Adrian Wooldridge: Can Liberalism Save Itself?
2026-10-08
In this latest Conflicted Conversation, journalist Adrian Wooldridge discusses his latest book Centrists of the World Unite: The Lost Genius of Liberalism.
For deeper dives and world-class Q&As with Aimen Dean, join the CONFLICTED COMMUNITY here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm
Adrian and Thomas explore:
Why liberalism is in crisis — and whether it can reinvent itself
Modernity, permanent change and the birth of the liberal world
Erasmus, tolerance and the case for a “chastened liberalism”
Hobbes, individualism and whether liberalism misunderstands human nature
John Stuart Mill, moral formation and the need for cultural elites
Power, authority and how liberal distrust became a “democracy of disdain”
Meritocracy, elite failure and the rise of the examination class
Identity politics, minority rights and the limits of anti-majoritarian liberalism
America, China and the unraveling of the liberal international order
Can liberalism recover its moral foundations without Christianity?
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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.
Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.
Produced and edited by Thomas Small .
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An ex-Al Qaeda jihadi turned MI6 spy and a former monk turned filmmaker, have been embedded at the heart of conflicts in the Middle East. Together Aimen Dean and Thomas Small unpack the realities of war, fundamentalism and their global implications through first-hand experience.