Hannah Durkin is a historian whose new book, Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade, shines a light on the final years of a pivotal yet deeply troubling period in US and global history. The Clotilda, the subject of Durkin's book, was the last slave ship to land on American soil in 1860. This was despite a federal law banning the importation of captive individuals from the African continent having been passed over half a century prior. Some of the survivors o...
Feb 04, 2024•37 min•Season 1Ep. 2027
Simon Shuster is senior correspondent for Time. As a journalist working in both Russia and Ukraine for nearly two decades, he has watched and reported on the story of conflict between the two countries longer than many. His new book is The Showman: The Inside Story of the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky. Shuster has had unprecedented access to the Ukrainian president over a pivotal period for global history, tracing his journey from comedian, actor and perfo...
Feb 02, 2024•37 min•Season 1Ep. 2026
According to the WHO, Alzheimer’s ranks as the seventh leading cause of death globally. By 2050 or earlier in the absence of a breakthrough, the number of people aged 65 and older with Alzheimer’s is projected to reach 12.7 million people. But the more you know about dementia, the more tools you’ll arguably have to prevent or delay its onset. In this episode neurologist Dr Richard Restak in conversation with science journalist Alex Wilkins from New Scientist arms us with practical advice for how...
Jan 31, 2024•40 min•Season 1Ep. 2025
Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer prize-winning reporter and the celebrated author of bestselling book, The Power of Habit. The writer for the New Yorker returns now with his new book, Supercommunicators, which focuses on why some of us are a lot more gifted than others in getting our message heard. Joining Duhigg in conversation for this episode is Helen Czerski, the physicist, oceanographer, writer and science communicator. If you'd like to get access to all of our longer form interviews and member...
Jan 29, 2024•46 min•Season 1Ep. 2024
This is the second instalment of our thee-part conversation with organisational psychologist and bestselling author Adam Grant. He is one of the most sought-after business minds in the world and has provided expert advice to many of the world’s greatest business leaders, including Bill Gates and Sheryl Sandberg, equipping them with the mental tools to find motivation and meaning, rethink assumptions, and achieve greatness in their business and personal lives. For this Intelligence Squared live e...
Jan 28, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 2022
Adam Grant is one of the most sought-after organisational psychologists in the world. He has provided expert advice to many of the world’s greatest business leaders, including Bill Gates and Sheryl Sandberg, equipping them with the mental tools to find motivation and meaning, rethink assumptions, and achieve greatness in their business and personal lives. For this Intelligence Squared live event, Grant joins economic journalist, FT senior columnist and author Tim Harford live onstage, to discuss...
Jan 26, 2024•34 min•Season 1Ep. 2021
Columnist and writer Sarah Ditum is the author of Toxic, which explores how internet culture changed the face of celebrity forever during the early 2000s. The book looks at the era’s hostile treatment of female celebrities by the media, focusing on stars such as Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse, Paris Hilton and more, while highlighting some uncomfortable truths about what it meant to be a woman in the public eye at that time. Joining Ditum in conversation is the writer and broadcaster Helen Lewis,...
Jan 24, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 2020
Two formidable minds explore the worlds of philosophy, science and the places where those two disciplines meet for this episode. Daniel Dennett is the American philosopher, writer, and cognitive scientist who is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University and has written over a dozen books, the latest of which is: I've Been Thinking. Joining him in conversation is Richard Dawkins, the influential British biologist, scientist and writer. Dawkins is renowned for his work on how genes play...
Jan 22, 2024•59 min•Season 1Ep. 2019
Adam Nicolson is the writer and author whose past books have explored immersive and at times weighty topics such as our understanding of the Bible and the work of great poets such as Coleridge and Wordsworth. He returns with a new book, How To Be: Life Lessons from the Early Greeks, which looks at not only the philosophy of the Ancient Greeks but also how the geography of the lands they came from helped shape their thinking. Joining Nicolson in conversation is the writer, academic and broadcaste...
Jan 21, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 2018
Hannah Ritchie is the influential data scientist and researcher whose new book adds a rare glimpse of optimism to the conversation surrounding the future health of the climate. Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet asks us to look again at the tools available to us to make an impact on the world's most existential issue – packed with the latest research, practical guidance and enlightening ideas, it’s a book that will make you rethink almost e...
Jan 19, 2024•50 min•Season 1Ep. 2017
The psychologist, writer and journalist Daniel Goleman is the author the bestselling book Emotional Intelligence and many more popular titles exploring the workings of the mind. His new book, co-authored with fellow psychologist and academic Cary Cherniss, is Optimal: How to Sustain Excellence Every Day. The book highlights practical methods for applying the principles of emotional intelligence to everyday life so more people can enter an optimal state of high performance – offering a roadmap to...
