ELFpodcast

Are women’s rights compatible with religion? How have women\'s rights evolved in the Islamic Republic? Has the recent conflict involving Israel, the United States, and Iran brought Iran any closer to freedom? And what is the endgame? Leszek Jazdzewski (Fundacja Liberte!) talks with Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist and human rights activist.

What should be a proper European response to the hybrid attacks by Russia on European territory? How should we view the post-American Middle East and its relationship with Europe? What role is Italy playing today within the EU and what are (and what should be) the country’s ambitions? And what is the current EU policy on migration?

How is a waning liberal order shifting the ground beneath Europe\'s feet?What does Russia’s aggressive revisionism mean for the future of European security?How is Turkey leveraging cooptation to play global powers against each other?Can Europe successfully navigate an increasingly intense strategic and economic rivalry with China?

What is modern Türkiye\'s relationship with its republican, secularist origins of Kemal Atatürk\'s republic from 1923? How is the relationship between Türkiye, the United States, and the West evolving? How is Türkiye positioning itself in the region in the aftermath of the Arab Spring? And is Europe\'s stance toward Türkiye hypocritical?

What are the most common misconceptions about liberalism? Why has the history of liberalism as an inspirational ideal been lost? How did liberalism come to mean so many different and conflicting things? And what is the historical relationship between \'liberalism\' and \'democracy\'?

What makes a civilization thrive and why do civilizations collapse? Is human nature inherently good and it is actually institutions that are simply oppressive? What did Thomas Hobbes get wrong in his reasoning? And what are \'Goliaths\'? Leszek Jazdzewski (Fundacja Liberte!) talks with Luke Kemp, who researches the end of the world.

What structural strategies must the political center implement to effectively reclaim the future for liberal democracy? How can governance bodies connect abstract concepts to the everyday lived experiences of citizens? What distinct emotional promises allow the populist right wing to capture public dissatisfaction so effectively across Europe? And how does the algorithmic, endless design of modern news feeds erode public trust and dismantle our capacity for reasoned political debate?

What should we know ahead of the 2027 presidential election in France? What topics will likely dominate the political debate ahead of the election?  What has recently changed in terms of Marine Le Pen\'s candidacy for the president? Where does the enormous support base for the Rassemblement National come from? And what is the legacy of President Emmanuel Macron?

How can we make technology work for us and not the other way around? What is the difference between ‘algorithms’ and ‘androrithms’? Does outsourcing thinking to AI erode people\'s capacity to think and leads to the rise of \"super-stupidity\"? And what will human agency look like in the future? Leszek Jazdzewski talks with Gerd Leonhard, a top-rated futurist and a leading global keynote speaker.

Is the Visegrad Group still relevant? Is it expereiencing its renaissance after Péter Magyar\'s win in Hungary? What is the relationship between the Visegrad countries and Ukraine? What types of projects does the International Visegrad Fund foster and what is their relevance in terms of cultural cooperation? And can civil society funding be considered as part of democratic infrastructure?