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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1026
Effective Altruism: A Better Way to Lead an Eth...
Almost all of us want to make a difference in our lives. So we give to charity, recycle, volunteer, or cut down our carbon emissions. But are we getting it right? In a world where ever more data is available, shouldn’t we be paying closer attention to ...
60 min
1027
The Great European Refugees And Migrants Debate
Europe is gripped by the biggest migrant crisis since the Second World War. The parallels with that earlier crisis are hard to avoid. When in 1938 tens of thousands were fleeing Nazi Germany, not a single European country agreed to raise its quotas. In...
61 min
1028
Fight Your Own Battles: Foreign powers shouldn'...
Filmed at Sadler's Wells on 17th July 2013.Speaking for the motion were Palestinian-American writer, human rights campaigner and political commentator Susan Abulhawa and Former British Ambassador to Syria Sir Andrew Green.Speaking against the ...
61 min
1029
The Nuclear Deal With Iran Won't Make the World...
What’s not to like? The deal reached between Iran and six world powers in July is a major diplomatic breakthrough. In exchange for Tehran halting its nuclear weapons programme, the West will lift the sanctions that have been crippling Iran’s economy fo...
62 min
1030
Karl Ove Knausgaard: The Alchemist of the Ordinary
Novelists worship him. Critics fall over themselves to explain his genius. His celebrity fans say his books are like drugs. ‘I just read 200 pages and I need the next volume like crack. It’s completely blown my mind,’ Zadie Smith tweeted.What they’re...
60 min
1031
The Art of Political Power, with Robert Caro an...
Every industry has its guru. And when it comes to the dark arts of political statecraft, the American biographer Robert Caro is the mentor politicians turn to for guidance. His biography of President Lyndon B. Johnson has been described as ‘the greates...
61 min
1032
China picks better leaders than the West
As Chinese President Xi Jinping visits the UK for a four-day state visit and David Cameron hails a "golden era" in the relationship between the two countries, we revisit the Intelligence Squared Asia debate "China picks better leaders th...
58 min
1033
Niall Ferguson: Henry Kissinger Reappraised, wi...
No American statesman has been as revered and as reviled as Henry Kissinger. To the late Christopher Hitchens he was a war criminal who should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. To his admirers he is the greatest strategic thinker America has e...
61 min
1034
Inside The Head Of Terry Gilliam
Terry Gilliam is one of the most multifaceted, visionary talents alive. He first found fame as a member of Monty Python, the surreal comedy troupe that has had a cult following since its inception in 1969 right up to today. Had Gilliam stopped there, h...
60 min
1035
Let's end the tyranny of the test. Relentless s...
British children are the most tested in the industrialised world. Is regular testing worthwhile training for success in later life, or have our schools become exam sausage factories? Our panel of experts debated whether regular school testing helps our...
62 min
1036
Yuval Noah Harari on the myths we need to survive
Myths. We tend to think they’re a thing of the past, fabrications that early humans needed to believe in because their understanding of the world was so meagre. But what if modern civilisation were itself based on a set of myths? This is the big questi...
61 min
1037
Western Liberal Democracy Would Be Wrong for China
People everywhere are better off living in liberal democracy: that has been the reigning assumption of the western world. But could it be we’ve got it wrong? If you were one of the world’s billions of poor peasants might you not be better off under a s...
63 min
1038
Ten Years After 9/11: The World Remade
Fourteen years on from 9/11, we revisit our event "Ten Years after 9/11: The World Remade" from 2011. In this special Intelligence Squared event, former Foreign Secretary David Miliband and other leading experts from Oxford Analytica, the glo...
61 min
1039
Jimmy Carter in Conversation with Jon Snow
President Jimmy Carter is a Nobel Prize winner, author, humanitarian, professor, farmer, naval officer and carpenter.In this special Intelligence Squared interview with Channel 4 News's Jon Snow, which took place in October 2011, President Carte...
59 min
1040
Europe is failing its Muslims
The debate "Europe is failing its Muslims" took place on February 23rd at Cadogan Hall in London, in association with BBC World News and the British Council. Arguing in favour of the motion were Tariq Ramadan and Petra Stienen; against the mo...
46 min
1041
Robert Macfarlane on Landscape and the Human Heart
How do the landscapes we love shape the people we are? Why do we walk? For several years and more than a thousand miles, celebrated travel writer Robert Macfarlane has been following the vast network of old paths and routes that criss-cross Britain and...
31 min
1042
Norman Stone on Istanbul
In this talk from October 2011 the historian Norman Stone, who has lived in Turkey since 1997, took us on a journey through the country's turbulent history, from the arrival of the Seljuks in Anatolia in the 11th century to the modern republic app...
60 min
1043
Israel Is Destroying Itself With Its Settlement...
Patriacide. Nationcide. Whatever you want to call it, that is what Israel is doing with its settlement policy: it is killing itself. If ever greater numbers of Jewish settlers are installed on land regarded by Palestinians as the basis for a state of t...
60 min
1044
Roberto Saviano on the War Against Organised Crime
Roberto Saviano made a rare appearance in the UK in July 2015 when he came to the Intelligence Squared stage. In conversation with Intelligence Squared's very own Robert Collins, Saviano talked about his life in hiding and his beginnings as a repo...
48 min
1045
John Gray and Adam Phillips in conversation on ...
Political philosopher John Gray and psychotherapist and essayist Adam Phillips came to the Intelligence Squared stage in 2011 to discuss themes of science and immortality. Can we in the 21st century claim to be no longer gripped by the hope that someho...
60 min
1046
Digital Summit Highlights: 'London's Star Tech ...
This week's episode of the Intelligence Squared podcast features two sessions from our recent Digital Summit with Vanity Fair.
In the first session, 'Who are we on the web?' we examined how deeply the internet is affecting us as human b...
53 min
1047
Churchill was more a liability than an asset to...
Does the fact that Winston Churchill is routinely cited as Britain’s greatest hero say more about us than it does about him? Yes, he warned us of the need to face down Hitler when others were urging appeasement and yes, he gave a good speech. But what ...
55 min
1048
Digital Summit Highlights: 'The Hopes of the Pi...
This week's episode of the Intelligence Squared podcast features two sessions from our recent Digital Summit with Vanity Fair.
In the first session, 'This is For Everyone: The hopes of the pioneers', we explored the hopes and memories o...
48 min
1049
Angela Merkel is destroying Europe
The stakes couldn’t be higher, as Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras seeks a new agreement on a bailout and German chancellor Angela Merkel refuses any talks before this Sunday’s referendum. What will happen is anyone’s guess, but for anyone looking f...
47 min
1050
The West should get out of bed with the House O...
Have we no morals? We know that the Saudis created the monster that is Islamic terrorism, allegedly spending some $100 billion on exporting fanatical Wahhabism to other Muslim nations around the world. We know about the public beheadings and floggings,...
46 min