THE MANIFESTO PODCAST

In this thought-provoking episode, the Manifesto Podcast welcomes Brazilian thinker Guilherme Freire, who takes us on a journey from the medieval Reconquista to modern São Paulo. Along the way, he challenges liberal myths of victimhood, makes the case for monarchy and spiritual renewal, and explains why Brazil might just hold the key to Europe’s future.Expect history, theology, politics, and philosophy — with detours through Tolkien, Chesterton, and even the challenges of raising a large family in today’s world.

In this episode we delve into the lack of a sense of self that exists in Europe. While the European Union for decades has tried and failed (for, to us, obvious reasons) to provide an erzats-identity to the eroding national ones in (mostly) western Europe we look at the alternatives. While European elites have abandoned the project of building and caring for national identity and are trying to replace it with the more malleable “values” we look back to try and move forward.In this we provide four rather different takes on patriotism for the Europe of yore. One mystic and christian - while also strikingly french is provided by Simone Weil's The Need for Roots. This is contrasted by the materialistic yet quintessential spiritual Englishness of George Orwell’s The Lion and the Unicorn. The ultimate defence of the very hobbitness of all that is England. Then we move to the liberal-republican Swedish contrarian Vilhelm Moberg and his plea for remembering the generations of toil by the unknown and unheard commoner  whose legacy is the history of a nation in Svensk Stävan. Last we move to that prussian anarch, Ernst Jünger and his On the Marble Cliffs where honour and defiance to tyrannical authority is the last knightly virtue as well as a patriotism all of its own.

Natten innan Sverigedemokraternas vitbok släpps i Almedalen under vad som måste betraktas som upptakten till valet 2026 får vi tag i vitbokens författare, idehistorikern Tony Gustafsson, som sitter i Visbys hamn och berättar om sitt arbete.Vi diskuterar vitboken och försöker sätta denna i kontext som en del i Sverigedemokraternas legitimering och normalisering. Men också som en del i svensk politisk historia som för tankarna tillbaka till det förra turbulenta tjugotalet.Vitbokens stoff är således en av de stora källorna ur vilket modern svensk politisk dramaturgi hämtas. Sverigedemokraterna som demoner eller Åkessons väntande av en marginell extremistgrupp till Folkhemmets egentliga arvtagare och garanter. När nu Socialdemokraterna nu svänger hela sin politik i en riktning man inte kan kalla annat än Sverigedemokratisk inför nästa års val undrar vi om Sverigedemokraterna kan fullborda steget från den Svenska samhällets mest effektiva kritiker till att bygga landet.

From Swedish absolutism to Russian empire, we unravel the chaotic laboratory of European innovation. The Great Northern War, Charles XII’s warrior-king swagger, and Peter the Great’s beard-shaving reforms reveal how small states punched above their weight through cutthroat rivalry. Europe’s soul isn’t in empires or museums—it’s in the messy, hyper-competitive patchwork of nations, where cancellation sparks reinvention. Forget globalist McDonald’s dreams; it’s time to embrace the Balkanized, history-soaked vitality that makes Europe the crucible of civilization.