The EI Podcast

EI’s Paul Lay joins historian Tim Bouverie (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/tim-bouverie/) to discuss ‘Allies at War’, his gripping new book on how Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin’s uneasy alliance led to the end of the Second World War – and reshaped the global order in ways that are still felt today. Image: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at Yalta. Credit: Niday Picture Library / Alamy S...

Writer Luka Ivan Jukic (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/luka-ivan-jukic/) laments the all-but-total disappearance of facial hair from politics. Read by Leighton Pugh. FURTHER READING: What happened to the politician’s moustache? | Luka Ivan Jukic (https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/what-happened-to-the-politicians-moustache/) Image: A double portrait of Mozaffar al-Din Shah, the fifth Qaj...

Journalist and author Jenny McCartney (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/jenny-mccartney/) celebrates the magic of squalor, and explores how generations of artists have seen the sublime in slime. Read by Leighton Pugh. FURTHER READING: On squalor | Jenny McCartney (https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/on-squalor/) Image: Walter Sickert's Easter Monday. Credit: Logic Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Geopolitical analyst Charly Salonius-Pasternak (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/charly-salonius-pasternak/) examines Finland's long journey to full membership of the Western alliance, and explores how the Nordic nation could play a leading role in its future. FURTHER READING: Why Finns joined the fight | Charly Salonius-Pasternak (https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/why-finns-joined-the-fig...

The late Christopher Coker (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/christopher-coker/) , Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics for almost 40 years, explains why, although the love of liberty is not unique to the West, the lust for liberty is. Read by Helen Lloyd. FURTHER READING: The West’s lust for liberty | Christopher Coker (https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/t...

In this episode of The EI Podcast, the historian Bijan Omrani (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/bijan-omrani/) is joined by EI's Paul Lay (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/paul-lay/) to explore the indelible mark Christianity has left on England’s identity and culture. FURTHER READING: The tragic decline of Christian rituals | Bijan Omrani (https://engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the-tragic-...

Agnès Poirier (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/agnes-poirier/) , journalist and broadcaster, examines how the liberation of France in 1944 opened the way for Paris to become a laboratory of ideas. Read by Helen Lloyd. FURTHER READING: The liberation of France made the modern world | Agnès Poirier (https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-liberation-of-france-made-the-modern-world/) Engelsbe...

EI's Alastair Benn (https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-subtle-art-of-english-comedy/) and Paul Lay (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/paul-lay/) are joined by Michael Sheridan (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/michael-sheridan/) , author of two books on China and a foreign correspondent for 40 years, to discuss China’s rise, its subsequent entry into the international trading system, and...

Marie Daouda (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/marie-daouda/) , lecturer in French language and literature at the University of Oxford, shows how the pursuit of apparently 'real' desires comes at the expense of collective truth. The consequences can be disastrous. Read by Helen Lloyd. FURTHER READING: The truth shall set us free | Marie Daouda (https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-truth-s...

Brendan Simms (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/brendan-simms/) , founder and Director of the Centre for Geopolitics at the University of Cambridge, illustrates why contemporary Germany struggles to muster a serious military response to the Russian challenge. Read by Helen Lloyd. FURTHER READING: The German key to European liberty | Brendan Simms (https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-germ...

What are the deep roots of Trump's worldview? Can we learn to read Trump’s behaviour? And are there opportunities to be had for those who can? EI's Alastair Benn (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/alastair-benn/) and Paul Lay (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/paul-lay/) are joined by Charlie Laderman (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/charlie-laderman/) , Senior Lecturer in International H...

Iuliia Osmolovska (https://www.globsec.org/who-we-are/our-people/iuliia-osmolovska) , head of the GLOBSEC Kyiv Office, argues that Ukrainians are better placed than their Western partners to decode the Russian negotiating style. Read by Helen Lloyd. Engelsberg Ideas (https://engelsbergideas.com/) is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit (https://axsonjohn...

Juliet Samuel (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/juliet-samuel/) , columnist for The Times newspaper, highlights that a belief in liberty is not self-evident and its expansion is not inevitable. Read by Helen Lloyd. FURTHER READING: Liberty under attack from enemies within | Juliet Samuel (https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/liberty-under-attack-from-enemies-within/) Engelsberg Ideas (https:...

What makes us laugh? And why should it matter? EI's Alastair Benn (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/alastair-benn/) and Paul Lay (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/paul-lay/) are joined by the critic Mathew Lyons (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/mathew-lyons/) to discuss the uses of comedy. FURTHER READING: The subtle art of English comedy | Alastair Benn (https://engelsbergideas.com/e...

Roel Sterckx (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/roel-sterckx/) , the Joseph Needham Professor of Chinese History, Science, and Civilization at Cambridge University, makes the case for studying China's centuries-long history. Read by Helen Lloyd. FURTHER READING: Gazing back to see China’s future | Roel Sterckx (https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/gazing-back-to-see-chinas-future/) Engelsberg...

