Intelligence Squared

A truly multifaceted talent, Joelle Taylor is a poet, playwight, actor and most recently a novelist, who has written four collections of poetry along with also being a Poetry Fellow of the University of East Anglia and a Fellow at the Royal Society of Literature. Taylor's new novel is The Night Alphabet, a narrative of interconnecting stories told via tracing the interwoven tapestries found on the skin of a heavily tattooed figure living in a future London of 2233. Joining Taylor to discuss the book is the writer and author of the recent hit novel Evenings & Weekends, Oisín McKenna. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-perso

The award-winning classicist and cultural critic Daisy Dunn is the author of seven books including her latest, The Missing Thread: A New History of the Ancient World through the Women Who Shaped It. The book re-examines not only the female individuals who were at the heart of many well-known stories of the ancient world, but also looks at the whole of wider history through the perspective of women too. Joining Dunn to discuss it is Peter Stothard, the author specialising in ancient history and who is former editor of the Times newspaper. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events

Sheila Heti is a writer from Toronto who has published 11 books since the early 2000s. Those include Motherhood, Pure Colour, and How Should A Person Be? That latter title was a breakout work mixing memoir with fiction and self-help in a quest to examine her own authenticity. Her latest book is Alphabetical Diaries – a slim, elegant volume that compresses 10 years of Heti’s own diary entries into 60,000 words across 25 chapters. Every entry, as the title suggests, is organised alphabetically. Joining her to discuss the book for this episode is Susie Mesure, who is a writer and reviewer whose work is often seen in The Sunday Times, The ipaper, Prospect, The Financial Times and more. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squ

This episode is brought to you by CHANEL. CHANEL Connects – the acclaimed arts and culture podcast – is back for its fourth season, with nine episodes featuring the artists, curators and thinkers shaping culture today. If you enjoy the episode, you can hear much more from the new season, just search CHANEL Connects now on your preferred streaming platforms or visit chanel.com.   The artist William Kentridge and curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev are old friends who, together, have created some of the most resonant work of their time. These two giants of the art world discuss the Venice installation of William’s film “Self-Portrait as a Coffee Pot,” Carolyn‘s previous work as director of the Castello di Rivoli museum in Italy, and the origins of their long and rich creative relationship. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Orlando Whitfield started his career as a dealer in the feverish global art market but left it disillusioned and burnt-out a decade later. Today he works as a writer and his recent book is All That Glitters, a memoir that explores his experience as an associate of Inigo Philbrick, an ambitious art market player who in 2022 was sentenced to seven years in prison for defrauding investors in what has been described as allegedly the biggest art fraud in American history. Whitfield, by contrast, ended up in rehab and embarked on a period of painful self-reflection. All that Glitters reads like a script for a thrilling heist movie, which, indeed, it is likely to become since HBO has recently acquired the rights. Joining Whitfield in conversation for this episode is Kathryn Hughes, a literary critic at the Guardian and Professor at the University of East Anglia. Her latest book, Catland, concerns the Edwardian artist Louis Wain whose popular illustrations changed the way that the modern world thinks about cats. If

James Comey is the former FBI Director turned crime novelist who has spent a career fighting organised crime and hostile threats to American democracy. In 2016 as head of the FBI, he reopened a previously closed investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails from her time as Secretary of State, which is still a divisive moment that many say helped define the election of that year. In July 2024 Comey came to the Intelligence Squared stage for our first ever event in Brighton, where he discussed the themes of his latest crime thriller Westport, a murder mystery set in the world of high finance, plus the future of US politics and why he thinks Kamala Harris is having a positive influence on the election of 2024. Joining Comey in conversation for this event was Josh Glancy, Editor of News Review at The Sunday Times. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/IS for £100 sponsored credit. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit int

