Shows / The EI Podcast
The EI Podcast
The EI Podcast brings you weekly conversations with leading writers, thinkers and historians. Hosted by Alastair Benn, Jack Dickens and Paul Lay. Produced by Max Mitchell.
Episodes
The EI PodcastEurope: can the centre hold?
In a new age of great-power rivalry, Europe appears caught between three main challengers: the US, China and Russia. Dimitar Bechev sits down with Jack Dickens…
The EI PodcastThe Fifth Republic: order or chaos?
France is in some ways one of Europe’s most conservative societies, and yet revolutionary violence is never far from the surface. Muriel Zagha joins Alastair…
The EI PodcastThe deep roots of Anglo-German relations
Britain and Germany have shared royal dynasties, forged pragmatic alliances, exchanged huge flows of capital and fought terrible wars against each other. In…
The EI PodcastNapoleon’s nest of vipers
Napoleon appointed a total of 26 Marshals between 1804 and 1815, and they became crucial to his military success. Yet only two of them fought alongside him at…
The EI PodcastRussia’s war on Ukrainian science
Earlier this week, a Russian drone strike hit the National Academy of Sciences in central Kyiv, bringing terror to the historic centre of Ukraine’s capital and…
The EI PodcastSpace and the new clash of civilisations
Earlier this month, the US confirmed for the first time that it had deployed a space weapon in Earth’s orbit. John B. Sheldon and Jack Dickens discuss the…
The EI PodcastReinventing Disraeli
What did Benjamin Disraeli believe and why is he still invoked as a prophet of modern conservatism? Emily Jones speaks to Paul Lay about her new book, ‘The…
The EI PodcastThe scramble for the Middle East
Simon Sebag Montefiore speaks to Jack Dickens about his new book, ‘The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East’. Image: British troops on parade at…
The EI PodcastThe novel in Britain: from cover to cover
Philip Hensher speaks to Alastair Benn about his new book, ‘A History of the Novel in Britain’, a stylish and very personal survey of a great tradition. Image…
The EI PodcastJourneys in Europe’s grey zone
Hannah Lucinda Smith speaks to Caitlin Allen about her new book, ‘Hinterlands: Journeys through Europe’s Unfinished Frontiers’. Image: United Nations Buffer…
The EI PodcastMachiavelli still matters
Stephen Bowd speaks to Paul Lay about why, 500 years after his death, Niccolò Machiavelli remains one of the world’s most vital political philosophers. Image…
The EI PodcastThe entire history of cinema in one shot
Film critic David Thomson speaks to Paul Lay about his new book, ‘A Sudden Flicker of Light: A Revisionist History of the Movies’. Image: A sign advertises the…
The EI PodcastAmerica’s universal document: a curious history
Marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, Michael Auslin speaks to Paul Lay about the document’s powerful yet often strange afterlife. From…
The EI PodcastThe alien world of Homer’s Odyssey
What does Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of ‘The Odyssey’ have in common with Homer’s poem? Classicist and actor Orlando Gibbs speaks to Alastair Benn about…
The EI PodcastHow wine made the modern world
Historian Kathleen Burk speaks to Max Mitchell about the long history of humanity's relationship with wine, taking us on a journey from the ancient Near East…
The EI PodcastThe struggle for Saudi Arabia’s buried past
Saudi Arabia’s expensive investment in its future has come with a concurrent focus on its archaeological past but its ambitions risk eradicating the remnants…
The EI PodcastThe diplomats who defeated Hitler
Peter Ricketts, Britain’s former ambassador to France, speaks with Paul Lay about a golden age of diplomacy. Image: Archibald Clark Kerr (Britain’s Ambassador…
The EI PodcastThe political power of knowing your enemy
In war and diplomacy, personal relationships between leaders can shape the course of events in unpredictable ways. Read by Leighton Pugh. Read the essay here…
The EI PodcastThe return of the Great Powers
Brendan Simms talks to EI’s Jack Dickens about a new age of geopolitical rivalry. Image: Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. Credit: Alamy
The EI PodcastGermany’s new old nuclear dilemma
When it comes to nuclear weapons, the concerns that West Germany’s first chancellor wrestled with during the Cold War have not disappeared. In this audio…
The EI Podcast250 years of the American experiment
Paul Lay speaks to Phil Tinline, author of Ghosts of Iron Mountain: The Hoax that Duped America and its Sinister Legacy, about the variety and violence of a…
The EI PodcastWhere is Russia’s place in the world?
