Dr Ruja Ignatova, an Oxford-educated, self-styled cryptocurrency guru, promised her followers a financial revolution through her project: OneCoin. Then, in October 2017, she disappeared. But not before she had duped investors around the world, some of whom are the poorest people in society, into buying up more than $4 billion-worth of OneCoin. Ignatova has been in hiding ever since and was recently added to Europol's most wanted list. Jamie Bartlett is an expert on the politics of the internet a...
Jul 06, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 732
Language is expressive, a way of opening doors or a tool for creating new dialogue. But a tool so powerful can also take us to unforeseen or unintended places. It can create narratives that become fixed, unhelpful, or exclusionary. Kübra Gümüsay is a writer and activist focusing on social justice and public discourse. Her new book is Speaking and Being, which looks at the power of words, asking whether language creates freeing new spaces or plays a part in walling them off. Our host for the disc...
Jul 04, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 731
In today's world, we're often encouraged to think that sex is no longer a subject burdened with shame or repressed feelings. Rather, it is pleasurable, exciting and even empowering – as long as all parties are consenting. But do women really have the same sexual freedom as men, or are they still living in a man's world, conforming to male heterosexual desires and tastes? How do young women who’ve grown up in a sexually celebratory and supposedly shame-free society navigate sex? To discuss it, ou...
Jul 03, 2022•43 min•Season 1Ep. 730
Across Britain, it’s no secret that the people who make up the country's elected government have gone through the same familiar educational pipeline. Eton, Oxford, Westminster. Born into families of privilege, it’s unsurprising that these men, and it is largely men, have risen to the top in a country obsessed with social class. But while it’s clear how they got there, we should ask how does this affect the way that they run the country today? To help answer these questions and understand the tin...
Jul 01, 2022•51 min•Season 1Ep. 729
In recent years China has been accused of committing crimes against humanity and possibly genocide against the Uyghur ethnic group in the northwestern region of Xinjiang province. Nury Turkel was born in a re-education camp in Kashgar, Xinjiang in 1970. In 1995 he had the opportunity to leave China as a student and was never to return to his home and family. Nury has since dedicated his life to fighting for the rights of Uyghurs – he is Chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freed...
Jun 29, 2022•36 min•Season 1Ep. 728
Christopher Blattman is an economist, political scientist and Ramalee E. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies at The University of Chicago. His new book is Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace, which explores why societies turn to violence and how poverty and oppression often go hand in hand with conflict. Chris's work has taken him from studying poverty in Uganda to street gangs in Medellin, investigating the likes of dictators, monarchs, mobs and football hooligans alo...
Jun 27, 2022•57 min•Season 1Ep. 727
The Northern Ireland Protocol – agreed between the United Kingdom and the European Union in 2019 – has been a source of tension since it came into force at the start of 2021. The protocol, which creates a special trading arrangement for goods coming in and out of Northern Ireland (the only part of the UK with a land border with the EU), was supposed to protect the integrity of the EU single market, maintain the peace on the island of Ireland and provide Boris Johnson with a way to finally get Br...
Jun 26, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 726
Tracing Russia’s vast border, which meets those of 14 other countries, helps tells the history of Russia itself. From its imperial past to Soviet-era expansions and contractions leading up to its current war of aggression in Ukraine today, the Russian border is a landscape of uneasy uncertainty for many of the country's immediate neighbours. Erika Fatland is a Norwegian writer whose work has focused on issues that range from terrorism to travel and cultural history. Her 2020 book, The Border, fo...
Jun 24, 2022•39 min•Season 1Ep. 725
Activist, historian and academic Ibram X. Kendi's book, How To Be and Antiracist, won the National Book Award for nonfiction as well as topping bestseller lists in 2020, a year in which the murder by police of George Floyd made the impact of Kendi's words inescapable. He came to Intelligence Squared a few months prior in August 2019 for a wide-ranging discussion on the themes of the book with BBC News journalist and visiting journalism professor at Princeton, Razia Iqbal. The two speakers will b...
Jun 22, 2022•46 min•Season 1Ep. 724
Bisexuality is the world’s largest sexual minority but is potentially the least understood. In her new book, Bi: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexuality, psychological scientist Dr Julia Shaw sets out to answer the questions and eliminate common misconceptions around bisexuality. Discussing the history of the B in LGBTQ+ and the myth of the bi gene, Julia is joined in conversation by our host Sharan Dhaliwal, author of Burning My Roti: Breaking Barriers as a Queer Indian Woman. I...
