Podcast
LSE: Public lectures and events
Hosted by LSE Film and Audio Team · EN
The London School of Economics and Political Science public events podcast series is a platform for thought, ideas and lively debate where you can hear from some of the world's leading thinkers. Listen to more than 200 new episodes every year.
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Is there a Trump doctrine? Making sense of US foreign and security policy since Trump’s return to the White House
Nov 1901:30:08Summary readyContributor(s): Professor Ronald Krebs, Katharine M Millar, Dr Luca Tardelli, Dr Boram Lee | In January 2025, Donald Trump returned to the White House. The ensuing months have been a dizzying blur for American foreign and security policy. Unprecedented U.S. import tariffs have been threatened, reversed, and imposed. Allies have been lectured and harangued, while adversaries have been warmly welcomed. Trump dressed down Ukraine’s president, embraced Russia’s, and then did a U-turn. He stood by Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza, backed its escalation against Hizballah in Lebanon, and joined in bombing Iran, but then pressured Israel into a peace deal. His administration, which seemed to see China as a rival to American dominance, cultivated allies in the Pacific and launched a trade war, but has also signalled a pullback from East Asia and a renewed focus on the Western hemisphere. Amidst the turmoil of the Trump administration, is there an emerging logic to US foreign and security policy? Is a Trump doctrine taking shape?
SummaryBritain in a changing world
Nov 1800:48:51Summary readyContributor(s): Sir John Major | Discussing the topic, Britain in a changing world, former British Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party, Sir John Major, delivers this year’s Maurice Fraser Annual Lecture. John Major was appointed Prime Minister on November 28, 1990 and served in that position until May 1997. As Prime Minister, Sir John focused his efforts upon securing peace in Northern Ireland and upholding Britain's position in the world community as a political, social and economic leader. He was Prime Minister throughout the first Gulf War and, at home, instigated long-term reforms in education, health and public services. On New Year's Day 1999, Her Late Majesty The Queen appointed Sir John a Companion of Honour in recognition of his initiation of the Northern Ireland Peace Process; and on St George's Day 2005, a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.
SummaryLSE: The Ballpark | Autocracy 2.0: How China’s Rise Reinvented Tyranny with Dr Jennifer Lind
Nov 1700:37:39Tap to summarizeThe last three decades have seen China’s economic rise. Alongside this, China has become much more influential on the global stage, emerging as a competitor to the United States in many arenas, including as a technology and innovation leader.
Transcribe →Greece’s economic and digital transformation: in conversation with Kyriakos Pierrakakis
Nov 1401:05:05Summary readyContributor(s): Kyriakos Pierrakakis | Join us for a discussion with Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Greece's Minister of the Economy and Finance, on the key challenges shaping the country’s future. From public debt and inflation to growth and innovation, to education reform and the digital transition, the conversation will explore how past reforms and new policies that can support Greece’s economic resilience and competitiveness.
SummarySpreading it around: a new look at redistribution and tax
Nov 1301:26:49Summary readyContributor(s): Professor Deborah James FBA, Dr Miranda Sheild Johansson, Dr Johanna Mugler, Dr Robin Smith | In this panel discussion, anthropologists working on redistribution and tax will present the findings of—and interrogate each other on—two recent books: Clawing Back: redistribution in precarious times, and Anthropology and Tax: ethnographies of fiscal relations. Anthropologists view redistribution in unusual ways. In exploring how people pay for what they need and want, we consider how allocative processes operate beyond those tried and tested in the heyday of the welfare state. Typically, incomes are earned through wage work, or people revert to benefits. Yet austerity has reduced welfare systems in the North, while those in the South are under-developed. To make ends meet, people use both ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ resources, payments and economic relationships, creating larger networks of redistribution. They seek new ways to supplement meagre incomes, combining work, welfare and debt. But, as Deborah James shows, combining these three income sources is not straightforward: it requires canny intervention by local advisers on the one hand and householders on the other. Meanwhile, contributions, tributes and tithes, as shown by Miranda Sheild Johansson, Robin Mugler and Robin Smith, enable taxation beyond the exchequer. Their focus on fiscal systems looks at how the sharing, extraction, and flow of resources not only produce economic realities but also shape relations of belonging, dependence, and exclusion, as well as social and philosophical categories regarding work, and value.
