The EI Podcast

What makes us laugh? And why should it matter? EI's Alastair Benn and Paul Lay are joined by the critic Mathew Lyons to discuss the uses of comedy. FURTHER READING: The subtle art of English comedy | Alastair Benn Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn, and produced by Caitlin Brown. The...

Roel Sterckx , the Joseph Needham Professor of Chinese History, Science, and Civilization at Cambridge University, makes the case for studying China's centuries-long history. Read by Helen Lloyd. FURTHER READING: Gazing back to see China’s future | Roel Sterckx Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . Image: The Great Wall of China. Credit:...

Alexander Lee , author of Machiavelli: His Life and Times , argues that liberty was central to the idea of Venice. Read by Helen Lloyd. FURTHER READING: Liberty and the myth of Venice | Alexander Lee Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . Image: Procession in Piazza San Marco by Gentile Bellini, 1496. Credit: Peter Barritt / Alamy Stock P...

Richard Miles , historian and archaeologist, profiles Spartacus, a figure who floats between history and allegory. Read by Helen Lloyd. FURTHER READING: Spartacus, history’s nowhere man | Richard Miles Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . Image: Promotional poster for the film, Spartacus. 1960. Credit: Allstar Picture Library Ltd / Alam...

Mary Elise Sarotte , Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Distinguished Professor of Historical Studies at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, reflects that the choice to enlarge NATO was a justifiable response to the geopolitics of the 1990s. The problems came later. Read by Helen Lloyd. FURTHER READING: How a Second Cold War could have been averted | Mary Elise Sarotte Engelsberg Ideas...

What makes Classical music special among the arts? And where did it come from? To reckon with the inexhaustible complexity of the western musical tradition, its long history and the roots of its contemporary crises, EI's Alastair Benn is joined by Richard Bratby , the chief classical music critic of The Spectator magazine, and Alexandra Wilson , musicologist and cultural historian. Engelsberg Idea...

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was slowed down because of determined, courageous resistance. That success also owed much to Western intelligence on the nature of the Russian attack. External support will remain crucial to the success of the Ukrainian war effort. Read by Helen Lloyd. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . Credit: The...

Non-western elites are redefining freedom on their own terms, as sovereignty, state security and stability. But the world becoming a lot less free should concern us all. Read by Helen Lloyd. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . Image: Eugène Delacroix's 'Painting of Liberty Leading the People'. Credit: Exotica.im 20 / Alamy Stock Photo

Are we living through a golden age of espionage drama? And what do spy stories tell us about the true nature of the secret world? EI's Alastair Benn is joined by David Omand , ex-head of GCHQ, the British government’s world-renowned cyber agency, and author of How Spies Think , Pauline Blistène , an expert on intelligence affairs and spy fiction, and Senior Editor Paul Lay to discuss the enduring...

Citizens of the GDR were exposed to an idealised version of western freedoms made up of luxury shopping, blue jeans and cowboy flicks. Read by Helen Lloyd. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . Image: Intershop in Friedrichstrasse in East Berlin. Credit: Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo / Alamy Stock Photo

After unpromising beginnings and innumerable controversies, Pittacus, seventh-century ruler of Mytilene on Lesbos, should be remembered as one of the great leaders of his age. Read by Sebastian Brown. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . Image: An illustration of Pittacus. Credit: Historical image collection by Bildagentur-online / Alam...

The limited liability company remains the best vehicle for capitalistic endeavour. Read by Helen Lloyd. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . Image: Lloyd's coffee house in the City of London. Credit: CPA Media Pte Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo 

Is the era of mass literacy over? And what might a post-literate society look like? EI's Alastair Benn is joined by Times columnist James Marriott and Senior Editor Paul Lay to discuss the promise and peril of a culture defined by the audiovisual. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn,...

Putin’s justifications for invading Ukraine uncannily reflect the motivations of one of Russian literature’s most famous antiheroes, Dostoevsky's Rodion Raskolnikov. Read by Helen Lloyd. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/what-drives-vladimir-putin/ Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . Image: Vladimir Putin at an EU-Russia summit in Bru...

The Russian recluse, a scientific self-starter who left school at 14, developed pioneering theories of space travel that anticipated the great feats of the Space Race fifty years later. Read by Sebastian Brown. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . Image: Soviet poster featuring a portrait of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935). Credit: A...

Benjamin Constant’s considered response not only to the mass murder inflicted by the French Revolution, but to the attempt to reduce the whole French population to the condition of willing slaves under Bonaparte’s First Empire, provides a diagnosis of the character of many subsequent totalitarian regimes. Read by Helen Lloyd. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Found...

Is the study of Latin in peril? And what does the future hold for the ancient inheritance? EI's Alastair Benn is joined by Daisy Dunn , classicist and author, Armand D’Angour , Professor of Classics at Oxford University, and Paul Lay , EI’s Senior Editor, to discuss the value of ancient languages. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . EI...

What happened in California in the 1970s played an outsized role in creating the world we live in today – both in the United States and in large parts of the globe – for better or worse. Read by Helen Lloyd. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . Image: 1970s commercial airline advert. Credit: ClassicStock / Alamy Stock Photo 

At a time of moral and political crisis, the medieval poet pioneered a daring and emotive vernacular style which inspired generations of Italian literature. Read by Sebastian Brown. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . Image: A sketch of Guittone d'Arezzo from the nineteenth century. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

While we may think we have moved beyond the censorship of the past, writers' artistic freedoms are still constrained. Read by Helen Lloyd. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . Image: Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence was the subject of a watershed obscenity trial. Credit: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI's Angus Reilly discusses the history and legacy of the Vietnam War with Fredrik Logevall , author of Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . EI Talks... is produced by Alastair Benn . The sound engineer is Gareth Jones. Image: Photograph of American troops running...

The arc of history only bends towards justice when people of goodwill grab hold of it and wrench it in the direction of justice. Read by Helen Lloyd. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . Image: The Freedom is Our Religion banner in Maidan Square, Kyiv. Credit: Ali Kerem Yucel / Alamy Stock Photo

His intense faith led Thomas Gage to switch his religious allegiance during the tumultuous 17th century - he went on to have an enormous impact on Britain's colonial future. Read by Sebastian Brown. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . Image: Title Page from Thomas Gage's The English-American his travail by sea and land: or, A new surve...

Myths frame and tailor the past in a way that can ground and stabilise a community, however large or small. By situating them within the fabric of history, myths provide a sense of tradition and belonging to rally around. Read by Helen Lloyd. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . Image: A statue of Romulus and Remus on the Capitoline Hil...

EI's Alastair Benn discusses how technology is transforming the world of sport with Daisy Christodoulou , education expert and author of I Can't Stop Thinking About VAR , an eloquent examination of the use of the video assistant referee (VAR) system in football. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and...