American political scientist, political economist, and author
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This week, former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte faced the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged crimes against humanity. But as the ICC confronts US sanctions and internal leadership turmoil, current and former officials warn the global legal order is eroding. Deputy Prosecutor of the ICC Nazhat Khan joins the program from The Hague. Also on today's show: Former Secretary of the Smithsonian Lonnie G. Bunch III; Francis Fukuyama, author, "In the Realm of the Last Man: A Memoir" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Francis Fukuyama is one of the most influential political thinkers of our time. His famous 1989 essay, The End of History? – written as the Berlin Wall fell and communism collapsed – posed a provocative idea: that Western liberal democracy had triumphed over ideology, and that it might be the “final form of human government”. Over three decades later in 2026, the world looks almost unrecognisable. Russia's war in Ukraine accelerated a fracturing of the liberal rules-based order. The President of the United States has attacked Venezuela and Iran without seeking Congressional approval, UN Security Council backing or even building a coalition. And throughout the world polarisation, populism and authoritarianism have become potent threats to social order. In September 2026 Fukuyama came to Intelligence Squared to reflect on the seismic political events that are shaping our world. He discussed the themes of his new political memoir, In The Realm of the Last Man, which presents an urgent study of contemporary politics and explores how the West can revitalise its democracies. Fukuyama was in conversation with Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times and author The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism. --- If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full ad free conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events ... Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series … Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. … Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more. https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Francis Fukuyama's “The End of History and the Last Man” is one of the most insightful books for understanding the strangeness and instability of this political moment.Fukuyama wrote his landmark book more than 30 years ago, and it's typically remembered as a triumphalist argument, heralding the permanent victory of liberal democracy at the end of the Cold War. But that's not quite right. Fukuyama also talked about the serious weaknesses he saw in liberal democracy — how it may not fully satisfy the human soul — and his warnings feel very prescient now. So I wanted to have Fukuyama on the show to talk through the ideas in his book and how he sees them today, at a time when liberal democracy seems increasingly imperiled around the world. Fukuyama is a political scientist at Stanford University and the author of a number of other great books of political theory, as well as a new memoir, “In the Realm of the Last Man.”Mentioned:“The End of History?” by Francis Fukuyama“The Righteous Mind” by Jonathan HaidtBook Recommendations:“Recoding America” by Jennifer Pahlka“Why Nothing Works” by Marc J. Dunkelman“The God Test” by Robert WrightThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.You can find the transcript and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.htmlThis episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Jack McCordick. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Julie Beer. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld, with additional mixing by Isaac Jones, Aman Sahota and Gautam Sirkishan. Our recording engineer is Aman Sahota. Cinematography by Marina King. Video editing by Kristen Williamson, Dani Dillon and Brandon Belk-Yee. Our executive producer is Claire Gordon. The show's production team also includes Marie Cascione, Annie Galvin, Rollin Hu, Kristin Lin, Emma Kehlbeck and Jan Kobal. Original music by Pat McCusker. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta. The director of New York Times Opinion Shows is Annie-Rose Strasser. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
He famously argued that liberal democracy marked the end of history. Now, with war, populism and authoritarianism reshaping the world, Francis Fukuyama asks whether liberal democracy can still win.In this episode of Full Disclosure, James O'Brien speaks to the political scientist and author about the ideas, accidents and encounters that shaped his life. Fukuyama reflects on growing up in a highly intellectual family, his early immersion in philosophy, and why a formative period in Paris led him away from literary theory and towards the realities of international politics.They discuss the collapse of the Soviet Union, the enduring misreading of The End of History, and why he believes the idea of equal human dignity remains powerful despite democratic backsliding around the world. Fukuyama also looks back on his time in US government, his break with neoconservatism over Iraq, and the danger of letting pessimism about democracy become self-fulfilling.Thoughtful, wide-ranging and urgent, this conversation is about big ideas, political mistakes and the case for defending liberal societies without pretending they are perfect.Find out more about In the Realm of the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama hereFull Disclosure is a Global ProductionListen or watch every Friday on Global Player, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
Francis Fukuyama is one of the most influential political thinkers of our time. His famous 1989 essay, The End of History? – written as the Berlin Wall fell and communism collapsed – posed a provocative idea: that Western liberal democracy had triumphed over ideology, and that it might be the “final form of human government”. Over three decades later in 2026, the world looks almost unrecognisable. Russia's war in Ukraine accelerated a fracturing of the liberal rules-based order. The President of the United States has attacked Venezuela and Iran without seeking Congressional approval, UN Security Council backing or even building a coalition. And throughout the world polarisation, populism and authoritarianism have become potent threats to social order. In September 2026 Fukuyama came to Intelligence Squared to reflect on the seismic political events that are shaping our world. He discussed the themes of his new political memoir, In The Realm of the Last Man, which presents an urgent study of contemporary politics and explores how the West can revitalise its democracies. Fukuyama was in conversation with Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times and author The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism. --- This is the first instalment of a two-part episode. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full ad free conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events ... Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series … Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. … Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more. https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
More than three decades after publishing The End of History and the Last Man, political scientist Francis Fukuyama is looking back on the ideas that made him famous, and asking whether democracy can still withstand the forces reshaping the world.In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy talks to Fukuyama about Donald Trump, the rise of populism, why young men are driving political upheaval across the West, and whether social media has destroyed our shared sense of reality. Through the lens of his new book, In the Realm of the Last Man, they discuss why people are drawn to extreme causes, what Europe should do in a world where America can no longer be relied upon, and whether liberal democracy is entering a period of dangerous turbulence.Fukuyama also reflects on changing his mind about the Iraq War and free-market economics, the intellectual friendships he lost along the way, and why he believes good thinkers must be willing to abandon ideas when the facts change.
Why Nations Fail, de Daron Acemoglu y James Robinson, es uno de los libros más influyentes de las últimas décadas sobre desarrollo económico. Su tesis: las instituciones políticas y económicas, no la geografía ni la cultura, son las que determinan si un país prospera o fracasa.En este episodio explicamos esa teoría con sus ejemplos centrales, y la ponemos a prueba con las críticas de cuatro pensadores clave, Jeffrey Sachs, Francis Fukuyama, Jared Diamond y Martin Wolf, además de los casos de Japón y China, que la desafían desde ángulos distintos.¡Apóyanos y Síguenos!
