Past Present Future

Can Universities Survive? The Great Expansion

In today’s episode for our series about the plight facing universities David talks to political theorist Alan Finlayson about what’s happened to higher education in the UK since 1945. It is a story of...

2026-10-25

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Can Universities Survive? The Thousand-Year Story Part 2

Today’s episode is the second part of David's conversation with historian William Whyte about how universities have survived for nearly a thousand years and whether they can last much longer. How did ...

2026-10-21

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Can Universities Survive? The Thousand-Year Story

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 nea...

2026-10-18

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The History of Transhumanism: Silicon Valley

Today’s episode in our series about transhumanism and its astonishing influence looks at how it helped build Silicon Valley. David talks to Duncan Bell about what happened when California became the c...

2026-10-14

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The History of Transhumanism: New Horizons

In part two of our series about how transhumanism shaped our world, David talks to Duncan Bell about what happened when sci fi dreams started to become reality. What changed when space travel turned f...

2026-10-11

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The History of Transhumanism: Origins

Today it’s the first episode in a new series about the weird and wonderful world of transhumanism: the idea that human beings can be transformed by technology and machines. David talks to historian of...

2026-10-07

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An Ageing World: Simone de Beauvoir on Old Age

For the final episode in our series on living in an ageing world David talks to Lyndsey Stonebridge about one of the most interesting and challenging of all writers on the subject of old age – Simone ...

2026-10-04

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An Ageing World: The Problem of Gerontocracy

In today’s episode for our series about living in ageing societies, David talks to historian and legal scholar Samuel Moyn about the problem of gerontocracy, aka the rule of the old. Why do older gene...

2026-09-30

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An Ageing World: The Meaning of Death

In today’s episode of our series about the significance of longer human lives David talks to the doctor and writer Richard Coker about the meaning of the event that comes for all of us in the end: dea...

2026-09-27

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An Ageing World: Lifespan vs Healthspan

To start our new series about what it means to live in a world of ageing populations, David talks to geneticist Adam Rutherford about the benefits and pitfalls of increasing longevity. Are GLP-1s – dr...

2026-09-23

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The Lives of the Philosophers: Iris Murdoch

Today is the final episode in our series about the relationship between twentieth-century biography and philosophy. David talks to Nikhil Krishnan about the life and thought of Iris Murdoch, a deeply ...

2026-09-20

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The Lives of the Philosophers: Hannah Arendt

In today’s episode about the intersection between twentieth century philosophy and biography David talks to the historian and literary critic Lyndsey Stonebridge about the life and thought of Hannah A...

2026-09-16

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The Lives of the Philosophers: Elizabeth Anscombe

Today’s episode in our series about twentieth-century philosophy and biography explores the life and thought of Elizabeth Anscombe (G. E. M. Anscombe), a remarkable and remarkably uncompromising philo...

2026-09-13

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Now & Then with Robert Saunders: Gladstone vs Disraeli Part 2 (Burnham vs Badenoch)

In the second part of David’s conversation with historian Robert Saunders about the impact of the Bulgarian crisis of 1876 on the course of British politics, they discuss how Gladstone used the contro...

2026-09-09

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Now & Then with Robert Saunders: Gladstone vs Disraeli – The Bulgarian Horrors

In our occasional series with historian Robert Saunders about significant political anniversaries, we remember the appearance of a pamphlet exactly 150 years ago that changed the course of British pol...

2026-09-06

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The Lives of the Philosophers: Jean-Paul Sartre

In today’s episode exploring how twentieth-century philosophy and biography intersect David talks to philosopher and biographer Kate Kirkpatrick about Jean-Paul Sartre, a thinker whose life has been a...

2026-09-02

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The Lives of the Philosophers: J. L. Austin

David talks to philosopher and author Nikhil Krishnan about the life and times of a little known but highly influential twentieth-century philosopher: J. L. Austin, who believed that the deepest truth...

2026-08-30

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The Lives of the Philosophers: Camus

In our series about how twentieth-century philosophy and biography intersect, David talks to philosopher Alex Carter about the life of Albert Camus, novelist, playwright, journalist, celebrity and pub...

2026-08-26

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The Lives of the Philosophers: Simone Weil

The second life we explore in our series about the twentieth-century philosophers could not be more different from the first: David talks to philosopher Alex Carter about Simone Weil, who died aged ju...

2026-08-23

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The Lives of the Philosophers: A. J. Ayer

Today we begin a new series exploring twentieth-century philosophy through the lives of the people behind the ideas. First up David talks to philosopher Nikhil Krishnan about A. J. Ayer, the man who h...

2026-08-19

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Past Present Future

Episodes (352 episodes)

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