Intelligence Squared

Trolling, conspiracy theories, racist algorithms, cyberwarfare – every day our headlines are ablaze with negative stories about the internet. The problem? The unaccountable power of the big tech companies. That’s the view of bestselling author and barrister Jamie Susskind. His new book is The Digital Republic, which sets out his vision for a different type of society in which humans can take power back and reshape the digital world into a space where we can all flourish. Joining Jamie in conversation is another writer and strategic advisor working where culture and technology meet, Nina Schick, author of Deep Fakes and the Infocalypse.

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Activist, academic and author Ibram X. Kendi joins us for a discussion on his new book, How to Raise an Antiracist. It follows his Intelligence Squared talk that took place in 2019 outlining how to implement strategies for tackling racism throughout society as detailed in his National Book Award winning publication from that year, How to Be an Antiracist. The new book takes the conversation further, exploring the lessons that can be taught to younger generations as we try to build a future society that is free from prejudice. Joining Ibram in conversation once more is BBC News journalist and visiting journalism professor at Princeton, Razia Iqbal.

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This event was recorded on the 10th of July 2018 in London

SPEAKERS FOR THE MOTION: Mark Cocker - Author and naturalist and George Monbiot - Guardian columnist, environmental campaigner and author of Regenesis: Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet.

AGAINST THE MOTION: Minette Batters - President of the National Farmers' Union and Rory Stewart Former Conservative government minister, whose new book is Politics On the Edge: A Memoir from Within

CHAIR: Jonathan Dimbleby - Broadcaster, documentary maker and author

Imagine if swathes of the British countryside were allowed to be wild once again, if trees and rare plants could flourish and beavers, boars and white-tailed eagles could retake their place in the ecosystem. That’s the goal of the growing numbers of nature-lovers who support the idea of rewilding Britain’s uplands.

We tend to think of these uplands as ‘wild’ and ‘natural’. But in fact, as the rewilders point out, they are entirely man-made, the result of clearances by man to make way for millions of sheep whose grazing over the last 200 years has rendered the land bare. Sheep farming, once a major source of Britain’s wealth, is now largely uneconomic and depends on billions of pounds of subsidies. But where rewilding is taking place, in Britain and in Europe, a boom in tourism is providing a more sustainable local economy. We must make space for wild nature in places where farming does not make sense.

That’s romantic tosh, say the opponents of rewilding. People matter too, and the idea that we should do away with traditional ways of life for the sake of wild bilberries and wolves is getting things out of proportion. Get rid of the farms in the uplands and you will destroy not just the livelihoods of farmers, shepherds and vets, but also the village schools, shops and pubs that are at the heart of rural communities. Yes, upland sheep farms are subsidised but so is almost every other kind of agriculture. And do we really want rampant scrub to replace peaceful scenes of grazing sheep and gambolling lambs, and introduce dangerous animals who will all too soon encroach upon the outskirts of our towns and villages?

Intelligence Squared brought together four speakers who care passionately about the countryside but disagree profoundly on how we should manage 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. 

Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to [email protected] or Tweet us @intelligence2. 

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What do bees sense in flowers? What do songbirds hear in each others’ tunes? And what’s that smell sending your dog running up the street? These questions and many more are the basis of science communicator Ed Yong's book, An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us. He is a staff writer at The Atlantic magazine and his coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic won the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. He's also the recipient of the George Polk Award for Science Reporting and the author of I Contain Multitudes, his previous book, which became a bestseller. Speaking with Ed on the podcast is Chrissie Giles, Global Health Editor at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London.

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How do we define value? How has this changed over time? And who decides what is deemed valuable? For centuries, society has seen value mainly through an economic lens: one takes a job because of its monetary benefits; marriage is a financially beneficial relationship that enables stability; and the true test of a business is its profit at the end of the year. But is this changing? In recent years, factors such as climate change, social justice and the pandemic have forced us to reconsider how we define value. We are in the era of the Value Revolution.

In this episode, recorded on July 5 at Y TREE's second live event in the Futureverse series, three experts discuss and debate some of the most pressing issues that have arisen as a result of this critical turning point: Will private equity transform the financial industry? Can capitalism really adapt so that things other than monetary value are considered important in business, including fairness and environmental impact? And are we finally seeing a growing awareness that value is not always quantified by a price tag? Some things, such as time, health, job satisfaction and the survival of our planet are surely worth more than a number in a bank account.  

Simon Brewer, host of the award-winning Money Maze Podcast, gives us his thoughts on the dramatic shifts in the economy over the last few decades. Political economist and author Adrienne Buller argues that businesses that engage in sustainability initiatives and ‘green capitalism’ are harming rather than helping the planet. And Lucy Kellaway, former FT columnist, now charity founder, author and maths and economics teacher, offers a fresh way to decide what to prioritise in our personal and professional lives. Expertly hosted by broadcaster Jon Sopel, this is a conversation that is guaranteed to change the way you think about value and worth.

To find out more visit https://www.y-tree.com/futureverse

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Oxford University economist Kate Raworth has been described by the author and environmentalist George Monbiot as, "The John Maynard Keynes of the 21st century." In 2018, she came to Intelligence Squared to talk through the set of ideas that has seen her influential book, Donut Economics, find fans in audiences ranging from members of the UN General Assembly to Pope Francis and Extinction Rebellion. Hosting the discussion was Matthew Taylor, at the time of the interview Chief Executive of the RSA and latterly Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation.

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Created in partnership with Sotheby's, in a debate that spans the centuries, Peabody Award-winning spoken word performer George the Poet and Booker Prize-winning author Howard Jacobson go head-to-head over which form of cultural expression best resonates now and forever. Does hip-hop and slam poetry speak more to society than historical texts that require background knowledge to be fully understood? Or does the lasting appeal of Shakespeare and other great figures from the canon show that some works have a universal value that stands the test of time?

This event was recorded on the 9th of June 2022, at Sotheby's in London and produced by Executive Producer Hannah Kaye and Audience Development Producer Yosola Olorunshola

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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] or Tweet us at @intelligence2. 

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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What is it like to treat some of the most troubled men and women in society? Dr Ben Cave is a forensic psychiatrist whose 35-year career has been spent helping those with mental health conditions ranging from delusional disorders to schizophrenia, steroid abuse, drug dependency, depression and more. His new book, What We Fear Most, explores what can be learnt from these often misunderstood illnesses, the people who suffer from them and those, like Ben, who treat them. Our host for this episode is Poppy Damon, senior producer for Blanchard House.

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In a special programme following the resignation of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister of the UK, we hear from columnist, author and former foreign correspondent Jonathan Freedland, and journalist, author and former editor of The Evening Standard and The Times Simon Jenkins, about where the country is headed next. Our host for the discussion is award-winning journalist and broadcaster Manveen Rana.

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Dr Ruja Ignatova, an Oxford-educated, self-styled cryptocurrency guru, promised her followers a financial revolution through her project: OneCoin. Then, in October 2017, she disappeared. But not before she had duped investors around the world, some of whom are the poorest people in society, into buying up more than $4 billion-worth of OneCoin. Ignatova has been in hiding ever since and was recently added to Europol's most wanted list. Jamie Bartlett is an expert on the politics of the internet and has put the story into a podcast series and now a new book, too: The Missing Cryptoqueen. To talk about it all, he joins our host Carl Miller, Research Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos, and Layla Begum, a business development executive who was one of the many victims of the OneCoin scandal.

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