Intelligence Squared
Episodes
Stop Bashing Christians! Britain has become an anti-Christian country
30 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Are Christians victims of a hateful animus, or are they demanding special treatment in a secular state which in fact applies the law equally to all? P...
Is London too rich to be interesting?
23 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
It used to be so easy. You left university, came to London and got yourself a flatshare in one of the cheaper areas: Notting Hill, Maida Vale or Highg...
Karen Armstrong on Religion and the History of Violence
16 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Karen Armstrong has written over 16 books on faith and the major religions, studying what Islam, Judaism and Christianity have in common, and how our ...
Napoleon The Great?
09 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
How should we remember Napoleon, the man of obscure Corsican birth who rose to become emperor of the French and briefly master of Europe? As the 200t...
Steven Pinker on Good Writing with Ian McEwan
30 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Steven Pinker is one of the world’s leading authorities on language, mind and human nature. A professor of psychology at Harvard, he is the bestsell...
Francis Fukuyama in Conversation with David Runciman
25 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Francis Fukuyama came to the Intelligence Squared stage in September, to square up with one of Britain’s most brilliant political thinkers...
Marina Abramović on art, performance, time and nothingness
18 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Marina Abramović is one of the most celebrated performance artists in the world. Over a career spanning four decades she has pioneered performance as...
History Shows Us That Scotland and England Would Be Better Off as Separate Kingdoms
11 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
This event was recorded at the Chalke Valley History Festival in July 2014. The future of the Union will be voted for in a referendum soon, and this ...
London Should Love Its Bankers
04 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Do the British have a death wish? You’d be forgiven for thinking so the way so many of them seem to want to cripple the most dynamic part of their o...
Has Martin Luther King's Dream Been Realized?
29 Aug 2014
Contributed by Lukas
This event was on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. On 28 August 1963, civil rights campaigners marched on W...
Money Can't Buy Happiness
21 Aug 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Leading voices from the fields of science, philosophy came to the Intelligence Squared Asia stage for this thought-provoking debate about the pursuit ...
University is an unwise investment
14 Aug 2014
Contributed by Lukas
For many Western teenagers university has long been considered a passport to the good life: a rite of passage consisting of mind-expanding reading and...
It's Time to End The War on Drugs
04 Aug 2014
Contributed by Lukas
To liberalise or prohibit, that is the question. Prohibitionists argue that legalising anything increases its consumption. The world has enough of a...
"Contemporary Art Excludes the 99%"
31 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
What is the role of contemporary art museums today? Are biennales and art fairs platforms for experiment and exchange, or little more than social att...
America's Drone Campaign Is Both Moral And Effective
24 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Bug splats. That’s what the American operators of drones, sitting in safety thousands of miles away, call the casualties of a drone attack in Pakist...
Sex, bugs & video tapes: the private lives of public figures deserve more protection from the press
17 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Would you like the details of your sex life, private conversations, and hidden passions splashed across the pages of a British tabloid or published on...
Art Schools Are Bad At Producing Good Artists
10 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
What makes a good artist? Can creativity can be taught? What kind of education ups the ante for success in today’s global culture? These are some o...
Jesus Would Have Voted Democrat
03 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Remember the rich man and the eye of the needle? Blessed are the meek? The last shall be first? Jesus didn’t hold much truck for wealth or power, no...
Shakespeare vs Milton: The Kings of English Literature Debate
26 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Nearly four centuries after his death, no writer has come close to matching Shakespeare’s understanding of the world – or his gift for dramatic po...
A Journey Into Outer Space, With Brian Cox
19 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Are they out there? Intelligent beings from another world. Will we ever make contact with them? Is it even sensible to make guesses about whether life...
VS Naipaul in Conversation With Geordie Greig
12 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Nobel laureate and giant of Western letters, Trinidad-born V. S. Naipaul has excelled in both fiction and non-fiction. His latest book The Masque of A...
Stop Poking the Bear: The West Needs to Engage with Putin Not Castigate Him
05 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
You don’t have to like Vladimir Putin, or doubt that he’s a nasty piece of work, to recognise that the Russian president’s reaction to the crisi...
How to Think Like a Freak: Learn How to Make Smarter Decisions with the authors of "Freakonomics"
29 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The books Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics have been worldwide sensations, selling tens of millions of copies. They have come to stand for challengi...
