The EI Podcast

By Engelsberg IdeasArts Books Government History

The EI Podcast episodes

October 23, 2025 The growing-pains of Graham Greene
Critic Malcolm Forbes investigates Graham Greene's troubled childhood. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Read the original essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-growing-pains-of-graham-greene/.
Image: Graham Greene in 1940. Credit: Everett Collection Historical / Alamy Stock Photo
23 min
October 16, 2025 The Slavic War according to Stalin
Historian Luka Ivan Jukic explores how Stalin hijacked the Slavic cause to forge the Soviet Empire. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Read the original essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-slavic-war-according-to-stalin/.
Image: A poster celebrating Stalin at the Russian State Library, Moscow. Credit: Album / Alamy Stock Photo
27 min
October 09, 2025 A warning to the young: just say no to AI
Aaron MacLean, host of the School of War podcast, on AI's threat to the life of the mind. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Read the original essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/a-warning-to-the-young-just-say-no-to-ai/.
Image: The Library Hall of the Upper Lusatian Library of Sciences. Credit: Petr Svarc / Alamy Stock Photo
14 min
October 02, 2025 The Slow Horses are Britain’s perfect spies
Alastair Benn on the magic of Mick Herron’s Slough House series.

Image: Still from Apple TV's Slow Horses. Credit: LANDMARK MEDIA / Alamy Stock Photo
15 min
September 25, 2025 Stephen Kotkin on a new age of warfare
EI's Paul Lay discusses a world order in flux with Stephen Kotkin, historian and biographer of Stalin.

Image: A Canadian soldier during a NATO-led operation. Credit: Associated Press
1 hr 9 min
September 18, 2025 The Great French Songbook
Why do people the world over enjoy listening to songs sung in French? Critic Muriel Zagha illuminates the living tradition of French chanson.
Read the original essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-great-french-songbook/.
Image: Juliette Gréco, the French actress and singer. Credit: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo
17 min
September 11, 2025 Our attention dilemma is age-old
Alastair Benn explores an attention dilemma that has haunted western thought for centuries. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Read the original essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/our-attention-dilemma-is-age-old/.
Image: Detail from Echo and Narcissus by John William Waterhouse, 1903. Credit: SuperStock / Alamy Stock Photo
14 min
September 04, 2025 How the state can do more for less
Historian David Cowan explains how radical reform can reshape the state. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Read the original essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/how-the-state-can-do-more-for-less/.
Image: A political caricature, 'Political Dreams, Visions of Peace, Perspective Horrors', by James Gillray of Pitt the Younger. Credit: INTERFOTO / Alamy Stock Photo
16 min
August 28, 2025 The espionage revolution
David Omand, ex-head of GCHQ, the British government's world-renowned cyber agency, explores how intelligence officers exploit the latest technological advances.
Read the original essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-espionage-revolution/.
Image: Digital espionage is on the rise. Credit: Stu Gray / Alamy Stock Photo
17 min
August 21, 2025 Graham Greene's Vietnam
EI's Alastair Benn and Paul Lay are joined by Jonathan Esty, of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, to discuss Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, published 70 years ago, a gripping novel that captures the passing of the baton from the old colonial powers to the new masters in South-East Asia.

Image: French paratroops at the beginning of the First Indochina War. Credit: Keystone Press
1 hr

About The EI Podcast

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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.