War - Do we care enough? In this episode, distinguished historian Margaret MacMillan explains why we should care about war and how it’s profoundly impacted our societies, political institutions, values, language and some of our greatest cultural treasures. In conversation with bestselling author and historian Peter Frankopan, MacMillan examines questions such as why warriors are typically men, what role women play, why there are wars with no clear objective or ending, and how non-state actors in...
Mar 25, 2023•56 min•Season 1Ep. 900
Tony Blair is the man who reinvented Labour, won a landslide majority in 1997 and went on to win three elections, becoming Labour’s longest-serving prime minister. He is also the man accused of lies, hubris, money-making deals and taking us into an illegal war. This episode features a live event which Intelligence Squared hosted in London in March 2016, when we put Tony Blair on trial and examined his legacy on foreign policy, health, education and much more. Levelling charges against him was To...
Mar 24, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 899
How did the Iraq war fuel terror and extremism around the world? What is the connection between Al-Qaeda and ISIS? How did figures like Abū Muṣʻab Zarqāwī and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi become such prominent figures in Jihadism’s global civil war? On episode four of this series Iraq: Legacy of War, brought to you by Intelligence Squared, foreign correspondent Secunder Kermani is joined by Lina Khatib, Director of the SOAS Middle East Institute; Joby Warrick, journalist and author of the Pulitzer Prize...
Mar 23, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 898
Over the last twenty years, award-winning Iraqi journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, has watched his nation disappear time and time again. Sectarian division, ethnic division, and military intervention have torn his native Baghdad apart - leaving him feeling like a stranger in his own city. In the third episode of this series Iraq: Legacy of War, brought to you by Intelligence Squared, host Renad Mansour sits down with Ghaith Abdul-Ahad to discuss how Iraqi citizens lost their country and the disappear...
Mar 22, 2023•39 min•Season 1Ep. 897
What happened in Iraq once the Americans and the British arrived? Why was the transfer of power a far from smooth operation? And what else went wrong in what should have been the mission for liberation? In the second episode of this series Iraq: Legacy of War, brought to you by Intelligence Squared, host Manveen Rana, is joined again by Renad Mansour, director of the Iraq Initiative at Chatham House; and Clare Short, who was Secretary of State for International Development from 1997 to 2003. To ...
Mar 21, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 896
Exactly twenty years ago today on the 20th March 2003, the US along with its allies launched a shock and awe bombing campaign on Iraq. It marked the start of the invasion - and occupation - of Iraq - a defining moment in modern history and contemporary politics. In the first episode of this series Iraq: Legacy of War brought to you by Intelligence Squared, we’ll be taking a deep dive into key moments on the road to war. From understanding Saddam’s rule in the 1980s and the significance of the fi...
Mar 20, 2023•50 min•Season 1Ep. 895
In 2015, Intelligence Squared staged the ultimate clash of civilisations: Greece vs Rome. Boris Johnson, at that time Mayor of London and ardent classicist, made the case for Greece; while Mary Beard, today Lecturer in Classical Archaeology at the University of Sheffield and known for her extensive career as a broadcaster and writer, championed Rome. As we revisit this archive debate held in the pre-Brexit, pre-pandemic era, it's fascinating to observe how history would soon be shaped by some of...
Mar 19, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 894
Ever since she was a young child, journalist Hayley Campbell has been fascinated by death. It's the theme of her new book, All the Living and the Dead: An Exploration of the People Who Make Death Their Life’s Work, which has been acclaimed by the likes of Neil Gaiman, Nigella Lawson and Tuppence Middleton. In conversation with writer Blanche Girouard, Campbell relates the encounters she has had with the people who make a living by working with the dead, including mass fatality investigators, emb...
Mar 17, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 893
We tend to imagine Western Civilisation as a golden thread connecting ancient Greece to modern Europe, from Plato to NATO. But what if the idea itself is deeply flawed? Historian and archaeologist Naoíse Mac Sweeney's recent book, The West: A New History of an Old Idea, argues that our understanding of the West is deeply misleading and obscures the rich diversity of our past. Drawing on the lives of characters throughout history – including a formidable Roman matriarch and an unconventional Isla...
Mar 15, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 892
The literal translation of amateur is ‘lover of’ so why is it a word so often steeped in derogatory overtones? Why, when we’re asked for our hobbies, are we inclined to diminish their status in our lives? Our hobbies make us human. From pottery, to geo-guessing; orienteering to stamp collecting; it is in these small, often quiet, building blocks of life that we so often find true meaning and connection. In this episode, Kamal Ahmed is joined by the editor of Prospect Magazine, and amateur pianis...
