Best D&HR Media Ltd Podcasts (2025)

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Politics on Trial: Aaron Burr vs the Constitution 56:25

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1d ago56:25

56:25

For today’s epic political trial, David talks to American historian and PPF regular Gary Gerstle about the treason trial of Aaron Burr in 1807. Why was Burr not put on trial for killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel? Was Burr really planning to invade Mexico or was it a set-up? Why was President Thomas Jefferson so determined to bring Burr down? Why…

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Politics on Trial: Louis XVI vs the People 1:00:29

5d ago1:00:29

1:00:29

Today’s epoch-making political trial concerns the interrogation, conviction and execution of Louis XVI at the heart of the French Revolution in 1792-3. For many at the time and since this event had powerful echoes of the trial and execution of Charles I - but in fact the trial of Louis was very different in almost every way. Why and how did Louis c…

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Politics on Trial: Warren Hastings vs the British Empire 1:04:14

10d ago1:04:14

1:04:14

To start our new instalment of episodes about the most consequential political trials in history David explores the trial of the eighteenth century: the impeachment of Warren Hastings that ran in the British parliament from 1788-95. Hastings had been Governor-General of Bengal, controlling much of India for Britain and for the East India Company an…

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The History of Bad Ideas: Identity 1:02:35

13d ago1:02:35

1:02:35

For the final episode in our current series on the history of bad ideas, David talks to philosopher Alexander Douglas about the damage that can be done by the idea of identity. Why is the search for a distinctive personal identity such a futile quest? How does it lead to an identity politics of exclusion and violence? What can we learn from the phi…

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The History of Bad Ideas: Behaviourism 1:05:17

17d ago1:05:17

1:05:17

In today’s episode of the history of bad ideas, David talks to political philosopher Alan Finlayson about behaviourism, a theory of psychology that has penetrated to the heart of politics. How did we get from Pavlov’s Dog to a prescription for a better society? What is the relationship between behavioural utopianism and contemporary economics? How …

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The History of Bad Ideas: Polycrisis 1:00:10

20d ago1:00:10

1:00:10

Today’s bad idea is one with a short history but a big reach: the term polycrisis only came into being at the end of the last century but now it seems to be everywhere. David talks to historian Gary Gerstle about how this idea was originally conceived, what its current vogue says about the times in which we live and whether this really is a polycri…

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The History of Bad Ideas: Value-Free Tech 1:02:03

24d ago1:02:03

1:02:03

For today’s episode in the history of bad ideas David talks to philosopher Shannon Vallor about the myth that technology can be value free. It’s easy to see why Silicon Valley is so keen on the idea that it’s never the fault of the tech, only of the people who use it. But why do we let them get away with it? Where did this idea come from? How has i…

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The History of Bad Ideas: Monopoly 58:11

27d ago58:11

58:11

For today’s episode in the history of bad ideas David talks to economic historian Marc Palen about monopoly, an idea that has always had its defenders as well as its fierce critics. Why do monopolies arise even in supposedly competitive economies? How did the anti-monopoly movement of Henry George in the late-19th century argue that the monopolists…

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The History of Bad Ideas: Meritocracy 1:02:59

1M ago1:02:59

1:02:59

Today’s bad idea is one that started out as satire and ended as a political slogan. David talks to historian of ideas Ben Jackson about meritocracy and its origins in Michael Young’s book The Rise of the Meritocracy published in 1958. Young foresaw a populist revolt against the meritocratic elite in the year 2034. Was his vision prophetic? Why did …

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The History of Bad Ideas: Charisma 1:00:41

1M ago1:00:41

1:00:41

For today’s episode in the history of bad ideas David talks to cultural historian Tom Wright about charisma, a term that often feels essential for understanding modern politics but which ends up obscuring far more than it explains. How did an old idea from Christian theology get used to explain the hold that political leaders have over crowds? Why …

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The History of Bad Ideas: The Decisive Battle 1:01:07

1M ago1:01:07

1:01:07

In today’s episode about the power of bad ideas, David talks to historian and podcaster Dan Snow about the myth that wars are settled on the battlefield. Why are we so drawn to the idea of the decisive military showdown? Is Napoleon to blame? What are the forces that actually settle military conflicts? Plus: were Abba really so wrong that Waterloo …

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The History of Bad Ideas: Genius 57:07

1M ago57:07

57:07

Today’s bad idea is ‘genius’, the label that has enabled all sorts of terrible behaviour through the ages. Writer and broadcaster Helen Lewis explains how and why the idea of genius gets misapplied to people and things that just aren’t. Why are geniuses meant to be tortured? Why are individual geniuses prized over the collaborations that lie behind…

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The History of Bad Ideas: Austerity 59:36

