The World Order is About to COMPLETELY Change

March 22, 2026·1 hr 36 min·5 clips

America today resembles 18th-century Britain, with state interests diverging from those of ordinary people.

This episode of The Truth features a host interviewing Rana Desgupta about his 400-plus-page book After Nations: The Making and Unmaking of a World Order, which the host calls one of his books of the year after reading it in February 2026. Desgupta begins with the definition of a nation state: a modern form of government that became nearly universal only in the 20th century, finalized through financial, technological, and propaganda mechanisms pioneered by France and Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries. Before 1900, fewer than 50 nation states existed; today, 193 have UN seats. A nation state requires a monopoly over violence, the ability to tell a shared story of national identity compelling enough that citizens will pay taxes and support each other's welfare, and financial architecture sufficient to sustain institutions. Desgupta argues that the most celebrated achievements of European nation states — democracy, human rights, welfare systems — were funded by imperial extraction. Britain and France could afford to extend political rights to their populations precisely because they were extracting wealth from colonized territories. He explicitly addresses the objection that this is 'woke' framing: his argument is structural, not moralistic. The conversation turns to the theological origins of French national identity, traced through Louis IX's 1238 purchase of the Crown of Thorns — spending half France's annual income to sacrilize political authority. Desgupta argues national feeling is quasi-religious, fundamentally different from attachment to a city or workplace. The episode ties this history to present-day America: production has moved offshore, AI is disrupting labor, and the interests of the state increasingly diverge from the interests of ordinary people — a pattern Desgupta reads as resembling 18th-century conditions that historically precede nation state crises. The tone is intellectual, sweeping, and politically engaged. The audience is listeners interested in political philosophy, history, and contemporary geopolitics.

As heard by us

A sharp, historically minded argument about why modern states may no longer serve the people inside them.

This episode treats the nation-state as a temporary political invention and asks what happens when state power stops lining up with the people it is supposed to serve.

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Why you'd press play

If you want a bracing argument about why the state no longer feels like yours, press play.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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