Mar 14, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 891
We have some really exciting news for you, we've launched a brand new podcast – Intelligence Squared Arts & Culture. Join us every week as we delve into the artistic and cultural moments, movements and conversations that have shaped, and are still shaping, our world. Over the years we’ve produced hundreds of Arts and Culture debates, live events, discussions and interviews, working with some of the world's greatest minds, including Kate Winslet, Salman Rushdie, Helena Bonham Carter, Christopher ...
Mar 13, 2023•23 min•Season 1Ep. 890
International Women's Week on Intelligence Squared. Feminism is not a monolith; often in the western world to help understand the history of feminism we refer to the model of the different waves of feminism, which sets out to define the trajectory of certain fights and milestones, such as the right to vote and access to contraception. But what does this version of history include and who does it exclude? In this discussion, Professor Lucy Delap from the University of Cambridge, and Shreeta Lakha...
Mar 12, 2023•42 min•Season 1Ep. 889
International Women's Week on Intelligence Squared. On this episode we’re hearing a compilation from our award-winning podcast series How I Found My Voice which explores how some of the world's greatest artists and thinkers became such compelling – and unique – communicators. Our host for the series, BBC journalist Samira Ahmed, revisits conversations with writers Margaret Atwood, Bernardine Evaristo and Elif Shafak, actors Kate Winslet, Rose McGowan and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, singer Paloma Fait...
Mar 11, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 888
International Women's Week on Intelligence Squared. There are seven necessary sins for women and girls, that's according to Egyptian writer and activist Mona Eltahawy. Anger, ambition, profanity, violence, attention, lust, and power, are all attributes that the patriarchy sees as vices for women, she says, but these should be harnessed as virtues. On this episode of the podcast, which was recorded in 2021, Mona was joined in conversation by physicist and broadcaster Helen Czerski to discuss how ...
Mar 10, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 887
International Women's Week on Intelligence Squared. "My pen is the wing of a bird; it will tell you those thoughts we are not allowed to think, those dreams we are not allowed to dream." On this episode we hearing about, and from, the Afghan women who are telling their own stories, in their own words. In 2022, when this conversation was recorded, the first anthology of fiction written by Afghan women was published in English by UNTOLD, a writer development programme for marginalised writers in a...
Mar 09, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 886
International Women's Week on Intelligence Squared. Equality is no longer enough, women need equity - that's the message of former US 5000m champion, Lauren Fleshman who joins us on this episode of the podcast to speak about the vital need for the world of sport to be reimagined for women. In conversation with host Sophie Penney, sports journalist for Reuters and The Athletic, Lauren looks back at her own career to examine the damaging mental and physical effects of young women being trained in ...
Mar 08, 2023•40 min•Season 1Ep. 885
International Women’s Week on Intelligence Squared. Change is never easy, it requires putting up a fight, going against the status quo, and if you’re a woman - this may require you to be difficult. In 2020 Helen Lewis, staff writer for The Atlantic, joined us on stage to discuss the lives of some of history’s complicated and contradictory fighters for female freedom, and their refusal to conform to societal expectations. Helen was joined by Caroline Criado Perez, journalist and author of Invisib...
Mar 07, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 884
International Women’s Week on Intelligence Squared. On this episode we hear from some of the women who helped sparked the 2017 MeToo movement. Jodi Kantor and Meghan Twohey are the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalists who first broke the story of Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual misconduct with dozens of Hollywood’s most elite actresses. The journalists were joined on stage by three women who had previously worked with Weinstein and broke their long-buried, and legally bound, silenc...
Mar 06, 2023•2 hr 34 min•Season 1Ep. 883
For the Sunday Debate this week, a dip back into the archive to 2019 when we partnered with Waitrose to invite three of the UK’s top wine experts to settle a rivalry for the ages: the so-called Old World vs New World. Which region makes the best wine? Representing the Old World – wine producers such as France, Italy, Spain and Germany – was the award-winning writer and broadcaster Jancis Robinson, wine columnist for the Financial Times and a qualified Master of Wine. Fighting for the modernising...
Mar 05, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 882
How has Western culture depicted powerful women down the ages? To what extent have they been packaged into a male template? And how much have they been able to control their own image? Featuring classicist Mary Beard and Sotheby’s specialist Holly Braine, and chaired by cultural critic Shahidha Bari, the conversation will range from sculptures of ancient goddesses such as Aphrodite and Athena, to portraits of Queen Elizabeth I as ‘Gloriana’, to the empowered politicians and cultural icons of tod...
