Wow. Just wow. Thank you for making the time and effort for this. Great educational podcast.

David Runciman does not disappoint!

Extraordinarily thoughtful and well-written commentary. As free from bias as you can get on these topics.

David Runciman's rigorous yet easygoing talks about key figures in the history of political philosophy represent the holy grail of intellectual entertainment. Beautifully presented, without the stiffness of a formal lecture, entirely accessible to a general audience, and packed to the rafters with memorable insights, each episode is a delightful education worth repeated listening.

I wish Runciman could inject a bit more enthusiasm. He seems mildly depressed throughout. And how about an overview at the start, and a summary and conclusions at the end of each episode? Or is this how Oxbridge professors lecture today: stream of consciousness?

Runciman not only describes his great liberal and reactionary subjects in concise, beautiful prose; he puts them into conversation with each other, layering each new episode over the prior entries, and for this reason the listener feels not lost in a maze of perspectives but lifted up to the clear, broad vantage of the master.

So happy for season two, and I still regularly listen to all of the season one episodes. With each re-listen I always get some new insight.

I feel like I should be paying tuition for this.

So glad to have you back! One of the best podcasts out there today.

There is no good reason not to give this 5 stars. If you want more, just be happy with the time David has already given to produce this much brilliant commentary!

I love this podcast but I can’t access past episodes? Before Arendt, all episodes appear as unavailable.

The smartest podcast I’ve listened to.

It’s very refreshing to hear such deep thinking about politics, whether or not you agree with everything being said.

Very enjoyable!

Eye-opening ideas for a citizen of the United States in 2020. One can only hope that the American state will survive the present administration. Particularly intrigued by the ‘colonization’ of the African-Americans inside their own country. Best to be well-fed and fully awake when listening to this. Will listen again and hope for a second series.

What an amazing resource and particular look at how conceptions of the state have been made, challenged and influenced. Hope they do more!

When I close my eyes I can imagine I’m back in a lecture hall when listening to this series of podcasts. Been a big fan of Talking Politics for over a year and this series of lectures on the history of ideas has filled a space in my podcast habits that I didn’t know I needed. I’ve not engaged deeply with these authors since graduate and undergraduate studies and I’m grateful for the reintroduction to these texts and philosophers. Hope there are more series like this to come.

This series is super interesting, and not just for people who have read all the books discussed. (I haven’t read any of them, and I was able to get a lot out of it.) I discovered this series through the regular Talking Politics podcast, which I discovered via the Five Thirty Eight Elections podcast. So if you listen to either of those, you will like this one. Also, speaking as an American, I find David’s British accent delightful and he has the perfect radio/podcast voice. It’s quite soothing. This series really walks through a lot of Big Ideas, and I learned a ton by listening to it. Definitely listen to the episodes in order because he refers back to earlier episodes quite a bit. It’s a highly thought-provoking and educational series!

Prof Runciman spends 10 hours taking a deep dive into a key philosopher and his or her key idea and how it fit into their time and how it still fits into our time. He also brilliantly ties the ideas together (so listen in order!) to see how they build on each other. The result is a rich and full appreciation of modern political philosophy.

Think back to your favourite class at university taught by your favourite professor, and said professor’s closing thoughts to a lecture that send chills down your spine. Add to that a powerful thread that runs across the semester. That’s what this podcast is. It lacks only the stress of keeping up with the reading and of course the exam.

This great spinoff series from Talking Politics made COVID quarantine infinitely more tolerable. Runciman is a brilliant lecturer and incredibly lucid as he winds his way through these talks and lays out his idiosyncratic schema for how these thinkers reflect on each other regarding the concept of the state. Fingers crossed they do a second series (as they hinted they would). It’s the great intellectual history college course I never took. Highly recommend.

A wonderful podcast

Well done and thank you David and team. Listen and open your mind. Highly recommended.

Runciman takes us on a temporal journey on the ideas that underpin our institutions and thinking. It’s a surprisingly easy listen. Thanks David!

Fantastic.

I’ve been listening to “Talking Politics” for several years. Their thoughtful take on so many aspects of contemporary events helps me make sense of things. The “History of Ideas” series is a great complement. It builds a structure for their commentary. Some of the authors I knew. Others were new to me. The whole project made me see a wider range of possibilities and perspectives. In particular, it clarified the relationship between the modern state and democracy. That is essential to understanding where we are right now. I highly recommend this series.

Wish there were more episodes on other thinkers! In my mind: JS Mill, Carl Schmitt, Rawls

Wonderful! This deeply thoughtful series brought me back to my undergraduate days studying intellectual history. Professor Runciman has crafted a first season that immediately relevant to the issues of our day, but there is so much more to explore in these difficult times. So please, continue this series! (Please note, this is my first time rating anything and as such I pressed the wrong amount of stars two times without leaving a comment, not knowing it immediately accepts those as ratings. Those should be disregarded as this is my - 5 Star - review!)

