Culture, Power, Politics » Podcast

What historical lessons can we learn from the UK's one experience of a truly transformative progressive government?

In this emergency podcast, Alan Finlayson and Jeremy Gilbert analyse the key speeches at this year's Labour Party conference from Prime Minister Andy Burnham, and Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey. The official slogan of the conference was 'Hope Again.' Are we feeling it?

What makes us, a couple of professors at modern British universities, 'experts' on anything? What makes anyone an acknowledged expert on anything, and why does it matter? Why does the political right hate 'experts', and are they correct to do so? And what should radicals, socialists and democrats think about the role of 'intellectuals' in our movements?

What makes us, a couple of professors at modern British universities, 'experts' on anything? What makes anyone an acknowledged expert on anything, and why does it matter? Why does the political right hate 'experts', and are they correct to do so? And what should radicals, socialists and democrats think about the role of 'intellectuals' in our movements?

Alan Finlayson and Jeremy Gilbert explore the question of what counts as 'knowledge' or 'expertise' in our society, where the idea of 'the intellectual' came from, whether it has any relevance today, and what the point is of 'theory', 'analysis' or any other kind of knowledge of expertise.