The EI Podcast

Alastair Benn is joined by Leo Damrosch, author of Storyteller: The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson, to explore the life and legacy of the celebrated Scottish writer, including one of his most enduring literary achievements, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Image: 'Robert Louis Stevenson' by John Singer Sargent, 1885. Credit: IanDagnall Computing

EI's Paul Lay is joined by Helen Thompson to discuss US–China rivalry, the growing importance of the Western Hemisphere in geopolitics, and the inherent instability of a multipolar world.

Image: Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Victory Parade marking the 70th anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany in the Second World War. Credit: Associated Press

EI's Paul Lay is joined by neuroscientist Nicholas Wright to discuss how the brain shapes war, and how war shapes the brain.

Image: The brain as a weapon of war. Credit: fStop Images GmbH

Graeme Thompson on the fall of a liberal world order. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: 'Taming the British Lion'. Puck magazine, 1888. Credit: Historical Images Archive

John Tasioulas examines how a classical conception of democracy – distinct from liberal democracy – may offer the resources needed to meet the challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: Rudolph Müller, View of the Acropolis from the Pynx (1863). Credit: Eraza Collection

Gerald Warner on the origins of a 'black legend' designed to discredit the once-flourishing Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: A painting displaying the splendour of the Neapolitan fleet. Credit: The Picture Art Collection

EI's Paul Lay is joined by technology analyst Dan Wang to discuss how China has engineered its way to global power status. 

Image: New high-rise buildings in China. Credit: ton koene

Bill Emmott profiles Lafcadio Hearn, the Anglo-Irish-Greek foreign correspondent who made Japan his home. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: Lafcadio Hearn photographed with his wife, Setsuko Koizumi, and their son. Credit: GRANGER - Historical Picture Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

Bestselling author Andrew Ross Sorkin discusses his new book, 1929: The Inside Story of The Greatest Crash in Wall Street History, with EI's Iain Martin.

Image: The Wall Street financial crash of 1929, with a city businessman speculator trying to sell his car for $100 cash, having lost all on the stock market. Credit: Alamy/ Shawshots.

Historian Damian Valdez on international order's 19th-century origins. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: Mexican general Agustín de Iturbide rides through a ceremonial arch to welcoming officials in Mexico City on September 27, 1821, after decisively winning independence for Mexico. Credit: Album / Alamy Stock Photo 

Critic Malcolm Forbes investigates Graham Greene's troubled childhood. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: Graham Greene in 1940. Credit: Everett Collection Historical / Alamy Stock Photo

Historian Luka Ivan Jukic explores how Stalin hijacked the Slavic cause to forge the Soviet Empire. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: A poster celebrating Stalin at the Russian State Library, Moscow. Credit: Album / Alamy Stock Photo

Aaron MacLean, host of the School of War podcast, on AI's threat to the life of the mind. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: The Library Hall of the Upper Lusatian Library of Sciences. Credit: Petr Svarc / Alamy Stock Photo

Alastair Benn on the magic of Mick Herron’s Slough House series.

Image: Still from Apple TV's Slow Horses. Credit: LANDMARK MEDIA / Alamy Stock Photo

EI's Paul Lay discusses a world order in flux with Stephen Kotkin, historian and biographer of Stalin.

Image: A Canadian soldier during a NATO-led operation. Credit: Associated Press

Why do people the world over enjoy listening to songs sung in French? Critic Muriel Zagha illuminates the living tradition of French chanson. 

Image: Juliette Gréco, the French actress and singer. Credit: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

Alastair Benn explores an attention dilemma that has haunted western thought for centuries. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: Detail from Echo and Narcissus by John William Waterhouse, 1903. Credit: SuperStock / Alamy Stock Photo 

Historian David Cowan explains how radical reform can reshape the state. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: A political caricature, 'Political Dreams, Visions of Peace, Perspective Horrors', by James Gillray of Pitt the Younger. Credit: INTERFOTO / Alamy Stock Photo

David Omand, ex-head of GCHQ, the British government's world-renowned cyber agency, explores how intelligence officers exploit the latest technological advances.

