The EI Podcast

By Engelsberg IdeasArts Books Government History

The EI Podcast episodes

May 28 Muslims and Jews' shared inheritance
Marc David Baer speaks to EI’s Paul Lay about his new book 'Children of Abraham: The Story of Jewish-Muslim Relations', and the deep historical connection between two faiths, bound by common roots.
Image: Tiles at Ali Ben Youssef Medersa in Marrakech, Morocco. Credit: Stelios Michael.
43 min
May 26 Finding Turkey in Narnia
Re-reading CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, Hannah Lucinda Smith discovers glimmers of the culture and history of the Turkic peoples in the author's work. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Read the essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/finding-turkey-in-narnia/
Image: Puffin paperback editions of the Narnia tales by author CS Lewis. Credit: NearTheCoast.com / Alamy Stock Photo
18 min
May 21 The life and legacy of Steve Schapiro
Filmmaker Maura Smith discusses Steve Schapiro: Being Everywhere, her documentary on the photographer who captured modern America.
Image: Steve Schapiro in the 1960s. Credit: Steve Schapiro
38 min
May 18 Agent Zo, the spy who saved Poland
Elżbieta Zawacka, who played a key role in the Home Army’s resistance efforts, was one of the most highly decorated women in Polish history. Clare Mulley assesses her legacy. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Read the essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/portraits/agent-zo-the-spy-who-saved-poland/.
Image: Monument to Agent Zo. Credit: Alamy
14 min
May 14 Lewis and Clark’s American Odyssey
Craig Fehrman speaks to EI’s Max Mitchell about his new book ‘This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis & Clark’, shedding light on one of America’s founding myths.
Image: ‘America in the Making: Lewis and Clark’ by Newell Convers Wyeth (1938). Credit: Alamy
1 hr 1 min
May 11 Why powerful individuals are dominating politics
From Xi Jinping in China to Narendra Modi in India and Donald Trump in the US, Nicholas Wright explores how powerful leaders are reshaping the rules of the global great game. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Read the original essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/why-powerful-individuals-are-dominating-politics/.
Image: Caspar David Friedrich’s ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog’. Credit: incamerastock
18 min
May 07 Weimar’s descent into darkness
How did Weimar, the town of Goethe and Schiller, become the crucible of Germany's moral collapse? Katja Hoyer, author of Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe, speaks to EI's Alastair Benn about the town's role in the rise of the Third Reich.
Image: Adolf Hitler at the ‘Haus Elephant’ in Weimar, 1936. Credit: Alamy
1 hr 4 min
May 05 The civilising wonders of wine
Amid the rise of individualistic technologies and weight-loss drugs, there has been a steady decline in alcohol consumption in Western societies. Yet, Henry Jeffreys argues that this is no good thing. Instead, it suggests a gradual weakening of a shared civilisational inheritance. This audio essay is read by Leighton Pugh.
Read it here: https://engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the-civilising-wonders-of-wine/.
Image: Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s ‘Luncheon of the Boating Party’. Credit: Maidun Collection
12 min
April 30 Can Europe thrive in a multipolar world?
Mark Leonard, co-founder and director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, speaks to EI’s Jack Dickens about Europe’s place in a changing world order.
Image: The EU flag in Siracusa, Sicily. Credit: Alamy
54 min
April 27 The long shadow of the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials
In the courtrooms of Nuremberg and Tokyo, the victorious Allies declared that civilisation must not merely win wars but also judge them, leaving a legal and moral legacy that persists to this day. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: The defendants at the Nuremberg Trial in 1946. Credit: PictureLux / The Hollywood Archive.
28 min

About The EI Podcast

From the publisher's feed

The EI Podcast brings you weekly conversations with leading writers, thinkers and historians. Hosted by Alastair Benn, Jack Dickens and Paul Lay. Produced by Max Mitchell.