How did we arrive at an age of global instability, conflict and political distrust, and can democracy renew itself? On Radio 4's weekly discussion programme, Tom Sutcliffe is joined by three guests to examine the pressures facing the international order and the ideas that might help sustain it.Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown discusses his new book The Future Starts With Us, which argues that the erosion of civic life and the fracturing of the rules-based international system are deeply connected. Drawing on global research and decades of political experience, he makes the case for renewed civic engagement as the foundation for a more equitable and sustainable future.Political scientist Francis Fukuyama became one of the most influential thinkers of the post-Cold War era after the publication of ‘The End of History and the Last Man' in 1992. In his new memoir, In the Realm of the Last Man, he reflects on the events and ideas that shaped that argument, his subsequent break with neoconservatism after the Iraq War, and his reassessment of the strengths and vulnerabilities of liberal democracy in today's multipolar world. Bronwen Maddox, Director and Chief Executive of Chatham House, brings her perspective on a rapidly changing geopolitical landscape. From the war in Ukraine and European security to debates about democracy, power and America's constitutional future as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, she assesses the challenges facing the West and the international order.Producer: Katy Hickman Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez
Today on the show, twenty-five years after 9/11, America is still living with the consequences of the war on terror. It produced major tactical successes, at enormous human and financial cost. Fareed speaks with CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen, author of "All the Presidents' Wars," about the legacy of America's war on terror. Then, Fareed talks to Derek Thompson, host of the podcast “Plain English” and author on Substack, about his deep dive into the “megatrends” that he sees defining the news cycle in 2026 including AI's impact on jobs and media, social isolation, and global violence. Finally, there are many signs that liberal democracy itself may be in retreat — from the rise of authoritarianism around the globe to deepening political polarization and declining public trust. At the Aspen Ideas Festival, Fareed sits down for a wide-ranging conversation on the topic with three terrific guests: political scientist Francis Fukuyama, former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada Chrystia Freeland and New York Times columnist David French. GUESTS: Peter Bergen (@peterbergencnn), Derek Thompson (@DKThomp), Francis Fukuyama (@FukuyamaFrancis) Chrystia Freeland (@cafreeland), David French (@DavidAFrench) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
German voters are heading to the polls in an election in Saxony- Anhalt, which could see the far- right AfD win power at a state level for the first time. The party sees the vote as a potential stepping stone to nationwide success. Also in the programme: The top US envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are in Kyiv for their first talks in Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion; the political philosopher Francis Fukuyama worries about the future direction of American democracy; and we will hear from May el-Toukhy, one of the only two female directors competing at the Venice Film Festival about her film, premiering tonight.(Phot0: The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party's lead candidate in Saxony-Anhalt, Ulrich Siegmund (R), and his wife, Julia Siegmund, cast their votes at a polling station in Tangermuende, Germany, 06 September 2026. Credit: EPA)
Michael Gove is joined by political scientist Francis Fukuyama to discuss liberalism, populism and the future of democracy in an increasingly unstable world.Francis reflects on The End of History and why its argument was so often misunderstood, before turning to the transformation of the American right under Donald Trump. Why have traditional conservative ideas lost their hold – and what explains the rise of populism across the West?They also discuss Brexit, which Francis argues Britain should reconsider, the importance of patriotism and national identity, and why liberals have too often neglected both.And looking to the future, Francis warns about the impact of artificial intelligence on work and democracy, explains why universal basic income will not solve the problem, and offers one piece of advice to young people: don't learn how to code.Produced by Oscar Edmondson. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Der Sommer geht in die Schlussrunde, die Politik ist wieder da und es wird gewählt. Landtagswahl an diesem Sonntag in Sachsen-Anhalt. Claudia Christophersen setzt auf die Vernunft in der Wahlkabine.
The current appeal of authoritarian regimes around the world is raising questions about whether democracy has a future. What's sparking these political backlashes and what has soured voters on democratic systems and values? Stanford political scientist and the author of “The End of History,” Francis Fukuyama, joins Canadian journalist-turned-politician Chrystia Freeland and New York Times columnist David French at the 2026 Aspen Ideas Festival for an informed and varied conversation taking a harder look at democracy. CNN journalist Fareed Zakaria moderates the discussion.
Aujourd'hui, dans "Esprits Libres", le philosophe Luc Ferry nous plonge au cœur des bouleversements que l'intelligence artificielle (IA) apporte dans le monde du travail. Avec une franchise et une clairvoyance saisissantes, il nous alerte sur les menaces que l'IA fait peser sur de nombreux métiers, y compris ceux que l'on pensait à l'abri, comme les professions manuelles ou intellectuelles.Luc Ferry commence par remettre en question l'idée reçue selon laquelle les métiers dits « cols bleus » seraient préservés de l'automatisation. Il nous montre comment la robotique humanoïde, alliée à des systèmes d'IA ultra-performants, est en passe de remplacer des tâches jusque-là réservées aux humains, de la plomberie à l'électricité en passant par la danse ou le tennis. Mais ce n'est pas seulement dans le domaine manuel que l'IA fait des ravages, comme en témoigne le témoignage glaçant du mathématicien américain considéré comme le plus grand au monde. Celui-ci confie à Luc Ferry que son métier est « quasiment carbonisé » par l'IA, qui a réussi à résoudre des problèmes mathématiques qu'il n'arrivait pas à résoudre.Face à cette menace, l'invité de David Abiker appelle à une prise de conscience urgente, à la fois chez les étudiants, les professeurs, les politiques et les chefs d'entreprise. Il insiste sur la nécessité de repenser en profondeur nos systèmes éducatifs et nos orientations professionnelles pour s'adapter à cette révolution technologique.Au-delà de ces enjeux économiques et sociaux, Luc Ferry revient également sur les débats philosophiques et politiques suscités par l'invasion de l'Ukraine par la Russie. Il apporte un éclairage nuancé sur la thèse de la « fin de l'histoire » de Francis Fukuyama, montrant que malgré les soubresauts géopolitiques, la démocratie libérale reste le régime politique dominant et le seul envisageable à l'heure actuelle.Hébergé par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.
We're on vacation this week, so are rerunning a fun “beach read” episode exploring if your nearest and dearest could be psychopaths. Miss us already? In an event exclusively for readers of American Purpose and Persuasion, Yascha Mounk will be interviewing Francis Fukuyama about his life and thought at 5pm on Sunday, September 6 at The Abbey Centre, London. Find out more and get tickets here. Paying subscribers of Persuasion and American Purpose can access a code for a free ticket here. Abigail Marsh is a professor in the Department of Psychology and the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program at Georgetown University. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Abigail Marsh explore what to do if a child you know might be psychopathic, whether psychopathy is linked to charisma and success, and how to protect yourself. Wondering if you or a loved one might be a psychopath? Take the quiz! If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple | Google X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Eden and Langdon return to disparage Francis Fukuyama (and mispronounce his name, sorry) before moving to lauding Italo Calvino's tongue-in-cheek, sharply constructed The Nonexistent Knight. They explore questions of historical reception, "herohood", identity, and (post)modernism. Music played: Papangu - Colosso https://papangu.bandcamp.com/track/colosso
Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama discuss his lifelong hobbies—from building furniture to robotics—and why they might save us in the age of big tech. Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University. His latest book is In the Realm of the Last Man. He is also the author of the “Frankly Fukuyama” column at Persuasion. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama discuss why building things with your hands is an antidote to dependence on big tech, whether AI will erode the practical skills future generations need to survive, and what hobbyist robotics has in common with Ukraine's battlefield ingenuity. Enjoying this discussion? In an event exclusively for readers of American Purpose and Persuasion, Yascha Mounk will be interviewing Francis Fukuyama about his life and thought at 5pm on Sunday, September 6 at The Abbey Centre, London. Find out more and get tickets here. Paying subscribers of Persuasion and American Purpose can access a code for a free ticket here. We're delighted to feature this conversation as part of our series on Liberal Virtues and Values. This series, made possible with the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation, features content making the case that liberalism has its own distinctive set of virtues and values that are capable not only of responding to the dissatisfaction that drives authoritarianism, but also of restoring faith in liberalism as an ideology worth believing in—and defending—on its own terms. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama delve into 9/11, the hubris of humanitarian intervention, and the letter he regretted signing. Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University. His latest book is In the Realm of the Last Man. He is also the author of the “Frankly Fukuyama” column at Persuasion. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama discuss why Fukuyama initially supported the Iraq War and what changed his mind, how the neoconservative movement's experience of Eastern Europe shaped its disastrous assumptions about the Middle East, and what his break with former colleagues cost him personally and professionally. Enjoying this discussion? In an event exclusively for readers of American Purpose and Persuasion, Yascha Mounk will be interviewing Francis Fukuyama about his life and thought at 5pm on Sunday, September 6 at The Abbey Centre, London. Find out more and get tickets here. Paying subscribers of Persuasion and American Purpose can access a code for a free ticket here. We're delighted to feature this conversation as part of our series on Liberal Virtues and Values. This series, made possible with the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation, features content making the case that liberalism has its own distinctive set of virtues and values that are capable not only of responding to the dissatisfaction that drives authoritarianism, but also of restoring faith in liberalism as an ideology worth believing in—and defending—on its own terms. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Join John Maytham, as he takes you through the books that caught his interest, this week. One of Us is Guilty by Steve Cavanagh The Ballad of Ronan McCoy by Colin Morgan. In The Realm of the last Man by Francis Fukuyama Presenter John Maytham is an actor and author-turned-talk radio veteran and seasoned journalist. His show serves a round-up of local and international news coupled with the latest in business, sport, traffic and weather. The host’s eclectic interests mean the program often surprises the audience with intriguing book reviews and inspiring interviews profiling artists. A daily highlight is Rapid Fire, just after 5:30pm. CapeTalk fans call in, to stump the presenter with their general knowledge questions. Another firm favourite is the humorous Thursday crossing with award-winning journalist Rebecca Davis, called “Plan B”. Thank you for listening to a podcast from Afternoon Drive with John Maytham Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays from 15:00 and 18:00 (SA Time) to Afternoon Drive with John Maytham broadcast on CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/BSFy4Cn or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/n8nWt4x Subscribe to the CapeTalk Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/sbvVZD5 Follow us on social media: CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalk567 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama explore why any theory of politics must begin with an account of what makes us human. Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University. His latest book is In the Realm of the Last Man. He is also the author of the “Frankly Fukuyama” column at Persuasion. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama discuss why human nature has been so central to Fukuyama's political thought, what modern evolutionary biology and anthropology tell us about the myth of primordial individualism, and whether human beings are best understood as fundamentally social creatures or fundamentally self-interested ones. Enjoying this discussion? In an event exclusively for readers of American Purpose and Persuasion, Yascha Mounk will be interviewing Francis Fukuyama about his life and thought at 5pm on Sunday, September 6 at The Abbey Centre, London. Find out more and get tickets here. Paying subscribers of Persuasion and American Purpose can access a code for a free ticket here. We're delighted to feature this conversation as part of our series on Liberal Virtues and Values. This series, made possible with the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation, features content making the case that liberalism has its own distinctive set of virtues and values that are capable not only of responding to the dissatisfaction that drives authoritarianism, but also of restoring faith in liberalism as an ideology worth believing in—and defending—on its own terms. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Why did one of the most famous and ambitious philosophers in European history fall completely out of favor in just a few decades, and why is his totalizing view of reality still relevant today? Northwestern University's associate professor of philosophy and president of the Hegel Society of America, Dr. Mark Alznauer, joins host PJ Wehry to discuss the breathtaking scope and historical impact of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Dr. Alznauer explores Hegel's attempt to map the entire cosmos, human civilization, and religion from a single logical concept in his book, Hegel's Sole Idea: The Last Great Metaphysical System. They examine how Hegel's "encyclopedia system" served as the last grand metaphysical project in Western thought, why his immediate successors violently rejected it, and how his legacy continues to shape our modern historical awareness. In this conversation they explore: Why Hegel's system is comparable to monumental literary works like Dante's Divine Comedy or Tolstoy's War and Peace in its attempt to provide a comprehensive, organized worldview. The provocative way Hegel positioned his philosophy as the "Holy Spirit," claiming it could conceptually prove the theological truths that Christianity only provided in pictures or representations. The swift collapse of Hegel's reputation after his death in 1831, leading to the deep divide between the Right and Left Hegelians, including the materialist critiques of Ludwig Feuerbach and Karl Marx. Søren Kierkegaard's fierce rejection of Hegel's objective system, arguing that true Christianity requires a passionate, existential decision rather than cold, speculative contemplation. How Hegel's philosophy of history—arguing that human epochs unfold with internal, logical necessity toward freedom—differs radically from the contingent, sociological explanations we rely on today. The neo-Hegelian influence on Francis Fukuyama's "End of History," and how questioning the ultimate direction of political history remains deeply relevant as our democratic landscapes continue to evolve. This is a conversation for anyone interested in philosophy, history, and theology who wants to understand the dizzying ambition of the last great metaphysical system and the profound ways its failure shaped the modern intellectual landscape. Make sure to check out Dr. Alznauer's book: Hegel's Soul Idea: The Last Great Metaphysical System
Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama examine what people still get wrong about “the end of history.” Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University. His latest book is In the Realm of the Last Man. He is also the author of the “Frankly Fukuyama” column at Persuasion. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama discuss the true meaning of “the end of history,” why the struggle for recognition—rather than material interest—is the engine of historical progress, and how his thesis holds up 35 years on. Enjoying this discussion? In an event exclusively for readers of American Purpose and Persuasion, Yascha Mounk will be interviewing Francis Fukuyama about his life and thought at 5pm on Sunday, September 6 at The Abbey Centre, London. Find out more and get tickets here. Paying subscribers of Persuasion and American Purpose can access a code for a free ticket here. We're delighted to feature this conversation as part of our series on Liberal Virtues and Values. This series, made possible with the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation, features content making the case that liberalism has its own distinctive set of virtues and values that are capable not only of responding to the dissatisfaction that drives authoritarianism, but also of restoring faith in liberalism as an ideology worth believing in—and defending—on its own terms. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Francis Fukuyama discusses the experiences and individuals that shaped him. Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University. His latest book is In the Realm of the Last Man. He is also the author of the “Frankly Fukuyama” column at Persuasion. We have a treat for you today! To mark the publication of Francis Fukuyama's memoir In the Realm of the Last Man, we're launching a multi-part series about his intellectual eras. Here, Francis Fukuyama reflects on his life, from his family's experience of Japanese-American internment, to surprising family secrets discovered in letters, to the political and social fallout after changing his mind about the Iraq War. Enjoying this discussion? In an event exclusively for readers of American Purpose and Persuasion, Yascha Mounk will be interviewing Francis Fukuyama about his life and thought at 5pm on Sunday, September 6 at The Abbey Centre, London. Find out more and get tickets here. Paying subscribers of Persuasion and American Purpose can access a code for a free ticket here. And, if you'll be in Oxford, UK on Friday, September 4, Francis Fukuyama will be in conversation with Nigel Warburton about his memoir—learn more and get tickets here. We're delighted to feature this conversation as part of our series on Liberal Virtues and Values. This series, made possible with the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation, features content making the case that liberalism has its own distinctive set of virtues and values that are capable not only of responding to the dissatisfaction that drives authoritarianism, but also of restoring faith in liberalism as an ideology worth believing in—and defending—on its own terms. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a faculty member of FSI's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL). He is also Director of Stanford's Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy, and a professor (by courtesy) of Political Science. In addition he is the author of several books. His most recent titles are Liberalism and Its Discontents, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, and the upcoming In the Realm of the Last Man: A Memoir. Greg and Francis talk about Frank's “End of History” thesis and later work on liberalism, identity, trust, and political order. Fukuyama argues long-run historical progress is visible in the gap between developed and developing societies, but he still sees no coherent “higher” alternative to liberal democracy and market society. He also explains that modern discontent through generational forgetting of 20th-century horrors and a deeper human desire for recognition and struggle (thymos), including megalothymia - the drive for superiority, which can turn tyrannical. They discuss how modern prosperity arose from Europe's unique mix of innovation culture, political fragmentation, religious schism, and family changes that fostered individualism. Frank contrasts state strength with constraint, and traces democracy's path through England to parliament and common law, critiques American anti-statism in state-building, and examines China vs India. They also discuss war's effects on state capacity, the internet's role in polarization and factual disagreement, and the need for shared liberal norms. *unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.* Episode Quotes: The collapse of a shared factual basis [47:23] Liberal societies need to tolerate viewpoint diversity, but what we're seeing goes way beyond this. This is kind of empirical, factual diversity where people don't accept the same factual basis of the nature of the world. So, you know, are vaccines safe? Well, we used to think there was consensus about that because you have this whole accepted scientific system for empirical testing of propositions like that, and for some reason now people don't trust that anymore, or, you know, who won the last election, sort of, issue. Very hard to have a democracy if you disagree about whether you had a free and fair election, right? And these, again, I think would not have existed in the pre-internet age, that kind of disagreement over just simple factual information. The absence of a higher alternative to liberal democracy [05:18] A lot of people have lost faith in liberal democracy, but I still don't see anyone posing a real alternative of a higher society. Does the rule of law hold without shared norms? [54:46] One thing that the last few years have taught me is that, in a way, you know, we used to think there's law and there are norms, and the norms are basically more flighty and less weighty, but the law is really a big barrier to bad action. And I think we're realizing that's not true. Everything is normative. Why the drive for superiority can't simply be eliminated [12:42] It was Bob Iger or some big CEO who wanted to climb the seven highest mountains in the world, you know? So there's a lot of ways that you can demonstrate your superiority that are basically, if not socially constructive, they're at least peaceful; you know, they're not going to harm other people. But it turns out that for Donald Trump, at least that wasn't enough. And I think that's a basic problem. You want outlets for this, what I call "megalothumia." This is the desire to be recognized as superior, and basically you can't have a society without that. I mean, you're not going to have any great baseball players, musicians, you know, philosophers if you don't have people that want to be excellent at something. But that also unleashes a kind of tyrannical desire to simply dominate, and I think that's the problem we're dealing with right now. Show Links: Recommended Resources: United States Agency for International Development Karl Marx Liberalism Thumos Bob Iger Choosing the Right Pond: Human Behavior and the Quest for Status Joel Mokyr Roman Empire Reformation Caesaropapism Henry II of England Estates of the Realm Oliver Cromwell Glorious Revolution Assize of Novel Disseisin Code of Justinian Neal Stephenson Robert D. Putnam Guest Profile: Faculty Profile at Stanford University Wikipedia Profile Social Profile on X Guest Work: Amazon Author Page In the Realm of the Last Man: A Memoir Liberalism and Its Discontents Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment State Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity End of History and the Last Man Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Jonah Goldberg has been chewing over how to reduce the number of gray hairs in Congress for some time now. Unfortunately, the best that he and The Remnant team have come up with is shaving the heads of all the senior senators, which, seeming somewhat impractical, led Jonah to call in an expert. Science correspondent and longtime friend of the show Ronald Bailey joins the merry band today to set us all straight on RFK Jr., vaccines, MAHA, DOGE, libertarianism, bad analogies for government, transhumanism, gerontocracy, term limits, libertarian Shangri-La, Francis Fukuyama, institutions, economic growth, Thomas Jefferson, invention, and Benjamin Franklin. Show Notes: —Bailey's book - The End of Doom: Environmental Renewal in the Twenty-first Century —Bailey's book - Liberation Biology: The Scientific And Moral Case For The Biotech Revolution —Bailey in Reason - “Can America Get Out of the Gerontocracy Trap?” —Jonah's book - Suicide of the West —Terrible Rest Is History podcast on Jefferson —Michael Auslin Remnant The Remnant is a production of The Dispatch, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a nonpartisan perspective. To access all of The Dispatch's offerings—including the Saturday Ruminant, audio versions of all our articles and newsletters, and Jonah's twice-weekly G-File—click here. Instructions on how to set up your members-only feed can be found here, and if you'd like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member by clicking here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Order "Offensive Christianity" here – https://offensivechristianitybook.com/jchasedavis.comCommonplace — AI-powered Reformed & Puritan theological research. Search 200+ primary sources with real citations. https://commonplace.study/Burn the Ships Men's Conference at The Well Church in Boulder, CO — register here: https://boulderwell.org/burntheships—Guest: Dr. Charles Cornish-Dale ("Raw Egg Nationalist")The Last Men: Liberalism and the Death of Masculinity (Amazon) — hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook - https://amzn.to/4w7aJvlSummaryWhat if the crisis of modern masculinity isn't only spiritual — but biological? Chase sits down with Dr. Charles Cornish-Dale — the Oxford- and Cambridge-trained historian known online as Raw Egg Nationalist — to talk through his provocative new book, The Last Men: Liberalism and the Death of Masculinity. They trace Charlie's unlikely path from medieval church historian to one of the most influential voices in the MAHA movement, and dig into his central thesis: that liberalism itself is a low-testosterone system, that endocrine disruptors and processed food are quietly reshaping men, and that Francis Fukuyama's "last man" is now a physiological reality. Along the way they wrestle with the Christian temptation to divorce body from soul, Nietzsche's critique of Christianity as a slave morality, the guilty conscience, Christian vitalism, and whether the church still has the vitality to fight. Whether you're deep in this conversation already or skeptical of the whole thing, this one will sharpen you.Support the showSign up for the Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/chasedavisFollow Full Proof Theology on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/fullprooftheology/Follow Full Proof Theology on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/fullprooftheology/
Francis Fukuyama, Linda Chavez, and Rachel Janfaza join Yascha Mounk to discuss what a radical liberal agenda might look like today. In this week's episode of The Good Fight Club, Yascha Mounk, Francis Fukuyama, Linda Chavez, and Rachel Janfaza explore whether Gen Z's political instincts are genuinely liberal, what a renewed liberalism needs to reclaim from the republican tradition, and how to rebuild a culture of public-spiritedness in an age of anti-establishment politics. Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University and the founder of American Purpose. His latest book is Liberalism and Its Discontents. Linda Chavez is the Vice Chair of the Renew Democracy Initiative, founded by Garry Kasparov. She previously served in the Reagan administration and has been a syndicated columnist and political commentator for decades. Rachel Janfaza is the founder of Up and Up, where she researches and writes about the political beliefs and cultural attitudes of Gen Z. This conversation was recorded at the Liberalism for the 21st Century conference in Washington, D.C., which is organized by the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Will you be in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday July 15? I will be interviewing Francis Fukuyama about how liberalism should respond to the postliberal threat. Find out more and get your free ticket here! —Yascha Yascha Mounk and Deirdre McCloskey discuss why ideas, not capital accumulation, made the modern world rich. Deirdre Nansen McCloskey, sometimes described as “the conscience of economics,” holds the Isaiah Berlin Chair in Liberal Thought at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Deirdre McCloskey discuss why liberalism drives economic growth, how the gradual erosion of inherited hierarchy unleashed centuries of innovation, and what liberals should think about the trans debate. We're delighted to feature this conversation as part of our series on Liberal Virtues and Values. That liberalism is under threat is now a cliché—yet this has done nothing to stem the global resurgence of illiberalism. Part of the problem is that liberalism is often considered too “thin” to win over the allegiance of citizens, and that liberals are too afraid of speaking in moral terms. Liberalism's opponents, by contrast, speak to people's passions and deepest moral sentiments. This series, made possible with the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation, aims to change that narrative. In podcast conversations and long-form pieces, we feature content making the case that liberalism has its own distinctive set of virtues and values that are capable not only of responding to the dissatisfaction that drives authoritarianism, but also of restoring faith in liberalism as an ideology worth believing in—and defending—on its own terms. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Recorded at the Paris School of Economics-CEPR Policy Forum 2026. Europe is under attack from the US, and under a different kind of attack from China.That is Olivier Blanchard's diagnosis. Blanchard (MIT, Paris School of Economics, Peterson Institute) is one of four economists leading Europe 2050, a new CEPR initiative asking where Europe wants to be in 25 years, and how it gets there. Blanchard's overriding principle: a vision without plumbing goes nowhere, and plumbing without vision is just reacting to the next tweet.Who can combine the vision and the plumbing, and produce ideas that we haven't seen before? Europe might be short of solutions to its current malaise, but it is not short of people with ideas: the project sent out 50 invitations for policy papers. Blanchard expected 30 replies. He got 48.The research behind this episode:Blanchard, Olivier, Pascal Lamy, Enrico Letta, and Beatrice Weder di Mauro. 2026. "Europe 2050: Geometries of Peace, Power, and Prosperity." VoxEU column, CEPR, 16 March 2026.The CEPR Europe 2050 initiative launched by Blanchard, Lamy, Letta and Weder di Mauro is generating a rolling series of commissioned policy papers and shorter open call submissions. The full set of contributions can be found at cepr.org/europe-2050-geometries-peace-power-and-prosperity.To cite this episode:Phillips, Tim, and Olivier Blanchard. 2026. "Europe in 2050." VoxTalks Economics (podcast). About the guestOlivier Blanchard is the Robert M. Solow Professor of Economics emeritus at MIT, Professor of Economics at the Paris School of Economics, and Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He is a CEPR Distinguished Fellow. Blanchard's research spans macroeconomics, monetary and fiscal policy, and the economics of European integration; he was chief economist and director of research at the IMF from 2008 to 2015. Research cited in this episodeEurope 2050: Geometries of Peace, Power, and Prosperity is the CEPR initiative behind this episode, launched by Blanchard, Lamy, Letta and Weder di Mauro. It commissions longer policy papers and runs an open call for shorter pieces, five to fifteen pages, on what Europe should aspire to become by 2050. Blanchard describes it as a box of tools rather than a single blueprint, deliberately open to contributors who disagree on fundamentals, including whether Europe should become a federation.The Draghi report refers to Mario Draghi's 2024 report for the European Commission, The Future of European Competitiveness. It diagnosed Europe's weak productivity growth, fragmented capital markets and insufficient scale financing for innovative firms. Blanchard contrasts it with Europe 2050, which he says is not trying to produce a similarly prescriptive plan.The Letta report refers to Enrico Letta's 2024 report Much More Than a Market, commissioned by the European Council, which set out proposals for deepening the EU single market. Letta is one of the four leaders of Europe 2050."Getting to Denmark" is a concept popularised by the political scientist Francis Fukuyama in his 2011 book The Origins of Political Order, describing the temptation to picture a distant, well governed destination without a plan for the institutional steps needed to reach it. Is this a risk for Europe 2050?Schengen is raised by Blanchard as a working example of a "coalition of the willing": a group of countries, not all of them EU members, that agreed to abolish border controls between themselves without waiting for unanimous agreement across the whole Union. He points to it as a template for how Europe might make progress on other issues where full consensus is unlikely.More VoxTalks Economics episodesThis episode was recorded at the Paris School of Economics-CEPR Policy Forum 2026, alongside a series of conversations with forum speakers.Europe in the Middle, the previous episode, features Pol Antràs and Beata Javorcik on how the US-China trade war is reshaping trade flows into Europe, and who wins and loses from it.Related reading on VoxEUEurope's challenge and opportunity: Building coalitions of the willing, a VoxEU column by Blanchard and Jean Pisani-Ferry, sets out the coalition of the willing idea in more detail, working through how it might apply to climate, trade and tax policy.Capitalising on Europe's strengths, a VoxEU column by Debora Revoltella and colleagues at the European Investment Bank, looks at what Europe already does well and how policy can build on it rather than only cataloguing weaknesses.Addressing European competitiveness: Investment, integration, and simplification, another VoxEU column from the European Investment Bank, sets out the scale of Europe's investment gap and where past bursts of EU investment have come from.EU capital markets reform should focus on innovation investment, a VoxEU column, argues that capital markets union, a project Blanchard mentions in the episode, should be judged by whether it gets money to innovative firms, not just by market integration for its own sake.
Eight decades after independence, India still isn't free. Rahul Ahluwalia joins Amit Varma in episode 447 of The Seen and the Unseen to explain why economic growth has such a positive humanitarian impact -- and freedom lies at its heart. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Rahul Ahluwalia on Twitter, LinkedIn and FED. 2. Foundation for Economic Development. 3. Growth is Good -- Rahul Ahluwalia's podcast at FED. 4. Deepak VS and the Man Behind His Face — Episode 373 of The Seen and the Unseen. 5. Swaminathan Aiyar's columns at ToI and his own website. 6. Gurcharan Das's columns at ToI and his own website. 7. India Unbound — Gurcharan Das. 8. The Life and Times of Gurcharan Das — Episode 425 of The Seen and the Unseen. 9. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 10. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 12. Naushad Forbes Wants to Fix India — Episode 282 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 14. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity — Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. The Life and Times of the Indian Economy -- Episode 387 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 16. Why Freedom Matters — Episode 10 of Everything is Everything. 17. The Reformers — Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 18. India's Massive Pensions Crisis — Episode 347 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah & Renuka Sane). 19. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 20. The 1991 Project. 21. Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs -- Episode 46 of Everything is Everything. 22. Gig Work is AWESOME! -- Episode 124 of Everything is Everything. 