Intelligence Squared

For this episode we’re heading back to the Poetry Pharmacy – a health-check for both mind and spirit – brought to you by poetry publisher, advocate and founder of the Forward Prizes for Poetry, William Sieghart. It’s not our first visit. Regular listeners may have enjoyed our previous two Poetry Pharmacy events, in which Sieghart and a host of acting talent explored the power of words to help us make sense of life’s everyday challenges...

Arun Kundnani is a writer on issues such as race, culture and empire. His most recent book is: What Is Antiracism? And Why It Means Anticapitalism. Kundnani teaches at New York University and his previous books include The Muslims are Coming! Islamophobia, Extremism, and the Domestic War on Terror. Joining him in conversation on the podcast is Ruchira Sharma, the writer and journalist who is also co-host of the Everything is Content podcast. .....

Organisational psychologist Adam Grant and IT research scientist Andrew McAfee discuss how we can all learn to unlock a bit more of our own potential with Intelligence Squared's executive producer, Hannah Kaye. Grant is the author of recent book Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things. McAfee recently published The Geek Way, which charts the rise of what he terms geeks in running some of the most successful organisations on the planet over the past two decades...

Intelligence Squared's Feyi Adegbite and Conor Boyle compile a selection of stocking fillers while enjoying a look back at some of the year's best chats from the podcast for the first in our Holiday Reads episodes. Author and activist Naomi Kein discusses Doppelganger, her book that jumps down the rabbit hole of conspiracy and the disjointed political age we live in...

Pen Vogler is the acclaimed food historian whose recent book, Stuffed, tells the history of food in Britain and how what we eat has shaped society over the centuries. Drawing on social records, literature and cookbooks of the past, Vogler traces how staples such as bread and beer have been signposts for measuring the class system in Britain through eras of both feast and famine, while also celebrating culinary classics and answering why the British love a good cup of tea...

For the second instalment of Intelligence Squared's Holiday Reads selection looking back at some of the best books of the year, Conor Boyle and Feyi Adegbite revisit conversations with authors including journalist Tania Branigan, whose book, Red Memory, tells the story of China’s cultural revolution...

As leader of the Bad Seeds, musician Nick Cave is well known for his dark take on the songwriting craft but in recent years the performer and author has also become a distinct voice reflecting on how we deal with the process of grief. Cave’s most recent book is Faith, Hope, and Carnage, a collection of writing formed from conversations between the singer and the Irish journalist and critic Seán O’Hagan...

How has feminist thought evolved throughout the ages? Beginning in the fifteenth century with Christine de Pizan, who imagined a City of Ladies that would serve as a refuge from the harassment of men, historian of ideas Hannah Dawson has magnificently drawn together an anthology of six hundred years of feminist thinking from all over the world in her latest book, The Penguin Book of Feminist Writing...

In this special Christmas episode in association Tortoise, Intelligence Squared welcomes the team from Tortoise Media's The News Meeting podcast to a live recording of the show at London's Tabernacle theatre, hosted by Tortoise editor and co-founder James Harding. Joining Harding and the team onstage to discuss the biggest stories of the year was ITV's political editor Robert Peston, co-author of new book Bust?: Saving the Economy, Democracy and Our Sanity...

For the third and final instalment of Intelligence Squared's Holiday Reads selection looking back at some of the best books of the year, Conor Boyle and Feyi Adegbite revisit conversations with authors including Michael Lewis, whose book, Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, tells the story of crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman Fried...