This year's BBC Reith Lecturer is Ben Ansell, Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, Oxford University and author of “Why Politics Fails.” In four lectures called “Our Democratic Future,” he asks how we can build a politics that works for all of us with political systems which are robust to the challenges of the twenty first century, from climate change to artificial intelligence.
In this fourth and final lecture, recorded in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States, he interrogates a crucial question: can we continue to grow our economies without despoiling the earth? Focusing on the existential threats created by our own innovation - from climate change to out-of-control artificial intelligence – Ansell asks whether our politics is up to the task of supporting sustainable growth.
The Reith Lectures are chaired by Anita Anand and produced by Jim Frank. The Editors are China Collins and Clare Fordham, and the co-ordinator is Brenda Brown. The series is mixed by Rod Farquhar and Neil Churchill.
Human Rights and Wrongs
In Praise of Politics
Law's Expanding Empire
War's Fatal Attraction
Managing the Unmanageable
Civilians and War
Fearing and Loving: Making Sense of the Warrior
War and Humanity
Reith Revisited: Angela Stent on George Kennan
Reith Revisited: Grayson Perry on Nikolaus Pevsner
Reith Revisited: Brian Cox on Robert Oppenheimer
Reith Revisited: Anand Menon on Robert Birley
Reith Revisited: Michael Sandel on Bertrand Russell
Adaptation
Can These Bones Live?
Silence Grips the Town
The Iron Maiden
The Day Is for the Living
Culture
Colour
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It is Free
The Modern West
Global News Podcast
Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
The Infinite Monkey Cage
You’re Dead to Me
Elis James and John Robins