Intelligence Squared

Sexual Revolution: Modern Fascism and the Feminist Fightback, with Laurie Penny

01 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We are in an era of crisis, collapse, and reactionary tyrants, argues Laurie Penny, but we are also witnessing a transformation: a revolutionary chang...

The World for Sale, with Javier Blas and Jack Farchy

30 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has laid bare the West’s reliance on Russian oil and gas. Around 40 per cent of Europe’s gas comes from Russia, whi...

How Britain became Butler to the World, with Oliver Bullough

28 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Bestselling investigative journalist Oliver Bullough discusses his recent book, Butler to the World, which details how Britain became a favoured dest...

The Sunday Debate: Iran Is Not Our Enemy

27 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this debate from the Intelligence Squared archive, we head back to 2020, when we invited journalist and broadcaster Mehdi Hasan, academic and write...

Reflections on Black Consciousness: Lewis Gordon and Paul Gilroy in conversation

26 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Lewis Gordon is a leading philosopher and Department Head at the University of Connecticut who believes that intellectual thought matters ...

The Animal Queendom: Rethinking Zoology, with Lucy Cooke

23 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In his theory of evolution, Charles Darwin cast the female animal as passive, coy, monogamous and submissive: in other words, in the shape of a Victor...

Disorder: Ukraine, Politics and Conflict in the 21st Century, with Helen Thompson

21 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Helen Thompson is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Cambridge, a columnist for The New Statesman, and has been a regular contributor...

The Sunday Debate: Sanctions Won’t Stop Putin

20 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Banks, energy suppliers and oligarchs are just some of the targets that sanctions enforced by the West are looking to put pressure on in order to halt...

The Allure of Abandoned Places, with Cal Flyn

18 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Cal Flyn’s Islands of Abandonment was one of the UK’s bestselling books of 2021. It was the Sunday Times Science and Environment book of the ye...

No Bullsh*t Leadership, with John Simpson

16 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

John Simpson is the BBC’s World Affairs Editor and has dedicated his life to telling stories from the frontline having joined the BBC more than 50 y...

The Mystery of Robert Maxwell, with John Preston

14 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist and author John Preston is a master of storytelling, with his novels The Dig and A Very English Scandal having been snapped up for both Net...

The Sunday Debate: The Robots are Coming and They Will Steal Our Livelihoods

13 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Technology might move fast but the fears surrounding it remain ever-present. Back in 2015 Intelligence Squared gathered both tech evangelists and tech...

Jon Ronson and David Baddiel on Conspiracies, Culture Wars and How Things Fell Apart

11 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Whether it's arguing over cancel culture, mask-wearing or what to do with statues, the culture wars now seem to be a constantly reappearing flashpoint...

Africa to the Americas: Sites of Slavery, Resistance and Civil Rights, with David Harewood and Bonnie Greer

09 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Between 1500 and 1866, 12.5 million enslaved Africans were transported by ship from Africa to the Americas as part of the Middle Passage crossing. Som...

Secrets of the Sprakkar, with Eliza Reid

07 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'Sprakkar' is an ancient Icelandic word meaning extraordinary or outstanding women. It forms the basis of the new book by Eliza Reid, author and co-fo...

Debate: Burgundy vs Bordeaux

06 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Among wine lovers, there is no greater divide than that between Burgundy and Bordeaux. These are the world’s most celebrated wine regions. What sepa...

The Futureverse: From the Ancients to AI

04 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The future. It’s all there, in front of us. It could go wonderfully. Or it could go badly wrong. It will inevitably require our passions and our ing...

The Russia-Ukraine Crisis, with Owen Matthews and Radek Sikorski

03 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist and Russia expert Owen Matthews and Radek Sikorski, former foreign minister of Poland, discuss the biggest crisis Europe has faced since th...

The Art of the Scam, with Rachel Williams and Erlend Ofte Arntsen

02 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anna Delvey and Simon Leviev, now infamously known as The Fake Heiress and The Tinder Swindler, are two characters who have infiltrated pop culture an...

