Intelligence Squared

The literal translation of amateur is ‘lover of’ so why is it a word so often steeped in derogatory overtones? Why, when we’re asked for our hobbies, are we inclined to diminish their status in our lives? Our hobbies make us human. From pottery, to geo-guessing; orienteering to stamp collecting; it is in these small, often quiet, building blocks of life that we so often find true meaning and connection.

In this episode, Kamal Ahmed is joined by the editor of Prospect Magazine, and amateur pianist Alan Rusbridger; Senior Partner at Slaughter and May and composer Steve Cooke; comedian, writer and Adult Fan of LEGO Emma Kennedy; and, ex-property developer turned golfer extraordinaire Mark Gershinson to discuss the joy of part-time pursuits and being an amateur.

Join us for a conversation that seeks to reinvigorate the concept of the hobby and renew it with it’s true meaning: hobbies, from the run of the mill to the absurd, are about our passions; they are about self-discovery; and about building a life that fulfils us and provides contentment. Whether you’re a relentless hobbyist or have been prevaricating about booking that first violin lesson, this episode is for you: remember, it’s never too late to start.

For more information about Y TREE please visit https://www.y-tree.com/ 

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We have some really exciting news for you, we've launched a brand new podcast – Intelligence Squared Arts & Culture.

Join us every week as we delve into the artistic and cultural moments, movements and conversations that have shaped, and are still shaping, our world.

Over the years we’ve produced hundreds of Arts and Culture debates, live events, discussions and interviews, working with some of the world's greatest minds, including Kate Winslet, Salman Rushdie, Helena Bonham Carter, Christopher Hitchens, Bernardine Evaristo, Tom Hiddleston, Stephen Fry and many others.

Search Intelligence Squared Arts & Culture, wherever you get your podcasts.

This podcast was produced and edited by Executive Producer Rowan Slaney

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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]. 

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.

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International Women's Week on Intelligence Squared. Feminism is not a monolith; often in the western world to help understand the history of feminism we refer to the model of the different waves of feminism, which sets out to define the trajectory of certain fights and milestones, such as the right to vote and access to contraception. But what does this version of history include and who does it exclude? In this discussion, Professor Lucy Delap from the University of Cambridge, and Shreeta Lakhani from SOAS University of London, discuss the societal structures around the world which have oppressed women throughout history, as well as the intersection of the state and feminism, and the need to recognise the pluralistic nature of feminism in order to achieve a better future for everyone. Our host for this conversation is broadcaster and academic Philippa Thomas

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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]. 

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

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International Women's Week on Intelligence Squared. On this episode we’re hearing a compilation from our award-winning podcast series How I Found My Voice which explores how some of the world's greatest artists and thinkers became such compelling – and unique – communicators. Our host for the series, BBC journalist Samira Ahmed, revisits conversations with writers Margaret Atwood, Bernardine Evaristo and Elif Shafak, actors Kate Winslet, Rose McGowan and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, singer Paloma Faith, Labour politician and Member of Parliament Jess Phillips, businesswoman Gina Miller, and comedian Katharine Ryan. 

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International Women's Week on Intelligence Squared. There are seven necessary sins for women and girls, that's according to Egyptian writer and activist Mona Eltahawy. Anger, ambition, profanity, violence, attention, lust, and power, are all attributes that the patriarchy sees as vices for women, she says, but these should be harnessed as virtues. On this episode of the podcast, which was recorded in 2021, Mona was joined in conversation by physicist and broadcaster Helen Czerski to discuss how women and girls can tap into their inner fury, and rather than surviving the patriarchy, they can dismantle it.

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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]. 

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.

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International Women's Week on Intelligence Squared. "My pen is the wing of a bird; it will tell you those thoughts we are not allowed to think, those dreams we are not allowed to dream." On this episode we hearing about, and from, the Afghan women who are telling their own stories, in their own words. In 2022, when this conversation was recorded, the first anthology of fiction written by Afghan women was published in English by UNTOLD, a writer development programme for marginalised writers in areas of conflict and post-conflict. In this episode we hear from three women from the UNTOLD writers programme - Lucy Hannah, founder of UNTOLD; Zarghuna Kargaar journalist, translator, and author; and Marie Bamyani, contributing author to the anthology. Hosting this discussion is Halima Kazem, Afghanistan Oral Histories Project Manager at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and the Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California Santa Cruz. 

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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]. 

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.

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International Women's Week on Intelligence Squared. Equality is no longer enough, women need equity - that's the message of former US 5000m champion, Lauren Fleshman who joins us on this episode of the podcast to speak about the vital need for the world of sport to be reimagined for women. In conversation with host Sophie Penney, sports journalist for Reuters and The Athletic, Lauren looks back at her own career to examine the damaging mental and physical effects of young women being trained in line with the physiological development of a male body, the financial realities of being a professional female athlete, and what it means to be a successful athlete.

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International Women’s Week on Intelligence Squared. Change is never easy, it requires putting up a fight, going against the status quo, and if you’re a woman - this may require you to be difficult. In 2020 Helen Lewis, staff writer for The Atlantic, joined us on stage to discuss the lives of some of history’s complicated and contradictory fighters for female freedom, and their refusal to conform to societal expectations. Helen was joined by Caroline Criado Perez, journalist and author of Invisible Women, which is now also a podcast. And the conversation was chaired by broadcaster Samira Ahmed who had just won the employment tribunal she brought against the BBC in a dispute over equal pay. Together they examine why women who challenge the status quo are often seen as threatening or intimidating and why the fight for change is far from perfect.

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International Women’s Week on Intelligence Squared. On this episode we hear from some of the women who helped sparked the 2017 MeToo movement. Jodi Kantor and Meghan Twohey are the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalists who first broke the story of Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual misconduct with dozens of Hollywood’s most elite actresses. The journalists were joined on stage by three women who had previously worked with Weinstein and broke their long-buried, and legally bound, silence over his sexual abuse allegations; Rowena Chiu - Former assistant to Harvey Weinstein; Laura Madden - Former production executive at Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax Films London; and Zelda Perkins - Former assistant to Harvey Weinstein and a campaigner against non-disclosure agreements. In this conversation they recount their work to publish a story which had been silenced for decades and how this sparked a movement for societal change. Our host for this conversation was Carrie Gracie, Former BBC China Editor and author of Equal: A Story of Women, Men and Money. This recording took place in central London in 2019 as part of the series “Intelligent Times” – a partnership between Intelligence Squared and The New York Times.

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For the Sunday Debate this week, a dip back into the archive to 2019 when we partnered with Waitrose to invite three of the UK’s top wine experts to settle a rivalry for the ages: the so-called Old World vs New World. Which region makes the best wine? Representing the Old World – wine producers such as France, Italy, Spain and Germany – was the award-winning writer and broadcaster Jancis Robinson, wine columnist for the Financial Times and a qualified Master of Wine. Fighting for the modernising spirit of the New World – that’s regions such as California, Australia, South Africa and Chile – was Oz Clarke, presenter, author and a winner of British Wine Taster of the Year. Our host for the debate was Amelia Singer, wine writer, broadcaster and founder of Amelia’s Wine. 

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Did you know that Intelligence Squared offers way more than podcasts? We’ve just launched a new 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 hottest topics. Tune in to live events, ask your questions or watch back on-demand totally ad-free with hours of discussion to dive into for just £14.99 a month. Visit intelligencesquaredplus.com to start watching today. 

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