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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The Poetry Pharmacy Returns...

11.08.2019

William Sieghart’s The Poetry Pharmacy: Tried-and-True Prescriptions for the Heart, Mind and Soul was one of the publishing sensations of the past few years. Anyone who came to the event Intelligence Squared built around it – when Jeanette Winterson, Helena ...

Intelligence Squared episodes:

11.08.2019 The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart and Sarah Dunant William Sieghart’s The Poetry Pharmacy: Tried-and-True Prescriptions for the Heart, Mind and Soul was one of the publishing sensations of the past few years. Anyone who came to the event Intelligence Squared built around it – when Jeanette Winterson, Helena ...
11.05.2019 How I Found My Voice: Michael Palin This is an episode from the second series of How I Found My Voice, a podcast from Intelligence Squared. Presented by the prominent BBC journalist Samira Ahmed, the podcast explores how some of the world's greatest artists and thinkers became ...
11.01.2019 Intelligent Times: Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey on Breaking the Harvey Weinstein Story Intelligent Times is a live event series collaboration between The New York Times and Intelligence Squared, bringing together leading New York Times journalists and thought leaders to discuss the key issues facing the globe today. On October 5th 2017, The ...
10.29.2019 The Gendered Brain Myth, with Daphna Joel and Rosamund Urwin In this episode of the Intelligence Squared podcast we were joined by the Israeli neuroscientist Daphna Joel, author of Gender Mosaic: Beyond the Myth of the Male and Female Brain. In conversation with Ros Urwin of The Sunday Times, she ...
10.25.2019 John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb Earlier this month, as John Humphrys stepped down after 32 years at Today and published a long-awaited memoir, A Day Like Today, he came to the Intelligence Squared stage to give an exclusive, behind-the-scenes account of his extraordinary career. Turning ...
10.22.2019 The Battle Over Gender, Race and Identity with Douglas Murray and Anne McElvoy In this episode we were joined by the conservative thinker Douglas Murray, whose new book The Madness of Crowds examines this century's most divisive issues: sexuality, gender, technology and race. He was interviewed on his ideas by Anne McElvoy, Senior ...
10.18.2019 Trailblazers: Women Leading the Way Women of colour have to navigate a world of work where they are often discriminated against because of their race as well as their gender. But despite the challenges, they are increasingly making their way to the top and carving ...
10.15.2019 The Underworld of the High Seas, with Ian Urbina and Razia Iqbal In this episode of the Intelligence Squared podcast we were joined by the renowned investigative journalist Ian Urbina, who has a new book titled The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier. In a conversation with the BBC's Razia ...
10.11.2019 Speeches and Letters That Changed The World, With Simon Sebag Montefiore and Kate Mosse At the 2019 Cliveden Literary Festival, Intelligence Squared brought together historian Simon Sebag Montefiore and novelist Kate Mosse to discuss some of the speeches and letters in Sebag’s latest books Voices of History and Written in History. Bringing it all ...
10.08.2019 The Social Media Addiction-Machine, with Richard Seymour and Jamie Bartlett In this week's episode we were joined by Richard Seymour, the Marxist intellectual and author of The Twittering Machine, a book which uses psychoanalytic reflection and insights from users, developers, and security experts to examine the dystopian consequences of our ...
10.04.2019 The West Should Pay Reparations For Slavery This week's podcast was a live debate on the motion 'The West Should Pay Reparations For Slavery'. Should there be a broad programme of reparations – not just financial compensation, but acknowledgement of the crimes committed and the lasting damage ...
10.01.2019 Satire, Boris and Brexit with Ian McEwan and Razia Iqbal In this week’s episode of the Intelligence Squared podcast we were joined by the acclaimed novelist Ian McEwan. He was interviewed by the BBC’s Razia Iqbal to discuss his new satirical novella The Cockroach, in which a man wakes up ...
09.27.2019 Parliament’s War of Words: Women in Power, with Mary Beard, Rachel Reeves and Sandip Verma With tensions running high this week in the U.K. Houses of Parliament over Brexit and allegations about PM Boris Johnson's use of inflammatory language, Intelligence Squared staged an event with Labour MP Rachel Reeves, Conservative member of the House of ...
09.24.2019 How I Found My Voice: Benjamin Zephaniah This is an episode from a new podcast strand launched by Intelligence Squared called How I Found My Voice. Presented by the prominent BBC journalist Samira Ahmed, the podcast explores how some of the world's greatest artists and thinkers became ...
09.20.2019 The Mindfulness Myth, with Ronald Purser and Helen Lewis Mindfulness – the psychological practice of bringing one's attention to the present moment through meditation – has gone mainstream. It has been enthusiastically co-opted by Silicon Valley and other large corporations as well as schools, governments and even the U.S. ...
