Intelligence Squared
by Intelligence Squared
Latest episode
Nvidia Explained: How It Became the World’s Most Powerful Company
Nvidia Explained: How It Became the World’s Most Powerful Company
About this podcast
Ideas shape the world. Intelligence Squared brings you the conversations that explain them.In every episode, we bring together leading thinkers, writers, scientists, policymakers and entrepreneurs, to challenge assumptions, test ideas and debate the questions shaping our future. If you want to think more clearly about the world and where it's heading, you're in the right place. If you’d like to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, as well as ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content, early access and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared today. Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 1,675 episodes
- Nvidia Explained: How It Became the World’s Most Powerful Company · 49 min · Season 1 Episode 3540In June 2024, Nvidia became the most valuable corporation on Earth. Now, the actions of its CEO, Jensen Huang, threaten to tear it apart. For this episode, we're revisiting an…
- China and Africa: The Hidden History of a Global Power Shift, with Paul Kenyon · 43 min · Season 1 Episode 3539China’s relationship with Africa is often presented as a recent contest for minerals and influence. However, journalist Paul Kenyon argues that the relationship rests on…
- Does The World Still Need America? with Shadi Hamid · 37 min · Season 1 Episode 3538What would a world without American leadership look like? Shadi Hamid joins Intelligence Squared co-host Conor Boyle to discuss his book The Case for American Power and why he…
- Shakespeare vs Milton: The Kings of English Literature Debate [Archive] · 1 h 56 min · Season 1 Episode 3537Nearly four centuries after his death, no writer has come close to matching Shakespeare’s understanding of the world – or his gift for dramatic poetry. It’s not just kings and…
- The Truth About Trump's Venezuela Oil Deal, with Anne Applebaum · 24 min · Season 1 Episode 3536Who stands to benefit from Donald Trump’s Venezuela oil deal? Anne Applebaum joins Intelligence Squared co-host Conor Boyle to discuss her investigation for The Atlantic into…
- What Do the Dead Internet Theory and Russian Intelligence Operations Have in Common? With Carl Miller · 38 min · Season 1 Episode 3535The dead internet theory began as an obscure online conspiracy. Its proponents claimed the internet had been overrun by bots and automated content. In 2021, much of it sounded…
- What Happens If Billionaires Control the Tools of War? With Sharon Weinberger · 49 min · Season 1 Episode 3534For decades, Silicon Valley liked to tell a story about itself: brilliant outsiders, working beyond government, moving faster than institutions ever could. But that story leaves…
- Is Politics Beyond Satire? Live with Armando Iannucci, Jan Ravens and Jess Phillips [Archive] · 1 h 0 min · Season 1 Episode 3533Has satire lost its power in this new world of fake news and ‘alternative facts’ - when our leaders lie so blatantly and frequently, and still manage to get away with it? Or is…
- The Forgotten War: Inside the Democratic Republic of Congo · 38 min · Season 1 Episode 3532In 2005, journalist Anjan Sundaram travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo to work as a stringer for the Associated Press. What followed was an extraordinary eighteen…
- Marina Hyde and Jesse Armstrong, Live in Brighton · 1 h 24 min · Season 1 Episode 3531Described by Phoebe Waller-Bridge as “the most lethal, vital, screamingly funny truth-teller of our time”, Marina Hyde has become one of Britain’s most popular columnists and…
- Were Castles the Original Military-Industrial Complex? With Dan Jones · 45 min · Season 1 Episode 3531For more than 3,000 years, castles and fortifications have shaped the landscapes around them. They defended cities, controlled trade and provided refuge in times of war. But they…
- Archive: Is Mark Zuckerberg Damaging Society? · 1 h 1 min · Season 1 Episode 3530With the release of Aaron Sorkin's new film The Social Reckoning, Mark Zuckerberg and the dark side of Facebook are back in the spotlight. In 2019, Intelligence Squared put…
- Has America Abandoned Ukraine? With Michael McFaul · 24 min · Season 1 Episode 3529Donald Trump’s growing accommodation of Vladimir Putin has raised a stark question: has the US abandoned Ukraine? Conor Boyle speaks to Michael McFaul, former US ambassador to…
- What Must Burnham Sacrifice To Make Britain Grow? With Michael Gove · 1 h 29 minFew figures in modern British politics have operated as close to the centre of power as Michael Gove. Over more than a decade in government, he has held some of the most senior…
- Why Are People Having Fewer Children Than They Want? With Camilla Cavendish · 42 min · Season 1 Episode 3527In England and Wales, the total fertility rate fell to 1.39 children per woman in 2025. More than half of the world’s countries and areas are now below the level at which a…
