The EI Podcast

The lost art of chorography Jun 26, 2025

The writer Josh Mcloughlin reflects on the art of chorography, one of English literature’s most eccentric and mercurial forms. Read by Leighton Pugh.
FURTHER READING:
The lost art of chorography | Josh Mcloughlin
Image: Renaissance map of Europe showing England. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Phot

1975, the year that made the modern world Jun 19, 2025

Historian Damian Valdez reflects on the meaning of 1975, a fateful year for the international order. Read by Leighton Pugh.
FURTHER READING:
1975, the year that made the modern world | Damian Valdez
Image: A helicopter is pushed off the overcrowded deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hancock (CV-19) off the coast of South Vietnam during the fall of Saigon. Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo

How Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin fought Hitler – and each other Jun 12, 2025

EI’s Paul Lay joins historian Tim Bouverie to discuss ‘Allies at War’, his gripping new book on how Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin’s uneasy alliance led to the end of the Second World War – and reshaped the global order in ways that are still felt today.
Image: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at Yalta. Credit: Niday Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo

What happened to the politician’s moustache? Jun 05, 2025

Writer Luka Ivan Jukic laments the all-but-total disappearance of facial hair from politics. Read by Leighton Pugh.
FURTHER READING:
What happened to the politician’s moustache? | Luka Ivan Jukic
Image: A double portrait of Mozaffar al-Din Shah, the fifth Qajar shah of Iran. Credit: Penta Springs Limited / Alamy Stock Photo

The strange death of squalor May 29, 2025

Journalist and author Jenny McCartney celebrates the magic of squalor, and explores how generations of artists have seen the sublime in slime. Read by Leighton Pugh.
FURTHER READING:
On squalor | Jenny McCartney
Image: Walter Sickert's Easter Monday. Credit: Logic Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Why Finns joined the fight May 22, 2025

Geopolitical analyst Charly Salonius-Pasternak examines Finland's long journey to full membership of the Western alliance, and explores how the Nordic nation could play a leading role in its future.
FURTHER READING:
Why Finns joined the fight | Charly Salonius-Pasternak
Image: During the Soviet-Finnish war (1939-1940) skiers of the Finnish army in white camouflage made lightning and effective attacks on units of the Red Army. Credit: World of Triss / Alamy Stock Photo

The West’s lust for liberty May 15, 2025

The late Christopher Coker, Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics for almost 40 years, explains why, although the love of liberty is not unique to the West, the lust for liberty is. Read by Helen Lloyd.
FURTHER READING:

The West’s lust for liberty | Christopher Coker
Image: Leonidas at Thermopylae, by Jacques-Louis David, 1814. Credit: Peter Horree / Alamy Stock Photo

Christianity and the creation of England May 08, 2025

In this episode of The EI Podcast, the historian Bijan Omrani is joined by EI's Paul Lay to explore the indelible mark Christianity has left on England’s identity and culture.
FURTHER READING:
The tragic decline of Christian rituals | Bijan Omrani
Image: South View of Salisbury Cathedral, JMW Turner. Credit: Penta Springs Limited / Alamy Stock Photo

How the liberation of France shaped the modern world May 01, 2025

Agnès Poirier, journalist and broadcaster, examines how the liberation of France in 1944 opened the way for Paris to become a laboratory of ideas. Read by Helen Lloyd.
FURTHER READING:
The liberation of France made the modern world | Agnès Poirier
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Parisians gather around the Arc de Triomphe as Allied forces liberate the city. Credit: RBM Vintage Images / Alamy Stock Photo.

China vs the WTO: The Inside Story Apr 24, 2025

EI's Alastair Benn and Paul Lay are joined by Michael Sheridan, author of two books on China and a foreign correspondent for 40 years, to discuss China’s rise, its subsequent entry into the international trading system, and its contemporary status as the problem child of our globalised world.
FURTHER READING:
China and America, the great decoupling | Michael Sheridan
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. This episode of The EI Podcast was hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn, and produced by Caitlin Brown. The sound engineer was Gareth Jones.
Image: An electronics recycling facility in Shanghai, China. Credit: Cavan Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Madame Bovary and the problem of desire Apr 17, 2025

Marie Daouda, lecturer in French language and literature at the University of Oxford, shows how the pursuit of apparently 'real' desires comes at the expense of collective truth. The consequences can be disastrous. Read by Helen Lloyd.
FURTHER READING:
The truth shall set us free | Marie Daouda
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Isabelle Huppert, Madame Bovary 1991. Credit: Collection Christophel / Alamy Stock Photo

The German key to European liberty Apr 11, 2025

Brendan Simms, founder and Director of the Centre for Geopolitics at the University of Cambridge, illustrates why contemporary Germany struggles to muster a serious military response to the Russian challenge. Read by Helen Lloyd.
FURTHER READING:
The German key to European liberty | Brendan Simms
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: The Congress of Vienna (1814-1815). Napoleon watching the Tsar, the Emperor of Austria and King of Prussia dividing up Europe. Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy

The making of Trump's worldview Apr 10, 2025

What are the deep roots of Trump's worldview? Can we learn to read Trump’s behaviour? And are there opportunities to be had for those who can?
EI's Alastair Benn and Paul Lay are joined by Charlie Laderman, Senior Lecturer in International History at King's College London, to discuss how to interpret the Trump White House.
This episode was recorded on 7th April.
FURTHER READING:
How Iran’s Tanker War shaped Trump’s worldview | Charlie Laderman
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn, and produced by Caitlin Brown. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: Donald Trump poses for photos above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange after taking his Trump Plaza Casino public in New York on June 7, 1995. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo

How Russia negotiates Apr 04, 2025

Iuliia Osmolovska, head of the GLOBSEC Kyiv Office, argues that Ukrainians are better placed than their Western partners to decode the Russian negotiating style. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Street art in Tbilisi of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin playing chess. Credit: Georg Berg / Alamy Stock Photo

Liberty under attack Mar 28, 2025

Juliet Samuel, columnist for The Times newspaper, highlights that a belief in liberty is not self-evident and its expansion is not inevitable. Read by Helen Lloyd.
FURTHER READING:
Liberty under attack from enemies within | Juliet Samuel
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Second world war propaganda poster. Credit: Photo 12 / Alamy Stock Photo

The uses of comedy Mar 27, 2025

What makes us laugh? And why should it matter?
EI's Alastair Benn and Paul Lay are joined by the critic Mathew Lyons to discuss the uses of comedy.
FURTHER READING:
The subtle art of English comedy | Alastair Benn
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn, and produced by Caitlin Brown. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: Eduard von Grützner's Falstaff, 1873. Credit: INTERFOTO / Alamy Stock Photo

Gazing back to see China’s future Mar 21, 2025

Roel Sterckx, the Joseph Needham Professor of Chinese History, Science, and Civilization at Cambridge University, makes the case for studying China's centuries-long history. Read by Helen Lloyd.
FURTHER READING:
Gazing back to see China’s future | Roel Sterckx
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: The Great Wall of China. Credit: nagelestock.com / Alamy Stock Photo

The myth of Venice Mar 14, 2025

Alexander Lee, author of Machiavelli: His Life and Times, argues that liberty was central to the idea of Venice. Read by Helen Lloyd.
FURTHER READING:
Liberty and the myth of Venice | Alexander Lee
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Procession in Piazza San Marco by Gentile Bellini, 1496. Credit: Peter Barritt / Alamy Stock Photo

Spartacus, history’s nowhere man Mar 07, 2025

Richard Miles, historian and archaeologist, profiles Spartacus, a figure who floats between history and allegory. Read by Helen Lloyd.
FURTHER READING:
Spartacus, history’s nowhere man | Richard Miles
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Promotional poster for the film, Spartacus. 1960. Credit: Allstar Picture Library Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

How a Second Cold War could have been averted Feb 28, 2025

Mary Elise Sarotte, Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Distinguished Professor of Historical Studies at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, reflects that the choice to enlarge NATO was a justifiable response to the geopolitics of the 1990s. The problems came later. Read by Helen Lloyd.
FURTHER READING:
How a Second Cold War could have been averted | Mary Elise Sarotte
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: The 'You are leaving The American Sector' sign at the Checkpoint Charlie crossing point, Berlin Wall. Credit: Greg Balfour Evans / Alamy Stock Photo

The case for Classical music Feb 27, 2025

What makes Classical music special among the arts? And where did it come from?
To reckon with the inexhaustible complexity of the western musical tradition, its long history and the roots of its contemporary crises, EI's Alastair Benn is joined by Richard Bratby, the chief classical music critic of The Spectator magazine, and Alexandra Wilson, musicologist and cultural historian.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn, and produced by Caitlin Brown. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: A string quartet. Credit: nsf / Alamy Stock Photo

Ukraine's rich history of resistance Feb 21, 2025

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was slowed down because of determined, courageous resistance. That success also owed much to Western intelligence on the nature of the Russian attack. External support will remain crucial to the success of the Ukrainian war effort. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Credit: The Motherland Monument in Kyiv. Credit: Ruslan Lytvyn / Alamy Stock Photo

The global threat to liberty Feb 14, 2025

Non-western elites are redefining freedom on their own terms, as sovereignty, state security and stability. But the world becoming a lot less free should concern us all. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Eugène Delacroix's 'Painting of Liberty Leading the People'. Credit: Exotica.im 20 / Alamy Stock Photo

The myth and magic of spy fiction Feb 13, 2025

Are we living through a golden age of espionage drama? And what do spy stories tell us about the true nature of the secret world?
EI's Alastair Benn is joined by David Omand, ex-head of GCHQ, the British government’s world-renowned cyber agency, and author of How Spies Think, Pauline Blistène, an expert on intelligence affairs and spy fiction, and Senior Editor Paul Lay to discuss the enduring popularity and legacy of the spy in fiction.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn, and produced by Caitlin Brown. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: Gary Oldman in the 2011 film version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Year, based on the novel of John le Carré. Credit: Photo 12 / Alamy Stock Photo

How the GDR fell in love with the West Feb 07, 2025

Citizens of the GDR were exposed to an idealised version of western freedoms made up of luxury shopping, blue jeans and cowboy flicks. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Intershop in Friedrichstrasse in East Berlin. Credit: Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo / Alamy Stock Photo

Pittacus, the good tyrant Feb 06, 2025

After unpromising beginnings and innumerable controversies, Pittacus, seventh-century ruler of Mytilene on Lesbos, should be remembered as one of the great leaders of his age. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: An illustration of Pittacus. Credit: Historical image collection by Bildagentur-online / Alamy Stock Photo

The power of shareholder democracy Jan 31, 2025

The limited liability company remains the best vehicle for capitalistic endeavour. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Lloyd's coffee house in the City of London. Credit: CPA Media Pte Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

The dawn of the post-literate society Jan 30, 2025

Is the era of mass literacy over? And what might a post-literate society look like?
EI's Alastair Benn is joined by Times columnist James Marriott and Senior Editor Paul Lay to discuss the promise and peril of a culture defined by the audiovisual.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn, and produced by Caitlin Brown. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: Painting of a woman reading by Carl Vilhelm Holsøe. Credit: Vidimages / Alamy Stock Photo

What drives Vladimir Putin? Jan 24, 2025

Putin’s justifications for invading Ukraine uncannily reflect the motivations of one of Russian literature’s most famous antiheroes, Dostoevsky's Rodion Raskolnikov. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Vladimir Putin at an EU-Russia summit in Brussels. Credit: Peter Cavanagh / Alamy Stock Photo

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, rocket man Jan 23, 2025

The Russian recluse, a scientific self-starter who left school at 14, developed pioneering theories of space travel that anticipated the great feats of the Space Race fifty years later. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Soviet poster featuring a portrait of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935). Credit: Alexeyev Filippov / Alamy Stock Photo

Liberty in the shadow of Bonaparte Jan 17, 2025

Benjamin Constant’s considered response not only to the mass murder inflicted by the French Revolution, but to the attempt to reduce the whole French population to the condition of willing slaves under Bonaparte’s First Empire, provides a diagnosis of the character of many subsequent totalitarian regimes. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine were crowned Emperor and Empress of France on 2 December 1804. Credit: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

The case for Classics Jan 16, 2025

Is the study of Latin in peril? And what does the future hold for the ancient inheritance? EI's Alastair Benn is joined by Daisy Dunn, classicist and author, Armand D’Angour, Professor of Classics at Oxford University, and Paul Lay, EI’s Senior Editor, to discuss the value of ancient languages.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn, and produced by Caitlin Brown. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: Giovanni Paolo Panini's painting from circa 1730, The Coliseum amongst Roman Ruins. Credit: incamerastock / Alamy Stock Photo

How 1970s California created the modern world Jan 10, 2025

What happened in California in the 1970s played an outsized role in creating the world we live in today – both in the United States and in large parts of the globe – for better or worse. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: 1970s commercial airline advert. Credit: ClassicStock / Alamy Stock Photo

Guittone d’Arezzo, Dante’s forgotten muse Jan 09, 2025

At a time of moral and political crisis, the medieval poet pioneered a daring and emotive vernacular style which inspired generations of Italian literature. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: A sketch of Guittone d'Arezzo from the nineteenth century. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

EI Weekly Listen — Alexander McCall Smith on the writer's right to speak freely Dec 20, 2024

