Best Line Cook Thoughts Podcasts (2025)

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The Thucydides Trap: How A Rising Athens Made The Peloponnesian War Inevitable 46:29

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18m ago46:29

46:29

The Peloponnesian War is considered one of the most famous wars of the ancient world not only because it was a massive and devastating conflict that reshaped the Greek world, but also because its thorough documentation by the historian Thucydides transformed how we understand history and war. On the face of it, the Peloponnesian War, fought over 20…

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The Free French Army in North Africa, 1940-1945 49:37

4d ago49:37

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One of the principal architects of Allied Victory in North Africa during World War Two was French General Louis Dio. His importance in North Africa lies in his role as a key leader of the Free French forces and a trusted subordinate to General Philippe Leclerc. He participated in every battle from Douala to the Fezzan Campaigns in the early 1940s. …

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The social safety net as an investment in children 1:27:24

5d ago1:27:24

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Contributor(s): Professor Hilary Hoynes | Join us for the Department of Social Policy’s Annual Lecture at which Hilary Hoynes will explore the concept of viewing the social safety net as a long-term investment in children.Traditionally, economic research has emphasised the incentive effects of tax credits and transfer programs, often neglecting the…

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Mutually assured survival: feminist solidarities amidst planetary threats 1:21:53

6d ago1:21:53

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Contributor(s): Dr Lyn Ossome, Professor Shirin M Rai, Dr Gloria Novović | We are beset by existential planetary threats - from environmental emergencies and public heath crises to grotesque inequalities and wars. Can global feminist solidarity and a feminist theory of social reproduction provide an emancipatory agenda that will foster the material…

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An Inventor’s Quest to Build a Pneumatic Subway System in 1870s New York 45:11

7d ago45:11

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Alfred Beach built America’s first operational subway in secret beneath 1860s Manhattan, decades before the city’s official electric subway line in 1904. He designed and commissioned a 300-foot-long, eight-foot-diameter tunnel 20 feet underground, built with a tunneling machine he invented for this purpose. The car moved quietly and silently, pushe…

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How progress ends: technology, innovation, and the fate of nations 1:24:53

7d ago1:24:53

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Contributor(s): Dr Carl Benedikt Frey, Professor Jane Gingrich, Professor Michael Storper | How will progress end? In this event, Carl Benedikt Frey – one of the leading scholars of technology and the economy – will discuss his new book, How Progress Ends.To appreciate why we cannot depend on any AI-fueled great leap forward, Frey offers a remarkab…

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Technology for the public interest: preventing capture and promoting welfare 1:27:16

8d ago1:27:16

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Contributor(s): Professor Padmashree Gehl Sampath, Dr Laura Mann | In this lecture, Padmashree Gehl Sampath compares the trajectories of two critical technology-driven sectors, pharmaceuticals and artificial intelligence, to show how weak policy and regulatory oversight can lead to technology capture and reduce the public interest benefits from tec…

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On liberalism: in defence of freedom 1:00:40

11d ago1:00:40

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Contributor(s): Professor Cass R. Sunstein | Join us for this lecture by New York Times bestselling author and Harvard academic Cass R Sunstein.More than at any time since World War II, liberalism is under pressure, even siege. On the right, some have given up on liberalism. They hold it responsible for the collapse of the family and traditional va…

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Spirited Rivalry: Did Ireland or Scotland Invent Whisky? 48:53

12d ago48:53

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There’s a divide between Scotland and Ireland as fierce as the Protestant/Catholic split during the Thirty Years’ War or the battles between Sunnis and Shias in the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. It’s the debate over who invented whisky. Both Ireland and Scotland claim to have originated the spirit. Ireland cites its early monastic traditions and the …

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The CEO: the rise and fall of Britain's captains of industry 1:27:01

12d ago1:27:01

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Contributor(s): Dr Michael Aldous, Professor John Turner, Dr Judy Stephenson | The CEOs of Britain's largest companies wield immense power, but we know very little about them. How did they get to the top? Why do they have so much power? Are they really worth that exorbitant salary?In their book, The CEO: The Rise and Fall of Britain's Captains of I…