- Archive: Can the Arts Drive Social Change? With Idris Elba, Kwame Kwei-Armah and Yassmin Abdel-Magied · 59 min · Season 1 Episode 3526In the summer of 2020, as Black Lives Matter protests swept the world, the arts and creative industries faced urgent questions about racism, representation and their role in…
- How One Family Remade Britain: Thomas and Oliver Cromwell, with Miranda Malins · 56 min · Season 1 Episode 3525Thomas Cromwell helped Henry VIII break with Rome, reshape government and establish the Church of England. A century later, his distant relative Oliver Cromwell helped defeat a…
- Can Europe Defend Itself? Timothy Garton Ash on Europe's Future · 32 min · Season 1 Episode 3524Europe’s past is not past. The borders of vanished empires still surface in election results. The European Union and Nato face a world in which Russia is aggressive, America is…
- Can Pigs Really Appreciate Bach? Katherine Rundell Live · 1 h 19 min · Season 1 Episode 3523Katherine Rundell has dazzled millions of readers globally with her writing on fantastical beasts. In her bestselling book The Golden Mole, she profiled some of the world’s most…
- Archive: What Are the Chances We Exist at All? With Brian Cox and Alice Roberts · 1 h 0 min · Season 1 Episode 3522Who are we? Why are we here? Are we alone in the universe? How did we become the creatures that we are? How might we further evolve? These are some of the big questions that…
- What James Baldwin Can Teach Us About the World Today · 1 h 14 min · Season 1 Episode 3521On the 70th anniversary of the publication of Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin’s seminal novel about sexuality, race and myth in America, Booker Prize-winning writer Ben Okri…
- The Age of Change with Jeremy Hunt, in Partnership with IBM · 42 min · Season 1 Episode 3520In this episode, Kamal was joined by Jeremy Hunt, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lawrence Tallon, Chief Executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency…
- Carlo Rovelli Live: Why Numbers Don’t Exist · 1 h 28 min · Season 1 Episode 3519Carlo Rovelli is an award-winning theoretical physicist and writer with a gift for making complex ideas feel real and accessible. Whether exploring black holes, quantum…
- Anthony Scaramucci Tour Highlights · 35 minWith the US midterm elections one month away, we revisit highlights from Anthony Scaramucci’s recent Intelligence Squared tour across the UK. The former White House…
- Harlan Coben and Bill Nighy on the Art of the Plot Twist · 1 h 28 min · Season 1 Episode 3517The bestselling author of more than 36 novels, including Fool Me Once, Tell No One and the Myron Bolitar series, Coben is renowned for his ability to build tension, wrong-foot…
- Introducing: Intelligence Squared Live · 1 minThis podcast has always brought together two kinds of conversation. Original episodes recorded in the studio, and live events from the Intelligence Squared stage. Now, we’re…
- Britain’s War in Palestine, with Sebastian Faulks · 1 h 6 min · Season 1 Episode 3516Sebastian Faulks is one of the country’s best loved novelists, known for books such as Birdsong, Human Traces, Engleby and Charlotte Gray. His writing is renowned for its…
- The CIA vs MI6: Allies or Rivals? With David McCloskey · 35 min · Season 1 Episode 3515What if the CIA and MI6 began spying on each other? This is the question that David McCloskey, the former CIA analyst and co-host of the Rest is Classified, discusses on this…
- Is There a Royal Sex Scandal Hidden in the Bayeux Tapestry? With David Musgrove · 36 min · Season 1 Episode 3514This September the Bayeux Tapestry went on display at the British Museum to huge crowds of eager patrons. This is the first time it has been displayed in England since it was…
- Anthony Scaramucci and Marina Hyde: What Comes After Trump? Live from Guildford · 1 h 31 min · Season 1 Episode 3513According to Anthony Scaramucci, former White House Communications Director, outspoken Trump critic and co-host of The Rest Is Politics: US, President Trump represents one of the…
- What Lyse Doucet Has Learned from 40 Years Reporting From War Zones, Live · 1 h 23 min · Season 1 Episode 3512As the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, Lyse Doucet has witnessed and reported on some of the most consequential events of our time. She has reported from Iran and…
- Anthony Scaramucci and Tina Brown on How To Fix America, Live in London · 1 h 33 min · Season 1 Episode 3511According to Anthony Scaramucci, former White House Communications Director, outspoken Trump critic and co-host of The Rest Is Politics: US, President Trump represents one of the…