Image: Digital espionage is on the rise. Credit: Stu Gray / Alamy Stock Photo 

EI's Alastair Benn and Paul Lay are joined by Jonathan Esty, of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, to discuss Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, published 70 years ago, a gripping novel that captures the passing of the baton from the old colonial powers to the new masters in South-East Asia.

Image: French paratroops at the beginning of the First Indochina War. Credit: Keystone Press

Samuel Rubinstein explores how Nazi historiographers sought to present Adolf Hitler as the heir to Charlemagne. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: A large Sèvres presentation plate celebrating Nazism's alleged debt to Charlemagne. Credit: INTERFOTO / Alamy Stock Photo

James Vitali reflects on the profound importance of political judgement. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: The front door of Number 10 Downing street. Credit: GreatBritishStock.com / Alamy Stock Photo

Journalist Duncan Weldon reveals how liberal capitalist economies adapt to total war. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: Second World War-era British propaganda. Credit: Venimages / Alamy Stock Photo 

EI’s Paul Lay joins historian Andrew Lambert to discuss his book ‘No More Napoleons: How Britain Managed Europe from Waterloo to World War One', Lambert's provocative new study of how Britain maximised its naval and diplomatic prestige to maintain a stable, post-Napoleonic Europe.

Image: 'A squadron of the Royal Navy running down the Channel' by Samuel Atkins (c. 1760-1810). Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd

Historian Katherine Bayford exposes the fractures and contradictions that doomed the Confederacy from within. Read by Leighton Pugh.

FURTHER READING:

The rift that doomed the Confederacy | Katherine Bayford

Image: A statue of Alexander Stephens in the US Congress. Credit: Sipa US / Alamy Stock Photo

This year marks the centenary of the publication of Franz Kafka’s novel, The Trial - a seminal work that continues to captivate and unsettle its readers. EI’s Alastair Benn and Paul Lay are joined by Karolina Watroba, author of Metamorphoses: In Search of Franz Kafka, to discuss Josef K’s tragic entanglement with a suffocating bureaucracy.

Image: Portrait of Franz Kafka. Credit: history_docu_photo / Alamy Stock Photo 

Historian Nicholas Morton explores how a miracle of marketing brought the Knights Templars to prominence. Read by Leighton Pugh.

FURTHER READING:

The Knights Templars and the pursuit of Christendom | Nicholas Morton

Image: A Victorian illustration of the Knights Templars. Credit: Glasshouse Images / Alamy Stock Photo

The writer Josh Mcloughlin reflects on the art of chorography, one of English literature’s most eccentric and mercurial forms. Read by Leighton Pugh.

FURTHER READING:

The lost art of chorography | Josh Mcloughlin

Image: Renaissance map of Europe showing England. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Phot

Historian Damian Valdez reflects on the meaning of 1975, a fateful year for the international order. Read by Leighton Pugh.

FURTHER READING:

1975, the year that made the modern world | Damian Valdez

Image: A helicopter is pushed off the overcrowded deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hancock (CV-19) off the coast of South Vietnam during the fall of Saigon. Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo

EI’s Paul Lay joins historian Tim Bouverie to discuss ‘Allies at War’, his gripping new book on how Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin’s uneasy alliance led to the end of the Second World War – and reshaped the global order in ways that are still felt today.

Image: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at Yalta. Credit: Niday Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo

Writer Luka Ivan Jukic laments the all-but-total disappearance of facial hair from politics. Read by Leighton Pugh.

FURTHER READING:

What happened to the politician’s moustache? | Luka Ivan Jukic

Image: A double portrait of Mozaffar al-Din Shah, the fifth Qajar shah of Iran. Credit: Penta Springs Limited / Alamy Stock Photo

Journalist and author Jenny McCartney celebrates the magic of squalor, and explores how generations of artists have seen the sublime in slime. Read by Leighton Pugh.

FURTHER READING:

On squalor | Jenny McCartney

Image: Walter Sickert's Easter Monday. Credit: Logic Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Geopolitical analyst Charly Salonius-Pasternak examines Finland's long journey to full membership of the Western alliance, and explores how the Nordic nation could play a leading role in its future.

