Why are younger voters around the world turning their back on democracy in favour of strongman leaders who are prepared to defy parliaments?

In a year when more than two billion people in 50 countries will go to the polls – the biggest global election year in history – Amol and Nick talk to Lord Gus O’Donnell, the former head of the civil service who has been travelling the world looking for ways of restoring trust in democracy.

And they also hear from Ravish Kumar, a news anchor in India who fell foul of Narendra Modi’s government – with career-threatening consequences.

Plus – just what role did Nick play in one of the most consequential press conferences of the former coalition government?

Episodes of The Today Podcast land every Thursday and watch out for bonus episodes. Subscribe on BBC Sounds to get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories of the week, with insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme.

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The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson, both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the UK’s most influential radio news programme. Amol was the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University Challenge. Nick has presented the Today programme since 2015, he was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also previously worked as ITV’s political editor.

The senior producer is Tom Smithard, the producer is Joshua Tindall. Technical production from Jake Graysmark. The editors are Jonathan Aspinwall and Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.