Yesterday
Danielle N. Boaz, "Voodoo: The History of a Racial Slur" (Oxford UP, 2023)
Coined in the middle of the nineteenth century, the term "voodoo" has been deployed largely by people in the U.S. to refer to spiritual practices--real or imagined--among people of African descent. "Voodoo" is one way that white people have invoked their anxieties and stereotypes ... Show More
1h 2m
Jan 31
Peter Stansky, "The Socialist Patriot: George Orwell and War" (Stanford UP, 2023)
Few English writers wielded a pen so sharply as George Orwell, the quintessential political writer of the twentieth century. His literary output at once responded to and sought to influence the tumultuous times in which he lived—decades during which Europe and eventually the enti ... Show More
43m 9s
Jan 29
Swapna Kona Nayudu, "The Nehru Years: An International History of Indian Non-Alignment" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
Scholars of international relations, political thought, and India's international and diplomatic history are increasingly interested in the relevance of non-alignment in Indian foreign policy. The origins of such policies and debates can be traced back to Nehru's conceptualizatio ... Show More
28m 37s
Apr 2023
The Roots of Equity and Equality: A Conversation with Teresa Bejan
The ideas of equity and equality are all over the news, yet there seems to be little agreement on what exactly each term means. Political theorist and intellectual historian Teresa Bejan of Oriel College, Oxford discusses the origins of our notions of equality, from the Roman Emp ... Show More
1h 1m
Apr 2023
Athens: Birthplace of Democracy?
<p>When we think of democracy in the ancient Greek world, our minds often go straight to Athens, the purported birthplace of democracy. But was Athens <em>truly</em> the home of democracy? And if so, who's responsible for giving a voice to the people?</p><br><p>In this episode, T ... Show More
1h 5m
Feb 2024
Lisa Herzog, "Citizen Knowledge: Markets, Experts, and the Infrastructure of Democracy" (Oxford UP, 2023)
For better or worse, democracy and epistemology are intertwined. For one thing, politics is partly a matter of gathering, assessing, and applying information. And this can be done responsibly or incompetently. At least since Plato, a leading critique of democracy has focused on t ... Show More
1h 7m
Dec 2023
1. The Future of Democracy
This year's BBC Reith Lecturer is Ben Ansell, Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, Oxford University. He will deliver four lectures called “Our Democratic Future,” asking how we can build a politics that works for all of us with systems which are ... Show More
58m 8s
Jan 2019
Andrew Lambert, "Seapower States: Maritime Culture, Continental Empires and the Conflict That Made the Modern World" (Yale UP, 2018)
Andrew Lambert, Professor of Naval History at King’s College, London, author of eighteen books, and winner of the prestigious Anderson Medal—turns his attention in a book that historian Felipe Fernandez Armesto describes as full of ‘ambition’, ‘verve’ and at times ‘brilliance’ - ... Show More
1h 2m
Amidst increasing acrimony and political strain, many worry that democratic governance has an expiration date. To answer these concerns, Josiah Ober looks to the ancients. Here, he discusses his recent book (co-authored with Brook Manville), The Civic Bargain: How Democracies Survive (Princeton UP, 2023). How did democracies like Athens, Rome, and England ov ... Show More
<p>We have to reconstruct the foundations of our democracy, building on the past, not repudiating everything we're building on it.</p><p>Bruce Ackerman<br/><br/><a href='https://www.patreon.com/demparadox'>Access Episodes Ad-Free on Patreon</a><br/><br/><a href='https://demo ... Show More
