The EI Podcast

The mistake many Western countries make is to take Russia largely at face value. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Nesting Russian dolls showing former leaders. Credit: Mr Standfast / Alamy Stock Photo 

Gillian Clark on Saint Monica , mother to Augustine of Hippo and lionized by the Latin Church, a women of many names and many more mysteries. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: Saint Augustine and his mother, Saint Monica. Credit:: Carlo Bollo / Alamy Stock Photo 

The story of first millennium Europe is one of remarkable economic change and demographic upheaval; a precocious analogue to the modern era of globalisation. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Charlemagne. Credit: The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo  

Daisy Christodoulou punctures the hype around the applications of Large language models (LLMs) and chatbots to the field of learning. Will AI really revolutionise education? Image: Mechanical brain. Credit: Sibani Das / Alamy Stock Vector 

The Greeks invented the notion of the interrelationship of geography and politics; indeed, they elaborated it in myriad ways. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/duality-determinism-and-demography-the-greeks-on-geopolitics/ Image: The Athenian fleet. Credit: INTERFOTO \ Alamy Stock Photo

Jenny McCartney on Comte Lanjuinais , who risked his life by defying the Jacobins. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: Comte Lanjuinais speaks at a febrile meeting of the National Convention, 1793. Credit: Chronicle / Alamy Stock Photo

We equated a brief respite from history with the dawn of a new age. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Fall of the Berlin Wall. Credit: Agencja Fotograficzna Caro / Alamy Stock Photo 

Geoff Andrew , the BFI's programmer-at-large, and film critic Muriel Zagha sit down with EI's Deputy Editor Alastair Benn to discuss the varied, visionary and eccentric creations of the German filmmaker Werner Herzog. Credits: The audio clips at 0:07 and 4:13 are taken from Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer , directed by Thomas von Steinaecker. The film was released on BFI Player and BFI Blu-ray on 1...

Napoleonic geopolitics didn't make much impression on Europe's maps, but its influence was wide-ranging. Read by Leighton Pugh. Napoleonic Europe: how the Emperor built a continent | Michael Broers Image: Napoleon crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David. Credit: GL Archive / Alamy Stock Photo 

Armand D'Angour on Aspasia of Miletus , wife of Pericles and friend to philosophers. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: 19th Century lithograph of Aspasia of Miletus. Credit: GRANGER - Historical Picture Archive / Alamy Stock Photo 

In the 1860s, commentators might have been justified in forecasting 'the end of history' and lauding universal progress. History was to return with a vengeance. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: A lifeboat rescuing passengers from the ship Alarm in the 1860s. Credit: North Wind Picture Archives / Alamy Stock Photo 

Two years on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a solution, military or diplomatic, seems as far away as ever. On Worldview, leading historians and commentators reflect on a conflict that has altered the state of global geopolitics. Jade McGlynn , author of Russia’s War , calls in from Kyiv (00:56). Shashank Joshi , defence editor of the Economist and Hew Strachan , military historian, illuminate...

From the Engelsberg Ideas Archive. States are back and they're out to challenge the international order. Image: Vladimir Putin captured from screen. Credit: Anton Dos Ventos / Alamy Stock Photo 

Llewelyn Morgan, author of Horace: A Very Short Introduction, joins EI's Paul Lay to explore the Augustan poet's vast and complex legacy. Image: Bust of Horace. Credit: Cum Okolo / Alamy Stock Photo 

Al-Qaeda's success in Yemen can in part be explained by the group's adept use of poetry as propaganda. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: An al-Qaeda logo is seen on a street sign in the town of Jaar in southern Abyan province, Yemen. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo 

Alwyn Turner, author of Little Englanders: Britain in the Edwardian Era , speaks to Paul Lay about the early 20th century, an age of anxiety. Image: Street musicians in London in the Edwardian era. Credit: KGPA Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo 

From the Engelsberg Ideas Archive. The organisation that emerged under the name ISIS is not simply a terrorist group. It is a hybrid organisation comprised of a proto-state, a millenarian cult capable of attracting recruits from far beyond its borders, a network of Salafi jihadist groups, an organised criminal ring and an insurgent army led by highly skilled former Baathist military and intelligen...

Ahron Bregman, author of Cursed Victory: A History of Israel and the Occupied Territories , outlines his vision for a lasting peace between Israel, Palestinians and the Arabs. Image: An Israeli flag is seen through a dust cloud near the border with the Gaza strip. Credit: Eddie Gerald / Alamy Stock Photo 

By the time Kennedy and Johnson held the presidency in the 1960s, the definition of US national security had been stretched and expanded in previously unimaginable ways. It was not unusual for Americans to perceive their security frontiers as global – indeed, it was considered natural. But it hadn’t always been thus. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Poster showing the American flag waving among cloud...

Daniela Richterova, Senior Lecturer in Intelligence Studies at the Department for War Studies, King's College London, reflects on the efforts the Soviet Union made to court African states and liberation movements during the Cold War and draws parallels with China and Russia's new scramble for Africa. Image: A monument to Arab-Soviet Friendship at the Aswan dam, Egypt. Credit: Matyas Rehak / Alamy...

Thinking about 'war in our time' and our region is no longer an activity restricted to historians or military planners. Politicians and citizens in the countries bordering the Baltic Sea have been forced to accept that it has become necessary to prepare for an unwelcome guest: war. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: A naval operation staged as part of the Freezing Winds military exercise, led by the Fi...

Alastair Benn is joined by Christopher Harding, cultural historian of Japan and author of The Light of Asia: A History of Western Fascination with the East , to discuss the life and work of celebrated animator Mayazaki Hayao, co-founder of Studio Ghibli, and his latest (and last?) film, The Boy and the Heron, a semi-autobiographical exploration of wartime bereavement, courage and ultimate redempti...

The United States, still the dominant military power in the world, is immersed in a new era of warfare that it has not yet recognised as endemic and enduring. America is losing its wars to less powerful but more adaptable adversaries, while preparing inadequately for future inter-state conflicts. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Posters of slain Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani. C...

In December 1941, the Japanese military attacked Pearl Harbor, making the Second World War a truly global conflict. Paul Lay is joined by Charlie Laderman to discuss a month that shook the world. Image: Three US battleships stricken during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941. Credit: GRANGER - Historical Picture Archive / Alamy Stock Photo 

Political success for the global insurgents can arise not only from a military victory on the ground, but from a military stalemate and even a military defeat. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Mock Houthi-made drones and missiles are set up in a city square in Yemen. Credit: Zuma Press / Alamy Stock Photo