FURTHER READING:

Why Finns joined the fight | Charly Salonius-Pasternak

Image: During the Soviet-Finnish war (1939-1940) skiers of the Finnish army in white camouflage made lightning and effective attacks on units of the Red Army. Credit: World of Triss / Alamy Stock Photo

The late Christopher Coker, Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics for almost 40 years, explains why, although the love of liberty is not unique to the West, the lust for liberty is. Read by Helen Lloyd.

FURTHER READING:

The West’s lust for liberty | Christopher Coker

Image: Leonidas at Thermopylae, by Jacques-Louis David, 1814. Credit: Peter Horree / Alamy Stock Photo

In this episode of The EI Podcast, the historian Bijan Omrani is joined by EI's Paul Lay to explore the indelible mark Christianity has left on England’s identity and culture.

FURTHER READING:

The tragic decline of Christian rituals | Bijan Omrani

Image: South View of Salisbury Cathedral, JMW Turner. Credit: Penta Springs Limited / Alamy Stock Photo 

Agnès Poirier, journalist and broadcaster, examines how the liberation of France in 1944 opened the way for Paris to become a laboratory of ideas. Read by Helen Lloyd.

FURTHER READING:

The liberation of France made the modern world | Agnès Poirier

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: Parisians gather around the Arc de Triomphe as Allied forces liberate the city. Credit: RBM Vintage Images / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI's Alastair Benn and Paul Lay are joined by Michael Sheridan, author of two books on China and a foreign correspondent for 40 years, to discuss China’s rise, its subsequent entry into the international trading system, and its contemporary status as the problem child of our globalised world.

FURTHER READING:

China and America, the great decoupling | Michael Sheridan

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. This episode of The EI Podcast was hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn, and produced by Caitlin Brown. The so...

Marie Daouda, lecturer in French language and literature at the University of Oxford, shows how the pursuit of apparently 'real' desires comes at the expense of collective truth. The consequences can be disastrous. Read by Helen Lloyd.

FURTHER READING:

The truth shall set us free | Marie Daouda

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: Isabelle Huppert, Madame Bovary 1991. Credit: Collection Christophel / Alamy Stock Photo

Brendan Simms, founder and Director of the Centre for Geopolitics at the University of Cambridge, illustrates why contemporary Germany struggles to muster a serious military response to the Russian challenge. Read by Helen Lloyd.

FURTHER READING:

The German key to European liberty | Brendan Simms

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: The Congress of Vienna (1814-1815). Napoleon watching the Tsar, the Emperor of Austria and King of Prussia dividing up Europe. Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy 

What are the deep roots of Trump's worldview? Can we learn to read Trump’s behaviour? And are there opportunities to be had for those who can?

EI's Alastair Benn and Paul Lay are joined by Charlie Laderman, Senior Lecturer in International History at King's College London, to discuss how to interpret the Trump White House.

This episode was recorded on 7th April.

FURTHER READING:

How Iran’s Tanker War shaped Trump’s worldview | Charlie Laderman

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public...

Iuliia Osmolovska, head of the GLOBSEC Kyiv Office, argues that Ukrainians are better placed than their Western partners to decode the Russian negotiating style. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: Street art in Tbilisi of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin playing chess. Credit: Georg Berg / Alamy Stock Photo

Juliet Samuel, columnist for The Times newspaper, highlights that a belief in liberty is not self-evident and its expansion is not inevitable. Read by Helen Lloyd.

FURTHER READING:

Liberty under attack from enemies within | Juliet Samuel

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: Second world war propaganda poster. Credit: Photo 12 / Alamy Stock Photo

What makes us laugh? And why should it matter?

EI's Alastair Benn and Paul Lay are joined by the critic Mathew Lyons to discuss the uses of comedy.

FURTHER READING:

The subtle art of English comedy | Alastair Benn

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn, and produced by Caitlin Brown. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.

Image: Eduard von Grützner's Falstaff, 1873. Credit: INTERFOTO / Alamy Stock Photo 

Roel Sterckx, the Joseph Needham Professor of Chinese History, Science, and Civilization at Cambridge University, makes the case for studying China's centuries-long history. Read by Helen Lloyd.