While we may think we have moved beyond the censorship of the past, writers' artistic freedoms are still constrained. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence was the subject of a watershed obscenity trial. Credit: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Talks... the Vietnam War with Fredrik Logevall Dec 19, 2024

EI's Angus Reilly discusses the history and legacy of the Vietnam War with Fredrik Logevall, author of Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is produced by Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: Photograph of American troops running towards a chopper during the Vietnam War. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Kori Schake on the price of freedom Dec 13, 2024

The arc of history only bends towards justice when people of goodwill grab hold of it and wrench it in the direction of justice. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: The Freedom is Our Religion banner in Maidan Square, Kyiv. Credit: Ali Kerem Yucel / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — Paul Lay on Thomas Gage, a man of unintended consequences Dec 12, 2024

His intense faith led Thomas Gage to switch his religious allegiance during the tumultuous 17th century - he went on to have an enormous impact on Britain's colonial future. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Title Page from Thomas Gage's The English-American his travail by sea and land: or, A new survey of the West-India's (London 1648)

EI Weekly Listen — David Butterfield on Epicurus, Lucretius, and the myth of mythlessness Dec 06, 2024

Myths frame and tailor the past in a way that can ground and stabilise a community, however large or small. By situating them within the fabric of history, myths provide a sense of tradition and belonging to rally around. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: A statue of Romulus and Remus on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. Credit: Russell Kord / Alamy Stock Photo

The problem with VAR Dec 05, 2024

EI's Alastair Benn discusses how technology is transforming the world of sport with Daisy Christodoulou, education expert and author of I Can't Stop Thinking About VAR, an eloquent examination of the use of the video assistant referee (VAR) system in football.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: Crystal Palace Fans hold up a banner to protest against VAR. Credit: Sipa US / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Elisabeth Braw on the importance of understanding the West's adversaries Nov 29, 2024

With deterrence and compellence becoming more crucial than they have been in over three decades, understanding what makes foreign leaders tick is of the utmost importance. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Image: Silhouettes of Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. Credit: KLYONA / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — Andrew Roberts on Brendan Bracken, ‘more Churchillian than Churchill’ Nov 29, 2024

Andrew Roberts profiles Brendan Bracken, Winston Churchill's faithful and most trusted political adviser. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Winston Churchill leaving Downing Street with Brendan Bracken. Credit:: Fremantle / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... Kissinger's century with Thomas A. Schwartz Nov 28, 2024

EI's Angus Reilly discusses the life and legacy of Henry Kissinger with Thomas A. Schwartz, author of Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Political Biography.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is produced by Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: President Gerald Ford and US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger conversing in the grounds of the White House in 1974. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Henrik Meinander on Gustaf Mannerheim, leader of a free Finland Nov 22, 2024

Gustaf Mannerheim's rise from a troubled youth to Finland's great wartime leader illustrates how leadership is forged by both personal traits and the unpredictable tides of history. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, centre, discusses strategy against the Russians at his field headquarters on the Finnish-Russian border, April 1942. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... how to deter Russia with Kristjan Prikk and Eitvydas Bajarūnas Nov 21, 2024

EI's Paul Lay discusses how the Baltic states have survived, and thrived, in the shadow of Russian aggression, with Kristjan Prikk, Estonia's Ambassador to the United States and Eitvydas Bajarūnas, a former Lithuanian senior diplomat, who has served as the Ambassador to Sweden, Russia and the UK.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: A new Iron Curtain in Europe. Credit: aleksey Shirmanov / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Rory Medcalf on the Australian way of war and peace Nov 15, 2024

Australia stands at the forefront of democratic resistance against China's expanding influence, reshaping its strategy and alliances to meet the challenges of a contested Indo-Pacific. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Two US Air Force B-2 Spirits fly alongside four Royal Australian Air Force EA-18G Growlers and a RAAF E-7A Wedgetail, August 2022. Credit: UPI / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... the making of the post-Wall world with Mary Elise Sarotte Nov 14, 2024

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 offered opportunities to reset relations between East and West. EI's Paul Lay discusses how these opportunities were squandered with Mary Elise Sarotte, Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Distinguished Professor of Historical Studies at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: The fall of the Berlin Wall. Credit: Agencja Fotograficzna Caro / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Andreas Rödder on Konrad Adenauer and the German realignment Nov 08, 2024

Konrad Adenauer combined Realpolitik and German values and interests with international cooperation. The multilaterally integrated, co-operative nation state he championed was a fundamental innovation in European history. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: German statesman Konrad Adenauer depicted on a coin. Credit: VPC Coins Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — Maria Golia on Carl Akeley, early pioneer of wildlife photography Nov 07, 2024

Maria Golia profiles Carl Akeley, an inventor, sculptor, and taxidermist. His life's lessons still echo in the effort to conserve wildlife. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Wildlife photographer Carl Ethan Akeley photographed in 1926. Credit: Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery / Public Domain

EI Talks... the lessons of the 1968 presidential election with Luke A. Nichter Nov 04, 2024

EI’s Angus Reilly is joined by Luke A. Nichter, author of The Year that Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968, to discuss Lyndon B. Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Nixon, and the battle for the future of America in a year that offers notable parallels to the election of 2024.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is produced by Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: Television presenter Frank Reynolds covering the 1968 election. Credit: Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Kenneth Payne asks: will machines make strategy? Nov 01, 2024

The emergence of Artificial Intelligence capable of deducing human intentions signals a new frontier in technology that could transform the world of strategy, diplomacy and warfare. Read by Helen Lloyd.
TV screens showing the live broadcast of the Google DeepMind Challenge Match at Yongsan Electronic Technology Land in Seoul, South Korea. Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... why Europe needs a grand strategy with Marina E. Henke Oct 31, 2024

EI's Alastair Benn is joined by Marina E. Henke, Professor of International Relations at the Hertie School, Berlin, to discuss how Europe can defend itself from the latest threats and thrive in a contested world.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: Conflict in Europe. Credit: Kirill Makarov / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Alina Polyakova on Ukraine and the future of US global leadership Oct 25, 2024

If Russia is allowed to walk away with any of its ill-gotten gains in Ukraine, the deterrent power of the United States and the transatlantic alliance will be lost. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Image: The flags of the United States and Ukraine flying side by side. Credit: Todd Bannor / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — Adrian Wooldridge on Philippa Fawcett, wrangler extraordinaire Oct 24, 2024

Adrian Wooldridge profiles Philippa Fawcett, the first female Senior Wrangler at Cambridge University and a trailblazer for women's achievement in a nascent meritocratic society. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: 1890 engraving of Philippa Fawcett, the first female Senior Wrangler. Credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — Philip Zelikow on the study of statecraft Oct 18, 2024

The study of statecraft would profit by spending less time on ‘should’ and more time on ‘how’. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Image: Woodrow Wilson delivering a Christmas address to soldiers of the A.E.F. Langres, Haute Marne, France, December 1918. Credit: Hum Images / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... how to win Cold War II with Dmitri Alperovitch Oct 17, 2024

EI's Paul Lay is joined by Dmitri Alperovitch, leading geopolitical analyst, entrepreneur, and co-founder and chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator, to discuss the parallels between US-Soviet rivalry and that of the US and China.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: The US and Chinese flags on stacked containers. Credit: Christian Ohde / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Kristin Ven Bruusgaard on the paradox of nuclear strategy Oct 11, 2024

The vision of nuclear strategy as a means to prevent war remains a powerful but contested idea in international politics. As global rivalries intensify and nuclear arsenals expand, the risk of conflict seems more pronounced than ever. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Image: A photograph of nuclear testing at Pacific Island test sites. Credit: EMU history / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — Graham Stewart on Joseph Galloway, the forgotten Founding Father Oct 10, 2024

Was the revolution that created the United States of America inevitable? The life of Joseph Galloway shows what might have been. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Image: An illustration of Joseph Galloway by Thomas Emmett, 1885. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

EI Weekly Listen — Benedetta Berti on the past, present and future of the transatlantic alliance Oct 04, 2024

Over the last decade, NATO has embarked on a significant process of military and political adaptation to ensure it can effectively enable the collective defence of allies in a competitive, contested and unpredictable world. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Image: NATO flag waving in the wind. Credit: Zoonar GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... the attention dilemma Oct 03, 2024

EI's Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss an attention dilemma that has haunted western thought for centuries.
READING LIST
Our attention dilemma is age-old | Alastair Benn
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium | Seneca
The Essays of Michel de Montaigne
Don Quixote | Miguel de Cervantes
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: Detail from Echo and Narcissus by John William Waterhouse, 1903. Credit: SuperStock / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Fredrik Logevall on JFK's abiding legacy Sep 27, 2024

Through his visionary leadership, inspired rhetoric, and willingness to compromise, John F. Kennedy summoned the narrative of American hope, his most powerful and enduring legacy. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Image: Senator John F. Kennedy at Hyannis Port. Credit: Phillip Harrington / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — Jessica Frazier on Akbar the Great, the ultimate Renaissance ruler Sep 26, 2024

One of the few leaders on whom history has bestowed the title ‘the Great’, Akbar was a noted connoisseur of cultures and architect of political pluralism. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Image: Akbar the Great hunting. Mughal Scool, 1590. British Museum. Artist Unknown. Credit: CM Dixon/Heritage Images/Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — Kentaro Fujimoto on Japan's global future Sep 20, 2024

Like it or not, Japan has become one of the most critical actors in contemporary international politics. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Image: A naval exercise conducted by Japan. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... the making of Xi Jinping with Michael Sheridan Sep 19, 2024

Michael Sheridan, author of The Red Emperor: Xi Jinping and His New China, joins EI's Angus Reilly to discuss the personal and ideological roots of one of the world's most powerful, and inscrutable, leaders.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is produced by Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: Xi Jinping with the Chinese flag. Credit: JHG / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Daisy Dunn on the pursuit of greatness Sep 13, 2024

Foundation myths based on the lives of heroic figures are often used by leaders to affirm their own authority — but they can also inspire wider society. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Image: Statue showing the mythological origins of Roman society. Credit: LatitudeStock / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — Rob Johnson on Basil Liddell Hart, alchemist of war Sep 12, 2024

Having witnessed first-hand the mechanised onslaught of the Great War, Captain Basil Liddell Hart sought a philosophy of warfare based on the prudent use of technology, psychology and deception – and the avoidance of the 'total war' catastrophes of preceding decades. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Image: A picture of Basil Henry Liddell Hart studying a tactical situation in 1947. Credit: Popperfoto via Getty Images/Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — Kori Schake on US grand strategy Sep 06, 2024

The US must adopt a grand strategy of democratic expansion. Only then can global security be established. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Image: American Second World War-era poster. Credit: Mouseion Archives / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... the search for a promised land with Rachel Cockerell Sep 05, 2024

EI's Alastair Benn speaks to Rachel Cockerell, author of Melting Point: Family, Memory and the Search for a Promised Land, a history of the quest for a Jewish homeland at the turn of the 19th century and beyond, weaving memoir, documentary, and literature.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: Theodor Herzl addresses the Sixth Zionist Organisation Congress in Basel, 1903. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Sergey Radchenko on the past, present and future of Sino-Russian relations Aug 30, 2024

The tumultuous relationship between Red China and the Soviet Union hints at an uncertain future for the Sino-Russian partnership. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Image: Sino-Soviet propaganda poster. Credit: Album / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — Agnès Poirier on Anna de Noailles, bright star of the Belle Époque Aug 29, 2024

Socialite and literary pioneer - Anna de Noailles was a bright star in the firmament of the Parisian Belle Époque. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Image: De László's portrait of Anna de Noailles. Credit: Svintage Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Munira Mirza on how the British elite lost its way Aug 23, 2024

Stagnation at home and turmoil abroad demand a radical rethink of how – and why – Britain forges its future leaders. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Image: The Treasury building in Whitehall, London. Credit: mauritius images GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... what the Romans found funny with Orlando Gibbs Aug 22, 2024

EI's Alastair Benn sits down with Orlando Gibbs to discuss what the Romans found funny, what we might find not so funny about ancient humour, and whether there is something universal about the comedic genre.
READING LIST
No Laughing Matter? What the Romans Found Funny | Antigone
Plautus punching up: a different class of comedy | Engelsberg Ideas
Mary Beard, Laughter in Ancient Rome: On Joking, Tickling, and Cracking Up (University of California Press, 2014)
Lionel Abel, Metatheatre: A New View of Dramatic Form (New York, Hill and Wang, 1963)
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: Michael Palin in Monty Python's Life of Brian. Credit: LANDMARK MEDIA / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Ali Ansari on the secret to Cyrus the Great’s success Aug 16, 2024

Few ancient monarchs have enjoyed such a consistent positive reputation as Cyrus the Great. Perhaps it’s time to become reacquainted. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Image: The Tomb of Cyrus, Iran. Photograph taken in 1898. Credit: Penta Springs Limited / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — Andrew Wilton on Amanda McKittrick Ros, the Florence Foster Jenkins of the romantic novel Aug 15, 2024

Andrew Wilton profiles Amanda McKittrick Ros, a late Victorian novelist admired in her day but now largely forgotten. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Image: A typical late Victorian scene. Credit: Dave Rheaume / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Lucy Ward on the invention of Catherine the Great Aug 09, 2024

Catherine II’s inoculation against smallpox was an extraordinary act of political self-creation. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Image: A portrait of Catherine the Great (1729-1796) by Alexey Antropov. Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... the atomic human with Neil D. Lawrence Aug 08, 2024

