Intelligence Squared

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...

Between 2007 and 2020, China invested $23 billion into infrastructure for nations across Africa, $8 billion more than the other top eight lenders combined. But in its pursuit of energy security and raw materials the Chinese government and Chinese companies have locked resource-rich African states into loans and contracts which could start to squeeze them hard in ten or so years’ time. Is Chinese i...

How we understand mental health and the level of compassion we show to those suffering from depression and other forms of mental illness define us as a society. In May 2022 acclaimed travel writer Horatio Clare and science journalist Alex Riley came to Intelligence Squared to discuss their personal experiences of mental illness.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Palaeobiologist and bestselling author Thomas Halliday is helping us better understand how the natural world evolved over the past 500 million years. His recent book, Otherlands: A World in the Making, guides the reader through a series of ancient landscapes from the dawn of complex life 500 million years ago to up to the birth of humanity and uses Halliday's immersive storytelling combined with s...

Every second of the day, tiny biological clocks are ticking throughout your body, from the neural pathways of your brain down to your very cells. But modern life is disrupting this ancient and delicate mechanism in ways we are only just beginning to understand. Artificial light, jet lag, smartphones, air pollution and out-of-sync work-and-meal routines are conspiring to push us out of joint. This...

The political Left often purports that it has society’s best interests at heart and that it works for the good of all. Yet according to conservatives, it is precisely that self-regard, that attempt to monopolise virtue, which exposes the hypocrisy of left-wing ideology. In this archive debate from 2018, we gathered Labour MP Stella Creasy, environmental campaigner, journalist and author, George Mo...

Chris Hirst, Global CEO of advertising group Havas Creative, cuts through the bullshit and gets to the heart of modern leadership in this straight-talking podcast brought to you by Intelligence Squared.  In this episode, Christ Hirst speaks to Roula Khalaf, the Editor of the Financial Times. In January 2020, Khalaf became the first female editor in the Financial Times’ 134-year history. Her path t...

Afghan women’s voices are at increasing risk of being silenced and as more of their rights slip away, so do their stories. In this episode we hear from three women from the UNTOLD writers programme, who are the co-creators of My Pen is the Wing of a Bird, a new anthology of Afghan women's fiction. Lucy Hannah is founder of UNTOLD, Zarghuna Kargaar is a journalist, translator and author of Dear Zar...

Author and environmental journalist Eugene Linden's new book, Fire and Flood: A People’s History of Climate Change from 1979 to the Present, lays out how successive US governments managed to delay action on climate change when they should have been raising the alarm. It also looks at why the climate emergency will have a big impact on the global economy and why China and India, which could have ta...

Is it time to abandon the five-day work week? Or is the "five-days on, two days off" cadence of work and rest more important than ever?  This event was organised in partnership with Slack, your digital HQ. Slack connects your teams, tools, customers and partners in a digital place that’s fast, flexible and inclusive for a work-from-anywhere world. From FTSE 100 companies to corner shops, millions...

During an era of identity politics, culture wars and increasing awareness of the structural biases that contribute to global inequality, it’s easy to become pessimistic about the possibility of making diverse democracies work. Yascha Mounk is a writer and political scientist whose recent book, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure, offers analysis of how...

We live in a time of greater uncertainty than ever before in human history. We are poised between the twin precipices of climate change and rapidly accelerating technological development. How we manage them will determine whether our future is one where humans will thrive, falter or something in between. Welcome to the Futureverse – brought to you by Intelligence Squared and Y TREE – a space to ex...

Is the West doing enough to help Ukraine? What kind of endgame should Ukraine be seeking – all-out victory over Russia or a negotiated settlement that will allow both sides to claim they have won? To help answer some of these questions, we invited three prominent Ukrainian voices to get the view from the country. Kira Rudik is the MP who went viral on Instagram when she posted a photo of herself w...