The Megacrisis - how the world's problems piled up - a conversation with Helen Thompson

<p>This week, Rafael Behr and Professor Helen Thompson discuss her new book Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century.</p> <p>The book, which was released on the day Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, recounts three histories—one about geopolitics, one about the world economy, and one about western democracies.</p> <p>She explains how a confluence of different crises, building over many years, has created the current mood of global, epoch-defining disorder.</p> <p>It shows how much of this turbulence originated in problems generated by fossil-fuel energies, and it explains why, as the green transition takes place, the longstanding predicaments energy invariably shapes will remain in place.</p> <p>In light of her new book and the war raging in Ukraine, in this edition of Politics on the Couch Rafael and Helen discuss a wide-ranged of ideas and issues:</p> <p><strong>Topics discussed:</strong></p> <ol> <li>Was the Russian invasion of Ukraine an inflection point in history and how do we know if we're living through one?</li> <li>Do individuals and charismatic personalities shape history or merely express longer-running trends and bigger forces?</li> <li>Does Johnson have any ideology? If so, what is it?</li> <li>Can the year we're born can shape our optimism about the future? </li> <li>Has the pandemic affected the way citizens view making big sacrifices for a greater good? </li> <li>How can strong political identities be forged from adversity?</li> <li>Do Western liberal democracies have the capacity to drive through the change needed to make the green transition? </li> <li>Is China as an authoritarian state at an advantage? </li> <li>What lessons has the Ukrainian war taught us about energy policy and green transition?</li> </ol> <p><strong>Links mentioned in this episode:</strong></p> <ul> <li> <p>Helen's new book: <a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/books/disorder-hard-times-in-the-21st-century/9780198864981">https://uk.bookshop.org/books/disorder-hard-times-in-the-21st-century/9780198864981</a></p> </li> <li