Intelligence Squared

This episode is part two of our live Bach vs Beethoven. The BBC’s Reeta Chakrabarti was joined by world-renowned cellist Steven Isserlis and acclaimed music critic Norman Lebrecht to discuss who was greater, Bach or Beethoven? Mishka Rushdie Momen accompanies this conversation on the piano. Part three of this event is available ad free, for subscribers now.  This conversation took place in April 2023. It was produced by Executive Producer Hannah Kaye, with editing by Lead Producer Catharine Hughes — 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 podcasts@intelligencesquared.com or Tweet us @intelligence2.  And if you’d like to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, as well as ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content, early access and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared today. Just visit intelligencesquared.com/me

Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven are without doubt two of the most sublime musical geniuses who ever lived. But which of the two was the greater?  To battle it out In part one of this live event, Intelligence Squared brought to the stage two celebrated figures from the world of music: world-renowned cellist Steven Isserlis for Bach and acclaimed music critic Norman Lebrecht for Beethoven.  The event was hosted by the BBC’s Reeta Chakrabarti, with Mishka Rushdie Momen on the piano. Part two and three of this event are available ad free, for subscribers now. And for our listeners who don’t subscribe part 2 will be available in our next episode.  This conversation took place in April 2023. It was produced by Executive Producer Hannah Kaye, with editing by Lead Producer Catharine Hughes — 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 podcasts@intelligence

With roots in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, ballroom culture evolved into a vibrant movement that has since been a haven of self-expression, creativity, and community for the LGBTQ individuals, particularly those from the black and latino community. It's a world of flamboyant fashion, fierce competition, and above all, a celebration of identity. In this episode, we're not just exploring the sequins and voguing, we're delving deeper. We discuss the significant impact of ballroom culture on popular culture and its commodification in the mainstream, and we address its crucial role as a form of protest and its influence on the fight for LGBTQ rights and acceptance. And the Category Is…Inside New York’s Vogue, House, and Ballroom Community, By Ricky Tucker — 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 podcasts@intelligencesquared.com or Tweet us @intelligence

When writer and musician Eliza Hull was pregnant with her first child, like most parents-to-be she felt a mix of nerves and excitement. But as a disabled person she faced added complexities. Would the pregnancy be too hard? Would people judge her? Would she cope with the demands of parenting? On May 24th, 2023, Hull came to Intelligence Squared with host, writer, and campaigner Lucy Webster, where they discussed the themes of Hull's new book, 'We've Got This: Essays By Disabled Parents.' The anthology explores the highs and lows of their parenting journeys, showing that often the greatest obstacles lie in other people's attitudes. This event was produced by Executive Producer Hannah Kaye with editing by Executive Producer Rowan Slaney. — 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 podcasts@intelligencesquared.com or Tweet us @intelligence2.  And if you’d like to

In this episode we bring you our event ‘The Battle for Your Brain’, recorded on the 2nd of May 2023. Imagine a world where people who suffer from epilepsy receive alerts moments before a seizure, where the average person can peer into their own mind to eliminate painful memories and we can easily cure addictions. This is also a world where your brain could be interrogated to learn your political beliefs, your thoughts can be used as evidence of a crime, and your own feelings can be held against you.  One of the world’s foremost experts on the ethics of neuroscience, Professor Nita Farahany claims that neuroscience has already made all of this possible today, and neurotechnology will soon become the ‘universal controller’ for all of our interactions with technology. According to Farahany, the growth of commercial neurotechnology could be of immense benefit to humanity, but without safeguards, it could seriously threaten our fundamental human rights to privacy, freedom of thought and self-determination.  With o

Whether it's skiing in Afghanistan, eating lobster in Cuba, or a package tour in North Korea - here are some things to consider for when you plan your next holiday.  In this episode of the podcast we explore the ethical boundaries of travel and tourism to countries under a repressive regime. Is it justifiable to travel to such places, potentially aiding oppressive governments with tourism dollars? Or, could these visits serve as a crucial bridge, creating an avenue for dialogue and cultural exchange, and an opportunity for the outside world to witness the realities on the ground? Our host for this episode is Philippa Thomas, and our guests are James Willcox, Suki Kim, and Evan Dyer. — 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 podcasts@intelligencesquared.com or Tweet us @intelligence2.  And if you’d like to get ad-free access to all Intelligence Squared podca

In this episode we bringing you the recording of our event ‘Tory Nation: How One Party Took Over’, recorded on the 10th of May 2023. The Conservative Party has been in power in the United Kingdom since 2010, stumbling its way through corruption scandals, the turmoil of Brexit, a pandemic, and five prime ministers. And yet it has won the last four elections in a row. How? With host Commissioning Editor and Writer at the New Statesman, Will Lloyd, Samuel Earle came to Intelligence Squared to shed light on the Conservatives’ remarkable grip on power throughout history. Drawing from his new book ‘Tory Nation’, Earle explored the Conservatives’ ruling class origins in the eighteenth century, their influence on the British press and their historic appeal to working class voters to piece together the reasons for their political success.  To hear the full length episode of this event and to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, head to intelligence Squared.com/members to become a m

