The end of civilisations and societies

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"Doom-prepping" tech billionaires have been in the headlines recently and whether it’s ecological crisis or a breakdown in law and order, fear of societal collapse seems to lurk in the background of a lot of discussion in politics and wider society. But what does it mean? When has it happened in the past? Can we avoid it – or survive it – in the future? Joining presenter Shahidha Bari for Radio 4's roundtable discussion about the ideas shaping our world are: Luke Kemp from the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, the writer and commentator Peter Hitchens, classical historian Neville Morley, historian of modern politics Phil Tinline and Rhiannon Firth, sociologist at University College London.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts.
0:07.3	Hello, I'm Kimberly Wilson. I'm a psychologist, and in my new podcast, Complex, I'll be your guide
0:14.4	through all the information and misinformation that's out there about mental health.
0:19.0	I'm joined by expert guests covering topics
0:21.8	from people pleasing to perfectionism,
0:24.2	burnout to empathy,
0:25.9	to find tangible advice
0:27.3	so we can understand ourselves a little better.
0:30.5	Complex with me, Kimberly Wilson.
0:33.0	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:35.7	This is the Arts and Ideas podcast with me, Shahida Bari.
0:39.8	Hello and welcome to the end of the world
0:42.3	and to free thinking where we make jokes like there's no tomorrow.
0:46.4	But a free thinking studio isn't such a bad place to while away the apocalypse,
0:51.2	especially with lively companions who can help us take a sideways view
0:55.1	on the issues of the day. Tonight, we're thinking about the small matter of the collapse of
1:00.2	society, whether that's brought about by polarisation, pandemics, AI, autocracy or ecological
1:06.6	crisis. At this time of the year when the night's fair drawing in, there's often a kind of ambient
1:12.6	pessimism in the air. But earlier in the summer too, Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform Party,
1:18.5	declared that the UK was teetering on the brink of societal collapse. Meanwhile, secretive tech
1:24.9	billionaires have been busy building bunkers and buying up remote islands recently.
1:29.7	What do they know that the rest of us don't, hey?
	...

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