This is the second instalment of a three-part episode. Gary Younge has had a ringside seat during the biggest events in modern Black history: accompanying Nelson Mandela on his first election campaign, joining revellers on the southside of Chicago during Barack Obama’s presidential election victory, entering New Orleans days after Hurricane Katrina, covering the rise of Black Lives Matter and interviewing prominent figures including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Maya Angelou and Stormzy. Now as the U...
Oct 24, 2024•47 min•Season 1Ep. 3090
Gary Younge has had a ringside seat during the biggest events in modern Black history: accompanying Nelson Mandela on his first election campaign, joining revellers on the southside of Chicago during Barack Obama’s presidential election victory, entering New Orleans days after Hurricane Katrina, covering the rise of Black Lives Matter and interviewing prominent figures including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Maya Angelou and Stormzy. Now as the UK faces new waves of racial tension and division, Young...
Oct 23, 2024•39 min•Season 1Ep. 3089
How should we remember Napoleon, the man of obscure Corsican birth who rose to become emperor of the French and briefly master of Europe? In this archive debate from 2014, as the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo approached, Intelligence Squared brought together two of Britain’s finest historians to debate how we should assess Napoleon’s life and legacy. Was he a military genius and father of the French state, or a blundering nonentity who created his own enduring myth? Was his goal of...
Oct 21, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 3088
Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock is an award-winning space scientist, broadcaster, author and familiar face from the BBC's The Sky at Night programme. She's also Chancellor of the University of Leicester and for this episode she joins us to discuss her new book, The Story of the Solar System: A Visual Journey. In conversation with Aderin-Pocock for the podcast is scientist, communicator and Fellow at Edinburgh University's Centre for Reproductive Health, Güneş Taylor. Let us know your thoughts! Take a ...
Oct 20, 2024•47 min•Season 1Ep. 3087
This is the second instalment of a three-part episode. Henry V reigned over England for nine years and four months before he died at the early age of 35. He was known as a hardened, sometimes brutal, warrior, yet one who was also intelligent and artistic. He was a leader who made many mistakes, who misjudged his friends and family members, yet always seemed to triumph when it mattered. As king, he saved a shattered country from economic ruin, put down rebellions and secured England’s borders; in...
Oct 17, 2024•36 min•Season 1Ep. 3086
Henry V reigned over England for nine years and four months before he died at the early age of 35. He was known as a hardened, sometimes brutal, warrior, yet one who was also intelligent and artistic. He was a leader who made many mistakes, who misjudged his friends and family members, yet always seemed to triumph when it mattered. As king, he saved a shattered country from economic ruin, put down rebellions and secured England’s borders; in foreign diplomacy he made England a serious player on ...
Oct 16, 2024•37 min•Season 1Ep. 3085
Chris Haughton is a designer, illustrator and children's book author, whose bold imagery is known for lighting up the pages of books such as Well Done, Mummy Penguin, and Don't Worry, Little Crab. But Haughton has a healthy enthusiasm for real-world innovation, which sits side by side with his artistic output. His latest book is thinking about some of those bigger ideas. It’s called The History of Information. It looks at the ways information has been cultivated, shared, and undermined throughou...
Oct 14, 2024•34 min•Season 1Ep. 3084
This discussion is a dip back into the extensive Intelligence Squared archive, first aired in late 2022. Jerk chicken, curried goat, ackee and saltfish - these are just some of the famous dishes which make up the varied patchwork of Jamaican cuisine. With influences from West Africa, Spain, China and the East India region, each dish can tell a different story ranging from the influence of indigenous groups to the arrival of settlers, colonialists, and enslaved people who have lived on the Caribb...
Oct 13, 2024•40 min•Season 1Ep. 3083
Many liberals believe that in recent years we have seen an erosion of the right to air unpopular opinions without the risk of being cancelled. We are in an ever-intensifying shutting down of conversation, they maintain, with constituencies on both the left and the right demanding that opinions they don’t like be declared out of bounds, socially, morally or legally. But some argue otherwise: that the so-called free speech crisis is completely a fiction. What we’re really seeing is a rebalance of ...
Oct 11, 2024•1 hr 28 min•Season 1Ep. 3082
Academic, author, broadcaster and ordained deacon Diarmaid MacCulloch is Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford University, and Fellow of St Cross College and of Campion Hall. His latest book is Lower than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity, which explores how Christianity or historically Christian societies have witnessed one of the most extraordinary about-turns in attitudes to sex and gender in human history across the centuries and in recent years. Joining him t...
