Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?

It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.

Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds.

Hello, I'm Philip Dodd and welcome to the Arts and Ideas Discussion Program from BBC Radio 3,

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In Bram Stoker's wonderfully hysterical Dracula, the vampires come from the east, bringing pestilence.

Well, read some Western Europeans on Eastern Europe now, and it is as if the East again is in danger of contaminating the West with new forms of cultural and political disease.

Crypto-fascism, populist nationalism, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant Christian regimes, call them what you will.

But from Warsaw or Budapest, or even from Vienna, the world looks different.

With a cozy Western elite, ignorant of the history of Eastern Europe,

with its memories of Ottoman invasion, of communist rule, and its proud recognition of the history of Eastern Europe, with its memories of Ottoman invasion, of communist rule,

and its proud recognition of the centrality of Christianity to its history.

The current arguments in Poland over abortion, the arguments between France and Germany

and some Central European countries over refugees and the rule of law. These are a sign that there are culture wars within Europe,

not between levers and remainers, but over what it means to be European.

And that's our subject and terrain in this programme.

With me is Michael Ignatyev, the author, historian and the rector of the

Central European University based in Budapest, which itself now is under threat from the Hungarian

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