Neil D. Lawrence, inaugural DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Cambridge and author of The Atomic Human: Understanding Ourselves in the Age of AI, joins the EI team to challenge received wisdom on our AI future.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: An illustration of artificial intelligence. Credit: lorenzo rossi / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Alexander Lee on why Machiavelli wrote The Prince Aug 02, 2024

If we want to understand the ‘meaning’ of The Prince, we should start with Machiavelli himself. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Image: A statue of Niccolo Machiavelli in Florence, Italy. Credit: Goran Bogicevic / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — Rana Mitter on Tsiang Tingfu, pre-revolutionary China’s last bridge with the West Aug 01, 2024

Rana Mitter profiles Tsiang Tingfu, the American-educated diplomat and historian, who sought Chinese national revival on cosmopolitan lines. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Image: Tsiang Tingfu raises his arm to veto a proposal introduced by the Soviet Union to the UN. Credit: SuperStock / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Francis J. Gavin on the terrible dilemmas of leadership in a thermonuclear world Jul 26, 2024

Nuclear weapons are likely to be around for a long time to come – and the predicaments they create for world leaders are unlikely to be easily solved. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Image: President John F. Kennedy with Robert McNamara during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Credit: RBM Vintage Images / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... Paris in the Belle Époque with Marie Kawthar Daouda Jul 25, 2024

Marie Kawthar Daouda, author and a lecturer in French language and literature at the University of Oxford, joins EI's Alastair Benn to discuss how Belle Époque-era Paris continues to fascinate, with its burgeoning commercial culture, everyday beauty and glittering department stores.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is produced by Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: Jean Béraud's painting 'Paris, rue du Havre', c. 1882. Credit: IanDagnall Computing / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — James Marriott on why human art matters in the age of AI Jul 19, 2024

A world of machine art would be an eerie one. Art connects us to one another. We cannot, and we should not, replace that connection with an uncanny simulacrum of it. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Image: The Tribuna of the Uffizi by John Zoffany. Credit: PAINTING / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — Lawrence Freedman on John McDonald, poker-playing popularizer of game theory Jul 19, 2024

Lawrence Freedman profiles the Fortune journalist and best-selling author who played a key role in shaping mid-20th century perceptions of strategy and the role of the corporation. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Image: From left to right: Dorothy McDonald (wife of John, née Eisner), Leon Trotsky and John McDonald in Coyoacan, Mexico, in the 1930s. McDonald was recruited to help defend Trotsky from charges made at Stalin's show trials. Credit: General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University

EI Talks... bringing history to the public with Alice Loxton Jul 18, 2024

The historian and broadcaster Alice Loxton joins the EI team to discuss her forthcoming book, Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives, and her fight to bring serious history to a wider public.
Image: A jigsaw puzzle from the early nineteenth century, bearing representations of the Kings and Queens of England from William I to George IV. Credit: Chronicle / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Katja Hoyer on East Germany's battle for technology Jul 12, 2024

East Germany’s quest to catch up with the technological innovations of the West prompted some remarkable successes, but also expanded the oppression of its mass surveillance apparatus. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Image: The Trabant car being manufactured at the East German Sachsenring car plant. Credit: Classic Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... how advertising consumed the counter-culture with Ian Leslie Jul 11, 2024

EI's Alastair Benn sits down with Ian Leslie, author of Conflicted: Why Arguments Are Tearing Us Apart and How They Can Bring Us Together, to discuss how the counterculture went mainstream.
Image: An advert on the Nike store at Oxford Circus. Credit: Matthew Chattle / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Gudrun Persson on Russia’s forever war against Ukraine Jul 05, 2024

An often-overlooked fact about the current Russo-Ukrainian War is that over the centuries Russia has waged several wars to try to conquer Crimea and the Donbas area. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Image: Ukrania quae et Terra Cosaccorum cum vicinis Walachiae, Moldoviae, by Johann Baptiste Homann (1664–1724), 1720. Credit: history_docu_photo / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — Catherine Ostler on Maria Antonia of Bavaria, Electress of many talents Jul 04, 2024

Catherine Ostler profiles Maria Antonia, Electress of Saxony, an artistic polymath who helped re-shape elite culture in the Enlightenment age. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Image: An 18th-century portrait of Maria Antonia of Bavaria, Electress of Saxony, by Peter Jacob Horemans. Credit: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... Ronald Reagan's grand strategy with William Inboden Jul 04, 2024

EI's Angus Reilly discusses how Ronald Reagan put economic openness at the heart of the battle for ideas against Soviet Communism with William Inboden, author of The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink.
Image: Ronald Reagan at the Durenberger Republican convention Rally, 1982. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Iskander Rehman on early modern information overload Jun 28, 2024

The sense of being overwhelmed and constantly distracted is nothing new. Historians and policymakers should look to the 17th century for guidance on how to grapple with information overload. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Image: Rembrandt's 'Portrait of a Scholar', 1631. Credit: PRISMA ARCHIVO / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... marketing Classical music with Richard Bratby Jun 27, 2024

EI's Alastair Benn discusses the condition of Classical music today with Richard Bratby, chief Classical music critic of The Spectator.
Image: Music scores. Credit: Tim Gainey / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Julian Jackson on De Gaulle’s world in motion Jun 21, 2024

Part statesman, part prophet, Charles de Gaulle knew instinctively that political success and failure are inevitably interlinked, and that history would be the ultimate judge of both. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Image: The President of France Charles de Gaulle marches through the streets under the Arc de Triomphe in 1944. Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... John Law and financial crises with Kwasi Kwarteng Jun 20, 2024

EI's Iain Martin is joined by Kwasi Kwarteng, historian and former Chancellor of the Exchequer, to discuss the turbulent life of the 18th-century financial speculator John Law, whose innovative ideas were credited with bringing Ancien Régime France to the brink of ruin. There are echoes of what happened when the Truss government tried its own financial experiment, he acknowledges.
Image: A cartoon of John Law (1671–1729), the Scottish economist who was appointed Controller General of Finances of France under King Louis XV. Credit: PRISMA ARCHIVO / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — Laura Freeman on Helen Sutherland, brave cultivator of the beautiful Jun 19, 2024

Laura Freeman profiles Helen Sutherland, an isolated, austere, and fastidious heiress who dedicated herself to art. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Image: Woman Playing a Piano, by Winifred Nicholson. Her work was championed by Helen Sutherland. Credit: Paul Quezada-Neiman / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Josef Joffe on Germany, the engine that couldn't Jun 14, 2024

Celebrated as predestined shepherd in the glory days of Angela Merkel, Germany in the 2020s is an uncertain giant who has defied expectations, good or bad. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: The top of the Reichstag Building. Credit: Artur Bogacki / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... women of the ancient world with Daisy Dunn Jun 13, 2024

The leading classicist Daisy Dunn joins EI's Paul Lay to discuss her new book, The Missing Thread: A New History of the Ancient World Through the Women Who Shaped It.
Image: Nikolaos Gyzis, a 19th Century painter, depicts Sappho playing the lyre. Credit: Photo 12 / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Maurizio Viroli on how we can learn from history Jun 07, 2024

We cannot afford not to rediscover the fine art, nowadays almost forgotten, of learning from history. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: 16th Century engraving by Theodoor Galle, titled The Printing of Books. Credit: The Granger Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — James Barr on George McGhee, American father to Britain’s Suez Crisis Jun 06, 2024

James Barr profiles the debonair and open-faced diplomat, George McGhee, whose shuttle diplomacy helped accelerate Britain's decline as a player in the Middle East. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Image: President John F. Kennedy (left, in rocking chair) meets the newly-appointed US Ambassador to West Germany, George McGhee. Credit: Gibson Moss / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Philip Bobbitt on the decay and renewal of the US constitutional order May 31, 2024

A new constitutional order is coming. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: The Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. Credit: Lane Erickson / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... the history of democracy with Erica Benner May 30, 2024

Erica Benner applies ancient wisdom to modern problems in her new book Adventures in Democracy: The Turbulent World of People Power. She shares her insights with EI's Deputy Editor, Alastair Benn.
Image: Gathering of the Areopagus, a deliberative court that met in the open air in ancient Athens. Credit: North Wind Picture Archives / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Lars Trägårdh on the origins of Swedish democracy May 24, 2024

‘Democracy’ is in Sweden built on a basis fundamentally different from the one associated with the development of liberal democracy in the West. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Midsummer Dance by Swedish artist Anders Zorn (1860-1920) painted in 1897. A classic of Swedish art history showing traditional folk dancing in the Dalarna countryside in the extended summer evening light. Credit: Universal Art Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — Dominic Sandbrook on Jesse Ventura, the wrestling governor who blazed a trail for Trump May 23, 2024

Dominic Sandbrook profiles Jesse Ventura, the former Navy SEAL and WWE champion who won Minnesota’s governorship in 1999 on an anti-elite ticket. His transition from showbiz to politics was a precursor of the age of Trump – but ’the Body’ was no ordinary populist. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Image: Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura yells to the crowd at his People's Inauguration in Minneapolis. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Josef Joffe on the future of the European Union May 17, 2024

What is the future of the European Union? The EU is sui generis. It certainly cannot be a nation state. Nor is it destined to turn into a Staatsnation or willed nation. Then what? Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: European Union flags. Credit: Brian Lawrence / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... the age of upheaval May 17, 2024

EI's Paul Lay and Alastair Benn ask: do we really live in an age of upheaval?
Image: Turner's Vesuvius in Eruption. Credit: Artefact / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Simon Mayall on the history of the modern Middle East May 10, 2024

The current violence and turmoil in the Middle East is expressive of a conflict between rival ideas, between the modern nation state and an old, historical concept of an Islamic caliphate. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Abdel Nasser at a rally after the rupture of relations with Syria. Credit: colaimages / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — James Hardie on Heinrich Biber, composer of rapture and ravings May 09, 2024

James Hardie on the violinist-composer who mixed the sacred and profane in his fantastical music, a lost genius of the 17th century. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Image: A print of Heinrich Biber. Credit: The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Lawrence James on the invention of jingoism May 03, 2024

Jingoism was a natural offshoot of late Victorian imperialism. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Poster for a British imperial railway company. Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... Caravaggio May 02, 2024

A small but riveting exhibition at London's National Gallery tells the dramatic story of the troubled Renaissance master's 'last' painting.
Image: The Martyrdom of St Ursula, 1610. Credit: incamerastock / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Steven Grosby on the persistence of nationhood Apr 26, 2024

What is a nation, what is its significance, and to what problems of life is its persistence a response? Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Lucas Cranach's The Crossing of the Red Sea, 1530. Credit: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — Vanessa Harding on Nehemiah Wallington, Puritan chronicler who had far less fun than Pepys Apr 25, 2024

Vanessa Harding on the God-fearing diarist Nehemiah Wallington whose personality was far removed from the cosmopolitanism of Samuel Pepys, his fast-living contemporary. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Image: An excerpt from Nehemiah Wallington's diary, dated 1654. Credit: Folger Shakespeare Library.

EI Weekly Listen — Adrian Wooldridge on meritocracy Apr 19, 2024

The biggest division in modern society is between the meritocracy and the people, the cognitive elite and the masses, the exam-passers and the exam-flunkers. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Caricature of a Cambridge University library in the Georgian era. Credit: Thomas Rowlandson / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... the Entente Cordiale with T.G. Otte Apr 18, 2024

Self-interest, imperial competition and new threats in Europe - T.G. Otte examines the complex 120-year long history of the Entente Cordiale with EI's senior editor, Paul Lay.
Image: First prize winner at the Covent Garden fancy dress ball in 1905, a lady dressed in an elaborate costume as the Entente Cordiale. Credit: Chronicle / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Mariano Sigman on how language has shaped human consciousness Apr 12, 2024

How did our ancestors think? Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: A play is performed in an ancient Greek theatre. Credit: Classic Image / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — Peter Frankopan on Anna Komnene, the princess who chronicled Byzantium’s changing fortunes Apr 12, 2024

Peter Frankopan on the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene who, banished to a convent for her political ambition, devoted her gifts of observation to charting the fortunes of her father's empire – etching her legacy as Europe's first female historian. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Image: Anna Komnene, a Byzantine princess and scholar. Credit: history_docu_photo / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Nathan Shachar on ideology in science Apr 05, 2024

There is no linear, moral progress in knowledge and science. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Triple-microscope made by the optician Camille Sebastien Nachet in Paris. Credit: gameover / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... terrorism with Suzanne Raine Apr 05, 2024

EI's Deputy Editor Alastair Benn speaks to Suzanne Raine, visiting professor in the Department of War Studies at King's College London, about the evolution of the terrorist threat and its long history.
Image: Anarchist outrage at the Liceo theatre in Barcelona, 1893. Credit: Photo 12 / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Gregory Feifer on the mirage of Russian power Mar 29, 2024

The mistake many Western countries make is to take Russia largely at face value. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Nesting Russian dolls showing former leaders. Credit: Mr Standfast / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — Gillian Clark on the many ways of seeing Saint Monica Mar 28, 2024

Gillian Clark on Saint Monica, mother to Augustine of Hippo and lionized by the Latin Church, a women of many names and many more mysteries. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Image: Saint Augustine and his mother, Saint Monica. Credit:: Carlo Bollo / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Peter Heather on empire and development in first millennium Europe Mar 22, 2024

