The EI Podcast

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The EI Podcast episodes

August 14, 2025 How the Nazis weaponised Charlemagne
Samuel Rubinstein explores how Nazi historiographers sought to present Adolf Hitler as the heir to Charlemagne. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Read the original essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/how-the-nazis-weaponised-charlemagne/.
Image: A large Sèvres presentation plate celebrating Nazism's alleged debt to Charlemagne. Credit: INTERFOTO / Alamy Stock Photo
17 min
August 07, 2025 Why do we get the wrong leaders?
James Vitali reflects on the profound importance of political judgement. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Read the original essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/why-do-we-get-the-wrong-leaders/.
Image: The front door of Number 10 Downing street. Credit: GreatBritishStock.com / Alamy Stock Photo
17 min
July 31, 2025 Why liberal democracies win total wars
Journalist Duncan Weldon reveals how liberal capitalist economies adapt to total war. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Read the original essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/why-liberal-democracies-win-total-wars/.
Image: Second World War-era British propaganda. Credit: Venimages / Alamy Stock Photo
17 min
July 24, 2025 No more Napoleons: British grand strategy in the 19th century
EI’s Paul Lay joins historian Andrew Lambert to discuss his book ‘No More Napoleons: How Britain Managed Europe from Waterloo to World War One', Lambert's provocative new study of how Britain maximised its naval and diplomatic prestige to maintain a stable, post-Napoleonic Europe.

Image: 'A squadron of the Royal Navy running down the Channel' by Samuel Atkins (c. 1760-1810). Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd
51 min
July 17, 2025 The rift that doomed the Confederacy
Historian Katherine Bayford exposes the fractures and contradictions that doomed the Confederacy from within. Read by Leighton Pugh.

FURTHER READING:

The rift that doomed the Confederacy | Katherine Bayford

Image: A statue of Alexander Stephens in the US Congress. Credit: Sipa US / Alamy Stock Photo
30 min
July 10, 2025 The Trial at 100: revisiting Kafka’s prophetic masterpiece
This year marks the centenary of the publication of Franz Kafka’s novel, The Trial - a seminal work that continues to captivate and unsettle its readers. EI’s Alastair Benn and Paul Lay are joined by Karolina Watroba, author of Metamorphoses: In Search of Franz Kafka, to discuss Josef K’s tragic entanglement with a suffocating bureaucracy.

Image: Portrait of Franz Kafka. Credit: history_docu_photo / Alamy Stock Photo
57 min
July 03, 2025 How the Knights Templars conquered Christendom
Historian Nicholas Morton explores how a miracle of marketing brought the Knights Templars to prominence. Read by Leighton Pugh.

FURTHER READING:

The Knights Templars and the pursuit of Christendom | Nicholas Morton

Image: A Victorian illustration of the Knights Templars. Credit: Glasshouse Images / Alamy Stock Photo
21 min
June 26, 2025 The lost art of chorography
The writer Josh Mcloughlin reflects on the art of chorography, one of English literature’s most eccentric and mercurial forms. Read by Leighton Pugh.

FURTHER READING:

The lost art of chorography | Josh Mcloughlin

Image: Renaissance map of Europe showing England. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Phot
25 min
June 19, 2025 1975, the year that made the modern world
Historian Damian Valdez reflects on the meaning of 1975, a fateful year for the international order. Read by Leighton Pugh.

FURTHER READING:

1975, the year that made the modern world | Damian Valdez

Image: A helicopter is pushed off the overcrowded deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hancock (CV-19) off the coast of South Vietnam during the fall of Saigon. Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo
19 min
June 12, 2025 How Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin fought Hitler – and each other
EI’s Paul Lay joins historian Tim Bouverie to discuss ‘Allies at War’, his gripping new book on how Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin’s uneasy alliance led to the end of the Second World War – and reshaped the global order in ways that are still felt today.

Image: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at Yalta. Credit: Niday Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo
43 min

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.