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! In our occasional series with @robertsaunders.bsky.social about significant political anniversaries, we remember the appearance of a pamphlet 150 years ago that changed the course of British politics. Was this the dawn of a new age of populism? Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

BONUS EPISODE OUT NOW! In today’s PPF+ bonus David talks to philosopher & biographer @philosofemme.bsky.social about the life & thought of Simone de Beauvoir. How was Beauvoir shaped by her childhood & was she a reliable narrator of her own history? Join PPF+ now: www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

This was great fun—on Sartre’s childhood and philosophical influences, literature and philosophy, the obligations of intellectuals, the question ‘what is existentialism?’, and more.

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW! In today’s episode exploring how 20th-century philosophy and biography intersect David talks to philosopher and biographer @philosofemme.bsky.social about Jean-Paul Sartre, a thinker whose life has been as closely scrutinised as his ideas. Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

Really enjoying these on a Sunday morning. It’s a bit like how listening to Radio 4 used to feel