The story of first millennium Europe is one of remarkable economic change and demographic upheaval; a precocious analogue to the modern era of globalisation. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Charlemagne. Credit: The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... AI and education with Daisy Christodoulou Mar 21, 2024

Daisy Christodoulou punctures the hype around the applications of Large language models (LLMs) and chatbots to the field of learning. Will AI really revolutionise education?
Image: Mechanical brain. Credit: Sibani Das / Alamy Stock Vector

EI Weekly Listen — Barry Strauss on Ancient Greek geopolitics Mar 15, 2024

The Greeks invented the notion of the interrelationship of geography and politics; indeed, they elaborated it in myriad ways. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/duality-determinism-and-demography-the-greeks-on-geopolitics/
Image: The Athenian fleet. Credit: INTERFOTO \ Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — Jenny McCartney on Jean Denis, Comte Lanjuinais, fearless opponent of The Terror Mar 14, 2024

Jenny McCartney on Comte Lanjuinais, who risked his life by defying the Jacobins. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Image: Comte Lanjuinais speaks at a febrile meeting of the National Convention, 1793. Credit: Chronicle / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Josef Joffe on the end of 'the end of history' Mar 08, 2024

We equated a brief respite from history with the dawn of a new age. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Fall of the Berlin Wall. Credit: Agencja Fotograficzna Caro / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... Werner Herzog with Geoff Andrew and Muriel Zagha Mar 06, 2024

Geoff Andrew, the BFI's programmer-at-large, and film critic Muriel Zagha sit down with EI's Deputy Editor Alastair Benn to discuss the varied, visionary and eccentric creations of the German filmmaker Werner Herzog.
Credits: The audio clips at 0:07 and 4:13 are taken from Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer, directed by Thomas von Steinaecker. The film was released on BFI Player and BFI Blu-ray on 19 February. Courtesy of BFI Distribution.
The audio clip at 53:30 is an excerpt from The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser. It is currently on release in selected cinemas via the BFI. It aired at 27 Picturehouse sites on Friday 1 March. Courtesy of BFI Distribution.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. Worldview is produced by Alastair Benn and Marie Jessel. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: Werner Herzog on the set of Fitzcarraldo, 1982. Credit: Collection Christophel / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Michael Broers on how Napoleon built a continent Mar 01, 2024

Napoleonic geopolitics didn't make much impression on Europe's maps, but its influence was wide-ranging. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Napoleonic Europe: how the Emperor built a continent | Michael Broers
Image: Napoleon crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David. Credit: GL Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Portraits — Aspasia of Miletus: queen of the Athenian salon Feb 29, 2024

Armand D'Angour on Aspasia of Miletus, wife of Pericles and friend to philosophers. Read by Sebastian Brown.
Image: 19th Century lithograph of Aspasia of Miletus. Credit: GRANGER - Historical Picture Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Norman Stone on the 1860s Feb 23, 2024

In the 1860s, commentators might have been justified in forecasting 'the end of history' and lauding universal progress. History was to return with a vengeance. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: A lifeboat rescuing passengers from the ship Alarm in the 1860s. Credit: North Wind Picture Archives / Alamy Stock Photo

Worldview — Ukraine, two years on Feb 22, 2024

Two years on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a solution, military or diplomatic, seems as far away as ever.
On Worldview, leading historians and commentators reflect on a conflict that has altered the state of global geopolitics.
Jade McGlynn, author of Russia’s War, calls in from Kyiv (00:56).
Shashank Joshi, defence editor of the Economist and Hew Strachan, military historian, illuminate the battlefield picture (24:18).
The possible outcomes are considered by Sergey Radchenko, expert on Russian foreign policy, and Tim Marshall, best-selling author, whose most recent book is The Future of Geography (1:00:45).
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. Worldview is produced by Alastair Benn and Marie Jessel. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: The national flag of Ukraine above the Kyiv skyline. Credit: Mykhailo Prysiazhnyi / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — David Frum on how empire-states are changing the game Feb 16, 2024

From the Engelsberg Ideas Archive. States are back and they're out to challenge the international order.
Image: Vladimir Putin captured from screen. Credit: Anton Dos Ventos / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... Horace Feb 16, 2024

Llewelyn Morgan, author of Horace: A Very Short Introduction, joins EI's Paul Lay to explore the Augustan poet's vast and complex legacy.
Image: Bust of Horace. Credit: Cum Okolo / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Elisabeth Kendall on Jihadist poetry as propaganda Feb 09, 2024

Al-Qaeda's success in Yemen can in part be explained by the group's adept use of poetry as propaganda. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: An al-Qaeda logo is seen on a street sign in the town of Jaar in southern Abyan province, Yemen. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... the Edwardians: the calm before the storm Feb 09, 2024

Alwyn Turner, author of Little Englanders: Britain in the Edwardian Era,speaks to Paul Layabout the early 20th century, an age of anxiety.
Image: Street musicians in London in the Edwardian era. Credit: KGPA Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Malise Ruthven on the appeal of ISIS Feb 02, 2024

From the Engelsberg Ideas Archive. The organisation that emerged under the name ISIS is not simply a terrorist group. It is a hybrid organisation comprised of a proto-state, a millenarian cult capable of attracting recruits from far beyond its borders, a network of Salafi jihadist groups, an organised criminal ring and an insurgent army led by highly skilled former Baathist military and intelligence personnel. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters shown in propaganda photos released by the militants. Credit: Handout / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... can Israel win the peace? Feb 02, 2024

Ahron Bregman, author of Cursed Victory: A History of Israel and the Occupied Territories, outlines his vision for a lasting peace between Israel, Palestinians and the Arabs.
Image: An Israeli flag is seen through a dust cloud near the border with the Gaza strip. Credit: Eddie Gerald / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Andrew Preston on the invention of American national security Jan 26, 2024

By the time Kennedy and Johnson held the presidency in the 1960s, the definition of US national security had been stretched and expanded in previously unimaginable ways. It was not unusual for Americans to perceive their security frontiers as global – indeed, it was considered natural. But it hadn’t always been thus. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Poster showing the American flag waving among clouds. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... the Soviet Union's bid for Africa Jan 26, 2024

Daniela Richterova, Senior Lecturer in Intelligence Studies at the Department for War Studies, King's College London, reflects on the efforts the Soviet Union made to court African states and liberation movements during the Cold War and draws parallels with China and Russia's new scramble for Africa.
Image: A monument to Arab-Soviet Friendship at the Aswan dam, Egypt. Credit: Matyas Rehak / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Charly Salonius-Pasternak on how Nordic and Baltic countries are preparing for war Jan 19, 2024

Thinking about 'war in our time' and our region is no longer an activity restricted to historians or military planners. Politicians and citizens in the countries bordering the Baltic Sea have been forced to accept that it has become necessary to prepare for an unwelcome guest: war. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: A naval operation staged as part of the Freezing Winds military exercise, led by the Finnish Navy. Credit: Sipa US / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... Studio Ghibli Jan 19, 2024

Alastair Benn is joined by Christopher Harding, cultural historian of Japan and author of The Light of Asia: A History of Western Fascination with the East, to discuss the life and work of celebrated animator Mayazaki Hayao, co-founder of Studio Ghibli, and his latest (and last?) film, The Boy and the Heron, a semi-autobiographical exploration of wartime bereavement, courage and ultimate redemption.
Image: A still from The Boy and the Heron directed by Miyazaki Hayao. Credit: BFA / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Kimberly Kagan on the United States and the new way of war Jan 12, 2024

The United States, still the dominant military power in the world, is immersed in a new era of warfare that it has not yet recognised as endemic and enduring. America is losing its wars to less powerful but more adaptable adversaries, while preparing inadequately for future inter-state conflicts. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Posters of slain Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... December, 1941 Jan 12, 2024

In December 1941, the Japanese military attacked Pearl Harbor, making the Second World War a truly global conflict. Paul Lay is joined by Charlie Laderman to discuss a month that shook the world.
Image: Three US battleships stricken during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941. Credit: GRANGER - Historical Picture Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Pascal Vennesson on the rise of transnational war-making Jan 05, 2024

Political success for the global insurgents can arise not only from a military victory on the ground, but from a military stalemate and even a military defeat. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Mock Houthi-made drones and missiles are set up in a city square in Yemen. Credit: Zuma Press / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Rolf Ekéus on how to end wars Dec 22, 2023

There is only one way out of total destruction and collapse, which is creative diplomacy. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Dutch envoy Cornelis Calkoen received by the Ottoman grand vizier. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Philip Bobbitt on the new global disorder Dec 15, 2023

We cannot understand what is going wrong in the international order without first understanding what is going wrong in the constitutional order of states. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: The Statue of Liberty seen through a broken window on Ellis Island. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... 2023 Dec 15, 2023

What is the deep meaning of 2023? Alastair Benn is joined by Paul Lay and Iain Martin to set a dramatic year in perspective.
Image: A woman lights a candle to express solidarity with Israel. Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Yu Jie on the deep historical roots of China's global ambition Dec 08, 2023

China projects its power and secures its national interests in three ways: exercising might, spending money and expressing its own mindset. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: CCP propaganda printed in rice fields. Credit: Fabio Nodari / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... a new world of intelligence Dec 07, 2023

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by Matthew Hefler, post-doctoral fellow at the Ax:son Johnson Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy, to discuss the changing role of intelligence services in an era of intense geopolitical competition.
Image: The MI6 building in Vauxhall, London. Credit: Alex Segre / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Andrew Monaghan on how the past shapes Russian grand strategy Dec 01, 2023

Putin uses history not only to fit a narrative that Russia is strong when it stands together, but also to seek legitimacy. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Russian Second World War propaganda poster. Credit: Shawshots / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... the challenges of counter-insurgency Nov 30, 2023

What went wrong for the western alliance in Afghanistan? Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by John Ferris, author of Behind the Enigma: The Authorised History of GCHQ, Britain's Secret Cyber-Intelligence Agency, to discuss whether liberal states can still carry out effective counter-insurgency operations.
Image: U.S. Marines search a compound in Afghanistan. Credit: Stocktrek Images, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Pär Stenbäck on religion and politics in the Middle East Nov 24, 2023

Religion is often ignored as a political factor; in the Middle East, this is not possible. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Supporters of the pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah group wave the party flags in front of a poster of late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini during a ceremony in Beirut. Credit: dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... the promise and perils of declassifying intelligence Nov 24, 2023

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by Calder Walton, author of Spies: The epic intelligence war between East and West, to discuss how governments can use covertly acquired intelligence as a powerful tool to influence debate — and how easily it can all go wrong.
Image: US Ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson, second from right, confronts Soviet delegate Valerian Zorin, first on left, with a display of reconnaissance photographs during an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council at the United Nations headquarters in New York, on October 25, 1962. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Wolfgang Palaver on the complex relationship between violence and religion Nov 17, 2023

Wherever we insist on truth in order to win over our adversaries, we awaken a spirit of violence that endangers our living-together in the world. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre by Francois Dubois. Credit: Niday Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... Recovering the women of Augustine's Confessions Nov 15, 2023

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by Kate Cooper, author of Queens of a Fallen World, to discuss the women who shaped the life of Augustine of Hippo.
Image: A 17th century painting of Saint Augustine and Saint Monica. Credit: The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Gary Lachman on the sources of mystical experience Nov 10, 2023

Mystical experience is the missing link in modern accounts of how human beings came to be conscious. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Trasverberazione di Santa Teresa d’Avila (1640). Credit: jozef sedmak / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... The Beatles Nov 10, 2023

Paul Lay, Alastair Benn and Iain Martin discuss the cultural legacy of the Fab Four and why the Beatles story continues to fascinate sixty years on.
Image: The Beatles showing their MBE Insignias after receiving them from the Queen. Credit: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Benedetta Berti on the legacy of the Arab Awakening of 2010 Nov 03, 2023

The Middle East and North Africa's transition from authoritarianism to democracy has been slow and painful, with both hopeful gains as well as worrisome setbacks. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Crowds cheer joyfully in central Cairo, Egypt. Credit: Jake Lyell / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... Tecumseh and the Shawnee Confederacy Nov 02, 2023

Paul Lay is joined by Kori Schake to examine the rise and fall of the inspirational Shawnee leader Tecumseh who used strategy to defy America's westward expansion.
Image: Shawnee chief Tecumseh confronting William Henry Harrison in Indiana. Credit: North Wind Picture Archives / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Armin W. Geertz on the pre-historical roots of religious belief Oct 27, 2023

The history and evolution of (proto) religious behaviour is ancient. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Print of early humans making fire. Credit: Science History Images / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... a deep history of Gaza Oct 27, 2023

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by James Barr, historian of the Middle East, to discuss Gaza's long and complex history and how it continues to be felt in the present day.
Image: A print of Gaza around 1880. Credit: Holy Land Art / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — David Goodhart on bridging the value divide Oct 20, 2023

Finding a new settlement between the Anywheres and the Somewheres is now the central task of modern politics. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Poverty in London, 1919. Credit: Classic Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... The Iliad Oct 20, 2023

A new translation of the Iliad is an opportunity to reassess the first great work of European literature.
Image: Achilles and Memnon fighting in Greek pottery dating to 300 BC. Credit: Peter Horree / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Jonathan Fenby on the challenge for a totalitarian China Oct 13, 2023

