Intelligence Squared

Charan Ranganath is the Director of the Memory and Plasticity Program and a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of California at Davis. His new book, Why We Remember: The Science of Memory and How it Shapes Us, is a radical exploration of human engagement with memory, asking new questions about imagination, intention, attention and emotion. Joining Ranganath to discuss it is Alex Wilkins, reporter for New Scientist. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/IS for £100 sponsored credit. Want to attend Intelligence Squared live events? Explore our upcoming line up of talks below: https://www.intelligencesquared.com/attend/ If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and membe

Annie Jacobsen is an investigative journalist and author whose books probe the periphery of what we know about state warcraft and read like unputdownable thrillers. As a result, a her Pulitzer-nominated work can be found in both journalistic pieces and fiction including Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan tv show. Previous books have covered topics ranging from the CIA to Area 51 and the Second World War. Her latest book is Nuclear War, A Scenario, detailing how a nuclear conflict might unfold sourced from her deep-dive reporting. For this episode, she joins Josh Glancy, editor of the News Review at The Sunday Times, to talk about it. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/IS for £100 sponsored credit. Want to attend Intelligence Squared live events? Explore our upcoming line up of talks below: https://www.intelligencesquared.com/attend/ If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £

Megan Nolan is an Irish journalist and author who has made a name for herself by cutting to the quick of the most uncomfortable facets of the human experience. She first appeared on Intelligence Squared to discuss her widely acclaimed debut, Acts of Desperation, back in 2022 and she returns now with her latest novel, Ordinary Human Failings, which follows a family and a tabloid journalist embroiled in a harrowing murder, which was recently selected for the Women’s Fiction Prize longlist. In this episode Nolan discusses her recent rise to fame, the nuances involved in depicting intergenerational trauma and her plans for future writing with fellow writer and critic Holly Williams, whose own latest novel is The Start of Something. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/is for £100 sponsored credit. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also rec

Kohei Saito is the Japanese philosopher and associate professor of philosophy at the University of Tokyo, whose ideas have become highly influential in the conversation surrounding how to better use economics to combat the looming climate crisis. His book, Slow Down, is a bestseller. Joining him to discuss Slow Down on the podcast for this episode is Adam McCauley, the writer and researcher whose work focuses on the social, cultural, and political impacts of emerging technologies. He is currently writing a book on artificial intelligence, military and political decision-making, and the future of conflict. McCauley also writes a regular newsletter, The View From Here. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, cur

With AI's capabilities now beginning to conjure visions reminiscent of science fiction, it's fiction writers who are pointing the way to where these tools will take us in decades to come. 2054, the second of a trilogy of books depicting the AI-infused geopolitical landscape of decades not so far away is co-written by former marine and New York Times bestselling author and writer Elliot Ackerman, and Admiral Jim Stavridis, who spent more than 30 years in the U.S. Navy. The duo's story picks up 20 years after a catastrophic war between the US and China has brought down the old American political order. Joining Ackerman to discuss it for this episode is Carl Miller, co-founder of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think tank Demos, and author of The Death of the Gods: The New Global Power Grab. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll al

In a world increasingly built around convenience, why do we often feel so short of free time? It’s a question that’s been on the minds of authors Nick Srnicek and Helen Hester. Srnicek is Lecturer in Digital Economy in the Department of Digital Humanities at Kings College London. Hester is Associate Professor of Media and Communication at the University of West London. Together they’ve written a book, After Work: A History of the Home and the Fight for Free Time. For this episode, Srnicek joins Carl Miller, co-founder of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think tank Demos, to talk about it. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on lives

This is the second instalment of a three-part discussion. Armando Iannucci is one of Britain’s best-loved comedy writers. The creator of hit shows such as The Thick Of It, Veep and Alan Partridge, Iannucci is renowned for his sharp political satire and parodies of the rich and powerful. His latest project, a West End stage production of Stanley Kubrick’s Oscar-nominated black comedy Dr. Strangelove, focuses on a rogue US general who triggers a nuclear crisis. In March 2024 Iannucci came to the Intelligence Squared stage where, in conversation with author and journalist Helen Lewis, he discussed the role of satire and comedy in dark times. Can comedy help us cope emotionally with world events such as war and conflict? Does satire still have the power to hold politicians to account? Should we really be laughing at our increasingly unstable and risky world? This is the second part of a three-part discussion. Intelligence Squared Members can listen to all three instalments, including the Members-only Part Three,

