Foreign and domestic policy in the United States seem to have melted down. The President’s major domestic policy initiative – repeal and replace Obamacare – has failed. Infighting inside the White House is especially open and vicious. Abroad,

Ep 37 - Who’s watching us online? How are they watching? And what does this mean for our democracies?

Jul 31st, 2017 33m 29s

Digital technologies and platforms are connecting people across space and time in new and disruptive ways. Amazon is the world’s largest shopping platform. We buy books, clothes, shoes, and shortly groceries on the Amazon platform, and we do it

Ep 36 - Mark Perry: Will the Saudi-Qatar Spat Escalate Friction Between America and Iran?

Jul 24th, 2017 28m 10s

The Middle East is now principally an exporter of conflict to the rest of the world. It has lost its strategic position in world oil markets as the US has become a global exporter of oil. The world is also moving rapidly to develop renewable en

Ep 35 - Time Magazine's Joe Klein on Obama's legacy

Jul 17th, 2017 29m 27s

President Trump continues to challenge his allies as well as his adversaries. He withdrew the United States from the Paris agreement and resisted appeals from 19 other G20 leaders to reconsider. The final communique was the 19 versus 1 on clima

Ep 34 - Uri Friedman: Is American Democracy Really Under Threat?

Jul 10th, 2017 29m 5s

American democracy is under siege, or so it seems. The president consistently attacks the legitimacy of the courts and the media -- two essential pillars of a well-functioning democracy. The White House no longer holds regular press conferences

Ep 33 - Richard Reeves: Stop Pretending You’re not Rich

Jul 3rd, 2017 28m 35s

Politics across the developed world has been boiling over with anger and frustration. People are angry about the growing gap between the very rich and the poor. Inequality has been growing since the 1970s. Stagnant or dropping incomes for the b

Ep 32 - The New Class War

Jun 26th, 2017 27m 10s

We all sense that the international order that emerged at the end of the Cold War is fracturing. The United States is turning inwards, China is flexing its muscles in Asia, Britain is exiting, and Europe is preoccupied with rescuing its project

Ep 31 - The Death of Expertise

Jun 19th, 2017 28m 29s

We live in angry times. People are angry because they don’t share the prosperity and opportunities that other have. They’re cynical because they no longer believe political leaders as a class will keep their promises to fix it. They distrust au

Ep 30 - Joby Warrick, author of "Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS"

Jun 12th, 2017 27m 4s

Terrorists, acting in the name of Daesh or the Islamic State, attacked Britain three times in three months, targeting young girls and civilians on bridges and markets. Prime Minister Theresa May, her voice laced with frustration told the Britis

Ep 29 - The Driver in the Driverless Car

Jun 5th, 2017 30m 2s

Driverless cars are coming. Google already has prototypes and other companies are in hot pursuit. Experts tell us that within a decade, driverless cars will be common in our cities and on our highways. How do you feel about driverless cars? Som

Ep 28 - The Knowledge Illusion (part 2)

May 29th, 2017 32m 17s

Last week, we explored with Steven Sloman his revolutionary approach to thinking. Thinking, he tells us, is a social activity that we do with others, never alone. We are all part of a community of thinkers where we divide the work of thinking.

Ep 27 - The Knowledge Illusion (part 1)

May 22nd, 2017 27m 15s

Fake news is the big story in Europe and the United States, and that’s left many voters incapable of knowing the difference between fact and fiction. But that’s not the whole story. Even when voters are given facts that contradict their beliefs

Ep 26 - The end of the Asian century part 2

May 15th, 2017 25m 45s

Europe is in the middle of an existential crisis. The United States is struggling to find out who it is under President Donald Trump. The Middle East is caught up in its recurring violence. In the midst of all of this, many are focused on Asia,

Ep 25 - The end of the Asian century

May 8th, 2017 25m 14s

Europe is mired in a crisis about its future. The United States is led by a president that is shaking up the system in unprecedented ways. No end is in sight to the violence in the Middle East. In the midst of all this dysfunction, Asia has be

Ep 24 - Is the end of Europe in sight?

May 1st, 2017 26m 40s

The end of Europe is upon us. A Europe of peace, prosperity and democracy is falling apart. So says our guest today. He warns Europe is increasingly undemocratic and economically stagnant. It’s threatened by extremists from the left and the

Ep 23 - How populist movements emerge and gather strength

Apr 24th, 2017 26m 36s

The Trump administration, elected on a wave of populism, has moved at a rapid fire pace to disrupt the global order. Most controversial has been its repeated attempts to ban entry into the United States by travellers from six countries in the M

Ep 22 - Is Trump a fascist?

Apr 17th, 2017 27m 2s

The wave of populism that has swept through the United States and Europe has been a shock to many who did not foresee the impending disruption to doing politics as well. Perhaps it should not have been a surprise. Global financial crises, the H

Ep 21 - The Resilience of Corruption

Apr 10th, 2017 25m 52s

Corruption is routinely the focus of front page stories in mature democracies as well as in younger democracies. Astonishing stories come to light about bribery and payoffs in government and embezzlement and inappropriate enrichment in the priv

Ep 20 - Encounters with the Islamic State

Apr 3rd, 2017 28m 58s

The Islamic State is unique among militant Islamic movements in recent history. Born in the chaos that followed the American invasion of Iraq, its leaders moved to Syria and then stormed back, eradicated the border between Syria and Iraq, and d

Ep 19 - Architecture as a disruptive force

Mar 27th, 2017 26m 49s

World trade is declining. President Trump is questioning long-standing strategic alliances that have lasted for more than 60 years. Populist leaders are preparing for elections that will soon be held in France and Germany, hoping to build on th

Episode 18 - Free Speech

Mar 20th, 2017 31m 6s

Never in human history has there been such opportunity for freedom of expression, one of the core freedoms at the centre of our liberal democracy. If we have Internet access, any one of us can publish almost anything we like and potentially rea

Episode 17 - Blood Year: The unraveling of Western Counterterrorism

Mar 13th, 2017 24m 34s

Insurgencies have been around for thousands of years, going back to at least Roman times. A look at history tells us that, far more often than not, insurgents have succeeded in wearing down a far stronger adversary. So what makes a counter-insu

Episode 16 - The Fix: How Nations Survive and Thrive in a World in Decline

Mar 6th, 2017 28m 36s

A wave of populism has swept through Britain and the United States, and is now sweeping through Europe. There are four critical elections in Europe this year. Will liberal democracy prevail in Europe? Will the centre hold? US President Donald T

Episode 15 - Backing into World War III

Feb 27th, 2017 27m

The Trump administration enters the White House as two great powers – Russia and China – are flexing their muscles. Russia is still smarting from the humiliation of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and, under President Putin, is determined t

Episode 14 - Ordinary Virtues

Feb 20th, 2017 28m 17s

Much of what we have taken for granted for the last half century is now in question as populist movements sweep through the United States and Europe. Worried liberals are struggling to explain the appeal of populism, protectionism, and ethnic n