SummaryAmerica adrift: the end of the east coast foreign policy elite
Nov 1201:29:29Summary readyContributor(s): Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter | America is undergoing rapid demographic change. By the mid-21st century, European Americans, long the country’s largest demographic group, will be roughly equal in numbers to Hispanic, African, and Asian Americans. Join us as Anne-Marie Slaughter considers the possibilities and challenges this shift poses for the Atlantic Hemisphere and the future of transatlantic relations.
SummarySaving Britain's wildlife
Nov 1101:26:57Summary readyContributor(s): Dr Iris Berger, Dr Luke Hecht, Dr Karen Kovaka, Matt Phelps | Britain's wildlife has been under pressure for centuries. Many of the large mammals that once inhabited these islands were driven to extinction long ago. In the twenty-first century, insect populations have collapsed by around three quarters. Is there any way back? Join us to hear stories from the frontline of the fight to restore wild Britain. We'll discuss the ethics of conservation in the real world. When should we intervene and when should we leave "wild nature" alone? When conflicts between economic and environmental interests emerge, how should they be handled? How can scientists involve local communities in conservation to avoid tensions and build coalitions? Does a focus on large animals lead to undervaluing tiny animals, like insects, or can we help both at once? And since wild nature involves a lot of suffering, do we have to choose between prioritizing animal welfare and prioritizing biodiversity? These questions will be brought to life with vivid examples.
SummaryFault lines: the new political economy of a warming world
Nov 1001:28:51Summary readyContributor(s): Professor Helen Milner | In this lecture, Helen Milner addresses why vulnerability, lived experience, and material self-interest will drive the next phase of climate politics, and what that means for diplomacy, democracy and development. In Fault Lines: The New Political Economy of a Warming World, Alexander F Gazmararian and Helen V Milner show how rising temperatures carve a stark divide around the 35th parallel, separating “damage zones” that stand to lose livelihoods and growth from regions that may even gain. This emerging “climate fault line” is already reshaping public opinion, business lobbying and state strategy, forging new coalitions below the line while stiffening resistance above it. This distributive clash—within countries and across borders—will decide whether decarbonisation accelerates or stalls.
SummaryGreat global transformation: national market liberalism in a multipolar world
Nov 601:05:46Summary readyContributor(s): Professor Branko Milanovic | Join us for this talk by Branko Milanovic about his new book, The Great Global Transformation: National Market Liberalism in a Multipolar World. Global neoliberalism is on its last legs, while a new international economic order is taking hold. Trade blocs, tariff wars, economic sanctions, and national champions are in; nationalism, anti-immigration movements and the far-right are on the rise. Liberalism is being rejected by the civic realm, as the status quo of the past fifty years crumbles. What remains in its wake? Drawing on original research, economist Branko Milanovic reveals the seismic shifts that are shaping our world. He details the facts: how the rising economic power of Asia is creating a new global ‘middle class’ in the greatest reshuffle of incomes since the Industrial Revolution. He explores our fears: why are we becoming increasingly unhappy, when the world is becoming richer and more equal? And he shows us the fight ahead: as plutocracy returns, global war threatens, and a new system silently shapes our nations, driving malcontent to breaking point.
SummaryThe growth story of the 21st century: the economics and opportunity of climate action
Nov 501:26:46Summary readyContributor(s): Professor Lord Stern, Professor Nicola Ranger, Dimitri Zenghelis | The world stands at a crossroads. The next decade will determine whether we avoid climate, biodiversity, and economic catastrophe – or unlock a new era of sustainable, resilient, and inclusive growth. Marking the publication of his new book, The Growth Story of the 21st Century: The Economics and Opportunity of Climate Action, Nicholas Stern will challenge the outdated idea that we must choose between climate action and development. Drawing on economics, finance, policy, politics, and behavioural science, Lord Stern will explore why this transformation is essential, what it entails, and how we can achieve it. Lord Stern will present a story of optimism – about how investment and rapid technological advances, including digitisation and AI, can drive change at scale. But he will not shy away from the immense challenges ahead. With clear and practical strategies for national and international action, he will call on leaders, businesses, and individuals alike, ahead of the COP30 United Nations climate change summit in Belém, Brazil, in November 2025, to take the future in our hands, and recognise that delay is the riskiest option of all.
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