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Past Present Future

by David Runciman

Today: #173 in History on our combined chart.

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DateApple Podcasts
Oct 3#164

About the show

Past Present Future is a bi-weekly History of Ideas podcast with David Runciman, host and creator of Talking Politics, exploring the history of ideas from politics to philosophy, culture to technology. David talks to historians, novelists, scientists and many others about where the most interesting ideas come from, what they mean, and why they matter. Ideas from the past, questions about the present, shaping the future. New episodes every Wednesday and Sunday.

Latest episodes

  • An Ageing World: The Problem of Gerontocracy

    September 30, 2026 · 59 min

    In today’s episode for our series about living in ageing societies, David talks to historian and legal scholar Samuel Moyn about the problem of gerontocracy, aka the rule of the old. Why do older generations now have so much wealth and so…

  • An Ageing World: The Meaning of Death

    September 27, 2026 · 58 min

    In today’s episode of our series about the significance of longer human lives David talks to the doctor and writer Richard Coker about the meaning of the event that comes for all of us in the end: death. Are we finding it harder to talk…

  • An Ageing World: Lifespan vs Healthspan

    September 23, 2026 · 56 min

    To start our new series about what it means to live in a world of ageing populations, David talks to geneticist Adam Rutherford about the benefits and pitfalls of increasing longevity. Are GLP-1s – drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro…

  • The Lives of the Philosophers: Iris Murdoch

    September 20, 2026 · 1 hr 5 min

    Today is the final episode in our series about the relationship between twentieth-century biography and philosophy. David talks to Nikhil Krishnan about the life and thought of Iris Murdoch, a deeply philosophical novelist and a fully…

  • The Lives of the Philosophers: Hannah Arendt

    September 16, 2026 · 54 min

    In today’s episode about the intersection between twentieth century philosophy and biography David talks to the historian and literary critic Lyndsey Stonebridge about the life and thought of Hannah Arendt. How did Arendt, who was Jewish…

  • The Lives of the Philosophers: Elizabeth Anscombe

    September 13, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min

    Today’s episode in our series about twentieth-century philosophy and biography explores the life and thought of Elizabeth Anscombe (G. E. M. Anscombe), a remarkable and remarkably uncompromising philosopher. David talks to Nikhil Krishnan…

  • Now & Then with Robert Saunders: Gladstone vs Disraeli Part 2 (Burnham vs Badenoch)

    September 9, 2026 · 55 min

    In the second part of David’s conversation with historian Robert Saunders about the impact of the Bulgarian crisis of 1876 on the course of British politics, they discuss how Gladstone used the controversy to plot his way back to power…

  • Now & Then with Robert Saunders: Gladstone vs Disraeli – The Bulgarian Horrors

    September 6, 2026 · 57 min

    In our occasional series with historian Robert Saunders about significant political anniversaries, we remember the appearance of a pamphlet exactly 150 years ago that changed the course of British politics. On 6th September 1876 William…