Intelligence Squared

The genius of Countdown’s dictionary corner Susie Dent is the master of the English language. Lexicographer and etymologist by training, she has spent 30 years on our screens explaining the history and origin of words on one of the world’s longest-running game shows, Channel 4’s Countdown. In November 2024 Dent came to the Intelligence Squared stage to discuss her life-long love affair with the En...

Adolescence is the most dramatic and formative period of our lives. Once puberty kicks in and we move to secondary school, our peers take centre stage, and we begin to experience peer pressure and risk-taking. In these pivotal years, adolescents experience sex, love, bullying, friendship, social media and more. According to psychologist Lucy Foulkes, adolescence profoundly shapes who we become as...

Adolescence is the most dramatic and formative period of our lives. Once puberty kicks in and we move to secondary school, our peers take centre stage, and we begin to experience peer pressure and risk-taking. In these pivotal years, adolescents experience sex, love, bullying, friendship, social media and more. According to psychologist Lucy Foulkes, adolescence profoundly shapes who we become as...

Our guest today is Baroness Lola Young. Lola Young is a member of the House of Lords, as well as an actress, an academic, an activist and campaigner for social justice. In her new memoir, Eight Weeks, Lola tells her remarkable life story from a childhood in foster care, to becoming one of the first Black women in the House of Lords. Through her care records, fragments of memory, and her imaginatio...

Where should you move first in Connect 4? Which property is best in Monopoly? How can pi help you win Rock Paper Scissors? In October 2024 award-winning mathematician Marcus du Sautoy came to the Intelligence Squared stage to explore the maths and strategy behind the games we love and the tactics needed to master them all. Du Sautoy also described the history of games and the crucial role they pla...

Where should you move first in Connect 4? Which property is best in Monopoly? How can pi help you win Rock Paper Scissors? In October 2024 award-winning mathematician Marcus du Sautoy came to the Intelligence Squared stage to explore the maths and strategy behind the games we love and the tactics needed to master them all. Du Sautoy also described the history of games and the crucial role they pla...

To celebrate 2024, we’re taking a look backwards, and diving into the standout thinkers who have taken to the Intelligence Squared stage in the past 12 months. You might still be on the hunt for that perfect gift for the avid reader in your life, or perhaps you’re after some food for thought over the festive period. Either way, this 12 episode mini series will highlight the books that shaped 2024....

To celebrate 2024, we’re taking a look backwards, and diving into the standout thinkers who have taken to the Intelligence Squared stage in the past 12 months. You might still be on the hunt for that perfect gift for the avid reader in your life, or perhaps you’re after some food for thought over the festive period. Either way, this 12 episode mini series will highlight the books that shaped 2024....

To celebrate 2024, we’re taking a look backwards, and diving into the standout thinkers who have taken to the Intelligence Squared stage in the past 12 months. You might still be on the hunt for that perfect gift for the avid reader in your life, or perhaps you’re after some food for thought over the festive period. Either way, this 12 episode mini series will highlight the books that shaped 2024....

To celebrate 2024, we’re taking a look backwards, and diving into the standout thinkers who have taken to the Intelligence Squared stage in the past 12 months. You might still be on the hunt for that perfect gift for the avid reader in your life, or perhaps you’re after some food for thought over the festive period. Either way, this 12 episode mini series will highlight the books that shaped 2024....

To celebrate 2024, we’re taking a look backwards, and diving into the standout thinkers who have taken to the Intelligence Squared stage in the past 12 months. You might still be on the hunt for that perfect gift for the avid reader in your life, or perhaps you’re after some food for thought over the festive period. Either way, this 12 episode mini series will highlight the books that shaped 2024....

To celebrate 2024, we’re taking a look backwards, and diving into the standout thinkers who have taken to the Intelligence Squared stage in the past 12 months. You might still be on the hunt for that perfect gift for the avid reader in your life, or perhaps you’re after some food for thought over the festive period. Either way, this 12 episode mini series will highlight the books that shaped 2024....