FURTHER READING:

Gazing back to see China’s future | Roel Sterckx

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: The Great Wall of China. Credit: nagelestock.com / Alamy Stock Photo 

Alexander Lee, author of Machiavelli: His Life and Times, argues that liberty was central to the idea of Venice. Read by Helen Lloyd.

FURTHER READING:

Liberty and the myth of Venice | Alexander Lee

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: Procession in Piazza San Marco by Gentile Bellini, 1496. Credit: Peter Barritt / Alamy Stock Photo

Richard Miles, historian and archaeologist, profiles Spartacus, a figure who floats between history and allegory. Read by Helen Lloyd.

FURTHER READING:

Spartacus, history’s nowhere man | Richard Miles

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: Promotional poster for the film, Spartacus. 1960. Credit: Allstar Picture Library Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

Mary Elise Sarotte, Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Distinguished Professor of Historical Studies at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, reflects that the choice to enlarge NATO was a justifiable response to the geopolitics of the 1990s. The problems came later. Read by Helen Lloyd.

FURTHER READING:

How a Second Cold War could have been averted | Mary Elise Sarotte

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: The 'You are leaving The American Sector' sign at the Checkpoint Charlie crossing p...

What makes Classical music special among the arts? And where did it come from?

To reckon with the inexhaustible complexity of the western musical tradition, its long history and the roots of its contemporary crises, EI's Alastair Benn is joined by Richard Bratby, the chief classical music critic of The Spectator magazine, and Alexandra Wilson, musicologist and cultural historian.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn, and produced by Caitlin Brown. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.<...

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was slowed down because of determined, courageous resistance. That success also owed much to Western intelligence on the nature of the Russian attack. External support will remain crucial to the success of the Ukrainian war effort. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Credit: The Motherland Monument in Kyiv. Credit: Ruslan Lytvyn / Alamy Stock Photo 

Non-western elites are redefining freedom on their own terms, as sovereignty, state security and stability. But the world becoming a lot less free should concern us all. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: Eugène Delacroix's 'Painting of Liberty Leading the People'. Credit: Exotica.im 20 / Alamy Stock Photo

Are we living through a golden age of espionage drama? And what do spy stories tell us about the true nature of the secret world?

EI's Alastair Benn is joined by David Omand, ex-head of GCHQ, the British government’s world-renowned cyber agency, and author of How Spies Think, Pauline Blistène, an expert on intelligence affairs and spy fiction, and Senior Editor Paul Lay to discuss the enduring popularity and legacy of the spy in fiction.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hos...

Citizens of the GDR were exposed to an idealised version of western freedoms made up of luxury shopping, blue jeans and cowboy flicks. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: Intershop in Friedrichstrasse in East Berlin. Credit: Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo / Alamy Stock Photo

After unpromising beginnings and innumerable controversies, Pittacus, seventh-century ruler of Mytilene on Lesbos, should be remembered as one of the great leaders of his age. Read by Sebastian Brown.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: An illustration of Pittacus. Credit: Historical image collection by Bildagentur-online / Alamy Stock Photo

The limited liability company remains the best vehicle for capitalistic endeavour. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: Lloyd's coffee house in the City of London. Credit: CPA Media Pte Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo 

Is the era of mass literacy over? And what might a post-literate society look like?

EI's Alastair Benn is joined by Times columnist James Marriott and Senior Editor Paul Lay to discuss the promise and peril of a culture defined by the audiovisual.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn, and produced by Caitlin Brown. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.

Image: Painting of a woman reading by Carl Vilhelm Holsøe. Credit: Vidimages / Alamy S...

