Today’s bad idea is about how ideas get adopted, argued over and rejected: David talks to political philosopher Alan Finlayson... more

For our latest bad idea with an interesting history David talks to the geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford about... more

To kick off our new series on the history of bad ideas David talks to historian Sophie Scott-Brown about the... more

For the final (extended) episode in our American Elections series David talks to Gary Gerstle about the historical significance of... more

For the last episode in this season of great political films David explores Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers (1966), which changed... more

This episode is about two great films on the same dark theme: David talks to American historian Jill Lepore about... more

For today’s great political film David discusses Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard (1963) with the Italian historian of ideas Lucia Rubinelli. How did... more

Today’s great political film is John Frankenheimer’s masterpiece of Cold War paranoia The Manchurian Candidate (1962), which came out the week of... more

In today’s episode David discusses Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), a great... more

Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941) is many people’s favourite film of all time, including Donald Trump’s. Why does Trump love it... more