The EI Podcast

Having witnessed first-hand the mechanised onslaught of the Great War, Captain Basil Liddell Hart sought a philosophy of warfare based on the prudent use of technology, psychology and deception – and the avoidance of the 'total war' catastrophes of preceding decades. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: A picture of Basil Henry Liddell Hart studying a tactical situation in 1947. Credit: Popperfoto via...

The US must adopt a grand strategy of democratic expansion. Only then can global security be established. Read by Helen Lloyd. Image: American Second World War-era poster. Credit: Mouseion Archives / Alamy Stock Photo

EI's Alastair Benn speaks to Rachel Cockerell , author of Melting Point: Family, Memory and the Search for a Promised Land , a history of the quest for a Jewish homeland at the turn of the 19th century and beyond, weaving memoir, documentary, and literature. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alas...

The tumultuous relationship between Red China and the Soviet Union hints at an uncertain future for the Sino-Russian partnership. Read by Helen Lloyd. Image: Sino-Soviet propaganda poster. Credit: Album / Alamy Stock Photo

Socialite and literary pioneer - Anna de Noailles was a bright star in the firmament of the Parisian Belle Époque. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: De László's portrait of Anna de Noailles. Credit: Svintage Archive / Alamy Stock Photo 

Stagnation at home and turmoil abroad demand a radical rethink of how – and why – Britain forges its future leaders. Read by Helen Lloyd. Image: The Treasury building in Whitehall, London. Credit: mauritius images GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

EI's Alastair Benn sits down with Orlando Gibbs to discuss what the Romans found funny, what we might find not so funny about ancient humour, and whether there is something universal about the comedic genre. READING LIST No Laughing Matter? What the Romans Found Funny | Antigone Plautus punching up: a different class of comedy | Engelsberg Ideas Mary Beard, Laughter in Ancient Rome: On Joking, Tic...

Few ancient monarchs have enjoyed such a consistent positive reputation as Cyrus the Great. Perhaps it’s time to become reacquainted. Read by Helen Lloyd. Image: The Tomb of Cyrus, Iran. Photograph taken in 1898. Credit: Penta Springs Limited / Alamy Stock Photo 

Andrew Wilton profiles Amanda McKittrick Ros , a late Victorian novelist admired in her day but now largely forgotten. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: A typical late Victorian scene. Credit: Dave Rheaume / Alamy Stock Photo 

Catherine II’s inoculation against smallpox was an extraordinary act of political self-creation. Read by Helen Lloyd. Image: A portrait of Catherine the Great (1729-1796) by Alexey Antropov. Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

Neil D. Lawrence , inaugural DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Cambridge and author of The Atomic Human: Understanding Ourselves in the Age of AI , joins the EI team to challenge received wisdom on our AI future. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn . The soun...

If we want to understand the ‘meaning’ of The Prince, we should start with Machiavelli himself. Read by Helen Lloyd. Image: A statue of Niccolo Machiavelli in Florence, Italy. Credit: Goran Bogicevic / Alamy Stock Photo

Rana Mitter profiles Tsiang Tingfu , the American-educated diplomat and historian, who sought Chinese national revival on cosmopolitan lines. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: Tsiang Tingfu raises his arm to veto a proposal introduced by the Soviet Union to the UN. Credit: SuperStock / Alamy Stock Photo 

Nuclear weapons are likely to be around for a long time to come – and the predicaments they create for world leaders are unlikely to be easily solved. Read by Helen Lloyd. Image: President John F. Kennedy with Robert McNamara during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Credit: RBM Vintage Images / Alamy Stock Photo 

Marie Kawthar Daouda , author and a lecturer in French language and literature at the University of Oxford, joins EI's Alastair Benn to discuss how Belle Époque-era Paris continues to fascinate, with its burgeoning commercial culture, everyday beauty and glittering department stores. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit . EI Talks... is p...

A world of machine art would be an eerie one. Art connects us to one another. We cannot, and we should not, replace that connection with an uncanny simulacrum of it. Read by Helen Lloyd. Image: The Tribuna of the Uffizi by John Zoffany. Credit: PAINTING / Alamy Stock Photo 

Lawrence Freedman profiles the Fortune journalist and best-selling author who played a key role in shaping mid-20th century perceptions of strategy and the role of the corporation. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: From left to right: Dorothy McDonald (wife of John, née Eisner), Leon Trotsky and John McDonald in Coyoacan, Mexico, in the 1930s. McDonald was recruited to help defend Trotsky from charg...

The historian and broadcaster Alice Loxton joins the EI team to discuss her forthcoming book, Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives , and her fight to bring serious history to a wider public. Image: A jigsaw puzzle from the early nineteenth century, bearing representations of the Kings and Queens of England from William I to George IV. Credit: Chronicle / Alamy Stock Photo 

East Germany’s quest to catch up with the technological innovations of the West prompted some remarkable successes, but also expanded the oppression of its mass surveillance apparatus. Read by Helen Lloyd. Image: The Trabant car being manufactured at the East German Sachsenring car plant. Credit: Classic Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo 

EI's Alastair Benn sits down with Ian Leslie , author of Conflicted: Why Arguments Are Tearing Us Apart and How They Can Bring Us Together , to discuss how the counterculture went mainstream. Image: An advert on the Nike store at Oxford Circus. Credit: Matthew Chattle / Alamy Stock Photo 

An often-overlooked fact about the current Russo-Ukrainian War is that over the centuries Russia has waged several wars to try to conquer Crimea and the Donbas area. Read by Helen Lloyd. Image: Ukrania quae et Terra Cosaccorum cum vicinis Walachiae, Moldoviae, by Johann Baptiste Homann (1664–1724), 1720. Credit: history_docu_photo / Alamy Stock Photo 

Catherine Ostler profiles Maria Antonia , Electress of Saxony, an artistic polymath who helped re-shape elite culture in the Enlightenment age. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: An 18th-century portrait of Maria Antonia of Bavaria, Electress of Saxony, by Peter Jacob Horemans. Credit: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo 

EI's Angus Reilly discusses how Ronald Reagan put economic openness at the heart of the battle for ideas against Soviet Communism with William Inboden, author of The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink. Image: Ronald Reagan at the Durenberger Republican convention Rally, 1982. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo 

The sense of being overwhelmed and constantly distracted is nothing new. Historians and policymakers should look to the 17th century for guidance on how to grapple with information overload. Read by Helen Lloyd. Image: Rembrandt's 'Portrait of a Scholar', 1631. Credit: PRISMA ARCHIVO / Alamy Stock Photo

EI's Alastair Benn discusses the condition of Classical music today with Richard Bratby , chief Classical music critic of The Spectator. Image: Music scores. Credit: Tim Gainey / Alamy Stock Photo