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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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
802
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
803
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
804
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
805
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
806
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
807
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
808
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
809
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
810
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
811
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
812
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
813
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
814
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
815
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
816
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
817
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
818
Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination, with S...
"My goal was never to just create a company. I wanted to build something that actually makes a really big change in the world.” – Mark Zuckerberg
How did it all go wrong for Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook? How did a company tha...
56 min
819
The Sunday Debate: Anti-Zionism is Anti-Semitism
For this week's episode of The Sunday Debate, we revisit our debate "Anti-Zionism is Anti-Semitism" from 2019.
Is there a country in the world that attracts so much criticism as Israel? Studies consistently show Israel to be one of the...
64 min
820
Is Mass Migration Making the World a Better Place?
To some, the very word ‘migration’ generates fear, suspicion and even hatred. But according to Felix Marquardt, author of the acclaimed The New Nomads, we need to look afresh at our notions of the mass movement of people around the world. Far from bein...
56 min
821
The Truth about Fake News, with Marcus Gilroy-W...
We are supposed to have more information at our disposal now than at any time in history. So why, in a world of rising sea levels, populist leaders and a global pandemic, do so many people believe bizarre and untrue things?
In this week's episod...
42 min
822
The Ever-Changing Brain with David Eagleman and...
What does drug withdrawal have in common with a broken heart? Why is the enemy of memory not time, but other memories? How can a blind person learn to see with her tongue or a deaf person learn to hear with his skin? Why did many people in the 1980s mi...
54 min
823
Race and Guns in a Divided America, with Carol ...
Throughout history, the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States has protected the right to bear arms. For Black Americans, this has come with the understanding that the moment they exercise this right (or the moment that they don...
34 min
824
The Sunday Debate: The Catholic Church is a For...
The Roman Catholic Church is the oldest institution in the western world and has had a pivotal influence on western civilisation, ranging from matters of state to cultural life and from personal morals to social values and ethics. Increasingly, though,...
46 min
825
Albums that Changed My Life, with Tom Gatti, Da...
Our favourite albums are our most faithful companions. We listen to them over and over, we know them far better than any novel or film. These records don’t just soundtrack our lives – they work their way deep inside us, shaping our outlook and identity...
49 min