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US-Iran relations under Trump 2.0: prospects and challenges 1:25:33

13d ago1:25:33

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Contributor(s): Dr Dana H. Allin, Dr Anahita Motazed Rad, Dr Sanam Vakil | This event will examine how a second Trump administration might reshape U.S.-Iran relations and regional security—whether through renewed maximum pressure, diplomatic engagement, or military action to contain Iran’s nuclear and military ambitions.The Middle East that Donald …

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The Horse That Ate the Legion: Rome’s Cavalry's Triumph Over the Infantry 41:21

14d ago41:21

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The cavalry 'wings' that probed ahead of the Roman Army played a key role in its campaigns of conquest, masking its marching flanks and seeking to encircle enemies in battle. However, at the very beginning of Rome’s history, it didn’t even have a cavalry, and relied on Greek-style phalanx formations instead. It began as a small cavalry arm provided…

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Permission to be queer: the case for liberty 1:23:25

14d ago1:23:25

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Contributor(s): Professor Deirdre Nansen McCloskey | Join us in welcoming back to LSE, economist Deirdre Nansen McCloskey who will deliver this special lecture.Fear of the queer, says McCloskey, undermines our liberty every time, from the persecution of heretics and witches down to the demonization of Catholics, gays, immigrants, and trans people.T…

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Why we're getting poorer 1:26:08

15d ago1:26:08

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Contributor(s): Dr Cahal Moran | As the UK economy struggles along while the US seems destined for chaos, evaluating why we’re getting poorer has never seemed more relevant. Join us for this event at which LSE's Cahal Moran will talk about their new book, Why We’re Getting Poorer: A Realist’s Guide to the Economy and How We Can Fix it.Did you know …

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Beyond Joan of Arc and Agincourt: How the 100 Years War Crushed Medieval Europe and Launched its Global Order 58:41

19d ago58:41

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Modern France and Britain were forged in the fires of the Hundred Years War, a century-long conflict that produced deadly English longbowmen, Joan of Arc’s heavenly visions, and a massive death toll from Scotland to the Low Countries. The traditional beginning and end of the Hundred Years' War are conventionally marked by the start of open conflict…

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Not just lines on a map: borders in a changing world 1:30:16

19d ago1:30:16

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Contributor(s): Dr Tarsis Brito, Dr Maya Goodfellow, Dr Luke de Noronha | We are joined by Maya Goodfellow, Tarsis Brito and Luke de Noronha who will each draw on their areas of expertise to discuss the implications of borders in a changing world.Borders are not just lines on a map marking geographical boundaries but are important for maintaining c…

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The promise and peril of Trump's America first 1:26:33

20d ago1:26:33

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Contributor(s): Professor Charles Kupchan | Donald Trump’s America First is a response to too much globalisation, too much immigration, and too many wars. But has Trump overcorrected?In this lecture, Charles Kupchan considers whether a divided America can find the middle ground over foreign policy.By Professor Charles Kupchan

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How to save the internet 1:16:11

20d ago1:16:11

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Contributor(s): Sir Nick Clegg | Join us for this special event where former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will talk about his new book, How to Save the Internet.The global, open internet is fragmenting. As democracies seek to rein in the power of big tech, as Silicon Valley pivots to an America-first agenda, as authoritarian regimes suc…

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Reverse Ellis Island: American Migrants Who Fought for Mussolini and Built Stalin’s USSR 38:33

20d ago38:33

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By History Unplugged

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The crime of war: from the Nuremberg trial to Ukraine 1:31:57

21d ago1:31:57

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Contributor(s): Professor Claus Kress | Eighty years on from the start of the Nuremberg War Crime Trial in November 1945 we ask what is the future of the crime of aggression after the creation of the ICC in 1998 and the Ukraine war?At this event, Claus Kress, a leading German academic, judge and currently Special Adviser to the Prosecutor of the In…

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Depopulation: an ethical perspective 1:23:40

