Intelligence Squared

The American healthcare system is one of the most expensive and complex systems in the world, yet it remains plagued by significant inequalities. Despite spending more per capita on healthcare than any other country, millions of Americans are still uninsured or underinsured, and healthcare outcomes vary significantly by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. In this conversation Dr Ali Hosin from the UK and Dr Ricardo Nuila from the US come together to discuss the increasing commodification of healthcare in the US, and how this may serve as a cautionary tale for systems such as the NHS in the UK. Special event promo - 2 for 1 tickets to Bach vs Beethoven. Claim your discount here: intelligencesquared.com/bachvbeethoven Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As technology continues to advance, the once distant concept of growing a human fetus outside the womb is inching closer to reality. But with these advancements come myriad ethical, legal, and social questions that challenge our understanding of parenthood, abortion rights, and even personhood. To discuss these issues our host Helen Czerski is joined by Claire Horn, research fellow at Dalhousie University's Health Law Institute and author of Eve: The Disobedient Future of Birth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is the role of contemporary art museums today? Are biennales and art fairs platforms for experiment and exchange, or little more than social attractions for the elite? Have collectors become the new curators? Are private and corporate interests in culture at odds with the public good? And ultimately, who is art for? In this debate recorded in Hong Kong in 2012, award-winning documentary film-maker, author and art critic, Ben Lewis, and Hong Kong-born artist, Paul Chan, spoke for the motion. Former Director of Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, and conceptual art pioneer, Joseph Kosuth, spoke against the motion. Our chair was the writer, art market expert and author, Georgina Adam. We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be about. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to [email protected].  At Intelligence Squared we’ve got our own online streaming platform,

Samira Ahmed speaks to award-winning comedian Russell Kane. They speak about his life and career, growing up in Essex, his break into comedy at the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe, and his relationship with class and identity as a comedian. The recording for this episode took place in April 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hercules, Prometheus, Pandora. The compelling characters of Greek mythology continue to fascinate readers thousands of years after their stories were first told. For this edition of the podcast, leading classicist Sarah Iles Johnston comes to Intelligence Squared to discuss their enduring popularity, which is the basis of her recent book, Gods and Mortals: Ancient Greek Myths for Modern Readers. Joining her in conversation is fellow classicist and author Daisy Dunn, author of Gods and Men: 100 Stories from Ancient Greece and Rome. We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be about. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to [email protected].  At Intelligence Squared we’ve got our own online streaming platform, Intelligence Squared+ and we’d love you to give it a go. It’s packed with more than 20 years’ worth of video debates and conversations on the world’s most important topics as well as ex

Food Campaigner Henry Dimbleby is co-founder of LEON and recently quit his role as the government’s food tsar over its inaction over obesity. His recent book, Ravenous: How To Get Ourselves And Our Planet Into Shape, looks at the global food system that has resulted in 28% of people now being clinically obese in the UK alone and diet-related disease now being the biggest cause of preventable illness and death in the developed world. In conversation with Times columnist Alice Thomson, he explains the damage our food ecosystem is doing to us and to the planet, and his strategy for creating a truly healthy and sustainable food system.  We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be about. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to [email protected].  At Intelligence Squared we’ve got our own online streaming platform, Intelligence Squared+ and we’d love you to give it a go. It’s packed with more th

In this archive episode from 2021, we hear from a panel of historians, authors and broadcasters – Hallie Rubenhold, Natalie Livingstone, Dan Jones and chair Saul David – about how women's stories and female historians have been marginalised throughout history. The conversation recorded at The Cliveden Literary Festival also discusses how historians today can help redress the imbalance. We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be about. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to [email protected].  At Intelligence Squared we’ve got our own online streaming platform, Intelligence Squared+ and we’d love you to give it a go. It’s packed with more than 20 years’ worth of video debates and conversations on the world’s most important topics as well as exclusive podcast content. Tune in to live events, ask your questions or watch on-demand, totally ad-free with hours of discussion to dive into. Visit