Alexander Lee (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/alexander-lee/) , author of Machiavelli: His Life and Times, argues that liberty was central to the idea of Venice. Read by Helen Lloyd. FURTHER READING: Liberty and the myth of Venice | Alexander Lee (https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/liberty-and-the-myth-of-venice/) Engelsberg Ideas (https://engelsbergideas.com/) is funded by the Axel and ...

Richard Miles (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/richard-miles/) , historian and archaeologist, profiles Spartacus, a figure who floats between history and allegory. Read by Helen Lloyd. FURTHER READING: Spartacus, history’s nowhere man | Richard Miles (https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/spartacus-historys-nowhere-man/) Engelsberg Ideas (https://engelsbergideas.com/) is funded by the Axel a...

The choice to enlarge NATO was a justifiable response to the geopolitics of the 1990s. The problem was how it happened.

What makes Classical music special among the arts? And where did it come from? To reckon with the inexhaustible complexity of the western musical tradition, its long history and the roots of its contemporary crises, EI's Alastair Benn (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/alastair-benn/) is joined by Richard Bratby (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/richard-bratby/) , the chief classical music ...

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was slowed down because of determined, courageous resistance. That success also owed much to Western intelligence on the nature of the Russian attack. External support will remain crucial to the success of the Ukrainian war effort.

Non-western elites are redefining freedom on their own terms, as sovereignty, state security and stability. But the world becoming a lot less free should concern us all.

Are we living through a golden age of espionage drama? And what do spy stories tell us about the true nature of the secret world?

Citizens of the GDR were exposed to an idealised version of western freedoms made up of luxury shopping, blue jeans and cowboy flicks. Read by Helen Lloyd.

After unpromising beginnings and innumerable controversies, Pittacus, seventh-century ruler of Mytilene on Lesbos, should be remembered as one of the great leaders of his age. Read by Sebastian Brown.

The limited liability company remains the best vehicle for capitalistic endeavour. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Is the era of mass literacy over? And what might a post-literate society look like?

Putin’s justifications for invading Ukraine uncannily reflect the motivations of one of Russian literature’s most famous antiheroes, Dostoevsky's Rodion Raskolnikov. Read by Helen Lloyd.

The Russian recluse, a scientific self-starter who left school at 14, developed pioneering theories of space travel that anticipated the great feats of the Space Race fifty years later. Read by Sebastian Brown. Engelsberg Ideas (https://engelsbergideas.com/) is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit (https://axsonjohnsonfoundation.org/) . Image: Soviet p...

Benjamin Constant’s considered response not only to the mass murder inflicted by the French Revolution, but to the attempt to reduce the whole French population to the condition of willing slaves under Bonaparte’s First Empire, provides a diagnosis of the character of many subsequent totalitarian regimes. Read by Helen Lloyd. Engelsberg Ideas (https://engelsbergideas.com/) is funded by the Axe...

Is the study of Latin in peril? And what does the future hold for the ancient inheritance? EI's Alastair Benn (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/alastair-benn/) is joined by Daisy Dunn (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/daisy-dunn/) , classicist and author, Armand D’Angour (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/armand-dangour/) , Professor of Classics at Oxford University, and Paul Lay (https://...

What happened in California in the 1970s played an outsized role in creating the world we live in today – both in the United States and in large parts of the globe – for better or worse. Read by Helen Lloyd. Engelsberg Ideas (https://engelsbergideas.com/) is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit (https://axsonjohnsonfoundation.org/) . Image: 1970s commer...

At a time of moral and political crisis, the medieval poet pioneered a daring and emotive vernacular style which inspired generations of Italian literature. Read by Sebastian Brown. Engelsberg Ideas (https://engelsbergideas.com/) is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit (https://axsonjohnsonfoundation.org/) . Image: A sketch of Guittone d'Arezzo from the...

While we may think we have moved beyond the censorship of the past, writers' artistic freedoms are still constrained. Read by Helen Lloyd. Engelsberg Ideas (https://engelsbergideas.com/) is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit (https://axsonjohnsonfoundation.org/) . Image: Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence was the subject of a watershed obscenity...

EI's Angus Reilly (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/angus-reilly/) discusses the history and legacy of the Vietnam War with Fredrik Logevall (https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/jfks-abiding-legacy/) , author of Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam. Engelsberg Ideas (https://engelsbergideas.com/) is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation ...

The arc of history only bends towards justice when people of goodwill grab hold of it and wrench it in the direction of justice. Read by Helen Lloyd. Engelsberg Ideas (https://engelsbergideas.com/) is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit (https://axsonjohnsonfoundation.org/) . Image: The Freedom is Our Religion banner in Maidan Square, Kyiv. Credit: Ali...