22d ago1:23:40

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Contributor(s): Dr Luara Ferracioli | oin us for the annual Auguste Comte lecture delivered by Luara Ferracioli, a leading thinker on the philosophy of immigration and the philosophy of the family.Reduced birth rates in key economies could lead to population collapse by 2100. Demographic change disrupts retirement systems, income distribution, and …

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Don’t Use Rome as a Model of Why Societies Collapse; Use Crime Syndicates and Somalia Instead 49:42

26d ago49:42

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12,000 years ago, human history changed forever when the egalitarian groups of hunter-gathering humans began to settle down and organize themselves into hierarchies. The few dominated the many, seizing control through violence. What emerged were “Goliaths”: large societies built on a collection of hierarchies that are also terrifyingly fragile, col…

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Can human solidarity survive social media and what if it can’t? 1:27:49

26d ago1:27:49

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Contributor(s): Professor Nick Couldry, Baroness Beeban Kidron | Drawing on his recent book, The Space of the World, Nick Couldry will reflect on the global space of social communications and interaction that has been constructed over the past three decades through a commercialized internet and digital platforms whose business model depends on extr…

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Racism and racial justice: 40 years on from the Broadwater Farm riots 1:35:36

27d ago1:35:36

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Contributor(s): Sharon Grant, Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka, Dr Roxana Willis | Join us to explore the legal, political and community-based racial justice work that emerged 40 years ago from the Broadwater Farm riots, examining methods of resistance that continue to address present-day questions of race, racism and social inequality.On 6 October 1985, T…

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A Union General Found a Loophole in the Fugitive Slave Act, Causing 1 Million Slaves to Flee North 45:21

28d ago45:21

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After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, enslaved people feared running away to the North, as their return was mandated, and they faced brutal punishment or even death upon return to deter others from escaping. But that changed during the Civil War. Black slaves in Confederate Virginia began hearing rumors that they could receive their …

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How AI is helping - and harming - animals 1:23:43

28d ago1:23:43

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Contributor(s): Professor Kristin Andrews, Dr Leonie Bossert, Jane Lawton, Dr Jeff Sebo | Learn more about the Jeremy Coller Centre for Animal Sentience, a new LSE initiative committed to making sure technological change works for - rather than against - the interests of other species.Would you trust a device that claimed to translate your dog or c…

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On natural capital: the value of the world around us 1:28:49

29d ago1:28:49

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Contributor(s): Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta | How should we measure economic progress in an age of ecological crisis?Join us for a conversation with Partha Dasgupta, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge, as he discusses his latest book On Natural Capital where he lays out a seminal and groundbreaking new approach to econ…

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The Civil War’s Brutal Finale: A War of Attrition as Terrible as WW2-Pacific and the Napoleonic Wars 47:55

1M ago47:55

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In 1864, the American Civil War reached a critical juncture with Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign, including the brutal battles of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, which claimed over 60,000 casualties, surpassing Gettysburg as the Americas’ deadliest clash. Abraham Lincoln faced a contentious re-election against George B. McClellan, while Confe…

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Climate finance and investment in low-income countries 1:29:23

1M ago1:29:23

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Contributor(s): Melinda Bohannon, Dr Vera Songwe, Dr Sudarno Sumarto, Professor Chris Woodruff | Climate finance is a critical tool in supporting low-income countries as they face the growing impacts of climate change.These nations, despite contributing the least to global emissions, are often the most vulnerable to climate-related shocks such as e…

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Camp David Looks Like a 1970s Lakeside Retreat. Why is it the Site of the World’s Biggest Political Summits? 41:42

1M ago41:42

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Camp David, nestled in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains, spans about 125 acres, making it significantly smaller than other presidential getaways like Lyndon B. Johnson’s sprawling 2,700-acre Texas ranch or the vast 1,000-acre Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. Compared to grand diplomatic venues like the White House or international summit …

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Valuing nature in a changing climate: rethinking natural capital 1:29:30

