Engelsberg Ideas
The EI Podcast
The EI Podcast brings you weekly conversations and audio essays from leading writers, thinkers and historians. Hosted by Alastair Benn and Paul Lay. Find the EI Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or search The EI Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Author
Engelsberg Ideas
Category
Podcast website
Latest episode
Jul 9, 2026
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Episodes
21: Philip Bobbitt: A government of laws 29.04.2021 14:29
The constitutional order is changing as citizens become alienated and demand more say. Americans must take care that their habits of law are not swept away. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/a-government-of-laws/ Credit: REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo
20: Vanessa Harding: Remembering London's last Great Plague 22.04.2021 21:56
London's response to its last plague epidemic involved close collaboration between crown, City and parish. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/living-with-the-great-plague-of-1665/ Credit: Culture Club / Getty Images
19: Johan Hakelius: John Hughes and the making and unmaking of the American Dream 13.04.2021 14:50
The films of John Hughes updated the American Dream for a new generation, and his complex legacy helps us understand what went so wrong. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/john-hughes-and-the-making-and-unmaking-of-the-american-dream/ Credit: CBS via Getty Images
18: Iskander Rehman: Why applied history matters 08.04.2021 47:57
Forget the seduction of grand theories and presentist moral judgments. To learn the lessons of the past, the great foreign policy analysts of our age must rediscover the art of historical discernment. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-case-for-applied-history/ Credit: BLM Collection / Alamy Stock Photo
16: Gillian Clark: Survival lessons from Ancient Rome 26.03.2021 23:23
The Romans have so much to teach us about what it means to live in a society in crisis. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/survival-lessons-from-ancient-rome/ Credit: Thomas Cole / Public domain
15: Peter Frankopan: This crisis has the capacity to be apocalyptic 19.03.2021 20:34
Covid-19 heralds the end of our interconnected world. We'll need wise leaders to navigate what comes next. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/this-crisis-has-the-capacity-to-be-apocalyptic/ Credit: Getty Images
12: Can America lead again? 22.01.2021 52:46
Iain Martin with guests Sir Nigel Sheinwald, Professor Joseph Nye, Karin von Hippel and Tom McTague on the foreign policy change facing the Biden administration
11: GCHQ – John Ferris on the official history 19.12.2020 38:18
Mattias Hessérus is in conversation with John Ferris, the historian 'behind the enigma' of Britain's signals intelligence agency.
10: MI9 – Helen Fry on wartime escape 15.12.2020 35:47
Mattias Hessérus is in conversation with Helen Fry on the ingenious exploits of MI9 – the secret service for escape and evasion.
9: David Omand on what it takes to think like a secret agent 14.12.2020 44:54
Mattias Hessérus is in conversation with David Omand, former director of GCHQ, on how we can all learn to think like a spy.
8: Fredrik Logevall on JFK 04.12.2020 48:42
Over 40,000 books have been written on JFK since his assassination, yet none have succeeded in getting behind the myth of Camelot. Join Mattias Hessérus in discussion with Fredrik Logevall on the making of the man who enchanted America.
7: Covid and reform: can the West fix its governing systems? 13.11.2020 45:42
Iain Martin with guests Adrian Wooldridge and Vernon Bogdanor discusses the covid crisis and the long-term impact that it might have on the development of the West.
6: Alexander Lee on Machiavelli 28.09.2020 49:38
In this episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hesserus is joined by Alexander Lee to discuss Machiavelli’s life and works. Was he always an adept politician? Was he as immoral as is often claimed?
5: Asian Philosophies of Rebirth with Jessica Frazier 11.09.2020 37:05
In this episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hesserus and Jessica Frazier are in conversation about the differences between Eastern and Western philosophies of crisis. Is the desire for a return to ’normal’ inherently western? What can we learn from narratives of rebirth? And, was the global lockdown a mass-participation yogic experiment?
4: Can the West be revived? 23.07.2020 49:06
How did the West land in, what we might politely call, a 'sub-optimal' condition? And is a revival of the West feasible? To discuss these questions Iain Martin is joined by Peter Frankopan and David Frum. This is an Engeslberg Ideas podcast.
3: Leadership in a Crisis with Andrew Roberts 10.07.2020 26:38
On this episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hessérus is joined by the historian and author Andrew Roberts to look through the careers of great figures like Napoleon Bonaparte, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher (as well as some of history's great villains, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin) and see how they handled the pressure of a crisis. History Lessons is an Engelsberg Ideas podcast. Hosted...
2: The History of Quarantine with Lincoln Paine 01.07.2020 25:44
On this episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hessérus speaks to the maritime historian Lincoln Paine, author of The Sea and Civilization, about the history of quarantine, how pandemics have affected trade and travel in the past, and whether globalisation can survive the current moment. Hosted by Mattias Hessérus. With Lincoln Paine. Produced by Nick Hilton for Podot.
Art, History and Pandemics with Tom Holland 17.06.2020 34:57
On this, the first episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hessérus speaks to the historian Tom Holland about the relationship between reality and art in the age of a pandemic. Hosted by Mattias Hessérus. With Tom Holland. Produced by Nick Hilton for Podot.
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