The need to buttress control is the bottom line for Xi.
Image: Portrait of Mao on the street. Credit: Chuck Nacke / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... Israel’s harrowing week and the consequences for the Middle East Oct 13, 2023

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by Suzanne Raine, national security and counter-terrorism expert, and Michael Goldfarb, author and broadcaster, to discuss Hamas' terrorist outrage and the uncertain future that follows for the region.
Image: Members of the Hamas Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Kjell Nordström on the future of capitalism Oct 06, 2023

The proletarianisation of knowledge promises a bumpy ride for both us and capitalism as we know it. Read by Leighton Pugh.
The New York Stock Exchange. Credit: Sergi Reboredo / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... Autumn Oct 06, 2023

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss the idea of Autumn, a season peculiarly rich in cultural resonances.
Image: Autumn on the Seine, Claude Monet (1840-1926). Credit: IanDagnall Computing / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Maurizio Viroli on the city as a political order and urban space Sep 29, 2023

A good political community can only live and flourish in cities that speak to the soul of the citizens and inspire the love of order. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Map of Renaissance Florence. Credit: Pictures Now / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... the problems and perils of nuclear strategy Sep 29, 2023

Paul Lay is joined by Francis J. Gavin, Director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins SAIS, to discuss nuclear statecraft past and present.
Image: Still from Stanley Kubrick's 1963 film Dr Strangelove. Credit: TCD/Prod.DB / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Gudrun Persson on rewriting Russian history Sep 22, 2023

In modern Russia, the past is being rewritten to suit Vladimir Putin's script. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: People carry portraits of their relatives - soldiers of the Second World War - as they take part in the Immortal Regiment march in downtown Moscow. Credit: SOPA Images Limited / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... Clausewitz Sep 22, 2023

Paul Lay is joined by the historian Sir Hew Strachan to discuss On War, the military theorist Carl von Clausewitz's seminal text, and the indispensable guide to the conduct and practice of war.
Image: Carl von Clausewitz. Credit: ART Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Fraser Nelson on the Intellectual Dark Web Sep 15, 2023

The intellectual dark web will, most likely, be a flicker in history, a reminder of when the West’s conversation was at its most shrill, and when free-thinking people had to look to underground clubs for a place to air their thoughts. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Camille Paglia. Credit: Independent / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... JFK Sep 14, 2023

JFK biographer Fredrik Logevall, in conversation with EI's Paul Lay and Iain Martin, discusses Kennedy's enduring and 'iconic' status, his claims to greatness, his style, and what his example offers for a divided America.
Image: During a campaign trip Senator John F. Kennedy greets a roadside crowd in Indiana. Credit: American Photo Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Christopher Coker on the changing meaning of patriotism in war Sep 08, 2023

Dying to defend territory is an ancient human need - but war in the 21st century may not follow the script. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: English propaganda poster from the First World War showing a column of soldiers and civilians marching to war. Credit: Photo 12 / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... Rugby Union Sep 08, 2023

In the latest episode of EI Talks... Paul Lay and Alastair Benn put together an idiot's guide to Rugby Union. The World Cup, the sport's showcase competition, kicks off tonight. The team gives their predictions.
Image: French Rugby poster from the 1930s. Credit: Lordprice Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Remaking the moral case for capitalism by Iain Martin Sep 01, 2023

A defence of capitalism will have to rest first and foremost on an appeal to ethics, obligation, and duty. Read by Leighton Pugh.

EI Weekly Listen — Spoken history: the modern importance of indigenous cultures by John Hemming Aug 25, 2023

Our information-rich civilisation is not superior or inferior to the pre-literate world of Brazil's indigenous peoples, just different. Read by Leighton Pugh.

EI Weekly Listen — Mark Plotkin on the price of deforestation Aug 11, 2023

The destruction of rainforests threatens valuable cultures and reams of possible medical innovations. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Credit: Dennis Frates / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — On the good society by David Goodhart Aug 04, 2023

A good society is one with a proper balance between the aptitudes of ‘head’, ‘hand’ and ‘heart’. The modern knowledge economy, however, has delivered higher and higher returns to the cognitive elite and reduced the relative pay and status of manual and caring jobs. Read by Leighton Pugh.

EI Weekly Listen — Time to regulate the development of AI by Maria Borelius Jul 28, 2023

The risks we now face are vast, as is the potential upside of the technology. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Art installation on the theme of AI. Credit: Michele D'Ottavio / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... Mick Jagger at 80 Jul 27, 2023

As the Rolling Stones frontman enters his ninth decade, EI asks whether there is a future for ageing rockers.
Image: Mick Jagger in 1975. Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — What the Silicon Valley idealists got wrong by Nicholas Carr Jul 20, 2023

The internet and social media were supposed to democratise knowledge and unite the world. Things didn't quite turn out that way. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook. Credit: Kristoffer Tripplaar / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... the future of tourism Jul 20, 2023

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss the explosion of tourism in the modern era and what might come next.
Image: Travel poster encouraging tourists to visit Blackpool. Credit JJs / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Wealth and poverty in Renaissance Florence by Antony Molho Jul 14, 2023

This celebration of wealth, its frequent elevation to an almost religious level, and its justification not only in terms of its social utility but also, and more remarkably, in personal terms, is one of the defining characteristics of the Florentine public culture and private ethos in the fifteenth century and beyond. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: An opulent fresco in Renaissance Florence. Credit: Peter Horree / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... anger Jul 13, 2023

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn calmly discuss the uses and misuses of anger.
Image: Thai mural in the temple of the Emerald Buddha, Bangkok. Credit: Sabena Jane Blackbird / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — The public realm and the language of architecture by John Simpson Jul 06, 2023

We must rescue our cities from a culture of ugliness. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Sol House, Northampton. Credit: Paul Hanson / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... Sully, Richelieu, Mazarin Jul 06, 2023

Paul Lay and Iskander Rehman discuss masters of early modern statecraft: the Duke of Sully, Cardinal Richelieu, and Cardinal Mazarin.
Image: Cardinal Richelieu at the Siege of La Rochelle. Credit: Niday Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo

Can warfare ever be considered modern? By Rob Johnson Jun 30, 2023

Even with all its data and technology, contemporary conflict fits uneasily with our definitions of modernity. Read by Leighton Pugh
Image: Mosul's old city destroyed by bombing. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... AI and the threat to the arts Jun 29, 2023

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by Times columnist James Marriott to discuss whether Artificial Intelligence poses an existential threat to the arts.
Image: Man as Industrial Palace, a poster commissioned by German physician and author Fritz Kahn in 1926. Credit: JJs / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — War and statehood by Philip Bobbitt Jun 23, 2023

Warfare made the early modern state. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Renaissance-era woodcut of King Louis IX of France and his army disembarking at Damietta, Egypt, in 1249. In a common anachronism, the army and fleet are equipped with cannons. Credit: Florilegius / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... Machiavelli Jun 23, 2023

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by Alexander Lee, biographer of Niccolò Machiavelli, to discuss the Renaissance thinker's foundational contribution to the study of statecraft.
Image: Niccolò Machiavelli. Credit: GL Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Clashing histories and present-day tensions in East Asia by Rana Mitter Jun 16, 2023

As China ramps up its military spending, the government in Beijing plays up its role in the Second World War. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Chinese poster from the Sino-Japanese War. Credit: Album / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... Cricket Jun 15, 2023

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss the deep meaning of Cricket in light of the forthcoming Ashes series between England and Australia, and the recent wider changes the game has undergone.
Image: The Ashes urn. Credit: David Bagnall / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Do we know the truth about the Thirty Years’ War? By Dick Harrison Jun 08, 2023

Different perspectives and eye-witness accounts reveal historical fallacies and myths about the war. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Gustavus Adolphus II. Credit: Wiki Creative Commons

EI Talks... the problem with Classical music Jun 08, 2023

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss the future of Classical music.
Image: String quartet playing in the Saint Nicholas Shopping centre, London. Credit: RayArt Graphics / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... strategy, resilience and defence Jun 02, 2023

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss the London Defence Conference and the return of strategic thinking to the Western alliance.
Image: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks with the director of the London Defence Conference, Iain Martin. Credit: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Each Charter’d Street: Taking the long view on urban planning by Nicholas Boys Smith Jun 02, 2023

For as long as there have been cities they have attracted admiration and fear. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Eighteenth century map of London. Credit: Chronicle / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Talks... AI May 25, 2023

In the first episode of the Engelsberg Ideas editorial podcast, EI Talks..., Iain Martin, Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss Artificial Intelligence and how it might shape the future for better... or worse.
Image: Programmable humanoid robot NAQ. Credit: Lilyana Vynogradova / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Weekly Listen — The geopolitics and grand strategy of Alfred Thayer Mahan by John H. Maurer May 25, 2023

Alfred Thayer Mahan's writings on naval warfare have overshadowed his contributions to geopolitics. His theories, however, are clearly playing out today. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: A print of a First World War Imperial German Navy battlecruiser, the SMS Goeben. Credit: Troy GB images / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — The cultural conversation of mankind by Christopher Coker May 19, 2023

Isolationist thinking and exceptionalism is on the rise and our global culture is the poorer for it. Our civilisations thrive when in conversation with each other: ideas are exchanged and self-reflection is promoted. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: An American Mercantile Building in Yokohama, 1861. Credit: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Weekly Listen — Epic news by Jessica Frazier May 12, 2023

What are myths for? More than entertainment alone, these epic tales helped the Ancients follow current affairs. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

Worldview — A Sacred Coronation for a Secular Nation May 05, 2023

Adam Boulton is joined by Paul Lay, Senior Editor of Engelsberg Ideas, Agnès Poirier, journalist and author, and Royal biographer Hugo Vickers, to reflect on the deep meaning and symbolism of Britain's Coronation.
Image: King Charles III views a wooden carving at St. Laurence's Church in Ludlow, Shropshire. Credit: Michelle Jones / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Weekly Listen — The other side of the hill by Simon Mayall May 05, 2023

In war, we are, like the Duke of Wellington, still trying to guess what is on the other side of the hill, we just have more tools to help us do so. Read by Leighton Pugh
Image: The Left Wing of the British army in Action at the Battle of Waterloo, June 18th 1815. Credit: Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — In search of Lebensraum by Richard Overy Apr 28, 2023

Hitler's conviction that a new Eurasian order should be constructed with Germany at its zenith had its ideological roots in the early science of geopolitics. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: This map of Russia and surrounding countries highlights Hitler's campaign in Russia and how it went wrong. Credit: Bettmann

EI Weekly Listen — The crusader of goodwill by Janne Haaland Matláry Apr 21, 2023

While no longer a state power, the Catholic Church remains a powerful political force in modern diplomacy. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Pope Francis with his weekly audience in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, in 2018. Credit: Massimo Wallichia / Getty Images.

EI Weekly Listen — Where does esotericism belong in modern academia? By Marco Pasi Apr 14, 2023

Scholars of esotericism are often asked to justify their field of research and its place in modern society. However, esotericism provides fertile ground for radical thinking and is a useful means of considering the limitations of standard western thought. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image:The Flammarion Wood engraving. The image is often used as a metaphorical illustration of either the scientific or the mystical quests for knowledge. Credit: RGB Ventures / SuperStock / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Weekly Listen — Welcome to the fifth age of the city by Yolande Barnes Apr 06, 2023

Changing technology, climate change, and transformations in global finance mean another new era for cities is dawning: the fifth, or digital, age. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Ecological skyscraper in Milan. Credit: Paolo Bona / Alamy Stock Photo.

Worldview — the power of central banks Apr 06, 2023

Central banks have held the financial world in their grip for much of the twentieth century, but is their reign coming to an end?
In this episode of Worldview, Adam Boulton is joined by the former governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, along with journalist and author Merryn Somerset Webb, Iain Martin, Editor-in-Chief of Engelsberg Ideas, and economic historian, Samuel Gregg.
Image: Currencies from around the world. Credit: Jochen Tak / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — How the individual invented the modern West by Larry Siedentop Mar 31, 2023

The European Middle Ages have been deemed an era of regression but this couldn't be further from the truth. In this period, the foundations were laid to establish a liberal West centred around the rights of the individual. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Construction of highway, eighteenth century France Engineers on horseback inspecting the work, a painting Claude-Joseph Vernet, 1775. Credit: Lebrecht Music & Arts / Alamy Stock Photo.

Worldview — The Return of Applied History Mar 28, 2023

How can the lessons of history be applied to the present? What are the benefits of taking the long view?
In this episode of Worldview, Adam Boulton is joined by the scholars Robert Crowcroft, editor of Applied History and Contemporary Policymaking: School of Statecraft, Phillip Bobbitt of the University of Texas, Iskander Rehman, an Ax:son Johnson Fellow at the Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies and Gill Bennett, former Chief Historian of the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Image: The Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull. Credit: Artimages / Alamy Stock Photo.

History Lessons — Katja Hoyer on East Germany Mar 27, 2023

In our latest episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hessérus is joined by author, historian and journalist Katja Hoyer to discuss her new book Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949-1990. Together, they discuss the GDR and its legacy today.
Image: East German pioneers and musicians depicted in the porcelain frieze 'Building of the Republic' designed by German artist Max Lingner (1952–1953) on the building of the Council of Ministers of East Germany (former Reichsluftfahrtministerium), now the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus in Berlin, Germany. Credit: Azoor Photo / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Weekly Listen — Bringing beauty back to the city by Anne Fairfax Mar 24, 2023

Cities have been reduced to centres of soulless materialism and their citizens to non-stop consumers. If we hope to create beautiful surroundings, a rethink is required. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: The Vessel at Hudson Yards, New York City. Credit: robertharding / Alamy Stock Photo.

