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Intelligence Squared
Intelligence Squared
300 episodes
Ideas shape the world. Intelligence Squared brings you the conversations that explain them.
More about the show
In every episode, we bring together leading thinkers, writers, scientists, policymakers and entrepreneurs, to challenge assumptions, test ideas and debate the questions shaping our future. If you want to think more clearly about the world and where it's heading, you're in the right place.
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/membership to find out more.
Episodes page 2 of 6
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Can the US Survive Donald Trump? With Pod Save the US’ Ben Rhodes (Part Two)
Ben Rhodes served as one of Barack Obama’s closest foreign-policy aides, holding the role of Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting from 2009 to 2017. He acted as the lead…
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Can the US Survive Donald Trump? With Pod Save the US’ Ben Rhodes (Part One)
Ben Rhodes served as one of Barack Obama’s closest foreign-policy aides, holding the role of Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting from 2009 to 2017. He acted as the lead…
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What Everyone Gets Wrong About Iran, with Clarissa Ward and Lyse Doucet (Part Two)
Since the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran in late February, the world has changed dramatically. More than fourteen countries have now become embroiled in the conflict and there is…
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What Everyone Gets Wrong About Iran, with Clarissa Ward and Lyse Doucet (Part One)(Part One)
Since the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran in late February, the world has changed dramatically. More than fourteen countries have now become embroiled in the conflict and there is…
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Hotels with History | The Adlon, Berlin
This is an episode of Hotels with History, produced by Intelligence Squared on behalf of Perowne International. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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How Has Forensic Science Transformed Criminal Justice? With Sue Black
Forensic science has transformed the way crimes are investigated and justice is delivered. From fingerprints and DNA to new forms of anatomical identification, its breakthroughs have helped solve cases once thought…
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Should We Stop Catastrophising About AI? With Eleanor Drage and Carl Miller
We are deeply confused about artificial intelligence: what it is, who it serves and whether it is leading us towards utopia or catastrophe. But according to AI ethicist Dr Eleanor Drage, these dramatic narratives often…
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The Intelligence Squared Economic Outlook, with Robert Peston (Part Two)
Robert Peston is one of Britain’s most trusted journalists. A fixture in British politics and business coverage, he came to national prominence as Business Editor and then Economics Editor at the BBC, where he revealed…
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The Intelligence Squared Economic Outlook, with Robert Peston (Part One)
Robert Peston is one of Britain’s most trusted journalists. A fixture in British politics and business coverage, he came to national prominence as Business Editor and then Economics Editor at the BBC, where he revealed…
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How Sex Scenes in Film Can Reshape Real Intimacy, With Intimacy Coordinator Ita O’Brien
Intimacy coordinators have irreversibly transformed how we portray sex on screen, and they are not without their detractors. In the wake of MeToo, Ita O’Brien’s work as a top intimacy coordinator on Normal People, Sex…
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Olivia Laing on Art, Solitude, and The Lonely City at 10 (Part Two)
Olivia Laing is known as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary literature. Their work is renowned for its capacity to make abstract ideas feel precise, intimate, and beautifully thought through without…
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Olivia Laing on Art, Solitude, and The Lonely City at 10 (Part One)
Olivia Laing is known as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary literature. Their work is renowned for its capacity to make abstract ideas feel precise, intimate, and beautifully thought through without…
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How Did World War II Create Modern Asia? With Professor Hans van de Ven
Is our history of World War II missing its most important chapter? For many in the West, the story of the Second World War is told through D-Day, the Blitz and the liberation of Europe. Yet some of the war's most…
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An Evening with Maggie O’Farrell: Land (Part Two)
Maggie O’Farrell is the award-winning author of nine novels, including Hamnet, a breathtaking fictional retelling of the death of Shakespeare’s only son from the bubonic plague. This much-loved novel won the Women’s…
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An Evening with Maggie O’Farrell: Land (Part One)
Maggie O’Farrell is the award-winning author of nine novels, including Hamnet, a breathtaking fictional retelling of the death of Shakespeare’s only son from the bubonic plague. This much-loved novel won the Women’s…
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Can We Make the Internet Safe for Children? With Baroness Beeban Kidron
Filmmaker and activist Baroness Beeban Kidron has been warning of the digital dangers facing young people for over a decade, and has played a central role in establishing standards for online safety and privacy across…
