The Rohingya people of Myanmar have been persecuted for decades. The worst period of violence flared up in August 2017, when almost 700,000 Rohingya were forced to leave Myanmar after a large-scale military operation. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was in power at the time. Today ver...

We tend to imagine Western Civilisation as a golden thread connecting ancient Greece to modern Europe, from Plato to NATO. The idea of the West is deeply ingrained in our collective consciousness and we often refer to it without much consideration. But what if the idea itself is deeply flawed?

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‘In my opinion this idea of Anaximander’s [that the Earth is suspended in space] is one of the boldest, most revolutionary, and most portentous ideas in the whole history of human thinking.’ – Karl Popper

Carlo Rovelli is one of the world’s best known scientists. A theoretical physicist, his boo...

Mehdi Hasan is one of the most formidable debaters and interviewers of our times, famous on both sides of the Atlantic for the hard-hitting exchanges he conducts with politicians on his MSNBC television show. And on March 13 he comes to the Intelligence Squared stage in London to reveal his tips ...

The sexual revolution of the 1960s liberated women to enjoy sexual freedom and personal autonomy. That’s the conventional view but is it right? On March 14 writers Louise Perry and Mary Harrington come to Intelligence Squared to argue that the social changes generally seen as progressive over the...

Our bodies are never good enough. And the social pressures to change them are overwhelming. We strive to defy ageing, build our biceps and conceal our quirks. Surrounded by filtered photos and surgically-enhanced features, we feel we must contort our physical selves to accepted standards of beaut...

Why are middle-aged women these days subject to so much rage and hatred? Why are they so often portrayed as entitled, selfish and morally inferior – frequently by people who see themselves as progressive and kind?

As writer Victoria Smith approached middle age, she made her peace with her saggi...

In 1950 less than 1% of British people were obese. Today that figure is 28%. We spend £3.9 billion each year on confectionery compared to £2.4 billion on fruit and vegetables. Diet-related disease is now the biggest cause of preventable illness and death in the developed world.

How did we get t...

Human beings have been telling stories for thousands of years, but what actually makes for a good story? Authors have been trying to settle on the great principles of compelling writing for as long as people have been writing. Yet, as Deepa Anappara and Taymour Soomro argue, something has gone am...

On Easter weekend 1993 Nelson Mandela was engaged in slow-moving power-sharing talks with President F.W. de Klerk when a white supremacist shot Mandela’s heir-apparent, Chris Hani, in the hope of igniting an all-out civil war. 

In April 2023 acclaimed South African journalist Justice Malala came...

Shortly after her fourteenth birthday, Hadley Freeman stopped eating. From the age of fourteen to seventeen, she lived in various psychiatric wards with a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa.

Now, decades later, the award-winning Sunday Times columnist has written a book, Good Girls: A Story and Study...

Is the UK’s 2024 general election a foregone conclusion, with the Labour Party some 20 points ahead in the opinion polls? Can Rishi Sunak turn around the economy in time? Is there enough difference between the two main parties on the issues that voters care most about – the cost of living crisis,...

David Baddiel would love there to be a God. The comedian and bestselling author has spent a lot of time fantasising about how much better life would be if there actually were a supreme being – which for him would be some kind of Superhero Dad who chased off Death. Unfortunately for him, there isn...

In an age where the line between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation seems ever more blurred, can anyone actually own a culture? On April 24, acclaimed author and public intellectual Martin Puchner comes to Intelligence Squared to talk about the themes of his new book Culture: A New ...

The eugenics movement emerged in the late 19th century, promoting the theory that the human race could be improved by the selection of desirable heritable characteristics. The term was coined by Francis Galton in 1883 and the idea was initially embraced in Britain and the United States by philoso...

From the McDonald’s McPlant made with a Beyond Meat® patty to Sheese Dairy-Free Cheddar Style, there is a plant-based alternative for almost every food you can think of, making it easier than ever before to go vegan. No wonder the number of people in the UK following a plant-based diet has risen ...

The great dilemmas of geopolitics are not battles of good against evil, where the choices are clear. They are contests of good against good, where the choices are often painful, incompatible and fraught with consequence. That’s the argument that political scientist Robert Kaplan will be making wh...

‘Being a disabled parent is a rebellious act.’ – Eliza Hull

When writer and musician Eliza Hull was pregnant with her first child, like most parents-to-be she felt a mix of nerves and excitement. But as a disabled person she faced added complexities. Would the pregnancy be too hard? Would people...

China’s power has been growing for decades. A formidable and emerging power on the world stage, the China that most Westerners think they know is an intimidating, authoritarian nation which plans to take over the world. According to leading economist Keyu Jin, this prejudiced take on China is bli...

Since the Wall Street Crash in 1929, financial meltdowns have repeatedly sent shockwaves through our world. From the currency crises of the 1980s and 1990s, to Japan’s housing crash, the dot com boom and bust, the global financial meltdown, the euro crisis and the COVID pandemic.

On May 31, econ...

Over the last year, AI has been advancing at unprecedented speed. Tools like ChatGPT are taking the drudgery out of many of our everyday activities and creating exciting possibilities. But alarm bells are ringing. As we become increasingly unable to differentiate between the virtual and the real,...

Feelings not facts. Outrage over rationality. Impulsivity over measured thought. The modern political landscape has become a maelstrom of heightened emotion. On June 6 philosopher Julian Baggini comes to Intelligence Squared to share the insights of his new book How to Think Like a Philosopher: E...