This is an episode of Generation One: The Climate Podcast, brought to you by UCL. Generation One is a collective of people committed to a new era of positive climate action. By turning science and ideas into action, they are working towards creating a positive, fair and progressive future. For us and for the generations to come. Hosts Professor Mark Maslin and Dr Simon Chin-Yee tackle the biggest challenges facing the climate crisis, with insights from world-leading academics, industry experts, and the public. Throughout Series 4 of Generation One, climate action was explored in a multitude of forms: from groundbreaking climate science and AI, to innovative policy solutions and inspiring stories of individual activism. This episode brings you the highlights of Series 4, with fantastic guests spanning multiple disciplines and industries. For more information, and to listen to all four previous series, visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/climate-change/podcasts-videos/generation-one-climate-podcast. And join th

Ukrainian journalist Illia Ponomarenko is a co-founder of The Kyiv Independent and former defence and security reporter for the Kyiv Post. He's been one of the most important voices reporting from the war in Ukraine all the way from its beginnings in 2014 through to February 2022 and up to today. His new book is I Will Show you How it Was, a story of the earliest days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the siege of Kyiv that followed. Joining him to discuss the book is the researcher, author and co-founder of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos, Carl Miller. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/IS for £100 sponsored credit. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, c

Cultural historian Elsa Richardson discusses her book, Rumbles: A Curious History of the Gut. It looks at our relationship over the centuries with a very intimate part of the body but one for which many know little more about than having a general gut feeling. Richardson is Lecturer of History at the University of Strathclyde and holds a Chancellor's Fellowship in the History of Health and Wellbeing at the Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare. In addition to lecturing in the history of medicine and her own research, she also curates arts and science events for public institutions, including the Wellcome Collection. Joining Richardson in conversation for this episode is the historian Helen Carr, an award-nominated writer and broadcaster specialising in medieval history and public history. Her popular books include The Red Prince and the upcoming Sceptered Isle. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/IS for £100 sponsored credit. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all o

The is the second instalment of a two-part discussion. We’re living longer than ever before but we are also spending more years in poor health and some communities become more sick than others. In June 2024 science journalist Layal Liverpool and medical doctor Chris van Tulleken came to Intelligence Squared to reveal the underlying causes of our growing health crises. Drawing on the themes of their respective books Systemic: How Racism is Making Us Ill, and Ultra-Processed People, they uncover how structural problems and inequalities – from racism in medicine to processing in food – are making us increasingly and needlessly ill. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/IS for £100 sponsored credit. This is the second instalment of two-part discussion. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all three parts immediately and all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Ful

The is the first instalment of a two-part discussion. We’re living longer than ever before but we are also spending more years in poor health and some communities become more sick than others. In June 2024 science journalist Layal Liverpool and medical doctor Chris van Tulleken came to Intelligence Squared to reveal the underlying causes of our growing health crises. Drawing on the themes of their respective books Systemic: How Racism is Making Us Ill, and Ultra-Processed People, they uncover how structural problems and inequalities – from racism in medicine to processing in food – are making us increasingly and needlessly ill. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/IS for £100 sponsored credit. This is the first instalment of two-part discussion. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all three parts immediately and all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-

Renowned social anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse is Director of the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford and has crisscrossed the globe, living in remote parts of Papua New Guinea as well as sitting down with militias during Libya’s Arab Spring uprising, in order to learn what it means to be a human. The groups that have largely been the focus of Whitehouse’s work could be an organised religion, a tribe or a kingdom – but perhaps key to them all are the concepts of inherited ritual, allegiances and bias. His latest book, Inheritance: The Evolutionary Origins of the Modern World, asks a new question about how inherited frameworks inform these perspectives. As we face an era of environmental destruction, political destabilisation and wars fought by forces with ever deadlier arsenals, could the same evolutionary traits that have pushed the world towards ever more sophisticated societies now be failing us? Joining Whitehouse to talk about it for this episode is Brian Kl

Emily Oster is an economist whose analytical eye is often focused on how to make better sense of the data behind raising children. As professor of economics at Brown University her analysis of the facts and figures involved in parenting have made her one of the most influential thinkers in how to create healthier families in recent years. Her books include Cribsheet, Expecting Better and The Family Firm, and she’s the founder of Parentdata.org, a data-driven guide through pregnancy, parenthood and beyond. Her latest book is The Unexpected: Navigating Pregnancy During and After Complications. Joining her in conversation for this episode is another sharp mind with facts and figures, Tim Harford, senior columnist at The Financial Times, host of the Cautionary Tales podcast and author of his first children's book: The Truth Detective. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/IS for £100 sponsored credit. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only co

