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Richard Whatmore reads the late eighteenth century very much as a warning to the present. Some of the greatest Enlightenment thinkers were despairing of the fact that their fight against prejudice and fanaticism, against the power or princes and priests, had led to a mercantile state living in a perpetual state of war, and a society whose fanaticism had turned into a blind worship of freedom, individuality, and rights. Richard is a fascinating sparring partner for ideas ranging from a critical moment in intellectual history featuring thinkers like David Hume, Adam Smith, or Mary Wollstonecraft to Friedrich Hayek and the very present and political resonances of these thoughts. Faced the cruelty of the French revolution and the reality of mercantilism, colonialism and a political sphere dominated by the interests of private entrepreneurs and shareholders, a generation of intellectuals had to construct new strategies in the face of disaster. 

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In this episode I talk about the amazing history of women artists, and of who is written into history, and who isn’t. Katy Hessel writes not only about female artists, but also about ways of seeing, of telling stories, and of telling the story of humanity. Why were women, even if they had been hugely successful artists in their own time, written out of history? And why is it still necessary to make this point? Katy Hessel is a passionate advocate — not only for women artists, but also for a better, more inclusive and richer way of approaching art, and life.

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Four great forces have changed human cultures, says Olivier Roy distinguished political scientist and expert on radical Islam: a change in sexual mores since 1968, the internet, the liberalisation of global finance, and the free movement of people. the result is a flattened world, in which old hierarchies count for little and implicit culture is being replaced by explicit norms, a world without a way forward, and therefore a profoundly conservative one. Floor us in this fascinating exploration of cultures in crisis and what might replace them.

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Maja Göpel ist nicht nur die wohl bekannteste Zukunftsforscherin Deutschlands, sie ist auch eine anregende Gesprächspartnerin und Analystin. Die Energiewende und die Stärkung der Demokratie sind Themen, die sie besonders umtreiben. Wir sprechen über Klima, Superreiche, wie Demokratien ticken und was nötig ist, um für eine sinnvolle, lebenswerte Zukunft zu arbeiten.

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Kenan Malik is simply one of the most nuanced and profound thinkers about race and cultural identity I know. You may have seen his columns in the Observer or his books The Quest for a Moral Compass or Not So Black And White. Here we talk about when and why the idea of different races was invented to justify slavery and turn people against one another and how this arbitrary distinction between people became a bedrock of populism, and how cultural essentialism and the cult of purity have affected not only the political right, but also the left.

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Is the polycrisis a side effect of progress and victorious liberalism? The victory of the liberal world has dramatically transformed life on this planet in a very short space of time. In the process, many of the basic liberal ideas have been distorted beyond recognition. Is the liberal project a victim of its own success and, if so, is it doomed to failure?

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Ist die Polykrise eine Nebenwirkung des Fortschritts und eines siegreichen Liberalismus? Der Sieg der liberalen Welt transformierte das Leben auf diesem Planeten innerhalb kürzester Zeit auf dramatische Weise. Dabei sind viele der liberalen Grundideen zur Unkenntlichkeit verzerrt worden. Ist das liberale Projekt also Opfer seines eigenen Erfolgs und, wenn ja, ist es damit zum Scheitern verdammt?

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Almost exactly a generation ago, the triumphant West proclaimed the victory of the liberal world, of the liberal project. From now on, there would be only one model for societies: liberal democracies in a global market. Things have turned out quite differently. The world is in a polycrisis and today the core ideas of the liberal project - individual freedoms, tolerance, progressive ideals - are fighting for their political survival. How did it come to this?

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Vor ziemlich genau einer Generation verkündete der triumphierende Westen den Sieg der liberalen Welt des liberalen Projekts. Von nun an würde es nur noch ein Modell für Gesellschaften geben: liberale Demokratien in einem globalen Markt. Es ist ganz anders gekommen. Die Welt steckt in einer Polykrise und heute kämpfen die Kernideen des liberalen Projekts — individuelle Freiheiten, Toleranz, progressive Ideale — um ihr politisches Überleben. Wie ist es so weit gekommen?

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Philipp Ther erforscht Transformationen in der Geschichte. Der Wittgenstein Preis-Träger und Autor historischer mehrerer Bestseller beschäftigt sich besonders mit Phasen, in denen die Welt sich radikal verändert. Ich frage ihn, ob wir in der Gegenwart in so einer Phase sind, welche transformativen Momente in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten besonders zu unserer gegenwärtigen Situation beigetragen haben und ob das liberale Projekt sich totgelaufen hat.

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