BlomCast
The BlomCast looks at turning points in history, which have always fascinated me. My name is Philipp Blom, I am a historian and broadcaster and author of many books about the Enlightenment, the story of modernity and climate history. The climate catastrophe places us at the greatest historical turning point hin human history. What, if anything, can we learn from moments in the past in which a model of life seemed to change, or had to change, in which whole societies were transformed?
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Episodes
80 episodes
[67] Ralph Janik — das Völkerrecht, eine Illusion?
Nachdem Ursula van der Leyen offen die Frage stellt, wie wichtig und wie realistisch es für Europa ist, das Völkerrecht zu verteidigen, und nachdem internationale Institutionen wie die UN und der International Criminal Court marginalisiert werd...
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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1:23:09
[66] Innovation – a blessing, and a curse?
Innovation is often hailed as the solution to many of society's problems, from climate change to economic growth. But is it really the silver bullet we think it is? In this rant, I examine how different societies have responded to innovation th...
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Season 2
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Episode 35
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36:04
[66] Innovation – Segen oder Fluch?
Innovation wird oft als Lösung für gesellschaftliche Probleme gepriesen, vom Klimawandel bis hin zum Wirtschaftswachstum. Aber ist sie wirklich das Wundermittel, für das wir sie halten? In diesem Beitrag untersuche ich, wie verschiedene Gesells...
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Season 2
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Episode 35
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30:36
[65] Anton Howes — Why did the industrial Revolution happen, and why in England?
In this episode of the BlomCast I speak to economic historian Anton Howes. The question is as simple as the answer is complex: Why did the Industrial Revolution not happen in ancient Rome or China, but in Britain? And why not earlier? Together ...
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Season 2
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Episode 33
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1:06:16
[64] Jörg Baberowski II — Wie Demokratien sterben
Am Volk vorbei heißt Jörg Baberowskis neues Buch, ein wunderbarer Anlass für das zweite Gespräch mit dem deutschen Historiker. Es ist ein Missverständnis, die Demokratie vor sich selbst bewahren zu wollen, argumentiert er. Politische und akadem...
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Season 2
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Episode 33
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51:07
[63] Kerry Brown — The Great Reversal, China and the West
In this episode of the BlomCast, host Philipp Blom engages with Kerry Brown, a prominent expert on China, to explore the historical and cultural dynamics that have shaped China's relationship with the West. They discuss Brown's personal journey...
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Season 2
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Episode 32
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52:11
[62] Daniel Marwecki — Die Welt nach dem Westen
Der Politologe Daniel Marwecki lehrt in Hong Kong und schreibt über den Westen. Das gibt ihm eine wertvolle Außenperspekive: Wir denken mehr über die Chinesen nach als die über uns, sagt er. Wir sprechen darüber, wie der Westen zu diesem Punkt ...
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Season 2
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Episode 31
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1:06:38
[61] Bonus Episode — Spinoza and the Art of Organising Knowledge
Recently, I was honoured to give the Spinoza Lecture in Den Haag, Netherlands, a wonderful opportunity to pay homage to a truly great thinker, as well as for a few reflections on knowledge and how it has been organised throughout history. In th...
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Season 2
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Episode 30
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32:39
[60] Natasha Wheatley — How States Live and Die
Yes, sometimes history has echos, and sometimes they become almost deafening. What does it take to make as state? It is not just the borders. What makes people into citizens, what gives the whole legitimacy? For the Habsburg empire in its dying...
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Season 2
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Episode 29
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59:18
[59] Georgios Varouxakis — The West, History of an Idea
In this wide ranging conversation, Georgios and I delve into the history of the concept of the west, as opposed to Christendom or Europe, its two predecessors. When did people start talking about the West and when did it become a thing? And wha...
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Season 2
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Episode 28
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1:09:26
[58] Mark Galeotti — On Russia, Historical Continuity, and the Business of Diplomacy
In this episode of the BlomCast, I engage with historian Mark Galeotti to explore the complexities of Russian history, military strategy, and the interplay of crime and society. They discuss the continuities in Russian military tactics, the cul...
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Season 2
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Episode 27
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58:41
[57] Europe 2050 — the Challenges
In an imperial world in which a few powers divide the globals spoils among them, Europe is faced with huge challenges. Those who do not have a place at the table find themselves on the menu. In this episode I think about the fundamental challen...
