Intelligence Squared

What do we owe to the dead? What responsibilities do we inherit from the past, and how do they intersect with the crises of the present? In an era of ecological collapse and cultural dislocation, how can we meaningfully honour ancestral memory when the material sites of remembrance - tombs, villages, traditions - are themselves vanishing? In this episode, sociologist and author Alice Mah joins us...

What if a single ancient language lay at the root of nearly half of the world’s spoken tongues? In today’s episode, acclaimed science writer and journalist Laura Spinney joins us to discuss her new book Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global. In Proto, Spinney takes us deep into the mystery of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) - a prehistoric language that no one alive has heard, yet whose echoes can...

Jane Austen created the definitive picture of Georgian England. No writer matches Austen’s sensitive ear for the hypocrisy and irony lurking beneath the genteel conversation. That’s the argument of the Janeites, but to the aficionados of Emily Brontë they are the misguided worshippers of a circumscribed mind. In Wuthering Heights, Brontë dispensed with Austen’s niceties and the upper-middle class...

Elif Shafak’s award-winning novels are celebrated globally. Her work has been translated into 58 languages, and her latest, There Are Rivers in the Sky, is a testament to the power of storytelling across borders and cultures. This is an epic story of interconnection. Spanning ancient Mesopotamia to contemporary London, Shafak charts the lifespan of a raindrop, as it is consumed, subsumed and trans...

What if the biggest threat to liberal democracy isn’t authoritarianism - but our failure to build? On today’s episode we’re joined by journalist Derek Thompson to unpack Abundance, a new vision of progressive politics co-authored by Thompson and Ezra Klein.  In it, Klein and Thompson trace the political, economic, and cultural barriers to progress and propose a path toward a politics of abundance....

On today’s episode: the untold history of Russia’s deep cover spy programme. Shaun Walker is an international correspondent for The Guardian. He reported from Moscow for more than a decade, and his coverage of Russia's war in Ukraine was shortlisted for the Foreign Reporter of the Year category at the British 2023 Press Awards.  In his new book, The Illegals: Russia's Most Audacious Spies and the...

These days, so much of our lives takes place online - but what about our afterlives? A recent study by the Oxford Internet Institute predicts that the number of deceased Facebook users could outnumber the living by 2070. As AI advances, a debate is growing over digital remains and what should be done with the vast amounts of data we leave behind. In this episode, Carl Öhman, author of The Afterlif...

On today’s episode, Dr Moudhy Al-Rashid sheds light on the history of Ancient Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, gave rise to writing, literature, astronomy, and law - shaping human history in ways that still resonate today. Drawing on her new book Between Two Rivers, Al-Rashid brings to life the stories of ordinary people from thousands of years ago: worki...

We are entering a new era of global instability. The world is facing an era of war, climate change, great power rivalry and unprecedented technological advancement. In April 2025, geopolitical expert and bestselling author Robert Kaplan came to Intelligence Squared to analyse where the world is heading in 2025 and beyond. Drawing from the themes of his new book Waste Land, he argued that history c...

We are entering a new era of global instability. The world is facing an era of war, climate change, great power rivalry and unprecedented technological advancement. In April 2025, geopolitical expert and bestselling author Robert Kaplan came to Intelligence Squared to analyse where the world is heading in 2025 and beyond. Drawing from the themes of his new book Waste Land, he argued that history c...

They are the titans of the spy novel, who have elevated thrillers to the level of literary fiction. Much imitated, much adapted by the big and small screens, Ian Fleming and John Le Carré have painted our picture of post-war espionage: Fleming through the dashing figure of James Bond, with his lush locations and Martinis as icy as his heart; Le Carré through his damning portrait of the British sec...

In 1957 John Lennon and Paul McCartney were two ordinary teenagers who met in suburban Liverpool and decided to play rock and roll together. Twenty-three years later that friendship came to a tragic end when Lennon was murdered. But those 23 years changed the world. Lennon and McCartney became global stars, created a body of work that has never been matched in popular music, and arguably had more...

In 1957 John Lennon and Paul McCartney were two ordinary teenagers who met in suburban Liverpool and decided to play rock and roll together. Twenty-three years later that friendship came to a tragic end when Lennon was murdered. But those 23 years changed the world. Lennon and McCartney became global stars, created a body of work that has never been matched in popular music, and arguably had more...

