Intelligence Squared

What is it like to treat some of the most troubled men and women in society? Dr Ben Cave is a forensic psychiatrist whose 35-year career has been spent helping those with mental health conditions ranging from delusional disorders to schizophrenia, steroid abuse, drug dependency, depression and more. His new book, What We Fear Most, explores what can be learnt from these often misunderstood illness...

In a special programme following the resignation of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister of the UK, we hear from columnist, author and former foreign correspondent Jonathan Freedland, and journalist, author and former editor of The Evening Standard and The Times Simon Jenkins, about where the country is headed next. Our host for the discussion is award-winning journalist and broadcaster Manveen Rana. L...

Dr Ruja Ignatova, an Oxford-educated, self-styled cryptocurrency guru, promised her followers a financial revolution through her project: OneCoin. Then, in October 2017, she disappeared. But not before she had duped investors around the world, some of whom are the poorest people in society, into buying up more than $4 billion-worth of OneCoin. Ignatova has been in hiding ever since and was recentl...

Language is expressive, a way of opening doors or a tool for creating new dialogue. But a tool so powerful can also take us to unforeseen or unintended places. It can create narratives that become fixed, unhelpful, or exclusionary. Kübra Gümüsay is a writer and activist focusing on social justice and public discourse. Her new book is Speaking and Being, which looks at the power of words, asking wh...

In today's world, we're often encouraged to think that sex is no longer a subject burdened with shame or repressed feelings. Rather, it is pleasurable, exciting and even empowering – as long as all parties are consenting. But do women really have the same sexual freedom as men, or are they still living in a man's world, conforming to male heterosexual desires and tastes? How do young women who’ve...

Across Britain, it’s no secret that the people who make up the country's elected government have gone through the same familiar educational pipeline. Eton, Oxford, Westminster. Born into families of privilege, it’s unsurprising that these men, and it is largely men, have risen to the top in a country obsessed with social class. But while it’s clear how they got there, we should ask how does this a...

In recent years China has been accused of committing crimes against humanity and possibly genocide against the Uyghur ethnic group in the northwestern region of Xinjiang province. Nury Turkel was born in a re-education camp in Kashgar, Xinjiang in 1970. In 1995 he had the opportunity to leave China as a student and was never to return to his home and family. Nury has since dedicated his life to fi...

Christopher Blattman is an economist, political scientist and Ramalee E. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies at The University of Chicago. His new book is Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace, which explores why societies turn to violence and how poverty and oppression often go hand in hand with conflict. Chris's work has taken him from studying poverty in Uganda to stree...

The Northern Ireland Protocol – agreed between the United Kingdom and the European Union in 2019 – has been a source of tension since it came into force at the start of 2021. The protocol, which creates a special trading arrangement for goods coming in and out of Northern Ireland (the only part of the UK with a land border with the EU), was supposed to protect the integrity of the EU single market...

Tracing Russia’s vast border, which meets those of 14 other countries, helps tells the history of Russia itself. From its imperial past to Soviet-era expansions and contractions leading up to its current war of aggression in Ukraine today, the Russian border is a landscape of uneasy uncertainty for many of the country's immediate neighbours. Erika Fatland is a Norwegian writer whose work has focus...

Activist, historian and academic Ibram X. Kendi's book, How To Be and Antiracist, won the National Book Award for nonfiction as well as topping bestseller lists in 2020, a year in which the murder by police of George Floyd made the impact of Kendi's words inescapable. He came to Intelligence Squared a few months prior in August 2019 for a wide-ranging discussion on the themes of the book with BBC...

Bisexuality is the world’s largest sexual minority but is potentially the least understood. In her new book, Bi: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexuality, psychological scientist Dr Julia Shaw sets out to answer the questions and eliminate common misconceptions around bisexuality. Discussing the history of the B in LGBTQ+ and the myth of the bi gene, Julia is joined in conversation...