Worldview — The future of the museum Mar 21, 2023

How does an institution in the business of preserving the past prepare itself for the interests and sensibilities of the future? Where do museums fit in the national psyche?
In our latest episode of Worldview, host Adam Boulton is joined by director of the V&A Tristram Hunt, Professor Armand D'Angour and Dr. Tiffany Jenkins to discuss what the future might hold for museums.
Image: Renaissance and Medieval sculptures at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Credit: Bjanka Kadic / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Weekly Listen — Learning from Asian philosophies of rebirth by Jessica Frazier Mar 17, 2023

Asian literature, with its technologically-adept Chinese emperors, Animist Spirit-negotiators, and Yogic sages, shows us how to live well in troubled times. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Ma Yuan's The Yellow River Breaches its Course, from a series of paintings of water.

History Lessons — Sarah Bakewell on Humanism Mar 17, 2023

In our latest episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hessérus is joined by author Sarah Bakewell to discuss her new book Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Enquiry and Hope. Together they chart the history of the Humanist movement and its relevance to this secular age.
Image: The six Tuscan poets. Credit: Giorgio Morara / Alamy Stock Photo.

Worldview — How to end a war Mar 15, 2023

Where does war end and peace begin? And what role does diplomacy play in that transition?
In our latest episode of Worldview, host Adam Boulton is joined by historians Margaret MacMillan, Andrew Ehrhardt and Frank Gavin, as well as former European Commission High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton.
Image: Satirical cartoon of the Congress of Vienna. Credit: The Granger Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — America’s return as the reluctant defender of the liberal order by Kori Schake Mar 10, 2023

The US cultivated a garden that it grew weary of the burdens of sustaining but, once all other alternatives have been exhausted, the US will be pushed back into defending its liberal world order. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: 'Young America rescues Europe!', declares a French cartoon from 1918. Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo.

Worldview — People power: dealing with demography Mar 07, 2023

Is demography destiny? Shifting patterns in population have marked history, drive political change and sharpen cultural divides.
In our latest episode of Worldview, host Adam Boulton is joined by Paul Morland, the UK's leading demographer, Bill Emmott, former editor of the Economist and author of Japan's Far More Female Future, and Richard Assheton, the Times' and Sunday Times' West Africa correspondent.
Image description: A group of elderly women in Kyoto, Japan. Credit: Trevor Mogg / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Weekly Listen — The City of God: on Augustine’s vision of Empire by Gillian Clark Mar 03, 2023

Augustine’s seminal book was written in the context of the Roman Empire, but it remains ever-relevant. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image description: St Augustine / Wiki Public domain.

Worldview — The risks and the rewards of AI Feb 28, 2023

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the worlds of art, manufacturing, medicine, even the language we use, at a bewildering speed. Should we fear or welcome it? What are its risks and rewards? And could it ever come to outpace the human mind?
In our latest episode of Worldview, host Adam Boulton is joined by Gary Marcus and Ernest Davis of New York University, and Susan Schneider, Director of the Centre for Future Mind, to discuss the profound cultural, philosophical and ethical implications of AI. Meanwhile, journalists Hugo Rifkind and Gaby Wood consider how AI will revolutionise the media and publishing industries.
Image description: An auction at Sotheby's, London, selling AI art created by Mario Klingemann, March 2019. Credit: Malcolm Park/Alamy Live News.

EI Weekly Listen — Geopolitics never went away for the United States by Andrew Preston Feb 24, 2023

For the United States, geopolitics has always been about national identity, even in an era of globalisation. Perhaps it always will be.
Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image description: The Marine Corps War Memorial, also known as Iwo Jima Memorial. Credit: DeAgostini/Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — On Civility by Erica Benner Feb 17, 2023

Navigating politico-religious disagreements in a spirit of civility is nigh-on impossible in eras in which the meaning of civility itself is contested. How do we speak to each other civilly in a time of incivility?
Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image description: Girolamo Savonarola's execution on the Piazza della Signoria in Florence in 1498. Credit: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Weekly Listen — Information war does not exist by Peter Pomerantsev Feb 10, 2023

In the Cold War the Kremlin tried to convince foreign audiences its disinformation campaigns were real, today the aim seems to be different. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image description: Soviet poster of a tank on Red Square. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Weekly Listen — The ancient roots of the modern holy war by Tom Holland Feb 03, 2023

The crusades, jihad, and wars in defence of intangible ideals all have their origins in a short-lived conflict in the 6th century BC. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Stone relief from the palace of Ashurbanipal, A detail from the battle of Til Tuba. Teumman the Elamite king is trying to escape but his chariot crashes. His horses panic, while he is trying to escape with an arrow in his back, supported by his son. Assyrian. Late Assyrian, c 645 BC. Nineveh, Assyria, Ancient Iraq. (Photo by Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

EI Weekly Listen — From the Silk Road to the information superhighway by Peter Frankopan Jan 27, 2023

Globalisation may appear to be a cornerstone of modernity but humans have always both craved and feared connection, be it social, commercial, spiritual or scientific. Read by Leighton Pugh.
A 15th Century illustration from a Turkish manuscript depicting a surgical operation. Medical understanding was an important element of the exchange of knowledge between the Islamic world and Europe. Credit: Wikipedia Commons

EI Weekly Listen — Finding Garibaldi by Lucy Riall Jan 20, 2023

Garibaldi’s retreat to his home in Caprera spawned a liberal-nationalist ideal of statesmanship that would live long in the European imagination. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882) in his signature red shirt, gazing towards his beloved Italy from a cliff edge on the island of Caprera off the coast of Sicily. Illustration c1920. Credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — What did it mean to belong to the Holy Roman Empire? by Peter Wilson Jan 13, 2023

The Holy Roman Empire was neither a nation state nor indeed a conventional empire. Instead, its inhabitants were unified through a web of legal rights. Read by Leighton Pugh.
A miniature of the Treaty of Verdun, 843. Emperor Louis I (right) blessing the division of the Frankish Empire in 843 into West Francia, Middle Francia, and East Francia. Credit: Wikimedia commons.

EI Weekly Listen — Towards a Westphalia for the Middle East by Brendan Simms Jan 06, 2023

Westphalia’s legacy of compromise and conditional sovereignty shows the way to peace in the Middle East. Read by Leighton Pugh.
The Ratification of the Treaty of Münster, 1648. Found in the collection of the National Gallery, London. Credit: Fine art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — What is mistake theory and can it save the humanities? By Claire Lehmann Dec 22, 2022

While critical theory is not without its uses, it is time that we take a more constructive approach to social issues. ‘Mistake theory’ can offer a useful lens. Read by Leighton Pugh
Students graduating from Birmingham University, England. Credit: Malcolm McDougall Photography / Alamy Stock Photo.

Worldview — Genome, the dangers and potential of gene editing Dec 16, 2022

It is now clear that genetically editing human beings is not only possible, but increasingly simple. The ethical considerations of this development on the other hand remain complex. To discuss the mapping and editing of the human genome, Adam Boulton is joined by Dr George Church, the 'father of genomics', and Kevin Davies, science author, journalist and the executive editor of the CRISPR journal.
Image description: Genetic editing and gene research in vitro. Credit: Brain light / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Weekly Listen — The Case of East Asia by Jonathan Fenby Dec 16, 2022

East Asia, especially China's, economic rise in the latter half of the twentieth century was sudden and impressive but now, growth is stalling. This, combined with the rivalry between the US and China and sovereignty disputes has destabilised the region. Read by Leighton Pugh.
This essay was first published in 2016.
High-rise buildings replace old residences in Zhejiang, China. Credit: Charles O. Cecil / Alamy Stock Photo

Worldview — China and India: a new struggle for dominance Dec 09, 2022

For thousands of years, India and China had relatively little contact, but following China's annexation of Tibet and the end of European colonialism, the two Asian Giants became neighbours. Today, their relationship is increasingly tense. In this episode of Worldview, Adam Boulton is joined by Peter Frankopan, Tanvi Madan and Rana Mitter to put Sino-Indian relations under the microscope.
Image description: The old Silk Route between India and China. Credit: Dinodia Photos / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Weekly Listen — How to fix the future, Estonian style by Andrew Keen Dec 08, 2022

Rather than protecting individual data privacy, the fate of democracy in our networked age might depend on establishing a new, radically transparent contract of trust between government and citizens. Estonia is leading the way. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Churches, other landmarks and old buildings at the Old Town in Tallinn, Estonia. Credit: Tuomas Lehtinen / Alamy Stock Photo

Worldview — Revolution and evolution: the history of the book Dec 02, 2022

In around 1440 AD, a goldsmith called Johannes Gutenberg began assembling the apparatus that would eventually become known as the first Western printing press. Thirty years later, this invention had transformed Europe, spiritually, economically and politically. In this episode of Worldview Adam Boulton is joined by Professor Alexander Lee and Professor Emma Smith to chart the history of the book, from its revolutionary beginnings to the present day.
Image description: Nineteenth century typesetter and printers working with Stanhope cast iron printing press in print shop. Credit: Arterra Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Weekly Listen — Why the nation beat the empire in the battle of nineteenth century ideas by Jeremy Jennings Dec 02, 2022

A history of the nineteenth century tells not just of newly-formed nations, but of newly-developing nationalism. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Carving Up The World A satirical cartoon by James Gillray, showing British Prime Minister William Pitt and the French leader Napoleon Bonaparte, carving up the world between them. Entitled 'The Plumb Pudding in Danger' - pub. 26th February 1805

Worldview — Pressure on the power network Nov 25, 2022

The West must have an adaptable power grid to meet the challenges of this geopolitical energy crisis.
In this episode of Worldview, Adam Boulton is joined by Margarita Balmaceda, Magnus Henrekson, Olamide Oguntoye and Ariana Kiran Singh to discuss generating and transmitting power in the face of growing geopolitical and environmental concerns.
Image description: Electricity pylon. Credit: David Leadbitter / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Weekly Listen — The joy of suffering by Candida Moss Nov 25, 2022

The crucifixion lodged suffering at the heart of Christianity: to suffer was to be like Christ. This reframing of suffering had far-reaching consequences for world history. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Jesus Christ on the Cross with St. Mary and St John, painted by Albrecht Altdorfer, circa 1512. Credit: Niday Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo.

Worldview — The nuclear threat today Nov 15, 2022

There are currently around 13,000 nuclear warheads worldwide, with Russia possessing the largest nuclear arsenal.
And yet, nuclear weapons have not been deployed in combat since the US bombed Nagasaki and Hiroshima seventy-seven years ago.
So, how and why has the nuclear taboo remained intact and what may jeopardise it in the future?
In this episode of Worldview, Adam Boulton is joined by Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman and Professor Wyn Bowen to discuss the history of nuclear deterrence, the likelihood of nuclear weapons being deployed in Ukraine, and China's growing nuclear arsenal.
Image description: Mock-up of the air defence system around Moscow, in the Patriot Park In Moscow Region, Russia. Credit: Nikolay Vinokurov / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Weekly Listen — The Revolt of the European Masses: the disintegration of accountability in supra-national politics by Janne Haaland Matlary Nov 11, 2022

With forces such as identity politics and supra-national bodies gaining traction across Europe, the concept of the nation state has never been more important. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: A painting of the Dutch envoy Adriaan Pauw entering Münster around 1646 for the peace negotiations, painted by Gerard ter Borch. Credit: Wikipedia Commons/Stadtmuseum Münster

Worldview — The global struggle for microchip supremacy Nov 09, 2022

When the pioneers of computer engineering created the first integrated circuits in the 1950s they could not have envisaged how this technology would infiltrate all elements of our daily lives.
The production of microchips is now rapidly becoming the defining force in geopolitics and will play a fundamental role in the conflicts of the future.
In this episode of Worldview, Adam Boulton is joined by Chris Miller, author of Chip Wars, and historian of computing, Thomas Haigh. Together, they discuss the development of the computer chip and how it fits into the coming struggle between the US and China.
Image description: A retro circuit board with germanium transistors and diodes, electrolytic and ceramic capacitors, carbon resistors, aluminium coils. Credit: KPixMining / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Rethinking geopolitics by Jeremy Black Nov 04, 2022

Geography and politics are closely intertwined, although that no more means that all geography is political than that all politics is geographical. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: An American map of the West Coast of Africa from Sierra Leone to Cape Palmas, 'including the colony of Liberia'. Credit: Everett Collection Historical / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Why the idea of Carthage survived Roman conquest by Richard Miles Oct 28, 2022

The Romans burnt Carthage’s books and buildings – but ‘Punic’ identity remained influential throughout Antiquity. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Print of ancient Carthage. Source: Wiki Creative Commons

EI Weekly Listen — The end of history ends by Walter Russell Mead Oct 21, 2022

The era in world history that began with the fall of the Soviet Union is drawing to its close. The post-Cold War Eurasian settlement that the United States and its allies imposed after 1990 has three big challengers - Russia, China and Iran. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: A symbol of American power, the National Capitol in Washington, DC. Credit: Christian Offenberg / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Weekly Listen — The restless search for the fun wars by David J Betz Oct 14, 2022