This is a dip back into the extensive Intelligence Squared archive from October, 2021. Should capitalism be reformed or replaced? Former Greek Finance Minister and economist Yanis Varoufakis and Gillian Tett US editor at large at the Financial Times discuss and debate their visions for a post-COVID economy live in London. The moderator is Anne McElvoy senior editor at The Economist. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/IS for £100 sponsored credit. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events - Our member-only newsletter The Monthly Read, sent straight to your inbox ...

Mark Miodownik is the materials scientist and engineer whose new book is It’s a Gas: The Magnificent and Elusive Elements that Expand Our World. The book is an exploration of that most ethereal of material states – gas – that can be as light as a substance to make us laugh or hang as heavy as one of the roots of the carbon-fuelled climate crisis. Miodownik is Professor of Materials and Society at University College London and he is also Director of the Institute of Making. Joining him to discuss the book is Alex Wilkins, reporter for New Scientist. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/IS for £100 sponsored credit. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series -

The history of Turkey is often told in well-worn tropes but journalist, audio producer and now author Sami Kent is going for something a little more heartfelt in his new book, The Endless Country: A Personal Journey through Turkey’s First 100 Years. Kent’s father is Turkish and the writer’s dual perspective as an outsider with one foot on the inside has allowed him to create a book chronicling a century of Turkish history that’s steeped in curiosity as much as it is rich in local knowledge. Joining Kent in conversation for this episode is Hannah Lucinda Smith, Turkey correspondent for The Times and Monocle magazine. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/IS for £100 sponsored credit. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intell

This is a dip back into the extensive Intelligence Squared archive from May, 2022 Every second of the day, tiny biological clocks are ticking throughout your body, from the neural pathways of your brain down to your very cells. But modern life is disrupting this ancient and delicate mechanism in ways we are only just beginning to understand. Artificial light, jet lag, smartphones, air pollution and out-of-sync work-and-meal routines are conspiring to push us out of joint. This is not only exacerbating mental health issues such as depression and fatigue, but according to new studies, is also increasing the risk of obesity, heart disease, dementia and even cancer. Professor Russell Foster is a world-leading expert on circadian neuroscience and his new book, Life Time, looks at how we can better understand and harness the science of rhythm and our own biology. Our host for this discussion is the author, economist and broadcaster, Linda Yueh. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/IS for £100 sponsored cred

The spectres of political disillusionment and apathy have weighed heavily on this year of momentous elections but can we take inspiration from the past to reinvigorate our political imagination going forward? In this episode, Cambridge Professor and host of the Past Present Future podcast David Runciman discusses his new book, The History of Ideas: Equality, Justice and Revolution, which looks back on how big thinkers have tried to reimagine the way we do politics. Speaking to Dr Sophie Scott-Brown, lecturer in philosophy at the University of East Anglia, he discusses what thinkers from Rousseau to Rawls, Nietzsche to de Beauvoir can teach us today, and what the big personalities dominating contemporary politics and a gotcha-driven media cycle mean for democracy. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/IS for £100 sponsored credit. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more.

Edward Wong is a diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times and its former Beijing bureau chief. The son of Chinese immigrants in Washington, DC, his work has often focused on global affairs and U.S. foreign policy but his new book, At the Edge of Empire: A Family's Reckoning with China, is a much more personal dive into the societal and cultural dynamics driving a superpower. Joining Wong to discuss it is the researcher, author and co-founder of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos, Carl Miller. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/IS for £100 sponsored credit. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-pe

This is a dip back into the extensive Intelligence Squared archive from February, 2022. 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 programme, for over a decade. His new memoir, The Gift of a Radio: My Childhood and other Train Wrecks, is an unflinching but darkly humorous account of an often turbulent upbringing. He joins fellow radio journalist and podcast producer Poppy Damon to discuss the book. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/IS for £100 sponsored credit. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all I