David Runciman and Helen Thompson talk to Chris Bickerton about how technocracy and populism have come together to create a new form of democratic politics. From New Labour to Macron's En Marche, from Dominic Cummings to Five Star, they discuss what these different forms of politics have in common and whether the pandemic has entrenched the hold of technopopulism – or whether we are on the brink of something new.