For the third in our 12 Books of Christmas episodes, we revisit a thought-provoking discussion with Dipo Faloyin, whose book Africa Is Not A Country challenges the stereotypical thinking that can misrepresent African nations. Another highlight book of 2022 was Lea Ypi's Free, and the writer joined us to discuss her memoir that tells the story of her upbringing in Albania amid the shifting geopolitics of nations affected by the break up of the Soviet Union. We also listen back to our conversation...
Dec 23, 2022•56 min•Season 1Ep. 838
For the second instalment of our 12 Books of Christmas series, we hear from three more authors who have set the agenda for original thinking and progressive literature in 2022. Brown University economist Oded Galor discusses his book that takes an expansive view of global history, The Journey of Humanity. Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Andrea Elliott speaks with fellow author Alex Preston about her account of the homelessness crisis in New York as told in her book, Invisible Child, and Orhan Pamu...
Dec 21, 2022•55 min•Season 1Ep. 837
Intelligence Squared has enjoyed hundreds of great conversations on the podcast, across our online talks and onstage at our live events across 2022. For the festive season, we’re highlighting 12 voices whose books and work have both encapsulated the big themes of the year and enriched our listening over the past 12 months. For the first instalment, we listen back to conversations with writer Reni Eddo-Lodge discussing the new edition of her bestseller, Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People A...
Dec 19, 2022•56 min•Season 1Ep. 836
Given the disruptive events unfolding in China in recent weeks, what does the future holds for Xi Jinping and the country? Some say that this is a pivotal moment for Xi’s strongman rule, especially given that the Chinese economy is also suffering. And what do China’s political and economic challenges mean for the rest of the world? To answer these questions we’re joined by Yasheng Huang professor at MIT and author of Capitalism with Chinese characteristics and Kerry Brown, Director of the Lau Ch...
Dec 18, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 835
Why are women known as the slimier sex? How did the US Navy replicate hagfish slime for ballistics protection? In this episode we’re joined by science journalist Susanne Wedlich to look at the weird and wonderful, cultural and biological, history of slime. And for those of you who don’t love slime, we encourage you to listen for some great facts about the powers and potential of this substance and learn why we shouldn't be so repulsed by slime. Our host for this episode is journalist Amelia Tait...
Dec 16, 2022•44 min•Season 1Ep. 834
ChatGPT is the Internet's new favourite toy. This is some of AI’s most impressive technology yet, but could the creation of an all-knowing human-like chatbot - a tool which can create answers, emails, poems, stories, and essays instantly - mean that writing as we know it could cease to exist? Or could it be a renaissance for the ways in which we view and approach writing? To explore these questions we’re joined by novelist, essayist, and cultural commentator - Stephen Marche; and academic, criti...
Dec 14, 2022•38 min•Season 1Ep. 833
In February 2022 Russian shells rained down on Kyiv as tanks crossed the border into Ukraine. At the time American forces prepared to evacuate President Volodymyr Zelensky for fear of his life. But Zelensky refused to abandon his country, saying ‘I need ammunition, not a ride,’ and quickly became the national symbol of Ukrainian resistance. But how did Zelensky, once an actor who played the president on television, come to be one of the most significant wartime leaders in recent history? The Zel...
Dec 12, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 832
Since Russia invaded Ukraine last February the West has ramped up sanctions against Russia to an unprecedented level, but are the measures having the desired effect? On today’s episode of The Sunday Debate the motion is: Sanctions against Russia won’t work. For the motion we have Richard Connolly, Associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and Simon Jenkins, journalist and author. And against the motion we were joined by Russia expert Owen Matthews - and historian and journalist, An...
Dec 11, 2022•56 min•Season 1Ep. 830
Will democracy survive? According to Nobel Peace Prize Winner Maria Ressa, "we're in the last two minutes". In November she sat down with journalist Gabriel Gatehouse to discuss her lifetime commitment to journalism, the potential 99 years in jail which hang over her for standing up to former president Rodrigo Duterte's authoritarian regime, and her optimism for a brighter future. Maria and Gabriel also examine the greed of big tech in the destruction of democracies and why the Philippines is of...
Dec 09, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 829
Sign up for Intelligence Squared Premium here: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/ for ad-free listening, bonus content, early access and much more. See below for details. Robert Harris is one of the great storytellers of our times. His novels explore the dark side of power and the corrosive effect it has on those who wield it. In his latest bestseller, Act of Oblivion, Harris turns his attention to one of the most divisive episodes in English history, the Civil War, in which Royalists and Parliam...
