Ep. 475 — Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown

The Axe Files with David Axelrod

CNN

News

4.6 • 7.7K Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2022

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown grew up the son of a minister in an industrial Scottish town before ascending the ranks of Britain’s Labour Party to eventually serve as Prime Minister. Since leaving office, The Rt. Hon. Brown has focused on social justice, most recently speaking out on the shortfalls in the international response to Covid-19. He joined David to talk about his concerns over increased nationalism in Europe and around the globe, how he views the United States’ role in world affairs, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and how almost losing his eye sight led to a career in politics.

To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Music
0:06.0	And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Axe Files, with your host David Axelrod.
0:19.0	When I worked in the White House, I had the honor of meeting Gordon Brown, who is then Prime Minister of Great Britain.
0:25.0	He was then, as he is today, a brilliant and passionate thinker about public policy.
0:30.0	That's reflected in his newest book, Seven Ways to Change the World, how to fix the most pressing problems we face.
0:37.0	I sat down with Mr. Brown for a live virtual chat this week at the Institute of Politics.
0:42.0	Here's that conversation.
0:44.0	Music
0:50.0	Prime Minister Gordon Brown, it's so good to see you again, especially at such an interesting challenging time for the world.
0:58.0	I'm looking forward to getting some of your wisdom.
1:00.0	So welcome to the Axe Files, welcome to the University of Chicago Institute of Politics.
1:04.0	Well, we're missing your advice and wisdom that you brought to bear with you in government.
1:08.0	So, I'm going to be good to talk about some of the issues that are going to be solved, going to be dealt with.
1:13.0	Before we do that, though, I want to talk about you and your journey.
1:17.0	It started in Cracaldy.
1:20.0	Did I say that right?
1:21.0	Cracaldy.
1:22.0	It's Cracaldy, actually, and it's the birthplace of Adam Smith, and it's probably best known because he was such an important figure in economics.
1:30.0	And next door is Dumpferman, which is the home of Andrew Carnegie.
1:33.0	And of course, he remains well known for his philanthropic activities around the world.
1:38.0	So I was brought up in this, what is actually an industrial town, mining, coal mining and textiles on the periphery, if you like, of course.
1:46.0	The periphery, if you like, of the conurbation of Edinburgh.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from CNN, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of CNN and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.