On Easter weekend 1993 Nelson Mandela was engaged in slow-moving power-sharing talks with President F.W. de Klerk when a white supremacist shot Mandela’s heir-apparent, Chris Hani, in the hope of igniting an all-out civil war. On this episode of the podcast, acclaimed South African journalist Justice Malala recounts the riveting story of the pivotal nine days that followed Hani’s murder and the extraordinary effort of leadership that was needed to avert a crisis that could have developed into a ...
Apr 24, 2023•45 min•Season 1Ep. 922
Is the UK’s 2024 general election a foregone conclusion, with the Labour Party some 20 points ahead in the opinion polls? Can Rishi Sunak turn around the economy in time? Is there enough difference between the two main parties on the issues that voters care most about – the cost of living crisis, the NHS and immigration? As both parties tilt more to the right to win votes, is now a bad time for progressives in Britain? Matthew Goodwin, political scientist and author of new book, Values, Voice an...
Apr 23, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 921
As Earth Day approaches, we revisit a compelling conversation from 2021 asking which factors are really responsible for the climate emergency and who might be able to prevent it? Dr Anne Karpf is a writer and sociologist whose book, How Women Can Save the Planet, looks to analyse some of these questions in more granular detail. The BBC's South Asia correspondent Rajini Vaidyanathan joins Karpf to learn more. We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we sho...
Apr 21, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 920
The American healthcare system is one of the most expensive and complex systems in the world, yet it remains plagued by significant inequalities. Despite spending more per capita on healthcare than any other country, millions of Americans are still uninsured or underinsured, and healthcare outcomes vary significantly by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. In this conversation Dr Ali Hosin from the UK and Dr Ricardo Nuila from the US come together to discuss the increasing commodification ...
Apr 19, 2023•40 min•Season 1Ep. 919
As technology continues to advance, the once distant concept of growing a human fetus outside the womb is inching closer to reality. But with these advancements come myriad ethical, legal, and social questions that challenge our understanding of parenthood, abortion rights, and even personhood. To discuss these issues our host Helen Czerski is joined by Claire Horn, research fellow at Dalhousie University's Health Law Institute and author of Eve: The Disobedient Future of Birth. Learn more about...
Apr 17, 2023•38 min•Season 1Ep. 918
What is the role of contemporary art museums today? Are biennales and art fairs platforms for experiment and exchange, or little more than social attractions for the elite? Have collectors become the new curators? Are private and corporate interests in culture at odds with the public good? And ultimately, who is art for? In this debate recorded in Hong Kong in 2012, award-winning documentary film-maker, author and art critic, Ben Lewis, and Hong Kong-born artist, Paul Chan, spoke for the motion....
Apr 16, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Season 1Ep. 917
Samira Ahmed speaks to award-winning comedian Russell Kane. They speak about his life and career, growing up in Essex, his break into comedy at the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe, and his relationship with class and identity as a comedian. The recording for this episode took place in April 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Apr 14, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 916
Hercules, Prometheus, Pandora. The compelling characters of Greek mythology continue to fascinate readers thousands of years after their stories were first told. For this edition of the podcast, leading classicist Sarah Iles Johnston comes to Intelligence Squared to discuss their enduring popularity, which is the basis of her recent book, Gods and Mortals: Ancient Greek Myths for Modern Readers. Joining her in conversation is fellow classicist and author Daisy Dunn, author of Gods and Men: 100 S...
Apr 12, 2023•42 min•Season 1Ep. 915
Food Campaigner Henry Dimbleby is co-founder of LEON and recently quit his role as the government’s food tsar over its inaction over obesity. His recent book, Ravenous: How To Get Ourselves And Our Planet Into Shape, looks at the global food system that has resulted in 28% of people now being clinically obese in the UK alone and diet-related disease now being the biggest cause of preventable illness and death in the developed world. In conversation with Times columnist Alice Thomson, he explains...
Apr 10, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 914
In this archive episode from 2021, we hear from a panel of historians, authors and broadcasters – Hallie Rubenhold, Natalie Livingstone, Dan Jones and chair Saul David – about how women's stories and female historians have been marginalised throughout history. The conversation recorded at The Cliveden Literary Festival also discusses how historians today can help redress the imbalance. We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what ou...
Apr 09, 2023•45 min•Season 1Ep. 913
Samira Ahmed is joined by Friends star David Schwimmer and comedy writer Nick Mohammed. David Schwimmer is one of the most recognisable faces on television. His iconic role as Ross Geller in all 236 episodes of Friends has made him TV royalty. And beyond the global cultural impact of Friends, Schwimmer is a seasoned stage actor and has gone on to direct the hit comedy Run Fatboy Run and gain critical acclaim as Robert Kardashian in American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson. For his latest...