To mark the passing of one of Britain's most celebrated writers, we’re replaying an event recorded with us in November 2020. Martin Amis was often called the Mick Jagger of the British book world. As famous for his love affairs, his friendships and his complicated family history as for his dazzling prose, he dominated the literary scene for decades.  In this exclusive Intelligence Squared event, made in partnership with Penguin Live, he speaks about his much anticipated autobiographical novel Inside Story. It is perhaps Amis’s most intimate book, a meditation on love, loss, ageing and death. We encounter the vivid characters who have helped define Amis – his father Kingsley, his literary hero Saul Bellow, the poet Philip Larkin and his novelist stepmother Elizabeth Jane Howard.  And of course there is his lifelong friend and conversation partner, Christopher Hitchens, whose death from cancer he chronicles in some of the tenderest prose he has ever written.  In conversation with novelist Alex Preston, Amis ref

This episode is part two of our live event on the end of the war in Ukraine. In March 2023, the BBC’s Clive Myrie, was joined by four leading historians, Orlando Figes, Max Hastings, Anne Applebaum, and Olesya Khromeychuk, to discuss when - and how - this almost decade-long conflict could end. Part two and three of this event are available ad free, for subscribers now. And for our listeners who don’t subscribe part 2 will be available in our next episode.  This conversation is part of Intelligence Squared’s live debate partnership with the Southbank Centre. 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 podcasts@intelligencesquared.com or Tweet us @intelligence2.  And if you’d like to get ad-free access to all Intelligence Squared podcasts, including exclusive bonus content, early access to new episodes and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared

With the Russian army struggling to make gains in Eastern Ukraine and the devastating impact of the war taking its toll, many are wondering if Vladimir Putin’s war may be nearing an end point, and what a realistic end to this conflict may look like. In part one of this live event the BBC’s Clive Myrie, was joined by four leading historians, Orlando Figes, Max Hastings, Anne Applebaum, and Olesya Khromeychuk, to discuss when - and how - this almost decade-long conflict could end. Part two and three of this event are available ad free, for subscribers now. And for our listeners who don’t subscribe part 2 will be available in our next episode.  This conversation took place in March 2023 and is part of Intelligence Squared’s live debate partnership with the Southbank Centre. 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 podcasts@intelligencesquared.com or Tweet us

Human beings have been telling stories for thousands of years, but what actually makes for a good story? Authors have been trying to settle on the great principles of compelling writing for as long as people have been writing. Yet, as Deepa Anappara and Taymour Soomro argue, something has gone amiss in these manuals on the art of storytelling: they have tended to privilege a Western perspective. Anappara and Soomro came to Intelligence Squared to talk about their new anthology, Letters to a Writer of Colour, in which they ask us to critically examine the assumptions that shape the way we think fiction should be written. What might fiction look like if we considered alternative ways of constructing narratives that were grounded in the experiences of a person of colour? Together with with two of the contributors to the collection, Sharlene Teo and Leila Aboulela, they explored one of the things we all have a primal need for – stories, and lots of different kinds of them. This podcast was recored on the 4th of A

In this episode we're joined by renowned economist and China expert Keyu Jin to ask whether the West really understands it's biggest geopolitical and economic rival?  Keyu Jin was born in China and educated in the United States. She's now a professor of eco­nomics at the London's LSE and author of The New China Playbook which seeks to dispel myths about China's economy and people. You may remember her from our 2019 debate ‘China: Friend or Foe?’ and she joins us again today with Gideon Rachman, Chief Foreign Affairs commentator for the Financial Times. This podcast was Recorded on the 12th of May 2023 in London and was co-produced by Senior Producer Conor Boyle and the The Rachman Review podcast team at the Financial Time. Editing was by Executive Producer Rowan Slaney. —- Our listeners are the heart of Intelligence Squared, and we're always eager to hear from you. Let us know what you'd like us to talk about next, who you think we should invite as guests, and what debates you'd like to hear in the future. Yo