09.17.2019 How I Found My Voice: Elif Shafak This is an episode from a new podcast strand launched by Intelligence Squared called How I Found My Voice. Presented by the prominent BBC journalist Samira Ahmed, the podcast explores how some of the world's greatest artists and thinkers became ...
09.13.2019 An Evening With Salman Rushdie Salman Rushdie is one of the world’s greatest storytellers. He came to the Intelligence Squared stage to discuss his career, his life and his new novel Quichotte with the BBC’s Razia Iqbal. The book is a wild ride through modern ...
09.10.2019 How I Found My Voice: Lyse Doucet This is an episode from a new podcast strand launched by Intelligence Squared called How I Found My Voice. Presented by the prominent BBC journalist Samira Ahmed, the podcast explores how some of the world's greatest artists and thinkers became ...
09.06.2019 The Politics of Video Games, with Pete Etchells and Ros Urwin Are video games harmful to society? Recently the World Health Organisation classified 'gaming disorder' as a clinical mental health disorder and a danger to public health. But how real is the threat of video game addiction, and what about the ...
09.02.2019 How I Found My Voice: Philip Pullman This is an episode from a new podcast strand launched by Intelligence Squared called How I Found My Voice. Presented by the prominent BBC journalist Samira Ahmed, the podcast explores how some of the world's greatest artists and thinkers became ...
08.30.2019 The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, with Shoshana Zuboff and Rosamund Urwin We live in an age of "surveillance capitalism" - where technologies that were meant to liberate us have deepened inequality and stoked divisions. Big tech companies gather our information online and sell it to the highest bidder, and entire industries ...
08.27.2019 How I Found My Voice: Mark Millar This is an episode from a new podcast strand launched by Intelligence Squared called How I Found My Voice. Presented by the prominent BBC journalist Samira Ahmed, the podcast explores how some of the world's greatest artists and thinkers became ...
08.23.2019 Ibram X. Kendi and Razia Iqbal on How To Be An Antiracist What's the difference between being merely non-racist and being an antiracist? And what will it take to completely uproot racism from our societies, institutions and our own selves? In this episode were were joined by Ibram X. Kendi, the founding ...
08.16.2019 Michael Pollan and Xand Van Tulleken on the New Science of Psychedelics In this episode of the Intelligence Squared podcast we were joined by the acclaimed food writer Michael Pollan, whose most recent book How To Change Your Mind is a deep dive into the world of psychedelic drugs and what they ...
08.09.2019 Nessa Carey and Xand Van Tulleken on How Gene Editing Will Rewrite Our Futures In this week's episode of the Intelligence Squared podcast we were joined by Nessa Carey, the molecular biologist and author of Hacking The Code Of Life. She was interviewed by the doctor and TV presenter Xand Van Tulleken in a ...
08.02.2019 Chris Hirst and Helen Lewis on No Bullsht Leadership In this week's episode of the Intelligence Squared podcast we were joined by Chris Hirst, Global CEO for the advertising company Havas Creative Network and author of No Bullsht Leadership: Why the World Needs More Everyday Leaders and Why That ...
07.26.2019 Mark Galeotti and Edward Lucas on what the West gets wrong about Putin In this episode of the Intelligence Squared podcast we were joined by Mark Galeotti, Russia expert and author of We Need to Talk About Putin. He was interviewed by Edward Lucas of The Times in an in-depth examination of the ...
07.19.2019 Paul Mason and Jesse Norman on a Revolutionary Defence of Humanity In this week's episode of the Intelligence Squared podcast, the left-wing economics journalist Paul Mason was interviewed by the Conservative MP Jesse Norman. They discussed Mason's vision for a utopian future, which he sets out in his new book Clear ...
07.12.2019 Old Testament vs New Testament: Passion, Poetry and the World’s Greatest Stories Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark, Moses and the Ten Commandments, the parting of the Red Sea. These are a few of the stories from the Old Testament. And then there’s the New Testament, with its account of the life of ...
07.05.2019 Jeffrey Sachs on the End of American Supremacy Last month we were joined onstage by the University of Columbia economics professor Jeffrey Sachs, as he laid out his radical new vision for U.S. foreign policy. Instead of a world where America reigns as the sole superpower, Sachs argued ...
06.28.2019 Mark Zuckerberg on Trial: Facebook is Damaging Society According to his critics, Mark Zuckerberg presides over a company which is undermining our basic freedoms. But should we give him the benefit of the doubt as he seeks to rebuild the world’s trust in Facebook? Defending Zuckerberg we had ...
06.21.2019 Anti-Zionism is Anti-Semitism Is there a country in the world that attracts so much criticism as Israel? Studies consistently show Israel to be one of the most disliked nations in the world (along with Iran and North Korea). But how much of this ...
06.14.2019 The Revolt Against The Rich, with Anand Giridharadas and Anne McElvoy Thought-leaders, change agents, the new philanthropists. These are some of the terms used to describe rich and powerful figures who talk publicly and enthusiastically about their efforts to build a better world. But to Anand Giridharadas — Editor-at-Large at TIME ...
06.07.2019 The Daily: The Rise of Nationalism Across the Globe In this week's podcast, we hosted a live conversation from "The Daily", The New York Times' flagship podcast. In an event in partnership with The New York Times, we were joined by the podcast's host Michael Barbaro, as well as ...
05.31.2019 Identity Politics Is Tearing Society Apart Is identity politics, with its emphasis on gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation, sowing division? Or is it a call for social justice for everyone? On 22nd May 2019 we were joined by a panel of experts to debate the motion ...
05.24.2019 The Victorians Who Made Britain: Jacob Rees-Mogg vs Tristram Hunt For Jacob Rees-Mogg the 19th century was a golden era. It was a time of moral certainty, of a global vision for Great Britain, and a confidence in the essential goodness of our great nation. And it is a period ...
05.17.2019 Jennifer Eberhardt and Razia Iqbal on the Psychology of Racial Bias For this week's episode of the Intelligence Squared podcast we were joined by Jennifer Eberhardt, Social Psychologist at Stanford University and author of Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do. In a wide-ranging interview ...
05.10.2019 Eric Kaufmann and Razia Iqbal on the End of White Majorities In this week's podcast we were joined by Eric Kaufmann, Birkbeck politics professor and author of Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration and the Future of White Majorities, in conversation with the BBC's Razia Iqbal. In a challenging and wide-ranging conversation, they discussed ...
05.03.2019 Steven Pinker and David Runciman on Optimism, Enlightenment and Progress In this episode of the Intelligence Squared podcast we were joined by Steven Pinker, cognitive psychologist and author of Enlightenment Now, in conversation with Cambridge University's David Runciman. They discussed the advances made in our societies over the last several ...
04.26.2019 Adam Higginbotham and Evan Ratliff on the Untold Story of Chernobyl In this episode of the Intelligence Squared podcast, released on the 33rd anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, journalist and author Evan Ratliff was joined by Adam Higginbotham, author of Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear ...
04.19.2019 Julia Shaw and Rosamund Urwin on the Science Behind Humanity's Dark Side In this episode of the Intelligence Squared podcast we were joined by Julia Shaw the psychologist and author of Making Evil, alongside Rosamund Urwin of the Sunday Times, in a wide-ranging exploration of evil — why do humans do and ...
04.12.2019 Thomas Friedman On The World In 2019 Earlier this month we were joined by Thomas Friedman as he brought his wisdom and insight to the world’s current predicaments: How should the West respond to an emboldened China? How do we rebuild the global economy so that it ...
04.05.2019 Viral Sensation Rutger Bregman On How Utopian Ideas Can Become Reality This week's episode features Rutger Bregman, historian and author of Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There. In conversation with Helen Lewis, associate editor of the New Statesman, he discusses subjects ranging from Universal Basic Income, the benefits ...
03.29.2019 How I Found My Voice: Rose McGowan This week's episode is something a little different: an episode of Intelligence Squared's new podcast How I Found My Voice. How I Found My Voice is the podcast that explores how some of the world's greatest artists and thinkers became ...
03.22.2019 Nationalism is a Delusion: Our Futures Depend on Ever Closer Union This week's episode of the Intelligence Squared podcast is a special episode produced by Intelligence Squared Germany in collaboration with the ECFR. Arguing for the motion "Nationalism is a Delusion: Our Futures Depend on Ever Closer Union" were Polish politician ...
03.15.2019 Letters That Changed The World Following on from Intelligence Squared’s acclaimed events on great speeches and poetry, when Carey Mulligan, Simon Russell Beale, Helena Bonham Carter and other stars took to our stage, we now present Letters That Changed The World, based on award-winning historian ...
03.08.2019 On The Brink Of A No-Deal Brexit: The Town Hall Debate Britain is now facing one of the biggest constitutional crises in its history. As Brexit looms, Intelligence Squared staged a special town hall meeting with some of the country’s most prominent political leaders. We were joined on stage by former ...
03.01.2019 China: Friend or Foe? Is China, with its unfair trade policies and shameless theft of intellectual property, an enemy that needs to be reined in? Or is it in the West’s best interests to view China as a strategic partner and aim for mutual ...
02.22.2019 Blame Liberals For the Rise of Populism Have the left’s policies of high immigration and multiculturalism caused the disaffection which has given rise to populism? Or is it the right, with its tabloid scare stories about foreigners eroding national identity? We were joined by Matthew Goodwin, Professor ...
02.15.2019 David Wootton and Giles Fraser on the Philosophy of Profit, Power and Pleasure This week's episode of the Intelligence Squared podcast features David Wootton, historian and author of Power, Pleasure, and Profit, in a wide-ranging conversation with the journalist and Anglican priest Giles Fraser. They examined the four centuries of Western thought — ...

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