LSE Podcasts

Speaker(s): Chloe Aridjis, A.L. Kennedy, Daljit Nagra, Dr Ganga Shreedhar | On 11 October 2019, a group of writers congregated in Trafalgar Square to protest against climate change as part of Extinction Rebellion’s October Uprising. In a four-hour marathon of readings from novelists, poets, screenwriters and academics, writers insisted on the responsibility of artists to address our climate crisis...

Speaker(s): Professor Mary Bosworth, Professor Matthew Gibney, Mishka | We explore the philosophy and politics of immigration detention and ask whether the state should be allowed indefinitely detain people who have committed no crime. Thousands of foreign nationals are held in immigration detention across the country. Some are detained on arrival, and others after having lived here for years. Som...

Speaker(s): Professor Sara Hobolt, Sir Anthony Seldon, Professor Tony Travers | Is Brexit a transformative moment, with lasting consequences? Or will identities and allegiances return to ‘normal’? When might politics move on from Brexit? Sara Hobolt (@sarahobolt) is Sutherland Chair in European Institutions and Professor at the Department of Government and the European Institute at LSE. Anthony Se...

Speaker(s): Arundhati Roy, Professor Amartya Sen | Join us for this Eva Colorni Memorial Lecture which will see Arundhati Roy read selected extracts from her literary and political work and engage in discussion with Amartya Sen. Arundhati Roy is the author of The God of Small Things (1997) for which she won the Man Booker Prize, and more recently of, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2017). Her no...

Speaker(s): Professor Etel Solingen | The 2020 Susan Strange lecture will pay tribute to Professor Strange's contributions by focusing on the international political economy dimensions of nuclear choices, for or against nuclear weapons. Whereas relative power and security dilemmas have dominated the study of nuclear proliferation for decades, an approach centered on the "cui bono" (who benefits) q...

Speaker(s): Professor Patricia Clavin | Starring the League of Nations, and featuring the students, staff, and archives of the London School of Economics and Political Science, the lecture recovers the entangled history of LSE with the practices of global governance. This international history lecture reveals a wide-ranging preoccupation with the material conditions of peace, alongside the more fa...

Speaker(s): Sanam Naraghi-Anderlini | 2020 started with a threat of a new regional war in the Middle East, the continuing spread of authoritarian regimes with identity-driving extremist ideologies, a gridlocked multilateral system and an assault on international human rights norms and processes. At the UN it is hard to ignore the cognitive dissonance of a discredited Security Council and seeming f...

On 14 October 2019, the US Centre hosted Professor Theda Skocpol for the event “Donald Trump and the Roots of Republican Extremism in the US.” At the event, Professor Skocpol discussed her recent research explaining how sets of organizations expressing two separate currents of right-wing extremism – billionaire ultra-free-market fundamentalism and popularly rooted ethno-nationalist resentment – ha...

In this Extra Inning from the LSE US Centre, Ballpark host Chris Gilson talks with The Wall Street Journal’s Joseph Sternberg about his new book, The Theft of a Decade: How the Baby Boomers Stole the Millennials’ Economic Future. Joseph Sternberg outlines the effects of the Great Recession on Millennials and talks about Millennials’ economic and political future. They also discuss the policy issue...

Brian Glenney specialises in the philosophy of perception, with a specific interest in Molyneux’s Question. In this episode we talk to Brian about perception, illusion and (literally) seeing the world through the eyes of another being…

Speaker(s): Dr Louise Arimatsu, Dr Robin Dunford, Dr Rachel Julian, Dr Michael Neu | What factors promote peace and what actions are justified to achieve it? Join us as we discuss the history, ethics, and politics of peace. Peace is highly valued, but how is it achieved? Why are some periods in world history relatively peaceful compared to others? What can we, as ordinary citizens, do to promote p...

Speaker(s): Professor Catherine Barnard, Professor Anand Menon, John Mills, Vicky Pryce, Sir Ivan Rogers | January 31st is another key date in the Brexit saga, a point of the UK's final departure from the EU. It is an important transition and one in need of expert interpretation. This panel will assess developments to this point and the implications for the UK going forward. The panellists will br...