Oct 09, 2024•44 min•Season 1Ep. 3081
This discussion is a dip back into the extensive Intelligence Squared archive, first aired in early 2022. 'Sprakkar' is an ancient Icelandic word meaning extraordinary or outstanding women. It forms the basis of a book by Eliza Reid, author, co-founder of the Iceland Writers Retreat, and at the time of recording was also the nation's First Lady. Rosamund Urwin from the Sunday Times joins Eliza to discuss the book, which tells the stories of Iceland’s women and also the country’s efforts to eleva...
Oct 06, 2024•47 min•Season 1Ep. 3080
Paul Johnson is the economist who has set the terms of so much political debate over the past few decades in Britain. Having served as Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies since 2011, his expertise on matters of public spending and global economic trends have provided invaluable insight to the public and policymakers alike. Johnson’s column for the Times, as well as his acclaimed Austerity Audit for Radio 4, continue to define public discourse on economic policy and its implications. In ...
Oct 05, 2024•44 min•Season 1Ep. 3079
Paul Johnson is the economist who has set the terms of so much political debate over the past few decades in Britain. Having served as Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies since 2011, his expertise on matters of public spending and global economic trends have provided invaluable insight to the public and policymakers alike. Johnson’s column for the Times, as well as his acclaimed Austerity Audit for Radio 4, continue to define public discourse on economic policy and its implications. In ...
Oct 03, 2024•42 min•Season 1Ep. 3078
This is the second instalment of a three-part discussion. Philippa Gregory and Tracy Chevalier have defined the genre of historical fiction for decades. Both renowned for bringing to life women’s stories from the past and making them relevant to today’s reader, between them they’ve produced a multitude of global bestsellers including The Other Boleyn Girl and Girl with a Pearl Earring. In September 2024 they joined Reeta Chakrabarti on the Intelligence Squared stage to transport us through time ...
Oct 01, 2024•38 min•Season 1Ep. 3076
This is the first instalment of a three-part discussion. Philippa Gregory and Tracy Chevalier have defined the genre of historical fiction for decades. Both renowned for bringing to life women’s stories from the past and making them relevant to today’s reader, between them they’ve produced a multitude of global bestsellers including The Other Boleyn Girl and Girl with a Pearl Earring. In September 2024 they joined Reeta Chakrabarti on the Intelligence Squared stage to transport us through time a...
Sep 30, 2024•37 min•Season 1Ep. 3075
For this episode we're joined by Eliza Filby, an academic, writer and public speaker specialising in contemporary values and most recently generational wealth. Her new book is Inheritocracy: It’s Time to Talk About the Bank of Mum and Dad. It explores how wealth passed down from parents to their children is now quietly underpinning some major pillars of the economy and how society works, from house buying to going to university and even our dating lives. Joining her to talk about it is Roisín De...
Sep 29, 2024•52 min•Season 1Ep. 3074
This is the second instalment of a three-part episode. How many women artists do you know? Despite the work of activist groups and scholars alike, women are still troublingly absent from the history of art. Historian and broadcaster Katy Hessel wants to change that. In September 2024 she came to the Intelligence Squared stage in conversation with the journalist, author and podcaster Pandora Sykes to write women back into art history. Discussing her bestselling book The Story of Art Without Men, ...
Sep 26, 2024•39 min•Season 1Ep. 3072
This is the first instalment of a three-part episode. How many women artists do you know? Despite the work of activist groups and scholars alike, women are still troublingly absent from the history of art. Historian and broadcaster Katy Hessel wants to change that. In September 2024 she came to the Intelligence Squared stage in conversation with the journalist, author and podcaster Pandora Sykes to write women back into art history. Discussing her bestselling book The Story of Art Without Men, s...
Sep 25, 2024•38 min•Season 1Ep. 3071
Hanno Sauer is a philosopher not shying away from the big questions. His recent book is The Invention of Good and Evil: A World History of Morality, which charts the evolution of moralistic thinking from our earliest ancestors through to the present day. But morality is not always about only right and wrong. When it’s wielded by the powerful, it can be restrictive, coercive and the source of many a guilty conscience. With his book, Sauer, who is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Utrecht Unive...
Sep 23, 2024•54 min•Season 1Ep. 3070
This episode was first aired in March, 2022. Cal Flyn’s Islands of Abandonment was one of the UK’s bestselling books of 2021. It was the Sunday Times Science and Environment book of the year and won her the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award. In this episode she talks with broadcaster and science communicator Helen Czerski about the extraordinary places where humans no longer live – or survive in only tiny numbers – and about what happens when humanity’s impact on nature is forced into ...