As a young college student primarily interested in political theory, this is a godsend. A lot of what I’ve learned has come from seminal texts in the history of political theory and liberalism, so stuff from Wollstonecraft, Fanon, and MacKinnon were wholly new to me and entirely fascinating. Please make a second season, and include some more of these “lesser known” thinkers, or the more minor texts of larger thinkers as well.

David curates his vision of modern political theory from Hobbes to Mckinnon. Whether you are new to these thinkers, desire a refresher, or just a fan of David's dulcet tones (Swoon!) every episode engaged me in interesting and unexpected ways. Start on any episode but you will end up listening to them all. Can't wait for series two.

One of my favorite podcasts of the last few years. The talking politics team does a great job taking listeners through the ideas of iconic political thinkers. Loved every ep

Please listen to this, you’ll not regret it. The politics and tensions of the current moment will make more sense, as well as where we all go from here.

Talking Politics is my favorite podcast and this series, Talking Politics - History of Ideas, is excellent. I’m acquainted with many of these ideas, theories and theorists but learned so much more from these talks because of how they are sequenced and the way they build on each other. Hugely satisfying and worthwhile. Many thanks!

This is a series of focused, connected lectures on modern political thought.

I really enjoyed how ideas from different episodes are weaved together, so you get deeper into them as you go. Each episode elegantly developed, with many thought-provoking ideas. You have to pay attention though!

This series is so smartly organized. Each episode builds on the previous ones so the information is reinforced and clarified. David Runciman reminds me of my favorite professors - patient, intelligent, and a fantastic teacher.

Thank you, David!! This is probably one of the most informative podcast series ever. I am an LRB reader and a subscriber, and this podcast along with, Talking Politics, are my two favorite podcasts. I can’t wait for series 2. Kudos to David and his team. Cheers from Chicago.

Loved every second of this series. Have listened to it multiple times through. Cannot wait for more

A clear and interesting view of many serious ideas in politics and economics, carefully and calmly laid out. I'll go back for a second listen.

Informative, educational, and a delightful listen.

Can’t recommend enough

Excellent in every respect - on Wollstonecraft and Constant were favorites. I would suggest a second similar series on ancient history of ideas that starts with Greece.

Absolutely worth your time to listen to.

It’s the type of content I’ve come to expect from David Runciman and the Talking Politics Podcast: insightful, thought-provoking, and immersive discussion all wrapped up in a smooth, British, professorial accent. It’s all really great stuff. From the outline of the series to the content of each episode, it’s a series I’ve listened at least twice over. I can say that without a doubt I’ve learned so much from this series. I really can’t say enough good things about it.

Love it

A series of lectures on the history of political ideas by a world class specialist. This is truly a wonderful gift! It is destined to those who wish to understand the subject without being specialists. In this context the grumblings from academia in some of the reviews are out of place. « La critique est aisée, c’est l’art qui est difficile ». Thank you Professor Runciman!

This is a fascinating podcast that discusses a variety of thinkers and ideas. It articulates some of the ways in which people think the world does or should function. I do not have a background in this field, and this podcast has been profoundly eye opening to me. David takes the listener on an engaging journey through history, and uses the lenses of different thinkers to unveil different aspects of the modern state. This isn’t an end-all analysis, but it’s a coherent assembly of important ideas that is worthy of consideration. Well done David, I have enjoyed this immensely.

His confidence, cadence and accent mask some very superficial analyses. Additionally, his understanding of the singular piece of literature covered during the individual podcasts are often remarkably decontextualized (unless context is merely shoehorning each thinker into Runciman’s reading of Hobbes).

as David Runciman does, is really a stretch. Hobbes’ claim to “fame” there is his fallacious squaring of the circle and duplication of the cube, his rejection of algebra and calculus, and general mathematical incompetence. His record in physics is no better. On the whole I agree with inkadinkadoom80’s remarks, but I’m giving it one more star because Runciman’s takes are generally quite thought-provoking.

I get the sense from this podcast that the host’s books are locked away in his office, so he’s just ruminating and riffing on his recollection of what these authors actually said. These riffs and ruinations are sometimes interesting. However, if you know these texts and authors well, you might find yourself scratching your head or even tearing at your hair. There is a great deal, here, of David slotting thinkers into his own idiosyncratic narrative about the development of the modern, liberal-democratic nation-state. That’s fine. It’s an interesting story so far, but the result is less a history of the ideas of the authors whose works are ostensibly considered and more a presentation of the ways in which these authors have influenced the thinking of the presenter. Point is, if you’re looking for a serious consideration of or grappling with important texts, this is not the podcast you’re looking for. If you’re looking to hear how a serious person presents a syncretic recollection of various classic texts, this podcast is pretty good. It’s important to understand, however, that this is a podcast about what David thinks, about the history of David’s ideas, and not so much about what Hobbes or Wollstonecraft or Marx were doing in writing the works with which this podcast purports to engage.