232 | Tara Westover/ Educated

We catch up with Tara to reflect on what her experience of being educated without going to school means for a world where so many kids are being kept out of school.  Should we be trying to replicate the education they are missing or should we be trying something new?  And will the current crisis bridge or deepen existing political divides in the US?  Plus another chance to hear the interview we recorded with Tara in February 2018 about her extraordinary book Educated.

231 | From Cholera to Coronavirus

David talks to the historian Richard Evans about the history of cholera epidemics in the 19th century and what they can teach us for today.  How did contemporaries understand the spread of the disease? What impact did it have on growing demands for democracy?  And who tended to get the blame - foreigners, doctors or politicians?  Plus we discuss whether the political changes being driven by the current pandemic are likely to outlast the disease itself.

230 | Co-operation or Conflict?

This week we try to assess whether the Covid-19 pandemic is driving the world together or pushing it further apart.  From US-China relations to tensions within the EU, we discuss how coronavirus is exacerbating existing tensions and how it might overcome them.  Are we going to see new forms of international co-operation?  What does it mean for globalisation?  And is the politics of competence making a comeback? With Helen Thomson and Hans Kundnani from Chatham House.

229 | The View from Italy

David talks to Lucia Rubinelli, who is locked down in Northern Italy, about what life is like there and what politics is like too.  Do people still have faith in the government?  What do they think of the British approach?  How have attitudes to China switched in recent weeks?   Plus: whatever happened to Salvini?  More from Lucia soon.

228 | Adam Tooze Part 2

We catch up with Adam on the latest twists in the crisis: from the ECB's change of heart to new threats in emerging markets.  What is happening in Germany?  How vulnerable is the UK?  Can anything shake the hold of the almighty dollar?  Much more in the weeks to come.

227 | Adam Tooze on the Crisis

We talk to Adam Tooze in New York about the possible impact of coronavirus on the global financial and political system.  How does this crisis compare to the financial crisis of 2008?  What are the implications for the future of the Eurozone?  And what have we learned already about the shift in power from the US to China?  Plus we talk to Helen Thompson in London about how it intersects with the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.  The first of a series of conversations about the biggest event of our times. Updated overnight