Past Present Future

How Dallas Saw the Future

This week David talks to Helen Thompson about Dallas and the end of oil. How did the world’s most popular soap opera come to explain the energy crisis and the future of a world hooked on fossil fuels? Is the fate of the Ewing family – fire and ruin – going to be the fate of America? And did J.R. Ewing really pave the way for President Donald Trump? Plus David and Helen discuss ‘oil fictions’, from Isaac Asimov to Italo Calvino.
Watch the moment when ‘Miss Ellie Saves the Day’.
Helen Thompson on ’the cosmic stakes of the age of oil’.
Isaac Asimov’s imaginary report on a world without oil.
Italo Calvino’s short story, ’The Petrol Pump’.
Past Present Future is brought to you in partnership with the London Review of Books.
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Past Present Future is a bi-weekly History of Ideas podcast with David Runciman, host and creator of Talking Politics, exploring the history of ideas from politics to philosophy, culture to technology. David talks to historians, novelists, scientists and many others about where the most interesting ideas come from, what they mean, and why they matter.
Ideas from the past, questions about the present, shaping the future. Brought to you in partnership with the London Review of Books.
New episodes every Thursday and Sunday.