By the middle of the twentieth century, many liberals looked glumly at the world modernity had brought about, with its devastating wars, rising totalitarianism, and permanent nuclear terror. They concluded that, far from offering a solution to these problems, the ideals of the Enlightenment, including emancipation and equality, had instead created them. The ... Show More
Today
Joe Greenwood-Hau," Capital, Privilege and Political Participation" (Liverpool UP, 2025)
Who gets involved in politics? In Capital, Privilege and Political Participation (Liverpool UP, 2025) Joe Greenwood-Hau a Lecturer in the John Smith Centre at the University of Glasgow, examines the dynamics of who participates, who is excluded and the reasons why. Drawing on a ... Show More
45m 23s
Yesterday
Nina Wilén, "Securitizing the Sahel: Analyzing External Interventions and Their Consequences" (Oxford UP, 2025)
The Sahel has become a focal point of international security interventions, with external actors providing extensive security force assistance (SFA) to local military, police, and paramilitary forces. Securitizing the Sahel: Analyzing External Interventions and Their Consequences ... Show More
52m 1s
Nov 23
Democracy and Freedom: The Role of Philanthropy and Education
This week, we feature an episode with Dr. Alvaro Salas-Castro, President and CEO of the Reynolds Foundation, and Founder and Chairman of the Democracy Lab Foundation, which fosters civic innovation. We discuss the current state of the freedom and democracy movement, how philanthr ... Show More
44m 50s
Sep 2023
What the Cold War Did to Liberalism (w/ Samuel Moyn)
<p>In his provocative new book, <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300266214/liberalism-against-itself/"><i>Liberalism Against Itself</i></a>, historian Samuel Moyn revisits the work of five key Cold War thinkers—Judith Shklar, Isaiah Berlin, Karl Popper, Gertrude Himme ... Show More
1h 11m
Nov 2020
Adam Kotsko, "Neoliberalism's Demons: On the Political Theology of Late Capital" (Stanford UP, 2018)
It’s hard to avoid conversations about ‘neoliberalism’ these days. The meaning of the term—indeed its very existence—is hotly contested. Adam Kotsko argues in Neoliberalism’s Demons: On the Political Theology of Late Capital (Stanford University Press, 2018) that self-denial is p ... Show More
1h 18m
Sep 2023
Matthew McManus, "The Political Right and Equality: Turning Back the Tide of Egalitarian Modernity" (Routledge, 2023)
McManus presents an intellectual history of the conservative and reactionary tradition, stretching from Aristotle and Filmer to Alexander Dugin and Patrick Deneen.
Providing a comprehensive critical genealogy of the intellectual political right, McManus traces its core to a nosta ... Show More
30m 45s
Jan 2023
Michael Joseph Roberto, "The Coming of the American Behemoth: The Origins of Fascism in the United States, 1920-1940" (Monthly Review Press, 2018)
The election of Donald Trump in 2016 shocked and appalled a number of people, forcing a critical reevaluation of what was possible, and what we ought to be vigilant about. A debate soon emerged about whether Trump represented the possibility of fascism in the United States. This ... Show More
1h 29m
Mar 2023
Toby Green and Thomas Fazi, "The Covid Consensus: The Global Assault on Democracy and the Poor—A Critique from the Left" (Hurst, 2023)
During the first months of the pandemic, governments worldwide agreed that ‘following the science’ with hard lockdowns and vaccine mandates was the best way to preserve life. But evidence is mounting that ‘the science’ was all politics and time reveals the horrific human and econ ... Show More
1h 12m
Dec 2023
Vikash Yadav - Liberalism's Last Man
"What about our system of liberal meritocratic capitalism is good and useful? What about it is worth preserving, expanding and fixing, so that we can be prepared for the challenges that are coming?" Professor Vikash Yadav joins Cole to discuss his book, "Liberalism's Last Man". T ... Show More
1h 21m
Aug 2023
Noam Chomsky: Lover of linguistics, the USA... not so much
OK, so we're finally getting around to taking a chunk out of the prodigious, prolific, and venerable Noam Chomsky. Linguist, cognitive scientist, media theorist, political activist and cultural commentator, Chomsky is a doyen of the Real Left™. By which we mean, of course, those ... Show More
3h 22m