Intelligence Squared
Intelligence Squared is the home of lively debate and deep-dive discussion. Follow Intelligence Squared wherever you get your podcasts and enjoy four regular episodes per week taking you to the heart of the issues that matter in the company of the world’s great minds. We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to podcasts@intelligencesquared.com or Tweet us @intelligence2.
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Salman Rushdie: Touchstones with Razia Iqbal
53 min
702
Business Weekly: Can Crypto Bank the Unbanked?
On Monday September 7th El Salvador became the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender. Businesses in the country will be obliged where possible to accept the digital coins as payment and citizens will be expected to download the government...
50 min
703
Debate: Michael Sandel vs Adrian Wooldridge on ...
Meritocracy has long been an article of faith in the modern Western world. Get an education, work hard and the rewards of success will be yours, regardless of class, privilege or wealth. But recently meritocracy has come under attack, with the charge l...
59 min
704
Negotiating Survival: Civilian Relations with t...
While the Taliban have the power of violence on their side in Afghanistan, they nonetheless need civilians to comply with their authority. Both strategically and by necessity, civilians have leveraged this reliance on their obedience in order to influe...
38 min
705
Business Weekly: No Bullsh*t Leadership with Re...
In this episode Chris Hirst speaks to Laxman Narasimhan, CEO of Reckitt, about his approach to leadership and how to connect with staff in a global company. Reckitt is the global consumer goods giant behind household brands such as Dettol, Durex, Vanis...
44 min
706
Dickens vs Tolstoy: The Battle Of The Great 19t...
34 min
707
How to Lead a Sustainable Business and the Futu...
Today's episode comes from the How To Lead a Sustainable Business, brought to you by Selfridges Group and Intelligence Squared. In the podcast, Alannah Weston, Chairman of Selfridges Group, speaks to inspiring leaders at the forefront of sustainab...
21 min
708
Debate: Crypto vs The Environment
Debate: Crypto vs The Environment
It is estimated that the global Bitcoin network currently consumes about 133 terawatt-hours of electricity annually - roughly equal to what is consumed by the nation of Sweden. Crypto skeptics warn that the...
56 min
709
The Sunday Debate: The West Should Cut Ties wit...
In this week's episode of the Sunday debate we go back to 2019. In the aftermath of journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul we brought together leading experts to debate how the West should res...
60 min
710
They: What Muslims and Non-Muslims Get Wrong Ab...
In this week's episode Sarfraz Manzoor speaks to Ros Urwin about his investigative journey across Britain in search of the roots of division - from the fear that Islam promotes violence, to the suspicion that Muslims wish to live segregated lives,...
41 min
711
Debate: Bitcoin vs Gold with Anthony Scaramucci...
Since the world economy was plunged into crisis as a result of COVID-19 many economists have predicted a period of great instability. In normal times investors would seek to hedge against volatility by buying gold. But this time some are putting their ...
52 min
712
The Sunday Debate: The War on Terror was the ri...
Have the West’s efforts to eradicate Al-Qaeda around the world simply been fuelling the flames of hatred and violence? Or would we have suffered even more atrocities if we’d left the militants to plot in their hiding places? Is the US right to be pursu...
46 min
713
Afghanistan: What Next?
In this week's episode we examine the unfolding situation in Afghanistan and what it means for the Afghan people and the world. In Part 1 Shabnam Nasimi reflects on the last few days as an Afghan living abroad watching as the Taliban swept to powe...
56 min
714
China's Alternative Vision for the Internet, wi...
Once little more than a pornography filter, China’s ‘Great Firewall’ has evolved into the most sophisticated system of online censorship in the world. As the Chinese internet grows and online businesses thrive, speech is controlled, dissent quashed, an...
36 min
715
The Sunday Debate: To Stop Climate Collapse, We...
George Monbiot, Farhana Yamin, Adair Turner and Tony Juniper debated the single most important issue we face as a civilisation.
65 min
716
The Country of Others, with Leïla Slimani and S...
In conversation with writer and cultural historian Shahidha Bari, Slimani shared her insights into the impact of colonialism and the ways in which women in particular find themselves othered, politically, culturally and historically.To buy her new b...
55 min
717
Stop Pretending We Can Save the Planet, with Jo...
Let’s face it, argues Jonathan Franzen: the climate apocalypse is coming. We’ve already messed up the planet. The polar bears are running out of ice to stand on. Australia and California will burn again. Temperatures keep rising. Our chance to prevent ...
52 min
718
The Sunday Debate: Parenting Doesn’t Matter
How important is parenting? The multibillion-pound parenting industry tells us we can all shape our children to be joyful, resilient and successful. But what if it’s all bunk? Intelligence Squared brought together a panel of leading experts to explore ...
59 min
719
The Right to Sex, with Amia Srinivasan and Merv...
How should we talk about sex? It is a thing we have and also a thing we do; a supposedly private act laden with public meaning; a personal preference shaped by outside forces; a place where pleasure and ethics can pull wildly apart.In this week...
27 min
720
The Power of Giving Away Power with Matthew Bar...
How did Dee Hock of Visa transform the way we pay for things? How did Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, create the biggest knowledge transfer engine the world has ever seen? And how did Barack Obama and his grassroots team revolutionise political camp...
58 min
721
The Sunday Debate: Napoleon the Great? With And...
How should we remember Napoleon, the man of obscure Corsican birth who rose to become emperor of the French and briefly master of Europe?In 2014, as the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo approached, Intelligence Squared brought together tw...
60 min
722
Testosterone: Debunking the Myths of the Misund...
Testosterone – a hormone that has been mythologised, maligned and misunderstood. It is frequently cited as the basis of male aggression and sexual violence. Christine Lagarde, former chair of the IMF, once said ‘There should never be too much testoster...
55 min
723
Michael Pollan: This Is Your Mind on Plants
When you start your day with a cup of tea or coffee you are ingesting a consciousness-altering drug, which you are quite likely to be addicted to. That drug of course is caffeine, the stimulant used by 90 per cent of people on earth, and it is one of t...
51 min
724
The Sunday Debate: Brave New World vs 1984
Both these novels imagined extraordinary futures, but which better captures our present and offers the keener warning about where we may be heading? In this the Intelligence Squared debate, we had Will Self arguing for Brave New World and Adam Gopnik a...
87 min
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Debate: Abolish Billionaires
As billionaires jet off to space should we abolish them here on earth? In this week's debate professor Linsey McGoey of Essex University and Ryan Bourne of the Cato Institute go head to head on whether society should tolerate the existence of bill...
53 min