Downstream: Is Liberalism Finally Waking Up to the Crises it has Caused? w/ Adrian Wooldridge

About this episode

Adrian Wooldridge discusses the current state and historical context of liberalism and its crises.

Liberalism, in one form or another, has been the pervading political ideology of the past 200 years. It has become so pervasive, as an ideology, that it lays claim to the middle ground and common sense itself. But liberalism is a set of dogmas and doctrines like any other political ideology, and unfathomable horrors as well as huge advances have been made in its name. Today on Downstream, the ideas we call liberal or centrist are up for scrutiny, as Aaron Bastani interviews Adrian Wooldridge. Wooldridge is a liberal insider, having been a journalist at the Economist magazine for thirty years. His new book, Centrists of the World Unite! The Lost Genius of Liberalism is an account of his own sense that liberalism in 2026 is in a state of crisis. It must reinvent itself, he argues, or die. So what exactly is liberalism, where did it come from, and how can we characterise it today? What was the historical relationship between liberalism and slavery? Why are liberals always so reluctant to acknowledge this aspect of their history? In times of crisis, do liberals always defect to the fascist far-right? And what must centrists do today, if they want their ideas to organise the 21st…

People in this episode

Host: Aaron Bastani

Guest: Adrian Wooldridge

Topics covered

• liberalism
• political ideology
• history
• crisis
• centrist politics

Keywords

• Centrists of the World Unite!
• liberal ideology
• historical relationship with slavery
• fascist far-right
• reinvent liberalism

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Downstream

Books & works: Centrists of the World Unite! The Lost Genius of Liberalism

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