AI models now advise on everything from war, crop output, and marriages. Algorithms determine whether we can get a loan, a job, an apartment, or an organ transplant. Carissa Véliz, Associate Professor at the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford, argues that today’s computer scientists play the same role as the oracles of the ancient world and the astrologers of the Middle Ages. And when we cede ground to these predictions, we lose control of our own lives. In this episode, Véli...
May 07, 2026•38 min•Season 1Ep. 3432
The town of Weimar looms large in German history. This ancient town nestled in the heart of the country was home to some of Europe's greatest thinkers, Goethe and Schiller, Liszt and Nietzsche among them. It gave its name to the ambitious Weimar Republic crafted in the aftermath of the First World War. But it was also where fascism took hold. Where Bauhaus architects first experimented with new ways of living, Buchenwald was dug out of a beech forest. German-British historian Katya Hoyer has dra...
May 06, 2026•48 min•Season 1Ep. 3431
Kae Tempest is widely regarded as one of Britain’s greatest wordsmiths. In a career of ferocious creativity, he has received multiple prizes and critical recognition across the many forms he works in. Beginning as a lyricist and songwriter in his teens, Tempest threw himself fully into whichever discipline he could find work in; gigging as a poet, writing for the theatre or busking with his band. A decade later, this obsessive compulsion to push his writing as far and as hard as he could, secure...
May 03, 2026•48 min•Season 1Ep. 3430
Kae Tempest is widely regarded as one of Britain’s greatest wordsmiths. In a career of ferocious creativity, he has received multiple prizes and critical recognition across the many forms he works in. Beginning as a lyricist and songwriter in his teens, Tempest threw himself fully into whichever discipline he could find work in; gigging as a poet, writing for the theatre or busking with his band. A decade later, this obsessive compulsion to push his writing as far and as hard as he could, secure...
May 02, 2026•45 min•Season 1Ep. 3429
How close are we to a new global conflict? In this episode, journalist Hannah Lucinda Smith speaks with global defence commentator Peter Apps about his new book The Next World War: The New Age of Global Conflict and the Fight to Stop It . From Ukraine to Taiwan, and from cyber warfare to space, Apps argues that the foundations of a new kind of global conflict are already in place. Drawing on reporting from the corridors of power in Washington, London, Moscow and Beijing, as well as frontline per...
May 01, 2026•32 min•Season 1Ep. 3428
According to award-winning actor, writer, director and producer Lena Dunham, we’re now too invested in having a good relationship with our ex. Best known for creating the hit HBO show Girls, which earned her eight Emmy nominations and two Golden Globes, Lena Dunham has recently published her Sunday Times and New York Times Number One Bestseller, Famesick, which explores the decade after the show’s end and how she navigated fame, illness and relationships. In April 2026 Lena joined Intelligence S...
Apr 28, 2026•44 min•Ep. 3427
According to award-winning actor, writer, director and producer Lena Dunham, we’re now too invested in having a good relationship with our ex. Best known for creating the hit HBO show Girls, which earned her eight Emmy nominations and two Golden Globes, Lena Dunham has recently published her Sunday Times and New York Times Number One Bestseller, Famesick, which explores the decade after the show’s end and how she navigated fame, illness and relationships. In April 2026 Lena joined Intelligence S...
Apr 26, 2026•48 min•Ep. 3426
In this episode, journalist Kamal Ahmed explores how innovation is the driving force behind meaningful growth, not simply through capital investment, but by rethinking and reinventing the status quo with transformative technologies. He was joined by guests Laura Gilbert, Lee Ellis & Prashant Jojodia, who together examined what sustainable, resilient growth looks like for the UK, and how empowering both businesses and individuals can push the boundaries of what is possible while securing futu...
Apr 25, 2026•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 3425
Demis Hassabis – CEO and co-founder of Google DeepMind – is one of the world’s most visionary technologists. A child chess prodigy from North London, Hassabis was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for using artificial intelligence to predict the complex structures of nearly all known proteins. His company DeepMind, now owned by Google, is at the forefront of the pursuit to build artificial general intelligence, and considered Google’s engine room of AI innovation. Sebastian Mallaby – for...
Apr 21, 2026•33 min•Season 1Ep. 3423
Demis Hassabis – CEO and co-founder of Google DeepMind – is one of the world’s most visionary technologists. A child chess prodigy from North London, Hassabis was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for using artificial intelligence to predict the complex structures of nearly all known proteins. His company DeepMind, now owned by Google, is at the forefront of the pursuit to build artificial general intelligence, and considered Google’s engine room of AI innovation. Sebastian Mallaby – for...
