281 | Trump Stress Test

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David talks to the historian Sarah Churchwell about how well America's political institutions have withstood the stress of the last four years.  Have we seen the limits of presidential power or have we discovered how easy it is to trash those limits?  Are constitutional checks and balances still intact?  Is it really Mitch McConnell who is putting American democracy under stress?  Plus we talk about what will be needed to restore the social contract and the perils of political humility.

280 | Can Boris Survive Brexit?

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This week we come back to Brexit and ask whether Boris Johnson has a good way out of the current negotiations with the EU over a trade deal. First we talk with Kenneth Armstrong, Professor of European Law, about the thinking and the reality behind the government's Internal Market Bill. Then David, Helen and Chris Brooke explore the politics of success and failure in the negotiations. Can the Union survive?  Does the government have a coherent strategy? And how much trouble is Johnson really in?

279 | One-Term Presidents

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David talks to Helen Thompson and Gary Gerstle about the historical precedents for US presidents losing office after a single term.  It doesn't happen very often, but it could be about to happen again!  Can Trump use the powers of incumbency to prevent it?  Can Biden use Trump's growing chaos to seal his fate?  Plus we talk about the fall-out from the first presidential debate and we ask how the politics of the Supreme Court might intersect with a contested election result.

278 | Michael Sandel on the Case Against Meritocracy

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David and Helen talk to the philosopher Michael Sandel about the
damage that the idea of rewarding people on merit has done to education,
democracy and public life. Why is it wrong to try to match the best students to the best universities? What is credentialism and how has it warped the way work is rewarded? Whatever happened to the idea of the common good? Plus we discuss America's sense of itself as God's chosen nation in the age of Obama and Trump.

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277 | Robert Harris and V2

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A Sunday extra with the novelist Robert Harris to talk about the V2 campaign of terror against London during WII and the parallels with today.  Plus we discuss the big questions of counterfactual history - could Hitler really have won the war? - and we ask whether Boris Johnson is anything like his political heroes, Cicero and Churchill.

276 | Jill Lepore on the Destructive Power of Tech

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David talks to the American historian Jill Lepore about the damage new technology can do to democracy, from the 1960s to the present. Who first tried to manipulate the minds of the electorate? Where did the money come from? What happened when the same technology was applied to fighting the Vietnam War? Plus we discuss US presidential elections from 1960 to 2020: do the machines really decide who is going to win, and if he does win this time, what might Joe Biden be able to do about it?