Intelligence Squared

Jane Austen created the definitive picture of Georgian England. No writer matches Austen’s sensitive ear for the hypocrisy and irony lurking beneath the genteel conversation. That’s the argument of the Janeites, but to the aficionados of Emily Brontë they are the misguided worshippers of a circumscribed mind. In Wuthering Heights, Brontë dispensed with Austen’s niceties and the upper-middle class...

Gloria Estefan is one of the most successful female singers ever. With more than 120 million records sold worldwide, three Grammy Awards, and a career spanning four decades, she has helped make Latin-flavoured pop music an international success. Estefan is also the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Honor and has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. From fleeing Cuba as a young child wh...

Though no laughing matter, the extremes of the Donald Trump presidency made comedians' jobs a little trickier: was the reality more absurd than satire created around it? In 2020 we invited celebrated comedy writer and producer Armando Iannucci, Labour MP Jess Phillips, and satirist and impressionist Jan Ravens, to discuss the issue. The event was chaired by journalist Samira Ahmed. Learn more abou...

Michael Lewis is one of the most successful non-fiction authors alive. In a series of titles that have sold 9 million copies worldwide, he has lifted the lid on the biggest business stories of our times, enthralling readers with his knack for humanising complex subjects and giving them the page-turning urgency of the best thrillers. Liar’s Poker is the cult classic that defined Wall Street during...

Nearly four centuries after his death, no writer has matched William Shakespeare’s influence across drama, theatre and poetry but a few have come close. John Milton, say his fans, works on an altogether different, higher plane. In Paradise Lost – one of the most significant poems ever written in English – Milton moved beyond the literary to address political, philosophical and religious questions...

Samira Ahmed speaks to the chef Yotam Ottolenghi about his life and career, from discovering his love of food in Jerusalem to his professional partnership with Palestinian chef Sami Tamimi, plus how he creates his well-loved cookbooks such as Simple and Flavour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We hear from a panel of historians, authors and broadcasters – Hallie Rubenhold, Natalie Livingstone, Dan Jones and chair Saul David – about how women's stories and female historians have been marginalised throughout history. The conversation, recorded at The Cliveden Literary Festival, also discusses how historians today can help redress the imbalance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podc...

Satya Nadella is one of the world’s most inspirational business leaders; as much a humanist as a technologist and executive. In September 2017, he came to the Intelligence Squared stage to discuss his personal journey from a childhood in India to becoming Chairman and CEO of Microsoft Corporation with journalist and author Kamal Ahmed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adc...

We compare the works of two of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age: Rembrandt and Vermeer. Making the case for Rembrandt van Rijn in this debate was historian, author and broadcaster Simon Schama. For Schama, Rembrandt's works are raw humanity personified with formal beauty being the least of the painter's concerns. Novelist Tracy Chevalier, however, champions Johannes Vermeer. She claim...

Peter Frankopan is Professor of Global History at Oxford University and author of two seminal recent books on the shifting geopolitics of the world: The Silk Roads and its follow-up, The New Silk Roads. He speaks to fellow historian and writer Simon Sebag Montefiore at the Cliveden Literary Festival about how we may be currently witnessing the end of a historical era amid the emergence of a brand...

Samira Ahmed speaks to the author Fatima Bhutto about the power of writing fiction, growing up in one of Pakistan’s most famous political dynasties and why she blames her aunt, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, for the death of her father. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Former governor of the Bank of England Lord King, global economist Dr Dambisa Moyo and businessman Ian Livingstone join Senior Editor at the Economist Anne McElvoy to map out a road to economic recovery after the pandemic. Following UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's warning of a new 'tidal wave' of Covid-19 cases in the coming weeks in the UK and beyond, we returned to this discussion from the Cli...

This week, we’re going back to 2017, with our debate "It's time to bring Russia in from the cold: Rapprochement is in the West's best interests". For this major event, Intelligence Squared put together a stellar line-up. Making the case for rapprochement with Russia was Vladimir Pozner, one of Russia’s best known television journalists and a former advocate for the Soviet Union, and Domitilla Sagr...

Journalist and author Janine di Giovanni's over the past 30 years has seen her report from the frontlines of some of the most complex and turbulent stories of our times, including the siege of Sarajevo and both the Srebrenica and Rwandan genocides. Her new book, The Vanishing, focuses on the plight of Christians in the Middle East, who have suffered persecution and in countries ranging from Iraq t...

The subject of genetic inheritance provokes passionate debate but behavioural geneticist Kathryn Paige Harden believes both sides are getting it wrong. It’s possible, she argues, to reclaim the science of genetics while avoiding the trap of categorising traits as superior or inferior. Drawing from her new book, The Genetic Lottery, Harden shares her research uncovered as head of the Developmental...

Andrew Chen is a specialist in growing tech businesses and for his new book, The Cold Start Problem, he has spoken to the founders of companies such as LinkedIn, Zoom, Uber, Dropbox, Tinder and Airbnb, to learn how startups can maximise their potential. Andrew has spent a career working with tech companies and tech investors, plus he's also a prolific writer with both a popular blog and newsletter...

Autonomy, dignity and compassion. We wish to experience these things in our lives, so why shouldn’t we experience them in our deaths? That’s the argument made by those who support a change in the law to legalise assisted dying in the UK. People who are suffering intractably, they claim, but who are too ill to self-administer life-ending medication should have the right to be helped to end their li...

It’s been almost 50 years since Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel laureate for literature, last published a novel. Chronicles From the Land of the Happiest People on Earth is, his fellow writers agree, worth the wait. He joins Dr Louisa Egbunike
, Associate Professor in African Literature at Durham University, to discuss its his latest work: a satire and a whodunit mystery encompa...

Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP party came to power in 2014, India has seen an increase in Hindu nationalism and a rise in hostility towards the Muslim minority population. Politician and writer Shashi Tharoor believes the country is at a crossroads. His recently published book, The Struggle for India’s Soul, looks at the political direction of the world’s second most populous natio...

Kate Bingham is the former Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce and she's also a shrewd business mind, having been a successful venture capitalist in sectors such as biotech for the past 30 years. She recently spoke with Jessica Pulay at the Cliveden Literary Festival to discuss how business acumen played its part in managing a team of experts from sectors such as science, medicine, industry and acad...

What now for the world? Governments have reached a climate deal which gets us closer to holding temperatures rises to 1.5C. But a last-ditch effort from India and China to water down pledges to phase out coal has led some to consider COP26 a failure. Yes, COP26 could have achieved more but is this agreement one that could potentially be seen as a strong foundation on which the world can build for...

Huma Abedin was Hillary Clinton’s most trusted aide and adviser for many years. Her recently published book, Both/And, reveals the details of that relationship as well as reflecting on the very public breakdown of her marriage to disgraced former congressman and convicted sex offender Anthony Weiner. She speaks to journalist Razia Iqbal about her life in politics and why she believes that during t...

We go to movies that make us cry, scream or gag we poke at sores, eat spicy foods and run marathons. Some of us even seek out discomfort and humiliation for sexual gratification. Most of these activities are painful yet many of us find pleasure within them and Professor Paul Bloom of Yale University's recent book, The Sweet Spot, seeks to suss out why. Bloom joins writer and broadcaster Linda Yueh...

Today's episode comes from the How To Lead a Sustainable Business podcast, brought to you by Selfridges Group and Intelligence Squared. In the podcast, Alannah Weston, Chairman of Selfridges Group, speaks to inspiring leaders at the forefront of sustainability and business to find out what it takes to lead change and how businesses can put sustainability at their core. In this COP26 Special, Alann...

This episode is part of our Energised series made in partnership with Iberdrola. To hear more search Energised, wherever you get your podcasts. Transport emissions account for almost a third of global carbon dioxide emissions – and while other sectors such as the energy industry have reduced their emissions over the past three decades, transport emissions are growing. It is the EU’s second most po...