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 Great Political Films: The Candidate w/Chris Smith
Today’s episode is a conversation between David and the former politician Chris Smith (long-time MP and Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in Tony Blair’s first government) about The Can…
00:57:54 |
Sun 15 Dec 2024
The Great Political Films: Z
We resume our series on the great political films with Costa-Gavras’s Z (1969), the quintessential late 60s movie about assassination, conspiracy, street politics and police brutality. How could a fi…
00:59:49 |
Thu 12 Dec 2024
The History of Bad Ideas: Televised Leadership Debates
To finish this series of bad ideas, David tries to persuade Gary Gerstle of the futility of televised leadership debates. From Nixon vs Kennedy to Harris vs Trump, do the voters really learn anything…
00:58:54 |
Sun 08 Dec 2024
The History of Bad Ideas: Party Members Choosing Leaders
For our penultimate bad idea in this series, David talks to Robert Saunders about what’s gone wrong with British politics since party members got to decide who leads the party – and in some cases who…
00:55:42 |
Thu 05 Dec 2024
The History of Bad Ideas: Steady State Theory
Today’s bad idea is a theory of the universe: David talks to astrophysicist Chris Lintott about Steady State Theory, the rival cosmological model to the Big Bang, which held its own for a while in th…
00:59:37 |
Sun 01 Dec 2024
The History of Bad Ideas: The End of History
Today’s bad idea concerns history itself: David talks to world historian Ayse Zarakol about the temptations and the pitfalls of the idea of The End of History. Francis Fukuyama popularised the phrase…
00:56:44 |
Thu 28 Nov 2024
The History of Bad Ideas: Modernisation!
For today’s bad idea David talks to political philosopher Alan Finlayson about what goes wrong when politicians get their hands on the concept of modernisation. Why does it leave them so in thrall to…
00:57:53 |
Sun 24 Nov 2024
The History of Bad Ideas: The Marketplace of Ideas
Today’s bad idea is about how ideas get adopted, argued over and rejected: David talks to political philosopher Alan Finlayson about what’s wrong with seeing this as a competitive marketplace. From S…
01:00:38 |
Thu 21 Nov 2024
The History of Bad Ideas: Nobel Prizes
For our latest bad idea with an interesting history David talks to the geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford about what’s wrong with Nobel Prizes. Why do we revere the winners of the science …
00:55:25 |
Sun 17 Nov 2024
The History of Bad Ideas: The Silent Majority
To kick off our new series on the history of bad ideas David talks to historian Sophie Scott-Brown about the idea of ‘the silent majority’, beloved by American presidents from Nixon to Trump. Where d…
00:57:08 |
Thu 14 Nov 2024
American Elections: 2024: The Meaning of Trump’s Triumph
For the final (extended) episode in our American Elections series David talks to Gary Gerstle about the historical significance of Donald Trump’s decisive victory this week. Was this election and its…
01:23:42 |
Sat 09 Nov 2024
The Great Political Films: The Battle of Algiers
For the last episode in this season of great political films David explores Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers (1966), which changed the face of political movie-making forever. Filmed to look l…
00:56:39 |
Thu 07 Nov 2024
The Great Political Films: Dr Strangelove & Fail Safe w/ Jill Lepore
This episode is about two great films on the same dark theme: David talks to American historian Jill Lepore about Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove and Sidney Lumet’s Fail Safe, which appeared within …
00:53:06 |
Sun 03 Nov 2024
The Great Political Films: The Leopard w/ Lucia Rubinelli
For today’s great political film David discusses Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard (1963) with the Italian historian of ideas Lucia Rubinelli. How did a communist aristocrat from Milan come to make a fi…
00:56:09 |
Thu 31 Oct 2024
The Great Political Films: The Manchurian Candidate
Today’s great political film is John Frankenheimer’s masterpiece of Cold War paranoia The Manchurian Candidate (1962), which came out the week of the Cuban Missile Crisis. It’s a 1960s movie about 19…
01:02:30 |
Sun 27 Oct 2024
The Great Political Films: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
In today’s episode David discusses Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), a great patriotic anti-war film made in the depths of WWII. Why did Churchill wa…
00:53:12 |
Thu 24 Oct 2024
The Great Political Films: Citizen Kane
Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941) is many people’s favourite film of all time, including Donald Trump’s. Why does Trump love it so? What does he get right and what does he get wrong about the trajec…
00:55:17 |
Sun 20 Oct 2024
The Great Political Films: Mr Smith Goes to Washington
Today’s great political film is Frank Capra’s Mr Smith Goes to Washington (1939), a much-loved tale of the little guy taking on the corrupt establishment. But there’s far more to it than that, includ…
00:55:47 |
Thu 17 Oct 2024
The Great Political Films: La Grande Illusion
For the first episode in our new series David explores Jean Renoir’s La Grande Illusion (1937), a great anti-war film that is also a melancholy meditation on friendship between enemies, love across b…
00:53:21 |
Sun 13 Oct 2024
Michael Lewis on Sam Bankman-Fried and Effective Altruism
David talks to author Michael Lewis about SBF and EA: about the man he got to know before, during and after his spectacular fall and about the philosophy with which he was associated. What did Sam Ba…
00:59:22 |
Thu 10 Oct 2024
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