Marcel Dirsus is a political scientist and the author of How Tyrants Fall: And How Nations Survive. As Non-Resident Fellow at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University, Dirsus mainly works on regime instability, political violence and German foreign policy. His new book takes us into the downfall of dictators ranging from Libya's Muammar Gaddafi t ... Show More
Oct 15
How One Family Remade Britain: Thomas and Oliver Cromwell, with Miranda Malins
Thomas Cromwell helped Henry VIII break with Rome, reshape government and establish the Church of England. A century later, his distant relative Oliver Cromwell helped defeat a king, establish a republic and became Lord Protector. Both men are usually remembered as exceptional co ... Show More
57m 36s
Oct 12
Can Pigs Really Appreciate Bach? Katherine Rundell Live
Katherine Rundell has dazzled millions of readers globally with her writing on fantastical beasts. In her bestselling book The Golden Mole, she profiled some of the world’s most extraordinary endangered animals, including pangolins, wombats, lemurs and seahorses. This critically ... Show More
1h 23m
Jul 2024
#376 — How Democracies Fail
<p dir="ltr">Sam Harris and Anne Applebaum discuss the nature of modern autocracies and how democracies fail. They discuss the power of ideas, why autocracies seek to undermine democracies, cooperation among dictators, how Western financial experts and investors have enabled auto ... Show More
1h 7m
Feb 2022
71: Taking and Keeping Power: The Dictator's Handbook
"Democracies are not lucky. They do not attract civic-minded leaders by chance. Rather, they attract survival-oriented leaders who understand that, given their dependence on many essentials, they can only come to and stay in power if they figure out the right basket of public goo ... Show More
1h 59m
Jan 2019
Stephen Greenblatt on Why Tyrants Rise
Mad, bad rulers don't rise by accident. Tina talks with Harvard's Stephen Greenblatt, author of the provocative bestseller Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics, about the uniformly infantile nature of tyrants, how they manipulate popular ignorance and how they're propelled by multiple ... Show More
27m 10s
Aug 2025
#429 — The New World Order
<p dir="ltr">Sam Harris speaks with Anne Applebaum about the erosion of democracy at home and abroad. They discuss the Sudanese civil war and the outside forces involved, America's retreat from global leadership, the impacts of USAID cuts, gerrymandering, the integrity of U.S. el ... Show More
26m 52s
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/SohrabAhmari" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Sohrab Ahmari</a>, author of <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/708057/tyranny-inc-by-sohrab-ahmari/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow"><em>Tyranny, Inc.</em></a>, talks about the dic ... Show More