Jun 20, 2022•43 min•Season 1Ep. 723
We delve back into the archive to 2018, when we held a debate getting to the heart of nature vs nurture. How much do our parents influence the people that we eventually turn out to be? We were joined by Professor of Behavioural Genetics Robert Plomin, the Developmental Clinical Psychologist Susan Pawlby, therapist, parenting counsellor and broadcaster Ann Pleshette Murphy, and Stuart Ritchie, lecturer in social genetics and developmental psychiatry and author of Science Fictions. Hosting the deb...
Jun 19, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 722
Susan Cain shot to fame in 2012 with her international bestseller Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, in which she urged society to cultivate space for the undervalued introverts among us. Now she's back with another book asking us to reassess how we think about self expression: Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole. The book argues that by embracing the bittersweet at the heart of life – the sense that joy and sorrow are always paired – we can gain a h...
Jun 17, 2022•59 min•Season 1Ep. 721
In an increasingly polarised world, it’s not often we get books saying that difference is our greatest strength. But Farhan Samanani is a Canadian social anthropologist, whose recent book, How to Live with Each Other, does just that. It looks at how communities thrive when embracing their diversity. Farhan’s work and studies have taken him around the world but it’s the local, yet no less global, streets of Kilburn, a neighbourhood in northwest London, which informs much of his work. He's joined ...
Jun 15, 2022•55 min•Season 1Ep. 720
Whether rapidly advancing artificial intelligence will eventually become a friend or foe to humanity is a pressing question when it comes to technology. But one smart human says there’s an area where we still have the edge: mathematics. In his new book, Mathematical Intelligence: What we have that Machines Don’t, mathematician turned educator Junaid Mubeen argues that the playfulness and exploratory nature of the human approach to maths is a quality that the linear and binary brains of machines ...
Jun 13, 2022•53 min•Season 1Ep. 719
It was always going to be a disaster. Queues of HGVs stretching miles from Dover. The Good Friday Agreement threatened by the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol and increased support for Scottish Independence. That’s the argument of the doomsayers in this debate. But others claim that while short-term damage is inevitable – there is always blowback from a jilted partner – Brexit is a long-term project, one that is tied to the fundamental principle of sovereignty. Which side is right? To deb...
Jun 12, 2022•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 718
George Monbiot is a journalist, campaigner and author, who is telling the world that the time for action on the climate crisis is now. His latest book, Regenesis: Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet, looks at how we can lessen the impact of food consumption and farming on the global environment. Our host for this discussion is Alice Thomson, columnist and interviewer for The Times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices...
Jun 10, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 717
Intelligence Squared podcast is the home of lively debate and deep-dive discussion. Now we’re adding extra depth to our audio content via Apple Podcasts with IQ2 Extra, a premium listening experience that includes ad-free content, exclusive bonus episodes and early access to new podcasts. Hit subscribe via Apple for a 7-day free trial of IQ2 Extra. Our bonus content includes Bright Sparks: quick-fire Q&As bringing you closer to some of the brightest minds on the planet. First up is Nobel Pri...
Jun 09, 2022•14 min•Season 1Ep. 716
In this episode of Intelligence Squared's How to Lead a Sustainable Business with Alannah Weston podcast, Alannah is joined by Leslie Johnston, CEO of the Laudes Foundation, which catalyses systems change in the worlds of fashion, finance and the built environment, towards a new economy that values all people and nature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jun 08, 2022•30 min•Season 1Ep. 715
Does the world have too many people – or not enough? That’s one of the big questions that demographer Paul Morland seeks to answer in his new book, Tomorrow’s People: The Future of Humanity in Ten Numbers. Demography is the study of groups of people and how they behave, drawing from adjacent fields such as anthropology, sociology, history and economics. For this discussion focusing on political demography, Paul is joined in conversation by our host, Eric Kaufmann, Professor of Politics at Birkbe...
Jun 06, 2022•58 min•Season 1Ep. 714
A delve into the archive and back to 2019 when we debated a motion asking whether the left’s policies of high immigration and multiculturalism caused the disaffection which has given rise to populism? Or was it the right, with its tabloid scare stories about foreigners eroding national identity? We were joined by Matthew Goodwin, Professor of Politics at Kent University; politician Daniel Hannan; Elif Shafak, award-winning novelist; and John Simpson, BBC World Affairs Editor, columnist and autho...
