Home Podcasts The Ideas Letter Podcast: A project of the Open Society Foundations
The Ideas Letter Podcast: A project of the Open Society Foundations

The Ideas Letter Podcast: A project of the Open Society Foundations

New Books Network 6 episodes Latest Jun 1, 2026

The Ideas Letter Podcast, a project of the Open Society Foundations, features conversations with thinkers and practitioners exploring unconventional and heterodox ideas from around the world. Each episode includes authors who challenge assumptions, provoke new ways of thinking, and help listeners engage beyond borders. The podcast aims to expand perspectives and foster global dialogue.

Episodes

Mar de Dudas: Conversaciones para navegar el desconcierto con Carlos Bravo Regidor Jun 1, 2026 3734 ¿Qué le ocurre al liberalismo cuando el guion que lo orientó durante tres décadas deja de corresponder al mundo? El analista político e historiador mexicano Carlos Bravo Regidor empezó a hacerse esa pregunta la noche del triunfo electoral de Donald Trump en 2016 —que coincidió con su cumpleaños— y dedicó los siguientes años a perseguirla a través de una serie de entrevistas largas que originalment
Jeremy Harding's Analogue Africa: Notes on the Anti-Colonial Imagination May 5, 2026 2995 Jeremy Harding has long been one of the premier essayists and journalists of our day. Elegant, committed and free of cant, Harding's writing has often appeared in the London Review of Books, from which a number of these essays were drawn. Harding explores the intersection of politics and culture on the African continent, and unearths stories that explain the dialectical relations between the two s
Oil and Militancy in Nigeria: A Conversation with Noo Saro-Wiwa Apr 26, 2026 2292 Noo Saro-Wiwa is an author and journalist. Born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and raised in England, she attended King's College London and Columbia University in New York.​ Her first book, Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria (Granta), was published to critical acclaim in 2012. It was selected as BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week in 2012; named The Sunday Times Travel Book of the Year, 2012
Kwame Nkrumah and Pan-Africanism’s High Tide: A Conversation with Howard W. French Dec 20, 2025 2897 The Second Emancipation: Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism, and Global Blackness at High Tide (Liveright, 2025), the second work in a trilogy from best-selling author Howard W. French about Africa's pivotal role in shaping world history, underscores Adam Hochschild's contention that French is a "modern-day Copernicus." The title--referring to a brief period beginning in 1957 when dozens of African colonies
Is a River Alive?: A Conversation with Robert Macfarlane Dec 1, 2025 2040 Hailed in the New York Times as "a naturalist who can unfurl a sentence with the breathless ease of a master angler," Robert Macfarlane brings his glittering style to a profound work of travel writing, reportage, and natural history. Is a River Alive? (W.W. Norton, 2025) is a joyful, mind-expanding exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as su
Can Feminism be African?: A Conversation with Minna Salami Nov 20, 2025 2041 Transcript of the interview Minna Salami is a writer, social critic, and thought leader on feminism, knowledge production, and the aesthetics and structures of power. She formerly served as Programme Chair and Senior Fellow at THE NEW INSTITUTE, where she led the Black Feminism and the Polycrisis programme. Her work sits at the intersection of ideas, culture, and systems thinking, with a commitme

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