Mar 03, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 881
Senator Bernie Sanders is seen by many as the leader of the progressive movement in the United States. On this episode of the podcast, recorded in central London, he spoke to BBC broadcaster Justin Webb about corporate greed, identity politics and the direction of America today. Sanders' new book It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism is available now. This podcast was produced by Senior Producer Conor Boyle with editing by Producer Catharine Hughes — We’d love to hear your feedback and what you t...
Mar 01, 2023•29 min•Season 1Ep. 880
We have some really exciting news for you, we're launching a brand new podcast – Intelligence Squared Arts & Culture. Join us every week as we delve into the artistic and cultural moments, movements and conversations that have shaped, and are still shaping, our world. Over the years we’ve produced hundreds of Arts and Culture debates, live events, discussions and interviews, working with some of the world's greatest minds, including Kate Winslet, Salman Rushdie, Helena Bonham Carter, Christopher...
Feb 28, 2023•23 min
Journalist Tania Branigan has spent years covering China and is Foreign Leader writer for the Guardian. Her new book, Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China’s Cultural Revolution, explores the traumatic legacy of the era helmed by China's Chairman Mao throughout the 1960s and 1970s, which left a devastating mark on the psyche of future generations. Joining Branigan in conversation is journalist, author and former China Editor for BBC News, Carrie Gracie. ... Did you know that Intel...
Feb 27, 2023•53 min•Season 1Ep. 878
As the war in Ukraine reaches its one year anniversary, there is still no clear end in sight. And while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy anticipates Russia’s spring offensive, he’s been clear in asking the West for one thing - fighter jets. On this episode of the podcast defence expert Rajan Menon and policy expert Anatol Lieven discuss how crucial jets could be for Ukraine’s defence, what the western countries’ national interest is in giving them, and whether support for Ukraine in this ...
Feb 26, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 877
On this episode of the podcast we look back on one year of Russia’s war in Ukraine by revisiting 10 Intelligence Squared conversations over the past 12 months with historians, politicians, journalists, military, security, and defence experts. From questioning the effectiveness of economic sanctions and the likelihood of nuclear weapon use, to analysing the rise of Vladimir Putin in modern Russia, join us on this retrospective Intelligence Squared episode with producers Hannah Kaye, Conor Boyle, ...
Feb 24, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 876
Emmanuel Iduma is a Nigerian author and critic whose new book, I Am Still With You, explores the legacy of the Nigerian Civil War, which began in 1967 and lasted nearly three years. In the book, Iduma asks questions about how the conflict has affected the generations since, many of whom have had to live with difficult questions hanging over their family histories. Joining Iduma in conversation is our host, Dipo Faloyin, author of Africa Is Not A Country and Senior Editor for Vice. ... Did you kn...
Feb 22, 2023•50 min•Season 1Ep. 875
Language is perhaps humanity's most astonishing accomplishment but one that remains poorly understood. On this episode of the podcast we were joined by Nick Chater, Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School, and Morten H. Christiansen, Professor of Psychology at Cornell University. Together in their latest book "The Language Game," they upend our traditional understanding of language, arguing that it's not based on a set of fixed rules, but on a constantly evolving series of fl...
Feb 20, 2023•39 min•Season 1Ep. 874
Does God exist? In this archive debate from 2009, we invited a panel of expert speakers to discuss whether atheism had replaced religion as the new faith of the secular age. Are atheists as blinkered and dogmatic as they claim religious believers to be? Arguing for the motion were former Bishop of Oxford Richard Harries and former Editor of the Daily Telegraph Charles Moore. Arguing against the motion were evolutionary biologist and science author Richard Dawkins and philosopher AC Grayling. The...
Feb 19, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 873
Investigative journalist Patrick Radden Keefe joins us on the podcast to tell the story of an unlikely criminal mastermind, Sister Ping - a middle-aged, hardworking woman who is highly respected among her community. Originally from Fujian province, China, for years she runs an incredibly lucrative people smuggling business from New York's Chinatown until she comes into trouble with violent gangsters and then later the FBI. In conversation with our host Poppy Damon, they discuss immigration, the ...
Feb 17, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 872
It’s been 25 years since the release of James Cameron’s cult classic, Titanic. The epic movie, which early fans will remember came out on VHS in two parts because it was so long, is now being rereleased in cinemas. But more importantly, James Cameron has finally admitted that Jack might have survived had he been allowed on the now infamous door, and if he were to make this film again today the raft would be a lot smaller. On this episode we hear an interview from our series How I Found My Voice ...
Feb 15, 2023•54 min•Season 1Ep. 871