Jackpot: How Gambling Conquered Britain, with Rob Davies

28 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Rob Davies is an investigative journalist for The Guardian and his new book, Jackpot, tells the story of how Britain came to be one of the largest gam...

Chasing the Urge: Addiction Throughout History, with Carl Erik Fisher


25 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Carl Erik Fisher is a psychiatrist, bioethicist and recovering alcoholic who has spent years tracing the history of addiction. His new book is The Urg...

Essays at the Crossroads of Race, with Esi Edugyan

22 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Canadian novelist and writer Esi Edugyan's latest work is a collection of nonfiction writing, Out of the Sun: Essays at the Crossroads of Race. Th...

Business Weekly: Counting the Cost of Climate Change, with Kristian Rönn

21 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Kristian Rönn is CEO and co-founder of Normative, a start-up which provides carbon-accounting software for businesses. His young company is official ...

The Sunday Debate: The West Should Seek a Compromise with Russia Over Ukraine

20 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As Russia amasses tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine’s northern and eastern border fears are mounting that President Putin plans to invade the c...

The Gift of a Radio, with Justin Webb

18 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Justin Webb is a familiar voice to many radio listeners. He has been co-presenting the BBC’s flagship morning current-affairs show, The Today progra...

Exploring the Senses, with Guy Leschziner

15 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Guy Leschziner's new book, The Man Who Tasted Words, seeks to shed light on our experiences of the different senses. In the book, Guy meets ...

Business Weekly: the Jobs We Don’t Talk About, with Eyal Press

14 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In business, there are some jobs that are talked about more opaquely in public discourse than others. Think Military Drone Operator or Industrial Slau...

The Sunday Debate: Can the Internet be made Safe?

13 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With proposed new legislation in the UK currently making its way through Parliament designed to protect internet users from harmful content, for this ...

Survival and Hope in New York City, with Andrea Elliott

11 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Andrea Elliott is the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and New York Times investigative reporter who spent nearly a decade following the journey of one ...

Adapting to the New World of War, with Mark Galeotti

08 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Traditional conflict – fought with guns, bombs, and drones – has become almost too expensive to wage, too unpopular at home, and too difficult to ...

Business Weekly: Into the Metaverse, with Herman Narula

07 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Zuckerberg may have gone all-in on the concept of the metaverse recently but he's actually a bit late to the conversation. Herman Narula is CEO a...

The Sunday Debate: Sports Boycotts Help No One

06 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The 2022 Winter Olympics have just opened in Beijing. Not for the first time in Olympic history, the Games will begin amid controversy over the host n...

Megan Nolan on Acts of Desperation

04 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Megan Nolan’s debut novel, Acts of Desperation, was hailed as a masterpiece by the literary world when it was published in 2021. Searingly honest a...

How We Can Win: Kimberly Jones and Alvin Hall in conversation

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis in 2020 provoked a moment of cultural reckoning in the US and a wave of outr...

Business Weekly: How to design a company, with Dr Naomi Stanford

31 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Naomi Stanford is an expert in creating models to make organisations work better. Having begun in her career creating organisation design for l...

The Sunday Debate: The West Should Work With the Taliban

30 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Since the hardline militant group recaptured the Afghan capital Kabul in August 2021, the question of how Western powers should deal with the Taliban ...

Myth and Legend Reimagined: Charlotte Higgins and Dr Amy Jeffs in conversation

28 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Art historian, printmaker and writer Dr Amy Jeffs is joined in conversation by author and journalist Charlotte Higgins to discuss how ancient myths ...

Standoff in Ukraine: Fiona Hill on the politics that led to a crisis

25 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Foreign policy and national security expert Fiona Hill is a go-to voice in Washington for understanding the longstanding tensions between the US an...

Business Weekly: Connecting the Dots, with Dr Christian Busch

24 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Christian Busch has spent his career studying chance, serendipity, and how to maximise opportunity. He is director of the Center for Global Affai...

