Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

In modern Russia, the past is being rewritten to suit Vladimir Putin's script. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: People carry portraits of their relatives - soldiers of the Second World War - as they take part in the Immortal Regiment march in downtown Moscow. Credit: SOPA Images Limited / Alamy Stock Photo…

Paul Lay is joined by the historian Sir Hew Strachan to discuss On War, the military theorist Carl von Clausewitz's seminal text, and the indispensable guide to the conduct and practice of war. Image: Carl von Clausewitz. Credit: ART Collection / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

The intellectual dark web will, most likely, be a flicker in history, a reminder of when the West’s conversation was at its most shrill, and when free-thinking people had to look to underground clubs for a place to air their thoughts. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Camille Paglia. Credit: Independent / Alamy Stock Photo…

JFK biographer Fredrik Logevall, in conversation with EI's Paul Lay and Iain Martin, discusses Kennedy's enduring and 'iconic' status, his claims to greatness, his style, and what his example offers for a divided America. Image: During a campaign trip Senator John F. Kennedy greets a roadside crowd in Indiana. Credit: American Photo Archive / Alamy…

Dying to defend territory is an ancient human need - but war in the 21st century may not follow the script. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: English propaganda poster from the First World War showing a column of soldiers and civilians marching to war. Credit: Photo 12 / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

In the latest episode of EI Talks... Paul Lay and Alastair Benn put together an idiot's guide to Rugby Union. The World Cup, the sport's showcase competition, kicks off tonight. The team gives their predictions. Image: French Rugby poster from the 1930s. Credit: Lordprice Collection / Alamy Stock Photo…

A defence of capitalism will have to rest first and foremost on an appeal to ethics, obligation, and duty. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Our information-rich civilisation is not superior or inferior to the pre-literate world of Brazil's indigenous peoples, just different. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

The destruction of rainforests threatens valuable cultures and reams of possible medical innovations. Read by Leighton Pugh. Credit: Dennis Frates / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

A good society is one with a proper balance between the aptitudes of ‘head’, ‘hand’ and ‘heart’. The modern knowledge economy, however, has delivered higher and higher returns to the cognitive elite and reduced the relative pay and status of manual and caring jobs. Read by Leighton Pugh.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

The risks we now face are vast, as is the potential upside of the technology. Read by Leighton Pugh. Art installation on the theme of AI. Credit: Michele D'Ottavio / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

As the Rolling Stones frontman enters his ninth decade, EI asks whether there is a future for ageing rockers. Image: Mick Jagger in 1975. Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

The internet and social media were supposed to democratise knowledge and unite the world. Things didn't quite turn out that way. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook. Credit: Kristoffer Tripplaar / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss the explosion of tourism in the modern era and what might come next. Image: Travel poster encouraging tourists to visit Blackpool. Credit JJs / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

This celebration of wealth, its frequent elevation to an almost religious level, and its justification not only in terms of its social utility but also, and more remarkably, in personal terms, is one of the defining characteristics of the Florentine public culture and private ethos in the fifteenth century and beyond. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: …

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn calmly discuss the uses and misuses of anger. Image: Thai mural in the temple of the Emerald Buddha, Bangkok. Credit: Sabena Jane Blackbird / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

We must rescue our cities from a culture of ugliness. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Sol House, Northampton. Credit: Paul Hanson / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Paul Lay and Iskander Rehman discuss masters of early modern statecraft: the Duke of Sully, Cardinal Richelieu, and Cardinal Mazarin. Image: Cardinal Richelieu at the Siege of La Rochelle. Credit: Niday Picture Library / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Even with all its data and technology, contemporary conflict fits uneasily with our definitions of modernity. Read by Leighton Pugh Image: Mosul's old city destroyed by bombing. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by Times columnist James Marriott to discuss whether Artificial Intelligence poses an existential threat to the arts. Image: Man as Industrial Palace, a poster commissioned by German physician and author Fritz Kahn in 1926. Credit: JJs / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Warfare made the early modern state. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Renaissance-era woodcut of King Louis IX of France and his army disembarking at Damietta, Egypt, in 1249. In a common anachronism, the army and fleet are equipped with cannons. Credit: Florilegius / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by Alexander Lee, biographer of Niccolò Machiavelli, to discuss the Renaissance thinker's foundational contribution to the study of statecraft. Image: Niccolò Machiavelli. Credit: GL Archive / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

As China ramps up its military spending, the government in Beijing plays up its role in the Second World War. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Chinese poster from the Sino-Japanese War. Credit: Album / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss the deep meaning of Cricket in light of the forthcoming Ashes series between England and Australia, and the recent wider changes the game has undergone. Image: The Ashes urn. Credit: David Bagnall / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Different perspectives and eye-witness accounts reveal historical fallacies and myths about the war. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Gustavus Adolphus II. Credit: Wiki Creative CommonsBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss the future of Classical music. Image: String quartet playing in the Saint Nicholas Shopping centre, London. Credit: RayArt Graphics / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss the London Defence Conference and the return of strategic thinking to the Western alliance. Image: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks with the director of the London Defence Conference, Iain Martin. Credit: PA Images / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

For as long as there have been cities they have attracted admiration and fear. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Eighteenth century map of London. Credit: Chronicle / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

