{"podcast":{"title":"Past Present Future","slug":"past-present-future-6300636","podcast_index_feed_id":6300636,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/ARML2708405200","website_url":"https://www.ppfideas.com/","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/2f107d8e-a203-11ef-b85e-f7325ecdf2a3/image/dc212737e69c26e9c1ae344baf5c42e6.jpeg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"D&HR Media Ltd","episode_count":321,"summary":"Past Present Future is a bi-weekly History of Ideas podcast with David Runciman, host and creator of Talking Politics, exploring the history of ideas from politics to philosophy, culture to technology. David talks to historians, novelists, scientists and many others about where the most interesting ideas come from, what they mean, and why they matter. Ideas from the past, questions about the present, shaping the future. New episodes every Wednesday and Sunday.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-08T14:17:07.389567+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/past-present-future-6300636"},"episode":{"title":"The Great Political Fictions: The Human Factor","slug":"the-great-political-fictions-the-human-factor","published_at":"2026-06-10T05:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/past-present-future-6300636/the-great-political-fictions-the-human-factor","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/past-present-future-6300636","url":"https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/NSR1949611306.mp3","audio_url":"https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/NSR1949611306.mp3","summary":"Today’s political fiction is a spy novel, a Cold War comedy and a meditation on the nature of good and evil: Graham Greene’s The Human Factor. Why has Greene so fallen out of fashion? What made the South African secret police his idea of pure evil? Was this book shaped by Greene’s own experiences with ‘the third man’ Kim Philby? And how did Greene prefigure the world of Slow Horses? Out now on PPF+: our latest bonus episode in which David talks to Luke Kemp, author of Goliath’s Curse, about whether and how Ursula Le Guin’s vision of a stateless world matches up to his own. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Join us on Friday 19th June at the Regent Street Cinema in London for the final film in our current season: a screening of Never Let Me Go followed by a live podcast recording with geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford. Tickets available now https://bit.ly/4x641XC You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in Great Political Fictions: The Years Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices","meta_description":"Today’s political fiction is a spy novel, a Cold War comedy and a meditation on the nature of good and evil: Graham Greene’s The Human Factor. Why has Gre…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3620,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/past-present-future-6300636/episodes/the-great-political-fictions-the-human-factor/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/past-present-future-6300636/the-great-political-fictions-the-human-factor.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}