If you find yourself saying, perhaps of a political speech, “Well, that’s just rhetoric”, you are getting things exactly wrong. That’s according to my guest today, Philip Collins, former chief speechwriter to Tony Blair and author of “When They Go Low, We Go High: Speeches That Shape the World - and Why We Need Them”. Phil is an old friend of mine and irritatingly good at very many things: he’s a philosopher, lecturer, policy wonk, journalist (now for both the New Statesman and the Evening Standard), and much else besides. I think of him now as “Mr. Rhetoric”. Phil believes that rhetoric is essential to the functioning of democracy and, now, to its saving. We talk about Donald Trump, Tony Blair, Boris Johson, Barack Obama, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Pericles, sophistry, the role of emotion in political persuasion, the need for enchantment - and the importance of paying our respects.
Philip Collins
Philip Collins is a British journalist, author and academic. He served as the chief speechwriter for Prime Minister Tony Blair from 2004-2007, after serving as the director of The Social Market Foundation, an independent think tank in the UK. Collins is the founder and writer-in-chief at The Draft, a writing and rhetoric agency, and he also teaches a course on rhetoric at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University. He is a contributing editor at The New Statesman, and a columnist for the Evening Standard.
More Collins
Also Mentioned
The Dialogues Team
Creator: Richard Reeves
Research: Ashleigh Maciolek
Artwork: George Vaughan Thomas
Tech Support: Cameron Hauver-Reeves
Music: "Remember" by Bencoolen (thanks for the permission, guys!)
Robert Tracy McKenzie on democracy for sinners
Yascha Mounk on race, democracy and liberal patriotism
Frank Fukuyama on how to rescue liberalism
Christine Emba on ethical sex
Clare Chambers on leaving our bodies alone
Jonathan Gottschall on the stories we tell ourselves
Reid Hoffman on how real friends make us better
Roland Betancourt on queer Byzantines
Oliver Burkeman on surrendering to time
Bill Kristol on holding the center
Anne-Marie Slaughter on progressive patriotism
Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the price of liberty
Ron Daniels on how to fix America‘s colleges
Fiona Hill on Trump, Putin and populism
Sheryll Cashin on white spaces and Black hoods
Nick Gillespie on canceling yourself
Kathryn Paige Harden on genetic egalitarianism
Evan Osnos on America‘s fire and fury
Erika Bachiochi on sex, equality and abortion
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Voices of Misery Podcast
House of Whimsical Terror
Just Dumb Enough Podcast
Stuff You Should Know
Timcast IRL