What Rhymes With Now?

Who was Napoleon? What happened during the Napoleonic wars? How did the borders of modern Europe come about? How does technology drive military strategy? How is warfare changing and what can we do to ensure peace in the new age? Michael Rowe is a Reader in European History at King's College London. His research is concentrated geographically on Europe, with particular expertise in the history...

How did we end up in a climate crisis? How did we end up living in an ecological desert? How do we get out of this mess? George Monbiot is a British author and environmental and political activist. Patrick Cook is the host of the What Rhymes With Now? podcast, which looks at historical events and turning points to understand the great challenges of our time. linktr.ee/whatrhymeswithnow

The future of the right of politics in the changing political and technological landscape, the impacts of new technologies on the social fabric of society, the political situation in the UK. Lucy Harris a political advisor and strategist, and a former Member of European Parliament with the Brexit Party. Patrick Cook is the host of the What Rhymes With Now? podcast, which looks at historical events...

The dramatic events in Berlin following the Second World War revealed the tensions between the Allies and the Soviets, and kickstarted decades of Cold War. Featuring timeless lessons about geopolitics and negotiations. Giles Milton is the internationally best-selling author of twelve works of narrative history, including Nathaniel’s Nutmeg and Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. His boo...

Alex Goodall is a Senior Lecturer in International History with a particular focus on the United States and the world. His main research interests focus on the history of political repression in the twentieth-century United States and the rise of American power overseas in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly in Central America and the Caribbean. Patrick Cook is the host...

What can the rise of the radio teach us about the changing media landscape today how it will affect our lives? Beaty Rubens was a BBC Radio producer for thirty-five years and is now a freelance producer, presenter, and writer. Her new book 'Listen In: How the radio changed the home' is available here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/listen-in/beaty-rubens/james-naughtie/9781851246311 What...

Patrick is joined by Frederick Atkinson to discuss the history and development of the English language, some of the great writers in English history and how social media and AI is changing the way we engage with language. Frederick Atkinson is writer and presenter focussing on English history, mythology and literature. Patrick Cook is the host of the What Rhymes With Now? podcast, which looks at h...

Fake news. Money and politics. Demagogues who tell the crowd exactly what it wants to hear. And the oldest question of all — what does a good life actually look like? Plato was turning these questions over 2,400 years ago, and his conclusions are as strange and as sharp as ever. In this episode I'm joined by Professor Angie Hobbs — Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the Uni...

Why does it feel like the UK (and the West in general) can't build anything anymore? Why is nuclear so hotly debated by environmentalists and policy makers? What can we do to get clean, cheap energy and infrastructure? Patrick speaks with Professor Simon Taylor about the history and financing of nuclear power in Britain — from the early ambitions of the civil nuclear programme to the cost over...

Ayşe Zarakol is Professor of International Relations at the University of Cambridge and a Politics Fellow at Emmanuel College. She is the author of  Before the West: The Rise and Fall of Eastern World Orders , which argues that the sovereign, universalist world orders we associate with the modern West have older precedents in the great Eastern empires — and that understanding how those orders rose...

An additional clip from Patrick's discussion with Andy Beckett. 16/04/2026

Why does Western civilization feel lost? What are the underlying beliefs behind our society, and how did they emerge? How will social media and AI impact the way we live? What can we do about it? I’m speaking about all of this with Ryan Avent, author of the new book, In Good Faith: How the Nature of Belief Shapes the Fate of Societies.

How did the dollar become the dominant global currency? What impact does that have on the US and the global economy? How might this change with the emergence of new global powers, geopolitical uncertainty and technological innovation? To find out more, I spoke with the author Paul Blustein about his latest book King Dollar.

Why is Great Britain divided into England, Scotland and Wales? The answer lies nearly two thousand years ago, in the collapse of Roman rule and the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons — a story of migration, cultural replacement and identity that resonates with debates we're having today. Patrick speaks with historian Nicholas J. Higham, author of the new book How England Began: From Roman Britain to...

History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. What Rhymes With Now? is a podcast, produced by Louis Walsh, that puts today's biggest challenges in historical perspective. Each episode, host Patrick Cook interviews a leading historian about a period that illuminates something urgent about the present. If you're looking for the bigger picture, this is your show.

You may have heard that inequality today has reached levels not seen since the French Revolution. But what actually happened after 1789 — and what does it teach us about the fragility of political institutions, and populist politics? Patrick speaks with John Hardman, author of The French Revolution: A Political History , about how a group of radical lawyers wrestled control from a king, how revolu...

Why didn't America turn to fascism during the worst economic crisis in modern history? If AI causes mass unemployment in the coming years, what can the 1930s teach us about replacing the social role of work? Patrick speaks with Robert S. McElvaine , historian, political commentator and author of The Great Depression: America 1929–1941, about the wealth inequality and debt-fuelled consumption that...

We are in an era of stagflation. What happened last time? And why do the 1970s cast such a long shadow over British politics? Patrick speaks with Andy Beckett, journalist and author of When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the Seventies , about the three-day week, the collapse of the post-war consensus, the rise of Thatcherism, and why a country that was more egalitarian than it had ever been still...