This Time Tomorrow

Democracy is not just elections, says Andreas Poléo in this monologue for democracy.

It is about you.

You have privilege. You see injustice. You feel anger. You see corruption.

Change is hard.

Even when you try, nothing moves.

And yet you must take responsibility.

Live with intention.

Act on your values.

Society wants you passive. They want you obedient.

But you can choose. You can wake up.

You can live.

Start now.

Andreas Poléo is a Norwegian former municipal politician and a This Time Tomorrow contributing editor.

Political campaigns are not what they used to be.

Once it was about speeches, tabloids, and TV spots. Now it is behavioural experiments, voter modelling, and psychological targeting happening quietly behind the scenes. This is not just campaigning. It is science for sole purpose of securing power. It’s Moneyball applied to the War Room.

Sacha Issenberg called it the Victory Lab — the conceptual space in which strategists test what makes you act, click, donate, and vote. But the question today is bigger. What was revolutionary back when Barack Obama was winning landslides has become… basic.

So how do you rebuild that lab in an era of changing media, AI persuasion, and voters who know they are being played?

In this episode of This Time Tomorrow, Omri and Benni chat to Sacha to find out what comes after the Victory Lab and what it means for the future of democracy…

…and honestly, the answer might surprise you. Are we returning to the café?

Sacha Issenberg is a journalist and author known for his reporting on politics, business, and culture, including The Victory Lab, which revealed how data and behavioural science transformed modern campaigning.

Where do we even start with this one?

The thing about the constitutional collapse in the US is that it’s unfolding before our very eyes, on our screens, all of the time. It’s not a single event. It is an ongoing erosion playing out in public view. This is not your everyday partisan struggle.

So let’s call it what it is.

From the January 6th Capitol insurrection to repeated threats of government shutdown to challenging the legitimacy of the Supreme Court…

… from executive and judicial overreach to crises of electoral legitimacy to constant brinkmanship…

… this is what an authoritarian takeover looks like.

What can defenders of democracy learn from Trump 45 and 47? Because let’s be clear: European democracies, too, face institutional strains, and the warning signs from across the pound are not subtle...

Join Omri, Benjamin and Daniela as they seek to understand what the US experience teaches Europe today.

Where do we even start with this one?

The thing about the constitutional collapse in the US is that it’s unfolding before our very eyes, on our screens, all of the time. It’s not a single event. It is an ongoing erosion playing out in public view. This is not your everyday partisan struggle.

So let’s call it what it is.

From the January 6th Capitol insurrection to repeated threats of government shutdown to challenging the legitimacy of the Supreme Court…

… from executive and judicial overreach to crises of electoral legitimacy to constant brinkmanship…

… this is what an authoritarian takeover looks like.

What can defenders of democracy learn from Trump 45 and 47? Because let’s be clear: European democracies, too, face institutional strains, and the warning signs from across the pound are not subtle...

Join Omri, Benjamin and Daniela as they seek to understand what the US experience teaches Europe today.

Bother! Benni’s gone holidaying… So what do we do?

In the 21st episode of This Time Tomorrow, Omri calls Ted on his rotary dial phone (you’ll get it if you listen to the episode) to discuss media ethics in the era of Joe Rogan… and it’s all because of something BBC journalist Nick Robinson told The Guardian last month.

As trust in traditional journalism crumbles and podcasts rise to fill the gap, a new media battle is underway… and this one may just be reshaping democracy itself.

Are values-driven platforms holding power to account, or do they just feed polarisation? With unchallenged interviews, partisan narratives, and collapsing editorial norms, the line between informing and influencing is vanishing fast. Can modern media still serve the public good, or have they become tools for ideological warfare? Is This Time Tomorrow ’creepy’ and ’partisan’…? Whether yes or no, how do we know how to make the distinction?

Join us as we debate whether media today can be partisan, popular, and still serve the democratic good.

Is your car spying on you? Do you need a cloud subscription just to use your vacuum cleaner? Was your device built to be unrepairable?

Sometimes, a political movement starts with a broken MacBook.

In the 20th episode of This Time Tomorrow, Omri and Benni sit down with prominent Right to Repair advocate Louis Rossmann to unpack the growing fight for consumer rights. From locked-down electronics to invasive data collection, Louis highlights how manufacturers are redefining ownership… and what we can do to fight back.

