Simon is one of the world’s premier historians and art historians, and also a colleague! After a tumultuous election, we've invited him on to help connect the dots and give us much-needed historical context. Plus: Neil Munshi, our west Africa correspondent joins us from Lagos to reflect on our conversation and discuss his recent piece on how companies are facing their brutal colonial histories. Two people with global and historical lenses through which to see 2020.

What do you think is possible now, that seemed impossible before? Email us at culturecall@ft.com. You can message Lilah on Instagram or Twitter @lilahrap, and find the podcast on Twitter @ftculturecall. We love voice notes – so send those, too.

Links from the episode:

–Simon's piece The two Americas: LBJ, MLK and what the dramas of 1965 can teach a polarised nation

–Simon's piece on statues: History is better served by putting the Men in Stone in museums

–Simon's BBC series the Romantics and Us is on YouTube

–Wendell Wilkie's One World

–September, by Gerhard Richter

–Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories is on Netflix

–Neil Munshi's piece, Belgium’s reckoning with a brutal history in Congo

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Simon Schama on what history can teach us

Life and Art from FT Weekend

Simon Schama on what history can teach us