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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1276
Spotlight On Piketty
In this rare appearance in London, French economist Thomas Piketty appeared centre stage for Intelligence Squared, along with a panel of experts, to debate his findings of his book 'Capital in the 21st Century', an analysis of the causes and ...
57 min
1277
Post-Election Dissection
On May 12th, before the dust had settled on the General Election, Intelligence Squared hosted a post-election dissection with pundits and politicians of all persuasions. They battled it out over what the outcome means for the future of British politics...
59 min
1278
Simon Sebag Montefiore on Jerusalem
Jerusalem. How did this small, remote town became the Holy City, the desire of every empire, and the key to Middle East peace? In this dazzling talk from February 2011, Simon Sebag Montefiore revealed the ever-changing city through its many incarnation...
60 min
1279
The World Needs Religion Even if it Doesn't Nee...
God is dead and man has no need of the myths and false consolation that religion offers. That’s the battle-cry of Richard Dawkins and other tough-minded critics of religion. And yet millions cling to their faith, finding value and meaning in the concep...
59 min
1280
The Future of Parliamentary Democracy
In the wake of the MPs’ expenses scandal (May-June 2009), we brought a panel of politicians and journalists to the Intelligence Squared stage to discuss the state of democracy in Britain – is the system rotten to the core, or was the expenses scandal s...
66 min
1281
Can art be taught to the Facebook generation?
We were joined at the Saatchi Gallery in July 2009 by Turner Prize-winning artists Grayson Perry and Antony Gormley; author, philosopher and television presenter Alain de Botton; design critic, author and columnist Stephen Bayley and founder of the cha...
60 min
1282
Debate: Burgundy vs Bordeaux
35 min
1283
The Extreme Present: An Evening of Self-Help fo...
Shumon Basar, writer, thinker and cultural critic, Douglas Coupland, the renowned author of 'Generation X', and Hans Ulrich Obrist, one of the world’s best-known curators, joined forces for a special event with Intelligence Squared to explore...
59 min
1284
The Art World is a Boys' Club
Botticelli's Venus. Warhol's Marilyn. Chen Yifei’s Beauties.
Historically, the creation of art has been largely the preserve of men. And not a lot has changed. In recent years, the top 100 highest grossing living artists at auction were me...
60 min
1285
Muhammad Yunus on a new kind of capitalism
‘Making money is a happiness. And that’s a great incentive. Making other people happy is a super-happiness.’
These are the words of Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Bangladeshi economist world-famous for starting the microfinance movement...
60 min
1286
Be afraid, be very afraid: the robots are comin...
They are coming to an office near you: job-gobbling robots that can do your work better and more cheaply than you can. One in three jobs could be taken over by a computer or a robot in the next 20 years. Most at risk are less skilled workers such as ma...
58 min
1287
Rembrandt Vs Vermeer: The Titans of Dutch Painting
Rembrandt van Rijn is the best known of all the Dutch masters. His range was vast, from landscapes to portraits to Biblical scenes; he revolutionised every medium he handled, from oil paintings to etchings and drawings. His vision encompassed every ele...
60 min
1288
Money can grow on trees: what's good for nature...
Capitalists don’t care about the environment. Industry, agriculture and commerce have long exploited nature’s resources. The pursuit of profit pays scant regard to the underlying cost of using up the planet’s capital.That’s the familiar story that we...
60 min
1289
Keep 'em off the streets and behind bars: tough...
Lock them up. That’s the way we’ve always dealt with offenders. Criminals deserve to be put away for their crimes. Prison works because it keeps those criminals out of circulation, and acts as society’s most effective deterrent. Rehabilitation is all w...
60 min
1290
Magna Carta: Myth and Meaning
June 2015 will see the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, the ‘Great Charter’ which was signed at Runnymede by King John to resolve a political crisis he faced with his barons. Buried within its 69 clauses is one of immeasurable importance. This is the ...
60 min
1291
Art must be beautiful
In May 2011, Intelligence Squared Asia presented four leading voices in the arts to argue the motion "Art must be beautiful". Can aesthetic standards of the day dictate the long-term value of art? Who defines taste? Do parameters of instituti...
58 min
1292
An evening with Britain's best poets
Love. Sorrow. Anger. Death. Laughter. God. Sex. Hell. Home.
Only one profession can get to the heart of that lot – the poets. And not any old poets but amongst Britain's very best: Wendy Cope, Andrew Motion and Don Paterson – plus Clive James who...
84 min
1293
The High Street is dead, long live the High Street
A screen, an image, a click. Proceed to checkout. Sign for it the next day. We are the first generation to enjoy the thrill and convenience of online shopping. No queuing, no frustration at going home empty-handed, because we can always find what we’re...
89 min
1294
The War on Terror was the right response to 9/11
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 purs...
47 min
1295
Bernard-Henri Lévy on the Libyan intervention a...
Bernard-Henri Lévy is France’s best-known public intellectual, passionately committed to the causes he believes to be just. A writer, journalist, and film-maker, he has the status of a rock star in France where he is known simply as BHL, and has repea...
80 min
1296
Beware of the dragon: Africa should not look to...
We all know that the Chinese are the neo-colonialists of Africa. They've plundered the continent of its natural resources, tossing aside any concern for human rights and doing deals with some of the world's most unsavoury regimes. The relentl...
98 min
1297
Umberto Eco In Conversation With Paul Holdengräber
The persistence of conspiracies. Grasping the infinity of lists. Writing fiction about the real. The future of books.
These are some of the topics Umberto Eco discussed with Paul Holdengräber, Director of LIVE at the New York Public Library, when he c...
91 min
1298
Brian Cox & Alice Roberts on the Incredible Unl...
Who are we? Why are we here? Are we alone in the universe? How did we become the creatures that we are? How might we further evolve?
These are some of the big questions that Brian Cox and Alice Roberts tackled when they came to the Intelligence Square...
87 min
1299
P.J. O'Rourke: The Funniest Man in America
P.J. O'Rourke is America's premier political satirist and has more citations in The Penguin Dictionary of Humorous Quotations than any other living writer. In this live appearance for Intelligence Squared in 2010, he discussed his new book, ...
90 min
1300
I'd rather Be a Roundhead than a Cavalier
In the 1640s England was devastated by a civil war that divided the nation into two tribes – Roundheads and Cavaliers. Counties, towns, even families and friends were rent apart as the nation pledged its allegiance either to King Charles I (supported b...
88 min