TrueSciPhi

Podcast Profile: Talking Politics: HISTORY OF IDEAS

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27 episodes
2020 to 2021
Median: 46 minutes
Collections: Philosophy • SciPhi-Adjacent

Description (podcaster-provided):

A new series of talks by David Runciman, in which he explores some of the most important thinkers and prominent ideas lying behind modern politics – from Hobbes to Gandhi, from democracy to patriarchy, from revolution to lock down. Plus, he talks about the crises – revolutions, wars, depressions, pandemics – that generated these new ways of political thinking. From the team that brought you Talking Politics: a history of ideas to help make sense of what’s happening today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):

➤ political philosophy through major thinkers • state, sovereignty, liberty, justice • democracy and leadership • revolution, capitalism, markets • feminism, patriarchy, sexual politics • slavery, colonialism, nonviolence • morality, hypocrisy • utopia/dystopia, technology, machines • crises shaping ideas

This podcast is a guided tour through major works in the history of political thought, using classic texts to explain how modern politics was shaped and how it continues to function. Each installment focuses on a single influential thinker or book and reconstructs its central arguments, why it mattered in its own time, and what problems it poses for politics now.

Across the series, recurring themes include the nature and limits of the state, the meaning of freedom and liberty, and competing accounts of justice and fairness. The discussions return often to democracy—how it works in practice, what it promises in theory, and how it can be narrowed into elite competition or destabilized by conflict. Several episodes examine the moral and psychological foundations of political life, including how ideas like cruelty, hypocrisy, and moral “genealogies” affect public norms and power.

Another through-line is the relationship between politics and upheaval. Revolutions, war, slavery, colonialism, and struggles for independence provide the backdrop for thinking about authority, violence, resistance, and legitimacy. The podcast also treats gender and patriarchy as political structures, tracing feminist critiques of liberalism and Marxism and exploring the idea of “the other” in oppression and emancipation. Modernity and technology appear as persistent challenges too, from markets and planning to machines and automation.

Alongside the main talks, question-and-answer episodes reflect on the series’ choices and larger connections among the ideas discussed.

Episodes: