Intelligence Squared

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Intelligence Squared is the world’s leading forum for debate and intelligent discussion. Live and online we take you to the heart of the issues that matter, in the company of some of the world’s sharpest minds and most exciting orators. Join the debate at www.intelligencesquared.com and download our weekly podcast every Friday.

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Can Joe Biden Heal America?

01.19.2021

On January 20 Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. But as the storming of the Capitol on January 6 by supporters of Donald Trump showed, those 50 states are far from united. ...

Intelligence Squared episodes:

01.19.2021 Can Joe Biden Heal America? On January 20 Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. But as the storming of the Capitol on January 6 by supporters of Donald Trump showed, those 50 states are far from united. ...
01.15.2021 Populista! The Rise of Latin America's Strongman, with Will Grant and Mark Mardell For more than six decades, Fidel Castro's words have echoed through the politics of Latin America. His towering political influence still looms over the region today. The swing to the Left in Latin America, known as the 'Pink Tide', was ...
01.13.2021 Intelligence Squared Recommends – Power: The Maxwells For today's episode we have something a little different for you. We wanted to introduce you to a new podcast we think you’ll love called Power: The Maxwells. Everyone’s heard of Ghislaine Maxwell (Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged partner in crime). But ...
01.12.2021 David Epstein On Why Generalists Are More Successful Than Specialists Studying the world's most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors and scientists, David Epstein demonstrates why in most fields – especially those that are complex and unpredictable – generalists, not specialists are primed to excel. No matter what you do, where ...
01.08.2021 Trump, Brexit and the Direction of 2021, with Will Davies and Matt Goodwin 2021 is already set to be a monumental year. On January 1 Britain finally Brexited with a deal. On January 20 Joe Biden will become President of the United States. And as we move towards the summer months more and ...
01.05.2021 How to Make the World Add Up, with Tim Harford This episode was recorded in September 2020. 'The undercover economist' and Numbers and economics guru Tim Harford takes a deep dive into the world of statistics. Drawing on the ideas in his new book, How to Make the World Add ...
01.01.2021 Reform and Repression in Saudi Arabia, with Madawi Al-Rasheed and Jeremy Bowen In 2018 journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi regime operatives, shocking the world and drawing widespread condemnation. Mohammad bin Salman, the kingdom’s young crown prince, denied any involvement in the killing but his reputation as a moderniser was tarnished. ...
12.29.2020 Otegha Uwagba and Mariel Richards on Navigating Whiteness In November 2020 author and podcaster Otegha Uwagba came to Intelligence Squared to discuss her new book, Whites: On Race and Other Falsehoods. Containing reflections on racism, whiteness, and the mental labour required of Black people to navigate relationships with ...
12.24.2020 Christmas Special: Dan Goleman on Emotional Intelligence with Manveen Rana No speaker in the history of Intelligence Squared has generated as many YouTube views as Daniel Goleman. His 2013 talk for us has been viewed 3.2 million times. Goleman returned to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his number one, multi-million ...
12.22.2020 The Art of Rest, with Claudia Hammond and Helen Czerski The pandemic of 2020 has turned our lives upside down. Home working and homeschooling have become the norm for millions of us. And while you might think that the absence of long commutes, live entertainment and late-night socialising means we ...
12.18.2020 Alicia Garza on Creating Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter began as a hashtag when Alicia Garza wrote what she calls ‘a love letter to Black people’ on Facebook, after George Zimmerman was acquitted of fatally shooting Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, in 2013. In this ...
12.17.2020 Billion Dollar Loser: The Epic Rise and Fall of WeWork In its earliest days, WeWork promised the impossible: to make the workplace cool. In episode one of Intelligence Squared Business Reeves Wiedeman tells the story of how WeWork attracted billions of dollars from some of the most sought-after investors in ...
12.15.2020 Philosophy in the Age of Covid-19, with Eric Weiner and Danielle Sands In this week's episode Eric Weiner speaks to Danielle Sands about what philosophy can teach us in the age of COVID-19. From Socrates and ancient Athens to Simone de Beauvoir and twentieth-century Paris they discuss philosophers and places that provide ...
12.11.2020 Debate: Cats vs Dogs, with John Gray and Will Self It’s the issue that’s more divisive than Brexit, more polarising than politics. The world is full of animal lovers but we can’t agree on which pet is more worthy of our love – the loyal, obedient dog, or the inscrutable, ...
12.08.2020 COVID-19 and The Vaccine: A Shot of Hope and A Return to Normal? The world had been waiting for the news and on November 9 it finally came: a vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech had proved to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 in clinical trials. And then just a ...
12.04.2020 Debate: It’s Time for the West to Get Tough with China In December 2020 we were joined by British Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, who argued that we need to prevent a Beijing-dominated world, and Singaporean author Kishore Mahbubani, who contends that the West should accept that it’s only a matter of ...
12.01.2020 The Powerful and the Damned, with Lionel Barber and Manveen Rana Lionel Barber was editor of the Financial Times for the tech boom, the global financial crisis, the continuing rise of China, Brexit, and the established media’s fight for survival in the age of disinformation. In this episode he revealed what ...
11.27.2020 Travelling While Black, with Nanjala Nyabola and Yousra Elbagir At this point in history we are witnessing the highest levels of migration on record. About 258 million people, or one in every 30, were living outside their country of birth in 2017. But whatever an individual’s reason for travel ...
11.24.2020 Debate: Joe Biden Won't Fix the Transatlantic Relationship This week's episode features another debate from our friends at Intelligence Squared Germany, who in partnership with The European Council on Foreign Relations debated whether the election of Joe Biden as U.S President will really change the relationship between Europe ...
11.20.2020 Anthony Scaramucci and Danielle Pletka on Trumpism and The Future of The Republican Party This week Anthony Scaramucci, the former Director of Communications in President Donald Trump’s White House, and Danielle Pletka, former Vice President at the American Enterprise Institute, debate the Republican Party's response to the US election and the future of America. ...
11.19.2020 Business and the Future of Immigration in 2021 In this special podcast brought to you by the Home Office and Intelligence Squared, Director of Border and Immigration Policy at the Home Office Philippa Rouse, Head of Immigration Policy at the FSB Emelia Quist, and Partner at Fragomen Ian ...
11.17.2020 Margaret MacMillan and Peter Frankopan on How War Has Shaped Humanity Margaret MacMillan is a distinguished historian, known for her masterly grasp of her subject matter as well as her gift for vivid storytelling. In November 2020 she came to Intelligence Squared Plus to discuss war, a topic which, she argues, ...
11.13.2020 Rematch Debate: To Stop Climate Collapse, We Must End Capitalism Last January, before the coronavirus pandemic struck, Intelligence Squared staged a sold-out debate on whether we need a truly radical new economic system to deal with the looming climate catastrophe. While Covid-19 has dominated the headlines for most of the ...
11.10.2020 Martin Amis on Love, Loss and Christopher Hitchens Martin Amis has often been called the Mick Jagger of the British book world. As famous for his love affairs, his friendships and his complicated family history as for his dazzling prose, he has dominated the literary scene for decades. ...
11.06.2020 Danh Vo: Traces of History and The End of Empire In this week's podcast Design Museum director Tim Marlow, South London Gallery director Margot Heller, academic and critic Shahidha Bari and botanist Roy Vickery discuss the White Cube Gallery exhibition 'Danh Vo: 'Chicxulub'. Incorporating imperial narratives, plant folklore, Catholicism and ...
11.05.2020 Election Breakdown: Can Trump Still Beat Biden? In this election special we were joined by Danielle Pletka, the Washington Post commentator and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Josh Glancy, the Washington Bureau Chief of The Sunday Times to analyse how the candidates have performed ...
11.03.2020 Election Day Special: What's at Stake in Trump vs Biden? In this U.S election special we were joined by historian Sarah Churchwell and Jonathan Freedland to speak about how Biden and Trump have performed in the final weeks of the presidential race, the battleground States listeners should look out for ...
11.03.2020 Election Day Special, with Danielle Pletka, Emily Tamkin and Manveen Rana In this week's episode we were joined by Danielle Pletka, Washington Post commentator and senior fellow at the American Enterprise; and Emily Tamkin, U.S editor of The New Statesman, to speak about how the candidates have performed in the final ...
10.31.2020 BONUS: Ilhan Omar on the State of American Politics Rep. Ilhan Omar, the groundbreaking Somali-American community organizer from Minnesota, speaks to public intellectuals Dr Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose. She lays out her #PeopleFirst plan to transform our society and how the progressive movement will do if Democrats ...
10.30.2020 John Bolton and Emily Maitlis on Trump, Biden and the Election John Bolton knows a thing or two about Donald Trump. So many things, in fact, that he’s now being investigated by the US Justice Department for potentially spilling classified information in his new book. On Wednesday October 28 he came ...
10.27.2020 Wake Up Call: Why The Pandemic Exposes The Weakness of the West Fear is on the march. All over the world citizens have surrendered basic freedoms to the state in order to be protected from Covid-19. Good government has become not just important but a matter of life and death. But the ...
10.23.2020 The Life and Legacy of Malcolm X. with Tamara Payne and Yassmin Abdel-Magied Les Payne, the renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, embarked in 1990 on a nearly thirty-year-long quest to interview anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X - including siblings, classmates, friends, cellmates, FBI moles and cops, and political ...
10.20.2020 The Seduction of Autocracy, with Anne Applebaum and Jonathan Freedland In the years just before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, people from across the political spectrum in Europe and America celebrated a great achievement, felt a common purpose and, very often, forged personal friendships. Yet over the ...
