As protests erupted last week across China in response to continuing lockdowns and the country's zero covid policy, two leading experts join Intelligence Squared to discuss how significant a moment this is for China and President Xi Jinping. Some commentators have compared the protests to 1989, w...

Russia’s war on Ukraine, Liz Truss’s ‘mini budget’ and soaring inflation from Covid lockdowns all hammered the U.K economy in 2022. But as we begin a new year with a new Prime Minister – how much drama and uncertainty should we expect in 2023?

On Thursday January 5 we bring together an expert p...

Does the conversation on race need a reset?

That is the question that Coleman Hughes and Kenan Malik will explore when they come to Intelligence Squared on January 16. Hughes is an acclaimed American writer and podcast host. In 2019 at the age of 23 he testified before Congress against reparati...

In the current cost of living crisis it has never been more important to understand the financial world and take control of your money. For over 40 years, Paul Lewis has been arming the public with everything they need to know about personal finances on his BBC Radio 4 programme Moneybox. And on ...

Maria Ressa has spent years exposing how governments use the internet to control and manipulate their citizens. In 2021 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her fearless efforts to safeguard freedom of expression by tracking and documenting the disinformation networks planted by the Philippi...

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 Western culture began to spread throughout Russia and the former Soviet states like never before. One of the ambassadors of so-called Western values at the time which sparked controversy in Russia was the popular American children’s programme Sesame ...

Mark Galeotti is one of the world’s leading experts on modern Russia and on February 26 he comes to Intelligence Squared to talk about the themes of his new book Putin's Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine. In conversation with the New Statesman’s Katie Stallard, Galeotti will detail how Vladimir Puti...

When world-renowned economist Ha-Joon Chang first arrived in Britain in the 1980s he recoiled in horror at how dull and dreary British food was. But it was not just the food – which has much improved since then – that caused him to despair: it was mainstream economic thinking too. Neoclassical li...

More than fifty years on, the scars of Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution still run through the heart of Chinese society, and through the souls of its citizens. Stationed in Beijing for the Guardian, Tania Branigan came to realise that this brutal and turbulent decade continues to propel and shap...

China's quest for social control is now playing out in ways that should worry us all. That's the argument of award-winning journalist Josh Chin who comes to Intelligence Squared on February 14 to tell the unsettling stories of the millions of people who live under the constant gaze of the Chinese...

Bernie Sanders joins Intelligence Squared to answer questions on U.S support for Ukraine, capitalism and whether the Left is too divided to win power.

Senator Sander is the longest serving Independent member of Congress in American history. He has run in the Democratic presidential primary elec...

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,...

The Conservative Party has been in power in the United Kingdom since 2010, stumbling its way through corruption scandals, the turmoil of Brexit, a pandemic, and five prime ministers. And yet it has won the last four elections in a row. How?

On May 10 Samuel Earle comes to Intelligence Squared to...

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...

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...

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...

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...

For too long our schools and universities have excluded people of colour from the canon of great writers. All students, whatever their heritage, should be able to see themselves reflected in the books they read. In our increasingly diverse society that means that Plato and Socrates, Locke and Hum...

Sam McAlister is the woman who secured the infamous Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew, when he claimed to Emily Maitlis that he was in a Pizza Express in Woking on the night Virginia Giuffre alleges he slept with her. The interview made headlines around the world and had a serious impact on ...

Rana Ayyub is one of India’s most high-profile critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In 2016 she published 'Gujurat Files', a controversial book that alleged India’s government was implicated in the 2002 riots in which around 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in Gujarat. Ayyub’s book a...

TUESDAY JULY 25 2023, 6PM BST
Politics In The Age Of Chaos With Rafael Behr and Jonathan Freedland

Politics &
Economics
Do you ever turn away from the news in despair? Do you scroll through social media and come away feeling angry, frustrated and fearful? Have you given up on the idea that a le...

The Labour MP Wes Streeting reveals his childhood struggle with poverty and the inspirational figures who set him on the path to university and politics in this pre-recorded discussion with broadcaster Justin Webb.

Food has always been more than just fuel. Beyond mere nourishment, food carries deep meaning in our lives. It evokes feelings of comfort and joy and it can ignite disagreement and discord. It serves as a powerful link to culture and identity, creating a sense of belonging and community. When migr...

In the Middle Ages, Jews were hated for their religion. In the twentieth century, they were hated because of their race. Today Jews are hated for something else: the nation state of Israel. That's the argument being made by journalist and editor of the Jewish Chronicle Jake Wallis Simons, who com...