Apr 08, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 912
General David Petraeus rose to prominence for his role in the Iraq War. He was credited with implementing a counterinsurgency strategy that helped to stabilise the country and reduce violence, earning him widespread praise and recognition as one of the most effective military commanders of his generation. And from September 2011 until November 2012 he served as director of the CIA. In this episode the BBC’s International Editor Jeremy Bowen speaks to the four star General about his understanding...
Apr 08, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 911
Carl Erik Fisher is a psychiatrist, bioethicist and recovering alcoholic who has spent years tracing the history of addiction. His new book is The Urge: Our History of Addiction, a sweeping study of the issue and an urgent call for a more expansive, nuanced and compassionate view of one of society's most difficult challenges. In conversation with Carl is physicist, oceanographer and science presenter, Helen Czerski. We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, wh...
Apr 05, 2023•58 min•Season 1Ep. 910
Over lunch in his house in Oxford, bestselling author Philip Pullman speaks to broadcaster Samira Ahmed about the moments of his childhood and youth that shaped and inspired his unique storytelling. This episode is part of our series How I Found My Voice, hosted by Samira Ahmed. If you like this episode do check out the entire series. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Apr 04, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 909
Samira Ahmed speaks to best-selling author Kate Mosse. Together they discuss her life and career, the success of her historical fiction novels - including Labyrinth which won Best Read of the Year at the 2006 British Book Awards - and her contribution to the recognition of female writers. The recording for this episode took place in February 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Apr 03, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 908
For this week's Sunday Debate, we're dipping back into the archive to 2014, when we gathered a panel of expert historians to debate whether Britain was right to fight in the First World War, a tragedy that laid the foundations for decades of destructive upheaval and violence across Europe. To debate the issue, we invited leading historians Margaret MacMillan, Max Hastings, John Charmley and Dominic Sandbrook to an event hosted by journalist, columnist and national security expert, Edward Lucas. ...
Apr 02, 2023•1 hr 34 min•Season 1Ep. 907
Samira Ahmed speaks to model and actress Emily Ratajkowski. Together they discuss her rise to fame after appearing in the music video for the controversial song ‘Blurred Lines’, as well as the fraught relationship between feminism, capitalism, and exploitation. The recording for this episode took place in September 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Apr 01, 2023•40 min•Season 1Ep. 906
Carlo Rovelli is one of the world’s best-known scientists. A theoretical physicist, his books have sold over two million copies around the world. He recently came to Intelligence Squared to talk about his favourite scientist, the little-known Greek philosopher Anaximander, whose ideas, articulated over two millennia ago, lay the foundations for cosmology, physics, geography, meteorology, and biology. It's the subject of Rovelli's book, Anaximander: And the Nature of Science, now being published ...
Mar 31, 2023•58 min•Season 1Ep. 905
Ever since the discovery of DNA scientists have been on a quest to understand the secrets of the human genome. This quest has not only involved analysing the role genes play in making us who we are – the history of genetics has also been shaped by a desire to explore how far our genes can be altered or enhanced. In 2012, the discovery that a molecule known as CRISPR could be programmed to add and remove elements of DNA marked a huge leap forward, transforming research into treatments for disease...
Mar 30, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 904
Ever since the discovery of DNA scientists have been on a quest to understand the secrets of the human genome. This quest has not only involved analysing the role genes play in making us who we are – the history of genetics has also been shaped by a desire to explore how far our genes can be altered or enhanced. In 2012, the discovery that a tool known as CRISPR could be programmed to add and remove elements of DNA marked a huge leap forward, transforming research into treatments for diseases as...
Mar 29, 2023•54 min•Season 1Ep. 903
Samira Ahmed speaks to Academy Award-nominated actor Jude Law. They speak about his life and career, skipping school to go to the cinema in London as a teenager, his foray into acting, and the wide range of characters he’s covered in his career, from Dr. John Watson to the Pope. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Mar 27, 2023•42 min•Season 1Ep. 902
This is not a debate of religion vs. secularism. This is a debate about where and how the values in life are found, produced, and experienced. Some would argue that atheism has gone too far and there needs to be some point of unity to rally a sense of community around - what will fill a God shaped hole? And to what extent is religion defined by its practices versus the belief in a God? This animated, and often humorous debate brings together writer and philosopher Alain de Botton, Turner Prize w...
Mar 26, 2023•1 hr 24 min•Season 1Ep. 901
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•54 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 4 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•49 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•37 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•44 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•48 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•49 min•Season 1Ep. 893
