Intelligence Squared

Latest Episodes:

A Life in Forensic Psychiatry, with Dr Ben Cave Jul 08, 2022

Show notes

What is it like to treat some of the most troubled men and women in society? Dr Ben Cave is a forensic psychiatrist whose 35-year career has been spent helping those with mental health conditions ranging from delusional disorders to schizophrenia, steroid abuse, drug dependency, depression and more. His new book, What We Fear Most, explores what can be learnt from these often misunderstood illnesses, the people who suffer from them and those, like Ben, who treat them. Our host for this episode is Poppy Damon, senior producer for Blanchard House.

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Them’s the Breaks: Boris Johnson’s Resignation and Britain’s Political Crisis, with Jonathan Freedland, Simon Jenkins and Manveen Rana Jul 07, 2022

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In a special programme following the resignation of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister of the UK, we hear from columnist, author and former foreign correspondent Jonathan Freedland, and journalist, author and former editor of The Evening Standard and The Times Simon Jenkins, about where the country is headed next. Our host for the discussion is award-winning journalist and broadcaster Manveen Rana.

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The Hunt for the Missing Cryptoqueen, with Jamie Bartlett Jul 06, 2022

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Dr Ruja Ignatova, an Oxford-educated, self-styled cryptocurrency guru, promised her followers a financial revolution through her project: OneCoin. Then, in October 2017, she disappeared. But not before she had duped investors around the world, some of whom are the poorest people in society, into buying up more than $4 billion-worth of OneCoin. Ignatova has been in hiding ever since and was recently added to Europol's most wanted list. Jamie Bartlett is an expert on the politics of the internet and has put the story into a podcast series and now a new book, too: The Missing Cryptoqueen. To talk about it all, he joins our host Carl Miller, Research Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at Demos, and Layla Begum, a business development executive who was one of the many victims of the OneCoin scandal.

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On Speaking and Being: The Power of Words, with Kübra Gümüsay Jul 04, 2022

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Language is expressive, a way of opening doors or a tool for creating new dialogue. But a tool so powerful can also take us to unforeseen or unintended places. It can create narratives that become fixed, unhelpful, or exclusionary. Kübra Gümüsay is a writer and activist focusing on social justice and public discourse. Her new book is Speaking and Being, which looks at the power of words, asking whether language creates freeing new spaces or plays a part in walling them off. Our host for the discussion is Danielle Sands, Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature and Culture at Royal Holloway University in London, where she works across disciplines bridging philosophy, literary studies and critical theory.

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The Sunday Debate: Has Sex Positivity Harmed Feminism? Jul 03, 2022

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In today's world, we're often encouraged to think that sex is no longer a subject burdened with shame or repressed feelings. Rather, it is pleasurable, exciting and even empowering – as long as all parties are consenting. But do women really have the same sexual freedom as men, or are they still living in a man's world, conforming to male heterosexual desires and tastes? How do young women who’ve grown up in a sexually celebratory and supposedly shame-free society navigate sex? To discuss it, our host, the cultural historian and broadcaster Shahidha Bari, is joined by the authors of two books taking differing approaches to the debate: Christine Emba, columnist for The Washington Post and author of Rethinking Sex: A Provocation, and Dossie Easton, therapist and co-author of The Ethical Slut.

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Eton, Oxford, Westminster: The Formative Pipeline of Britain's Ruling Elite, with Simon Kuper Jul 01, 2022

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Across Britain, it’s no secret that the people who make up the country's elected government have gone through the same familiar educational pipeline. Eton, Oxford, Westminster. Born into families of privilege, it’s unsurprising that these men, and it is largely men, have risen to the top in a country obsessed with social class. But while it’s clear how they got there, we should ask how does this affect the way that they run the country today? To help answer these questions and understand the tiny world of the uber elite, Simon Kuper, FT columnist and author of Chums: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK, joins us on the podcast. Our host for this episode is Gabriel Pogrund, Whitehall Editor for The Sunday Times.

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Escaping Xinjiang, with Nury Turkel Jun 29, 2022

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In recent years China has been accused of committing crimes against humanity and possibly genocide against the Uyghur ethnic group in the northwestern region of Xinjiang province. Nury Turkel was born in a re-education camp in Kashgar, Xinjiang in 1970. In 1995 he had the opportunity to leave China as a student and was never to return to his home and family. Nury has since dedicated his life to fighting for the rights of Uyghurs – he is Chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom and Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, specialising in national security and foreign policy. His new book is No Escape: The True Story of China's Genocide of the Uyghurs. Turkel is joined in conversation by our host for this discussion, Yasmeen Serhan, staff writer at The Atlantic, where she focuses on populism and nationalism.

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Why We Fight, with Christopher Blattman Jun 27, 2022

Show notes

Christopher Blattman is an economist, political scientist and Ramalee E. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies at The University of Chicago. His new book is Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace, which explores why societies turn to violence and how poverty and oppression often go hand in hand with conflict. Chris's work has taken him from studying poverty in Uganda to street gangs in Medellin, investigating the likes of dictators, monarchs, mobs and football hooligans along the way. Joining him to discuss the book is our host, Carl Miller, Research Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media (CASM) at Demos.

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The Sunday Debate: The Northern Ireland Question: Is it Time to Abandon The Protocol? Jun 26, 2022

Show notes

The Northern Ireland Protocol – agreed between the United Kingdom and the European Union in 2019 – has been a source of tension since it came into force at the start of 2021. The protocol, which creates a special trading arrangement for goods coming in and out of Northern Ireland (the only part of the UK with a land border with the EU), was supposed to protect the integrity of the EU single market, maintain the peace on the island of Ireland and provide Boris Johnson with a way to finally get Brexit done.

But fast-forward to today and the protocol is as contentious as ever. Unionists in Northern Ireland say the protocol is undermining the region’s place within the UK. Brexiteers say it is hampering Britain’s ability to make trade deals with the rest of the world. And the Government has now proposed a bill to make unilateral changes to the protocol which they say will preserve the Good Friday Agreement, changes which EU leaders say they will resist with legal action.

How do we make sense of this thorny issue? Should the protocol be kept intact to maintain trust between the UK and the EU, or should it be rewritten to preserve the UK’s political stability?

Speakers:

Jill Rutter - Senior research fellow of UK in a Changing Europe

Claire Hanna MP - SDLP Member of Parliament for South Belfast since 2019

Darren McCaffrey - Political Editor and Breakfast Presenter at GB News

Moderator:

Emma Vardy- BBC Ireland Correspondent covering both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland

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Neighbouring Russia, with Erika Fatland Jun 24, 2022

Show notes

Tracing Russia’s vast border, which meets those of 14 other countries, helps tells the history of Russia itself. From its imperial past to Soviet-era expansions and contractions leading up to its current war of aggression in Ukraine today, the Russian border is a landscape of uneasy uncertainty for many of the country's immediate neighbours. Erika Fatland is a Norwegian writer whose work has focused on issues that range from terrorism to travel and cultural history. Her 2020 book, The Border, followed the path of Russia's border over thousands of miles in order to understand how countries approach being a neighbour to a temperamental superpower. Following the tragic events in Ukraine, the book is even more relevant and Erika joined our producer Catharine Hughes to talk about it.

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