Speaking and writing correct English are the hallmarks of an intelligent person. No one who cares about language wants to be caught splitting an infinitive or muddling up ‘infer’ and ‘imply’. Which is why the bestseller lists are regularly topped by books on 'good' English by the likes of Daily Mail polemicist Simon Heffer and Today programme presenter John Humphrys - both of whom defend the motion in this debate. 

Taking them on are Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at Cambridge, and Oliver Kamm, top commentator at The Times. No one would dare describe either as lacking in grey matter or being insensitive to good English. So why the disagreement with Heffer and Humphrys? Because people on their side of the argument believe that our language can take care of itself, and that it certainly doesn’t need a bunch of self-appointed rule-book sticklers to make others feel insecure about how they speak and write. Good style matters, they argue, and can be taught but the pedants should stop confusing their pet peeves with ‘correct’ English.

This was originally recorded at The Royal Geographic society on the 5th March 2014 in London, and was produced by Executive Producer Hannah Kaye. Editing was by Executive producer Rowan Slaney and Daisy Moll and Producer Catharine Hughes was your host.

—

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 [email protected] or Tweet us @intelligence2. 

And if you’d like to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, as well as ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content, early access and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared.

Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we bring you an episode from one of our sister podcasts, How I Found My Voice, where Samira Ahmed speaks with one of the biggest names in British entertainment - the television and radio presenter Graham Norton.

From growing up as a young gay man in County Cork, Ireland, to living with hippies in Los Angeles and becoming a household name in the UK, Graham has had a fascinating life and career. His prime time chat show on BBC1, 'The Graham Norton Show' is a magnet for the biggest names in show business, including Tom Cruise, Taylor Swift, George Clooney, Judi Dench, and Stormzy. He also had huge success on Channel 4 with 'So Graham Norton' and 'V Graham Norton', which were some of the Channel's highest-rated shows. It's no surprise that he's won 9 BAFTAs for his work.

As a bestselling novelist, host of a BBC Radio 2 show, and the face of the BBC's Eurovision coverage, Graham's influence spans across the media.

In this episode of How I Found My Voice, recorded on 9 November 2020, before publicly announced he would be leaving Radio 2 in December, Graham shares his unique journey towards becoming such a compelling voice.

This episode was produced by Head of Podcasts Farah Jassat and Hosted by Broadcaster Samira Ahmed

—

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 [email protected] or Tweet us @intelligence2. 

And if you’d like to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, as well as ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content, early access and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared.

Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Marina Abramović is one of the most celebrated performance artists in the world. Over a career spanning four decades she has pioneered performance as an art form and accumulated a devoted following. Using her body as both subject and object, Abramović explores notions of nothingness and time, and draws in the audience as part of her performance. At her 2010 exhibition, ‘The Artist is Present’, at New York’s MOMA visitors were invited to sit silently opposite her and gaze into her eyes for an unspecified amount of time. Every day people broke down in tears.

In conversation with the Artistic Director at the Barbican Centre, Will Gompertz, Marina Abramović tells us what she has learnt about process and people from a world in which she is interested in everything. With her characteristic strong character, intelligent wit, and radiating warmth, Abramović discusses her role as healer, art as meditation, and how her challenging childhood has given her much material to work with. 

This event was recorded in September 2014 at the Royal College of Music, in London. It was originally produced by Executive Producer Hannah Kaye with editing by Executive Producer Rowan Slaney and Daisy Moll. 

—

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 [email protected] or Tweet us @intelligence2. 

And if you’d like to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, as well as ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content, early access and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared.

Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Acclaimed novelist Salman Rushdie joins journalist Razia Iqbal to take us back in time and discuss three influential touchstones of his life: a silver ingot engraved with an unpartitioned map of India, Bob Dylan’s ‘Mr. Tambourine man’, and James Joyce’s ‘The Dead’, a slightly intimidating but powerful inspiration.

This episode was originally released in 2021 as part of Intelligence Squared’s touchstones series and originally produced by Head of Podcasts Farah Jassat. Editing was by Executive Producer Rowan Slaney and Daisy Moll and your hosts were Producer Catharine Hughs and Executive Producer Hannah Kaye

—

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 [email protected] or Tweet us @intelligence2. 

And if you’d like to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, as well as ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content, early access and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared.

Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Poetry is the perfect medication against some of life’s challenges, so William Sieghart has found. In this accessible and warming exchange, from tea towel poems to T.S. Eliot, Sieghart brings to life a few of the experiences that inspired his book ‘The poetry pharmacy: Tried-and-True Prescriptions for the Heart, Mind and Soul’. Here he has collected poems that can each serve a different need: fear of the unknown, unrequited love, stagnation, purposelessness, convalescence and oppression, to name a few. 

Joining Sieghart in conversation are actor Helena Bonham Carter, author Jeanette Winterson, comedian Sue Perkins, actor Jason Isaacs, and actor Tom Burke along with journalist Sarah Montague as your host for the night. Together they explore poetry’s remarkable ability to calm, console and, above all, connect us to the minds and experiences of others. 

This event was recorded on the 2nd March 2018, in London and Produced by Executive Producer Hannah Kaye. Editing was by Executive Producer Rowan Slaney and Daisy Moll and your host was Producer Catharine Hughes.

—

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 [email protected] or Tweet us @intelligence2. 

And if you’d like to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, as well as ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content, early access and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared.

Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we bring you an episode from one of our sister podcasts, How I Found My Voice, where host Samira Ahmed speaks to poet and activist Benjamin Zephaniah. From racist attacks and police brutality to receiving a letter from Bob Marley telling him that Britain needs him, Zephaniah talks about the moments that shaped and inspired his voice.

How I Found My Voice is an Intelligence Squared podcast that explores how some of the world's greatest artists and thinkers became such compelling - and unique - communicators. To hear the rest of the series search How I Found My Voice wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode was originally recorded in April 2019 and was produced by Farah Jassat

—

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 [email protected] or Tweet us @intelligence2. 

And if you’d like to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, as well as ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content, early access and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared.

Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week's episode is made in partnership with international heritage charity World Monuments Fund Britain. Together we explore the fascinating world of on-screen historic homes with insightful conversations with industry experts who have brought these magnificent buildings to life on the big and small screens.

We were joined by Nell Hudson, actress in popular TV dramas like 'Victoria' and 'Outlander'; Julie Anne Robinson, director of the hit series 'Bridgerton'; and Sally Ambrose, Head of Marketing and Visitor Experience at Chatsworth House.

Hosted by John Darlington, Executive Director of World Monuments Fund Britain, our guests delve into the importance of these houses as cultural landmarks, their personal experiences working in them, and the creative challenges of bringing these iconic structures to life on screen.

This event was recorded on the 20th of March 2021 in partnership with World Monuments Fund Britain. It was produced by Producer Feyi Adegbite with editing by Executive Producer Rowan Slaney

—

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 [email protected] or Tweet us @intelligence2. 

And if you’d like to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, as well as ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content, early access and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared.

Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Intelligence Squared: Arts & Culture brings you Letters That Changed The World, a celebration of the written word, giving us an insight into some of history’s greatest minds. Based on award-winning historian Simon Sebag Montefiore’s book Written in History: Letters that Changed the World. Joining him on stage were No 1 bestselling novelist Kate Mosse. Together they discussed letters by Michelangelo, Catherine the Great, Sarah Bernhardt, Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, Virginia Woolf, Alan Turing and Leonard Cohen.

Some are inspiring, some unsettling, others express foreboding and despair. Many celebrate love and sex. A cast of performers, including Young Vic director Kwame Kwei-Armah, actors Jade Anouka, Dunkirk actor Jack Lowden, and West End star Tamsin Greig, brought the letters to life on stage. Listen and discover the bravery, beauty and visceral immediacy in these letters.

This event was recorded in London on the 28th of February 2019. It was originally produced by Executive Producer Hannah Kaye, editing was by Executive Producer Rowan Slaney and Producer Catharine Hughs was your host.

—

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 [email protected] or Tweet us @intelligence2. 

And if you’d like to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, as well as ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content, early access and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared.

Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Armando Iannucci and James Rhodes met on the Intelligence Squared stage to discuss the transcendent power of music, using the concert grand at Cadogan Hall to help tell their remarkable stories. The chair is broadcaster, author and leading voice on all things musical, Clemency Burton-Hill. 

James Rhodes is known as the wild man of concert pianists. His approach to the piano is raw and unbridled – the diametric opposite to the composed figure in white tie and tails of classical music convention. His knowledge of, and passion for, the great composers is unrestrained, pouring forth in recitals, documentaries, best-selling albums and his 2015 memoir, Instrumental.

Armando Iannucci is one of Britain's leading comedy writers, the creator of Alan Partridge, Veep and The Thick of It. He is also an obsessive classical music fan, devoted since childhood to what he calls ‘the single most inspiring, most moving, most magical thread running through my whole cultural experience’. He longs to enthuse the public with his conviction that the greatest artistic miracle of all is man’s ability to create something as extraordinary as Bach’s Goldberg Variations.

This event was recorded on the 31st of January 2018, at Cadogan Hall in London. It was originally produced by Executive Producer Hannah Kaye, editing was by Executive Producer Rowan Slaney and Producer Catharine Hughs was your host.

—

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 [email protected] or Tweet us @intelligence2. 

And if you’d like to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, as well as ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content, early access and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared.

Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we explore the ways Western culture has depicted powerful women down the ages. To what extent have they been packaged into a male template? And how much have they been able to control their own image? Featuring classicist Mary Beard and Sotheby’s specialist Holly Braine, and chaired by cultural critic Shahidha Bari, the conversation will range from sculptures of ancient goddesses such as Aphrodite and Athena, and portraits of Queen Elizabeth I as ‘Gloriana’, to the empowered politicians and cultural icons of today. This conversation was produced in partnership with Sotheby's for Sotheby’s Talks: (Women) Artists.

To view the accompanying images for this conversation please visit: https://intelligencesquared.com/sothebys-women-artists-women-in-power/

This event was recorded on the 26th of February 2023, at Sotheby's in London. It was produced by Executive Producer Hannah Kaye and editing was by Producer Catharine Hughs.

—

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 about. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to [email protected] or Tweet us at @intelligence2. 

At Intelligence Squared we’ve got our own online streaming platform, Intelligence Squared+ and we’d love you to give it a go. It’s packed with more than 20 years’ worth of video debates and conversations on the world’s most important topics as well as exclusive podcast content. Tune in to live events, ask your questions or watch on-demand, totally ad-free with hours of discussion to dive into. Visit intelligencesquaredplus.com to start watching today

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices