The Prospect Podcast ‘Despair is a luxury’: A year of hope with Zizek, Mehdi Hasan, Robert Macfarlane and others
Dec 17, 2025
Alan Rusbridger, veteran journalist and former editor of Prospect magazine, shares insights from his remarkable career. He emphasizes the importance of nuanced journalism in a polarizing world. The conversation pivots to how artificial intelligence can enhance journalistic practices, sparking optimism for the future. Other guests, including Slavoj Zizek and Mehdi Hasan, dissect the role of pessimism as a catalyst for action, while Robert Macfarlane and Yassmin Abdel-Magied highlight ecological revival and humanitarian resilience as sources of hope.
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Methodical Pessimism As Motivation
- Slavoj Žižek argues 'methodical pessimism' drives action rather than passive despair.
- Pessimism, for him, becomes a mobilising strategy to avoid complacent disappointment.
Hope Versus Optimism
- Mehdi Hasan distinguishes optimism from hope, rejecting naive optimism while holding on to struggle-driven hope.
- He says hope is about continuing the struggle even if things may get worse first.
Historic Cycles And Institutional Rebuilding
- Ruth Ben‑Ghiat and Philippe Sands take a longue durée view that institutions rebuild after periods of destruction.
- They find hope in popular movements and expect eventual reckoning and reconstruction of rules.