2M ago59:36

59:36

For the first episode in our new series about how bad ideas take hold, David talks to economist Mark Blyth about austerity, the cost-cutting idea that refuses to die. Why is it an article of faith that states need periodic purging to stop them getting too greedy? Why does this so often happen at times when it does most harm, from the 1930s to the f…

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Politics on Trial: Charles I vs Parliament 1:03:40

2M ago1:03:40

1:03:40

Today’s political trial is perhaps the most consequential in English history: the trial and execution of King Charles I for treason in January 1649. How could a king commit treason when treason was a crime against the king? How could a court try a king when a king has no peers? How could anyone claim to speak for the people after a civil war when s…

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Politics on Trial: Galileo vs the Inquisition 1:05:43

2M ago1:05:43

1:05:43

Today’s trial is one of the most notorious in history but also one of the most misremembered. Galileo’s epic confrontation with the Catholic Church over the question of whether the earth moves round the sun – culminating with his interrogation and condemnation in Rome in 1633 – was not just a matter of truth vs ignorance or science vs superstition.…

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50th Anniversary Special: The 1975 European Referendum w/Robert Saunders 1:01:17

2M ago1:01:17

1:01:17

Today’s episode is about a pivotal event in British history that took place exactly 50 years ago: the 1975 referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Community. David talks to historian Robert Saunders about why it was so different in so many ways from the Brexit referendum in 2016. Why in 1975 were Labour and the SNP the Eurosceptic partie…

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Politics on Trial: Mary Queen of Scots vs the Secret State 55:42

2M ago55:42

55:42

In today’s episode an extraordinary political trial that culminated in the execution of one queen at the behest of another: Mary Queen of Scots, convicted of treason in 1586 and beheaded in 1587. But who really wanted her dead, Queen Elizabeth or Elizabeth’s powerful political servants? Why did Mary demand to be tried before parliament rather than …

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Politics on Trial: Thomas More vs the King 58:14

2M ago58:14

58:14

In today’s episode another trial that forms the basis for great drama: the case of Thomas More, tried and executed in 1535, events dramatised by Robert Bolt in A Man for All Seasons and Hilary Mantel in Wolf Hall. How did More try to argue that silence was no evidence of treason? Why was his defence so legalistic? Was he really ‘the Socrates of Eng…

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Politics on Trial: Joan of Arc vs the Church 1:01:01

2M ago1:01:01

1:01:01

Today’s political trial took place in 1431 though it was still being re-litigated right through to the twentieth century: the case of Joan of Arc, charged with heresy by the Church and burned at the stake. Why was a political prisoner tried in an ecclesiastical court? Why were her interrogators so obsessed by her choice in clothes? How did Joan see…

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Politics on Trial: Socrates vs Democracy 54:57

2M ago54:57

54:57

The first political trial in our new series is the one that set the template for all the others: the trial of Socrates in Athens in 399 BCE, which ended with a death sentence for the philosopher and a permanent stain on the reputation of Athenian democracy. Why, after a lifetime of philosophy, was Socrates finally prosecuted at the age of 70? Was t…

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Politics on Trial: A History of Lawfare 52:06

2M ago52:06

52:06

To introduce our new series about historic political trials – from Socrates to Marine Le Pen – David explores what makes political confrontations in a court of law so fascinating and so revealing. Why do even the worst of dictators still want to play by the rules? What happens when realpolitik and legal principles collide? How does the political sy…

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Ideas of Globalisation: What’s Gone Wrong? w/Dani Rodrik 54:05

3M ago54:05

54:05

For the final episode in this series David talks to the leading economist Dani Rodrik about the case he made in the early 2000s that globalisation was unsustainable in its current form. How does he think this prediction has been borne out? What forms of globalisation might work in the 21st century? Where are the strengths and weaknesses of the exis…

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Ideas of Globalisation: The Crisis of the 1970s (and Trump!) 1:04:18

3M ago1:04:18

1:04:18

David talks to historian Meg Jacobs about how the 1970s changed everything for America’s understanding of its place in the global economy. How did first the Nixon Shock and then the Oil Shock reshape American politics? Why did America’s politicians respond to these shocks not with tariffs or sabre-rattling but with calls to national self-sacrifice?…

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Ideas of Globalisation: Central Banks vs the People (and Trump!) 56:53

3M ago56:53

56:53

Today David talks to political and economic theorist Leah Downey about the role that central banks in general – and the Federal Reserve in particular – have played in the story of globalisation. How has the Fed tried to reconcile its obligations to American democracy with its obligations to the global order? Is the Eurodollar a token of American st…

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Ideas of Globalisation: Hoover and Smoot-Hawley (and Trump!) 1:02:00

