How World War II is a British psychosis. Why we don't talk about empire. French universalism vs. British multiculturalism. How the nation state was made up. And a geopolitical utopia out of Star Trek. A freewheeling conversation with author and journalist Jonn Elledge.
📚 The Compendium of (Not Quite) Everything, by Jonn Elledge. Headline, 2021.
Buy it here and support Borderline. 📬 Sign up for
the Newsletter of (Not Quite) Everything.
🎙 Listen to
the Podcast of (Not Quite) Everything.
Show notes
00:00 Intro
02:52 How one of the world's largest countries dumps its migrants on one of the world's smallest
05:25 Insular news and why you may never have heard of Nauru
07:12 A worldwide obsession with US news
08:34 It's appalling how little we knew or know about the EU
10:17 How Brexit gave rise to a pro-EU movement
13:00 We're finding geopolitical solutions in Star Trek
15:12 The nation-state is such a recent mythology
19:46 Countries that think too highly of themselves
26:02 How WWII mythology shapes current politics
31:31 Poppy season is upon us
33:32 Newsletter ad
35:02 Could we create a global nation state?
37:00 French identity, multiculturalism and things I pretend to be an expert in
44:20 Britain stopped showing its best features