The Smart Cookies podcast· Staffel 1· Folge 79

Historical Collapse Explained: Why Civilizations And Empires Fall | Luke Kemp

Dienstag, 17. Februar 2026 · 1 h 22

MP3

Shownotes

Luke Kemp, a research affiliate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk researched 324 cases of societies, usually empires (which he called Goliaths) that collapsed - and soon found one thing they all had in common...
In this (slightly terrifying) conversation we discuss the main questions featured in Luke's groundbreaking book, Goliath's Curse - questions like why are hierarchical societies always a bad idea, what usually goes wrong first and finally, why we seem to be heading for a collapse of our own.

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