Intelligence Squared

Kristian Rönn is CEO and co-founder of Normative, a start-up which provides carbon-accounting software for businesses. His young company is official software provider of the UN-backed SME Climate Hub initiative, and he joins economist and broadcaster Linda Yueh to explain how adding up the cost of our impact on the environment needs to start today.

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As Russia amasses tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine’s northern and eastern border fears are mounting that President Putin plans to invade the country. The stakes could not be higher, and each move by both Russia and its military rivals in the West will have potentially catastrophic consequences for the country caught in the crossfire: Ukraine. Is there another option? In this programme, we debate the motion: The West Should Seek a Compromise with Russia Over Ukraine. Joining us to discuss it is Anatol Lieven, Senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Washington DC and author of Ukraine and Russia: A Fraternal Rivalry. We're also joined by Chris Miller, Jeane Kirkpatrick Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of We Shall Be Masters: Russian Pivots to Asia from Peter the Great to Putin. Chair for this debate is Larisa Brown, Defence Editor for The Times.

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Justin Webb is a familiar voice to many radio listeners. He has been co-presenting the BBC’s flagship morning current-affairs show, The Today programme, for over a decade. His new memoir, The Gift of a Radio: My Childhood and other Train Wrecks, is an unflinching but darkly humorous account of an often turbulent upbringing. He joins fellow radio journalist and podcast producer Poppy Damon to discuss the book.

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Professor Guy Leschziner's new book, The Man Who Tasted Words, seeks to shed light on our experiences of the different senses. In the book, Guy meets individuals such as Valeria, for whom music is accompanied by colours and James, after which the book is named: a man who tastes words. The new title follows Guy's previous book on the mysteries of sleep, The Nocturnal Brain. He joins broadcaster, author and science communicator Helen Czerski to talk about it all.

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In business, there are some jobs that are talked about more opaquely in public discourse than others. Think Military Drone Operator or Industrial Slaughterhouse Manager, for example. These are roles that can raise ethical questions that might take longer than a lunch break to explain. Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality, is the new book from American journalist Eyal Press, which explores the nature of some of those harder to justify jobs, which Eyal says are perceived as 'dirty work' by the rest of society. Eyal is joined by Rosamund Urwin, journalist for the Sunday Times, to talk about the book.

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With proposed new legislation in the UK currently making its way through Parliament designed to protect internet users from harmful content, for this week's Intelligence Squared Sunday Debate we ask: can the internet be made safe? Joining us to discuss it is tech writer and podcaster Jamie Bartlett, MP Margaret Hodge and online safety campaigner David Babbs. Our chair for the debate is the investigative reporter and broadcaster, Manveen Rana. This episode contains strong language and themes that some listeners may find distressing. Listener discretion is advised.

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Andrea Elliott is the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and New York Times investigative reporter who spent nearly a decade following the journey of one family living on the poverty line in Brooklyn. Elliott's book, Invisible Child, tells that story, focusing on Dasani Coates, a child moving from homeless shelter to homeless shelter with her tight-knit family. A reflection on the extremities of America's wealth gap between rich and poor and also how racism threads through the country's approach to welfare, the book is also a study on how Dasani has managed to shine while growing up surrounded by adversity. Joining Andrea to discuss the book is novelist Alex Preston, author of In Love and War and As Kingfishers Catch Fire.

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Traditional conflict – fought with guns, bombs, and drones – has become almost too expensive to wage, too unpopular at home, and too difficult to manage. So nations have innovated. Russia wages hybrid warfare on Ukraine. The US threatens Iran with further sanctions. China spends billions buying political influence abroad. The world seems to be heading for a new era of permanent low-level conflict, often unnoticed, undeclared and unending. Mark Galeotti is Honorary Professor at UCL and a specialist in politics, criminology, security studies, international relations and anthropology. His recent book, The Weaponisation of Everything, is a ground-breaking survey of this new way of war. Joining Mark to discuss the book and his work is Carl Miller, Research Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos.

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Mark Zuckerberg may have gone all-in on the concept of the metaverse recently but he's actually a bit late to the conversation. Herman Narula is CEO and co-founder of Improbable, who since 2012 have created the frameworks for building virtual worlds for clients ranging from video-game studios to governments. He joins Carl Miller, Research Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos, to discuss how the metaverse could change the ways we do business in future and why virtual worlds require as much careful consideration as our physical one. 

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The 2022 Winter Olympics have just opened in Beijing. Not for the first time in Olympic history, the Games will begin amid controversy over the host nation. China is regularly criticised over its record on human rights, most recently over its systematic oppression of the Uyghurs, a Muslim minority. Nations such as the US, Canada, Australia and the UK are undertaking a diplomatic boycott of the event, but do boycotts in sports work? Joining us to discuss it is Laura McAllister, Professor of Public Policy at Cardiff University. Laura is Board Director at the Football Association of Wales Trust, Deputy Chair of UEFA's Women's Football Committee and former captain of the national women’s football team of Wales. Joining Laura is Fred Frommer, sports historian, author and writer, who regularly focuses on the intersection of sports and politics for publications including The Washington Post and The New York Times. Hosting the discussion is Andrew Mueller, journalist and foreign affairs specialist, whose own book, Carn, looks at the history of a game dear to his heart: Australian Rules football.

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