The famous epithet that “the old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters”, is most often attributed to the Marxist thinker and revolutionary Antonio Gramsci.

For the past two centuries, growth in energy supply has been fundamental to human progress and economic development. But fossil fuel dependence is driving climate change at an unprecedented scale. Can emerging technologies for producing and using electricity help deliver a sustainable future?

Ralph Miliband has written poignantly on the limits of parliamentary democracy. But are revolutions justified?

What does the future of work really look like?

Professor Coyle argues that the way we measure the economy—developed in the 1940s—no longer fits today’s realities. The outdated framework underpinning economic statistics distorts how policymakers understand and respond to the digital economy.

In his inaugural lecture (based on his research with Ferdinand Eibl) Steffen Hertog argues that populist leaders in all but the largest countries can afford radical policies only if they enjoy autonomy from international economic constraints

Climate change is not gender-neutral — not in its impact on women and girls, nor in the solutions women are leading. This lecture will share new research revealing how women’s leadership is providing new pathways to address the climate crisis.

In 2025, the Phelan US Centre ran an essay competition for master’s students with a prompt about AI. In this episode we spoke to the author of the winning essay, Kayode Adeniyi, and the runners-up, Natasha Chávez and Francesca Nicolodi.

In this lecture, Patricia Kingori examines a striking phenomenon revealed through her documentary Shadow Scholars: highly educated Kenyan scholars ghost writing medical and healthcare assignments for students worldwide.

Join us for this talk by Dani Rodrik where he will talk about his new book, Shared Prosperity in a Fractured World, in which he shows how the nations of the world can achieve all three objectives.