23. Reading Lolita in Tehran -- Azar Nafisi. 24. India's Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality -- Amit Varma. 25. A Venture Capitalist Looks at the World — Episode 213 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sajith Pai). 26. Public Choice Theory Explains SO MUCH -- Episode 33 of Everything is Everything. 27. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 28. The short history of global living conditions and why it matters that we know it -- Max Roser. 29. The Florentines -- Paul Strathern. 30. National output without government? State capacity and welfare measurement -- Vincent Geloso and Chandler Reilly. 31. Atlas Shrugged -- Ayn Rand. 32. The Wealth of Nations -- Adam Smith. 33. Understanding the State -- Episode 25 of Everything is Everything. 34. Every Act of Government Is an Act of Violence -- Amit Varma. 35. Economic growth is enough and only economic growth is enough — Lant Pritchett with Addison Lewis. 36. Where Has All the Education Gone? — Lant Pritchett. 37. Looking like a state: The seduction of isomorphic mimicry -- Matt Andrews, Lant Pritchett and Michael Woolcock. 38. Sixteen Stormy Days — Tripurdaman Singh. 39. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 40. Nehru: The Debates that Defined India — Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain. 41. Nehru's Debates — Episode 262 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh and Adeel Hussain). 42. The Right to Property — Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 43. Caged Tiger: How Too Much Government Is Holding Indians Back — Subhashish Bhadra. 44. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State — Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen. 45. Colours of the Cage: A Prison Memoir — Arun Ferreira. 46. Shikha Dalmia Is the Unpopulist -- Episode 403 of The Seen and the Unseen. 47. DeMon, Morality and the Predatory Indian State — Episode 85 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 48. Narendra Modi Takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma. 49. Horseshoe Theory and the Median Voter Theorem. 50. Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working — Jonathan Rauch. 51. Denial: My 25 Years Without a Soul -- Jonathan Rauch. 52. The Logic of Collective Action -- Mancur Olson. 53. Anarchy, State and Utopia — Robert Nozick. 54. A Theory of Justice — John Rawls. 55. India After Gandhi — Ramachandra Guha. 56. Arguments for Liberty -- Edited by Aaron Ross Powell and Grant Babcock. 57. Johan Norberg on Amazon and YouTube. 58. State Building -- Francis Fukuyama. 59. India Needs Decentralization -- Episode 47 of Everything is Everything. 60. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 61. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra). 62. The Profit Motive in Education — Episode 9 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Parth Shah). 63. Our Unlucky Children (2008) -- Amit Varma. 64. Fund Schooling, Not Schools (2007) -- Amit Varma. 65. Profit = Philanthropy -- Amit Varma. 66. Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and performance — Claudia Mueller and Carol Dweck. 67. Controlling Your Dopamine For Motivation, Focus & Satisfaction -- Huberman Lab. 68. Master Your Sleep & Be More Alert When Awake -- Huberman Lab. 69. Why We Sleep — Matthew Walker. 70. Matthew Walker on the Huberman Lab podcast. 71. The Frido 3D eye mask Amit uses. 72. John Collison's tweet on the world being a museum of passion projects. 73. The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Metallica, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden on Spotify. 74. Love Me Tender and Can't Help Falling in Love -- Elvis Presley. 75. Aaj -- Bloodywood. 76. Bekhauf -- Bloodywood (featuring BABYMETAL) 77. Coke Studio Bharat Season 2 and Season 3. 78. Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg and Eminem on Spotify. 79. The Next Episode -- Dr Dre featuring Snoop Dogg, Kurupt, Nate Dogg. 80. Ravi Shankar at Monterey Pop. 81. Ain't No Man Alive Can Handle Me -- Dumpster Grooves. 82. Alistair MacLean and PG Wodehouse on Amazon. 83. The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams. 84. Animal Farm -- George Orwell. 85. Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action -- Matt Andrews, Lant Pritchett and Michael Woolcock. 86. The Rebirth of Education: Schooling Ain't Learning -- Lant Pritchett. 87. Lant Pritchett On Growth, Development & Income Inequality -- FED Dialogues. 88. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah. 89. Random Critical Analysis. 90. Chupke Chupke -- Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? It's madly active right now! Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Marketplace of Ideas' by Simahina.
Matthew Yglesias, Claire Ainsley, and Yascha Mounk debate whether progressives have abandoned the working-class voters they once claimed to represent. Will you be in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday July 15? I will be interviewing Francis Fukuyama about how liberalism should respond to the postliberal threat. Find out more and get your free ticket here! —Yascha In this week's episode of The Good Fight Club, Matthew Yglesias, Claire Ainsley, and Yascha Mounk examine why center-left parties are losing ground across democracies, whether structural forces or strategic failures are to blame, and what lessons from Canada, Australia, and the UK might offer a path forward for the left. Matthew Yglesias is the founder and author of Slow Boring, a Substack newsletter focused on policy and politics. He is the author of One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger and a longtime commentator on economics, housing, and Democratic Party strategy. Claire Ainsley is Director of the Project on Center-Left Renewal at the Progressive Policy Institute. A British political strategist and policy expert, she previously served as Executive Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and as a senior adviser in the Labour government of Keir Starmer. Note: This episode was recorded on June 3, 2026. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This special episode of LCHP's History-Politics Podcast features a recording of an event titled “The Future of History: Have We Reached the End of History Again?” This event was the first in a multi-part series by the Luskin Public History Program in conjunction with the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy at the Wende Museum. LCHP Director David Myers moderates a conversation between Miloš Jovanović (UCLA Assistant Professor of History), Natasha Piano (UCLA Assistant Professor of Political Theory, and Terry Tang (Executive Editor of the Los Angeles Times). This panel revisits the conclusion of political scientist Francis Fukuyama in his 1992 book The End of History and the Last Man, that we have reached “the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.” The scholars discuss whether the rise of illiberal authoritarianism marks a new end of history. From the rise of China and contemporary challenges to democracy to the role of journalism, education, and historical thinking in a “post-truth” age, the panelists examine the enduring appeal of liberty, equality, and human dignity. In an era of constant change, how should we think about the next phase of history? As part of an unfolding journey into the future, or as the beginning of the end? Miloš Jovanović is an Assistant Professor of History at UCLA. His research looks at the Balkans, Ottoman and Habsburg Empires, capitalism, and Marxist theory and history. His first book, Cities of Dust and Mud: Urbanism and Bourgeois Fantasy in the Balkans (Stanford University Press, 2026), explores the social costs of elite-led urban change. His new project, Spaces of Empire: The Habsburg World and its Afterlives, examines the diverse trajectories of urban spaces after imperial collapse.David N. Myers is Distinguished Professor of History and the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA. He is the founding director of the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. He also directs the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate, the UCLA Dialogue Across Difference Initiative, and the UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute. He is the author or editor of more than fifteen books, including American Shtetl (Princeton University Press 2022, winner of the 2022 National Jewish Book Award).Natasha Piano is Assistant Professor of Political Theory in the Department of Political Science at UCLA. She specializes in democratic theory and the history of political thought, focusing on realist and empirical traditions in political science and Italian political theory. Her book, Democratic Elitism: The Founding Myth of American Political Science (Harvard University Press, 2025), examines how misinterpretations of elite theory shaped American political systems. She is also the co-editor of Florentine Political Writings from Petrarch to Machiavelli (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019).Terry Tang is Executive Editor of the Los Angeles Times. Appointed in 2024, she is the first female editor in the paper's 142-year history. Before joining the Los Angeles Times in 2019, she served as director of publications and editorial at the American Civil Liberties Union and held multiple editorial roles at The New York Times. She holds a BA in economics from Yale and a JD from New York University School of Law. She was also a Nieman Fellow at Harvard.