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Hotels with History | Copacabana Palace, Rio De Janeiro
This is an episode of Hotels with History, produced by Intelligence Squared on behalf of Perowne International. Picture being on a sweep of white sand where Rio meets the Atlantic. Through revolutions, dictatorship,…
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Andrew Ross Sorkin and Zanny Minton Beddoes on Markets, Crashes and The Future of The Global Economy (Part Two)
Andrew Ross Sorkin began his career at the forefront of Wall Street news, reporting extensively for The New York Times on the financial crash of 2008 and its chaotic aftermath. His expert journalism has since…
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Andrew Ross Sorkin and Zanny Minton Beddoes on Markets, Crashes and The Future of The Global Economy (Part One)
Andrew Ross Sorkin began his career at the forefront of Wall Street news, reporting extensively for The New York Times on the financial crash of 2008 and its chaotic aftermath. His expert journalism has since…
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Is Our Justice System Failing Women? With Barrister Charlotte Proudman
Recent high-profile legal disputes with Johnny Depp and Amber Heard and Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have renewed public debate about gender, power and credibility in the courts. But beyond the celebrity cases lies…
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How Should We Prepare for the Unknown? With Statistician David Spiegelhalter
In a world of economic shocks, geopolitical crises and constant predictions about the future, how should we make decisions when certainty is impossible? And what can statistics teach us about living with risk, chance…
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Was George Forster the Enlightenment’s Lost Visionary? With Andrea Wulf
In this episode, historian and philosopher Sophie Scott Brown speaks with writer Andrea Wulf about her new book The Traveller: The Revolutionary Life of George Forster and his Search for Humanity. A naturalist,…
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Reasons for Hope in Turbulent Times, with Rebecca Solnit
Rebecca Solnit is an award-winning American writer and activist whose incisive work explores feminism, democracy, climate change and social justice. In this episode, she joins Mythili Rao to argue that, despite…
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The Intelligence Squared Economic Outlook: Leadership Special, with Francine Lacqua (Part Two)
Emmanuel Macron. Demis Hassabis. Volodymyr Zelenskiy. George Soros. Mark Carney. Christine Lagarde. Ray Dalio. Leena Nair. Few journalists have spent more time questioning the people who shape the global economy than…
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The Intelligence Squared Economic Outlook: Leadership Special, with Francine Lacqua (Part One)
Emmanuel Macron. Demis Hassabis. Volodymyr Zelenskiy. George Soros. Mark Carney. Christine Lagarde. Ray Dalio. Leena Nair. Few journalists have spent more time questioning the people who shape the global economy than…
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How Did the Americas Transform Renaissance England? With Lauren Working
The English Renaissance is often remembered as an age of Shakespeare, exploration and cultural flourishing. But it was also shaped by encounters with the Americas. From tobacco in London playhouses to silver from South…
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Who Really Blew Up the Nord Stream Pipeline? With Bojan Pancevski
In September 2022, a series of underwater explosions tore through the Nord Stream pipelines beneath the Baltic Sea. The destruction of this $20 billion pipeline severed a major artery of Russian gas supplies to Europe,…
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What Can Europe's Borderlands Tell Us About Its Future? With Hannah Lucinda Smith
Long before Putin's invasion of Ukraine, conflict was simmering on Europe's borders. In overlooked territories in eastern Europe, the eastern Mediterranean and the Caucasus –from the Balkans and Cyprus to Abkhazia on…
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Hotels with History | Waldorf Astoria, New York
This is an episode of Hotels with History, produced by Intelligence Squared on behalf of Perowne International. We’re in midtown Manhattan to kick off Series 2, at the very heart of New York society: the Waldorf…
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Life and Death in the KGB, with The Rest is Classified’s Gordon Corera (Part Two)
As the main intelligence and security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991, the KGB instilled fear across Russia and sought to sow discord abroad. This network of government spies was notorious for the often…
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Life and Death in the KGB, with The Rest is Classified’s Gordon Corera (Part One)
As the main intelligence and security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991, the KGB instilled fear across Russia and sought to sow discord abroad. This network of government spies was notorious for the often…
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How Will a New Era of Drugs Shape Our World? With Kojo Koram
From cannabis legalisation in the United States to the rise of psychedelics as wellness and productivity tools, the global politics of drugs is being rapidly transformed. But who really benefits from the legalisation…
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The Age of Intelligence: Live in Partnership with IBM
In this episode, journalist Kamal Ahmed was joined by Jon Sopel, Dimple Ahluwalia and Matt Rowe to explore how cybersecurity has moved from a technical concern to a central force shaping economic growth, national…