Dec 07, 2022•54 min•Season 1Ep. 828
Sign up for Intelligence Squared Premium here: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/ for ad-free listening, bonus content, early access and much more. See below for details. Eating the right foods is the single most effective way of preventing illness and staying healthy. But understanding what’s good and what’s bad, whether it's red wine or acai berries, can be a complicated conversation when we’re constantly receiving new ideas about what to put on our plate. Tim Spector’s new book, Food for Life:...
Dec 05, 2022•59 min•Season 1Ep. 827
This is the third and final episode of The Great Energy Transition, a series from Intelligence Squared in partnership with Cummins and we're asking what is the role of corporations in the energy transition? To discuss how the complex partnerships between corporations and governments might shape our futures, we’re joined by Jennifer Rumsey, President and CEO of Cummins; Gillian Tett, Chairman of the US editorial board and U.S editor-at-large at the Financial Times; and Jason Bordoff, Co-Founding ...
Dec 04, 2022•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 826
Sign up for Intelligence Squared Premium here: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/ for ad-free listening, bonus content, early access and much more. See below for details. 1995 was the year of the Nineties, according to author and journalist Dylan Jones. It was peak Britpop (Oasis vs Blur), peak YBA (Tracey Emin’s tent), peak New Lad (Nick Hornby published High Fidelity, James Brown launched Loaded magazine, and pubs were finally allowed to stay open on a Sunday). It was the year Radiohead brought...
Dec 02, 2022•56 min•Season 1Ep. 825
Sign up for Intelligence Squared Premium here: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/ for ad-free listening, bonus content, early access and much more. See below for details. Matthew Cobb is Professor of Zoology at the University of Manchester and also the presenter of the BBC radio series Genetic Dreams, Genetic Nightmares. His latest book is The Genetic Age, which tells the story of humanity's quest to get to the heart of the building blocks of life – our genes - through science, industry and medic...
Nov 30, 2022•52 min•Season 1Ep. 824
We need a new model of masculinity, one that allows us to hold two thoughts in our head at once: we can care deeply about women’s rights and be compassionate towards vulnerable boys and men; that's the argument of bestselling author and former head of Demos Richard Reeves. In this podcast he explains that previous attempts to treat the condition of men have made the same fatal mistake – they have viewed the problems of men as a problem with men. It is not a matter of fixing individual men, he ar...
Nov 28, 2022•43 min•Season 1Ep. 823
Sign up for Intelligence Squared Premium here: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/ for ad-free listening, bonus content, early access and much more. See below for details. In October Intelligence Squared partnered with History Hit to ask, who was the greatest English monarch? Each of the kings and queens competing for the title left a distinctive stamp on their era – but who did most to shape the nation and the lives of its people? Who was the cleverest? Who was the bravest? Who was the most loved...
Nov 27, 2022•58 min•Season 1Ep. 821
Sign up for Intelligence Squared Premium here: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/ for ad-free listening, bonus content, early access and much more. See below for details. Black Friday is one of the biggest days in the business calendar. In this episode Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify, joins Intelligence Squared to discuss Black Friday sales and the changing landscape of business in the digital age. He speaks to Anne McElvoy, executive editor at The Economist, on topics such as the rise o...
Nov 25, 2022•48 min•Season 1Ep. 820
Sign up for Intelligence Squared Premium here: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/ for ad-free listening, bonus content, early access and much more. See below for details. This is the second episode of The Great Energy Transition, a new series from Intelligence Squared in partnership with Cummins and we’re looking ahead to the future to ask - what needs to happen between 2030 and 2050 to reach net zero? To explore the drastic technological innovation and societal change needed to make net zero emi...
Nov 23, 2022•45 min•Season 1Ep. 819
Sign up for Intelligence Squared Premium here: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/ for ad-free listening, bonus content, early access and much more. See below for details. The 2022 World Cup in Qatar has officially kicked off, but not without its controversies. Ever since Qatar was awarded the tournament in 2010, making it the first country in the Middle East to do so, there has been scepticism from the West around the decision, with critics citing human rights violations, LGBT rights, and corrupt...
Nov 21, 2022•57 min•Season 1Ep. 818
Sign up for Intelligence Squared Premium here: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/ for ad-free listening, bonus content, early access and much more. See below for details. This week on The Sunday Debate we're asking, how is Prime Minister Modi shaping the future of India? This is the third episode of our India at 75 series exploring the biggest questions facing India 75 years after its independence. Our host for the series is Kavita Puri, journalist and author of the critically acclaimed book Part...