1M ago1:29:30

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Contributor(s): Professor Juliano Assunção, Jim Leape, Professor Rohini Pande | As climate change accelerates, the economic case for protecting and investing in natural capital has never been clearer. This event brings together leading economists and policymakers to explore how the degradation of ecosystems – from forests and wetlands to oceans – i…

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Investing in our future: COP30 and the sustainable growth agenda 1:32:24

1M ago1:32:24

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Contributor(s): Professor Patrick Bolton, Professor Michael Greenstone, Sherry Rehman, Professor José Scheinkman | As the world prepares for COP30 in Brazil, this event provides a forward-looking platform to explore priorities, challenges, and opportunities for accelerating and aligning climate ambition with sustainable economic growth.As countries…

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Do we need to pay our debts? 28:34

1M ago28:34

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Contributor(s): | Exploring the reasons people might find themselves with problematic levels of debt, the options open to those in financial trouble and how bankruptcy laws could be used more impactfully to the benefit of both individuals and society; this month we revisit an episode from 2023 which asks, “Do we always need to pay our debts?”It's a…

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Global inequality in historical and comparative perspective 55:35

1M ago55:35

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Contributor(s): Thomas Piketty | Presenting new research produced by the World Inequality Lab, Thomas Piketty discusses recent trends in global inequality, analysing the historical movement toward equality and future prospects for more redistribution.This lecture includes preliminary results from the Global Justice Project. Combining comparative hi…

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How British Scientists' Self-Experiments on Underwater Rebreathing Created D-Day Submarine Tech (And Nearly Killed Them in the Process) 53:29

1M ago53:29

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In August 1942, over 7,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, in a largely forgotten landing, with only a small fraction surviving unscathed. The raid failed due to poor planning and lack of underwater reconnaissance, which left the Allies unaware of strong German coastal defenses and underwater obstacles. Inadequate submersible…

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Over 200,000 Allied Troops Tried and Failed to Crush the Soviet Revolution After World War One 41:20

1M ago41:20

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The Allied Intervention into the Russian Civil War remains one of the most ambitious yet least talked about military ventures of the 20th century. Coinciding with the end of the first World War, some 180,000 troops from several countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, Italy, Greece, Poland, and Romania, among others…

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How the U.S. Occupation of Japan After WW2 Forged the Most Durable Peace of the 20th Century 1:00:19

2M ago1:00:19

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During World War II, the U.S. and Japan were locked in bitter hatred, fueled by propaganda portraying each other as ruthless enemies, exemplified by dehumanizing "Tokyo Woe" posters in the U.S. and Japanese depictions of Americans as barbaric invaders. After the war, the feelings seemed to turn 180 degrees overnight. By the early 1950s, American se…

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Homer Couldn't Have Written the Iliad, But He Probably Dictated it Word for Word 52:53

2M ago52:53

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The Iliad is the world’s greatest epic poem—heroic battle and divine fate set against the Trojan War. Its beauty and profound bleakness are intensely moving, but great questions remain: Where, how, and when was it composed and why does it endure? To explore these questions is today’s guest, Robin Lane Fox, a scholar and teacher of Homer for over 40…

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Depression-Era Planners Thought They’d End Poverty with Public Housing. Instead, They Created the Projects 41:02

2M ago41:02

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In the 1930s, New Deal-era technocrats devised a solution to homelessness and poverty itself. They believed that providing free or low-cost urban housing projects could completely eliminate housing scarcity. Planners envisioned urban communities that would propel their residents into the middle class, creating a flywheel of abundance where poverty …

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The Alabaman Jacksonians Who Rejected the Confederacy and Marched with Sherman to the Sea 49:01

2M ago49:01

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As the popular narrative goes, the Civil War was won when courageous Yankees triumphed over the South. But an aspect of the war that has remained little-known for 160 years is the Alabamian Union soldiers who played a decisive role in the Civil War, only to be scrubbed from the history books. One such group was the First Alabama Calvary, formed in …

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Frederick Douglass’s Private Writings on Abraham Lincoln, His Strong Critiques and Stronger Praise 49:05