Look West Not East: South America Will be the 21st Century's Superpower
21 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Conventional wisdom tells us that a new star will rise in the East, and all eyes have been looking towards China or India as the 21st century’s new ...
The Allied Bombing of German Cities in World War Two Was Unjustifiable
12 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
No one doubts the bravery of the thousands of men who flew and died in Bomber Command. The death rate was an appalling 44%. And yet until the opening ...
Calm Down Dears: State Snooping Is A Price Worth Paying For Our Security
07 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
So now we know: our spooks and their spooks are hoovering up and exchanging massive amounts of data on our private lives: not just whom we phone and e...
Western Parents Don't Know How to Bring Up Their Children
01 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Why are there so many Chinese maths and music prodigies? Because Chinese mothers believe schoolwork and music practice come first, that an A-minus is ...
The Making Of The Modern Middle East: Lawrence of Arabia and King Faisal I
24 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
How much blame for the current troubles in the Middle East lies with the decisions made by the West in 1919 – when the Ottoman Empire was carved up ...
Britain Should Not Have Fought In The First World War
17 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
As we approach the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, books, television documentaries and articles on the subject abound. So do differe...
Stephen Fry and Friends on the Life, Loves and Hates of Christopher Hitchens
11 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In this historic event, Stephen Fry and other friends of Christopher Hitchens came together to celebrate the life and work of this great writer, icono...
The Hand that Rocks the Cradle Cannot Rock the Boardroom
03 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Is it a myth that women can have it all, all of the time? Or do the rising numbers of female executives in Hong Kong and around the world suggest othe...
The Best Chance For Peace In Israel And Palestine Is For Uncle Sam To Butt Out
27 Mar 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Is it surprising that the Israelis and Palestinians are still unable to come to some sort of agreement? After all if the adjudicator in a mediation is...
One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Democracy is Not Always the Best Form of Government
20 Mar 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. So said Winston Churchill and who would disagree? One man, one v...
Sam Harris on the Science of Good and Evil
13 Mar 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Where do our ideas about morality and meaning come from? Most people - from religious extremists to secular scientists - would agree on one point: tha...
Between You and I The English Language Is Going To The Dogs
06 Mar 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Speaking and writing correct English are the hallmarks of an intelligent person. No one who cares about language wants to be caught splitting an infin...
Jane Austen Vs Emily Bronte: The Queens of English Literature Debate
27 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Who was the Queen of English literature. Was it Jane Austen with her sensitive ear for the hypocrisy lurking beneath the genteel conversation in the d...
Niall Ferguson On The Six Killer Apps Of Western Civilisation
20 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Niall Ferguson is the most brilliant British historian of his generation. In this talk from February 2011, based on his book 'Civilisation: The West a...
"Let The Bad Guys Be: The Perils of Foreign Intervention" with David Aaronovitch and Rory Stewart
13 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Some leaders are so objectionable – Bashar al-Assad, Robert Mugabe – that it may seem only right to strain every sinew to get rid of them. But gha...
Daniel Goleman On Focus: The Secret to High Performance and Fulfilment
07 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Psychologist Daniel Goleman shot to fame with his groundbreaking bestseller 'Emotional Intelligence'. The premise of the book, now widely accepted, is...
We've Never Had It So Good
31 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
It's 2014 and what does Britain have to look forward to? Osborne’s welfare cuts. An umpteenth series of Celebrity Big Brother. Adult children still ...
An Evening With Slavoj Zizek
24 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Radical philosopher, polymath, film star, cult icon, and author of over 30 books, Slavoj Žižek is one of the most controversial and leading contempo...
Let Them Come: We Have Nothing To Fear From High Levels Of Immigration
17 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Does mass immigration boost our economy and cultural richness or undermine them? Hear Times columnist David Aaronovitch, former Mayor of London Ken Li...
Steven Pinker on The Better Angels of Our Nature
10 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
We launch our first podcast of the year today – our 2011 talk by the world renowned American cognitive scientist Steven Pinker. In it he argues that...
Verdi vs Wagner: The 200th Anniversary Debate with Stephen Fry
24 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Think opera and you think Verdi. Verdi created some of the most beloved operas of all time, from the romantic tragedy of La traviata and Rigoletto to ...
