In this week's podcast Nina Schick speaks to Carl Miller about the rise of Deepfakes and what she believes is an impending 'Infocalypse'. Advances in AI mean that by scanning images of a person (for example using Facebook), a powerful machine learning system can create new video images and place ...

Behavioural geneticist Kathryn Paige Harden discusses with author and journalist Helen Lewis why we're getting it wrong when it comes to genetic inheritance.

Does our refusal to recognise the power of DNA perpetuate the myth of meritocracy?

Drawing on themes from her new book, The Genetic Lott...

Zero day: a software bug that allows a hacker to break into your devices and move around undetected. One of the most coveted tools in a spy's arsenal, a zero day has the power to silently spy on your iPhone, dismantle the safety controls at a chemical plant, alter an election, and shut down the e...

Boris Johnson has resigned as leader of the Conservative Party and will step down as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. A leader who some believe exceled on Brexit and Ukraine and a disgrace to others who say his actions and lies have made him unfit to govern.

Jonathan Freedland and Simon Je...

Intelligence Squared presents a live podcast recording about the spies fighting communism during the Cold War. At the end of World War II, the United States dominated the world militarily, economically, and in moral standing – seen as the victor over tyranny and a champion of freedom. But it was ...

"We're going to hell in a handcart." That's the cry of the deteriorationists who believe everything has got worse: the planet is overheating, population numbers are exploding, communities are being lost; liberal democracy is creaking on its foundations, and for twentysomethings prospects are look...

Does the world need more or less mass migration? Jenny Kleeman chaired this debate between Felix Marquardt, author of The New Nomads and author David Goodhart.

To some, the very word ‘migration’ generates fear, suspicion and even hatred. But according to Felix Marquardt, author of the acclaimed...

Billionaires have more wealth than 60% of the world's population. So, as billionaires are jetting off to space, is it time to abolish them here on earth? Or is this a simplistic take. Making Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg poorer is not going to make the 99 per cent any richer. It might make the env...

Claudia Hammond explains that rest is not just a matter of doing nothing – it is a vital part of self-care and recovering from stress and burnout. Her book, The Art of Rest, draws on ground-breaking research she uncovered through ‘The Rest Test’, the largest global survey into rest ever undertake...

Emma Dabiri, Alex Renton and Farah Jassat come together in this unmissable conversation to discuss race, reckoning and what everyone can do to build coalitions and create tangible change.

In the wake of of the Black Lives Matter protests, during this watershed moment Idris Elba and Kwame Kwei-Armah come together to explore the future of the arts in this discussion chaired by Yassmin Abdel-Magied.

Brilliant minds, debate, online events, ask your questions. Try Intelligence Square...

In November 2020, Peter Frankopan and distinguished historian Margaret Macmillan joined us on Intelligence Squared. Macmillan discussed her book War: How Conflict Has Shaped Us, which covers over 2000 years of conflict. From prehistoric times to Afghanistan, Macmillan and Frankopan discussed how ...

In October 2021 Mary Beard, Britain’s best known classicist, came to Intelligence Squared to talk about the ideas in her new book Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern. In conversation with the cultural critic Shahidha Bari, Beard showed why images of Roman emperors...

In May 2021 world renowned scientist Suzanne Simard came to Intelligence Squared to share the secrets of a lifetime spent uncovering startling truths about trees. As she explains in her new book, Finding the Mother Tree, Simard did not set out to be a scientist. She was working in the forest serv...

Over two million people fled Ukraine in just twelve days as Vladimir Putin waged a brutal war against the country. The support for Ukranians has been compassionate and heartwarming – but it has also raised questions about why those fleeing North Africa and the Middle East are not afforded the sam...

On August 23, Vivek Ramaswamy came to Intelligence Squared to discuss the ideas in his new book Woke, Inc.: Inside the Social Justice Scam. As well as describing what he calls the hypocrisy of the new corporate agenda, he promises to show us a better way forward. Corporate elites may want to sort...

In many ways, the internet is still living up to its original promise to be a place where people can express themselves without judgment. Online anonymity also allows whistle blowers and activists to speak out without fear of harmful consequences to themselves.

Yet it is this very anonymity that...

The New York Times reporters Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang see Facebook's missteps in the last five years not as an anomaly but an inevitability: this is how the platform was built to perform. In a period of great upheaval, growth has remained the single focus of Zuckerberg and his COO Sheryl S...

At the outset of the pandemic, May 2021 In his 2019 book Winners Take All, Anand Giridharadas launched a searing attack on the global elites. Now he turns his thoughts to the post-pandemic world. Is the crisis an opportunity to create a more egalitarian society? How can the powerful be prevented ...

Micheal Sandel and Adrian Wooldridge go head to head in this debate on meritocracy. Meritocracy has long been an article of faith in the modern Western world. Get an education, work hard and the rewards of success will be yours, regardless of class, privilege or wealth. But recently meritocracy h...

No other country has been so divided over its own past as Russia. To understand what Russia’s future holds – to grasp what Putin’s regime means for Russia and the world – we need to unravel the ideas and meanings of its history. That’s the argument that historian Orlando Figes makes in his most r...

From Russia's war on Ukraine to the war on terror in Iraq conflicts involving the United States can seem intractable and like they will never end. Why is this the case?

According to Yale professor Samuel Moyn, the rise of ‘humane war’ in the second half of the twentieth century undermined the an...

In May 2021 A.C. Grayling ,founder of New College of the Humanities, came to Intelligence Squared to take us on a journey through the history of science, psychology and history itself. In a special lecture drawing from his new book Frontiers of Knowledge he will describe how each field has advan...

Amal Clooney, Geoffrey Robertson QC and Bill Browder discuss a way forward for the global justice movement in the twenty-first century. This special event, recorded in April 2021 in partnership with Doughty Street Chambers, explores what Robertson calls a ‘plan B for human rights’. This would in...