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How Do Hormones Shape the Way We Feel, Think and Age? With Dr Saira Hameed
In this episode, science broadcaster Dr Güneş Taylor speaks with endocrinologist Dr Saira Hameed about her new book Signals: The Inside Story of Our Hormones. From exhaustion and infertility to appetite, mood and…
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Why Does It Sometimes Pay to Be a Chicken? With Professor Michael Wooldridge
From Brexit negotiations and the Cuban Missile Crisis to elections, auctions and everyday decision-making, game theory can offer powerful insights into how we navigate a world shaped by competing interests, cooperation…
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How does DNA Shape Our World? With Professor Turi King
Professor Turi King, Director of the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath, is known for leading the genetic investigation identifying Richard III and advising on the Mary Jane Kelly case (the last…
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Do We Have The Right To Die? With Lady Hale and Rowan Williams (Part Two)
This debate was part of the ‘Think Again’ series in which two leading thinkers present alternative answers to a difficult societal question. The book and series published by The Bodley Head. --- What happens when…
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Do We Have The Right To Die? With Lady Hale and Rowan Williams (Part One)
This debate was part of the ‘Think Again’ series in which two leading thinkers present alternative answers to a difficult societal question. The book and series published by The Bodley Head. --- What happens when…
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An Evening with Douglas Stuart (Part Two)
Douglas Stuart is one of the most successful writers in Britain today. He is celebrated globally for his honest portrayals of human relationships and working-class life. In 2020 he won the Booker Prize for his debut…
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An Evening with Douglas Stuart (Part One)
Douglas Stuart is one of the most successful writers in Britain today. He is celebrated globally for his honest portrayals of human relationships and working-class life. In 2020 he won the Booker Prize for his debut…
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How To Win a Trade War, with Soumaya Keynes and Chad Bown
In this episode, journalist Hannah Lucinda Smith speaks with economists Soumaya Keynes and Chad Bown about our new era of global trade wars. Drawing on their new book How to Win a Trade War, Keynes and Bown shed light…
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How To Kill A Language, with Sophia Smith Galer (Part Two)
What do we lose when a language dies? Roughly 7,000 languages are spoken around the world today. Over half of them are expected to vanish in the next century – along with the wealth of information they contain, the…
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How To Kill A Language, with Sophia Smith Galer (Part One)
What do we lose when a language dies? Roughly 7,000 languages are spoken around the world today. Over half of them are expected to vanish in the next century – along with the wealth of information they contain, the…
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The Secret Life of Our Organs and How They Keep us Healthy, with Dr Giulia Enders
How can changing the way we breathe lower stress and blood pressure? Why is touch so important for premature babies and ICU patients? And what can our organs teach us about staying healthy? Dr Giulia Enders, author of…
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Chasing Aliens, with Jon Ronson and Daniel Lavelle (Part Two)
Are we really alone in the universe? The question of whether there is extraterrestrial life is one of our oldest questions. And few nations on Earth are more captivated by the prospect of life on Mars than the United…
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Chasing Aliens, with Jon Ronson and Daniel Lavelle (Part One)
Are we really alone in the universe? The question of whether there is extraterrestrial life is one of our oldest questions. And few nations on Earth are more captivated by the prospect of life on Mars than the United…
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Has Far-Right Politics Entered The Mainstream in the UK? With Daniel Trilling
Has far-right thinking entered mainstream politics in the UK? In 2025, Britain saw its largest-ever far-right rally, following a summer of flag-waving protests. Then, in May 2026, local elections reshaped England’s…
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Love, Loss and Mourning Paul Auster, with Siri Hustvedt
What does it mean to mourn a shared life? In this episode, essayist and novelist Siri Hustvedt speaks to book critic Mythili Rao about Ghost Stories. Her most personal work yet, it is a searing and intimate meditation…
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What Would Happen If We Met Aliens? With Neil deGrasse Tyson
World famous astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson joins Dr Radha Modgil to discuss his new book Take Me to Your Leader, exploring the science of alien life, humanity’s obsession with UFOs, and what first contact might…
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London Falling: Patrick Radden Keefe on How Money, Power and Corruption Shape Our City, with Emily Maitlis (Part Two)
Patrick Radden Keefe is an award winning writer known for his ability to tell complex stories in ways that are compelling and revealing. Author of the bestsellers Empire of Pain—a shocking exposé of the Sackler family…
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