To celebrate 2024, we’re taking a look backwards, and diving into the standout thinkers who have taken to the Intelligence Squared stage in the past 12 months. You might still be on the hunt for that perfect gift for the avid reader in your life, or perhaps you’re after some food for thought over the festive period. Either way, this 12 episode mini series will highlight the books that shaped 2024....

To celebrate 2024, we’re taking a look backwards, and diving into the standout thinkers who have taken to the Intelligence Squared stage in the past 12 months. You might still be on the hunt for that perfect gift for the avid reader in your life, or perhaps you’re after some food for thought over the festive period. Either way, this 12 episode mini series will highlight the books that shaped 2024....

To celebrate 2024, we’re taking a look backwards, and diving into the standout thinkers who have taken to the Intelligence Squared stage in the past 12 months. You might still be on the hunt for that perfect gift for the avid reader in your life, or perhaps you’re after some food for thought over the festive period. Either way, this 12 episode mini series will highlight the books that shaped 2024....

To celebrate 2024, we’re taking a look backwards, and diving into the standout thinkers who have taken to the Intelligence Squared stage in the past 12 months. You might still be on the hunt for that perfect gift for the avid reader in your life, or perhaps you’re after some food for thought over the festive period. Either way, this 12 episode mini series will highlight the books that shaped 2024....

To celebrate 2024, we’re taking a look backwards, and diving into the standout thinkers who have taken to the Intelligence Squared stage in the past 12 months. You might still be on the hunt for that perfect gift for the avid reader in your life, or perhaps you’re after some food for thought over the festive period. Either way, this 12 episode mini series will highlight the books that shaped 2024....

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 t...

This event was supported by Guinness Global Investors. For the final instalment of the Intelligence Squared Economic Outlook series for 2024, Financial Times columnist Tim Harford joined us to interrogate what the numbers are really telling us about the economy – and what those numbers tell us about what lies ahead. As the FT’s Undercover Economist, Harford demonstrates a remarkable ability to exp...

This event was supported by Guinness Global Investors. For the final instalment of the Intelligence Squared Economic Outlook series for 2024, Financial Times columnist Tim Harford joined us to interrogate what the numbers are really telling us about the economy – and what those numbers tell us about what lies ahead. As the FT’s Undercover Economist, Harford demonstrates a remarkable ability to exp...

David Baddiel has been on our screens for over 35 years. The creator of The Mary Whitehouse Experience and one half of Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned, he spent his early career in the world of television comedy. More recently, he has become a leading voice on Jewishness and antisemitism in the U.K after releasing his award-winning documentary and book Jews Don’t Count. In October 2024 he came to th...

David Baddiel has been on our screens for over 35 years. The creator of The Mary Whitehouse Experience and one half of Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned, he spent his early career in the world of television comedy. More recently, he has become a leading voice on Jewishness and antisemitism in the U.K after releasing his award-winning documentary and book Jews Don’t Count. In October 2024 he came to th...

We’re living in a time of upheaval. The war in the Middle East is intensifying. Russia is making gains in Ukraine. America faces an election of unparalleled importance. Climate change and AI appear on the brink of changing our world forever. How are we to make sense of the world today? Study its past, argues acclaimed historian Peter Frankopan, who returned to the Intelligence Squared stage in Nov...

We’re living in a time of upheaval. The war in the Middle East is intensifying. Russia is making gains in Ukraine. America faces an election of unparalleled importance. Climate change and AI appear on the brink of changing our world forever. How are we to make sense of the world today? Study its past, argues acclaimed historian Peter Frankopan, who returned to the Intelligence Squared stage in Nov...

Decades ago, I escaped the Islamic world and came to the West. Many don’t know how good the West is, or how fragile. I fight for the restoration of what made the West great.’ – Ayaan Hirsi Ali Ever since writer and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali publicly disavowed Islam, controversy has followed her every step. For many years the Somali-born former Muslim was a fierce critic of religion – particularly I...