The Sunday Debate: Neville Chamberlain Did The Right Thing

23 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As the new film, Munich – The Edge of War, hits Netflix screens starring Jeremy Irons as British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain negotiating o...

The Pandemic on the Page, with Roopa Farooki

21 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Roopa Farooki is a doctor, author and creative-writing lecturer, whose new book, Everything Is True, tells the story of her first 40 days treating pa...

The Untold Story of the Rothschild Women, with Natalie Livingstone

18 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Natalie Livingstone’s recently published book, The Women of Rothschild, tells the lesser known stories of the women who have played pivotal roles in...

Business Weekly: The Future of publishing

17 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Zillah Byng-Thorne is CEO of Future, the UK’s biggest magazine publishing group. With a stable of over 160 titles across print and online including...

The Sunday Debate: It's Time to Break Up Facebook

16 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Whether we call it Facebook or the recently coined Meta, the Silicon Valley tech giant founded by Mark Zuckerberg has rarely been out of the headlin...

Coming of Age at the End of History, with Lea Ypi

14 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Lea Ypi grew up in Albania during the 1980s and 1990s, the last Stalinist outpost in Europe. Almost impossible to visit and nearly impossible to lea...

Liberalism in Dark Times

11 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In today's highly polarised political landscape, Liberalism, somewhere in the middle, often comes under attack from both right and left. Joshua L Ch...

Business Weekly: How influencers break the internet

10 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Olivia Yallop is a strategist, creative and trend analyser, whose new book Break the Internet lifts the lid on how the influencer economy works. She s...

The Sunday Debate: Verdi vs Wagner

09 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Verdi created some of the most beloved operas of all time. Wagner’s music is in an altogether more intellectual sphere. Back in 2013, Stephen Fry ho...

Martin Wolf on the World in 2022

07 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

2022 looks set to be another seismic year. A new Covid-19 variant threatens to prolong the pandemic. A diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olymp...

Poles Apart: Why We Turn Against Each Other

04 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In their recent book, Poles Apart, behavioural scientist Alex Chesterfield, public affairs specialist Laura Osborne and political advisor Ali Goldswor...

Business Weekly: Damian Bradfield, Co-founder of WeTransfer

03 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Damian Bradfield is a tech leader who as co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of WeTransfer steers an essential tool for creatives plus the site's bu...

The Sunday Debate: Austen vs Brontë

02 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Austen created the definitive picture of Georgian England. No writer matches Austen’s sensitive ear for the hypocrisy and irony lurking beneath...

Gloria Estefan on the Latin American Dream

31 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gloria Estefan is one of the most successful female singers ever. With more than 120 million records sold worldwide, three Grammy Awards, and a career...

Satire in an age of absurdity with Armando Iannucci, Jess Phillips and Jan Ravens

28 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Though no laughing matter, the extremes of the Donald Trump presidency made comedians' jobs a little trickier: was the reality more absurd than satire...

Business Weekly: Michael Lewis On How Behavioural Economics Changed The World

27 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Lewis is one of the most successful non-fiction authors alive. In a series of titles that have sold 9 million copies worldwide, he has lifted ...

The Sunday Debate: Shakespeare vs Milton

26 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Nearly four centuries after his death, no writer has matched William Shakespeare’s influence across drama, theatre and poetry but a few have come cl...

How I Found My Voice: Yotam Ottolenghi

24 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Samira Ahmed speaks to the chef Yotam Ottolenghi about his life and career, from discovering his love of food in Jerusalem to his professional partner...

History vs Herstory

21 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We hear from a panel of historians, authors and broadcasters – Hallie Rubenhold, Natalie Livingstone, Dan Jones and chair Saul David – about how w...

Business Weekly: Steering a tech giant with Satya Nadella

20 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Satya Nadella is one of the world’s most inspirational business leaders; as much a humanist as a technologist and executive. In September 2017, he ...