Armando Iannucci is one of Britain’s best-loved comedy writers. The creator of hit shows such as The Thick Of It, Veep and Alan Partridge, Iannucci is renowned for his sharp political satire and parodies of the rich and powerful. His latest project, a West End stage production of Stanley Kubrick’s Oscar-nominated black comedy Dr. Strangelove, focuses on a rogue US general who triggers a nuclear crisis. In March 2024 Iannucci came to the Intelligence Squared stage where, in conversation with author and journalist Helen Lewis, he discussed the role of satire and comedy in dark times. Can comedy help us cope emotionally with world events such as war and conflict? Does satire still have the power to hold politicians to account? Should we really be laughing at our increasingly unstable and risky world? This is the first part of a three-part discussion. Intelligence Squared Members can listen to all three instalments, including the Members-only Part Three, immediately. If you'd like to become a Member and get acces

Jason Okundaye is a writer whose essays and work have been published in titles such as The London Review of Books, the Guardian, British GQ and more. His debut book, Revolutionary Acts: Love & Brotherhood in Black Gay Britain, explores the stories of seven black, gay men in Brixton, South London. Through conversations with these men, he traces their journeys and arrivals to South London throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, upto the present day, seeking to reconcile the Black and gay narratives of Britain. Joining Okundaye to talk about it is Tom Crewe. He's an editor at the London Review of Books and a novelist. His recent book, The New Life, won the 2023 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intellige

Tom Chatfield is a tech philosopher whose new book looks at how humans have lived side by side with technology for millennia and offers ideas for how humanity will fare in the imminent AI-powered future. Chatfield's work often focuses on the cross-section of society and tech. He is a creator of textbooks and courses training in critical thinking and his previous non-fiction books include How To Thrive in the Digital Age. Not only that but he's also a novelist, having published a thriller – This is Gomorrah – in 2019. Joining Chatfield in conversation is Stephanie Hare. She is a researcher, broadcaster and author focusing on issues such as technology, politics and history and is the author of Technology Is Not Neutral: A Short Guide to Technology Ethics. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squa

This is Part Two of a three-part discussion. Why are middle-aged women these days subject to so much rage and hatred – frequently from people who see themselves as kind and ‘on the right side of history’? What explains the popularity of the Karen meme, which references a stereotypically privileged white woman whom everyone feels entitled to loathe? Why does this age-old misogyny feel so very now? As writer Victoria Smith approached middle age she made her peace with her sagging neckline and having to cope with ageing parents. But the disdain and vitriol she experienced as a woman in mid-life came as a shock. In her acclaimed book Hags: The Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women she traces the prejudice that has been directed towards older women down the ages and explores the prevalence of witch hunts in recent years. Smith joined us on stage at The Tabernacle in London in March 2024, where she was joined by fellow writers Hadley Freeman and Sonia Sodha. Together they explored why women who have the temerity to exi

This is Part One of a three-part discussion. Why are middle-aged women these days subject to so much rage and hatred – frequently from people who see themselves as kind and ‘on the right side of history’? What explains the popularity of the Karen meme, which references a stereotypically privileged white woman whom everyone feels entitled to loathe? Why does this age-old misogyny feel so very now? As writer Victoria Smith approached middle age she made her peace with her sagging neckline and having to cope with ageing parents. But the disdain and vitriol she experienced as a woman in mid-life came as a shock. In her acclaimed book Hags: The Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women she traces the prejudice that has been directed towards older women down the ages and explores the prevalence of witch hunts in recent years. Smith joined us on stage at The Tabernacle in London in March 2024, where she was joined by fellow writers Hadley Freeman and Sonia Sodha. Together they explored why women who have the temerity to exi

As a writer who focuses on technology and as AI Editor for The Financial Times, Madhumita Murgia has been unable to ignore the increasing reach of AI into the infrastructure that helps run our societies. It's the subject of her new book, Code Dependent, a study of how technology and AI often designed with idealistic intent is beginning to have a significant effect on real people's lives and not always for the better. Joining Murgia in conversation for this episode is Carl Miller, co-founder of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think tank Demos and author of The Death of the Gods: The New Global Power Grab. Want to attend Intelligence Squared live events? Explore our upcoming line up of talks below: https://www.intelligencesquared.com/attend/ If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence

