The Political Compass

One of the world’s foremost authorities on the catastrophic consequences of nuclear war warns of the growing likelihood of it happening . With the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists  placing the hands of the Doomsday Clock dangerously close to midnight, we ask Dr. Tilman Ruff what a nuclear war would mean to humankind. 

Distrust and scorn towards intellectuals has always been a powerful force in the United States, according to a Pulitzer Prize-winning book written 62 years ago by Richard Hofstadter, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. Many other academics have looked at this question over the years, contrasting the widespread American attitude to that of the Europeans.  Now a fascinating new book from Oxford U...

Are the Green Parties doing too little too late? Have they shrunk from telling the voters the full extent of the bad news because it's electorally unappealling? Or has their time come at last? The former leader of the Green Party of Malta, Harry Vassallo, has  a background with green politics in the European Union. Also a human rights and animal rights lawyer , he's well qualified to giv...

Australia’s shelling out a staggering $268 billion - $368 billion (expect the larger figure) on a nuclear powered submarine fleet , capable of  easy conversion to nuclear arms. Experts like Dr. Tilman Ruff insist that it will inevitably threaten rather than enhance Pacific security. He’s at the forefront of two Nobel Peace Prize- winning organisations, and raises in this podcast alarming aspects o...

We’ve all experienced it! The mental conflict that comes when new information threatens your beliefs, assumptions or actions. Professor Daniel Meegan of Guelph University, Ontario, Canada, explains the defensive mind manoeuvres that we’re likely to make when such mental conflicts occur. In our present age of troubling uncertainties and existential crises, cognitive dissonance is also common among...

All you need to know about the making and meaning of national songs! Erik Levi , Professor of Music at Royal Holloway, University of London, talks about the musical devices that stir emotions in patriotic songs and takes a critical look at some interesting examples.

Wall Street has created a class of stocks aimed at controlling the earth’s natural resources – water, wildlife, forests, minerals and farmland. William T. Hathaway explains.

The Spirit Level, published in 2009 to international acclaim. It’s more relevant than ever, as national and global rich-poor gaps expand. The authors, epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, argued that the countries with the greatest inequalities ultimately fare worst. Professor Wilkinson talks about his findings.

Some of our most celebrated heroes have had dark sides that history’s air-brushed out in order to exaggerate their virtues. Wayne Brittenden discusses heroes and our apparent need for them with Dr. Binoy Kampmark of RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.

Are you caught in it without even knowing? Erudite and provocative  blogger, Professor Ugo Bardi from the University of Florence, argues that the more we’re educated the more we’re vulnerable to propaganda.

Anarchist thinkers, their ideas, and the extraordinary story of an often misunderstood strain of radical political thought.  Matthew Adams is an historian of British intellectual history, with a special interest in the development of anarchism as a political tradition.

A professor of international history debunks a widely-held myth among Americans. Matthew Fitzpatrick is a Professor of International History, particularly German history, at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.

Corporatisation and the University’s shrinking universe. Peter Wills is a retired professor from the Department of Physics at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.  

Your chance to know Thomas Paine, the British born founding father of the American Revolution – and certainly the most colourful and passionate one.  He also had an important role in the French Revolution and was an unblinking critic of tyranny, superstition, religious oppression, special privilege and exploitation. He was also the 18th century’s most widely read writer. Paul Myles is a key member...

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has set the hands of the nuclear Doomsday Clock  closer to midnight than ever before. Here’s the podcast that explains the heightened dangers that we’re too distracted these days to notice. John LaForge is a professional analyst and dedicated activist. He is Co-director of Nukewatch, a peace and environmental justice group in Wisconsin, US.

The astonishing but little known politics behind the establishment of Christmas. An interview with UK based Unitarian minister, Rev. Matthew Smith

An erudite man with a long and admirable past in analysing and actively countering global ecological assaults of all descriptions says that it's all over. Meet Boomer and Doomer, Rick Anex.

Today’s Slave Trade - Dr. Carole Murphy. While  statues of slave-traders tumble and history is re-examined, there’s surprisingly little public awareness of slavery today. An expert in contemporary  slavery, Dr. Carole Murphy, gives us the shocking facts.  Dr. Murphy is Deputy Director of the Centre for the Study of Modern Slavery at St. Mary’s University, London.

Philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at Yale University, Jason Stanley, discusses his book on fascism - a word currently widely used but often misunderstood. Stanley, also the author of "How Propaganda Works", offers some unique insights into the fascist mindset and the circumstances that help create it. 

US physician, Dr. Ira Helfand,  has been a tireless campaigner for the abolition of nuclear weapons for over 40 years. He plays a key role in two Nobel Peace Prize-winning organisations, and warns that the risk of nuclear confrontation, through miscalculation or sheer madness, is now far greater  than at the height of the Cold War. Paradoxically, the anti-nuclear movement is barely a shadow of its...

The Population Bomb was a bombshell best-seller when it was unleashed in 1968. Author Paul Ehrlich, a renowned biologist,  warned of the consequences of unchecked population growth and introduced the term Zero Population Growth (ZPG).  The population then was  less than half of today’s figure, yet the issue is barely mentioned now in the media and public discourse. Despite our greater awareness of...

Robert Dunham, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center in  Washington DC, discusses with Wayne Brittenden  the ethical and legal situation of capital punishment globally - but particularly in the US, which is the only western democracy that - at least in 29 states - can still execute its citizens.

Your preference in gardens - and the way that you manage your own one - may reveal more than you realise about where you stand on the social scale of The Political Compass. Authoritarians are naturally more controlling. How much freedom do you let your plants enjoy?