Intelligence Squared

Is Iran an enemy to be confronted or a potential ally to engage with? In this week's podcast we debate 'Iran is not our enemy' with Mehdi Hasan, Azadeh Moaveni, Daniel Hannan and Salman Al-Ansari. The debate was chaired by the BBC's Lyse Doucet. ------------------------------ Intelligence Squared+. The world's best speakers. Your questions. £4.99 per month. Intelligence Squared+ will bring you liv...

In this week's episode writer and lawyer Antony Dapiran joins us from Hong Kong to discuss the protests and turmoil that have engulfed the city since the summer of 2019. He spoke to political economist Shirley Yu. Together they discussed the history of dissent in the city and the future of China's "One Country, Two Systems" as a new security law threatens Hong Kong's autonomy. To find out more and...

A great reckoning is taking place in the wake of the brutal killing of George Floyd and the protests that followed his death. Companies and organisations are looking afresh at how they can do a better job of combatting institutional bias and racism. Employees are increasingly speaking out about their experiences and calling for change. In this special event recorded on Thursday June 25 2020, Intel...

Amidst the current global conversation around police brutality in the United States and the experience of black people the world over, this week we speak to Layla Saad to investigate the role each of us has to play in dismantling white supremacy. Layla Saad spoke to author, academic and broadcaster Emma Dabiri about her book Me and White Supremacy to discuss her experience as both a black woman an...

In the wake of sweeping protests about racism and police brutality, this week we speak to Dr Pragya Agarwal to unravel the way our implicit or 'unintentional' biases affect the way we communicate and perceive the world. Dr Agarwal spoke to author and BBC broadcaster Kavita Puri about her new book 'Sway' and to answer questions like: is prejudice rooted in our evolutionary past? How has bias affect...

Why does Donald Trump have such a good relationship with white evangelical christians despite his questionable conservative credentials? In this week's episode Sarah Posner, author of 'Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump' speaks to Washington Post columnist and host of the 'Power Corrupts' podcast Brian Klaas to discuss. To find out more about the book click here: h...

Following the death of George Floyd, global Black Lives Matter protests, and debates raging over statues from Colston to Churchill, Intelligence Squared hosted an online discussion with historian David Olusoga, Labour MP Dawn Butler, and philosopher Susan Neiman who is author of 'Learning from the Germans: Confronting Race and the Memory of Evil'. The conversation was chaired by broadcaster Yassmi...

If we live to 100, will we ever really stop working? And how will an aging society change the way we love, manage and learn from others? In this week's episode Andrew J Scott and Lynda Gratton speak to Tom Whipple about their book 'The New Long Life: A Framework for Flourishing in a Changing World' and how we can navigate the challenges ahead. Find out more about the book here: https://amzn.to/3ha...

In his 2019 book Winners Take All, Anand Giridharadas launched a searing attack on the global elites. Now he turns his thoughts to the post-pandemic world. Is the crisis an opportunity to create a more egalitarian society? How can the powerful be prevented from exploiting the situation to further entrench their advantages? And could this moment be an opportunity to reinvent the relationship betwee...

Are the middle classes really dying off? Will robots really take our jobs? Contrary to common belief Adam Davidson argues the twenty-first-century economic paradigm offers new ways of making money, fresh paths toward professional fulfillment, and unprecedented opportunities for curious, ambitious individuals to combine the things they love with their careers. His new book  'The Passion Economy: Th...

In this week's episode former Surgeon General of the United States, Dr Vivek Murthy speaks to Ros Urwin about how he discovered first hand how loneliness lies behind some of our greatest personal and societal challenges, from anxiety and depression to addiction and violence. To find out more and buy Dr Murthy's new book 'Together: Loneliness, Health and What Happens When We Find Connection' click...

Why do so many of us no longer trust experts, facts and statistics? Why has politics become so fractious and warlike? And how can the history of ideas help us understand our present? In this episode Professor Will Davies, author of Nervous States: How Feeling Took Over The World speaks to Carl Miller about the long history of how societies based on facts and reason were built and why they are now...