Putin’s justifications for invading Ukraine uncannily reflect the motivations of one of Russian literature’s most famous antiheroes, Dostoevsky's Rodion Raskolnikov. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: Vladimir Putin at an EU-Russia summit in Brussels. Credit: Peter Cavanagh / Alamy Stock Photo

The Russian recluse, a scientific self-starter who left school at 14, developed pioneering theories of space travel that anticipated the great feats of the Space Race fifty years later. Read by Sebastian Brown.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: Soviet poster featuring a portrait of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935). Credit: Alexeyev Filippov / Alamy Stock Photo 

Benjamin Constant’s considered response not only to the mass murder inflicted by the French Revolution, but to the attempt to reduce the whole French population to the condition of willing slaves under Bonaparte’s First Empire, provides a diagnosis of the character of many subsequent totalitarian regimes. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine were crowned Emperor and Empress of France on 2 December 1804. Credit: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

Is the study of Latin in peril? And what does the future hold for the ancient inheritance? EI's Alastair Benn is joined by Daisy Dunn, classicist and author, Armand D’Angour, Professor of Classics at Oxford University, and Paul Lay, EI’s Senior Editor, to discuss the value of ancient languages.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn, and produced by Caitlin Brown. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.

Image: Giovanni Paolo Panini's painting from circa 1730, The Coli...

What happened in California in the 1970s played an outsized role in creating the world we live in today – both in the United States and in large parts of the globe – for better or worse. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: 1970s commercial airline advert. Credit: ClassicStock / Alamy Stock Photo 

At a time of moral and political crisis, the medieval poet pioneered a daring and emotive vernacular style which inspired generations of Italian literature. Read by Sebastian Brown.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: A sketch of Guittone d'Arezzo from the nineteenth century. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

While we may think we have moved beyond the censorship of the past, writers' artistic freedoms are still constrained. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence was the subject of a watershed obscenity trial. Credit: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo.

EI's Angus Reilly discusses the history and legacy of the Vietnam War with Fredrik Logevall, author of Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is produced by Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.

Image: Photograph of American troops running towards a chopper during the Vietnam War. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo 

The arc of history only bends towards justice when people of goodwill grab hold of it and wrench it in the direction of justice. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: The Freedom is Our Religion banner in Maidan Square, Kyiv. Credit: Ali Kerem Yucel / Alamy Stock Photo

His intense faith led Thomas Gage to switch his religious allegiance during the tumultuous 17th century - he went on to have an enormous impact on Britain's colonial future. Read by Sebastian Brown.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: Title Page from Thomas Gage's The English-American his travail by sea and land: or, A new survey of the West-India's (London 1648)

Myths frame and tailor the past in a way that can ground and stabilise a community, however large or small. By situating them within the fabric of history, myths provide a sense of tradition and belonging to rally around. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: A statue of Romulus and Remus on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. Credit: Russell Kord / Alamy Stock Photo 

EI's Alastair Benn discusses how technology is transforming the world of sport with Daisy Christodoulou, education expert and author of I Can't Stop Thinking About VAR, an eloquent examination of the use of the video assistant referee (VAR) system in football.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.

Image: Crystal Palace Fans hold up a banner to protest against VAR. Credit: Sipa US / Alamy Stock Photo 

With deterrence and compellence becoming more crucial than they have been in over three decades, understanding what makes foreign leaders tick is of the utmost importance. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Image: Silhouettes of Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. Credit: KLYONA / Alamy Stock Photo 

Andrew Roberts profiles Brendan Bracken, Winston Churchill's faithful and most trusted political adviser. Read by Sebastian Brown.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: Winston Churchill leaving Downing Street with Brendan Bracken. Credit:: Fremantle / Alamy Stock Photo 

EI's Angus Reilly discusses the life and legacy of Henry Kissinger with Thomas A. Schwartz, author of Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Political Biography.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is produced by Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.

Image: President Gerald Ford and US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger conversing in the grounds of the White House in 1974. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo 

Gustaf Mannerheim's rise from a troubled youth to Finland's great wartime leader illustrates how leadership is forged by both personal traits and the unpredictable tides of history. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, centre, discusses strategy against the Russians at his field headquarters on the Finnish-Russian border, April 1942. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo

EI's Paul Lay discusses how the Baltic states have survived, and thrived, in the shadow of Russian aggression, with Kristjan Prikk, Estonia's Ambassador to the United States and Eitvydas Bajarūnas, a former Lithuanian senior diplomat, who has served as the Ambassador to Sweden, Russia and the UK.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.

