Why the West has forgotten how to think about history episode artwork

EPISODE · Aug 4, 2026 · 33 MIN

Why the West has forgotten how to think about history

from The New Zealand Initiative · host The New Zealand Initiative

In this episode, Oliver talks with Dr Sarah Irving-Stonebraker, associate professor of history at the Australian Catholic University, about why the West has largely lost the ability to think meaningfully about its own past. She calls this the ahistoric age and argues that the statues we topple and the national days we fight over are evidence of it rather than signs of real engagement with history.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Aug 4, 2026

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Why the West has forgotten how to think about history

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