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars,” Oscar Wilde wrote in his 1892 play Lady Windermere's Fan. This week, Elon Musk managed — not for the first time — to be simultaneously in the stars and the gutter. SpaceX's IPO valued his rocket company at $2 trillion — making Musk, officially, a trillionaire, the richest person in the world by a very large margin. The space Musk — the defiant genius who bet everything on a reusable rocket and the promise of a cosmic monopoly — is astonishing. The Wall Street Journal called the IPO a Goldilocks debut with Musk starring as the three bears. But there is another Musk — the one in the gutter, promoting white nationalist violence from his platform on X. This week Musk not only stoked the anti-immigrant riots in Belfast but reiterated his support for the English white supremacist gangster Tommy Robinson. So is this another Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella? Keith Teare, publisher of That Was the Week, certainly thinks so. While Keith is in awe of Musk's entrepreneurial genius at SpaceX, he seems to excuse Musk's support for Tommy Robinson's paramilitarism. “I'm not even sure I like him,” Keith confesses in his musings on “civilisation.” Nor do the rest of us. But I wonder if this good/bad Elon narrative is too convenient. There is an uncomfortable symbiosis between Musk's journey to SpaceX and to white nationalist violence. For all the utopian cornucopia of space, our earthly reality is one of scarce land and fear of immigrants — Trump, Tommy Robinson, and this weekend's Swiss referendum on capping its population at 10 million. For all the Muskian promise of cosmic abundance, today's Muskian politics is paranoid and exclusionary. So maybe it's not just Elon. Everyone these days is simultaneously in the gutter and looking up at the stars. Five Takeaways • SpaceX: From El Segundo Warehouse to $2 Trillion Juggernaut: SpaceX is 25 years old. It started in a warehouse near Los Angeles, in an area with a concentration of rocket scientists. Musk bet almost all of his Tesla gains on the idea of a reusable rocket — and nearly lost everything. Then a rocket worked. Since then: iterative improvement, the rockets getting bigger and more reliable, a virtual global monopoly on delivering payloads to space, Starlink (satellite internet that actually works at gigabit speeds), and NASA subcontracting its launches. Now: $2 trillion at IPO, Musk a trillionaire. Wall-to-wall applause from the startup world. Wall-to-wall pylon on social media. Both simultaneously true. • The Grimace vs the Applause: Andrew vs Keith's Media Diet: Keith says most commentators are grimacing at the valuation and Musk's net worth. Andrew says the serious press — the Wall Street Journal, even the New York Times — is largely applauding. The exchange reveals the media bifurcation: mainstream outlets cover the achievement; social media — X, Facebook, LinkedIn — is wall-to-wall outrage about a trillionaire in a world of growing inequality. Keith's verdict on Musk: he doesn't care whether people like him. Neither, in Keith's view, should we. You judge him not on likability but on criteria: civilization or net worth. Different criteria, different judgment. • California and Europe: The Failure of Government: Fareed Zakaria in the Washington Post: California is a case study in failed government. Andrew had Jonathan Weber on the show this week — City on the Edge, the historic dysfunctionality of San Francisco city government. Fukuyama is trying to be optimistic about Europe's liberal future. Keith's counter: Fukuyama ignores the structural problem — top-heavy EU bureaucracy that overrides countries, producing dislike of the EU in every European nation, even France, which built it. Populism, Keith argues, is not the disease. It's the symptom. The disease is twenty years of bad policy. • Bernie Sanders Finally Had an Insight: The Sovereign Wealth Fund: Sanders has proposed a sovereign wealth fund owning 50% of all high-growth AI companies, giving every citizen ownership shares. Keith, who last week said 50% wasn't enough, this week credits it as the first genuine insight Sanders has had. The kicker: David Sacks — arch right-winger, former PayPal Mafia, Andreessen Horowitz — agreed on his podcast and said it should be 75%. Keith's observation: when David Sacks and Bernie Sanders can agree on the direction, left-right labels stop helping. The question is just how to make capitalism's gains flow to everyone. • Planning Beats Complaint: Keith's editorial closer. The choice is not between liking Musk and hating Musk, not between celebrating SpaceX and resenting its valuation. The choice is between complaining and planning. John O'Farrell, former general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, resigned and wrote an op-ed in the New York Times: “We can't let my former venture capital colleagues buy off democracy.” Gary Tan organised an Asian-American reaction against San Francisco's school board and won. Citizens who act beat citizens who complain. That's the week's lesson. That's Keith's lesson. Andrew is away next week. About the Guest Keith Teare is a British-American entrepreneur, investor, and publisher of the That Was the Week newsletter. He is a co-founder of TechCrunch and Andrew's regular TWTW co-host. References: • That Was the Week by Keith Teare. • Fareed Zakaria, “How California Became a Case Study in Failed Government,” Washington Post — referenced in the conversation. • John O'Farrell, “We Can't Let My Former Venture Capital Colleagues Buy Off Democracy,” New York Times — referenced in the conversation. • Francis Fukuyama on the liberal vision of Europe — referenced in the conversation. • Episode 2938: Jonathan Weber on City on the Edge — referenced at the opening. About Keen On America Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,900 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting. WebsiteSubstackYouTubeApple PodcastsSpotify Chapters: (00:31) - Introduction: SpaceX IPO, ...
Hubert, Martin www.deutschlandfunk.de, Andruck - Das Magazin für Politische Literatur
Balzer, Jens www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Studio 9
Balzer, Jens www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de, Studio 9
¿Qué le ocurre al liberalismo cuando el guion que lo orientó durante tres décadas deja de corresponder al mundo? El analista político e historiador mexicano Carlos Bravo Regidor empezó a hacerse esa pregunta la noche del triunfo electoral de Donald Trump en 2016 —que coincidió con su cumpleaños— y dedicó los siguientes años a perseguirla a través de una serie de entrevistas largas que originalmente le encargó la revista Gatopardo. El resultado es Mar de Dudas: Conversaciones para navegar el desconcierto (Grano de Sal / Gatopardo, 2025), una colección de catorce conversaciones extensas con algunos de los pensadores políticos más agudos de nuestro tiempo, entre ellos Francis Fukuyama, Branko Milanović, Nadia Urbinati, Daniel Innerarity, Federico Finchelstein, Pablo Stefanoni, Rafael Rojas, Margaret MacMillan, Ivan Krastev, Sofia Rosenfeld, Rebecca Solnit y Laura Gamboa. En este episodio del podcast Ideas Letter de la Open Society Foundations, producido en colaboración con la New Books Network, el conductor Mario Arriagada conversa con Bravo Regidor sobre el itinerario intelectual que lo llevó de las certezas noventeras —el triunfalismo de la posguerra fría, las transiciones democráticas, el liberalismo de mercado, el Estado de derecho— a un ajuste de cuentas con las fallas estructurales de ese paradigma. Hablan del carácter parcial y conducido por élites de las democratizaciones latinoamericanas, con la transición mexicana como caso paradigmático de una negociación partidocrática de raíces sociales superficiales; de las preguntas legítimas que el populismo le plantea a la democracia liberal sobre representación, redistribución y la distancia entre la calle que protesta y el silencio de los mármoles del Parlamento; del giro hacia la posverdad y la crisis de intermediación en la esfera pública tras el declive de los viejos guardianes del sentido común; y de las lógicas específicas y autóctonas de las nuevas derechas en Argentina, Brasil y El Salvador, que la conversación insiste en no meter en una misma bolsa. Lo que emerge no es tanto un recorrido guiado por catorce autores como una meditación sobre el ejercicio mismo de la duda —lo que Ortega y Gasset, a quien Bravo Regidor cita como fuente del título, llamó el salvavidas de la inteligencia— y sobre la entrevista larga como antídoto a la velocidad y la estridencia de la vida pública contemporánea. Mar de Dudas, y esta conversación sobre el libro, son una invitación a desacelerar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Capitalism is in crisis. On this point all are agreed. But what is the crisis? How can it be solved? Is capitalism the 'end of history', as Francis Fukuyama famously said after the counter-revolutions in the USSR and Eastern Europe in 1989-91? Will capitalism simply 'sort itself out'? Is it the best of a bad lot, as Churchill and Thatcher maintain? OR is it up to you and me, the working people to lay hold of the means of production - the factories, mines, banks, offices, warehouses, shopping empires, shipping, rail, trucking conglomerates, and run them ourselves; to plan production sustainably to satisfy OUR basic needs and to meet OUR pressing interests. For what will be the cost exacted from the masses of working people of the world in 