Image: A new Iron Curtain in Europe. Credit: aleksey Shirmanov / Alamy Stock Photo 

Australia stands at the forefront of democratic resistance against China's expanding influence, reshaping its strategy and alliances to meet the challenges of a contested Indo-Pacific. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: Two US Air Force B-2 Spirits fly alongside four Royal Australian Air Force EA-18G Growlers and a RAAF E-7A Wedgetail, August 2022. Credit: UPI / Alamy Stock Photo

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 offered opportunities to reset relations between East and West. EI's Paul Lay discusses how these opportunities were squandered with Mary Elise Sarotte, Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Distinguished Professor of Historical Studies at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.

Image: The fall of the Berlin Wall. Credit: Agencja Fotograficzna Caro / Alamy Stock Photo

Konrad Adenauer combined Realpolitik and German values and interests with international cooperation. The multilaterally integrated, co-operative nation state he championed was a fundamental innovation in European history. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: German statesman Konrad Adenauer depicted on a coin. Credit: VPC Coins Collection / Alamy Stock Photo 

Maria Golia profiles Carl Akeley, an inventor, sculptor, and taxidermist. His life's lessons still echo in the effort to conserve wildlife. Read by Sebastian Brown.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: Wildlife photographer Carl Ethan Akeley photographed in 1926. Credit: Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery / Public Domain

EI’s Angus Reilly is joined by Luke A. Nichter, author of The Year that Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968, to discuss Lyndon B. Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Richard Nixon, and the battle for the future of America in a year that offers notable parallels to the election of 2024.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is produced by Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.

Image: Television presenter Frank Reynolds covering the 1968 election. Credit: Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Ph...

The emergence of Artificial Intelligence capable of deducing human intentions signals a new frontier in technology that could transform the world of strategy, diplomacy and warfare. Read by Helen Lloyd.

TV screens showing the live broadcast of the Google DeepMind Challenge Match at Yongsan Electronic Technology Land in Seoul, South Korea. Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo

EI's Alastair Benn is joined by Marina E. Henke, Professor of International Relations at the Hertie School, Berlin, to discuss how Europe can defend itself from the latest threats and thrive in a contested world.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.

Image: Conflict in Europe. Credit: Kirill Makarov / Alamy Stock Photo 

If Russia is allowed to walk away with any of its ill-gotten gains in Ukraine, the deterrent power of the United States and the transatlantic alliance will be lost. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Image: The flags of the United States and Ukraine flying side by side. Credit: Todd Bannor / Alamy Stock Photo 

Adrian Wooldridge profiles Philippa Fawcett, the first female Senior Wrangler at Cambridge University and a trailblazer for women's achievement in a nascent meritocratic society. Read by Sebastian Brown.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

Image: 1890 engraving of Philippa Fawcett, the first female Senior Wrangler. Credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The study of statecraft would profit by spending less time on ‘should’ and more time on ‘how’. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Image: Woodrow Wilson delivering a Christmas address to soldiers of the A.E.F. Langres, Haute Marne, France, December 1918. Credit: Hum Images / Alamy Stock Photo

EI's Paul Lay is joined by Dmitri Alperovitch, leading geopolitical analyst, entrepreneur, and co-founder and chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator, to discuss the parallels between US-Soviet rivalry and that of the US and China.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.

Image: The US and Chinese flags on stacked containers. Credit: Christian Ohde / Alamy Stock Photo 

The vision of nuclear strategy as a means to prevent war remains a powerful but contested idea in international politics. As global rivalries intensify and nuclear arsenals expand, the risk of conflict seems more pronounced than ever. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Image: A photograph of nuclear testing at Pacific Island test sites. Credit: EMU history / Alamy Stock Photo 

Was the revolution that created the United States of America inevitable? The life of Joseph Galloway shows what might have been. Read by Sebastian Brown.

Image: An illustration of Joseph Galloway by Thomas Emmett, 1885. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Over the last decade, NATO has embarked on a significant process of military and political adaptation to ensure it can effectively enable the collective defence of allies in a competitive, contested and unpredictable world. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Image: NATO flag waving in the wind. Credit: Zoonar GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo 

EI's Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss an attention dilemma that has haunted western thought for centuries.

