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Hello and welcome to Russell brand under the skin. My new podcast in which we are we. I mean I get under the skin of a variety of topics, human beings, issues of the day. And possibly I get under the skin of even you, the most devoted listener coming here,

to learn something to get a new perspective on the world. My first ever guest on under the skin is an academic and writer that I have been inspired to interview by my own by embarking myself on an academic journey,

leading life. You may know that I go to so as the school of Oriental and African studies where I am doing a three year MA on religion in global politics. My first guest was the first person that I read there that I thought, oh my god, I understand this and I got the thrill of learning,

the thrill of new knowledge and the sort of possibility that yes, going on this university course has not been a terrible mistake or a bizarre pastiche on the John Hughes film where a famous 41 year old man goes back to college for inexplicable reasons sits listlessly in a canteen looking at 20 year old.

Who are really, really attractive and now across an impossible moat because that man is now married and has a baby and it's like a sarcastic film where you're sent back to college to fulfill your dream, but now you're sort of married.

Doctor Brad Evans, he's an actual doctor on top of everything else, let me just give you a bit of a lowdown before we introduce Brad so that you know the score and what I'm talking about Brad Evans is a senior lecture lecturer in international relations at the school of politics and international studies at the University of Bristol is the founder and director of the history of violence.

Project is ladies books include liberal terror and resilient life, the art of living dangerously that's a separate book from liberal terror liberal terror is the book that I like when you're at university, I don't know if you know this you might go to university they force you to do some reading now if you're me, you think I'm doing that.

It's like the same as school you've sort of simply refused to do it, but on the week we were doing Brad Evans's work on liberal terror.

We had to my group had to do a presentation so I was forced it was necessary that I read Brad's work now I was fascinated and excited because the work I read introduced the relationship between liberalism or sort of governments in the West as we see them today and their relationship with terrorism the interrelationship the one sentence that I've been banding about shouting in the face of anyone who listen ever since is there is no such thing as militant as Muslim militancy distinct and separate from West.

And I was a separate from Western secularism and Western imperial objectives these two things intersect they are intertwined they feed one another and that's just one of the sentences that I enjoyed from reading a section of Brad Evans's book Brad the reason I wanted to be my first guest on under the skin was to help me and our listeners understand why is the world like it is today in terms of the terrible dread we have around terrorism.

We have around migration the sudden lurch to the right it as demonstrated by Brexit and the rise of Trump and the alt right why are these things happening.

Why want to go to bed I'm tired give me my money back all of those things and more Brad Evans so thank you for coming first of all that's quite a lot of questions to hit a man with his own just sat down nice scarf thanks for the books Brad.

That's a real pleasure to come and chat with you Russell and first of all it's you know it's a real honor to know that my work actually reaches beyond academia and kind of inspire you and to to to to think about the world differently so that in itself means I'm doing something perhaps right.

Yeah because as I said being in the academic world just briefly as I have been obviously loads of it's really really exciting but I think being a mischievous student a lot of things are here feel reiterative like I sort of know that anyway when they say well there's no such thing as a country really a country is just an agreement in our mind that this is Britain or this is the United States of America what is a state what is sovereignty those kind of things I'd come to myself but then there are sometimes ideas that are so complex that I can't begin to get.

To turn to them and the way that this particular subject religion in global politics works is the intersection of political history critical theory you know like or manner of things like philosophy so I'm suddenly having to learn about Foucault Derrida people whose names I can't even say confidently yet all how about mouse all sort of simultaneously at once and like the and my original impulse for doing that course was like I like in the last year or two got sort of nuts deep in the political world it will be a great thing.

Like in a first of all sort of telling people that I didn't think there's any pointing voting because democracy is a facade and allusion and then at some point having Ed Miliband camera in my house and saying look you should vote because there are sort of my new differences that would make it preferable to the Tories I realized that this was a very complex world and I didn't have the armory the artillery to engage in this battle and like as I said to you when I like read your work I thought this is the sort of stuff you need to know because this is teaching you the structure of politics the history of the world.

History and lineage of the ideas that we're laboring under broadly speaking unconsciously now I would like our listeners to be able to sort of embark on this journey I understand already from the you know the discursive nature of my ongoing ramble that there are many many threads but what do you think is a good entry point for anyone like me who feels disillusioned with politics but doesn't know quite where to begin on the journey of understanding.

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