Tag: Politics

Inheritance

Analysis | 21 February 2016 | 0h 27m | Listen Later | iTunes
Why does inheritance arouse such powerful emotions? Family, death and money make for gripping stories – just ask Tolstoy, Austen or Dickens – but our attitudes also reflect the way we feel about society, the state, and even ourselves. Discussions tend to dissolve into rows about levels of tax but this programme explores the values and intuitions that underpin our strength of feeling.

Reform and Opening with Soviet Characteristics: Russian Perspectives on China’s Rise

ChinaEconTalk | 15 August 2019 | 1h 02m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Chris Miller, a specialist on Russian politics, economics, and foreign policy. Compares and contrasts the Soviet and Chinese economic and political reform programs in the 1970s and 80s. Draws lessons for the future of Chinese politics and the ongoing Sino-Russian relationship.

The Spartans: Ancient Greece’s Fighting Machine

The Forum | 25 July 2019 | 0h 39m | Listen Later | iTunes
Backgrounds Spartan society and the peculiar utopia it tried to create. It was admired for its stability, frugality, and the unusual social and sexual freedom of its women. But Sparta was also famous for its brutality towards its huge slave population, its authoritarian rule, and its policy of racial purity and eugenics that would eventually prove its undoing.

Doris Kearns Goodwin on Presidential Leadership

Spectator Books | 5 December 2018 | 0h 32m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin about her book Leadership: In Turbulent Times. Compares and draws lessons from Lincoln, two Roosevelts and LBJ. Replete with memorable anecdotes to help the leadership lessons sink in.

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita on Democracies and Dictatorships

EconTalk | 12 February 2007 | 1h 06m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Bruce Bueno de Mesquita about the incentives facing dictators and democratic leaders. Both face competition from rivals and try to please their constituents and cronies to stay in power. He applies his ‘selectorate’ framing to foreign aid, the Middle East, Venezuela, the potential for China’s evolution to a more democratic system, and Cuba. Along the way, he explains why true democracy is more than just elections – it depends crucially on freedom of assembly and freedom of the press.

Michael Ignatieff on Human Rights, Liberalism, & Ordinary Virtues

Carnegie Council Audio | 22 April 2019 | 0h 41m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with human rights scholar, educator, and former politician Michael Ignatieff about the ideas in his book The Ordinary Virtues: Moral Order in a Divided World. Discusses what he calls “the ordinary virtues,” such as patience and tolerance; the status of human rights today the dilemmas of migration; and the essential criteria for true democracy.

How to Fix Student-Loan Debt

Freakonomics Radio | 9 May 2019 | 0h 48m | Listen Later | iTunes
The cost of a university has skyrocketed, creating a debt burden that’s a drag on the economy. A possible solution is to shift the risk of debt away from students and onto investors looking for a cut of the graduates’ earning power. Explores university education, how to fund it, and politics more generally with Mitch Daniels, the President of Purdue University.

Scott Adams on Persuasion

The Roundtable | 3 November 2017 | 0h 15m | Listen Later
Interview with Scott Adams about the ideas in his book Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World Where Facts Don’t Matter. Backgrounds the frame Adams used, applying his training in hypnosis, to identify Trump’s persuasion techniques and thereby call the 2016 election early for Trump in 2015.