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Season 2
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Episode 26
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48:23
[57] Europa 2050 — die Herausforderungen
Europa findet sich in einer neuen Welt, in der große Imperien alles untereinander aufteilen: Wer keinen Platz am Tisch hat, ist auf der Speisekarte. Aber wie können europäische Demokratien überleben? In dieser Folge denke ich über drei fundamen...
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Season 2
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Episode 26
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39:58
[56] Stuart Gillespie — Food Fight: How Corporate Profit Overwhelmed Farming
The current regime of agriculture leads to a paradoxical situation: not only does this system destroy more in terms of natural resources than it creates in terms of food, it also leads to hundreds of millions of people being overfed while simul...
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Season 2
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Episode 25
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1:03:24
[55] Philippe Sands — Impunity: International Justice in an Age of Lawlessness
Few people have shaped the public perception and debate about with as much eloquence and precision as Philippe Sands, who combines a distinguished career as a human rights lawyer with writing a series of books on themes such as justice, memory,...
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Season 2
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Episode 24
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1:24:52
[54] Sarah Newman — Did We Learn Culture from Animals?
Sarah Newman is a zooarcheologist, specialising in animal remains and what they tell about the interaction between humans and animals in the distant past. Her research projects took her to investigate the impact of humans on the landscape and o...
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Season 2
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Episode 23
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1:02:58
[53] Colombe Cahen-Salvador — A New Age of Democracy?
Colombe Cahen-Salvador is driven by the vision to create a turning point in the near future: to reform not only the European Union to make it stronger, more federal, and above all more democratic, but to create a global political movement. Oh, ...
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Season 2
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Episode 22
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58:04
[52] Karl Schlögel — Der Historiker und die Annexion
Karl Schlögel, Träger des Friedenspreises des deutschen Buchhandels 2025, ist einer der ganz wichtigen historischen Autoren in Europa. Er hat sein Lebenswerk der intellektuellen Geschichte Russlands gewidmet, eine Geschichte, die er immer wiede...
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Season 2
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Episode 21
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1:00:11
[51] Ussama Makdisi — Creating the Modern Middle East: The Peace Conference of 1919
Present political structures, powers, and peoples are better understood through their history. Ussama Makdisi, a historian of the Middle East and distinguished professor at the University of California at Berkeley, has spent much of his researc...
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Season 2
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Episode 20
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1:00:44
[50] Beatrice de Graaf – 1815 and the Security State
Beatrice de Graaf is fascinated by the tensions between terror and statehood and she asks what it really takes to maintain vibrant democracies in a neo-imperial world. Her turning point lies in the early 19th century. When Napoleon was finally ...
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Season 2
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Episode 19
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1:00:59
[49] Luke Kemp — Elites and the Collapse of Empires
Luke Kemp works at the Center for the study of existential risk at Cambridge University, the kind of place that works out how close humanity is to killing itself and what the strategies might be for avoiding this. In his new book, Goliath’s Cur...
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Season 2
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Episode 18
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1:10:36
[48] David Bell — Charismatic Leaders and Revolutions
David Bell is Professor for the Era of North American Revolutions at Princeton University. He has written a biography of Napoleon Bonaparte, and much of his research is focussed on the French Revolution, the history of the Enlightenment, and on...
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Season 2
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Episode 17
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1:12:48
[47] Tim Mackintosh-Smith: Being Arab Throughout History and Ibn Khaldoun
As a scholar of Arabic language and literature, Tim has made classic Arabic literature his life’s work, and has lived in Yemen until 2019. His special interest at the moment is the great scholar Ibn Khaldoun, who lived in the 14th century and w...
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Season 2
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Episode 16
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1:10:58
[46] Gerd Schwerhoff — Die Bauernkriege, ein Wendepunkt?
Im frühen 16. Jahrhundert erhoben sich im süddeutschen Raum tausende von Bauern, Bergwerksknappen und Bürgern gegen ihre adeligen oder kirchlichen Herren. Sie stürmten Burgen und Klöster und forderten mehr Rechte, weniger Frondienste, weniger S...
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Season 2
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Episode 15
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1:05:10
[45] Laura Spinney — The First Human Language and How We Think
Once more a dive into deep history, this time into the question how languages developed, and how it is possible to reconstruct the history and genesis of languages, and with them of abstract thinking and civilisation. Laura Spinney is a disting...
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Season 2
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Episode 14
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1:02:13