Samira Ahmed is joined by Friends star David Schwimmer and comedy writer Nick Mohammed. David Schwimmer is one of the most recognisable faces on television. His iconic role as Ross Geller in all 236 episodes of Friends has made him TV royalty. And beyond the global cultural impact of Friends, Schwimmer is a seasoned stage actor and has gone on to direct the hit comedy Run Fatboy Run and gain critical acclaim as Robert Kardashian in American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson. For his latest project, Schwimmer crossed the pond to collaborate with the British writer, comedian and actor Nick Mohammed. Together they star in the workplace comedy sitcom Intelligence, created by Mohammed, which chronicles a disastrously humorous partnership between a pompous NSA agent (Schwimmer) and an inept GCHQ computer analyst (Mohammed). In this conversation they join Samira Ahmed to talk about what shaped them and how they found their voices. This podcast was recorded in 2021. David Schwimmer and Nick Mohammed return in

General David Petraeus rose to prominence for his role in the Iraq War. He was credited with implementing a counterinsurgency strategy that helped to stabilise the country and reduce violence, earning him widespread praise and recognition as one of the most effective military commanders of his generation. And from September 2011 until November 2012 he served as director of the CIA. In this episode the BBC’s International Editor Jeremy Bowen speaks to the four star General about his understanding of the legacy of the Iraq war 20 years on, and the effect that this has had on US foreign policy today. This series was produced by Farah Jassat and Catharine Hughes, with editing and artwork from Catharine Hughes. Music is by Lesfm. Excerpts featured in this episode are from The Telegraph. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Carl Erik Fisher is a psychiatrist, bioethicist and recovering alcoholic who has spent years tracing the history of addiction. His new book is The Urge: Our History of Addiction, a sweeping study of the issue and an urgent call for a more expansive, nuanced and compassionate view of one of society's most difficult challenges. In conversation with Carl is physicist, oceanographer and science presenter, Helen Czerski. We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be about. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to [email protected].  At Intelligence Squared we’ve got our own online streaming platform, Intelligence Squared+ and we’d love you to give it a go. It’s packed with more than 20 years’ worth of video debates and conversations on the world’s most important topics as well as exclusive podcast content. Tune in to live events, ask your questions or watch on-demand, totally ad-free with hours of

Over lunch in his house in Oxford, bestselling author Philip Pullman speaks to broadcaster Samira Ahmed about the moments of his childhood and youth that shaped and inspired his unique storytelling. This episode is part of our series How I Found My Voice, hosted by Samira Ahmed. If you like this episode do check out the entire series. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Samira Ahmed speaks to best-selling author Kate Mosse. Together they discuss her life and career, the success of her historical fiction novels - including Labyrinth which won Best Read of the Year at the 2006 British Book Awards - and her contribution to the recognition of female writers. The recording for this episode took place in February 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For this week's Sunday Debate, we're dipping back into the archive to 2014, when we gathered a panel of expert historians to debate whether Britain was right to fight in the First World War, a tragedy that laid the foundations for decades of destructive upheaval and violence across Europe. To debate the issue, we invited leading historians Margaret MacMillan, Max Hastings, John Charmley and Dominic Sandbrook to an event hosted by journalist, columnist and national security expert, Edward Lucas.  We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be about. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to [email protected].  At Intelligence Squared we’ve got our own online streaming platform, Intelligence Squared+ and we’d love you to give it a go. It’s packed with more than 20 years’ worth of video debates and conversations on the world’s most important topics as well as exclusive podcast content. Tune in to

Samira Ahmed speaks to model and actress Emily Ratajkowski. Together they discuss her rise to fame after appearing in the music video for the controversial song ‘Blurred Lines’, as well as the fraught relationship between feminism, capitalism, and exploitation. The recording for this episode took place in September 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Carlo Rovelli is one of the world’s best-known scientists. A theoretical physicist, his books have sold over two million copies around the world. He recently came to Intelligence Squared to talk about his favourite scientist, the little-known Greek philosopher Anaximander, whose ideas, articulated over two millennia ago, lay the foundations for cosmology, physics, geography, meteorology, and biology. It's the subject of Rovelli's book, Anaximander: And the Nature of Science, now being published in English for the first time. In conversation with the award-winning historian Tom Holland, Rovelli shows how Anaximander opened up a path that we are still on today: one that requires us to accept the provisional nature of our knowledge and allows us to challenge, rebel against and create new images of our world.  We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be about. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to podcasts