Jan 17, 2024•31 min•Season 1Ep. 2016
Rebecca Boyle is an award-winning science writer whose words have appeared in titles such as The Atlantic, New Scientist and the New York Times. Her new book is Our Moon. It's both a meticulous scientific account of the forces at play around that big rock in the sky and also a cultural history of how humans on Earth have been inspired by it over millennia. Boyle's book captures the the lengths humanity has gone to in order to create myths and stories around the moon while studying its astronomy ...
Jan 15, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 2015
China’s President Xi Jinping is a figure of extraordinary influence around the world but it in the West the nuances and intricacies of his political agenda are less well understood. The Political Thought of Xi Jinping is a new book from Steve Tsang, Director of the SOAS China Institute, and Dr Olivia Cheung, Research Fellow of the China Institute at SOAS University of London. The book draws from Xi Jinping's own words and writings issued in his name to explain his ideas and plans, offering the f...
Jan 14, 2024•49 min•Season 1Ep. 2014
This is an episode of Sotheby's Talks, the podcast that celebrates art, culture, and collecting. Edvard Munch pioneered Expressionism and embraced life’s most painful experiences to create art: his pursuit of emotional truth changed art forever. Tracey Emin, who has been a major figure in contemporary art for more than 25 years, has always been fascinated by the Norwegian master and, in 2021, she exhibited 25 of her own works alongside Munch’s oils and watercolours at the Royal Academy. In this ...
Jan 12, 2024•40 min•Season 1Ep. 2013
Cat Bohannon is a researcher and author with a PhD from Columbia University in the evolution of narrative and cognition. Her essays and poems have appeared in Scientific American, Mind and Science Magazine. Her recent book is Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution, which explores how humans evolved, offering a paradigm shift in our thinking about the vital role that the female body as played over the course of millions of years. Joining Bohannon to discuss the book i...
Jan 10, 2024•54 min•Season 1Ep. 2012
David Runciman is Professor of Politics at Cambridge University and the author of books including The Politics of Good Intentions, Political Hypocrisy and The Confidence Trap. He also hosts the popular Past Present Future podcast. His latest book is The Handover: How We Gave Control of Our Lives to Corporations, States and AIs. The book argues that states and corporations are the immensely powerful artificial entities that now rule our world, with AI a third frontier about to join an already wel...
Jan 08, 2024•57 min•Season 1Ep. 2011
Rob Drummond is Professor of Sociolinguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University. His recent book You’re All Talk explores the enormous diversity in our spoken language across the UK to reveal extraordinary insights into how humans operate: how we perceive (and judge) other people and how we would like ourselves to be perceived. Joining Drummond in conversation for this episode is Intelligence Squared’s Executive Producer, Hannah Kaye. If you'd like to get access to all of our longer form int...
Jan 07, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 2010
Nabila Ramdani is a French-Algerian writer, broadcaster and academic, whose recent book is Fixing France: How to Repair a Broken Republic. Historically, France is a country with ideals that strive for liberty, equality and fraternity but the reality in recent years is something different. Its leader President Macron has cultivated a political landscape with no clear successor ready to carry liberal or centre-ground politics forward. Instead, the next president might come from the far right and i...
Jan 05, 2024•52 min•Season 1Ep. 2009
Born near Colchester, England in 1623, Margaret Cavendish was a writer blazing a trail for women during a time when the world was dominated by men. Her writing ranges from philosophy to poetry, plays and also includes what is now considered to be a proto-science fiction novel, The Blazing World. So why do we rarely hear her name today? Looking to put that right is journalist and now author Francesca Peacock. Her recent book, Pure Wit: The Revolutionary Life of Margaret Cavendish, aims to tell th...
Jan 03, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 2008
We’re all making life choices at this time of year – perhaps a few new years' resolutions are in the mix – either way, you’ll have a stake in a tussle of big ideas as we debate the motion: Free Will is an Illusion. Our host for this episode is the writer, philosopher and podcaster Nigel Warburton, who is co-host of the popular Philosophy Bites podcast and author of books including A Little History of Philosophy, The Art Question, and Free Speech: A Very Short Introduction. Joining Warburton to d...