In an age where the line between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation seems ever more blurred, can anyone actually own a culture? In this conversation acclaimed author and public intellectual Martin Puchner explains that the history of mankind has always been a story of borrowing from one another and that this is something to be celebrated, not lamented. The idea of ownership implicit in debates about cultural appropriation, he argues, presents an insular tale about how culture evolves — flattening out the complicated textures of human history and, in the end, what truly makes us us. Our host for this discussion is Edward Wilson Lee, fellow and lecturer at Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Louise Perry has been described as the most influential young feminist in Britain. She claims in her book The Case Against the Sexual Revolution that the contemporary world of rough sex, hook-up culture and ubiquitous porn is harming women and she calls for a radical challenge to what she sees as the failed liberal feminism of the 20th century. Meanwhile writer Mary Harrington argues that the belief in the progressive march of history is misguided and that new technology, far from liberating women, has trapped them into commodifying their bodies in the false belief that they are empowering themselves. In this conversation hosted by Alice Thompson, columnist and interviewer at The Times, they present their case for why they think progress is at odds with feminism.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mikhail Shishkin is one of the most celebrated living Russian novelists and the only author to have won all three major Russian literary prizes. All his books have been adapted for the stage in Russia and they have been translated into 30 languages. In conversation with historian Victor Sebastyen Shishkin traces the roots of Russia’s problems, from Kievan Rus via the Grand Duchy of Moscow, empire, revolution and the Cold War to the now thirty-year-old Russian Federation. He explores the uneasy relationship between the Russian state and its citizens, and set out his view that there are really two Russian peoples: the disillusioned and disaffected, who suffer from what he calls a slave mentality, and those who embrace so-called European values and try to stand up to oppression. And he addresses the most vital question of all: Will Russia continue its vicious circle of upheaval and autocracy, or will its people find a way out of history? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode we bring you part two of our live event, 'How To Win Every Argument,' with renowned interviewer and debater Mehdi Hasan. Hosted by columnist, author, and broadcaster Jonathan Freedland, Hasan shares his tips and techniques for mastering the art of persuasion, which he explores in-depth in his new book 'Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking.' From Demosthenes to Elizabeth Warren, Hasan examines the historical importance of arguing and explains how we can all improve our communication skills. Part one of this event came out in our last episode and is available now to all our listeners. Do take a listen to that first if you can. Part three is available exclusively to subscribers, along with a special bonus episode from our series Bright Sparks, where we’ll be hearing from Mehdi on the creative ideas that make him tick. This event originally took place at Conway Hall on the 23rd of March 2023, and was produced by Executive Producer Hannah Kaye, with editing by Ex

In this episode we bring you part one of our live event, 'How To Win Every Argument,' with renowned interviewer and debater Mehdi Hasan. Hosted by columnist, author, and broadcaster Jonathan Freedland, Hasan shares his tips and techniques for mastering the art of persuasion, which he explores in-depth in his new book 'Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking.' From Demosthenes to Elizabeth Warren, Hasan examines the historical importance of arguing and explains how we can all improve our communication skills. Part two and three of this event are available for subscribers, ad free, now. And for our listeners who don’t subscribe part 2 will be available in our next episode. We also have a special bonus episode for subscribers from our series Bright Sparks, where we’ll be hearing from Mehdi on the creative ideas that make him tick. This event originally took place at Conway Hall on the 23rd of March 2023, and was produced by Executive Producer Hannah Kaye, with editing by Executiv

The episode is part two of our live event, System Error: Should We Fix Capitalism or Abandon It? Here Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times, Martin Wolf and Greek politician and Economist Yanis Varoufakis continue their debate on the future of capitalism. In his new book, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, Wolf argues that democratic capitalism remains the best system for human flourishing, while Varoufakis advocates for a post-capitalist world without banks, billionaires, or tech giants. BBC journalist and broadcaster, Ritula Shah, was our host for the night. Part one of this event came out in our last episode and is available now to all our listeners. Do take a listen to that first if you can. Part three is available exclusively to subscribers, along with a special bonus episode from our series Bright Sparks, where we’ll be hearing from both Yanis and Martin on the creative ideas that make them tick. This event originally took place at the Tabernacle in London on February 9th 2023 and was pro

This episode brings you part one of our live event, System Error: Should We Fix Capitalism or Abandon It? Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times, Martin Wolf, and Greek Politician and Economist, Yanis Varoufakis, debate their views on the future of capitalism. In his new book, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, Wolf argues that democratic capitalism remains the best system for human flourishing, while Varoufakis advocates for a post-capitalist world without banks, billionaires, or tech giants. BBC journalist and broadcaster, Ritula Shah, was our host for the night. Parts two and three of this event are available ad-free for subscribers now. For our listeners who don’t subscribe, part two will be available in our next episode. We also have a special bonus episode for subscribers from our series Bright Sparks, where we’ll be hearing from both Yanis and Martin on the creative ideas that make them tick. This event originally took place at the Tabernacle in London on February 9th 2023 and was produce

Today we're bringing you some content from our premium monthly newsletter The Monthly Read, which is usually reserved for our subscribers. The Monthly Read is a space for a member of the Intelligence squared team to respond to a book, author, or idea that has recently caught our attention. This month, producer Feyi Adegbite posed the question: ‘Is thin back in?’ in response to our recent conversation with journalist Hadley Freeman on her experience of anorexia, and the growing popularity of weight loss medications like Ozempic. In this episode, voiced by Feyi, we’re sharing the audio version to continue the conversation with our listeners.  If you want to receive our full-length newsletter every month and stay on top of the latest conversations and big ideas then subscribe to Intelligence Squared Premium on Apple Podcasts or here: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/ for ad-free listening, bonus content, early access and much more. For more information please head to https://www.intelligencesquaredplus.com/ Some