Ever since the discovery of DNA scientists have been on a quest to understand the secrets of the human genome. This quest has not only involved analysing the role genes play in making us who we are – the history of genetics has also been shaped by a desire to explore how far our genes can be altered or enhanced.  In 2012, the discovery that a molecule known as CRISPR could be programmed to add and remove elements of DNA marked a huge leap forward, transforming research into treatments for diseases as varied as cancer, Alzheimer’s, sickle cell and HIV, as well as many rare genetic conditions.  In this conversation, recorded at the Francis Crick Institute in London, our panel explores the urgent ethical questions that these advances have unleashed. Chaired by Dr Guddi Singh, the panel featured Tom Whipple, Science Editor at The Times, Shani Dhanda, an award-winning disability activist and inclusion specialist, Dr Güneş Taylor, postdoctoral research scientist at the Francis Crick Institute, and Jimi Olaghere,

Ever since the discovery of DNA scientists have been on a quest to understand the secrets of the human genome. This quest has not only involved analysing the role genes play in making us who we are – the history of genetics has also been shaped by a desire to explore how far our genes can be altered or enhanced.  In 2012, the discovery that a tool known as CRISPR could be programmed to add and remove elements of DNA marked a huge leap forward, transforming research into treatments for diseases as varied as cancer, Alzheimer’s, sickle cell and HIV, as well as many rare genetic conditions.  In this conversation, recorded at the Francis Crick Institute in London, our panel explores the urgent ethical questions that these advances have unleashed. Chaired by Dr Guddi Singh, the panel featured Tom Whipple, Science Editor at The Times, Shani Dhanda, an award-winning disability activist and inclusion specialist, Dr Güneş Taylor, postdoctoral research scientist at the Francis Crick Institute, and Jimi Olaghere, one

Samira Ahmed speaks to Academy Award-nominated actor Jude Law. They speak about his life and career, skipping school to go to the cinema in London as a teenager, his foray into acting, and the wide range of characters he’s covered in his career, from Dr. John Watson to the Pope. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is not a debate of religion vs. secularism. This is a debate about where and how the values in life are found, produced, and experienced. Some would argue that atheism has gone too far and there needs to be some point of unity to rally a sense of community around - what will fill a God shaped hole? And to what extent is religion defined by its practices versus the belief in a God? This animated, and often humorous debate brings together writer and philosopher Alain de Botton, Turner Prize winning artist Grayson Perry, writer and broadcaster Anne Atkins, and Benedictine monk Dom Antony Sutch, along with host Tony Curzon Price, editor of openDemocracy. Together our panel debate whether or not the practices associated with religion are appropriate for those without a God and if a God is removed from religion what is left but a system of control and why is that something some secularists want?  This event was recorded on the 24th January 2012 at The Tabernacle, in London. The original producer was Executive

War - Do we care enough? In this episode, distinguished historian Margaret MacMillan explains why we should care about war and how it’s profoundly impacted our societies, political institutions, values, language and some of our greatest cultural treasures. In conversation with bestselling author and historian Peter Frankopan, MacMillan examines questions such as why warriors are typically men, what role women play, why there are wars with no clear objective or ending, and how non-state actors influence outcomes. Drawing on the themes of MacMillan’s book, 'War: How Conflict Shaped Us', the two also discuss the benefits of war, including votes for women, penicillin, and (arguably) nuclear power. Listen now to discover how war has shaped our past and will continue to shape our future. This event was recorded in November 2020 and produced by Senior Producer Conor Boyle with editing by Daisy Moll — We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our futu