Apr 19, 2026•38 min•Season 1Ep. 3422
Chemistry is everywhere. From cosmetics and the clothes we wear to life-saving medicines and kitchen experiments, chemical processes are all around us, defining our interactions with the world we live in. In this episode, Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu joins Professor Helen Czerski to discuss how chemistry shapes our understanding of the world. Their conversation explores our complex relationship with plastics; the fact that synthetic products are not always harmful and natural ones not always sa...
Apr 18, 2026•44 min•Season 1Ep. 3421
The Cambridge Five - Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Kim Philby, John Cairncross and Keeper of the Queen's Pictures Anthony Blunt - made up one of the most notorious spy rings of the 20th century. Besotted with communist ideology and radicalised while at Cambridge University in the 1930s, their clandestine supply of British and US intelligence material gave Stalin an inside track on US and British decision-making until May 1951. So how did this collective come into being, what brought about its dow...
Apr 16, 2026•41 min•Season 1Ep. 3420
Our changing climate is accelerating conflict and migration, with the potential to drive political instability from the Sahel to Saudi Arabia to Siberia. From the water-stressed mountains of the Arabian Peninsula to the wildfires raging through America’s most populated regions, the climate crisis is already affecting the lives of millions. In a new book, Elemental , former diplomat Arthur Snell explores how global powers must adapt to new vulnerabilities, the risk of future conflicts over natura...
Apr 14, 2026•50 min•Season 1Ep. 3419
More people are being labelled with medical conditions than ever before. Diagnoses of autism, ADHD, allergies, and long COVID have skyrocketed - but are we actually getting less healthy? In this episode, neurologist Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan speaks to Dr Güneş Taylor about an impending crisis of overdiagnosis. Drawing on histories of real people, as well as decades of clinical practice and the latest medical research, O’Sullivan argues her research indicates that ordinary life experiences, bodily im...
Apr 12, 2026•48 min•Season 1Ep. 3418
What does it mean to translate some of the most recognisable and revered works in the English language? When the wordplay, poetry, and syntax of Shakespeare are all changed, is it still truly Shakespeare? In this episode, host Mythili Rao speaks with translator Daniel Hahn about his new book If This Be Magic: The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation . From Hamlet in Italian to Romeo and Juliet in Thai, Hahn explores how Shakespeare’s plays are continually reshaped as they move across langu...
Apr 11, 2026•55 min•Season 1Ep. 3417
Hundreds of millions of people now talk to AI, such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini every day. They organise their finances and holidays, ask advice, seek therapy and find love – via machines. Almost overnight, chatbots are transforming society, politics and business. This is one of the biggest and fastest technological changes in history. In this episode journalist and author, Jamie Bartlett, speaks to Intelligence Squared’s Head of Programming, Conor Boyle, about the consequences both good and il...
Apr 09, 2026•44 min•Season 1Ep. 3416
Could one of Renoir’s most iconic paintings conceal one of the most astonishing true stories of scandal and tragedy in Golden Age Paris? In 1881, Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted two young sisters from a Jewish banking dynasty at their home in Paris’s grand 8th arrondissement. Pink and Blue, a portrait of Elisabeth and Alice Cahen d’Anvers, is one of Renoir’s most celebrated works. But behind the evoked glamour of the Belle Époque, a darker story was unfurling. In this episode, journalist and autho...
Apr 07, 2026•43 min•Season 1Ep. 3415
On August 20, 1940, in a quiet study in Mexico, one of the 20th century’s most consequential political exiles was assassinated with an ice pick. The killing of Leon Trotsky marked the culmination of a relentless campaign orchestrated by Joseph Stalin, stretching across continents and years of pursuit. But how did the plot unfold — and who was the man who carried it out? In this episode, historian and author Tim Bouverie speaks with writer Josh Ireland about his new book The Death of Trotsky . Dr...
Apr 05, 2026•38 min•Season 1Ep. 3413
Dr Radha Modgil is joined by endurance athlete, investor and author Ken Rideout for an inspiring Intelligence Squared conversation on what it really takes to transform your life. Drawing on the ideas in his book Everything You Want Is On The Other Side of Hard, Rideout argues that growth, confidence and fulfilment are only found by deliberately choosing discomfort over ease. Together, they explore why so many of us avoid difficult challenges, how modern life conditions us to seek convenience, an...
Apr 04, 2026•37 min•Season 1Ep. 3412
Before sex evolved on our planet, two billion years ago, all reproduction happened asexually. So why and how did sexual reproduction evolve? Dr Lixing Sun is Distinguished Research Professor in behavior and evolution at Central Washington University. In a new book, On the Origin of Sex , he explores the fascinating, varied and complex ways reproduction happens across the natural world: from whiptail lizards, capable of immaculate conception, to clownfish and bearded dragons who regularly switch ...