READING LIST

Our attention dilemma is age-old | Alastair Benn

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium | Seneca

The Essays of Michel de Montaigne

Don Quixote | Miguel de Cervantes

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.

Image: Detail from Echo and Narcissus by John William Waterhouse, 1903. Credit: SuperStock...

Through his visionary leadership, inspired rhetoric, and willingness to compromise, John F. Kennedy summoned the narrative of American hope, his most powerful and enduring legacy. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Image: Senator John F. Kennedy at Hyannis Port. Credit: Phillip Harrington / Alamy Stock Photo

One of the few leaders on whom history has bestowed the title ‘the Great’, Akbar was a noted connoisseur of cultures and architect of political pluralism. Read by Sebastian Brown.

Image: Akbar the Great hunting. Mughal Scool, 1590. British Museum. Artist Unknown. Credit: CM Dixon/Heritage Images/Getty Images

Like it or not, Japan has become one of the most critical actors in contemporary international politics. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Image: A naval exercise conducted by Japan. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo 

Michael Sheridan, author of The Red Emperor: Xi Jinping and His New China, joins EI's Angus Reilly to discuss the personal and ideological roots of one of the world's most powerful, and inscrutable, leaders.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is produced by Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.

Image: Xi Jinping with the Chinese flag. Credit: JHG / Alamy Stock Photo

Foundation myths based on the lives of heroic figures are often used by leaders to affirm their own authority — but they can also inspire wider society. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Image: Statue showing the mythological origins of Roman society. Credit: LatitudeStock / Alamy Stock Photo

Having witnessed first-hand the mechanised onslaught of the Great War, Captain Basil Liddell Hart sought a philosophy of warfare based on the prudent use of technology, psychology and deception – and the avoidance of the 'total war' catastrophes of preceding decades. Read by Sebastian Brown.

Image: A picture of Basil Henry Liddell Hart studying a tactical situation in 1947. Credit: Popperfoto via Getty Images/Getty Images

The US must adopt a grand strategy of democratic expansion. Only then can global security be established. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Image: American Second World War-era poster. Credit: Mouseion Archives / Alamy Stock Photo

EI's Alastair Benn speaks to Rachel Cockerell, author of Melting Point: Family, Memory and the Search for a Promised Land, a history of the quest for a Jewish homeland at the turn of the 19th century and beyond, weaving memoir, documentary, and literature.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.

Image: Theodor Herzl addresses the Sixth Zionist Organisation Congress in Basel, 1903. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo 

The tumultuous relationship between Red China and the Soviet Union hints at an uncertain future for the Sino-Russian partnership. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Image: Sino-Soviet propaganda poster. Credit: Album / Alamy Stock Photo

Socialite and literary pioneer - Anna de Noailles was a bright star in the firmament of the Parisian Belle Époque. Read by Sebastian Brown.

Image: De László's portrait of Anna de Noailles. Credit: Svintage Archive / Alamy Stock Photo 

Stagnation at home and turmoil abroad demand a radical rethink of how – and why – Britain forges its future leaders. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Image: The Treasury building in Whitehall, London. Credit: mauritius images GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

EI's Alastair Benn sits down with Orlando Gibbs to discuss what the Romans found funny, what we might find not so funny about ancient humour, and whether there is something universal about the comedic genre.

READING LIST

No Laughing Matter? What the Romans Found Funny | Antigone

Plautus punching up: a different class of comedy | Engelsberg Ideas

Mary Beard, Laughter in Ancient Rome: On Joking, Tickling, and Cracking Up (University of California Press, 2014)

Lionel Abel, Metatheatre: A New View of Dramatic Form (New York, Hill and Wang, 1963)

Engelsberg Ideas is...

Few ancient monarchs have enjoyed such a consistent positive reputation as Cyrus the Great. Perhaps it’s time to become reacquainted. Read by Helen Lloyd.

Image: The Tomb of Cyrus, Iran. Photograph taken in 1898. Credit: Penta Springs Limited / Alamy Stock Photo