Russia is a Near Eastern country now subordinated to East Asia. But Stephen Kotkin argues that historically it has prospered most when tied closely to Europe…
The EI PodcastChristianity’s debt to Rome
What does Christ’s Kingdom owe to the culture of the Roman Empire? Tim Whitmarsh speaks to EI’s Alastair Benn about his new book, Rome’s Age of Revolution…
The EI PodcastJean Eustache: the outsider who reshaped French cinema
The filmmaker Jean Eustache’s interest in rural France and his sardonic scepticism about the May ’68 ideologues mark him out from his Nouvelle Vague…
The EI PodcastHow to end a war
Margaret MacMillan speaks to EI’s Jack Dickens about how wars – and attempts to bring about peace – have shaped every era of human history. Image: Franklin D…
The EI PodcastTestament to doomed media
The old media has failed to rise to the challenge of tech, but we'll miss it when it's gone. Read the original essay here…
The EI PodcastWhy Armenia’s elections matter
Thomas de Waal joins EI’s Jack Dickens to discuss how the recent elections in Armenia could reshape geopolitics in the Caucasus and beyond. Image: Armenian…
The EI PodcastLen Deighton’s spycraft
The late Len Deighton produced novels that were packed with excitement and suspense but also infused with moral complexity and psychological insight. Read by…
The EI PodcastChina's bid for economic supremacy
George Magnus speaks to EI’s Jack Dickens about the geopolitical logic behind China’s economic strategy. Image: A container ship from China. Credit: Rudmer…
The EI PodcastA Jewish-American dream
The largest Jewish community in the world is defined by its deep integration into America's national story, its liberal traditions and scepticism towards…
The EI PodcastMuslims and Jews' shared inheritance
Marc David Baer speaks to EI’s Paul Lay about his new book 'Children of Abraham: The Story of Jewish-Muslim Relations', and the deep historical connection…
The EI PodcastFinding Turkey in Narnia
Re-reading CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, Hannah Lucinda Smith discovers glimmers of the culture and history of the Turkic peoples in the author's work. Read…
The EI PodcastThe life and legacy of Steve Schapiro
Filmmaker Maura Smith discusses Steve Schapiro: Being Everywhere, her documentary on the photographer who captured modern America. Image: Steve Schapiro in the…
The EI PodcastAgent Zo, the spy who saved Poland
Elżbieta Zawacka, who played a key role in the Home Army’s resistance efforts, was one of the most highly decorated women in Polish history. Clare Mulley…
The EI PodcastLewis and Clark’s American Odyssey
Craig Fehrman speaks to EI’s Max Mitchell about his new book ‘This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis & Clark’, shedding light on one of America’s…
The EI PodcastWhy powerful individuals are dominating politics
From Xi Jinping in China to Narendra Modi in India and Donald Trump in the US, Nicholas Wright explores how powerful leaders are reshaping the rules of the…
The EI PodcastWeimar’s descent into darkness
How did Weimar, the town of Goethe and Schiller, become the crucible of Germany's moral collapse? Katja Hoyer, author of Weimar: Life on the Edge of…
The EI PodcastThe civilising wonders of wine
Amid the rise of individualistic technologies and weight-loss drugs, there has been a steady decline in alcohol consumption in Western societies. Yet, Henry…
The EI PodcastCan Europe thrive in a multipolar world?
