How to fix the future – with lessons from the past

Oh God, What Now?

Podmasters

Politics, Government, News, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 2 September 2025

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Warning: contains hope for tomorrow! It sometimes feels like the polycrisis of global heating, collapsing democracy, job-killing A.I. and radicalisation can’t be solved – but what if there are answers in similar turning points from the past? Roman Krznaric, author of History For Tomorrow : How The Past Can Inspire Our Future, joins Andrew Harrison and Zöe Grünewald for a surprisingly uplifting tour of invaluable lessons of the past, from the fight to end slavery to the battle to control artificial intelligence. • Don’t forget you can watch full video on Spotify. ESCAPE ROUTES • Zoë recommends Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth. • Roman has been watching (and cooking to) the latest series of The Bear on Disney+. • Andrew saw Sea Power, Jane Weaver, Stewart Lee and a good few OGWN listeners at the Krankenhaus festival near Ravenglass. • Get our exclusive NordVPN deal here ⁠https://nordvpn.com/ohgodwhatnow⁠. It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money back guarantee! When you buy books through our affiliate bookshop, you help fund the podcast by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. • Advertisers! Want to reach smart, engaged, influential people with money to spend? (Yes, they do exist). Some 3.5 MILLION people download and watch our podcasts every month – and they love our shows. Why not get YOUR brand in front of our influential listeners with podcast advertising? Contact [email protected] to find out more • Back us on Patreon for ad-free listening, bonus materials and more. Written and presented by Andrew Harrison with Zoë Grünewald. Audio and video production by Chris Jones and Tom Taylor. Theme music by Cornershop. Art direction: James Parrett. Produced by Chris Jones. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Alison Phillips.
0:01.3	And I'm John Ewich.
0:02.4	And this edition of Oh God What Now is sponsored by naked wines.
0:07.5	A great tasting wine is one of life's little treats.
0:11.1	But it's not always easy to find.
0:13.5	Especially when you're in the supermarket and all the wines kind of look the same.
0:17.0	Good thing there's naked wines.
0:18.8	Skip the fath, shop with confidence and enjoy hundreds of excellent wines from world-class
0:24.0	independent winemakers.
0:25.5	As a member of myself, I love that I can try stuff I wouldn't find anywhere else.
0:30.0	Even better.
0:30.6	Each bottle costs up to 33% less compared to other retailers.
0:34.6	So you know you're always getting great wine at a great price.
0:37.5	Plus, there's no need to leave the house. Naked delivers the wine straight to your doorstep.
0:41.4	And if you ever feel like a wine doesn't quite hit the spot, you can always get a credit back
0:45.5	to try something else. Good luck doing that in a supermarket. Now today, we are going to be trying
0:51.8	Simpsons of Servian Rose.
0:54.9	Right, here we go.
0:56.0	So it's giving vibes of like hanging out in Provence with my family, which is lovely.
0:59.9	Which is nice memory to have on a Friday afternoon when I probably shouldn't be drinking wine at this time.
1:04.4	Oh, that's lovely.
1:04.9	It gives me sort of vibes of maybe sitting in a park, the sun's shining, which it is today.
	...

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