We delve back into the archive to 2018, when we held a debate getting to the heart of nature vs nurture. How much do our parents influence the people that we eventually turn out to be? We were joined by Professor of Behavioural Genetics Robert Plomin, the Developmental Clinical Psychologist Susan Pawlby, therapist, parenting counsellor and broadcaster Ann Pleshette Murphy, and Stuart Ritchie, lect...

Susan Cain shot to fame in 2012 with her international bestseller Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, in which she urged society to cultivate space for the undervalued introverts among us. Now she's back with another book asking us to reassess how we think about self expression: Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole. The book argues that by embracing the...

In an increasingly polarised world, it’s not often we get books saying that difference is our greatest strength. But Farhan Samanani is a Canadian social anthropologist, whose recent book, How to Live with Each Other, does just that. It looks at how communities thrive when embracing their diversity. Farhan’s work and studies have taken him around the world but it’s the local, yet no less global, s...

Whether rapidly advancing artificial intelligence will eventually become a friend or foe to humanity is a pressing question when it comes to technology. But one smart human says there’s an area where we still have the edge: mathematics. In his new book, Mathematical Intelligence: What we have that Machines Don’t, mathematician turned educator Junaid Mubeen argues that the playfulness and explorato...

It was always going to be a disaster. Queues of HGVs stretching miles from Dover. The Good Friday Agreement threatened by the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol and increased support for Scottish Independence. That’s the argument of the doomsayers in this debate. But others claim that while short-term damage is inevitable – there is always blowback from a jilted partner – Brexit is a long-ter...

George Monbiot is a journalist, campaigner and author, who is telling the world that the time for action on the climate crisis is now. His latest book, Regenesis: Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet, looks at how we can lessen the impact of food consumption and farming on the global environment. Our host for this discussion is Alice Thomson, columnist and interviewer for The Times. Lear...

Intelligence Squared podcast is the home of lively debate and deep-dive discussion. Now we’re adding extra depth to our audio content via Apple Podcasts with IQ2 Extra, a premium listening experience that includes ad-free content, exclusive bonus episodes and early access to new podcasts. Hit subscribe via Apple for a 7-day free trial of IQ2 Extra. Our bonus content includes Bright Sparks: quick-f...

In this episode of Intelligence Squared's How to Lead a Sustainable Business with Alannah Weston podcast, Alannah is joined by Leslie Johnston, CEO of the Laudes Foundation, which catalyses systems change in the worlds of fashion, finance and the built environment, towards a new economy that values all people and nature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Does the world have too many people – or not enough? That’s one of the big questions that demographer Paul Morland seeks to answer in his new book, Tomorrow’s People: The Future of Humanity in Ten Numbers. Demography is the study of groups of people and how they behave, drawing from adjacent fields such as anthropology, sociology, history and economics. For this discussion focusing on political de...

A delve into the archive and back to 2019 when we debated a motion asking whether the left’s policies of high immigration and multiculturalism caused the disaffection which has given rise to populism? Or was it the right, with its tabloid scare stories about foreigners eroding national identity? We were joined by Matthew Goodwin, Professor of Politics at Kent University; politician Daniel Hannan;...

Professor Jim Al-Khalili is the physicist who makes science look easy. He’s the author of several books, the latest of which is The Joy of Science, which offers eight core scientific principles that can be applied to everyday life. As a broadcaster Jim is perhaps best known as the voice of BBC Radio 4’s The Life Scientific and he holds the position of Distinguished Chair in physics and University...

Writer and academic Kerry Brown's latest book is Xi: A Study in Power, which profiles the policies and personality behind China's leader for the last decade, Xi Jinping. He’s one of the most powerful people in global geopolitics yet in the West seemingly little is known about him. What are his ambitions for China and the rest of the world? Kerry Brown is Professor of Chinese Studies and Director o...

How do you put a ghost on trial? In Linda Kinstler's deeply personal new book, Come to This Court and Cry, she uncovers the atrocities of her Latvian grandfather's involvement in the Holocaust. In conversation with author, broadcaster and academic, Peter Pomerantsev, she asks how do we account for the brutality of historical events and our personal links to them, as the passage of time means they...