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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1426
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
1427
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
1428
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
1429
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
1430
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
1431
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
1432
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
1433
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
1434
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
1435
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
1436
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
1437
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
1438
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
1439
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
1440
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
1441
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
1442
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
1443
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
1444
The internet is a failed utopia
This week's podcast comes from the closing session of our recent Digital Summit with Vanity Fair. See intelligencesquared.com for more information about the summit.
To many the hopes we had for the internet when it first emerged have been smashed...
52 min
1445
Faramerz Dabhoiwala on the Origins of Sex
Rising star historian Faramerz Dabhoiwala came to the Intelligence Squared stage in February 2012 to describe how the permissive society arrived in Western Europe, not in the 1960s as we like to think, but between 1600 and 1800. It began in England and...
56 min
1446
David Brooks on the Road to Character
On May 26th 2015, New York Times columnist David Brooks came to the Intelligence Squared stage to share the insights of his latest book, 'The Road to Character'. Brooks argued that today’s ‘Big Me’ culture is making us increasingly self-preoc...
59 min
1447
Joseph Stiglitz on the Great Divide
Inequality is an increasing problem in the Western world, leaving everyone – the rich as well as the poor – worse off. The dream of a socially mobile society is becoming an ever more unachievable myth. That’s the view of Nobel Prize-winning economist J...
59 min
1448
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
1449
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
1450
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