The Sunday Debate: Rembrandt vs Vermeer

19 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We compare the works of two of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age: Rembrandt and Vermeer. Making the case for Rembrandt van Rijn in th...

End of days or a new world order? With Peter Frankopan

17 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Frankopan is Professor of Global History at Oxford University and author of two seminal recent books on the shifting geopolitics of the world: T...

How I Found My Voice: Fatima Bhutto

14 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Samira Ahmed speaks to the author Fatima Bhutto about the power of writing fiction, growing up in one of Pakistan’s most famous political dynasties ...

Business Weekly: How To Reconstruct The Economy After Covid

13 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Former governor of the Bank of England Lord King, global economist Dr Dambisa Moyo and businessman Ian Livingstone join Senior Editor at the Economis...

The Sunday Debate: It's time to bring Russia in from the cold: Rapprochement is in the West's best interests

12 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we’re going back to 2017, with our debate "It's time to bring Russia in from the cold: Rapprochement is in the West's best interests". Fo...

Keeping the faith in the Middle East with Janine di Giovanni

10 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist and author Janine di Giovanni's over the past 30 years has seen her report from the frontlines of some of the most complex and turbulent ...

The Genetic Lottery: DNA demystified with Kathryn Paige Harden

07 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The subject of genetic inheritance provokes passionate debate but behavioural geneticist Kathryn Paige Harden believes both sides are getting it wrong...

Business Weekly: Scaling up success

06 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Andrew Chen is a specialist in growing tech businesses and for his new book, The Cold Start Problem, he has spoken to the founders of companies suc...

The Sunday Debate: Assisted Dying Should Be Legalised

05 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Autonomy, dignity and compassion. We wish to experience these things in our lives, so why shouldn’t we experience them in our deaths? That’s the a...

Wole Soyinka on writing, politics and the power of a novel

03 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been almost 50 years since Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first Nobel laureate for literature, last published a novel. Chronicles Fro...

Nationalism and the Battle for India’s Soul, with Shashi Tharoor

30 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP party came to power in 2014, India has seen an increase in Hindu nationalism and a rise in hostility ...

Business Weekly: The Race for a Vaccine

29 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Kate Bingham is the former Chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce and she's also a shrewd business mind, having been a successful venture capitalist in se...

COP26: Success or Failure for the World?

28 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What now for the world? Governments have reached a climate deal which gets us closer to holding temperatures rises to 1.5C. But a last-ditch effort fr...

Huma Abedin on Hillary Clinton, Anthony Weiner and a Life in Politics

26 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Huma Abedin was Hillary Clinton’s most trusted aide and adviser for many years. Her recently published book, Both/And, reveals the details of that ...

The Sweet Spot: why pain can be a pleasure

23 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We go to movies that make us cry, scream or gag we poke at sores, eat spicy foods and run marathons. Some of us even seek out discomfort and humiliati...

Business Weekly: How To Lead A Sustainable Business – COP26 special with Alannah Weston and Henry Dimbleby

22 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Today's episode comes from the How To Lead a Sustainable Business podcast, brought to you by Selfridges Group and Intelligence Squared. In the podcast...

Will electric vehicles make our roads green and clean?

21 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is part of our Energised series made in partnership with Iberdrola. To hear more search Energised, wherever you get your podcasts. Transp...

Constitutional Rights and Wrongs, with Linda Colley

19 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Linda Colley is the Shelby MC Davis 1958 professor of history at Princeton University and one of the most acclaimed historians of her generation. He...

Black British Lives Matter, with Marcus Ryder MBE

16 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Black British Lives Matter is a new anthology of writing and conversations collecting the experiences of thought leaders in the UK including noveli...

Business Weekly: Nudge Theory and How to Change Behaviours with Richard Thaler

15 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Since the original publication of Nudge more than a decade ago, the word that served as the title of the ground-breaking book has entered the vocabula...

The Sunday Debate: It’s Time to Treat China Like an Adversary not a Partner

14 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We are in a second Cold War with China. That’s the conclusion many experts have come to as they observe China’s increasingly aggressive behaviour ...

COP26: What is Ecocide?

12 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In summer 2021, a global panel of legal scholars and activists drew up a new definition of ecocide: unlawful or wanton acts that could cause widesp...

How Power Changes Us, with Brian Klaas

09 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Does power corrupt, or are corrupt people drawn to power? It’s a question that runs through the heart of the work of Brian Klaas, professor of glob...

Business Weekly: Energy, Inflation and the Markets with Joshua Mahony

08 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this special bonus episode, brought to you in partnership with online trading platform IG, Joshua Mahony, Senior Markets analyst at IG, speaks agai...

The Sunday Debate: Is Labour Unelectable?

07 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Labour Party has been out of power for over a decade. And after a historic electoral defeat in the 2019 general election, the party looks to be in...

COP26: How Women Can Save the Planet, with Anne Karpf

05 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As the COP26 global climate summit takes place, many are asking who is really responsible for the climate emergency and who might be able to prevent i...

How to fix a country, with James Plunkett

02 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

James Plunkett's new book, End State: 9 Ways Society is Broken, draws on his years working in both public policy and at the top tiers of government. ...

Business Weekly: Scary Smart with Mo Gawdat

01 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Mo Gawdat was Chief Business Officer of Google X, the experimental development arm of the internet behemoth. He's since written books on how to find...

The Sunday Debate: Is COP26 a turning point for the planet?

30 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This debate, recorded on Thursday 28th October 2021, was part of Energised, a debate series from Intelligence Squared in partnership with Iberdrola, a...

COP26: Everything you need to know

29 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With the devastating effects of the climate emergency becoming more urgent by the day, the COP26 summit in Glasgow now represents a pivotal moment in ...

Mary Beard on Images of Power from the Ancient to the Modern World

26 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What does the face of power look like? Who gets commemorated in art and why? And how do we react to statues of figures we deplore? In October 2021 Mar...

Business Weekly: Richard Branson on a Life of Entrepreneurship

25 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's Business Weekly, Samira Ahmed speaks to business mogul Sir Richard Branson about becoming a serial entrepreneur developing the Virgin b...

The Sunday Debate: Should the West pay Reparations for Slavery?

24 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Should there be a broad programme of reparations – not just financial compensation, but acknowledgement of the crimes committed and the lasting dama...

The Untold Story of African Europeans, with Olivette Otele

22 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The history of Africans in Europe may seem recent – a result of migration in the 20th and 21st centuries – but in her new book, African Europeans...

Empire of Pain: Sacklers, Opioids and the Sickening of America

19 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How did one family become associated with an epidemic of drug addiction that has caused the death of almost half a million people? In this episode, ...

Business Weekly: No Bullsh*t Leadership with Jimmy Wales

18 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Chris Hirst, Global CEO of advertising group Havas Creative, cuts through the bullshit and gets to the heart of modern leadership in this straight-tal...

The Sunday Debate: China, friend or foe?

17 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Is China an enemy that needs to be reined in, or a potential partner with whom the West should engage? Hear the arguments and decide for yourself.  ...

Covid by Numbers with David Spiegelhalter

15 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With data on the Covid-19 pandemic changing shape with every new outbreak and new mutation, it's a complex task to make sense of where the story of th...

Can We Fix Capitalism? Yanis Varoufakis vs Gillian Tett

12 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Should capitalism be reformed or replaced? Former Greek Finance Minister and economist Yanis Varoufakis and Gillian Tett US editor at large at the Fin...

Business Weekly: No Bullsh*t Leadership with Kwame Kwei-Armah

11 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Chris Hirst, Global CEO of advertising group Havas Creative, cuts through the bullshit and gets to the heart of modern leadership in this straight-tal...

The Sunday Debate: The Battle Over Free Speech: Are Trigger Warnings, Safe Spaces and No-Platforming Harming Young Minds?

10 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's episode of The Sunday Debate, we revisit our event from 2018. Many would argue that these are the fundamental goals of a good educat...