His intense faith led Thomas Gage to switch his religious allegiance during the tumultuous 17th century - he went on to have an enormous impact on Britain's colonial future. Read by Sebastian Brown. Engelsberg Ideas (https://engelsbergideas.com/) is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit (https://axsonjohnsonfoundation.org/) . Image: Title Page from Thoma...

Myths frame and tailor the past in a way that can ground and stabilise a community, however large or small. By situating them within the fabric of history, myths provide a sense of tradition and belonging to rally around. Read by Helen Lloyd. Engelsberg Ideas (https://engelsbergideas.com/) is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit (https://axsonjohnsonfoun...

EI's Alastair Benn (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/alastair-benn/) discusses how technology is transforming the world of sport with Daisy Christodoulou (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/daisy-christodoulou/) , education expert and author of I Can't Stop Thinking About VAR (https://swiftpress.com/book/i-cant-stop-thinking-about-var/) , an eloquent examination of the use of the video assist...

With deterrence and compellence becoming more crucial than they have been in over three decades, understanding what makes foreign leaders tick is of the utmost importance. Read by Helen Lloyd. Image: Silhouettes of Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. Credit: KLYONA / Alamy Stock Photo

Andrew Roberts (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/andrew-roberts/) profiles Brendan Bracken (https://engelsbergideas.com/portraits/brendan-bracken-more-churchillian-than-churchill/) , Winston Churchill's faithful and most trusted political adviser. Read by Sebastian Brown. Engelsberg Ideas (https://engelsbergideas.com/) is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public B...

EI's Angus Reilly (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/angus-reilly/) discusses the life and legacy of Henry Kissinger with Thomas A. Schwartz (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/thomas-schwartz/) , author of Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Political Biography. Engelsberg Ideas (https://engelsbergideas.com/) is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit (...

Gustaf Mannerheim's rise from a troubled youth to Finland's great wartime leader illustrates how leadership is forged by both personal traits and the unpredictable tides of history. Read by Helen Lloyd. Engelsberg Ideas (https://engelsbergideas.com/) is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit (https://axsonjohnsonfoundation.org/) . Image: Field Marshal Car...

EI's Paul Lay discusses how the Baltic states have survived, and thrived, in the shadow of Russian aggression, with Kristjan Prikk (https://washington.mfa.ee/ambassador-2/) , Estonia's Ambassador to the United States and Eitvydas Bajarūnas (https://cepa.org/author/eityvdas-bajarunas/) , a former Lithuanian senior diplomat, who has served as the Ambassador to Sweden, Russia and the UK. Engelsbe...

Australia stands at the forefront of democratic resistance against China's expanding influence, reshaping its strategy and alliances to meet the challenges of a contested Indo-Pacific. Read by Helen Lloyd. Engelsberg Ideas (https://engelsbergideas.com/) is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit (https://axsonjohnsonfoundation.org/) . Image: Two US Air For...

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 offered opportunities to reset relations between East and West. EI's Paul Lay discusses how these opportunities were squandered with Mary Elise Sarotte (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/mary-elise-sarotte/) , Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Distinguished Professor of Historical Studies at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs. Engelsberg Ideas (...

Konrad Adenauer combined Realpolitik and German values and interests with international cooperation. The multilaterally integrated, co-operative nation state he championed was a fundamental innovation in European history. Read by Helen Lloyd. Engelsberg Ideas (https://engelsbergideas.com/) is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit (https://axsonjohnsonfoun...

Maria Golia (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/maria-golia/) profiles Carl Akeley (https://engelsbergideas.com/portraits/carl-akeley-the-contradictory-life-of-a-taxidermist-and-hunter-turned-wildlife-photographer/) , an inventor, sculptor, and taxidermist. His life's lessons still echo in the effort to conserve wildlife. Read by Sebastian Brown. Engelsberg Ideas (https://engelsbergideas.com/)...

EI’s Angus Reilly (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/angus-reilly/) is joined by Luke A. Nichter (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/luke-a-nichter/) , author of The Year that Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968, to discuss Lyndon B. Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Nixon, and the battle for the future of America in a year that offers notable parallels to ...

The emergence of Artificial Intelligence capable of deducing human intentions signals a new frontier in technology that could transform the world of strategy, diplomacy and warfare. Read by Helen Lloyd. TV screens showing the live broadcast of the Google DeepMind Challenge Match at Yongsan Electronic Technology Land in Seoul, South Korea. Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo

EI's Alastair Benn is joined by Marina E. Henke (https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/europe-needs-a-grand-strategy/) , Professor of International Relations at the Hertie School, Berlin, to discuss how Europe can defend itself from the latest threats and thrive in a contested world. Engelsberg Ideas (https://engelsbergideas.com/) is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for P...