Intelligence Squared

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, wh...

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 celebrat...

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 celebrati...

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 w...

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...

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...

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 a...

What kinds of sound are our oceans making, and what do they mean? In this episode, award-winning science writer Amorina Kingdon discusses her book, Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water, which is the culmination of her work exploring how marine animals use sound to survive and the ways humans are impacting critical underwater soundscapes. These explorations range from investigations of...

This is the second instalment of a two-part episode. Jordan Stephens’ life during his teenage years and his twenties was a whirlwind. As one half of the hip hop duo Rizzle Kicks, his days were full of success, fame and adulation as Rizzle Kicks’ debut sold over 1 million singles and 600,000 albums in 2012. But for Jordan, success brought pain in its wake: a hidden pattern of self-harm, hedonism, d...

This is the first instalment of a two-part episode. Jordan Stephens’ life during his teenage years and his twenties was a whirlwind. As one half of the hip hop duo Rizzle Kicks, his days were full of success, fame and adulation as Rizzle Kicks’ debut sold over 1 million singles and 600,000 albums in 2012. But for Jordan, success brought pain in its wake: a hidden pattern of self-harm, hedonism, de...

The development of life on Earth is often framed through the evolution of separate and distinct life forms but less common is the idea of the Earth itself as being one whole living organism. Writer Ferris Jabr's new book, Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life, takes an all-encompassing view of the intertwined ecosystems on our planet, their origins and where issues such as the climate crisis...

We welcome back Anna Bogutskaya to the podcast for this episode to discuss her book, Feeding the Monster: Why Horror Has a Hold on Us. As the title suggests, it’s a publication celebrating the goriest, scariest, and to many – most downright entertaining film genre out there. Bogutskaya is a writer, film programmer and podcaster, who regularly can be heard on The Final Girls horror podcast. Her wri...

The bestselling war historian Rick Stroud joins the podcast to discuss some of the lesser told narratives of World War One, drawing from his recent book, I Am Not Afraid of Looking into the Rifles. The book explores some of the stories of the women who played their part during the conflict that shaped the opening of the 20th Century and for which the sacrifice on the battlefields of male soldiers...

For this episode the writer, musician and author Molly Roden Winter discusses her bestselling book, More: A Memoir of Open Marriage. The book tells the story of Roden Winter's own journey navigating the polyamorous lifestyle while upholding many of the more traditional values associated with marriage simultaneously. Joining her to talk about it is Sarah Ditum, who listeners may remember from the p...

Influence can be as gentle as a bit of friendly advice or as seismic as a strategy to win an election. As a behavioural scientist who has worked with the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Justin Hempson-Jones is more familiar with influence's uses – and its dangers – than most. In his recent book, Influence: Understand it, Use it, Res...

The author and broadcaster Paul Morland is one of the UK’s leading thinkers on demographics – the study of population and its characteristics. Morland has been an associate research fellow at Birkbeck, University of London, and is a senior member at St Antony's College, Oxford. He last joined Intelligence Squared in 2022 and now returns to discuss his new book, No One Left. As that title suggests,...

Paulina Rowinska is a writer, mathematician and science communicator, whose new book, Mapmatics: How We Navigate the World Through Numbers, tells the stories found within crunching tricky equations. Rowinska has a PhD in Mathematics of Planet Earth from Imperial College London and across the pages of Mapmatics she explores fields ranging from map-making to forecasting elections, how we get our pac...

The writer Simon Kuper returns to the podcast to discuss the follow-up to his book Chums, which highlighted the narrow and highly privileged pathway that often funnels attendees of some the UK's top education establishments into the highest seats of power in government. His new book is Good Chaps, an exploration of the idea that most politicians who have followed a privileged route into power will...

Debut novelist Amy Twigg's book, Spoilt Creatures, tells a story set on a women's commune where things take a dark turn. The novel has earned Twigg praise as one of the Observer newspaper's top 10 best new novelists of 2024. Joining her to discuss the story is Anna Bogutskaya, a writer, film programmer and podcaster, who is the creator of Eerie – a horror anthology podcast. Bogutskaya is also auth...

A poet, performer, novelist and screenwriter, Olivia Gatwood has received international recognition for her writing, which has focused on topics including coming of age, feminism, gendered violence and true crime. Her debut novel is Whoever You Are, Honey, a dark and brilliant story set amid a secluded California beachside community living in the shadow of the neighbouring tech giants of Silicon V...

Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley since 2015, Jess Phillips has never shied away from controversy nor has she been afraid to veer away from Labour Party lines to uphold her political principles. For this episode, we’re joined by Phillips to discuss some of the most pressing issues in British politics during a fortnight that has seen shocking scenes of violence and racism unfold across UK streets. F...

Marcel Dirsus is a political scientist and the author of How Tyrants Fall: And How Nations Survive. As Non-Resident Fellow at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University, Dirsus mainly works on regime instability, political violence and German foreign policy. His new book takes us into the downfall of dictators ranging from Libya's Muammar Gaddafi to Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, as well as u...

The award-winning science journalist Olive Heffernan’s work has been featured in National Geographic, New Scientist, The Guardian, BBC Wildlife and more. Her new book is The High Seas: Ambition, Power and Greed on the Unclaimed Ocean. Two thirds of the ocean lie beyond national borders and yet they are home to some of the richest natural resources and natural biodiversity on the planet. It makes t...

A truly multifaceted talent, Joelle Taylor is a poet, playwight, actor and most recently a novelist, who has written four collections of poetry along with also being a Poetry Fellow of the University of East Anglia and a Fellow at the Royal Society of Literature. Taylor's new novel is The Night Alphabet, a narrative of interconnecting stories told via tracing the interwoven tapestries found on the...

The award-winning classicist and cultural critic Daisy Dunn is the author of seven books including her latest, The Missing Thread: A New History of the Ancient World through the Women Who Shaped It. The book re-examines not only the female individuals who were at the heart of many well-known stories of the ancient world, but also looks at the whole of wider history through the perspective of women...