Beaconsfield

In this podcast, Dr Iain McGilchrist and I speak about themes from his book The Matter with Things. We discuss the collapse of Western civilisation’s spiritual life, the hemisphere hypothesis as Dr McGilchrist presents it in his neuroscientific research and his philosophical investigations, his sense of the Sacred, the unknown of the All, and how we might find a space for silence, metaphor, and love in our modern lives.

In this podcast, I speak with Professor Faisal Devji from St Antony’s College, Oxford, about Mahatma Gandhi’s complex relationship with violence, revolution, and reform.

Taking a (well-earned!) pause on politics and reform, in this episode of Beaconsfield podcast I speak with Michael Posner, author of a three-part oral history of Leonard Cohen: the songwriter and poet who has meant more to me in my life than perhaps any other. We discuss Leonard’s character from the perspective of those who knew him best, his relationships with those he loved and lost, his various hidden selves, and his original sense of God, defeat, brokenness, and reconciliation. At the heart of Leonard's work is a reach for the light through the cracks of humanity - I hope you find this conversation as meaningful as I did.

It was a joy to speak with Yale's Gregory Collins about his book, Commerce and Manners in Edmund Burke’s Political Economy. The Burke that emerges is one not immediately familiar to us: a principled reformer with powers of imaginative eloquence, yes; yet one with an equally deep appreciation of empirical data and its ability to inform sound political decision making.

Linda Colley is one of the world's most eminent scholars of global and imperial history. Professor of History at Princeton, she is a highly respected contributor to public debates around constitutionalism in the United Kingdom, and the recent author of The Gun, The Ship and The Pen: Warfare, Constitutions and the Making of the Modern World. In this conversation, we reflect on written constitutions as they globally evolved through crisis and revolution in the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. In the process, we examine the strange ways in which written constitutions have come to both entrench and redress existing inequalities for women and Indigenous peoples, as well as the threats to written constitutions around the world today, and what might be done to preserve these fallible, yet still essential, paper creations of human beings.

What do failure, loss, and tragedy have to teach us about being human? How might we live in hope and truth despite our wounds? Why must we venture beyond ourselves to console others? In this podcast, it is an honour to speak with Professor Michael Ignatieff about the human tradition of consolation. We explore what religious traditions, the lives of past thinkers and statesmen, and Michael's own experience in active politics have to teach us about the need for consolation: to live, in an imperfect world, in solidarity with each other.

In the first podcast of the year, Professor the Hon Bob Carr and I reflect on the lessons for reform leadership that emerge from his time as former Premier of NSW (1995-2005) and as Australian Foreign Minister (2012-2013). We also consider: the reform tradition of the Australian Labor Party; the nature and reach of historical study; the ongoing follies of human beings; and the statesmanship of Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

What is the Cultural Commons? Is there a tradition that links Burke with Nietzsche? What about Burke and Gandhi? What was Gandhi's critique of modernity? And what was Burke's, too, of Capital? Is there an Indian secularism? In this conversation it is my honour to speak with Professor Akeel Bilgrami about his past and present work in philosophy, political economy, and intellectual history.

Who are we to each other, and to ourselves? In this conversation, Sylvana Tomaselli and I explore Wollstonecraft’s visceral critique of Burke in A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790). We explore the differences between their thinking about women, men, relationships, and love; and consider some of the points on which their thoughts surprisingly align.

In this conversation, I speak with Leslee Udwin about her quest to end discrimination around the world – particularly violence against women and girls. We discuss: the relationship between her acting and activism; her direction of India's Daughter (2015), the award-winning documentary in which she interviewed the rapists and murderers of Jyoti Singh in Delhi; and her founding of Think Equal, the not for profit that aims to undo hate by teaching children under the age of 6 how to love through empathy, emotion and embodying the other as self.

Edmund Burke and Mahatma Gandhi – two thinkers separated in time and place – both come to political theory with an idea of moral integrity always in view. In this conversation, Uday Mehta and I explore the deep relationship between the rhetoric, writing and spiritual exercises of these two men – thinkers, who in the midst of politics, asked the ethical question: ‘Who am I? And what am I prepared to stand for?’

“Is our liberal democracy up to the task of meeting the ethical claims and challenges of [historical] truth? Are we up to it? Because if we are not, liberal democracy will fall. It won’t fall because China is more strong: it will fall because it is incapable of dealing with the ethical demands that are being placed on it from its own people; its own constituents.” It is my great honour in this podcast to speak with Stan Grant: International Affairs Analyst at the ABC and award-winning author of books like Talking to My Country, Australia Day, and most recently, With the Falling of the Dusk. In this wide ranging conversation, we grapple with the big ideas: thinking oneself free through writing and philosophy; the poisonous relationship between history and identity; the return of China and the challenges facing liberal democracy from within. Stan finishes with a clarion call to finish the work we are in: to bind up the nation's wounds for Australia's Indigenous peoples.

“It’s up to us, it’s up to men, we need to step up.” In this podcast, I speak with David Leser, multi-award-winning journalist and author of ‘Women, men and the whole damn thing,’ about Australia’s current cultural reckoning in wake of the Brittany Higgins allegations, those brought against the Attorney General, and the stories of sexual violence and disrespect coming out of Australian schools. We consider several questions: Why and how should men step up? What are the causes of toxic masculinity and how do we benefit from addressing them? What is the relationship between the problem in our schools and parliament?

“The most difficult task in politics,” writes David Bromwich, “the reason for something called statesmanship to exist – is to awaken public sentiments against an entrenched abuse and convince lawmakers and public opinion to act for the improvement of justice.” In this episode, it is my great honour to speak with David Bromwich, Sterling Professor of English at Yale, about how this difficult task was met through the lives and imaginations of two great statesmen: Edmund Burke and Abraham Lincoln. We then consider the potential for reform in the context of contemporary American Breakdown.

What is the role of the scholar in democracy? It is my pleasure to speak with Professor Tarunabh Khaitan, Vice Dean of Oxford’s Faculty of Law, about the part scholarship has to play in institutional reform. We discuss his pioneering work on discrimination law, the dangers of subtle power, and the health and future of Indian democratic institutions.

“We’re in history,” Bob Rae reminds us. In this podcast it is my privilege to speak with the Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations about his life as a reformer in politics. Former interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and NDP Premier of Ontario, Rae knows more than most about the need to continually reform our imperfect institutions. We speak about his unlikely affinity with the thought of Edmund Burke, the dangers of theoretical politics, the responsibility of multilateralism, the long-term impacts of COVID-19, the future of climate change action and justice for the Rohingya in Myanmar. At a time when world leaders are facing unprecedented challenges, Bob Rae is a reminder of what thoughtful and humane reform leadership can be.

What did it mean for Edmund Burke – the great philosopher-statesman of the 18th century – to wield principles in the thick of politics? How did his historical method inform his political theory and practical approach to institutional reform? In this podcast I speak with Cambridge Professor Richard Bourke about Edmund Burke’s complicated legacy as a “philosopher in action” and his many attempts to hold the British Empire accountable to the norms and standards of responsible government.

What personal qualities does a leader need to influence cultural change? How can leaders speak to communities in a way that motivates them to alter their behaviour? In this conversation, Elizabeth Broderick and I discuss the complexities of gender equality and what it takes for a leader to make real and lasting cultural change in organisations.

How can we keep our institutions alive and healthy in times of cultural change?