In the wake of a crackdown by the Trump administration on universities with threats to withhold funding following protests on campuses, Manveen Rana talks to Times columnist and a self-described free speech absolutist and academic Sir Niall Ferguson.

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory

Guest: Sir Niall Ferguson, historian and Times columnist. 

Host: Manveen Rana. 

Producers: Emily Webb and Edward Drummond.

Further reading: How DEI, cancel culture and bad boards are killing our universities

Clips: National Conservatism, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC News, CBS News, ABC News, Forbes.

Photo: Getty Images.

Get in touch: [email protected]     

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This episode was originally published in January.

The US president-elect has sparked a series of diplomatic rows after saying he was willing to use military or economic force to take control of Greenland, the Panama Canal and Canada. How seriously should we take Donald Trump’s claims and where did they come from? 

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory

Guest: Josh Glancy, News Review Editor, The Sunday Times. 

Host: Manveen Rana. 

Clips: NBC News, Fox News, ABC News, Reuters/TV2, France Inter Radio. 

Photo: Getty Images 

Further reading: Why does Trump want Greenland?

Further listening: Why Donald Trump courted the wrestling world

Get in touch: [email protected]

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Japanese ‘kidults’ revolutionised pop culture in the 90s and 00s, turning to their inner children to cope with economic crisis and post-industrial societal ills, despite being ridiculed. As the milestones of adulthood - property, marriage and careers - become increasingly difficult for millennials and Gen Z to achieve - are westerners now turning to ‘kidulting’ to find answers? 

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory

Guest: Matt Alt, author of Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World.

Host: Manveen Rana.

Producer: Sam Chantarasak.

Further listening: 

• Studio Ghibli: Is this the end for the Japanese studio that inspired Pixar?
• The South Korean culture machine that conquered the world

Clips: SEGA, Pokémon Theme/POKEMON, MSNBC, CNN, AJ+, Sony, PlayStation, CBS, SXSW, TikTok/@otakuintokyo, TikTok/@kaitlyneats, Your Name/dir. Makoto Shinkai/CoMix Wave Films/Toho.

Photo: Getty Images.

Get in touch: [email protected]

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It's been called "a big mistake", "reckless" and "the highest level of f**kup imaginable" - but just how did a senior journalist come to be added to a chat group between some of the US government’s most senior members who were discussing military action? As the Trump government looks to downplay the incident, what does it tell us about how they view their allies and conduct their business? And what could the fallout be?

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory

Guest: David Charter, assistant editor (US), The Times.

Host: Manveen Rana.

Producers: Edward Drummond and Olivia Case.

Clips: Fox News, CBS News, ABC News, Forbes.

Photo: Getty Images. 

Get in touch: [email protected]  

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The arrest and jailing of Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, Turkey’s main political challenger to President Erdogan, has sent shockwaves across the country. Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to protest his detention and express growing concerns over Turkey's shift toward autocracy. Does this mark a turning point in Turkey’s democracy? And will Imamoglu still be able to stand in the 2028 presidential elections? 

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory

Guest: Andrew Finkel,  journalist and author of Turkey: What Everyone Needs to Know

Host: Manveen Rana.

Producers: Sam Chantarasak and Edith Rousselot.

Further reading: The Erdogan I knew is a mirror image of the man he’s just locked up

Clips: BBC News, Euronews, Reuters, Sky News. 

Photo: Getty Images.

Get in touch: [email protected] 

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The Netflix smash-hit drama is getting everyone talking – including the prime minister. Adolescence centres on the murder of a 13-year-old girl by a boy in her class, and tries to tackle the question: why did he do it? Is this ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ television? Or a timely spotlight on a dark online ecosystem drawing in young men?

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory

Guests:

• Jonathan Dean, Executive Editor of Interviews, The Sunday Times Culture.
• Nathaniel Cole, workshop facilitator for young people.

Host: Luke Jones.

Producer: Taryn Siegel.

Further reading: What teens really think about Adolescence — in their own words

Clips: Netflix, ITV, TikTok/shabazsays, TikTok/dr.amanisamah

Photo: Netflix.

Get in touch: [email protected].

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Meet JD Vance, man of Munich and the Oval Office onslaught. He thinks Europe is in a death spiral and the future is Catholic-infused post-liberalism. But what are his roots, what does he read, and - most importantly - what does he want? 

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory

Guest: Josh Glancy, News Review Editor, The Sunday Times. 

Host: Luke Jones. 

Producer: Edward Drummond.

Further reading: Pugnacious bully or deep thinker — who is the real JD Vance?

Further listening: Bannon vs Musk: The battle for the soul of Donald Trump

Clips: Fox News, CNN, ABC News, NBC News, Forbes.

Photo: Getty Images. 

Get in touch: [email protected]  

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Today marks five years since the first Covid lockdown. We were told that we would never be able to go back to pre-pandemic times: we could only enter a ‘new normal’. Is that what happened? How much did the pandemic change us?

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory

Host: Luke Jones.

Guests:

• Dan Atherton, Deputy Data Editor, The Times and The Sunday Times.
• Tom Whipple, Science Editor, The Times

Producer: Taryn Siegel.

Further reading: UK’s worst night out? Costly, crime-ridden London

Further listening: The death of clubbing

Clips: The Telegraph.

Photo: Getty Images.

Get in touch: [email protected]

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With news this week on the ongoing attempts to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine, we thought we'd bring you two interviews Manveen did on Times Radio to help make sense of it all. The first is with Anthony Loyd, who's been covering the war since it began and the second is with General Sir Richard Barron who has been working on the Defence Review and knows better than most whether the country is ready to defence itself.

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory

Guests:

• Anthony Loyd, Special Correspondent, The Times, and
• General Sir Richard Barron's, former Commander Joint Forces Command.

Host: Manveen Rana.

Photo: Getty Images.

Get in touch: [email protected]  

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