Jan 01, 2024•52 min•Season 1Ep. 2007
In the fourth and final part of our staff picks episodes the Intelligence Squared team continue their look back across 2023 to pick their favourite moments from all of the podcasts we've produced over the past 12 months. Intelligence Squared CEO Matt McAllester joins Executive Producer Hannah Kaye for this instalment to select their highlights. Matt is going for James Comey and Armando Iannucci, who appeared live onstage together at London's Union Chapel in summer 2023. Hannah selects Bach vs Be...
Dec 31, 2023•54 min•Season 1Ep. 2006
In the second part of our special Christmas episode in association Tortoise, Intelligence Squared welcomes Robert Peston to the Tabernacle Theatre in London to speak with Tortoise editor and co-founder James Harding about the new book from Peston and journalist Kishan Koria, Bust?: Saving the Economy, Democracy and Our Sanity. The book not only analyses how the UK has found itself in a position of having to put up with broken politics, divisive rhetoric and a shaky economic outlook, but also loo...
Dec 29, 2023•25 min•Season 1Ep. 2005
The Intelligence Squared team look back across 2023 in the third of our staff picks episodes. Senior Producer Tom Hall joins Associate Producer Layla Ishmail to select their highlights. Layla's pick is comedian and writer David Baddiel, who appeared onstage earlier in 2023 to discuss his book The God Desire along with religious scholar Ben Quash and fellow comedian, actor and broadcaster Richard Ayoade. Tom's choice is the VS podcast from Intelligence Squared, which put the TV shows Succession a...
Dec 28, 2023•50 min•Season 1Ep. 2004
The Intelligence Squared team continue their look back across 2023 to pick their favourite moments from all of the podcasts we've produced over the past 12 months. Technical Operations Manager Mark Roberts joins Senior Producer Conor Boyle to select their highlights. Mark is going for comedian Russell Kane, who appeared on Intelligence Squared's How I Found My Voice podcast. While Conor replays US politician Bernie Sanders, who appeared on the Intelligence Squared podcast in March 2023. If you'd...
Dec 27, 2023•50 min•Season 1Ep. 2003
The Intelligence Squared team look back across 2023 to pick their favourite moments from all of the podcasts we've produced over the past 12 months. First up are producers Feyi Adegbite and Bella Soames. Bella discusses how she brought together the documentary maker and adventurer Simon Reeve along with war reporter Chistina Lamb and journalist Kamal Ahmed to discuss the concept of risk. Feyi picks our deep-dive interview with acclaimed actor Jude Law, who appeared on the How I Found My Voice po...
Dec 25, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 2002
For the third and final instalment of Intelligence Squared's Holiday Reads selection looking back at some of the best books of the year, Conor Boyle and Feyi Adegbite revisit conversations with authors including Michael Lewis, whose book, Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, tells the story of crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman Fried. We also listen back to a discussion between The Sunday Times' Hadley Freeman and writer Victoria Smith, whose book, Hags: The Demonisation of Middle-Age...
Dec 24, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 2001
In this special Christmas episode in association Tortoise, Intelligence Squared welcomes the team from Tortoise Media's The News Meeting podcast to a live recording of the show at London's Tabernacle theatre, hosted by Tortoise editor and co-founder James Harding. Joining Harding and the team onstage to discuss the biggest stories of the year was ITV's political editor Robert Peston, co-author of new book Bust?: Saving the Economy, Democracy and Our Sanity. To listen to more episodes of The News...
Dec 22, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 2000
As leader of the Bad Seeds, musician Nick Cave is well known for his dark take on the songwriting craft but in recent years the performer and author has also become a distinct voice reflecting on how we deal with the process of grief. Cave’s most recent book is Faith, Hope, and Carnage, a collection of writing formed from conversations between the singer and the Irish journalist and critic Seán O’Hagan. The book touches on the musician’s evolution as an artist and also some of the tragic events ...
Dec 20, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 1099
For the second instalment of Intelligence Squared's Holiday Reads selection looking back at some of the best books of the year, Conor Boyle and Feyi Adegbite revisit conversations with authors including journalist Tania Branigan, whose book, Red Memory , tells the story of China’s cultural revolution. Plus, writer Tomiwa Owolade discusses his book, This is Not America: Why Black Lives in Britain Matter, and classicist Mary Beard along with politician and podcaster Rory Stewart talk about their r...
Dec 18, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 1098
Pen Vogler is the acclaimed food historian whose recent book, Stuffed, tells the history of food in Britain and how what we eat has shaped society over the centuries. Drawing on social records, literature and cookbooks of the past, Vogler traces how staples such as bread and beer have been signposts for measuring the class system in Britain through eras of both feast and famine, while also celebrating culinary classics and answering why the British love a good cup of tea. Joining Vogler in conve...
Dec 17, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 1097