On the 9th of October 2019, the US Centre hosted Joseph Sternberg of The Wall Street Journal at our public event, “How Millennial Economics Will Shake Up US Politics”. At the event, he presented an overview of Millennial economics in America and outlined how the Great Recession affected Millennials in particular. He also discussed the continuing effects of the recession even as economic conditions...

Speaker(s): Professor Catherine Barnard, Professor Anand Menon, John Mills, Vicky Pryce, Sir Ivan Rogers | January 31st is another key date in the Brexit saga, a point of the UK's final departure from the EU. It is an important transition and one in need of expert interpretation. This panel will assess developments to this point and the implications for the UK going forward. The panellists will br...

Speaker(s): Baroness Neville-Jones, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Dr Norbert Röttgen | This panel discussion will focus on assessing the implications of the Brexit process for the future of Anglo-German relations. The UK’s relations with Germany are important in a variety of strategic contexts. But, what are the implications of the Brexit process for the future of Anglo-German relations? How far can shared...

Speaker(s): Professor Lord Layard | In this event about his new book, Richard Layard explores how teachers, managers, health professionals, couples, community leaders, economists, scientists, politicians, and we as individuals can create a happier world. Richard Layard is emeritus Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science and currently heads the CEP's Wellbeing...

Speaker(s): Professor Brendan O’Leary | Northern Ireland expert, Brendan O’Leary, assesses what we’ve learnt from previous union break-ups to discover the potential futures that may unfold from the UK’s exit from the EU. Brendan O’Leary is Lauder Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania and an alumnus of LSE. He is the author, co-author, and co-editor of twenty eight books...

Heather Widdows is John Ferguson Professor of Global Ethics and Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor Research at the University of Birmingham. Heather’s research concerns the ethical issues surrounding beauty and is the founder of the #everydaylookism campaign. For further information about Out of The Vat please visit www.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/out-of-the-vat/

Speaker(s): Professor Jonathan Rigg | Southeast Asia’s growth story is as impressive as it is well-known, with epithets like ‘miracle’, ‘tiger’ and ‘dragon’. There is, however, an accompanying narrative: of inequality, injustice, environmental crisis, and social malaise. Jonathan Rigg holds a professorship in the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol in the UK. Until this ye...

Speaker(s): Professor Jane Green, Ana Oppenheim, Polly Toynbee | What do the results of the British general election mean for Labour and the left? A panel of leading analysts and activists discuss. Jane Green (@ProfJaneGreen) is Director of the Gwilym Gibbon Centre for Public Policy, Oxford, Co-Director of the British Election Study, Professorial Fellow at Nuffield College and an election analyst...

Speaker(s): Professor Neta C. Crawford | The Pentagon was a leader, in the 1980s and 1990s, in the United States in recognising climate change as a looming security concern. The US Department of Defence has thus prepared for climate change with plans for responding to climate caused disruption to operations. The DoD is also predicting and preparing for climate change caused war. What are the secur...

Matthew Jones draws on his official history of the UK strategic nuclear deterrent to discuss the strategic, political and diplomatic considerations that compelled UK governments, in the face of ever-increasing pressures on the defence budget, to persist in their efforts to develop nuclear weapons and to deploy a credible nuclear force. For further information about the Department of International...

Speaker(s): Dr Gerard Lyons, Vicky Pryce, Professor John Van Reenen | This panel discussion will focus on assessing the likely impacts of any Brexit outcome on the UK economy, across sectors and regions. How robust are the economic forecasts? What might change their predictions? Gerard Lyons (@DrGerardLyons) is a leading international economist. He is chief economic strategist at challenger wealth...

In this Extra Inning of the Ballpark, we are joined by Marisa Lago, the Director of the New York City Department of City Planning and Chair of the City Planning Commission. Alongside LSE Cities and LSE’s School of Public Policy, the LSE US Centre hosted Marisa Lago on the 5th of November 2019 for the event, Planning New York. Chris Gilson of the LSE US Centre spoke with Marisa Lago ahead of the ev...

Your host Chris Gilson of the LSE US Centre is joined on this Extra Inning of the Ballpark by Professor Stephen Walt. In this interview, Chris and Professor Walt discuss the differences in US foreign policy between Presidents Trump and Obama. They also discuss Professor Walt’s new book, The Hell of Good Intentions, and why he thinks American foreign policy since the Cold War has been a failure. St...