'blood and treasure' for capitalism's ongoing existence? Can the world bear yet more "belt tightening", poverty, misery, ill health, malnutrition, environmental degradation, unemployment - with all the physical and spiritual degradation that these entail - and deaths from economic and political causes - notably war and famine? And why? All so the few hundred billionaires can carry on amassing obscene amounts of wealth at our expense! In this talk, Ella Rule explains the economics of capitalism, including the basics of Karl Marx's Classic "Das Capital" and Lenin's "Imperialism". Only by understanding the problem, can we find a solution. How is value created? how is it amassed? Of what does exploitation consist (How are workers robbed of the values they create?) Watching this video introduction is a vital step - that takes us closer to the goal of building a movement with the understanding to tackle our parasitic and decadent ruling class; place workers in control; and enable us to build an economy that serves the interests of the vast masses of humanity. Please watch and help to spread it far and wide. You are welcome to repost it, but please acknowledge your source. "The capitalists are our implacable enemies. Their wealth is built upon our poverty, their joy upon our misery!" There is not a crime that capitalists will not commit to preserve their monopoly over the means of production, distribution and exchange. The only fitting punishment is to deprive them of their ill-gotten gains. Our revenge will be the laughter on the faces of our children. A better world is possible. ___________________________________ Subscribe! Donate! Join us in building a bright future for humanity! http://www.cpgb-ml.org http://www.lalkar.org http://www.redyouth.org Online Shop: https://shop.cpgb-ml.org/ Education Program: Each one teach one! http://www.londonworker.org/education... Join the struggle! https://www.cpgb-ml.org/join/ Donate: https://www.cpgb-ml.org/donate/
History's back, baby! Thu 28 May, Verdurin, London Tickets: https://verdur.in/store/historys-back-baby-admission/ It is obvious today that the “end of history”, postulated by Francis Fukuyama in 1992, is over. Liberal democracy as the final form of human organisation? Pah! The arc of history tending towards justice? Pah! Will the end of twentieth-century modernity be the start of something new? The building blocks of the past – political parties, ideologies, and institutions – are decaying around us, and nothing new emerges to take their place. Yet history now has new protagonists: states, corporations, and oligarchs, often acting in synthesis. What if history's back but not as we wanted it? The stakes are high: the sunset of the US hegemony is in sight and even Fukuyama now agrees on the impending primacy of the “Chinese model”. Yet even such geopolitical shifts aren't leading to the creation of a new hegemony – disorder is the order of the day. Five years on from the publication of The End of the End of History, its authors and hosts of Bungacast reflect on a world in a state of accelerated decay, with responses from guests Lee Jones and Nina Power. They say that “nothing ever happens”. Pah! Something ever happens.
Francis Fukuyama wrote The End of History more than 30 years ago, believing that the fall of the communist bloc would lead to a more peaceful world. We are still waiting for that moment of peace.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/fukuyama-was-wrong-history-did-not-end
Francis Fukuyama wrote The End of History more than 30 years ago, believing that the fall of the communist bloc would lead to a more peaceful world. We are still waiting for that moment of peace.Original article: https://mises.org/mises-wire/fukuyama-was-wrong-history-did-not-end
Zack Polanski has apologised to the Metropolitan Police for a retweet he made in response to the horrific knife attack on two Jewish men in North London. Plus: King Charles has got on the wrong side of two famous New Yorkers, for May Day – we take a look at the history of the weekend and the workers' movements behind it, Francis Fukuyama weighs in on the rise of China, and Bernie Sanders continues his campaign against AI. With Michael Walker, Michael Mezzatesta, and Joe Ryle.
BONUS: Acclaimed author and professor Francis Fukuyama discusses his seminal works “Trust” and “The End of History” and how they apply today, and to an era of mounting distrust and conspiracy theories in the new Trump era, in this extended conversation with MS NOW's Ari Melber. Fukuyama also analyzes Elon Musk's “oligarch” politics, and shares his passions beyond academia - woodworking and drone building. To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Sam Harris speaks with Francis Fukuyama about liberal democracy, American politics, and global order. They discuss the misunderstood thesis of "The End of History," how conservatism has mutated into ethno-nationalism, the self-defeating extremes of both identity politics and neoliberalism, the damage of Trump's second term, the war in Iran, the future of Israel, antisemitism on the left and right, and other topics. If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe.
Get your copy of Gita Wirjawan's book, “What It Takes: Southeast Asia”, NOW:https://books.endgame.id/Also available on Amazon:https://sgpp.me/amazon/Leave your review here:www.goodreads.com/book/show/241922036-what-it-takes------------------Francis Fukuyama argues that Western civilization is waning, and America can no longer agree on what it's even defending.In this episode, Professor Fukuyama discusses the deepening crisis within the liberal international order, as well as the symptoms and impact of America's long-term decline.------------------About the Guest:Francis Fukuyama is a senior fellow at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute and one of the most influential political theorists of the past three decades. Best known for “The End of History and the Last Man”, his work spans liberal democracy, political order, and institutional decay.About the host:Gita Wirjawan is an Indonesian entrepreneur and educator. He is the founding partner of Ikhlas Capital and the chairman of Ancora Group. Currently, he is teaching at Stanford as a visiting scholar with Stanford's Precourt Institute for Energy.------------------
We talk about Alexandre Kojève, whose reading of Hegel gave rise to a theory of recognition and of an "end of history". We also discuss Kojève's influence on Francis Fukuyama and on contemporary liberalism.
Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University. His latest book is Liberalism and Its Discontents. He is also the author of the “Frankly Fukuyama” column, carried forward from American Purpose, at Persuasion. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama discuss whether the unprecedented strikes on Iran will lead to the downfall of the mullahs, whether America can avoid getting drawn into a Middle Eastern quagmire, and whether the midterms will turn Donald Trump into a lame duck. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple | Google X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
World leaders and army veterans have rejected President Trump's claim that Nato service personnel did not fight on the front lines or play a key part during the US-led war in Afghanistan. We speak to a former secretary general of Nato, whose alliance sent thousands of international troops to fight during the invasion.Also in the programme: grim reports continue to emerge from Iran; why Nelson Mandela's family is fighting to keep his belongings from an auction; and does celebrated political scientist Francis Fukuyama believe this is the end of the "rules-based" international order?(Photo: US President Donald Trump speaks as he meets with Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington DC, US, October 22, 2025. Credit: Reuters)
Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama look back at this year—and make predictions for 2026. Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University. His latest book is Liberalism and Its Discontents. He is also the author of the “Frankly Fukuyama” column, carried forward from American Purpose, at Persuasion. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Francis Fukuyama discuss why Donald Trump is flagging, whether American institutions are resilient enough to survive, and the future of Ukraine. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple | Google X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
While the inhumane and aggressive tactics unfolding in Chicago are repelling many Americans, they are having the opposite effect among Trump's top aides. The Kristi Noem clique wants more— much more— of the Border Patrol's "Midway Blitz" around the country, and they're busy purging local ICE leadership in a number of cities in an attempt to dramatically ramp up the pace of deportations. Meanwhile, Trump keeps talking like he's all for regime change in Venezuela. Plus, how conspiracy and our phones helped fuel the rise of global populism, why the left and right yearn for a struggle in an age of peace and prosperity, and the modern effort to reclaim the word 'liberal.' Frank Fukuyama and Sam Stein join Tim Miller. show notes: Adrian's recent reporting from Chicago Isaac Chotiner's interview with Karine Jean-Pierre Frank on Substack Frank's "Liberalism and Its Discontents" and his "The End of History and the Last Man" "Termination Shock," referenced by Frank