In the first episode of the Engelsberg Ideas editorial podcast, EI Talks..., Iain Martin, Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss Artificial Intelligence and how it might shape the future for better... or worse. Image: Programmable humanoid robot NAQ. Credit: Lilyana Vynogradova / Alamy Stock Photo.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Alfred Thayer Mahan's writings on naval warfare have overshadowed his contributions to geopolitics. His theories, however, are clearly playing out today. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: A print of a First World War Imperial German Navy battlecruiser, the SMS Goeben. Credit: Troy GB images / Alamy Stock Photo…

Isolationist thinking and exceptionalism is on the rise and our global culture is the poorer for it. Our civilisations thrive when in conversation with each other: ideas are exchanged and self-reflection is promoted. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: An American Mercantile Building in Yokohama, 1861. Credit: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock…

What are myths for? More than entertainment alone, these epic tales helped the Ancients follow current affairs. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Adam Boulton is joined by Paul Lay, Senior Editor of Engelsberg Ideas, Agnès Poirier, journalist and author, and Royal biographer Hugo Vickers, to reflect on the deep meaning and symbolism of Britain's Coronation. Image: King Charles III views a wooden carving at St. Laurence's Church in Ludlow, Shropshire. Credit: Michelle Jones / Alamy Stock Phot…

In war, we are, like the Duke of Wellington, still trying to guess what is on the other side of the hill, we just have more tools to help us do so. Read by Leighton Pugh Image: The Left Wing of the British army in Action at the Battle of Waterloo, June 18th 1815. Credit: Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images…

Hitler's conviction that a new Eurasian order should be constructed with Germany at its zenith had its ideological roots in the early science of geopolitics. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: This map of Russia and surrounding countries highlights Hitler's campaign in Russia and how it went wrong. Credit: Bettmann…

While no longer a state power, the Catholic Church remains a powerful political force in modern diplomacy. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Pope Francis with his weekly audience in St. Peter's Square, Vatican City, in 2018. Credit: Massimo Wallichia / Getty Images.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Scholars of esotericism are often asked to justify their field of research and its place in modern society. However, esotericism provides fertile ground for radical thinking and is a useful means of considering the limitations of standard western thought. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image:The Flammarion Wood engraving. The image is often used as a metap…

Changing technology, climate change, and transformations in global finance mean another new era for cities is dawning: the fifth, or digital, age. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Ecological skyscraper in Milan. Credit: Paolo Bona / Alamy Stock Photo.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

Central banks have held the financial world in their grip for much of the twentieth century, but is their reign coming to an end? In this episode of Worldview, Adam Boulton is joined by the former governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, along with journalist and author Merryn Somerset Webb, Iain Martin, Editor-in-Chief of Engelsberg Ideas, an…

The European Middle Ages have been deemed an era of regression but this couldn't be further from the truth. In this period, the foundations were laid to establish a liberal West centred around the rights of the individual. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Construction of highway, eighteenth century France Engineers on horseback inspecting the work, a …

How can the lessons of history be applied to the present? What are the benefits of taking the long view? In this episode of Worldview, Adam Boulton is joined by the scholars Robert Crowcroft, editor of Applied History and Contemporary Policymaking: School of Statecraft, Phillip Bobbitt of the University of Texas, Iskander Rehman, an Ax:son Johnson …

In our latest episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hessérus is joined by author, historian and journalist Katja Hoyer to discuss her new book Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949-1990. Together, they discuss the GDR and its legacy today. Image: East German pioneers and musicians depicted in the porcelain frieze 'Building of the Republic' designed by …

Cities have been reduced to centres of soulless materialism and their citizens to non-stop consumers. If we hope to create beautiful surroundings, a rethink is required. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: The Vessel at Hudson Yards, New York City. Credit: robertharding / Alamy Stock Photo.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

How does an institution in the business of preserving the past prepare itself for the interests and sensibilities of the future? Where do museums fit in the national psyche? In our latest episode of Worldview, host Adam Boulton is joined by director of the V&A Tristram Hunt, Professor Armand D'Angour and Dr. Tiffany Jenkins to discuss what the futu…

Asian literature, with its technologically-adept Chinese emperors, Animist Spirit-negotiators, and Yogic sages, shows us how to live well in troubled times. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Ma Yuan's The Yellow River Breaches its Course, from a series of paintings of water.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast

In our latest episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hessérus is joined by author Sarah Bakewell to discuss her new book Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Enquiry and Hope. Together they chart the history of the Humanist movement and its relevance to this secular age. Image: The six Tuscan poets. Credit: Giorgio Morara / …

Where does war end and peace begin? And what role does diplomacy play in that transition? In our latest episode of Worldview, host Adam Boulton is joined by historians Margaret MacMillan, Andrew Ehrhardt and Frank Gavin, as well as former European Commission High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton. Image: Satirical cartoon of the …

The US cultivated a garden that it grew weary of the burdens of sustaining but, once all other alternatives have been exhausted, the US will be pushed back into defending its liberal world order. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: 'Young America rescues Europe!', declares a French cartoon from 1918. Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo.…

Is demography destiny? Shifting patterns in population have marked history, drive political change and sharpen cultural divides. In our latest episode of Worldview, host Adam Boulton is joined by Paul Morland, the UK's leading demographer, Bill Emmott, former editor of the Economist and author of Japan's Far More Female Future, and Richard Assheton…

Augustine’s seminal book was written in the context of the Roman Empire, but it remains ever-relevant. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image description: St Augustine / Wiki Public domain.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcast