The EI Podcast

The West must have an adaptable power grid to meet the challenges of this geopolitical energy crisis.  In this episode of Worldview, Adam Boulton is joined by Margarita Balmaceda, Magnus Henrekson, Olamide Oguntoye and Ariana Kiran Singh to discuss generating and transmitting power in the face of growing geopolitical and environmental concerns.  Image description: Electricity pylon. Credit: David...

The crucifixion lodged suffering at the heart of Christianity: to suffer was to be like Christ. This reframing of suffering had far-reaching consequences for world history. Read by Leighton Pugh.  Image:  Jesus Christ on the Cross with St. Mary and St John, painted by Albrecht Altdorfer, circa 1512. Credit: Niday Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo.

There are currently around 13,000 nuclear warheads worldwide, with Russia possessing the largest nuclear arsenal.  And yet, nuclear weapons have not been deployed in combat since the US bombed Nagasaki and Hiroshima seventy-seven years ago.  So, how and why has the nuclear taboo remained intact and what may jeopardise it in the future?  In this episode of Worldview, Adam Boulton is joined by Profe...

With forces such as identity politics and supra-national bodies gaining traction across Europe, the concept of the nation state has never been more important. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image:  A painting of the Dutch envoy Adriaan Pauw entering Münster around 1646 for the peace negotiations, painted by Gerard ter Borch. Credit: Wikipedia Commons/Stadtmuseum Münster

When the pioneers of computer engineering created the first integrated circuits in the 1950s they could not have envisaged how this technology would infiltrate all elements of our daily lives. The production of microchips is now rapidly becoming the defining force in geopolitics and will play a fundamental role in the conflicts of the future.  In this episode of Worldview, Adam Boulton is joined b...

Geography and politics are closely intertwined, although that no more means that all geography is political than that all politics is geographical. Read by Leighton Pugh.  Image: An American map of the West Coast of Africa from Sierra Leone to Cape Palmas, 'including the colony of Liberia'. Credit: Everett Collection Historical / Alamy Stock Photo

The Romans burnt Carthage’s books and buildings – but ‘Punic’ identity remained influential throughout Antiquity. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Print of ancient Carthage. Source: Wiki Creative Commons

The era in world history that began with the fall of the Soviet Union is drawing to its close. The post-Cold War Eurasian settlement that the United States and its allies imposed after 1990 has three big challengers - Russia, China and Iran. Read by Leighton Pugh.  Image:  A symbol of American power, the National Capitol in Washington, DC. Credit: Christian Offenberg / Alamy Stock Photo.

The West, more specifically the United States, with its major allies alongside it, has been chasing the 'fun wars' for forty years and serially coming up empty. Read by Leighton Pugh.  Image:  British Prime Minister Tony Blair greets an ethnic Albanian by holding up his hand in central Pristina, Yugoslavia during a one-day visit Saturday July 31, 1999. It was Blair's first visit to Kosovo since NA...

The First World War fundamentally altered our understanding of strategy — we should heed the insights of the era's leading thinkers and generals. Read by Leighton Pugh.  Image:  First World War Commanders looking at a battle plan. Painting by Francois Flameng (1856-1923), 1916. Army Museum, Paris. Credit: Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images

Crises of knowledge precipitate drives towards specialisation. In our digital age we still need polymaths. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: This chart is taken from the book 'Ars Magna Lucis Et Umbrae' which was published in 1646 by the Jesuit scientist and inventor, Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680). Credit: SSPL/Getty Images

The worst form of ignorance in politics is an inflated opinion of one’s own wisdom. In matters of moral judgement, authority-dependence carries grave risks. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image:  French painter David's The Death of Socrates. Credit: Universal History Archive/Getty Images

Political and economic concerns were as critical as environmental and geographic factors in forging the unity of the Mongol Empire. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image:  Genghis Khan in combat. Miniature from Jami' al-tawarikh, ca 1430. Found in the collection of Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Artist. Credit: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

Land is the silent, steady, partner in the messy realm of politics and national divides between monarchs. Read by Leighton Pugh. You can find the essay featured in this episode here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/spirit-lands-and-tyrant-kings-differing-tales-of-statehood/

As hostilities with Russia increase, we must again ask ourselves what drives human beings to conflict, especially after an era of peace. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: Eddie Gerald / Alamy Stock Photo

While the Islamic State’s savvy media presence may have overshadowed that of al-Qaeda over the past decade, the efforts of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) operating in war-torn Yemen show the group remains a long-term threat. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-war-for-hearts-and-minds-the-evolution-of-al-qaedas-media-strategy/ Credit: REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo

During the Cold War, the British Joint Intelligence Committee was charged with forecasting the actions of states behind the Iron Curtain and the rest of the world. Its record was patchy – the Brits were repeatedly taken by surprise throughout the 20th century. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-joint-intelligence-committee-reading-the-russian-mindset/ Credit: The Central...

Demagogues thrive if moderate politicians flatter citizens into an unrealistic sense of their own greatness. Read by Leighton Pugh.   https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/democratic-crisis-lessons-from-ancient-athens-4/ Credit: The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

It is not just politics that is beset by tribalism. The social sciences are also vulnerable to in-group bias. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/tribal-bias-from-the-wild-to-the-laboratory-5/ Credit: melita / Alamy Stock Photo

Love has become widely seen as a democracy of salvation open to all. The reality is more complex. Is our religion of love doing more harm than good? Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/is-our-religion-of-love-doing-more-harm-than-good/ Credit: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

While there may have been striking similarities between the Gospel of Thomas and those of the four Evangelists, closer examination reveals a subtle yet crucially different perspective on salvation. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-gospel-of-thomas-casting-a-new-light-on-early-christianity/ Credit: REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo

In this episode of Worldview, Adam Boulton is joined by Professor Helen Thompson, Tim Marshall and Daniel Yergin to discuss the global energy market.  The fallout of Putin's invasion of Ukraine has overthrown energy norms in Europe. However, over the past decade the energy market has been far from stable. With concerns surrounding climate change and the discovery of new resources, we are on the br...

Humanity has come quite some way in the past 200,000 years but are we really anything more than primates with a few million more neurons than our closest relatives? Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/why-16-billion-cortical-neurons-are-not-enough/ Credit: Martin Harvey via Getty Images

What's a war without its leaders? In this week's Worldview, Adam Boulton speaks to leading historians Margaret MacMillan and Andrew Roberts on how leadership shapes both conflicts and their resolutions. Image description: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, stands for a moment of silence during a ceremony to award medals to service members to celebrate the Day of Defenders of Ukraine in the c...

France, like all countries, is haunted by events and mistakes of times past. These ghosts will guide modern policy until they are overridden and laid to rest. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/modern-france-and-the-ghosts-of-the-past/ Credit: Guillaume Louyot / Alamy Stock Photo protests