The Political Compass
Our podcasts feature interviews and comments on political thought and current events, from all corners of The Political Compass - and the world!
Episodes
21 episodes
Green Parties - What's their future?
Are the Green Parties doing too little too late? Have they shrunk from telling the voters the full extent of the bad news because it's electorally unappealling? Or has their time come at last? The former leader of the Green Party of Malta, Harr...
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36:04
Cognitive Dissonance : The Mind’s Manoeuvre from Uncomfortable Truths
We’ve all experienced it! The mental conflict that comes when new information threatens your beliefs, assumptions or actions.Professor Daniel Meegan of Guelph University, Ontario, Canada, explains the defensive mind manoeuvres that we’re...
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36:42
Australia Goes Nuclear
Australia’s shelling out a staggering $268 billion - $368 billion (expect the larger figure) on a nuclear powered submarine fleet , capable of easy conversion to nuclear arms.Experts like Dr. Tilman Ruff insist that it will inevita...
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52:20
The Secrets of National Songs
All you need to know about the making and meaning of national songs!Erik Levi , Professor of Music at Royal Holloway, University of London, talks about the musical devices that stir emotions in patriotic songs and takes a critical look at s...
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27:35
The Privatization of Nature
Wall Street has created a class of stocks aimed at controlling the earth’s natural resources – water, wildlife, forests, minerals and farmland. William T. Hathaway explains.
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24:44
The Spirit Level - 13 Years On
The Spirit Level, published in 2009 to international acclaim. It’s more relevant than ever, as national and global rich-poor gaps expand. The authors, epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, argued that the countries with the gr...
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33:09
Heroes – Do we need them?
Some of our most celebrated heroes have had dark sides that history’s air-brushed out in order to exaggerate their virtues. Wayne Brittenden discusses heroes and our apparent need for them with Dr.Binoy Kampmark of RMIT University in Melbourne,...
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32:10
The Propaganda Trap
Are you caught in it without even knowing?Erudite and provocative blogger, Professor Ugo Bardi from the University of Florence, argues that the more we’re educated the more we’re vulnerable to propaganda.
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41:41
Anarchism: Thoughts, Values and Actions
Anarchist thinkers, their ideas, and the extraordinary story of an often misunderstood strain of radical political thought. Matthew Adams is an historian of British intellectual history, with a special interest in the development o...
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41:29
Was Hitler a Socialist?
A professor of international history debunks a widely-held myth among Americans.Matthew Fitzpatrick is a Professor of International History, particularly German history, at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia.
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35:05
The Corporatised University
Corporatisation and the University’s shrinking universe.Peter Wills is a retired professor from the Department of Physics at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
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33:02
The Forgotten Revolutionary
Your chance to know Thomas Paine, the British born founding father of the American Revolution – and certainly the most colourful and passionate one. He also had an important role in the French Revolution and was an unblinking critic of...
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33:51
Nuclear Risks at all-time High!
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has set the hands of the nuclear Doomsday Clock closer to midnight than ever before. Here’s the podcast that explains the heightened dangers that we’re too distracted these days to notice.John LaF...
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35:06
Apocalypse Soon?
An erudite man with a long and admirable past in analysing and activelycountering global ecological assaults of all descriptions says that it's all over.Meet Boomer and Doomer, Rick Anex.
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26:40
Christmas - The Political History
The astonishing but little known politics behind the establishment of Christmas.An interview with UK based Unitarian minister, Rev.Matthew Smith
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29:29
Slavery Today
Today’s Slave Trade - Dr.Carole Murphy. While statues of slave-traders tumble and history is re-examined, there’s surprisingly little public awareness of slavery today. An expert in contemporary slavery, Dr.Carole Murphy, gives us t...
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38:59
How Fascism Works - The politics of us and them
Philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at Yale University, Jason Stanley, discusses his book on fascism - a word currently widely used but often misunderstood. Stanley, also the author of "How Propaganda Works", offers some unique insights int...
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39:41
Dr. Ira Helfand on the heightened danger of nuclear war
US physician, Dr. Ira Helfand, has been a tireless campaigner for the abolition of nuclear weapons for over 40 years.He plays a key role in two Nobel Peace Prize-winning organisations, and warns that the risk of nuclear confrontati...
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28:28
Prof. Paul Ehrlich on The Population Bomb... and much else!
The Population Bomb was a bombshell best-seller when it was unleashed in 1968. Author Paul Ehrlich, a renowned biologist, warned of the consequences of unchecked population growth and introduced the term Zero Population Growth (ZPG...
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30:07
The death penalty and the authoritarian personality
Robert Dunham, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington DC, discusses with Wayne Brittenden the ethical and legal situation of capital punishment globally - but particularly in the US, which is the...
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Season 1
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Episode 1
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39:07