Roots and Branches

Melissa Lane, how do we rule for the good of the people?

Political theorist Melissa Lane talks about constitutionalism in Plato’s philosophy and how his differentiation between ‘ruling’ and ‘holding office’ can help governments rule for the good of the people.   Melissa is Class of 1943 Professor of Politics at Princeton University. She has published extensively on ancient Greek political thought and its modern significance. 📚 REFERENCES Melissa Lane, Eco-Republic: Ancient Ethics for a Green Age (Peter Lang, 2011) Melissa Lane, Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Ideas of the Political (Princeton University Press, 2023) Melissa Lane:https://melissalane.princeton.edu/ [https://melissalane.princeton.edu/] Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies (Routledge, 1945) Josiah Ober:https://politicalscience.stanford.edu/people/josiah-ober [https://politicalscience.stanford.edu/people/josiah-ober] Sarah Broadie, Plato's Sun-Like Good: Dialectic in the Republic (Cambridge University Press, 2021) John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859) 🔗 LINKS • Website ↗ http://www.intellectualhistory.net/roots-and-branches [http://www.intellectualhistory.net/roots-and-branches] • Instagram ↗ @roots_and_branches_podcast [https://www.instagram.com/roots_and_branches_podcast/] • X ↗ @rbpod_ih [https://x.com/rbpod_ih] • Bluesky ↗ @rbpodcast [https://bsky.app/profile/rbpodcast.bsky.social] • Selma [https://bsky.app/profile/rbpodcast.bsky.social]Sondern ↗ www.linkedin.com/in/selma-sondern [http://www.linkedin.com/in/selma-sondern] 🎶 MUSIC 'A New Year' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au [http://www.scottbuckley.com.au/] 📸 PHOTO Sameer A. Khan/Fotobuddy

Ramin Jahanbegloo, can mysticism translate into freedom in Iran?

Political philosopher and peace activist Ramin Jahanbegloo discusses Persian mysticism, liberalism and tyranny and how a comparison between the Ancient Greeks and Persians might help understand the struggle for political and cultural freedom in Iran today. 📚 REFERENCES Jahanbegloo, Ramin, The Idea of Persia: A Philosophical Enquiry (Gingko Library, 2025) Ramin Jahanbegloo [https://jgu.edu.in/jgls/faculty/prof-dr-ramin-jahanbegloo ] Mohammad Ali Foroughi (1877-1942) Reza Shah (1878-1944) Montesquieu, C., Lettres persanes (1721) 🔗 LINKS • Website ↗ http://www.intellectualhistory.net/roots-and-branches [http://www.intellectualhistory.net/roots-and-branches] • Instagram ↗ @roots_and_branches_podcast [https://www.instagram.com/roots_and_branches_podcast/] • X ↗ @rbpod_ih [https://x.com/rbpod_ih] • Bluesky ↗ @rbpodcast [https://bsky.app/profile/rbpodcast.bsky.social] • Selma [https://bsky.app/profile/rbpodcast.bsky.social]Sondern ↗ www.linkedin.com/in/selma-sondern [http://www.linkedin.com/in/selma-sondern] 🎶 MUSIC 'A New Year' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au [http://www.scottbuckley.com.au/]

Andrea Capussela, what have we not learned from the Financial Crisis?

Political economist Andrea Capussela discusses how a republican conception of freedom and Schumpeter’s idea of ‘creative destruction’ can converge to foster economic reform and innovation. After working in Mergers & Acquisitions, Andrea became Head of the Economics Unit of Kosovo’s International Civilian Office in 2008 and later adviser to Moldova’s Minister of Economy. He has spent the last two years as visiting scholar at the London School of Economics working on his new book The Republic of Innovation. 📚 REFERENCES Andrea Lorenzo Capussela, The Republic of Innovation: A New Political Economy of Freedom (Polity, 2025). 🔗 LINKS • Website ↗ http://www.intellectualhistory.net/roots-and-branches [http://www.intellectualhistory.net/roots-and-branches] • Instagram ↗ @roots_and_branches_podcast [https://www.instagram.com/roots_and_branches_podcast/] • X ↗ @rbpod_ih [https://x.com/rbpod_ih] • Bluesky ↗ @rbpodcast [https://bsky.app/profile/rbpodcast.bsky.social] • Selma [https://bsky.app/profile/rbpodcast.bsky.social]Sondern ↗ www.linkedin.com/in/selma-sondern [http://www.linkedin.com/in/selma-sondern] 🎶 MUSIC 'A New Year' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au [http://www.scottbuckley.com.au/]