Jun 05, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 713
Professor Jim Al-Khalili is the physicist who makes science look easy. He’s the author of several books, the latest of which is The Joy of Science , which offers eight core scientific principles that can be applied to everyday life. As a broadcaster Jim is perhaps best known as the voice of BBC Radio 4’s The Life Scientific and he holds the position of Distinguished Chair in physics and University Chair in public engagement at the University of Surrey. Our host for this discussion is Media Edito...
Jun 03, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 712
Writer and academic Kerry Brown's latest book is Xi: A Study in Power, which profiles the policies and personality behind China's leader for the last decade, Xi Jinping. He’s one of the most powerful people in global geopolitics yet in the West seemingly little is known about him. What are his ambitions for China and the rest of the world? Kerry Brown is Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at Kings College London. He is joined in conversation on the podcast by ou...
Jun 01, 2022•53 min
How do you put a ghost on trial? In Linda Kinstler's deeply personal new book, Come to This Court and Cry, she uncovers the atrocities of her Latvian grandfather's involvement in the Holocaust. In conversation with author, broadcaster and academic, Peter Pomerantsev, she asks how do we account for the brutality of historical events and our personal links to them, as the passage of time means they slip further beyond living memory? Linda and Peter also discuss whether the history of conflict is r...
May 30, 2022•41 min
Between 2007 and 2020, China invested $23 billion into infrastructure for nations across Africa, $8 billion more than the other top eight lenders combined. But in its pursuit of energy security and raw materials the Chinese government and Chinese companies have locked resource-rich African states into loans and contracts which could start to squeeze them hard in ten or so years’ time. Is Chinese investment good for Africa? Joining us to debate the question is Dr Nkosana Moyo, former Vice Preside...
May 29, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 709
How we understand mental health and the level of compassion we show to those suffering from depression and other forms of mental illness define us as a society. In May 2022 acclaimed travel writer Horatio Clare and science journalist Alex Riley came to Intelligence Squared to discuss their personal experiences of mental illness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices...
May 27, 2022•57 min•Season 1Ep. 708
Palaeobiologist and bestselling author Thomas Halliday is helping us better understand how the natural world evolved over the past 500 million years. His recent book, Otherlands: A World in the Making, guides the reader through a series of ancient landscapes from the dawn of complex life 500 million years ago to up to the birth of humanity and uses Halliday's immersive storytelling combined with sharp scientific analysis to bring the journey to life. Hosting this discussion is science writer and...
May 25, 2022•47 min
Every second of the day, tiny biological clocks are ticking throughout your body, from the neural pathways of your brain down to your very cells. But modern life is disrupting this ancient and delicate mechanism in ways we are only just beginning to understand. Artificial light, jet lag, smartphones, air pollution and out-of-sync work-and-meal routines are conspiring to push us out of joint. This is not only exacerbating mental health issues such as depression and fatigue, but according to new s...
May 23, 2022•55 min
The political Left often purports that it has society’s best interests at heart and that it works for the good of all. Yet according to conservatives, it is precisely that self-regard, that attempt to monopolise virtue, which exposes the hypocrisy of left-wing ideology. In this archive debate from 2018, we gathered Labour MP Stella Creasy, environmental campaigner, journalist and author, George Monbiot, Conservative MP Kwasi Kwarteng, and the leading philosopher of conservative thought, the late...
May 22, 2022•1 hr 4 min
Chris Hirst, Global CEO of advertising group Havas Creative, cuts through the bullshit and gets to the heart of modern leadership in this straight-talking podcast brought to you by Intelligence Squared. In this episode, Christ Hirst speaks to Roula Khalaf, the Editor of the Financial Times. In January 2020, Khalaf became the first female editor in the Financial Times’ 134-year history. Her path to the top of the FT came through her work as a foreign correspondent. Born in Lebanon, she served as ...
May 20, 2022•40 min
Afghan women’s voices are at increasing risk of being silenced and as more of their rights slip away, so do their stories. In this episode we hear from three women from the UNTOLD writers programme, who are the co-creators of My Pen is the Wing of a Bird, a new anthology of Afghan women's fiction. Lucy Hannah is founder of UNTOLD, Zarghuna Kargaar is a journalist, translator and author of Dear Zari: Hidden Stories from Women of Afghanistan, and Marie Bamyani is a contributing author featured in ...
May 18, 2022•31 min•Season 1Ep. 690
