Can Donald Trump Be Compared To Julius Caesar? (Your Radical Questions with Tom Holland)

Radical with Amol Rajan

BBC

Society & Culture

4.5 • 919 Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2026

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Historian and The Rest Is History co-host Tom Holland answers your questions about whether Britain is currently in a more precarious state than it was in the 1970s, what definition of ‘radical’ best describes him and if he will ever score a century playing cricket.

He also explains why American presidents are often compared to Julius Caesar and faces a question he’s never heard before.

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* WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: radical@bbc.co.uk

Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and you can also watch them on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002f1d0/radical-with-amol-rajan

Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The Independent.

Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis Vickers with Anna Budd. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davis and Joe Wilkinson. Technical production was by Mike Regaard. The editor is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:07.0	On Newscast, we are not in the business of telling you how to think.
0:11.5	We get the brightest minds from across the BBC to chat through the biggest stories.
0:16.1	You should leave feeling smarter about all the bonkers things in the news.
0:19.7	Listen to Newscast every day on BBC Sounds.
0:23.1	Now, before we get started on this week's episode of Your Radical Questions, the first of 2026,
0:28.7	I want to tell you about an upcoming guest on Radical and ask for more of your magnificent questions
0:34.4	because there's a growing, fostering crisis in this country and we want to shine
0:38.8	a light on what's going wrong and what can be done radically differently. So if you've been
0:43.7	fostered, if you're a foster carer yourself, if you're interested in how the system does or doesn't
0:48.6	work, please send us your questions for Louise Allen. She is a foster carer herself, but also grew up in foster care,
0:56.4	and is now a powerful advocate for reforming the system from the inside out. The government says
1:01.9	it has a plan to boost fostering, which it will introduce in the coming weeks, and we're going
1:06.8	to talk about that in the main episode with Louise, but for your radical questions,
1:15.9	we need your questions for her. So, questions please, for Louise Allen, about the whole system of fostering, the morality of it, the implications for social and economic policy,
1:20.3	and what can be done to improve rates of fostering, which everyone knows is a social good,
1:25.7	not just for the people who are fostered, but for the rest of us,
1:28.3	given the benefits to those who are fostered economically and socially for the whole
1:32.2	country. Please send us a voice note on WhatsApp. The number is 0-330-123-94480. Or you can email us us at radical at BBC.com.uk. Now, on to today's episode.
1:49.4	Hello and welcome to your first Your Radical Questions episode of 2026. Happy New Year.
1:55.8	This is where I put your questions to one of our brilliant radical guests, and this is your chance to engage with them directly
2:02.1	to really connect with these super smart, super interesting people that we are privileged to have on
	...

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