Eric Schmidt On The New Digital Age
21 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Eric Schmidt is one of the leading visionaries of our time. He has taken Google from a small start-up to one of the world’s most influential compani...
An Anatomy Of Truth: Conversations on Truth-Telling
20 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Not everyone tells the truth. ‘Read my lips: no new taxes.’ ‘This isn’t going to hurt.’ ‘I see no ships, my lord.’ ‘Of course I love y...
Putin Has Been Good For Russia
20 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
There’s not a lot to like about Vladimir Putin: he’s autocratic, vain and runs a corrupt government. And he doesn’t give a fig for human rights....
Nate Silver On The Art And Science Of Prediction
19 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Nate Silver is the 35-year-old data engineer and forecaster with superstar status. He shot to fame in 2008 for correctly predicting the outcome in 49 ...
Angela Merkel is Destroying Europe
19 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
They're calling her the devil. Inflammatory words, but Europe has every reason to be livid with the German Chancellor. Angela Merkel’s austerity mea...
Jimmy Carter in Conversation with Jon Snow
18 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
President Jimmy Carter is a Nobel Prize winner, author, humanitarian, professor, farmer, naval officer and carpenter. In this special Intelligence Squ...
Send Them Back: The Parthenon Marbles Should be Returned to Athens
16 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
What’s all this nonsense about sending the Parthenon Marbles back to Greece? If Lord Elgin hadn’t rescued them from the Parthenon in Athens and pr...
The West Has Failed Syria
16 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
To say “The West has failed Syria” tempts us into the dangerous belief that had we only got stuck into this conflict from the off, things would no...
The Catholic Church is a Force For Good in The World
13 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Can anything good really be said of an institution that has such a warped attitude to sex that it tries to stop the world from wearing a condom, is bi...
Daniel Dennett on Tools to Transform our Thinking
12 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Daniel Dennett is one of the world’s most original and provocative thinkers. A philosopher and cognitive scientist, he is known as one of the ‘Fou...
Thomas Friedman: A Manifesto For Rescuing America
11 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Thomas Friedman: A manifesto for rescuing America Thomas L. Friedman is an internationally renowned author, reporter, and columnist – the recipient ...
David Eagleman on the Science of De- (and Re-) Humanisation (and Why it Matters)
11 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Which side were you on? The Jets or the Sharks? The Capulets or the Montagues? The Greeks or the Trojans? Antony or Caesar? William or Harold? And so ...
Naomi Wolf on 'Vagina: A New Biography'
10 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
American author Naomi Wolf made her name with The Beauty Myth, a book that exposed the tyranny of the ideal of female beauty. Now she’s back with a ...
Chris Anderson on the Democratisation of Manufacturing, Design and Technology
10 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
In an age of custom-fabricated, do-it-yourself product design and creation, the collective potential of a million garage tinkerers and enthusiasts is ...
Jeffrey Sachs on JFK and His Quest For Peace
06 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
How can leadership lessons from the past be applied to intractable international problems today? In this talk from July 2013, shortly before the 50th ...
Terry Eagleton in conversation with Roger Scruton
06 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
What really divides the left and the right? To answer this question, Intelligence Squared brought together two giants of British intellectual culture ...
Dan Pink on the Science of Buoyancy
04 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
It happens to all of us every day. You get rejected. Your customer doesn’t buy. Your boss doesn’t agree. Your crush doesn’t say yes. In this pro...
Michael Sandel on the Moral Limits of Markets
04 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Should we pay children to get good grades? Is it ethical to pay people to test risky new drugs or to donate their organs? What about hiring mercenarie...
Robert Macfarlane on Landscape and the Human Heart
04 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
For several years and more than a thousand miles, celebrated travel writer Robert Macfarlane has been following the vast network of old paths and rout...
Western Liberal Democracy Would be Wrong for China
02 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
People everywhere are better off living in liberal democracy: that has been the reigning assumption of the western world. But could it be we’ve got ...
Pornography is Good For Us: Without it We Would Be a Far More Repressed Society
01 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Hooray for porn! What would we be without it? Bored, repressed, frustrated. Porn allows the timid to indulge fantasies they’d never live out in real...
Both Britain and the EU Would Be Happier if They got Divorced
01 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Some people just can’t bring themselves to acknowledge that a relationship is over. Finished. Unsalvageable. David Cameron, for instance. His long a...