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PODCAST

The EI Podcast

Engelsberg Ideas

The EI Podcast brings you weekly conversations and audio essays from leading writers, thinkers and historians. Hosted by Alastair Benn and Paul Lay. Find the EI Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or search The EI Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

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All Episodes

13:37

The West’s lust for liberty

The EI Podcast ·

2025/05/15

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

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59:39

Christianity and the creation of England

The EI Podcast ·

2025/05/08

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

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17:07

How the liberation of France shaped the modern world

The EI Podcast ·

2025/05/01

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.

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62:38

China vs the WTO: The Inside Story

The EI Podcast ·

2025/04/24

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

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18:26

Madame Bovary and the problem of desire

The EI Podcast ·

2025/04/17

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

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16:22

EI Weekly Listen — Brendan Simms on the German key to...

The EI Podcast ·

2025/04/11

Germany today struggles to muster a serious military response to the Russian challenge. That should trouble keen observers of Europe's history. Read by Helen Lloyd.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

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62:37

EI Talks... the making of Trump's worldview

The EI Podcast ·

2025/04/10

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 Monday 7th of April. Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by

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33:42

EI Weekly Listen — Iuliia Osmolovska on how Russia...

The EI Podcast ·

2025/04/04

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

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20:09

EI Weekly Listen — Juliet Samuel on liberty under attack

The EI Podcast ·

2025/03/28

Just as generations did before us, we are learning that a belief in liberty is not self-evident and its expansion is not inevitable. Read by Helen Lloyd.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

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50:39

EI Talks... the uses of comedy

The EI Podcast ·

2025/03/27

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. 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

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17:38

EI Weekly Listen — Roel Sterckx on gazing back to see...

The EI Podcast ·

2025/03/21

We must study the centuries-long history that has forged the DNA of Chinese political thinking and make it part of our conversations about China today. Read by Helen Lloyd.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

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22:27

EI Weekly Listen — Alexander Lee on the myth of Venice

The EI Podcast ·

2025/03/14

Liberty was central to the idea of Venice, but was remarkably fragile. The republic had to guard it fiercely and expound it as a tangible way of living for flawed human beings. Read by Helen Lloyd.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

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19:40

EI Weekly Listen — Richard Miles on Spartacus,...

The EI Podcast ·

2025/03/07

Spartacus is a figure who floats between history and allegory. Read by Helen Lloyd.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

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20:43

EI Weekly Listen — Mary Elise Sarotte on how a Second...

The EI Podcast ·

2025/02/28

The choice to enlarge NATO was a justifiable response to the geopolitics of the 1990s. The problem was how it happened. Read by Helen Lloyd.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 point, Berlin Wall. Credit: Greg Balfour Evans / Alamy Stock Photo

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56:41

EI Talks... the case for Classical music

The EI Podcast ·

2025/02/27

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

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31:31

EI Weekly Listen — Rob Johnson on Ukraine's rich...

The EI Podcast ·

2025/02/21

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

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19:11

EI Weekly Listen — Peter Frankopan on the global...

The EI Podcast ·

2025/02/14

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

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55:49

EI Talks... the myth and magic of spy fiction

The EI Podcast ·

2025/02/13

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

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18:54

EI Weekly Listen — Katja Hoyer on how the GDR fell in...

The EI Podcast ·

2025/02/07

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

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11:52

EI Portraits — Daisy Dunn on Pittacus, the good tyrant

The EI Podcast ·

2025/02/06

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

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