History

Past Present Future

by David Runciman

HistoryNewsPolitics

Today: #149 in History on our combined chart.

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Chart positions today · United States

History

#149

#143 Pulse 5

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Ranking history · United States

History

Latest daily rankings: Oct 27. New rankings will appear after the next update.

Position on the History combined chart over the last 14 days. Toggle platforms to compare their positions. Lower rank numbers are better.

Episode releases

View as table

Date	Combined Rank	Apple Podcasts
Oct 27	#149	#143
Oct 26	#123	#116
Oct 25	#189	#183
Oct 24	#179	#172
Oct 23	#160	#153
Oct 22	#139	#132
Oct 21	#196	#189
Oct 20	#171	#164
Oct 19	#137	#130
Oct 17	#183	#176
Oct 16	—	#200
Oct 15	#165	#159
Oct 14	#161	#154

Latest episodes

Can Universities Survive? The Great Expansion

October 25, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min

In today’s episode for our series about the plight facing universities David talks to political theorist Alan Finlayson about what’s happened to higher education in the UK since 1945. It is a story of massive expansion in the number of…
Can Universities Survive? The Thousand-Year Story Part 2

October 21, 2026 · 1 hr 0 min

Today’s episode is the second part of David's conversation with historian William Whyte about how universities have survived for nearly a thousand years and whether they can last much longer. How did the industrial revolution change what…
Can Universities Survive? The Thousand-Year Story

October 18, 2026 · 60 min

We start a new series about the long history and current predicament of universities by going back to the beginning. David talks to historian William Whyte about the origin story of the university nearly one thousand years ago. What made…
The History of Transhumanism: Silicon Valley

October 14, 2026 · 57 min

Today’s episode in our series about transhumanism and its astonishing influence looks at how it helped build Silicon Valley. David talks to Duncan Bell about what happened when California became the centre of transhumanist operations…
The History of Transhumanism: New Horizons

October 11, 2026 · 57 min

In part two of our series about how transhumanism shaped our world, David talks to Duncan Bell about what happened when sci fi dreams started to become reality. What changed when space travel turned from fantasy to fact? Did supercomputers…

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The History of Transhumanism: Origins

October 7, 2026 · 1 hr 2 min

Today it’s the first episode in a new series about the weird and wonderful world of transhumanism: the idea that human beings can be transformed by technology and machines. David talks to historian of ideas Duncan Bell about transhumanism…
An Ageing World: Simone de Beauvoir on Old Age

October 4, 2026 · 54 min

For the final episode in our series on living in an ageing world David talks to Lyndsey Stonebridge about one of the most interesting and challenging of all writers on the subject of old age – Simone de Beauvoir. Why did Beauvoir believe…
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…

Full episode archive on Apple Podcasts →

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.