The West, more specifically the United States, with its major allies alongside it, has been chasing the 'fun wars' for forty years and serially coming up empty. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: British Prime Minister Tony Blair greets an ethnic Albanian by holding up his hand in central Pristina, Yugoslavia during a one-day visit Saturday July 31, 1999. It was Blair's first visit to Kosovo since NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. (Photo by David Brauchli)

EI Weekly Listen — The impact of the First World War on strategy by Hew Strachan Oct 07, 2022

The First World War fundamentally altered our understanding of strategy — we should heed the insights of the era's leading thinkers and generals. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: First World War Commanders looking at a battle plan. Painting by Francois Flameng (1856-1923), 1916. Army Museum, Paris. Credit: Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — The polymath in the age of specialisation by Peter Burke Sep 30, 2022

Crises of knowledge precipitate drives towards specialisation. In our digital age we still need polymaths. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: This chart is taken from the book 'Ars Magna Lucis Et Umbrae' which was published in 1646 by the Jesuit scientist and inventor, Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680). Credit: SSPL/Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — Authority without knowledge by Erica Benner Sep 23, 2022

The worst form of ignorance in politics is an inflated opinion of one’s own wisdom. In matters of moral judgement, authority-dependence carries grave risks. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: French painter David's The Death of Socrates. Credit: Universal History Archive/Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — Geopolitics and the Mongol Empire by Morris Rossabi Sep 16, 2022

Political and economic concerns were as critical as environmental and geographic factors in forging the unity of the Mongol Empire. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Genghis Khan in combat. Miniature from Jami' al-tawarikh, ca 1430. Found in the collection of Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Artist. Credit: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — Fairy Tales of Statehood: the politics of sacred land and divine-kings by Jessica Frazier Sep 09, 2022

Land is the silent, steady, partner in the messy realm of politics and national divides between monarchs. Read by Leighton Pugh. You can find the essay featured in this episode here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/spirit-lands-and-tyrant-kings-differing-tales-of-statehood/

EI Weekly Listen — Why War Again by Lilia Shevtsova Sep 02, 2022

As hostilities with Russia increase, we must again ask ourselves what drives human beings to conflict, especially after an era of peace. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Credit: Eddie Gerald / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Jihadist Media Strategies by Elisabeth Kendall Aug 26, 2022

While the Islamic State’s savvy media presence may have overshadowed that of al-Qaeda over the past decade, the efforts of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) operating in war-torn Yemen show the group remains a long-term threat.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-war-for-hearts-and-minds-the-evolution-of-al-qaedas-media-strategy/
Credit: REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — The Joint Intelligence Committee: Reading the Russian mindset by Michael Goodman Aug 19, 2022

During the Cold War, the British Joint Intelligence Committee was charged with forecasting the actions of states behind the Iron Curtain and the rest of the world. Its record was patchy – the Brits were repeatedly taken by surprise throughout the 20th century. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-joint-intelligence-committee-reading-the-russian-mindset/
Credit: The Central Intelligence Agency via Wikipedia Commons

EI Weekly Listen — Democracy in crisis: Lessons from Ancient Athens by Erica Benner Aug 12, 2022

Demagogues thrive if moderate politicians flatter citizens into an unrealistic sense of their own greatness. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/democratic-crisis-lessons-from-ancient-athens-4/
Credit: The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Tribal bias from the wild to the laboratory by Cory J Clark Aug 05, 2022

It is not just politics that is beset by tribalism. The social sciences are also vulnerable to in-group bias. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/tribal-bias-from-the-wild-to-the-laboratory-5/
Credit: melita / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Love as Religion by Simon May Jul 29, 2022

Love has become widely seen as a democracy of salvation open to all. The reality is more complex. Is our religion of love doing more harm than good? Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/is-our-religion-of-love-doing-more-harm-than-good/

Credit: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — The Gospel of Thomas: casting a new light on Early Christianity by Elaine Pagels Jul 22, 2022

While there may have been striking similarities between the Gospel of Thomas and those of the four Evangelists, closer examination reveals a subtle yet crucially different perspective on salvation. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-gospel-of-thomas-casting-a-new-light-on-early-christianity/
Credit: REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo

Worldview — The battle for energy resources Jul 13, 2022

In this episode of Worldview, Adam Boulton is joined by Professor Helen Thompson, Tim Marshall and Daniel Yergin to discuss the global energy market.
The fallout of Putin's invasion of Ukraine has overthrown energy norms in Europe. However, over the past decade the energy market has been far from stable. With concerns surrounding climate change and the discovery of new resources, we are on the brink of an energy revolution which will overhaul the geopolitical map as we know it.
Image description: Oil pumps and refinery in oil field. Credit: Cultural RM / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Weekly Listen — Why 16 billion cortical neurons are not enough by Suzana Herculano-Houzel Jul 13, 2022

Humanity has come quite some way in the past 200,000 years but are we really anything more than primates with a few million more neurons than our closest relatives? Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/why-16-billion-cortical-neurons-are-not-enough/
Credit: Martin Harvey via Getty Images

Worldview — Leadership in war Jul 08, 2022

What's a war without its leaders? In this week's Worldview, Adam Boulton speaks to leading historians Margaret MacMillan and Andrew Roberts on how leadership shapes both conflicts and their resolutions.
Image description: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, stands for a moment of silence during a ceremony to award medals to service members to celebrate the Day of Defenders of Ukraine in the courtyard of the Mariinskyi Palace, October 14, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Credit: Ukraine Presidents Office / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Weekly Listen — Modern France and the ghosts of the past by Peter Ricketts Jul 08, 2022

France, like all countries, is haunted by events and mistakes of times past. These ghosts will guide modern policy until they are overridden and laid to rest. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/modern-france-and-the-ghosts-of-the-past/
Credit: Guillaume Louyot / Alamy Stock Photo protests

EI Weekly Listen — Lawrence of Arabia on war: How the past haunts the present by Rob Johnson Jul 01, 2022

The Lawrence legend continues to win new devotees while his pragmatic contribution to warfare is neglected. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/lawrence-of-arabia-on-war-how-the-past-haunts-the-present/
Credit: Science History Images / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — The importance of the individual in history by Vernon Bogdanor Jun 24, 2022

Throughout the ages, oracles, journalists and political scientists have attempted to guess the course fate may take. But should they fail to take the specifics, particularly specific individuals, into account, they are doomed to fail. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-importance-of-the-individual-in-history/
Credit: CBW / Alamy Stock Photo

Worldview — Conflict in space Jun 24, 2022

In our latest episode of Worldview hosted by Adam Boulton we consider the role outer space will play in the future of conflict. How soon will conflicts on Earth spill out into space? What form might these conflicts take and how can we regulate them? Adam speaks to Jacob Geer, Dr Stuart Eves and Professor von der Dunk to find out.
Image description: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Credit: UPI / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Weekly Listen — Geopolitics, geoeconomics and Russian revisionism by Mikael Wigell Jun 17, 2022

Traditional geopolitical solutions (accommodation or military containment) are unlikely to work with Putin’s Russia. Instead the West should pursue a unified geo-economic strategy. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-carrot-and-the-stick-geo-economics-and-russian-revisionism/
Credit: Klaus Oskar Bromberg / Alamy Stock Photo

Worldview — The Battlefield Jun 17, 2022

How does the war in Ukraine look on the ground? What does the future of the battlefield hold? In this week's episode of Worldview, Adam Boulton speaks to Professor Hew Strachan and Dr Rob Johnson to discuss these issues and more.
Image description: A drone operator from field medicine division, Ukraine. Credit: Mykhailo Palinchak / Alamy Stock Photo.

Worldview — The Russia Problem Jun 12, 2022

Our new series of Worldview, presented by Adam Boulton is considering the future of warfare and geopolitics in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In this week's episode, Adam Boulton is in conversation with Vladislav Zubok and Sir Roderic Lyne, the former British Ambassador to Moscow. While both were horrified by the invasion of Ukraine last February, they offer varying views on how this new age of hostility came about.
Image description: The Kremlin, in Moscow. Credit: Manuele Cecconi / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Weekly Listen — Containing and deterring Russia: can Europe act strategically? by Janne Haaland Matlary Jun 01, 2022

The condemnation of the annexation of the Crimea was unified and strong, but the sanctions that followed lacked any real bite. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/containing-and-deterring-russia-can-europe-act-strategically/
Credit: Nikolay Vinokurov / Alamy Stock Photo

Worldview — The World Remade Jun 01, 2022

Our new series of Worldview, presented by Adam Boulton is considering the future of warfare and geopolitics in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In this week's episode, Adam Boulton is in conversation with Beatrice Heuser, Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones and Frank Gavin discussing the roles of NATO, the EU and the UN today. How can these twentieth-century institutions tackle the challenges of the twenty-first century?
Image description: The flags of the NATO member states are hoisted during the ceremonial handover of the new NATO headquarters in Brussels. Credit: dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI Weekly Listen — The long peace and nuclear deterrence by Lawrence Freedman May 27, 2022

For the past sixty years, the use of nuclear weapons has become unthinkable. But with every conflict there comes a point where the unthinkable becomes possible. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/can-nuclear-deterrence-preserve-the-long-peace-between-major-powers/
Credit: RBM Vintage Images / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Variety in Judaism by Martin Goodman May 20, 2022

In a religious system which presupposed a covenant not just between God and the individual Jew, but between God and Israel as a nation, the sense of communal solidarity had an abiding impact, regardless of the differences between denominations. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Credit: Maraike Hofer / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — America's problem with unconventional warfare by Frederick Kagan May 13, 2022

For more than thirty years, the US has sought to avoid deploying ground forces into protracted conflict. It has nevertheless done so in almost every single one of those years. Perhaps it is time to accept reality. Read by Leighton Pugh
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/americas-problem-with-unconventional-warfare/
Credit: Bumble Dee / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Suffering, the price of being alive: an Islamic perspective by Mona Siddiqui May 06, 2022

Islam — unlike Christianity — may not have a central motif of pain, sin and suffering, but it reveals so much about what it means to live with adversity. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/suffering-the-price-of-being-alive-an-islamic-perspective/
Credit: Dmitrii Melnikov / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — Reassessing Christian history by Diarmaid Macculloch Apr 29, 2022

While Christianity may strive to sing in a single voice, no one modern denomination ought to claim a monopoly on the truth. The region's history is in fact far more eclectic. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/reassessing-christian-history/
Credit: Yogi Black / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen — The gods in love by Jessica Frazier Apr 22, 2022

The Hindu tradition of Radha and Krishna calls us to see passion as the kernel of all religion. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-gods-in-love/
Credit: Heritage Arts/Heritage Images via Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — The story of the Jesuits: how the Society of Jesus charted the world by M.Antoni J. Ucerler, S.J. Apr 14, 2022

As Jesuit missionaries spread further across the globe, the order’s founder wanted to ensure that its members remained connected. The result of this was an unparalleled network of knowledge which superseded religious tensions. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/jesuit/
Credit: Wikipedia Commons/ Bibliothèque Universtaire Moretus Plantin

EI Weekly Listen — The Portuguese: Pioneers of globalisation by Roger Crowley Apr 08, 2022

Portugal’s commercial dominance of large swathes of the world lasted little more than a century but the images, transmissions, and trades that it engendered left a significant and long-lasting influence. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Credit: Jacques Pavlovsky/Sygma via Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — Elements of seapower, past and present by Lincoln Paine Apr 01, 2022

Sea power derives from resources, a direct interest in sea-based trade, and pressure exerted by enemies. In the modern age, the importance of these factors in international affairs remains paramount. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Credit: Lev FedoseyevTASS via Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — Making sense of the Yemen War by Elisabeth Kendall Mar 25, 2022

If a peace deal is not reached, all the key ingredients are present for Yemen to become a failed state. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/making-sense-of-the-yemen-war/
Credit: MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP via Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — The dark side to loving a group by Harvey Whitehouse Mar 18, 2022

Acts of extreme self-sacrifice – such as suicide bombing – are not aberrations. They tell us something about our deepest instincts for group loyalty. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-dark-side-to-loving-a-group/
Credit: TORSTEN BLACKWOOD/AFP via Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — The fake history of civilisational states by Christopher Coker Mar 11, 2022

So-called civilisational states, including Russia, China and India, invoke fake histories to justify and buttress their contemporary political settlements. But those who cannot let go of the past are always at risk of finding themselves imprisoned by it. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-fake-history-of-civilisational-states/
Credit: PUNIT PARANJPE/AFP via Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — The flag wars are here to stay by Tim Marshall Mar 04, 2022

Flags have become synonymous with nationhood, character, spirit, and power. In an age of renewed nationalism, their power should not be underestimated.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-flag-wars-are-here-to-stay/
Credit: Anthony WALLACE / AFP via Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — Disinformation in the information age by Gill Bennett Feb 25, 2022

The line between disinformation, propaganda and fake news is often blurred. This is especially the case when it is unclear whether these untruths or half truths are being disseminated by the 'good' or 'bad' guys. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/disinformation-in-the-information-age/
Credit: Franz Aberham via Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — Roman geopolitics, an exercise in myth-making by Richard Miles Feb 18, 2022

Once established, Roman exceptionalism and empire needed to be justified and maintained. The practical application of mythology was one way in which this was achieved. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/roman-geopolitics-an-exercise-in-myth-making/
Credit: Fred de Noyelle via Getty

