Ideas Matter

Ideas Matter Podcast is home to talks from leading contemporary thinkers on the most important political and cultural issues and intellectual trends of our times. Many were recorded at or reflect the topics discussed at Ideas Matter events, including Living Freedom summer school, The Academy residential weekend and Debating Matters schools debating competition.

Ideas Matter is a education podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 73 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts Ideas Matter, a education show with 73 episodes published.

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  Episode #73

  What comes after liberal democracy? | Kolja Zydatis

  Nov 14, 202519 minS0

  <p>What comes after liberal democracy?</p> <p>In this bold, idea-rich lecture, Kolja Zydatis explores the global political topography of our time – a murky, volatile “interregnum” where the old order is collapsing but the new has not yet arrived. Drawing from his and Mark Feldon’s new book, Zydatis offers a panoramic, polemical tour of what he calls hyper-liberalism – a runaway version of liberalism obsessed with borderlessness, identity, and control – and the strange new regimes it has birthed: the Diversity State, the Green Leviathan, and the Biopolitical Machine.</p>

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  Episode #72

  The End of the Liberal Order – and What Comes Next | Jacob Reynolds

  Nov 7, 202521 minS0

  <p>Is the postwar liberal order finally coming undone? And if so – what comes next?</p> <p>The liberal order is dying – not liberalism as an idea, but the postwar regime of managed decline, elite control, and fake freedom. This talk exposes how that order hollowed out real autonomy, smothered politics, and bred a generation of anxious, atomised subjects. But if it's ending, what replaces it? Populist parties are rising – but do they have the stomach for revolution, or just nostalgia and slogans? With five sharp tests – from institutional guts to faith in ordinary people – this lecture challenges any would-be populist m...

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  Episode #71

  Deneen, Yarvin and the "new right": Parasites on Populism? | Dr Tim Black

  Oct 31, 202536 minS0

  <p>This lecture explores the emergence of the American New Right – a diffuse and provocative intellectual tendency gaining visibility in the wake of the populist revolts of 2016. Focusing on figures like Patrick Deneen and Curtis Yarvin, it examines their critiques of liberalism, meritocracy, and democracy, as well as their visions of authority, order, and political renewal. While often dismissed as marginal or extreme, these thinkers articulate deeper dissatisfactions with modernity, autonomy, and the liberal elite consensus. The talk considers whether their ideas offer a serious response to the current political malaise – or reflect a more inward-looking, aristocratic impulse seeking meaning in a...

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  Episode #70

  What Happens When We Forget British History | Gawain Towler

  Oct 24, 202520 minS0

  <p>What if the most radical act today is remembering who we are?</p> <p>In this brilliant, rousing address, political strategist and historian-in-spirit Gawain Towler argues that British history is not a relic – it’s a shield, a compass, and the last line of defence against tyranny, technocracy, and cultural amnesia. From Kipling to Alan Macfarlane, from the Glorious Revolution to Brexit, this lecture traces the deep roots of English individualism and the unique political culture that has helped Britain resist the ideological storms of the continent. It’s not superiority – it’s memory. And when history is forgotten, freedom so...

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  Episode #68

  Post-Liberalism vs Populism: Why we need a moral revolution | John Milbank

  Oct 17, 202534 minS0

  <p>Is populism enough? Or is the real crisis deeper – moral, spiritual, civilisational? In this sweeping and provocative lecture, theologian and political philosopher John Milbank argues that post-liberalism is not a reactionary impulse or a right-wing fad, but a serious and British-born intellectual tradition rooted in the thought of Alasdair MacIntyre, John Gray, and religious communitarianism. Milbank critiques both market liberalism and cultural liberalism, showing how they converge into a nihilistic uniparty – a cold, technocratic system with no room for virtue, rootedness, or the common good.</p>

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