The Labour MP Liam Byrne is Chair of the House of Commons Business and Trade Select Committee. He also served on the front bench for both prime ministers Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. So he is well-positioned to be thinking about some of society's more pressing economic questions and these are the focus of his recent book, The Inequality of Wealth: Why it Matters and How to Fix it. Joining Byrne in conversation for this episode by the economist and writer Tej Parikh, Economics Leader Writer for The Financial Times. Want to attend Intelligence Squared live events? Explore our upcoming line up of talks below: https://www.intelligencesquared.com/attend/ If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and memb

Roland Allen is a publisher and author whose new book is a history of that everyday essential, the humble notebook. His book – The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper – explores how the notebook's invention ushered in a communications revolution, transforming the ways that ideas were transmitted across the globe and even helping facilitate artistic movements within its pocket-sized pages. Joining Allen in conversation for this episode is fellow writer and former Managing Director of Condé Nast, Albert Read, author of his own book on the power of ideas, The Imagination Muscle. Want to attend Intelligence Squared live events? Explore our upcoming line up of talks below: https://www.intelligencesquared.com/attend/ If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your p

Debut novelist Flora Carr's new book, The Tower, looks at the life Scotland's 16th-century monarch Mary, Queen of Scots. In this tale of desire and friendship, Carr weaves in figures that have been long forgotten by the historical record and reimagines the Queen during the period she was imprisoned at Lochleven Castle in Scotland in order to create a new work of literary feminist fiction. Joining Carr to discuss the book for this episode is historian Francesca Peacock, whose own recent book – Pure Wit – reimagined the life of another often misunderstood historical figure, Margaret Cavendish. Want to attend Intelligence Squared live events? Explore our upcoming line up of talks below: https://www.intelligencesquared.com/attend/ If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you

2024 is set to be a seismic year. A win by Donald Trump in the US presidential election could upend the world economy, ongoing military conflicts could continue to escalate and the race to develop AI will accelerate as China and the US battle it out for technological supremacy. Who better to make sense of these unsettling and fast-changing times than Martin Wolf? He is Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times and widely regarded as one of the world’s most influential writers on the global economy. A multi-award-winning financial journalist, Wolf has been chronicling and analysing geopolitical and economic upheaval for nearly 40 years. He has written five bestselling books. His latest, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, maps out the implications of globalisation, technological development and the impact of democratic decline on the global economy. The host for this event is BBC News Presenter Jonny Dymond. This recording is part of The Intelligence Squared Economic Outlook series of events made in

It’s often said that you can’t put a price on a life but in the name of business many organisations do it everyday. Drawing from the themes of her latest book, The Price of Life, journalist and broadcaster Jenny Kleeman shows us how the monetary value of human life is often coldly calculated in industries ranging from insurance to the welfare sector. She also digs into the disturbing and murky underworld of organised crime, where sourcing a hitman or a female trafficking victim could cost as little as a few thousand pounds. In conversation with author and researcher Carl Miller, Kleeman makes the case that we can’t afford to dodge the question of how much we are willing to spend to prevent the loss of life while making hollow statements about life’s supposed pricelessness. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-fr

Peter Pomerantsev is the journalist, author and academic who specialises in disinformation and the more covert mass communication techniques of our geopolitical age. His latest book is How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler, which looks at the Second World War and the career of journalist Sefton Delmer, whose work for the British government contributed to the vital information war waged against Germany and the Nazis. Joining Pomerantsev in conversation for this episode is Mark Galeotti, expert on Russia and an honorary professor at University College London. Galeotti's latest book is The Weaponisation of Everything. Want to attend Intelligence Squared live events? Explore our upcoming line up of talks below: https://www.intelligencesquared.com/attend/ If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length a

This is the second instalment of our live debate with an expert panel deciding whether the UK's private schools should continue to enjoy their tax advantages. The UK has an education system that perpetuates inequality. Seven per cent of its children go to private schools and yet these institutions receive around three times the funding per student as the average state school. Privately educated people then go on to dominate our elite institutions. They are seven times as likely to win a place at Oxford and Cambridge universities as their state-educated peers, and they make up 65 per cent of senior judges and 29 per cent of members of parliament. Who could possibly object to a tax that would benefit the majority of Britain’s schoolchildren? Those who believe in aspiration, that’s who, argue the champions of private schools. People like Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s parents, who, as he has explained, were not wealthy or privileged but who worked hard so that they could send their son to one of this country’s top