In this week's episode Robert H. Frank, author of 'Under the Influence: Putting Peer Pressure to Work' speaks to Linda Yueh about how our social environments influence our behaviour more than we think. They discuss why behaviours from smoking to cheating are largely products of social environments and how we can use this understanding to direct human behaviour toward choices we make for the benefi...

In this week's episode award-winning journalist Rachel Louise Snyder speaks to Helen Lewis about some common misconceptions about domestic violence: that it happens to an unlucky few; that it's a matter of poor choices; that if things are dire enough, victims will leave. Her perception changed when she began talking to the victims and perpetrators whose stories she tells in this episode and her bo...

In this episode, leading soldier-scholar David Kilcullen speaks to Carl Miller about how the West’s opponents have learned from twenty-first-century conflict and explains how their cutting-edge tactics and adaptability pose a serious threat to America and its allies, disabling the West’s military advantage. Click here to find out more about David's book 'The Dragons and The Snakes': https://bit.ly...

Intelligence Squared+. The world's best speakers. Your questions. £4.99 per month. Intelligence Squared+ will bring you live, interactive events every week on our new online platform. Just like at our real-life events, you’ll be able to put your questions to our speakers, vote in live polls and interact with other members of the audience. Your subscription will give you access to multiple events f...

Intelligence Squared+. The world's best speakers. Your questions. £4.99 per month. Intelligence Squared+ will bring you live, interactive events every week on our new online platform. Just like at our real-life events, you’ll be able to put your questions to our speakers, vote in live polls and interact with other members of the audience. Your subscription will give you access to multiple events f...

Intelligence Squared+. The world's best speakers. Your questions. £4.99 per month. Intelligence Squared+ will bring you live, interactive events every week on our new online platform. Just like at our real-life events, you’ll be able to put your questions to our speakers, vote in live polls and interact with other members of the audience. Your subscription will give you access to multiple events f...

Intelligence Squared+. The world's best speakers. Your questions. £4.99 per month. Intelligence Squared+ will bring you live, interactive events every week on our new online platform. Just like at our real-life events, you’ll be able to put your questions to our speakers, vote in live polls and interact with other members of the audience. Your subscription will give you access to multiple events f...

Ultras are football fans like no others. A hugely visible and controversial part of the sporting game. This movement of extreme fandom and politics is also one of the largest youth movements in the world. In this episode, James Montague, author of '1312: Among the Ultras: A journey with the world's most extreme fans' speaks to Ros Urwin about how the movement began and how it grew to become a glob...

Feeling confused by all the data and metrics about coronavirus that are flying around? In this episode, Britain’s most eminent statistician David Spiegelhalter, biometrics expert Sheila Bird, and the American scientist John Ioannidis, who has written that Covid-19 ‘might be a one-in-a-century evidence fiasco’. The conversation is chaired by Anne McElvoy of The Economist.  Support this show http://...

Why are self-confident ignoramuses so often believed? Why are thoughtful experts so often given the cold shoulder? And why do apparently irrelevant details such as a person’s height, their relative wealth, or their Facebook photo influence whether or not we trust what they are saying? In this episode we are joined by Stephen Martin and Joseph Marks, behavioural scientists and authors of Messengers...

What will the long-term economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic be? For the fourth in a new series of interactive events from Intelligence Squared - Coronavirus: Your Questions Answered - we brought together a panel of leading experts in a free live online event to examine how Covid-19 will affect the economy around the world. How deep and long-lasting is the upcoming recession likely to be? W...

Hype has a dark side. It can mislead, distract and blinker us from seeing what is actually going on. In this episode we are joined by Gemma Milne, tech journalist and author of Smoke and Mirrors: How Hype Obscures the Future and How to See Past It, in conversation with Carl Miller of the think tank Demos.  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared. See acast.com/privacy for...

The coronavirus pandemic threatens to remake the world's political systems. But how exactly? In the third in a new series of interactive events from Intelligence Squared - Coronavirus: Your Questions Answered - we brought together a panel of leading commentators in a free live online event to examine how the crisis will affect politics around the world. Does the pandemic hail the return of big gov...