You stand on a Cambridge street corner and refuse to cheer, and lose everything

Dangerous Ideas - Thinkers Who Paid · Sep 18, 2026 · 23m

A Cambridge Fellow refuses to cheer for war on a street corner and risks his career, his fellowship, and everything he owns - what would you do?

You stand on a Cambridge street corner and refuse to cheer, and lose everything

In this episode, we follow Bertrand Russell from his childhood in a household where religious instruction was imposed against his father’s will through his radical loss of belief and his moral choices during World War I. The episode covers how his convictions collided with university and national expectations and asks whether refusal or compromise is the right response to…