- Why Your Plans Will Fail After Five Minutes, and How To Fix Them, with Kevin Fong · 48 min · Season 1 Episode 3510Kevin Fong has spent his working life in high-risk, high-performance teams. He flies as a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service doctor, has worked on NASA’s human spaceflight…
- Has Tech Lost All Humanity? With Mark Little · 39 min · Season 1 Episode 3509The internet was once imagined as a place that would bring us closer together – a shared space for curiosity, creativity and connection. So how did it become a machine for…
- Luke Harding and Alastair Campbell: Trump, Putin and the New Age of Conquest (Part Two) · 34 min · Season 1 Episode 3508The post-war international order is under increasing strain. The principle that borders cannot be changed by force is being challenged –not only by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine…
- Luke Harding and Alastair Campbell: Trump, Putin and the New Age of Conquest (Part One) · 31 min · Season 1 Episode 3507The post-war international order is under increasing strain. The principle that borders cannot be changed by force is being challenged –not only by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine…
- Francis Fukuyama on the New World Order (Part Two) · 36 min · Season 1 Episode 3506Francis Fukuyama is one of the most influential political thinkers of our time. His famous 1989 essay, The End of History? – written as the Berlin Wall fell and communism…
- What Comes After the End of History? with Francis Fukuyama (Part One) · 33 min · Season 1 Episode 3505Francis Fukuyama is one of the most influential political thinkers of our time. His famous 1989 essay, The End of History? – written as the Berlin Wall fell and communism…
- The New Silencing: Women Versus the Manosphere (Part Two) · 31 min · Season 1 Episode 3504When the MeToo movement ignited in 2017, many believed it would be a turning point for women after which positive change would become inevitable. And for a brief time, it felt…
- The New Silencing: Women Versus the Manosphere (Part One) · 34 min · Season 1 Episode 3503When the MeToo movement ignited in 2017, many believed it would be a turning point for women after which positive change would become inevitable. And for a brief time, it felt…
- Why Did the Working Class Abandon the Left? With Nobel Economist Daron Acemoglu · 35 min · Season 1 Episode 3502Liberal democracy was once a radical force. It challenged monarchies, expanded political rights and, at its most successful, helped deliver rising wages and shared prosperity. So…
- How Trade Shapes Our World, With Ed Conway · 51 min · Season 1 Episode 3501Trade has shaped human civilisation for thousands of years. From the copper used in Mesopotamian ploughs to the silicon inside our smartphones, vast networks have evolved to move…
- NYT’s Novel of the Century? Marlon James on The Disappearers · 47 min · Season 1 Episode 3500In 1988, eight men in Kingston, Jamaica, begin rehearsals for a play. Though strangers to one another, they share an inescapable truth: All of them are gay. And they live in a…
- The Secret History in Our DNA: Adam Rutherford Meets David Olusoga (Part Two) · 35 min · Season 1 Episode 3499Adam Rutherford is a science broadcaster, and author of A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, which transformed the way we think about human history. By using genetics to…
- The Secret History in Our DNA: Adam Rutherford Meets David Olusoga (Part One) · 40 min · Season 1 Episode 3498Adam Rutherford is a science broadcaster, and author of A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, which transformed the way we think about human history. By using genetics to…
- Can Democracy Survive the Age of AI? With Jill Lepore · 39 min · Season 1 Episode 3497We live in the age of data. Over the past century, rapidly evolving technologies have transformed almost every aspect of our society, in ways that can seem both troubling and…
- What John Berger Saw That We Still Don’t, with Tom Overton · 39 min · Season 1 Episode 3496John Berger transformed the way generations thought about art, politics and the act of looking. Best known for Ways of Seeing, his work ranged across migration, capitalism, war…
- Is Tech Making Our Kids Less Capable? With Dr Jared Cooney Horvath · 30 min · Season 1 Episode 3495Schools were promised that laptops, educational apps and artificial intelligence would make learning more personalised, engaging and effective. Cognitive neuroscientist and…
- Is Ukraine’s Culture Worth Fighting For? With Charlotte Higgins · 35 min · Season 1 Episode 3494Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has placed not only lives and cities under attack, but also the country’s language, history and culture. Museums have been looted…
- How George Michael Changed Music Forever, with Sathnam Sanghera (Part Two) · 39 min · Season 1 Episode 3493George Michael wrote Careless Whisper, one of the biggest pop songs of our age, in an hour in his childhood bedroom. Alongside his childhood best friend Andrew Ridgeley he…