Mark Leonard, co-founder and director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, speaks to EI’s Jack Dickens about Europe’s place in a changing world order…
The EI PodcastThe long shadow of the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials
In the courtrooms of Nuremberg and Tokyo, the victorious Allies declared that civilisation must not merely win wars but also judge them, leaving a legal and…
The EI PodcastUniversities are at crisis point
Daisy Christodoulou and Nicholas Wright join EI’s Paul Lay to discuss the crisis in British universities and how to fix it. Image: Sightseers outside the…
The EI PodcastThe anatomy of the spy novel
From the gung-ho glamour of Ian Fleming’s James Bond to the decline and disorder of Mick Herron’s Slow Horses, postwar spy novels have captured the shifting…
The EI PodcastThe roots of the West’s identity crisis
Marie Kawthar Daouda, author of Not Your Victim: How our Obsession with Race Entraps and Divides Us, speaks to EI’s Alastair Benn about the historical…
The EI PodcastIran’s strange Scottish obsession
From placard-waving crowds in Yazd to troll farms on social media, the Islamic Republic has long tried to wield Scottish nationalism as a weapon against the…
The EI PodcastWashington’s return to Latin America
Following the capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro earlier this year, President Donald Trump has warned that Cuba is ‘next’. What exactly does he mean by…
The EI PodcastThe Houthis’ forever war
Elisabeth Kendall speaks to EI’s Jack Dickens about what motivates the Houthis. Following the outbreak of the war in Iran, the Yemeni militant group now has an…
The EI PodcastCan epic poetry revive History?
When combined, as the ancients knew, history and poetry offer an incomparable insight into the human condition. Michael Auslin laments the demise of poetry as…
The EI PodcastThe need for muscular liberalism
Adrian Wooldridge speaks to EI’s Paul Lay about his new book, Centrists of the World Unite! The Lost Genius of Liberalism. He believes that the West can only…
The EI PodcastThe first butterfly collectors
The Society of Aurelians brought butterflies out of their undeserved obscurity. Nigel Andrew’s audio essay sheds new light on Britain’s first entomological…
The EI PodcastTrump’s imperial worldview
What is driving Donald Trump’s increasingly volatile foreign policy? Brendan Simms examines the US President and his ideological roots with EI’s Jack Dickens…
The EI PodcastThe strange death of private life
In the early 1970s, the idea of a private life – that citizens ought to be left alone by the state – began to disappear. In this audio essay, Tiffany Jenkins…
The EI PodcastThe Gulf’s Iran dilemma
Shiraz Maher examines how the fallout from the US-Iran conflict is reshaping the Gulf States and the wider Middle East, with EI’s Jack Dickens. Image: Close-up…
The EI PodcastThe rise of the mega-influencer
Mega-influencers shape the public imagination. Phillip Dolitsky and Luke Moon explore a world where narrative matters more than fact. Read by Leighton Pugh…
The EI PodcastPutin, the once and future Chekist
Gordon Corera contends that to truly understand Vladimir Putin, you have to understand the phenomenon of Chekism. Read by Leighton Pugh. Read the original…
The EI PodcastWhen Edo became Tokyo
Christopher Harding on the birth of Tokyo. Read by Leighton Pugh. Read the essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/when-edo-became-tokyo/. Image: A…
The EI PodcastHamlet unravelled
Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Oxford University, explores Hamlet and its rich critical history with EI’s Alastair Benn and Paul Lay. Image…
The EI PodcastThe making of Xi Jinping's worldview
Rana Mitter explores Xi Jinping’s personal and ideological mindset in conversation with EI’s Jack Dickens. Image: Then Vice President Xi Jinping makes an…
The EI PodcastNietzsche’s manifesto for reading
Ioannes Chountis de Fabbri on reading as an antidote to the restless spirit of the industrial age. Read by Leighton Pugh. Read the original essay here…
The EI PodcastInside the world of medieval espionage
Jonathan Sumption surveys the last generation of spies before the creation of Europe's professional intelligence services. Read by Leighton Pugh. Read the…
The EI PodcastThe Monroe Doctrine: The United States’ hemispheric strategy explained
EI's Jack Dickens is joined by Charlie Laderman, associate professor at the University of Florida’s Hamilton Center, to discuss how the United States’…