In today’s PPF+ bonus episode David talks to historian of Russia Edward Acton about the trial in 1938 of Nikolai Bukharin, the darling of the Bolsheviks whose conviction and execution were the culmination of the Moscow Show Trials. Did Bukharin manage to subvert the process with the distinctive style of his confession? Did Stalin have any misgivings? And how did the case of Bukharin inspire Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon, which in turn helped to inspire George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984?

In today’s bonus episode the two Davids answer more of your questions on all things Fixing Democracy. Should politicians be chosen by lot? What’s gone wrong with the House of Commons? Why has the centre-right collapsed? Is the real problem capitalism? And how do we know when we’ve reached the point of no return?

In this PPF+ bonus episode David talks to Nic Cheeseman about the idea of guaranteeing female representation in parliament. Where does it already happen? How does it work? What difference does it make? And what about all the other groups and identities that might want guaranteed representation too – should everyone get a parliament that has someone like them in it? Or would that make things even worse?

In this PPF+ bonus episode David talks to Hannah White, Director of the Institute for Government, about the changes that could improve the quality of political decision-making. Does the problem lie with politicians or bureaucrats? How could expertise be better deployed in government? What makes long-term thinking so hard? And where to start in reforming the system?

David and Lea explore what dignity has come to mean in the political and social media landscape of the 21st century. Can we recover the true meaning of the foundational idea of the UN that ‘all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and in rights’? How does dignity get enshrined in a constitution and why does it keep going wrong? When does caring about your dignity end up destroying it?

Today’s bonus episode is part 2 of David’s conversation with journalist and historian Fintan O’Toole about the trials that followed the 1916 Easter Rising. Who was Sir Roger Casement and why was his case treated so differently? How did it become both one of the great dramas and one of the great scandals of the age? What was the part played by George Bernard Shaw? And what is the legacy of all these events today?