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David Runciman

The History of Ideas Podcast
with David Runciman

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A bi-weekly podcast exploring the history of ideas from politics to philosophy, science to fiction.

Latest episode

The Great Political Fictions: HHhH

17 June 2026

00:00 / 01:04

Our final great political fiction (for now!) is a meta-fiction and auto-fiction that is also a compelling work of historical reconstruction. Laurent Binet’s HHhH (2010) tells the story of Operation Anthropoid, the mission that led to the assassination of Reinhold Heydrich, the architect of the Final Solution. Why was Binet so eager to recast history as a struggle between good and evil? How does he deal with all the evil that followed from this heroic attempt to do good? What makes his Nazis different from the ones to be found in other twenty-first century novels?

 

Join us on Friday 19th June at the Regent Street Cinema in London for the final film in our current season: a screening of Never Let Me Go followed by a live podcast recording with geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford. Tickets available now https://bit.ly/4x641XC

 

You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com

 

Next Time: PPF Live – Jimmy Wales on the Lessons of Wikipedia

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More episodes

The Great Political Fictions: The Years

14 June 2026

00:00 / 01:04

The Great Political Fictions: The Human Factor

10 June 2026

00:00 / 01:04

The Great Political Fictions: The Dispossessed

7 June 2026

00:00 / 01:04

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