2M ago49:05

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Frederick Douglass made the strongest arguments for abolition in antebellum America because he made the case that abolition was not a mutation of the Founding Father’s vision of America, but a fulfillment of their promises of liberty for all. He had a lot riding on this personally – Douglas was born into slavery in Maryland around 1818, escaped to …

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The Industrial Revolution Was Supposed to Lead to Unlimited Free Time But Only Gave Us Smartphones and Endless Dopamine 31:11

2M ago31:11

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Free time, one of life’s most important commodities, often feels unfulfilling. But why? And how did leisure activities transition from strolling in the park for hours to “doomscrolling” on social media for thirty minutes? Despite the promise of modern industrialization, many people experience both a scarcity of free time and a disappointment in it.…

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James Cook Mapped the Globe Before Dying At the Hands of Hawaiians Who Once Worshipped Him 56:56

2M ago56:56

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Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan are known for discoveries, but it was Captain James Cook who made global travel truly possible. Cook was an 18th-century British explorer who mapped vast regions of the Pacific, including New Zealand and Australia’s eastern coast, with unprecedented accuracy. He meticulously conducted soundings to measure…

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American Anarchists: The Original Domestic Extremists 39:37

2M ago39:37

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In the early twentieth century, anarchists like Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman championed a radical vision of a world without states, laws, or private property. Militant and sometimes violent, anarchists were heroes to many working-class immigrants. But to many others, anarchism was a terrifyingly foreign ideology. Determined to crush it, gover…

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100 Years Before Ford v. Ferrari, a Horse Breeder Revolutionized Thoroughbred Racing Through a Similar Obsession With Progress 1:14:41

3M ago1:14:41

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Horse racing was the most popular sport in early America, drawing massive crowds and fueling a cultural obsession with horses’ speed and pedigree. In the early 1800s, every town in America with a few thousand people had a horse racing track, with major cities drawing crowds of up to 50,000. In the midst of this was Alexander Keene Richards (1827–18…

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Western Rome Fell Due to Germanic Immigration, Mass Inflation, and a Bloated Bureaucracy 39:05

3M ago39:05

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It took little more than a single generation for the centuries-old Roman Empire to fall. In those critical decades, while Christians and pagans, legions and barbarians, generals and politicians squabbled over dwindling scraps of power, two men – former comrades on the battlefield – rose to prominence on opposite sides of the great game of empire. R…

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Why the Atomic Bombing of Japan is as Justified in 2025 as it was in 1945 52:29

3M ago52:29

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It's been 80 years since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the question of whether or not those bombings were justified has never been more contentious. That wasn't the case in the immediate aftermath: 85% of the American public approved the decision to bomb the cities in 1945, but this has dropped to 56% in more recent years, particularl…

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Surviving the Siege of Leningrad with Sawdust Bread and Iron Determination 46:54

3M ago46:54

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The first year of the siege of Leningrad that began in September 1941 marked the opening stage of a 900-day-long struggle for survival that left over a million dead. The capture of the city came tantalizingly close late that year, but Hitler paused to avoid costly urban fighting. Determined to starve Leningrad into submission, what followed was a w…

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Depression-Era Governor Huey Long Wanted to Confiscate Individual Fortunes Over $1 Million, Possibly Leading to His 1935 Assassination 1:05:41

3M ago1:05:41

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The most radical piece of legislation in the 20th century was Louisiana Governor Huey Long’s “Share Our Wealth Plan,” a bold proposal to confiscate individual fortunes exceeding $1 million to fund healthcare, free college education, and a guaranteed minimum income for families struggling through the Great Depression—a plan so radical it sparked the…

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Rope Equals Fire as Humanity’s Most Important Invention: It Allowed Hunting Mammoths and Building Pyramids 55:36

3M ago55:36

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“‘Rope!’ muttered Sam[wise Gamgee]. ‘I knew I’d want it, if I hadn’t got it!’” Sam knew in the Lord of the Rings that the quest would fail without rope, but he was inadvertently commenting on how civilization owes its existence to this three-strand tool. Humans first made rope 50,000 years ago and one of its earliest contributions to the rise of ci…