Past Present Future
Past Present Future is a bi-weekly History of Ideas podcast with David Runciman, host and creator of Talking Politics, exploring the history of ideas from politics to philosophy, culture to technology. David talks to historians, novelists, scientists and many others about where the most interesting ideas come from, what they mean, and why they matter.
Ideas from the past, questions about the present, shaping the future.
New episodes every Wednesday and Sunday.
- Update frequency
- every 3 days
- Average duration
- 56 minutes
- Episodes
- 235
- Years Active
- 2023 - 2025
The History of Revolutionary Ideas: American Revolution 1: The Declaration of Independence
Today it’s the first of two episodes about one of the most significant revolutions of all: the American Revolution. David talks to historian Eric Nelson about the ideas behind America’s Declaration o…
01:00:02 |
Sun 23 Feb 2025
The History of Revolutionary Ideas: The Industrial Revolution
Today’s episode is about a revolution that started 250 years ago and is still going on (in the form of the digital revolution): the Industrial Revolution. David talks to economic historian Alexis Lit…
00:53:23 |
Thu 20 Feb 2025
The History of Revolutionary Ideas: English Revolution 2: 1688
In the second of our episodes with historian Clare Jackson on the English revolutions of the 17th century we discuss the one that usually gets called ‘Glorious’: the revolution of 1688. Was it a revo…
00:56:03 |
Sun 16 Feb 2025
The History of Revolutionary Ideas: English Revolution 1: Civil War
Today’s episode in our history of revolutionary ideas is about the event that is sometimes – but not always – called the English Revolution: the Civil War of the 1640s and the short-lived republic th…
00:56:42 |
Thu 13 Feb 2025
The History of Revolutionary Ideas: The Scientific Revolution
Today’s episode is about a revolution that took centuries to happen if it ever really happened at all: The Scientific Revolution. David talks to historian of science Simon Schaffer about what changed…
01:05:40 |
Sun 09 Feb 2025
The History of Revolutionary Ideas: The Reformation (part 1): Luther
Today’s revolutionary thinker is Martin Luther, the man who upended the religious, political and intellectual life of Europe, maybe without entirely meaning to. David talks to historian Alec Ryrie ab…
00:56:07 |
Thu 06 Feb 2025
The History of Revolutionary Ideas: Humanism
Today’s episode in our history of revolutionary ideas is about a medieval movement that used the ancient past to rethink and reimagine the present and the future. David talks to historian Eric Nelson…
00:59:47 |
Sun 02 Feb 2025
The History of Revolutionary Ideas: Magna Carta
Today’s episode in our history of revolutionary ideas is about a medieval document that is sometimes thought to contain a ground-breaking promise of basic political rights. David talks to historian N…
01:06:04 |
Thu 30 Jan 2025
The History of Revolutionary Ideas: Islam
Today’s episode in our history of revolutionary ideas explores the world-altering impact of Islam from the seventh century onwards. David talks to the leading Islamic scholar Tim Winter (Abdal Hakim …
01:02:07 |
Sun 26 Jan 2025
The History of Revolutionary Ideas: Christianity w/Tom Holland
Today’s episode in our series on revolutionary ideas is a conversation covering two millennia with the historian Tom Holland exploring the never-ending upending of human understanding brought about b…
00:56:44 |
Thu 23 Jan 2025
The History of Revolutionary Ideas: Socrates w/Agnes Callard
To begin our history of revolutionary ideas in earnest, David talks to the philosopher Agnes Callard about Socrates, the philosopher who changed – and can still change – everything. Just what is so r…
00:53:30 |
Sun 19 Jan 2025
The History of Revolutionary Ideas: What Makes a Revolutionary Idea?
To kick off our new series on revolutionary ideas past, present and future David talks to two regular PPF contributors – the philosopher Lea Ypi and the scientist Adam Rutherford – about what makes a…
00:54:44 |
Thu 16 Jan 2025
The Great Political Films: The Zone of Interest
The final episode in our great political films series explores Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest (2023), his haunting take on the home life of the man who ran Auschwitz. This is a film like noth…
00:57:18 |
Sun 12 Jan 2025
The Great Political Films: Zero Dark Thirty
The penultimate episode in our great political films series explores Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty (2012), her controversial take on the War on Terror. Tracking the CIA’s years-long pursuit of O…
01:00:25 |
Thu 09 Jan 2025
The Great Political Films: The Social Network
The second David Fincher film in our series (after Fight Club) is The Social Network (2010), the Aaron Sorkin-scripted take on how Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook and the price paid by everyone else…
00:55:27 |
Sun 05 Jan 2025
The Great Political Films: There Will Be Blood
Our great political films series reaches the twenty-first century with Paul Thomas Anderson’s unforgettable There Will Be Blood (2007), starring Daniel Day-Lewis as oilman Daniel Plainview in one of …
00:53:49 |
Thu 02 Jan 2025
The Great Political Films: Fight Club w/ Helen Lewis
David talks to writer and journalist Helen Lewis about David Fincher’s Fight Club (1999), the film that launched a thousand memes. Does this tale of thwarted masculinity and corporate malfeasance cod…
00:57:41 |
Sun 29 Dec 2024
The Great Political Films: Do The Right Thing
Our political films season has reached the late 1980s with Do The Right Thing (1989), Spike Lee’s searing take on racial tension on a Brooklyn block on a boiling hot summer’s day. How does a fight ov…
00:50:21 |
Thu 26 Dec 2024
The Great Political Films: Kagemusha
Today’s great political film is Akira Kurosawa’s epic of war and deception Kagemusha (1980). Set in late sixteenth-century Japan it tells the story of a thief tasked with impersonating a warlord. Can…
00:53:52 |
Sun 22 Dec 2024
The Great Political Films: Jeanne Dielman
Today’s great political film is Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), voted the greatest film of all time in the 2022 Sight and Sound poll. A classic of femini…
00:53:09 |
Thu 19 Dec 2024
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