Sep 22, 2024•57 min•Season 1Ep. 3069
This is the second instalment of a three-part episode. Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, knows what’s coming. And in September 2024 he returned to the Intelligence Squared stage in conversation with Amol Rajan, host of BBC Radio 4's Today programme, University Challenge and Amol Rajan Interviews, to share his fresh perspective into what AI can and cannot achieve in the next waves of disruption. Suleyman is the ultimate AI insider. In March 2024, a few months after he was last on our sta...
Sep 19, 2024•41 min•Season 1Ep. 3067
This is the first instalment of a three-part episode. Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, knows what’s coming. And in September 2024 he returned to the Intelligence Squared stage in conversation with Amol Rajan, host of BBC Radio 4's Today programme, University Challenge and Amol Rajan Interviews, to share his fresh perspective into what AI can and cannot achieve in the next waves of disruption. Suleyman is the ultimate AI insider. In March 2024, a few months after he was last on our stag...
Sep 17, 2024•38 min•Season 1Ep. 3066
Divorcées, dark humour and the underbelly of 1920s New York form the basis of author and screenwriter Ursula Parrott's forgotten classic novel, Ex-Wife. It became a bestseller on its original release nearly a century ago in 1929 and was also made into an Oscar-winning film. Now reissued by Faber, it follows Patricia, a divorcée embarking on single life in the city while partying and holding down her fashion advertising day job. Today, some readers are calling it the ultimate millennial novel – a...
Sep 16, 2024•48 min•Season 1Ep. 3065
This is an archive discussion first aired in early 2022. Morten Christiansen is Professor of Psychology at Cornell University and Nick Chater is Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School. Together, they've written The Language Game, a new book which explores the science and psychology of language and some of its mysteries too. Hosting the discussion is journalist Christine Ro, whose work covers areas ranging from science and culture to international development. Let us know you...
Sep 15, 2024•41 min•Season 1Ep. 3064
This is the second instalment of a two-part episode. Arsenal Football Club is special. Its multicultural fandom reflects a changing city and a unique relationship with Black British popular culture – thanks to its decades of fielding iconic Black players on the pitch and the storied and diverse histories of its terraces. Clive Chijioke Nwonka and Matthew Harle are the co-editors of a book celebrating that sporting culture, Black Arsenal: Club, Culture and Identity. For this episode, they are joi...
Sep 12, 2024•46 min•Season 1Ep. 3063
This is the first instalment of a two-part episode. Arsenal Football Club is special. Its multicultural fandom reflects a changing city and a unique relationship with Black British popular culture – thanks to its decades of fielding iconic Black players on the pitch and the storied and diverse histories of its terraces. Clive Chijioke Nwonka and Matthew Harle are the co-editors of a book celebrating that sporting culture, Black Arsenal: Club, Culture and Identity. For this episode, they are join...
Sep 10, 2024•37 min•Season 1Ep. 3062
Leading social philosopher Roman Krznaric discusses his latest book, History for Tomorrow, which looks at what lessons we can learn from the past thousand years while also exploring how these learnings can help us better tackle some of the major challenges we face today. Krznaric is a senior research fellow at Oxford University’s Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing. Eudaimonia is a Greek word, which roughly translates as happiness or wellbeing. Joining him to discuss the book is Adam McC...
Sep 09, 2024•53 min•Season 1Ep. 3061
The podcast welcomes back Oliver Burkeman for this episode. The writer whose popular column for The Guardian ‘This Column Will Change Your Life’ made him into one of the most astute interrogators of the wellness and self-help fields, returns with a new book, Meditations for Mortals. As well as being a guide through some smart ideas on how to make life feel more manageable, the book also proposes a four-week plan to help readers embrace their own limitations and begin using them as strengths. Joi...
Sep 07, 2024•44 min•Season 1Ep. 3060
This is the second instalment of a three-part episode. In the 20th century most autocrats were brutal dictators whose main goal was to control a domestic population. But in the 21st century autocracy has become much more sophisticated and ambitious in its scope. States like Russia have developed sophisticated cross-border networks of kleptocratic financial structures, innovative security services and professional propagandists. The members of these networks are connected not only within a given ...
Sep 05, 2024•37 min•Season 1Ep. 3058
This is the first instalment of a three-part episode. In the 20th century most autocrats were brutal dictators whose main goal was to control a domestic population. But in the 21st century autocracy has become much more sophisticated and ambitious in its scope. States like Russia have developed sophisticated cross-border networks of kleptocratic financial structures, innovative security services and professional propagandists. The members of these networks are connected not only within a given c...
Sep 03, 2024•39 min•Season 1Ep. 3057
