Ideology Unbound is a podcast from the Illiberalism Studies Program at George Washington University and hosted by Laura K. Field. We talk about the past and future of ideologies, and about liberalism and its challenges, with thinkers in the United States and around the world.

In this episode, Laura Field sits down with Marlene Laruelle, a leading scholar of Russian political thought and contemporary illiberalism, to discuss her intellectual journey, her work on Russia’s ideological landscape, and the conceptual foundations of her influential framework of illiberalism. The conversation explores Laruelle's early research in Russian intellectual history; understanding illiberalism not as a regime type but as a coherent political project defined by backlash against lived liberalism and by an alternative vision built around sovereignty, majoritarianism, civilizational geopolitics, social homogeneity, and conservative values; and the complicated relationship between liberalism and illiberalism.

Ideology Unbound is a podcast from the Illiberalism Studies Program at George Washington University and hosted by Laura K. Field. We talk about the past and future of ideologies, and about liberalism and its challenges, with thinkers in the United States and around the world.

In this episode, Aaron Irion engages with political theorist Matt McManus to discuss his new book The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism. The conversation examines the intellectual roots of liberal socialism, the project of retrieval that animates McManus’s method, and the contemporary political stakes of revisiting this neglected tradition. McManus outlines the book’s central principles—methodological collectivism paired with normative individualism, a developmental ethic, and a commitment to participatory liberal‑democratic institutions—and explains how these ideas draw on figures as varied as Mary Wollstonecraft, John Stuart Mill, John Rawls, Karl Marx, Chantal Mouffe, and others.

Get Matt McManus's new book The Political Theory of Liberal Socialism.

Ideology Unbound is a podcast from the Illiberalism Studies Program at George Washington University and hosted by Laura K. Field. We talk about the past and future of ideologies, and about liberalism and its challenges, with thinkers in the United States and around the world.

In this episode, Laura Field engages with William A. Galston, a prominent liberal thinker, to discuss his new book Anger, Fear, Domination. The conversation explores the vulnerabilities of liberal democracy, the role of dark passions in political psychology, and the historical context of liberalism. Galston argues for a more realistic understanding of human nature and the importance of rhetoric in countering illiberalism. The discussion also touches on the need for civic education and the power of political speech to shape public discourse.

Get William Galston's new book, Anger, Fear, Domination: Dark Passions and the Power of Political Speech.

Link to Bobby Kennedy's 1968 speech in Indianapolis reacting to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination.