Konstantin Kisin’s WARNING: Our Leaders Have Lost Control, We’re Headed For Conflict And Violence! artwork

Konstantin Kisin’s WARNING: Our Leaders Have Lost Control, We’re Headed For Conflict And Violence!

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

August 20, 2026

Is the West collapsing, or is the planet? Political commentator Konstantin Kisin and rebel economist Steve Keen go head-to-head on the biggest questions facing the West: immigration, the debt crisis, climate change, Trump, China and the future of AI.
Speakers: Konstantin Kisin, Steve Keen, Steven Bartlett

Topics: Business, Society & Culture

**Konstantin Kisin** (0:00)
Our political class has lost control. The right is getting more right than ever. And anytime you have a combination of economic problems and social and stability and cultural problems, you put all those things together, it's not a good time. It's a time when conflict, violence, civil unrest, all of these things are much more likely.

**Steve Keen** (0:18)
Oh, civil unrest is absolutely guaranteed.

**Konstantin Kisin** (0:19)
And what you are now seeing is, I fear, the beginnings of a totally new level of separation between people. We are on the road to civil unrest and violence. But I'm glad we're having this conversation, because these are difficult things to talk about.

**Steve Keen** (0:34)
And that's why China is outperforming the rest of the world. There are so many freedoms you don't get in America, that you do get in China.

**Steven Bartlett** (0:40)
Would you prefer a Chinese system?

**Steve Keen** (0:41)
If you...

**Steven Bartlett** (0:42)
To America?

**Steve Keen** (0:42)
Yes.

**Konstantin Kisin** (0:43)
What about political freedom, freedom of the individual, freedom of speech? Do you think Stephen could run his show if he was a Chinese citizen in China and have any conversation he wanted?

**Steven Bartlett** (0:51)
And you think communism is bad?

**Konstantin Kisin** (0:53)
I grew up in the Soviet Union, so yes, I do think communism is bad. You end up in a place where the economy is just screwed, so you get equality, but everyone is just equally poor.

**Steven Bartlett** (1:02)
Konstantin, what is your perspective on AI?

**Konstantin Kisin** (1:04)
I think the biggest threat to humanity, if you talk about AI, is actually the fact that you're creating something that's smarter than you. And if you're creating a superior species, you will become an inferior species. Best case scenario, you become a pet. Worst case scenario, you become a cow.

**Steven Bartlett** (1:17)
So my next question logically becomes, what can we do about it?

**Konstantin Kisin** (1:20)
There is an actual solution that's available, that's clear. I think what we should really be focusing on is...

**Steve Keen** (1:26)
You're wrong.

**Konstantin Kisin** (1:26)
This is where we're likely to have very strong disagreement.

**Steven Bartlett** (1:31)
Guys, I've got a favour to ask before this episode begins. The algorithm, if you follow a show, will deliver you the best episodes from that show very prominently in your feed. So when we have our best episodes on this show, the most shared episodes, the most rated episodes, I would love you to know. And the simple way for you to know that is to hit that follow button. But also, it's the simple, easy, free thing that you can do to help us make the show better. And I would be hugely grateful if you could take a minute on the app you're listing to this on right now and hit that follow button. Thank you so, so, so much.
Konstantin, in terms of everything that's going on in the world at the moment, what are the subjects that are most concerning to you?

**Konstantin Kisin** (2:15)
I think that I wrote an article a couple of years ago called Why I Fear The Future, in which I basically predicted that what you were about to see was the rise of far left populism and the rise of right wing populism, and in some cases far right populism, particularly in Europe but also elsewhere. And I think that's exactly what you're seeing in the Western world.
And then geopolitically, the war in Iran will have an impact on the global economy that's only going to fuel that further. So I think the trend, people have spent the last 10 years talking about polarization, without really understanding the process that was driving it in my opinion, particularly in Europe. And what you are now seeing is, I fear the beginnings of that process actually going to a totally new level of separation between people.

**Steven Bartlett** (3:08)
And what's the root cause of that?

**Konstantin Kisin** (3:10)
Well, the root cause of that is a mixture of things, of course, part of it is economic. Europe has basically stagnated since the great financial crisis. This country, Britain in particular, has stagnated economically. But a lot of it is the consequence of mass unfettered immigration and people's concerns about what has happened culturally and demographically. And these are difficult things to talk about, which some people find challenging to even discuss. But it's very clear to me, if you look at the AFD in Germany, Marine Le Pen in France, Georgia Maloney in Italy, Farage and Rupert Lowe in the UK, what we saw in Sueto, however you pronounce it, a couple of weeks ago in Spain, these are all things just, the visual medium is very powerful. When you see 60,000 people enter a country illegally in a day, that sort of imagery is likely to create a very strong amount of pushback. You came prepared, huh? Yeah. Well, if you're a normal person and you see this, whatever your other views, you just go, well, what's going on?

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