Unpaid domestic labor has long been the invisible backbone of economies worldwide - but what if it were compensated? In this episode, historian Emily Callaci takes us inside the Wages for Housework movement, a bold and controversial campaign that emerged in the 1970s.  Drawing on her new book, Wages for Housework: The Story of a Movement, an Idea, a Promise, Callaci tells the story of this campaig...

Between 1199 and 1399, English politics was high drama. These two centuries witnessed savage political blood-letting - including civil war, deposition, the murder of kings and the ruthless execution of rebel lords - as well as international warfare, devastating national pandemic, economic crisis and the first major peasant uprising in English history. In today’s episode, historians Caroline Burt a...

Reid Hoffman is one of the world’s most influential and successful entrepreneurs. The co-founder of LinkedIn, Manas AI, Inflection AI and part of the original team at PayPal, he has built companies that have shaped the internet and AI revolutions of the twenty-first century. As part of Reid’s staunch commitment to Democracy, he was a supporter of Kamala Harris in the 2024 US election. In March 202...

Reid Hoffman is one of the world’s most influential and successful entrepreneurs. The co-founder of LinkedIn, Manas AI, Inflection AI and part of the original team at PayPal, he has built companies that have shaped the internet and AI revolutions of the twenty-first century. As part of Reid’s staunch commitment to Democracy, he was a supporter of Kamala Harris in the 2024 US election. In March 202...

Music has become increasingly playlisted, personalized, and autoplayed. But how did we get here, and what does it mean for artists, listeners, and the music industry as a whole? In today’s episode, journalist Liz Pelly unpacks the origins of Spotify, its meteoric rise, and its transformative impact on the way we create and experience music. Whilst researching for her new book, Mood Machine: The Ri...

The Bengal Famine is the forgotten story of the Second World War. Between 1943 and 1944, at least three million Indians, all of whom were British subjects, died from starvation or diseases linked to malnutrition. It is one of the darkest chapters in colonial history, yet the memory of those millions who perished is not broadly nurtured in Britain, India or Bangladesh. There is no memorial, museum,...

The Bengal Famine is the forgotten story of the Second World War. Between 1943 and 1944, at least three million Indians, all of whom were British subjects, died from starvation or diseases linked to malnutrition. It is one of the darkest chapters in colonial history, yet the memory of those millions who perished is not broadly nurtured in Britain, India or Bangladesh. There is no memorial, museum,...

Ed Winters, known to his millions of online followers as Earthling Ed, has perfected the art of persuasion. During his extensive career as an activist and educator, he has made the case for veganism everywhere from university campuses to live on GB News. His compelling and informative content has garnered millions of views, and earned him a dedicated following across online platforms. Earthling Ed...

Ed Winters, known to his millions of online followers as Earthling Ed, has perfected the art of persuasion. During his extensive career as an activist and educator, he has made the case for veganism everywhere from university campuses to live on GB News. His compelling and informative content has garnered millions of views, and earned him a dedicated following across online platforms. Earthling Ed...

This event was part of our Age of the Strongman series. Click here to see the other events in the series: https://www.intelligencesquared.com/the-age-of-the-strongman/. ---- War in Ukraine. Interference in democratic elections. The sponsorship of extremist politics to destabilise Europe. In recent years, Vladimir Putin has waged a relentless campaign to expand his influence beyond Russia’s borders...

This event was part of our Age of the Strongman series. Click here to see the other events in the series: https://www.intelligencesquared.com/the-age-of-the-strongman/. ---- War in Ukraine. Interference in democratic elections. The sponsorship of extremist politics to destabilise Europe. In recent years, Vladimir Putin has waged a relentless campaign to expand his influence beyond Russia’s borders...

George Mpanga, known as George the Poet, is seen by many as one of the UK’s most compelling voices in poetry, music, and social commentary.  Originally hailing from St Raphael’s Estate in Neasden, Mpanga has spent over a decade working at the intersection of art and politics reflecting on his upbringing to shed light on how race and inequality still shape Britain today. His debut poetry collection...