Intelligence Squared

Douglas Stuart is one of the most successful writers in Britain today. He is celebrated globally for his honest portrayals of human relationships and working-class life. In 2020 he won the Booker Prize for his debut novel Shuggie Bain, a searingly honest novel set in 1980s Glasgow about a boy named Shuggie trying to save his mother, Agnes, from alcoholism and poverty.

His second novel Young Mungo, a story of the dangerous first love of two young men, was released in 2022 and became a number one Sunday Times Bestseller.

In May 2026, Stuart joined us live in London for an evening on identity, resilience, and the themes of his new novel John of John.

In John of John, Stuart returns to the themes of class, family, masculinity, and sexuality. It is the story of John-Calum Macleod, who returns to his childhood home on the island of Harris. Out of money and with little to show for his art school education, he sinks back into his old life, caught between the two poles of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, weaver, and pillar of their local Presbyterian church, and his Glaswegian grandmother Ella, who has kept a faltering peace with her son-in-law for decades.

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In this episode, journalist Hannah Lucinda Smith speaks with economists Soumaya Keynes and Chad Bown about our new era of global trade wars.

Drawing on their new book How to Win a Trade War, Keynes and Bown shed light on the historical roots of our modern trade infrastructure and how tariffs, export controls and supply chain battles are drastically reshaping the global economy.

The conversation examines the increasingly fraught economic relationship between the US and China, the growing use of economic coercion, and what the future holds for the world stage as countries increasingly treat trade as a strategic weapon rather than a cooperative system.

Soumaya Keynes is an economist and journalist. She is the co-author of How to Win a Trade War and host of the podcast The Economics Show.

Chad Bown is an economist specialising in international trade and economic policy. He served as chief economist at the U.S. Department of State in the Biden administration from January 2024 to January 2025. He is the co-author of How to Win a Trade War.

Hannah Lucinda Smith is a journalist and foreign correspondent reporting on global politics and international affairs.

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What do we lose when a language dies?

Roughly 7,000 languages are spoken around the world today. Over half of them are expected to vanish in the next century – along with the wealth of information they contain, the family ties they represent, and the psychological benefits they confer.

In May 2026 journalist Sophia Smith Galer joined us live to explore how this mass extinction event is one of the most urgent cultural emergencies we’re facing today.

Drawing on her globe-spanning investigation, How to Kill a Language, Smith Galer shed light on linguicide, its root causes, and what we lose when a language dies. From Ghana to Greece, Ukraine to Ecuador, her research ultimately led her back home: to Italy, where piaśintein, the Gallo-Italian language of her grandparents, is on the brink of vanishing forever.

Smith Galer also discussed the communities bringing their languages back, from Kurdish activists in Iran to Karuk campaigners in the forests of California

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What do we lose when a language dies?

Roughly 7,000 languages are spoken around the world today. Over half of them are expected to vanish in the next century – along with the wealth of information they contain, the family ties they represent, and the psychological benefits they confer.

In May 2026 journalist Sophia Smith Galer joined us live to explore how this mass extinction event is one of the most urgent cultural emergencies we’re facing today.

Drawing on her globe-spanning investigation, How to Kill a Language, Smith Galer shed light on linguicide, its root causes, and what we lose when a language dies. From Ghana to Greece, Ukraine to Ecuador, her research ultimately led her back home: to Italy, where piaśintein, the Gallo-Italian language of her grandparents, is on the brink of vanishing forever.

Smith Galer also discussed the communities bringing their languages back, from Kurdish activists in Iran to Karuk campaigners in the forests of California

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How can changing the way we breathe lower stress and blood pressure? Why is touch so important for premature babies and ICU patients? And what can our organs teach us about staying healthy?

Dr Giulia Enders, author of the multimillion-selling Gut, returns with a new book, Organ Speak — an exploration of the lungs, skin, immune system, muscles and brain, and the extraordinary ways our organs work together to keep us alive and well.

In this episode, she joins science communicator Dr Emma Yhnell to discuss how exercise really works, the hidden sophistication of the immune system, why humans evolved to sleep and dream, and whether AI can ever compete with the complexity of the human brain.

Dr Giulia Enders is a physician and author. Her new book, Organ Speak: What it Really Means to Listen to Our Bodies, is available online and in stores now.

Dr Emma Yhnell is an academic and science communicator.

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Are we really alone in the universe?

The question of whether there is extraterrestrial life is one of our oldest questions. And few nations on Earth are more captivated by the prospect of life on Mars than the United States. President Barack Obama recently made headlines by stating he believes aliens are real. And around 41% of Americans believe aliens have made contact with planet Earth.

