The Prospect Podcast

The only world order any of us can remember has been led by one super-power above all others, the United States. But the election of the intermittently isolationist Donald Trump—combined with the ongoing eclipse of American economic power by the Chinese continuing in the background—could mark the moment where the liberal rules of the game finally unravel.Certainly, that is the view of Francis Fukuyama, the political scientist who a generation ago proclaimed the victory of America’s liberal democratic after the Cold War as “the end of history." Today, however, he tells us that the democratic half of liberal democracy is now wreaking revenge on on the liberal part: Trump is merely an emblem of that. And Fukuyama fears that the consequences could in time prove to be just as big as the end of Communism. The historian Adam Tooze, agrees. He pinpoints the birth of the American Century to 1917—with the US entry into the First World War—and he argues that this year’s centenary will thus prove to be funereal marker. Globe-trotting writer Wendell Steavenson—who has lived in Iraq, Lebanon and Paris—keeps a keen eye out for American influence everywhere she goes, and explains why McDonald’s has been the perfect outpost of an American empire, whose days may be finally running down. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

All that is solid melts into air. It was one of Karl Marx’s most famous slogans, but the great Victorian might have been writing about 2016. Many a political death arrived suddenly, and famous names from Prince to David Bowie died literally too. The British people voted to crash out of the European Union, and now—the one thing all the wise heads agreed couldn’t happen has done. America has voted in President Donald Trump. Where are these unsettling times taking us, and what will the new president actually do? In the third episode of this monthly series, Prospect editor Tom Clark is joined by the esteemed American writer, Sam Tanenhaus who has followed Trump all year and explains why this most unprepared of leaders is looking as shocked as the rest of us; and, Diane Roberts, a literary critic and a commentator for National Public Radio warns that Trump’s arrival could set back the clock for women and minorities by half a century. The historian, Ruth Dudley-Edwards, gives her take on whether the effect of one of 2016’s earlier surprises—Brexit—could reopen an ancient Irish wound on the border. And all the panel reflect on one of the year’s cheerier “Oh My God” moments: the award of the Nobel literature prize to Bob Dylan. All of the discussion draws on articles in the December 2016 edition of Prospect magazine.Produced by Matt Hill at Rethink Audio. To download the next episode automatically, you can subscribe to this series on iTunes (using the button above) or through the many free podcast apps available for your smartphone. Just search "Prospect Headspace" and subscribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is it time to come off the love drug? Is there now real promise in the radical energy of the Corbynite left? What explains the rage pulsating through the US election campaign? In the second episode of this monthly series, Prospect editor Tom Clark is joined by the novelist Will Self, the author Rachel Shabi and Diane Roberts, a commentator for National Public Radio who has been reading up on “hillbilly communities.” The four of them discuss the ideas gracing the November 2016 edition of the magazine. Produced by Matt Hill at Rethink Audio. To download the next episode automatically, you can subscribe to this series on iTunes (using the button above) or through the many free podcast apps available for your smartphone. Just search "Prospect Headspace" and subscribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the first episode of this new monthly series, Prospect editor Tom Clark is joined by three contributors to discuss the ideas gracing the October edition of the magazine.We hear from Joanne Paul on what Thomas More's "Utopia" can tell us about politics some 500 years after it was first published. Rachel Holmes applauds the rise of women to positions of political power—but are they radical enough? Plus, former Conservative minister David Willetts tells us why Thatcher's industrial policy needs updating.Produced by Matt Hill at Rethink Audio. To download the next episode automatically, you can subscribe to this series on iTunes (using the button above) or through the many free podcast apps available for your smartphone. Just search "Prospect Headspace" and subscribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.