10.16.2020 Debate: The European Green Deal is Not Fit For Purpose This week's podcast is from our friends at Intelligence Squared Germany who hosted a live debate in Berlin last week on whether the EU's 'Green Deal', a plan to deliver both economic growth and carbon neutrality, is really achievable. The ...
10.13.2020 The Ideological Roots of 'Wokeness'. with Helen Pluckrose and Helen Joyce In this week's episode Helen Pluckrose documents the evolution of the ideas that inform today's radical social justice activism, from its coarse origins in French postmodernism to its refinement within activist academic fields. Pluckrose argues this dogma is recognizable as ...
10.09.2020 Thomas Friedman and Robert Peston on the Final Days of the Presidential Race Thomas Friedman has been called ‘the most influential columnist in America’. The Financial Times has described him as a ‘global star’ and he has won the Pulitzer Prize three times. On October 6, Friedman will be joining us online less ...
10.06.2020 Kim Jong Un and The Bomb: is North Korea Really a Threat? North Korea shocked the world in September 2017 by exploding the most powerful nuclear device tested anywhere in 25 years. Months earlier, it had conducted the first test flight of a missile capable of ranging much of the United States. ...
10.05.2020 BONUS: Clive Woodward on No Bullsht Leadership in partnership with Havas In this bonus episode we preview a new podcast created by Intelligence Squared called No Bullsht Leadership hosted by Chris Hirst, CEO of advertising group Havas Creative. Today's guest is the sporting legend and rugby coach Clive Woodward who speaks ...
10.02.2020 Incels and the Men Radicalised to Hate Women, with Laura Bates and Sonia Sodha According to Laura Bates a vast network of incels and other men who hate women are able to operate, virtually undetected online. These extremists commit deliberate terrorist acts and violence against women. Vulnerable teenage boys are groomed and radicalised. In ...
09.30.2020 How to Lead a Sustainable Business with Clover Hogan and Alannah Weston How can we mobilise mindsets to turn anxiety about the climate crisis into action? This week Intelligence Squared Recommends an episode from the How To Lead a Sustainable Business podcast, hosted by Alannah Weston, chairman of Selfridges Group. Alannah speaks ...
09.29.2020 How Covid-19 Will Shape the Next Decade, with Philip Rowley and Carl Miller This week we were joined by Philip Rowley Media Futurist & Futures Director at Omnicom to explore how Covid-19 will shape the next decade of culture, politics and entertainment. From remote working to video gaming Phil provides a roadmap for ...
09.25.2020 Debate: Cancel Culture is Threatening Our Freedoms JK Rowling, Scarlett Johansson, Kanye West. All have been ‘cancelled’ – denounced on social media for doing or saying something considered wrong or offensive, often on matters to do with race or gender. In this week's episode Ayaan Hirsi Ali ...
09.22.2020 China's Good War, with Rana Mitter and Gideon Rachman For most of its history, the People’s Republic of China limited public discussion of the war against Japan. It was an experience of victimization—and one that saw Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek fighting for the same goals. But now, as ...
09.18.2020 A Secret History of Stars, with Jo Marchant and Helen Czerski Jo Marchant and Helen Czerski take us on a journey through humanity’s relationship with the heavens. The stars have shaped who we are - our religious beliefs, power structures, scientific advances and even our biology. But over the last few ...
09.15.2020 The Spies Fighting Communism During the Cold War, with Scott Anderson and Hugo Lindgren At the end of World War II, the United States dominated the world militarily, economically, and in moral standing – seen as the victor over tyranny and a champion of freedom. But it was clear – to some – that ...
09.11.2020 Journeys to Freedom After the Holocaust, with Rosie Whitehouse and Edward Lucas Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared ------ One summer’s night in 1946, over 1,000 European Jews waited silently on an Italian beach to board a secret ship. They had survived Auschwitz, hidden and fought in forests and endured death marches—now they were ...
09.08.2020 Clive, Capitalism and The East India Company, with William Dalrymple and Kavita Puri Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared ------ We still talk about the British conquering India, but that phrase disguises a more sinister reality. For it was not the British government that began seizing chunks of India in the mid-18th century, as historian ...
09.04.2020 Taming Covid and Preventing the Next Pandemic, with Mark Honigsbaum and Sir David King Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared ------ In this week's episode we brought together two of Britain’s most esteemed experts on global pandemics to discuss what we got wrong about the virus and how we can learn from those mistakes going forward. ...
09.01.2020 Power, Control and Domestic Abuse, with Jess Hill and Ros Urwin Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared ------ Every week in England and Wales, two women are killed by a current or former partner. And still we ask the question: 'Why didn't she leave?' According to author award winning Jess Hill, we should ...
08.29.2020 BONUS EPISODE: Shinzo Abe's Life and Legacy Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared ------ As Japan's longest serving premier, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, steps down due to health concerns, we examine his life and legacy in a special bonus episode. We were joined by Tobias Harris, author of the ...

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