Nov 20, 2022•51 min•Season 1Ep. 817
Sign up for Intelligence Squared Premium here: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/ for ad-free listening, bonus content, early access and much more. See below for details. Turkish novelist and Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk sits down with Merve Emre, distinguished Writer-in-Residence at Wesleyan University and literary critic for The New Yorker. Together they discuss his latest novel, Nights of Plague, as well as other feats of historical fiction, including works by Tolstoy and Arthur Conan Doyle,...
Nov 18, 2022•43 min•Season 1Ep. 816
Sign up for Intelligence Squared Premium here: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/ for ad-free listening, bonus content, early access and much more. See below for details. In the fashion industry there used to be two seasons a year: Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter, but today fast fashion companies produce up to 52 micro-seasons a year. Changing the clothes in their stores every week to keep customers coming back, and purchasing more and more. Today on the podcast we’re asking what’s the real price...
Nov 16, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 815
Sign up for Intelligence Squared Premium here: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/ for ad-free listening, bonus content, early access and much more. See below for details. We live in a world which is completely dependent on the technology of microchips, which are made up of millions of transistors which are so small, about one thousandth of the size of a red blood cell. Making something this small and this complex is not something that can be easily replicated, meaning the world relies on just a h...
Nov 14, 2022•53 min•Season 1Ep. 814
On this episode of The Sunday Debate we have the first instalment of The Great Energy Transition, a new series from Intelligence Squared in partnership with Cummins. As leaders and representatives from around the world gather in Egypt for COP27, we’re asking - what is happening between now and 2030 to achieve net zero?. We’re joined on this episode by Jonathan Wood, Vice President of Engineering at Cummins, Lucy Yu, CEO of Octopus Energy’s Centre for Net Zero and Dr Chris Greig, leading research...
Nov 13, 2022•56 min•Season 1Ep. 813
Can advertising’s immense power to change behaviour be used for good? In this brand new podcast, produced by Intelligence Squared, Myra Nussbaum, President and Chief Creative Officer at Havas Chicago and Dan Lucey, Chief Creative Officer at Havas New York, talk to the people who are harnessing the power of advertising to help people and the planet. This week, Dan and Myra were joined by Greg Hoffman, the former Chief Marketing Officer of Nike. Widely regarded as a global brand leader, for over t...
Nov 11, 2022•44 min•Season 1Ep. 812
In part two of our debate 'Is America a force for good in the world?', foreign policy experts Shadi Hamid and Samuel Moyn discuss the return of Donald Trump, American exceptionalism, and what the world would look like if China became the world's only superpower. Our host for this debate is journalist and academic, Philippa Thomas. This episode is part two of two, to find part one please scroll back on your feed to this week's Sunday Debate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices....
Nov 09, 2022•35 min•Season 1Ep. 811
Sign up for Intelligence Squared Premium here: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/ for ad-free listening, bonus content, early access and much more. See below for details. Described as one of the most important and blazingly original writers of his generation, American author George Saunders is a master of the short story. He joins us on the podcast with critic John Self to discuss the voices that make up his insightful, hilarious and sometimes disturbing stories and how his work cuts into the abs...
Nov 07, 2022•38 min•Season 1Ep. 810
Sign up for Intelligence Squared Premium here: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/ for ad-free listening, bonus content, early access and much more. See below for details. Many in the world see the influence of the United States as a force for good. It applies pressure on authoritarian regimes such as Iran to abide by human rights, and it supports nations such as Ukraine defending themselves against imperial aggression. But others argue that the Afghanistan and Iraq interventions show that America...
Nov 06, 2022•32 min•Season 1Ep. 809
Sign up for Intelligence Squared Premium here: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/ for ad-free listening, bonus content, early access and much more. See below for details. Healthy disagreement used to be a sign of a well functioning society. But today, many democracies across the world are suffering a crisis of faith in the values of debate and a trend of refusing to engage with those who do not share the same views. Journalist, political analyst, and best-selling author Anand Giridharadas explore...
Nov 04, 2022•52 min•Season 1Ep. 808
Sign up for Intelligence Squared Premium here: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/ for ad-free listening, bonus content, early access and much more. See below for details. Rana Ayyub is one of India’s most high-profile critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In 2016 she published Gujurat Files, a controversial book that alleged India’s government was implicated in the 2002 riots in which around 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in Gujarat. Ayyub’s book and subsequent investigations into r...
Nov 02, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 807
