Live Special: Is This How Democracy Ends? w/Lyse Doucet, Chris Clark & Thant Myint-U

Past Present Future

D&HR Media Ltd

History, Politics, News, Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.7 • 747 Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2026

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today’s episode was recorded last Wednesday in front of a live audience at Friends’ House in London, where David was joined by the BBC’s Lyse Doucet, historian Chris Clark and diplomat and writer Thant Myint-U to discuss the fate of democracy in the long run and in the short term. What does the current war mean for democracy in Iran, democracy in America and democracy in the wider world? If we are at the end of an era, what is it exactly that is coming to an end? Who gets to decide what might come next? Will it be less democracy, a different democracy or no democracy at all? This event was jointly hosted with the London Review of Books. David’s 2016 article ‘Is This How Democracy Ends?’ is available to read on the LRB website https://bit.ly/416UDUz You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes and PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time: Live Special – Another American Civil War? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:32.7	All right, we've got Simon on the line.
0:38.3	Simon, young people, they're just all a bit, a bit lazy, aren't they? What are you for?
0:39.3	Good way.
0:40.3	Some say young people are work shy, but at McDonald's, we hired 47,000 of them last year.
0:47.3	How's your night?
0:48.3	Like George here, who keeps things running during a Friday rush.
0:52.3	Resilience, making it happen at McDonald's.
1:08.8	Hello, my name's, past-present future, the History of Ideas podcast.
1:15.5	Today's episode is a recording of an event that took place last week, in which I was joined
1:21.5	by the BBC's chief international correspondent, Lees Doucette, historian and PPF regular Chris Clark,
1:28.9	and the UN diplomat and writer, Thant Mint Ou, who's also been our guide on this podcast to
1:35.1	America at war. And we were talking about the fate of democracy, the fate of democracy in broad
1:42.4	historical perspective, but also the fate of democracy in this war.
1:52.4	We recorded this event last Wednesday evening, and at the moment a week really is, a long time in politics,
2:00.1	in front of an audience of more than 600 people
2:02.6	at Friends House in London, Friends House, the home of the Quakers. This event was jointly
	...

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