3M ago1:02:00

1:02:00

David talks to historian Gary Gerstle about the last time the Republican party got caught up in a tariffs disaster and how it changed American politics. The Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930 brought tariffs back and helped bring down both the Republican Party and the global economy. Why didn’t Hoover stop it? What did the fiasco reveal about the limits of p…

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Ideas of Globalisation: Chamberlain and the Tariff Wars (and Trump!) 58:06

3M ago58:06

58:06

Today we explore the explosive fight over tariffs that took place in Britain in the first decade of the twentieth century. David talks to historian Robert Saunders about how Joseph Chamberlain made tariff reform a great popular cause and how it nearly destroyed his party. Are there parallels with Trump’s tariff wars today? Yes! Are there lessons fo…

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Ideas of Globalisation: Trade, Race and Empire (and Trump!) 1:00:08

3M ago1:00:08

1:00:08

We start a new mini-series on the history of ideas of globalisation by exploring how arguments from 150 years ago foreshadow what’s happening with Trump today. David talks to economic historian Marc Palen about the nineteenth-century fight between economic nationalists and the champions of an open economy. Was free trade for everyone or just for wh…

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: Lenin and Trotsky 56:24

3M ago56:24

56:24

To conclude this part of our revolutionary ideas series, we explore the overlapping lives and thinking of two emblematic twentieth-century revolutionaries: Lenin and Trotsky. David talks to historian of Russia Edward Acton about what inspired them, what connected them and what divided them. How were they radicalised? How did they interpret the fail…

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PPF Live Special: Churchill – The Politician With Nine Lives w/Robert Saunders 1:03:37

3M ago1:03:37

1:03:37

Today’s episode is the second of our two recent live recordings of PPF, this one in front of an audience at the Bath Curious Minds Festival. David talks to historian Robert Saunders about the life of Winston Churchill and all its twists and turns of fortune: from disgrace in WWI, economic disaster in the 1920s, wilderness in the 1930s, through to r…

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: The Rite of Spring w/Dominic Dromgoole 46:53

3M ago46:53

46:53

Our third Parisian revolution is another explosive night in the theatre, this time in the world of dance. David talks to Dominic Dromgoole about Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, which provoked absolute outrage when it premiered in 1913. Is that what its impresario Diaghilev wanted? How did Nijinsky cope? Did the response foreshadow the trauma to co…

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: Ubu Roi w/Dominic Dromgoole 46:01

4M ago46:01

46:01

Today’s Parisian revolution is a theatrical performance that produced a riot. David talks to theatre director Dominic Dromgoole about Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi (1896), which only ran for a couple of nights but left an indelible mark on the culture of the age and has resonated ever since. Why did a play effectively written by children provoke such a st…

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: Salon Des Refusés w/Dominic Dromgoole 42:44

4M ago42:44

42:44

Today’s episode is the first of three this week with the theatre director and writer Dominic Dromgoole, exploring revolutionary events in the world of art and theatre, starting with the opening of the Salon des Refusés in Paris in May 1863. How did the Emperor Napoleon end up sponsoring such a counter-cultural event? Why did it provoke such public …

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: Marx and the Paris Commune 56:24

4M ago56:24

56:24

Today the first of four episodes about Parisian revolutions. We start with the definitive nineteenth-century revolutionary and his definitive revolution: David talks to historian Bruno Leipold about why Karl Marx thought the Paris Commune in 1871 was the model of a workers' uprising and provided a vision of the socialist future. How had the Communa…

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: Free Speech 1:03:38

4M ago1:03:38

1:03:38

Today’s revolutionary idea is one with a long history, not all of it revolutionary: David talks to the historian Fara Dabhoiwala about the idea of free speech. When did free speech first get articulated as a fundamental right? How has that right been used and abused, from the eighteenth century to the present? And what changed in the history of the…

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PPF Live Film Special: Network w/Helen Lewis 1:06:00

4M ago1:06:00

1:06:00

We take a brief break from revolutionary ideas for a special live episode of PPF recorded in front of an audience at the Regent Street Cinema in London. David talks to writer and journalist Helen Lewis about Network (1976), a film still best remembered for its catchphrase: ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Just how prophetic…

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: Darwin w/Adam Rutherford 54:38

4M ago54:38

54:38

David talks to geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford about the book that fundamentally altered our understanding of just about everything: Darwin’s On The Origin of Species (1859). What made the idea of natural selection so different from the theories of evolution that preceded it? How did Darwin arrive at it? What changed when he published…

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: The Taiping Revolution 1:06:48

4M ago1:06:48

1:06:48

Today’s revolutionary ideas come from China: David talks to historian Julia Lovell about the Taiping Revolution, another massive mid-19th-century upheaval that nearly overturned the established order. How did Christianity inspire an uprising against the Qing dynasty? Was it a revolution or a civil war? What was the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom? And whe…