EI Weekly Listen — How US policy failure post-9/11 undermined international order by Emma Sky Feb 11, 2022

The US once enjoyed the esteemed position of being the 'city on the hill', a beacon of hope and an example to the rest of the world. Post-9/11, however, the superpower's conduct in the Middle East has left its reputation tarnished. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/how-us-policy-failure-post-9-11-undermined-international-order/
Credit: James May/Alamy

EI Weekly Listen—Uruk and the origins of the sacred economy by Daniel T. Potts Feb 04, 2022

Peering into the hearts and minds those living four thousand years ago is an impossible task. However, when it comes to the worship of the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna, it seems clear to be, quite literally, a labour of love and fear.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/uruk-and-the-origins-of-the-sacred-economy/
Credit: Print Collector via Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen — Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy revisited by Niall Ferguson Jan 28, 2022

While at one point in time the idea that socialist economies would ultimately prevail over capitalism was quite a widespread view the fate of socialist states over the past hundred years have demonstrated that they enjoy only two possible paths: authoritarianism or anarchy.
Credit: Shotshop GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen—Cool war by Noah Feldman Jan 21, 2022

While the US remains the sole reigning super power, the rise of China adds complexity to the current world order. Geostrategic conflict is inevitable, but mutual economic interdependence can help manage that conflict and keep it from spiralling out of control.
Credit: Christian Ohde / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen—Russia and geopolitics by Anna-Lena Laurén Jan 14, 2022

As the largest country in the world, Russia's might past and present has an inherent link to its geopolitics. But since the decline of the Soviet Union, Moscow's eyes are constantly straying beyond the national borders. In Russia, expansion is often regarded as a means of self-defence.
Credit: Tommy E Trenchard / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen—Fantasy in Middle Eastern nation-making by Nathan Shachar Jan 05, 2022

There is frequently no real reason why one person has more claim to live or even rule over a piece of land than another. A reason, however must be provided and it is often be found in a fantastical interpretation of history.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/fantasy-in-middle-eastern-nation-making/
Credit: Adobe Stock

EI Weekly Listen – You are not as clever as you think by Mark Pagel Dec 23, 2021

Why do humans accumulate ideas, knowledge and technologies while other animals are seemingly stick doing the same thing over and over never getting better? Rather than being a question of raw intelligence, it is in fact largely down to luck, trial and error and copying others.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/you-are-not-as-clever-as-you-think/
Credit: Buyenlarge/Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen – Adrian Wooldridge on the return of religion Dec 17, 2021

Voltaire predicted that religion would be defunct in fifty year's time. Karl Marx called it the opium of the masses and Nietzsche declared that God is dead. Adrian Wooldridge is now saying that He's back. From the rise of Islamic extremism to American evangelism, the twenty-first century is seeing a religious renaissance. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Credit: Tuul & Bruno Morandi via Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen - Martina Winkelhofer-Thyri on whether Austria is a nation, state or an empire Oct 08, 2021

Studying the evolution of Austria in the 20th century offers deep insight into essential Western political categories. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/austria-nation-state-or-empire/
Credit: Adobe Stock

EI Weekly Listen - Tom Holland on Æthelstan and the forging of a United Kingdom of England Oct 01, 2021

The story of how, over the course of three generations, the royal dynasty of Wessex went from near oblivion to fashioning a kingdom that still endures today is the most remarkable and momentous in the island's history. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/aethelstan-the-king-who-forged-a-united-kingdom-of-england/
Credit: Public domain

EI Weekly Listen - Maurizio Viroli on the virtues of the city-state Sep 24, 2021

The early modern Italian republics are often portrayed as models of bad government. But the fusion of civic humanism and Christianity they championed endures to this day. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/in-defence-of-the-city-state/
Credit: Alinari Archives/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen - Robin Lane Fox on nationalism in the classical world Sep 17, 2021

Nationalism is often thought of as a modern development - but its traces can be found in antiquity. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/did-nationalism-exist-in-the-classical-world/
Credit: Wiki Creative Commons

EI Weekly Listen - Hew Strachan on the cost of the 1918-19 pandemic Sep 03, 2021

The influenza pandemic behaved much like the conflict itself - picking out the young and fit before their time. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/counting-the-cost-of-the-1918-19-pandemic/
Credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen – Alexander Lee on Machiavelli and civil strife Aug 20, 2021

Niccolo Machiavelli, Renaissance statesman and political theorist, saw factional politics as essential to the prosperity of the Roman Empire and his native Florence. Are today's partisan divisions as beneficial? Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/machiavelli-and-the-benefits-of-civil-strife/

Credit: Icom Images / Alamy Stock Photo

EI Weekly Listen – Adrian Wooldridge on why the West needs Plato more than ever Aug 20, 2021

The Victorians saw Plato's Republic as an indispensable guide to reform of the public sphere - we should follow their lead. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/leadership-in-crisis-why-the-west-needs-plato-more-than-ever/
Credit: Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

EI Weekly Listen – Richard Whatmore on why revolutions are a disaster Aug 13, 2021

Karl Marx was wrong about revolutions - in practice, they beget Caesars and Napoleons. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/history-shows-revolutions-are-a-disaster/
Credit: Andrew Maclear/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

36: EI Weekly Listen – Andrew Graham-Dixon on crisis and great art Jul 29, 2021

Social upheaval has often been a catalyst for artistic change - the Renaissance was no exception. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/crisis-and-the-creation-of-great-art/
Credit: Mauro Magliani for Alinari/Alinari Archives, Florence/Alinari via Getty Images

35: EI Weekly Listen – Tom Holland on the empty metropolis Jul 28, 2021

Empty city London had its harbingers in literature and history. How will it emerge from its isolation? Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/pandemics-and-the-metropolis-city-lockdown-london/
Credit: 1000 Words / Shuttersotck

34: EI Weekly Listen - Donald Sassoon on a world of nations and states Jul 22, 2021

Despite globalisation, the nation state retains its privileged position in world politics. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/a-world-of-nations-and-states-is-here-to-stay/
Credit: AMA/Corbis via Getty Images

33: EI Weekly Listen – Jonathan Fenby on China's great uncoupling Jul 09, 2021

Beijing wants to foster a world where Chinese standards replace those of the post-1945 US-led system. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/chinese-china-the-great-uncoupling/
Credit: Feng Li/Getty Images

31: EI Weekly Listen – David Seedhouse: Covid-19 and the moral case for personal judgement Jun 25, 2021

The tension between independence and compliance is everywhere in society – but in medicine, reason must come before rules. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/covid-19-and-the-moral-case-for-personal-judgement/
Credit: DeAgostini/Getty Images

30: EI Weekly Listen – Matthew Goodwin: Meet the Zoomer generation Jun 18, 2021

This period of turbulence could turn today's twenty-somethings into the leaders of a new liberal revolution. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/meet-the-zoomer-generation/
Credit: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

29: EI Weekly Listen – Tim Marshall: New Turkey's old politics Jun 09, 2021

As a result of President Erdogan's embrace of two interlinked geopolitical concepts, 'Strategic Depth' and 'Blue Homeland', Turkey faces international isolation. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/new-turkeys-old-politics/
Credit: Kerem Uzel/Bloomberg via Getty Images

28: Weekly Listen – Graham Stewart on Thatcher's rescue from historical cliché Jun 03, 2021

To argue that Margaret Thatcher attacked the post-war dream is to caricature, not illuminate, her importance to British history. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/continuity-thatcher-rescuing-a-complex-leader-from-historical-cliche/
Credit: John Downing/Getty Images

27: EI Weekly Listen – Mark Honigsbaum: Challenging the 'Great Reset' theory of pandemics May 28, 2021

Thucydides saw plague as an opportunity to improve the health of society. But history shows that pandemics have a way of disrupting medical and social progress. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/challenging-the-great-reset-theory-of-pandemics
Credit: Bettmann

25: EI Weekly Listen – Clive Aslet: The changing fate of the English country house May 20, 2021

Amid the tumult of the 1970s, it appeared the traditional country house had gone into irreversible decline - but it was too early to write it off. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/upstairs-downstairs-demolished-the-changing-fate-of-the-english-country-house/

Credit: The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images

23: EI Weekly Listen – Helen Thompson: Geopolitics of a pandemic May 06, 2021

The Covid-19 crisis has accentuated all the geopolitical fault lines of the past decade. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/geopolitics-pandemic-geopolitical-conflict/

Credit: Adobe Stock

21: EI Weekly Listen – Philip Bobbitt: A government of laws Apr 29, 2021

The constitutional order is changing as citizens become alienated and demand more say. Americans must take care that their habits of law are not swept away. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/a-government-of-laws/
Credit: REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo

20: EI Weekly Listen – Vanessa Harding: Remembering London's last Great Plague Apr 22, 2021

London's response to its last plague epidemic involved close collaboration between crown, City and parish. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/living-with-the-great-plague-of-1665/
Credit: Culture Club / Getty Images

19: EI Weekly Listen – Johan Hakelius: John Hughes and the making and unmaking of the American Dream Apr 13, 2021

The films of John Hughes updated the American Dream for a new generation, and his complex legacy helps us understand what went so wrong. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/john-hughes-and-the-making-and-unmaking-of-the-american-dream/
Credit: CBS via Getty Images

18: EI Weekly Listen - Iskander Rehman: Why applied history matters Apr 08, 2021

Forget the seduction of grand theories and presentist moral judgments. To learn the lessons of the past, the great foreign policy analysts of our age must rediscover the art of historical discernment. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-case-for-applied-history/
Credit: BLM Collection / Alamy Stock Photo

16: EI Weekly Listen – Gillian Clark: Survival lessons from Ancient Rome Mar 26, 2021

The Romans have so much to teach us about what it means to live in a society in crisis. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/survival-lessons-from-ancient-rome/
Credit: Thomas Cole / Public domain

15: EI Weekly Listen – Peter Frankopan: This crisis has the capacity to be apocalyptic Mar 19, 2021

Covid-19 heralds the end of our interconnected world. We'll need wise leaders to navigate what comes next. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/this-crisis-has-the-capacity-to-be-apocalyptic/
Credit: Getty Images

12: Can America lead again? Jan 22, 2021

Iain Martin with guests Sir Nigel Sheinwald, Professor Joseph Nye, Karin von Hippel and Tom McTague on the foreign policy change facing the Biden administration

11: GCHQ – John Ferris on the official history Dec 19, 2020

Mattias Hessérus is in conversation with John Ferris, the historian 'behind the enigma' of Britain's signals intelligence agency.

10: MI9 – Helen Fry on wartime escape Dec 15, 2020

Mattias Hessérus is in conversation with Helen Fry on the ingenious exploits of MI9 – the secret service for escape and evasion.

9: David Omand on what it takes to think like a secret agent Dec 14, 2020

Mattias Hessérus is in conversation with David Omand, former director of GCHQ, on how we can all learn to think like a spy.

8: Fredrik Logevall on JFK Dec 04, 2020

Over 40,000 books have been written on JFK since his assassination, yet none have succeeded in getting behind the myth of Camelot. Join Mattias Hessérus in discussion with Fredrik Logevall on the making of the man who enchanted America.

7: Covid and reform: can the West fix its governing systems? Nov 13, 2020

Iain Martin with guests Adrian Wooldridge and Vernon Bogdanor discusses the covid crisis and the long-term impact that it might have on the development of the West.

6: Alexander Lee on Machiavelli Sep 28, 2020

In this episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hesserus is joined by Alexander Lee to discuss Machiavelli’s life and works. Was he always an adept politician? Was he as immoral as is often claimed?

5: Asian Philosophies of Rebirth with Jessica Frazier Sep 11, 2020

In this episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hesserus and Jessica Frazier are in conversation about the differences between Eastern and Western philosophies of crisis. Is the desire for a return to ’normal’ inherently western? What can we learn from narratives of rebirth? And, was the global lockdown a mass-participation yogic experiment?

4: Can the West be revived? Jul 23, 2020

How did the West land in, what we might politely call, a 'sub-optimal' condition? And is a revival of the West feasible? To discuss these questions Iain Martin is joined by Peter Frankopan and David Frum.
This is an Engeslberg Ideas podcast.

3: Leadership in a Crisis with Andrew Roberts Jul 10, 2020

On this episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hessérus is joined by the historian and author Andrew Roberts to look through the careers of great figures like Napoleon Bonaparte, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher (as well as some of history's great villains, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin) and see how they handled the pressure of a crisis.
History Lessons is an Engelsberg Ideas podcast.
Hosted by Mattias Hessérus.
With Andrew Roberts.
Produced by Nick Hilton for Podot.

2: The History of Quarantine with Lincoln Paine Jul 01, 2020

On this episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hessérus speaks to the maritime historian Lincoln Paine, author of The Sea and Civilization, about the history of quarantine, how pandemics have affected trade and travel in the past, and whether globalisation can survive the current moment.
Hosted by Mattias Hessérus.
With Lincoln Paine.
Produced by Nick Hilton for Podot.

Art, History and Pandemics with Tom Holland Jun 17, 2020

On this, the first episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hessérus speaks to the historian Tom Holland about the relationship between reality and art in the age of a pandemic.
Hosted by Mattias Hessérus.
With Tom Holland.
Produced by Nick Hilton for Podot.

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