Future Discontinuous

At the turn of the 20th century, Vienna was the capital of an empire in decline. Yet the city was a hotbed of intellectual cross-pollination, spawning new ideas and scientific innovations across fields ranging from physics and economics to psychoanalysis and the arts. In this episode of  Future Discontinuous , hosts Misha Glenny and Eva Konzett invite author Richard Cockett to retrace Vienna’...

In this episode of Future Discontinuous, hosts Misha Glenny and Eva Konzett are joined by international relations scholar Ayşe Zarakol to rethink where global order comes from—and why it may now be coming apart. Drawing on her book Before the West, Zarakol challenges the familiar story that modern international politics begins with Europe and the Peace of Westphalia. Instead, she traces earlier Eu...

Few historians illuminate the inner workings of Soviet and Russian foreign policy with the clarity and archival depth of Sergey Radchenko. Drawing on unprecedented access to Communist Party documents, Radchenko has rewritten key chapters of the Cold War, tracing the ambitions, insecurities, and delusions that drove leaders from Stalin to Gorbachev, which still echo in Vladimir Putin’s Russia today...

There is no shortage of critical commentary on the dizzying pace of developments in artificial intelligence. Yet, few do it as astutely as Karen Hao, whose award-winning book, Empire of AI, unveils the inner workings of OpenAI and the tech sector more broadly, shining a light on an industry marked by both grandiose proclamations and notorious secrecy. In this episode of  Future Discontinuous...

Often considered ‘the value of values,’ freedom is increasingly interpreted in negative terms as the absence of interference, especially by prominent figures on the right. Historian and author Timothy Snyder argues that in order to achieve true freedom, we must ask about the moral and political structures required for human societies to flourish. In this wide-ranging conversation with Snyder, host...

We are witnessing changes in the world order which many thought we would never live to see. The US, long a bedrock of democracy, appears to go heading down an anti-democratic path. Traditional alliances are falling apart, while longtime enemies are drawing closer together. Meanwhile Europe, long a central player in geopolitics, seems increasingly sidelined in international negotiations. To make se...

Tech billionaires are exerting an enormous influence on the current Trump administration. It is not just Elon Musk and DOGE who are reshaping the American state. Behind the scenes, figures like Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and David Sacks are pushing an anti-regulation agenda and an anti-democratic entrepreneurial vision of politics. In this conversation with American journalist Eoin Higgins, Mis...

We are living through a time of immense upheaval, with geopolitical, social, and economic shifts reshaping our world every day. However, this is not the first time humanity has faced such dramatic changes. In this episode, Misha Glenny and Eva Konzett are joined by historian Lyndal Roper to take us back 500 years to the Peasants' War of 1524–25 – the largest armed rebellion in Europe before the Fr...

In this episode of  Future Discontinuous , we dive deep into the political turmoil following Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 46th President of the United States. From overhauls in US domestic policy to disruptions in global diplomacy, this episode breaks down Trump‘s dramatic reshaping of the world order. Together with Mark Medish, policy consultant and former White House official, hosts M...

Ultra-Processed Foods lie at the heart of a global increase in a variety of chronic and fatal diseases from cancer to Type 2 Diabetes. The food industry has been pouring billions into convincing governments not to regulate these additives which make everything from baby food to burgers addictive, persuading customers to return for more. Rosie Boycott, a highly respected British publisher and journ...

The flood of headlines about the war in Israel and Gaza can feel overwhelming. Season two of  Future Discontinuous  kicks off with an episode examining the current state of the conflict, highlighting geopolitical dynamics and influential players. In conversation with Dahlia Scheindlin, hosts Eva Konzett and Misha Glenny explore Israeli public opinion, Netanyahu’s grip on power, Trump’s a...

It is no news that humanity will have to extract enormous amounts of rare earths and other critical raw materials to move away from carbon-based economies. In episode four of  Future Discontinuous,  hosts Misha and Eva invite Julie Klinger, who studies the geopolitics of resource usage, to discuss the pitfalls of the green energy transition, whether we see the emergence of a new resource...

Making sense of the current geopolitical moment is no easy undertaking. In the third episode of Future Discontinuous, hosts Misha Glenny and Eva Konzett invite prolific author, historian, and Russia expert Mark Galeotti on the podcast. Together with their guest, they try to illuminate the murky waters of Russia’s foreign policy, the repercussions of the power shifts in the Middle East on Putin’s s...

In the second episode of  Future Discontinuous , hosts Misha Glenny and Eva Konzett are joined by historian Nils Gilman, COO of the Berggruen Institute in Los Angeles. Together with their guest, they take a deep dive into the national, the global, and the planetary, and discuss how the outbreak of the Black Death in the 1300s differed from COVID-19, whether a world state could work, and...

In the first episode of Future Discontinuous , hosts Misha Glenny (IWM) and Eva Konzett (FALTER) welcome international relations scholar and Harvard Professor Stephen Walt. In a wide-ranging conversation, they discuss the US elections and their implications for the international stage. Against the backdrop of heightened global tensions, what does the second presidency of Donald Trump mean for trad...

Feeling lost in a crumbling world? In Future Discontinuous , hosts Misha Glenny and Eva Konzett explore global challenges with top thinkers. From climate tech to geopolitics, they seek answers to whether humanity can reverse decline or face conflict. Join them to navigate uncharted waters with hope. Our hosts Misha Glenny is the Rector of the Institute for Human Sciences and one of the BBC’s most...