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: 1848: The Radical Revolution w/Chris Clark 53:30

4M ago53:30

53:30

In our second of three episodes on the revolutions that swept through Europe in 1848 David and Chris Clark explore the forces demanding radical change. What was ‘the Social Question’ and who was asking it? Where did the violence that erupted in the summer of 1848 come from? What, if anything did it achieve? And who paid the price? Out tomorrow: a f…

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: 1848: The Liberal Revolution w/Chris Clark 56:55

4M ago56:55

56:55

In the first of three episodes about the revolutions that swept through Europe in 1848 David is joined by historian Chris Clark to explore the ideas behind this continental upheaval. We start with the ‘Liberal Revolution’: Who were the liberals and what had turned them into revolutionaries? How did the original French Revolution overshadow their ho…

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: The Bayesian Revolution w/David Spiegelhalter 1:01:36

5M ago1:01:36

1:01:36

Today’s revolutionary idea is something a bit different: David talks to statistician David Spiegelhalter about how an eighteenth-century theory of probability emerged from relative obscurity in the twentieth century to reconfigure our understanding of the relationship between past, present and future. What was Thomas Bayes’s original idea about doi…

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: Slave Uprising: The Haitian Revolution 58:01

5M ago58:01

58:01

Today’s episode is about a very different revolution from any we’ve discussed so far: David talks to historian Hank Gonzalez about the Haitian Revolution, which for the first time in history saw a slave revolt result in an independent free state. How did the Haitian Revolution intersect with the American and French Revolutions that preceded it? Why…

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: French Revolution 3: Paine 59:25

5M ago59:25

59:25

For our third episode on the ideas behind the French Revolution, David talks to Richard Whatmore about the ubiquitous Thomas Paine, the Englishman who championed revolutionary politics around the world. How did Paine come to see France as the locus of all his revolutionary hopes? How were those hopes ultimately disappointed? And what happened to Pa…

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: French Revolution 2: Robespierre 54:35

5M ago54:35

54:35

For our second episode on the people and ideas behind the French Revolution David talks to historian and biographer Ruth Scurr about the man who came to embody the revolution in all its radicalism and all its terror: Maximilien Robespierre. Who was he and how did he rise so fast once the upheaval was underway? How did he harness the power of the Ja…

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: French Revolution 1: Sieyès 58:35

5M ago58:35

58:35

In the first of three episodes about the people and ideas behind the French Revolution, David talks to Lucia Rubinelli about the man who helped kickstart it all: the Abbé Sieyès. How did an obscure cleric galvanise a nation? What did he mean by the Third Estate and why did he think it was everything? What went wrong with his idea of a new constitut…

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: American Revolution 2: The Constitution 1:04:53

5M ago1:04:53

1:04:53

In the second of our two episodes about the American Revolution David talks to historian Eric Nelson about the ideas that shaped the US Constitution. Was the office of President a victory for the people who still wanted a king or for those who never wanted one again? What was old and what was new about the idea of the separation of powers? What rea…

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: American Revolution 1: The Declaration of Independence 1:01:02

5M ago1:01:02

1:01:02

Today it’s the first of two episodes about one of the most significant revolutions of all: the American Revolution. David talks to historian Eric Nelson about the ideas behind America’s Declaration of Independence in 1776. How did a fight with the British parliament become a repudiation of the British king? What turned royalists into republicans? W…

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: The Industrial Revolution 54:23

5M ago54:23

54:23

Today’s episode is about a revolution that started 250 years ago and is still going on (in the form of the digital revolution): the Industrial Revolution. David talks to economic historian Alexis Litvine about how new ways of making things changed human understanding of the world around us. Did the Industrial Revolution invent the idea of progress?…

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: English Revolution 2: 1688 57:03

5M ago57:03

57:03

In the second of our episodes with historian Clare Jackson on the English revolutions of the 17th century we discuss the one that usually gets called ‘Glorious’: the revolution of 1688. Was it a revolution or was it an invasion? What rights did parliament win and what powers did it acquire? Was this the beginning of the modern military state? And d…

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: English Revolution 1: Civil War 57:42

6M ago57:42

57:42

Today’s episode in our history of revolutionary ideas is about the event that is sometimes – but not always – called the English Revolution: the Civil War of the 1640s and the short-lived republic that followed. David talks to historian Clare Jackson about whether this really was a revolution and about the thinking that inspired it. What was old, w…

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The History of Revolutionary Ideas: The Scientific Revolution 1:06:40

6M ago1:06:40

1:06:40

Today’s episode is about a revolution that took centuries to happen if it ever really happened at all: The Scientific Revolution. David talks to historian of science Simon Schaffer about what changed in human understanding – and what didn’t – in the age of Galileo and Newton. Was the new science a revolution of ideas or of practices? What did it me…