We are witnessing changes in the world order which many thought we would never live to see. The US, long a bedrock of democracy, appears to go heading down an anti-democratic path. Traditional alliances are falling apart, while longtime enemies are drawing closer together. Meanwhile Europe, long a central player in geopolitics, seems increasingly sidelined in international negotiations.

To make sense of this unfolding new world order, Misha Glenny and Eva Konzett are joined by renowned Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan who has studied great power conflicts, war, and the international order for decades. In this episode, she draws parallels between past and present conflicts and unpacks the historical context and potential consequences of this global power reshuffle.

Margaret MacMillan is emeritus Professor of History at the University of Toronto and Professor of International History and the former Warden of St. Antony's College at the University of Oxford. Her books include Women of the Raj (1988, 2007); Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World (2001) for which she was the first woman to win the Samuel Johnson Prize and Nixon in China: Six Days that Changed the World (2007). Her most recent book is War: How Conflict Shaped Us (2020) which was in The New York Times’ Ten Best Books of the Year. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Royal Society of Canada, the Royal Geographical Society of Canada, and Honorary Fellow of the British Academy. MacMillan is also a Trustee of the Imperial War Museum and a Board Member of the IWM.

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Tech billionaires are exerting an enormous influence on the current Trump administration. It is not just Elon Musk and DOGE who are reshaping the American state. Behind the scenes, figures like Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and David Sacks are pushing an anti-regulation agenda and an anti-democratic entrepreneurial vision of politics.

In this conversation with American journalist Eoin Higgins, Misha Glenny and Eva Konzett explore how the relationship between the tech industry and US politics evolved and delve into the ideologies uniting the so-called tech bros and their strategic goals for politics in the US and Europe.

Eoin Higgins is an American journalist and historian covering tech, US, and world politics. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Intercept, The New Republic, The Nation, and more. He also writes for Morning Brew’s tech newsletter IT Brew. Higgins is the author of Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left.

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We are living through a time of immense upheaval, with geopolitical, social, and economic shifts reshaping our world every day. However, this is not the first time humanity has faced such dramatic changes. In this episode, Misha Glenny and Eva Konzett are joined by historian Lyndal Roper to take us back 500 years to the Peasants' War of 1524–25 – the largest armed rebellion in Europe before the French Revolution.

Inspired by Martin Luther and the Reformation, peasants across the German-speaking world fought for a radical new vision of freedom. Roper brings to life the peasants' fears, joys, and struggles while exploring how they rose up against their lords, what ideals fuelled their rebellion, and, crucially, what their fight can teach us for today's crises.

Lyndal Roper is Regius Professor of History at the University of Oxford, specializing in the history of the Reformation and the early modern period in Germany. She is the author of a widely acclaimed biography of Martin Luther. Her new book Summer of Fire and Blood (German title: Für die Freiheit) explores the Peasants' War of 1525.

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