Apr 02, 2026•39 min•Season 1Ep. 3411
According to Great British Bake Off judge and national treasure Prue Leith the secret to a happy life lies in embracing everyday with joy while accepting our inevitable end. Prue has had an exhilarating career. She has been a Michelin-starred restaurateur, author, broadcaster, and beloved Bake Off judge. Yet her passion for life has also been shaped by the loss of her brother and first husband. These experiences inspired her to become a leading campaigner for assisted dying in the UK. In Februar...
Mar 31, 2026•34 min•Season 1Ep. 3410
According to Great British Bake Off judge and national treasure Prue Leith the secret to a happy life lies in embracing everyday with joy while accepting our inevitable end. Prue has had an exhilarating career. She has been a Michelin-starred restaurateur, author, broadcaster, and beloved Bake Off judge. Yet her passion for life has also been shaped by the loss of her brother and first husband. These experiences inspired her to become a leading campaigner for assisted dying in the UK. In Februar...
Mar 30, 2026•34 min•Season 1Ep. 3409
How deeply was the British Crown involved in the transatlantic slave trade? New research by historian Brooke Newman argues that, from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, until well into the 19th century, the Crown and its navy helped expand, finance and protect the trade in enslaved African people. In this episode, Newman joins historian and broadcaster Helen Carr to examine how the monarchy’s links to slavery complicate Britain’s national story about abolition and its colonial past. Drawing on her ...
Mar 29, 2026•48 min•Season 1Ep. 3408
This is an episode of The Specialist, your weekly dose of wonder. In The Specialist, explore the significance and journey of an extraordinary work through the eyes of those that know it best. On today’s episode, the extraordinary saga of the 1933 Double Eagle, America’s last gold coin; stolen, smuggled, and seized. Selby Kiffer is Sotheby's Senior International Specialist of Books and Manuscripts. Over the last half century, he has overseen the sale of many of the most celebrated private librari...
Mar 28, 2026•18 min
Populism has been winning big in recent years. It is the wave that has buoyed Donald Trump’s second term in office, Marine Le Pen’s popularity in France, and Reform UK’s recent leaps and bounds in British polling. Across the West, authoritarian populists now govern one-quarter of the world's democracies. But what explains the surge of populism across the democratic world - and can it be reversed? In this episode, economist and commentator Will Hutton speaks with Labour MP Liam Byrne about his ne...
Mar 27, 2026•54 min•Season 1Ep. 3407
Dr Gwen Adshead is one of Britain’s leading forensic psychiatrists. She is the author of The Sunday Times bestseller, The Devil You Know , which inspired her series of BBC Reith Lectures in 2024. In February 2026, she came to the Kiln Theatre for a compelling conversation about trauma, resilience and the transformative power of psychiatry. Drawing on case stories and the themes of her new book, Unspeakable , she asked questions that touch us all: What does a traumatic event do to someone’s ident...
Mar 25, 2026•34 min•Season 1Ep. 3406
Dr Gwen Adshead is one of Britain’s leading forensic psychiatrists. She is the author of The Sunday Times bestseller, The Devil You Know , which inspired her series of BBC Reith Lectures in 2024. In February 2026, she came to the Kiln Theatre for a compelling conversation about trauma, resilience and the transformative power of psychiatry. Drawing on case stories and the themes of her new book, Unspeakable , she asked questions that touch us all: What does a traumatic event do to someone’s ident...
Mar 23, 2026•39 min•Season 1Ep. 3405
Humans are animals. 40,000 years ago our ancestors considered themselves inseparable from the landscape and the wild animals that lived alongside them. But over generations, we developed an idea that still shapes modern life: the belief that we are separate from, and superior to, other species. In this episode, together with Dr Güneş Taylor, science writer Michael Bond draws on insights from neuroscience, anthropology and cultural studies to explore how animals have profoundly influenced our min...
Mar 22, 2026•43 min•Season 1Ep. 3404
This is an episode of The Specialist, your weekly dose of wonder. In The Specialist, explore the significance and journey of an extraordinary work through the eyes of those that know it best. On today’s episode, the female pioneer of abstract expressionism whose lyrical compositions came to reset market expectations. Courtney Kremers examines King of Spades, Joan Mitchell’s formative masterpiece, which signalled the convergence of her critical acclaim and market recognition. Courtney is Vice Cha...
Mar 21, 2026•15 min•Season 1Ep. 3403
Are Pagan Traditions Shaping a New British Identity? In this episode, Academic, broadcaster and critic Shahidha Bari speaks to journalist, DJ and author Zakia Sewell about her book Finding Albion: Myth, Folklore and the Quest for a Hidden Britain which has been longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction 2026. In this episode, Sewell recounts her discovery of an alternative Britain, which lies beyond divisive national myths and symbols. On her quest – punctuated by folk festivals, seasonal ...
Mar 20, 2026•42 min•Season 1Ep. 3402
