Past Present Future

Today’s episode in our series about the challenges facing universities looks at what might be the most direct threat of all: can they still fulfil their function if AI can write better essays than the students? David talks to political philosopher and university teacher Paul Sagar about his experiences of what has changed over the last year as the LLMs have come on in leaps and bounds. How is AI corroding trust between teachers and students? Are universities remotely equipped to know how to handle this challenge? Can they, in fact, survive it?

Out tomorrow on PPF+: a bonus episode to accompany this series in which David talks to historian Edward Acton about ‘Climategate’, the astonishing 2009 controversy that engulfed the university – UEA – that he was leading at the time. How did this firestorm serve as a harbinger of things to come? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening – and to help support everything we do – subscribe to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus our free online courses and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes – on our website https://www.ppfideas.com

Next Time: American Elections – The 2026 Midterms w/Gary Gerstle

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For our series about the current crisis facing universities David talks to writer, philosopher and LSE professor Lea Ypi about the role played by politics in universities around the world. Is the difference between universities in different places greater than the institutional links that connect them? Can university life aspire to any kind of political neutrality and should it? What are the biggest threats to the pursuit of new understanding in a university setting? Who or what is best placed to counter these?

You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus our free online courses and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes – on our website https://www.ppfideas.com

Next Time in Can Universities Survive? AI vs Higher Education

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Today’s episode is part two of David’s conversation with political theorist Alan Finlayson about the up-and-down history of British universities since 1945, taking the story from the Blair years to the present. What changed when the ambition became to send half of all young people to university? Which old barriers came down and which new barriers came up? Where did universities fit into the new knowledge economy? And how did so many of them stumble into the crisis they face today?

You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus our free online courses and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes – on our website https://www.ppfideas.com

Next Time in Can Universities Survive? Politics and the International University w/Lea Ypi

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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 universities and numbers of students. What was the original rationale for this rapid growth? How did it change the social and class structure of Britain? Who were the winners and who were the losers? And what happened when this new university system collided with Thatcherism?

You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus our free online courses and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes – on our website https://www.ppfideas.com

Next Time in Can Universities Survive? The Great Expansion Part 2: From New Labour to the Culture Wars

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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 universities were for? Why did the attempt by French and Russian revolutionaries to abolish universities come to nothing? What made universities symbols of modernisation? And can institutions that have adapted to just about everything adapt to the digital revolution as well?

William Whyte’s new book is The University: A History in Stone, Silk, and Blood – available now https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674495180

You can find out everything else you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus our free online courses and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes – on our website https://www.ppfideas.com

Next Time in Can Universities Survive? The Great Expansion

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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 universities different from other places of learning? How did they assert their authority? Who controlled what they did? And how did they survive war, plague, religious turmoil and the arrival of printing?

Out now on PPF+: the final part of our series on transhumanism bringing the story bang up to date. How is transhumanism behind the latest warnings about the end of the world? Is Elon Musk a visionary or a fraud? And what’s wrong with transhumanism anyway? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening – and to help support everything we do – subscribe to PPF+ no https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus our free online courses and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes – on our website https://www.ppfideas.com

Next Time in Can Universities Survive? The Thousand-Year Story Part 2: Enlightenment, Revolution, Modernisation

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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. Where do drug-taking hippies fit into this story? Who were the cyberpunks and what did they want? How were Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and others shaped by the transhumanism they discovered while growing up? And is all this really just a surrogate religion?

Out tomorrow on PPF+: the final part of this series bringing the story bang up to date. How is transhumanism behind the latest warnings about the end of the world? Is Elon Musk a visionary or a fraud? And what’s wrong with transhumanism anyway? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening – and to help support everything we do – subscribe to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

You can find out everything else you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus our free online courses and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes – on our website https://www.ppfideas.com

Next time a brand new series: The Past, Present and Future of Universities

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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 herald new human possibilities or the prospect of human obsolescence? Why did transhumanism move from the left to the right of the political spectrum? And who believed that freezing their own heads was a good idea?

A reminder we have a pair of new educational courses to accompany two of our series – The Great Essays and The Lives of the Philosophers. These courses are free for anyone who wants to use them and offer recall tests, extensive reading guides, discussion topics and essay questions for further reading, writing and exploration around the subjects of our podcasts. For use in schools, colleges or just in your spare time. To explore these courses simply go to https://ppfideas.com/courses

You can find out everything else you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes – on our website https://www.ppfideas.com

Next time on The History of Transhumanism: Silicon Valley.

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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 as science and as science fiction, as accurate prophecy and as outright lunacy. How did the idea have its origins in Darwinism? Why did the early transhumanists tend to be socialists? What made H. G. Wells such an influence on supposedly respectable scientists? And how does all this foreshadow the world of Silicon Valley today?

A reminder that we have a pair of new educational courses to accompany two of our series – The Great Essays and The Lives of the Philosophers. These courses are free for anyone who wants to use them and offer recall tests, extensive reading guides, discussion topics and essay questions for further reading, writing and exploration around the subjects of our podcasts. For use in schools, colleges or just in your spare time. To explore these courses simply go to https://ppfideas.com/courses

You can find out everything else you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes – on our website https://www.ppfideas.com

Next time on The History of Transhumanism: Spaceships, Supercomputers and Frozen Heads

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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 that we are all duplicitous about the elderly? How did she experience her own ageing body and the prospect of her own death? What did she learn from watching Sartre age and die? And what makes her a prophet for the world we live in today?

Lyndsey Stonebridge’s 'Old Women: A History of Our Future' will be published next year.

Out now on PPF+: part two of David’s conversation with Samuel Moyn about the problem of gerontocracy. How can older people be encouraged to stop hoarding wealth and power? Is socialised care the solution? And is that ever going to happen in a place like America? To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening – and to help support everything we do – subscribe to PPF+ no https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus

You can find out everything else you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus our free online courses and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes – on our website https://www.ppfideas.com

Next Time: The Curious History of Transhumanism

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