The Good Fight

Andrés Velasco, Dean of LSE’s School of Public Policy and former Chilean finance minister, discusses oil shocks, financial fragility, and the London Consensus. He weighs the risk that the Middle East war could echo the 1970s, flags AI-driven valuations and private credit as potential triggers, and outlines warning signs to watch in markets.

Kathleen Stock, philosopher and writer known for her public commentary on ethics and gender, presents her case against assisted death. She critiques liberty-based justifications and contrasts them with mercy arguments. She explores palliative care as an alternative, examines legal regimes worldwide, and highlights troubling cases showing how criteria can expand.

Ruy Teixeira, senior fellow and political analyst who co-founded The Liberal Patriot, reflects on why a center-left project folded. He discusses cultural shifts driving away working-class voters. Short takes cover party realignment, primary pressures, DEI and immigration debates, and what it would take to rebuild a durable coalition.

Sebastian Mallaby, historian and journalist who wrote The Infinity Machine and studies finance and tech, joins the conversation. He explores why AI designers both fear and accelerate risky systems. They debate open-source model dangers, compare US and China approaches to safety, and imagine international governance and regulatory options.

David Autor, MIT labor economist known for research on trade shocks and the future of work, joins to discuss trade’s lasting social scars and why policy responses failed. He talks about the China trade shock’s concentrated harms. He explores how AI differs from prior tech and what that means for job reskilling and labor’s future.

David Goodhart, journalist and author known for the Anywhere vs Somewhere framework, outlines how mobile, university-educated elites reshaped politics and policy. He traces the rise of the anywhere worldview, its effects on meritocracy and elites, and why care, skilled trades, and demographic shifts matter for democracy. The conversation also weighs AI, social mobility, and ways to rebalance social values.

Shashank Joshi, Defence Editor at The Economist and Middle East security analyst, joins to map the unfolding war of attrition between the US, Israel and Iran. He discusses strikes on missile stockpiles, Iran’s threats to the Strait of Hormuz, the state of Tehran’s nuclear program, and how political aims and economic costs shape the conflict’s trajectory.

Ibram X. Kendi, historian and scholar of racism who founded the Howard University Institute for Advanced Study, discusses how great replacement theory mutates globally. He explores its roots, links to xenophobia and homophobia, and implications for education, identity, and affinity groups. The conversation also contrasts equity and equality and examines how ideas shape political movements worldwide.

Adrian Wooldridge, global business columnist and author of Centrists of the World Unite, traces how liberalism originally solved problems of identity, belief, and mobility. He discusses why 18th-century solutions still matter, how liberalism was reinvented amid crises, and debates over property, welfare, and education. Short, lively history with a forward-looking take on renewing liberal ideas.

Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum and author of Restoring Truth and Trust. He discusses the future of globalization and whether Davos-era ideas can endure. He talks about the globalization–democracy tension, the rise of populism, loss of shared truth in the digital age, and how stakeholder capitalism might reshape corporate responsibility.