Tune in for our most explicit episode yet…

…and discover how real change can start with just one person, a soldering iron, and a genuine desire to stop manufacturers (and politicians who enable them) from screwing you over.

Louis Rossmann is an independent electronics repair expert, YouTuber, and outspoken Right to Repair activist.

A new kind of warfare is taking shape… and this one does not unfold in trenches or airspace, but in servers, software, and digital networks.

In the 19th episode of This Time Tomorrow, Omri and Benni speak with Francesca Bosco about the emerging architecture of cyberpeace, and the silent battles already underway in cyberspace.

What happens when a hospital is forced offline mid-surgery because of ransomware?

What does it mean when a child's access to education is cut off by a nationwide cyber siege?

How do democratic societies survive when disinformation spreads faster than truth, sparking real-world violence before facts can catch up?

From state-sponsored attacks on civilian infrastructure to the weaponisation of social media and AI, the terrain of 21st-century conflict is rapidly evolving. Unlike traditional warfare, much of it remains invisible… until the damage is done.

As we try to navigate this new era of geopolitical tension, how do we build resilient digital societies? What does peace look like when the battlefield is the internet?

Let’s get nerdy.

Francesca Bosco is a leading expert in cybercrime, international law, and digital security. With experience at the UN and in frontline cybersecurity initiatives, she brings urgent insight into the global efforts to prevent the next war.

As the boundaries between law, politics, and public morality blur, a global pattern is beginning to emerge… one where legal transgressions no longer spell the end of political careers. In the 18th episode of This Time Tomorrow, Omri and Benni sit down with Prof. Dr. Franz-Alois Fischer to discuss the place where law meets democratic legitimacy.

Why are electorates increasingly willing to overlook criminal convictions, indictments, and extremist affiliations in their political leaders?

From the United States, where Donald Trump returned to power in 2024 despite facing multiple criminal convictions, to Israel, where Benjamin Netanyahu was reelected in 2022 while under indictment for corruption, this trend is reshaping political norms. In France, Marine Le Pen of the far-right Rassemblement National was recently convicted of embezzling EU funds, yet she and her party retain considerable support. In Germany, the far-right AfD has been officially designated an extremist organisation by the domestic intelligence service, raising the possibility of a future ban… to no discernible consequence in opinion polls.

As democratic institutions come under pressure, what does the future hold for the rule of law in politics? And what can defenders of democracy do to protect legal systems that are meant to uphold and defend our very dignity as human beings?

Prof. Dr. Franz-Alois Fischer is a German legal scholar, philosopher, and attorney known for his work on constitutional law, legal philosophy, and public education on democracy.

As traditional party politics fray across Europe, Austria offers a revealing case study in democratic reinvention. Over the past three decades, political entrepreneurs have disrupted the status quo, giving rise to new movements that challenge the dominance of legacy parties. From Jörg Haider’s nationalist surge in the 1990s to the more recent ascent of the Greens and NEOS, Austrian politics has become a testing ground for innovation, polarisation, and renewal. At stake is not just who governs, but how democracy itself evolves in response to changing social and generational demands.

In the 17th episode of This Time Tomorrow, Omri and Benni speak with Josef Lentsch, co-founder of NEOS and a leading advocate for political innovation. They discuss what it means to innovate democracy, why Austria became fertile ground for political entrepreneurship, and what lessons the rest of Europe can draw from its evolving political landscape.

As Europe faces mounting threats to its core values, the UK’s relationship with the EU takes on renewed significance. Brexit may have formally separated the UK from the European Union, but the shared challenges confronting the continent demand cooperation rather than division. In the face of Russian aggression and rising authoritarianism, there is an urgent need for solidarity in defending not just borders, but the principles that underpin a free and open society. How the UK and EU choose to engage with one another going forward will shape the strength and resilience of Europe as a whole.

In the 16th episode of This Time Tomorrow, Benni and Omri speak with Mike Galsworthy, founder of Scientists for EU and a leading voice in the pro-European movement in the UK. They discuss why the Leave vote won the Brexit referendum, what pro-European campaigners can learn from the experience, and why re-engagement with Europe matters now more than ever.