In May 2026, Orwell Prize-winning journalist Daniel Lavelle joined acclaimed filmmaker and podcaster Jon Ronson to discuss why humans, and Americans in particular, are so obsessed with encountering aliens.

Drawing from Lavelle’s new book, Chasing Aliens, they explored an extraordinary road trip through America’s UFO heartlands – a journey that led Lavelle from fringe believers and interdimensional crystal rituals at the clandestine Skinwalker Ranch, all the way to Harvard astrophysicists and the corridors of government itself. He revealed what he found: not just the truth about UFOs, but something far more unexpected – a deeply moving story about loneliness, belief, and our unshakeable need not to be alone in the cosmos.

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If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full ad free conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more.

For £4.99 per month you'll also receive:

- Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts

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- 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events 

... 

Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99:

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Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access.

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Are we really alone in the universe?

The question of whether there is extraterrestrial life is one of our oldest questions. And few nations on Earth are more captivated by the prospect of life on Mars than the United States. President Barack Obama recently made headlines by stating he believes aliens are real. And around 41% of Americans believe aliens have made contact with planet Earth.

In May 2026, Orwell Prize-winning journalist Daniel Lavelle joined acclaimed filmmaker and podcaster Jon Ronson to discuss why humans, and Americans in particular, are so obsessed with encountering aliens.

Drawing from Lavelle’s new book, Chasing Aliens, they explored an extraordinary road trip through America’s UFO heartlands – a journey that led Lavelle from fringe believers and interdimensional crystal rituals at the clandestine Skinwalker Ranch, all the way to Harvard astrophysicists and the corridors of government itself. He revealed what he found: not just the truth about UFOs, but something far more unexpected – a deeply moving story about loneliness, belief, and our unshakeable need not to be alone in the cosmos.

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Image 1: https://www.war.gov/UFO/#NASA-UAP-VM6-Apollo-17-1972

Image 2: https://www.war.gov/UFO/#NASA-UAP-VM6-Apollo-17-1972

"GIMBAL" video: video: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gimbal_The_First_Official_UAP_Footage_from_the_USG_for_Public_Release.webm

"GOFAST" video: Video: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Go_Fast_Official_USG_Footage_of_UAP_for_Public_Release.webm

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This is the first instalment of a two-part episode. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full ad free conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more.

For £4.99 per month you'll also receive:

- Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts

- Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series

- 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events 

... 

Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99:

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Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access.

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Has far-right thinking entered mainstream politics in the UK? 

In 2025, Britain saw its largest-ever far-right rally, following a summer of flag-waving protests. Then, in May 2026, local elections reshaped England’s political landscape: Labour and the Conservatives suffered heavy losses, while Reform UK surged in popularity.

In this episode, author and journalist Daniel Trilling joins academic Sophie Scott-Brown to examine the rise of populist rightwing nationalism and its growing influence on mainstream politics. While Reform UK remains more moderate than parties like Germany’s AfD or Viktor Orbán’s movement in Hungary, Trilling explores its shift to the right on issues such as immigration — and how populist movements tap into feelings of national decline, humiliation, and the desire for strong, authoritarian leadership.

In a wide-ranging conversation, they discuss why populist right politics is gaining ground, the decline of the two-party system, the dangers of our current political moment, and what can be done to change course. 

Daniel Trilling is a journalist and author, who writes about nationalism, migration and human rights for publications including the London Review of Books, the Guardian and the New York Times. His latest book is If We Tolerate This: How the British Establishment Made the Far Right Respectable. 

Sophie Scott Brown is a historian and philosopher specialising in modern intellectual history and political thought.

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What does it mean to mourn a shared life?

In this episode, essayist and novelist Siri Hustvedt speaks to book critic Mythili Rao about Ghost Stories. Her most personal work yet, it is a searing and intimate meditation on grief, memory and enduring love, written in the aftermath of the death of her husband, writer, poet and filmmaker Paul Auster.

Weaving together journal entries, letters, emails and fragments of Auster’s final writing, Hustvedt reflects on four decades of love, intellectual companionship and family life in New York.

Together they discuss grief not as a single event but as an altered experience of time, memory and presence. Hustvedt discusses the role of writing in mourning, the value of nurturing an inner life in an age of constant distraction, and the intersection of personal grief and political dread in contemporary America.

Siri Hustvedt is a novelist, essayist and poet. Her books include What I Loved, The Blazing World and Memories of the Future. Her latest book is Ghost Stories.

Mythili Rao is a journalist, book critic and podcaster.

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If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more.

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World famous astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson joins Dr Radha Modgil to discuss his new book Take Me to Your Leader, exploring the science of alien life, humanity’s obsession with UFOs, and what first contact might actually look like. From Area 51 to Star Wars, Tyson blends humour, science and big existential questions in a conversation about whether we’re truly alone in the universe.

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