Riley Linebaugh, who does the past belong to?

Along the case of Kenya’s “Migrated Archives” Dr Riley Linebaugh illustrates how questions of archival custody shape justice, memory, and public life, how they relate to W. E. B. Du Bois’ “colour line” and why archival accessibility is a vital asset for democracy. 📚 REFERENCES Riley Linebaugh. Curating the Colonial Past: The ‘Migrated Archives' and the Struggle for Kenya's History (Cambridge University Press, 2025). Riley Linebaugh & James Lowry (2021). “The archival colour line: race, records and post-colonial custody”, in Archives and Records, 42(3), 284–303. Dr Riley Linebaugh: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/de/hi-globalgeschichte/team/dr-riley-linebaugh [https://www.uni-potsdam.de/de/hi-globalgeschichte/team/dr-riley-linebaugh] 🔗 LINKS • Website ↗ http://www.intellectualhistory.net/roots-and-branches [http://www.intellectualhistory.net/roots-and-branches] • Instagram ↗ @roots_and_branches_podcast [https://www.instagram.com/roots_and_branches_podcast/] • X ↗ @rbpod_ih [https://x.com/rbpod_ih] • Bluesky ↗ @rbpodcast [https://bsky.app/profile/rbpodcast.bsky.social] • Selma [https://bsky.app/profile/rbpodcast.bsky.social]Sondern ↗ www.linkedin.com/in/selma-sondern [http://www.linkedin.com/in/selma-sondern] 🎶 MUSIC 'A New Year' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au [http://www.scottbuckley.com.au/]

Quentin Skinner, is republican liberty fit for the 21st century?

Public intellectual Quentin Skinner discusses his view on liberty, how freedom relates to democracy, and whether there are limits to liberty in representative government. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of the Cambridge School of the History of Political Thought. 📚 REFERENCES Quentin Skinner, Liberty as Independence: The Making and Unmaking of a Political Ideal (Cambridge University Press, 2025) Quentin Skinner: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/history/people/emeritus-academic-staff/profiles/skinnerquentin.html [https://www.qmul.ac.uk/history/people/emeritus-academic-staff/profiles/skinnerquentin.html] Isaiah Berlin, “Two Concepts of Liberty”, in Four Essays on Liberty (Oxford, 1969). Annelien de Dijn, Freedom: An Unruly History (Harvard University Press, 2022) Andrea Lorenzo Capussela, The Republic of Innovation: A New Political Economy of Freedom (forthcoming with Polity, 2025) Era Dabla-Norris and Davide Furceri, “Debt is Higher and Rising Faster in 80 Percent of Global Economy”, IMF Blog (29.05.2025), https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2025/05/29/debt-is-higher-and-rising-faster-in-80-percent-of-global-economy [https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2025/05/29/debt-is-higher-and-rising-faster-in-80-percent-of-global-economy] (Accessed 06.08.2025) 🔗 LINKS • Website ↗ http://www.intellectualhistory.net/roots-and-branches [http://www.intellectualhistory.net/roots-and-branches]   • Instagram ↗ @roots_and_branches_podcast [https://www.instagram.com/roots_and_branches_podcast/] • X ↗ @rbpod_ih [https://x.com/rbpod_ih] • Selma Sondern ↗ www.linkedin.com/in/selma-sondern [http://www.linkedin.com/in/selma-sondern] 🎶 MUSIC 'A New Year' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au [http://www.scottbuckley.com.au/]