Llewelyn Morgan, author of Horace: A Very Short Introduction, joins EI's Paul Lay to explore the Augustan poet's vast and complex legacy.

Image: Bust of Horace. Credit: Cum Okolo / Alamy Stock Photo 

Alwyn Turner, author of Little Englanders: Britain in the Edwardian Era, speaks to Paul Lay about the early 20th century, an age of anxiety.

Image: Street musicians in London in the Edwardian era. Credit: KGPA Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo 

Ahron Bregman, author of Cursed Victory: A History of Israel and the Occupied Territories, outlines his vision for a lasting peace between Israel, Palestinians and the Arabs.

Image: An Israeli flag is seen through a dust cloud near the border with the Gaza strip. Credit: Eddie Gerald / Alamy Stock Photo 

Daniela Richterova, Senior Lecturer in Intelligence Studies at the Department for War Studies, King's College London, reflects on the efforts the Soviet Union made to court African states and liberation movements during the Cold War and draws parallels with China and Russia's new scramble for Africa.

Image: A monument to Arab-Soviet Friendship at the Aswan dam, Egypt. Credit: Matyas Rehak / Alamy Stock Photo

Alastair Benn is joined by Christopher Harding, cultural historian of Japan and author of The Light of Asia: A History of Western Fascination with the East, to discuss the life and work of celebrated animator Mayazaki Hayao and his latest (and last?) film, The Boy and the Heron, a semi-autobiographical exploration of wartime bereavement, courage and ultimate redemption.

Image: A still from The Boy and the Heron directed by Miyazaki Hayao. Credit: BFA / Alamy Stock Photo 

In December 1941, the Japanese military attacked Pearl Harbor, making the Second World War a truly global conflict. Paul Lay is joined by Charlie Laderman to discuss a month that shook the world.

Image: Three US battleships stricken during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941. Credit: GRANGER - Historical Picture Archive / Alamy Stock Photo 

What is the deep meaning of 2023? Alastair Benn is joined by Paul Lay and Iain Martin to set a dramatic year in perspective.

Image: A woman lights a candle to express solidarity with Israel. Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo 

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by Matthew Hefler, post-doctoral fellow at the Ax:son Johnson Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy, to discuss the changing role of intelligence services in an era of intense geopolitical competition.

Image: The MI6 building in Vauxhall, London. Credit: Alex Segre / Alamy Stock Photo 

What went wrong for the western alliance in Afghanistan? Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by John Ferris, author of Behind the Enigma: The Authorised History of GCHQ, Britain's Secret Cyber-Intelligence Agency, to discuss whether liberal states can still carry out effective counter-insurgency operations.

Image: U.S. Marines search a compound in Afghanistan. Credit: Stocktrek Images, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo 

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by Calder Walton, author of Spies: The epic intelligence war between East and West, to discuss how governments can use covertly acquired intelligence as a powerful tool to influence debate and how easily it can all go wrong.

Image: US Ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson, second from right, confronts Soviet delegate Valerian Zorin, first on left, with a display of reconnaissance photographs during an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council at the United Nations headquarters in New York, on October 25, 1962. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo