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Intelligence Squared

Intelligence Squared is the home of lively debate and deep-dive discussion. Follow Intelligence Squared wherever you get your podcasts and enjoy four regular episodes per week taking you to the heart of the issues that matter in the company of the world’s great minds. We’d love to hear your feedback and what you think we should talk about next, who we should have on and what our future debates should be. Send us an email or voice note with your thoughts to podcasts@intelligencesquared.com or Tweet us @intelligence2. 

And if you’d like to support our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations, as well as ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content, early access and much more, become a supporter of Intelligence Squared today. Just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more.

From Brexit negotiations and the Cuban Missile Crisis to elections, auctions and everyday decision-making, game theory can offer powerful insights into how we navigate a world shaped by competing interests, cooperation and strategic choices.

In this episode, Professor Michael Wooldridge joins Carl Miller to explore the surprising life lessons hidden within one of mathematics' most influential fields. Drawing on ideas from his new book Life Lessons from Game Theory: The Art of Thinking Strategically in a Complex World, Wooldridge explains how game theory can help us better understand conflict, human behaviour and truth. 

Professor Michael Wooldridge the Ashall Professor of the Foundations of Artificial Intelligence in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford, and a Senior Research Fellow at Hertford College.

Carl Miller is an author, speaker and researcher at Demos, a think tank based in London, where he co-founded the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media in 2012.

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If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more.

For £4.99 per month you'll also receive:

- Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts

- Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series

- 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events 

... 

Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99:

- Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts

- Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series

…

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…

Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more.

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Why Does It Sometimes Pay to Be a Chicken? With Professor Michael Wooldridge

Professor Turi King, Director of the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath, is known for leading the genetic investigation identifying Richard III and advising on the Mary Jane Kelly case (the last victim of Jack the Ripper). She co-presents the BBC’s DNA Family Secrets with Stacey Dooley and is the author of a new book, The Secrets of Our DNA, which takes us through some fascinating true stories to show how DNA has solved mysteries and shapes our world today.

In this episode, she talks to Dr Güneş Taylor about Richard III; how the fate of the Romanovs was discovered through genetic research; eugenics; the study of Hitler’s DNA; and how she used David Attenborough’s DNA to study the link between the Y chromosome and the surname. Together, they explore how genetics informs every aspect of our lives, why it affects us all, and what it can – and can’t tell us about who we are.

The Story of Our DNA by Professor Turi King is available online and in bookshops now.

Dr Güneş Taylor is Group Leader at the Centre For Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh
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How does DNA Shape Our World? With Professor Turi King

This debate was part of the ‘Think Again’ series in which two leading thinkers present alternative answers to a difficult societal question. The book and series published by The Bodley Head. 

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What happens when life becomes unbearable — when suffering is unrelenting, dignity is stripped away, and the end is inevitable? Those who support legalising assisted dying argue that autonomy doesn’t stop at the threshold of death. For individuals facing terminal illness, the current law is not a protection but a cruelty, forcing them to either act while they still can or surrender all control over how their lives will end. With robust safeguards in place, supporters argue, a compassionate society should not force its most vulnerable members to suffer against their will but should instead legalise a right to die.

But skeptics urge us to look harder at what legalisation would truly mean in practice. Assisted dying is never simply a private act — it implicates families, healthcare professionals, and the values of society as a whole. In a healthcare system already under enormous strain, could the right to die quietly become the pressure to die? And rather than investing in the infrastructure of death, should we instead be transforming the way we care for the dying through properly funded palliative care? 

In May 2026 we produced a live debate marking the launch of Do We Have The Right To Die?, the second book in our partnered ‘Think Again’ book series published by Bodley Head. Former Supreme Court President Lady Hale and former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams went head to head to debate this urgent and divisive question: should assisted dying be enshrined as a fundamental right, or does it place our most vulnerable citizens in profound danger?

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If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full ad free conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more.

For £4.99 per month you'll also receive:

- Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts

- Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series

- 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events 

... 

Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99:

- Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts

- Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series

…

Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access.

…

Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more.
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Do We Have The Right To Die? With Lady Hale and Rowan Williams (Part Two)

This debate was part of the ‘Think Again’ series in which two leading thinkers present alternative answers to a difficult societal question. The book and series published by The Bodley Head. 

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What happens when life becomes unbearable — when suffering is unrelenting, dignity is stripped away, and the end is inevitable? Those who support legalising assisted dying argue that autonomy doesn’t stop at the threshold of death. For individuals facing terminal illness, the current law is not a protection but a cruelty, forcing them to either act while they still can or surrender all control over how their lives will end. With robust safeguards in place, supporters argue, a compassionate society should not force its most vulnerable members to suffer against their will but should instead legalise a right to die.

But skeptics urge us to look harder at what legalisation would truly mean in practice. Assisted dying is never simply a private act — it implicates families, healthcare professionals, and the values of society as a whole. In a healthcare system already under enormous strain, could the right to die quietly become the pressure to die? And rather than investing in the infrastructure of death, should we instead be transforming the way we care for the dying through properly funded palliative care? 

In May 2026 we produced a live debate marking the launch of Do We Have The Right To Die?, the second book in our partnered ‘Think Again’ book series published by Bodley Head. Former Supreme Court President Lady Hale and former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams went head to head to debate this urgent and divisive question: should assisted dying be enshrined as a fundamental right, or does it place our most vulnerable citizens in profound danger?

This is the first instalment of a two-part episode. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full ad free conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more.

For £4.99 per month you'll also receive:

- Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts

- Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series

- 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events 

... 

Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99:

- Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts

- Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series

…

Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access.

…

Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more.

https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Do We Have The Right To Die? With Lady Hale and Rowan Williams (Part One)

Douglas Stuart is one of the most successful writers in Britain today. He is celebrated globally for his honest portrayals of human relationships and working-class life. In 2020 he won the Booker Prize for his debut novel Shuggie Bain, a searingly honest novel set in 1980s Glasgow about a boy named Shuggie trying to save his mother, Agnes, from alcoholism and poverty. 

His second novel Young Mungo, a story of the dangerous first love of two young men, was released in 2022 and became a number one Sunday Times Bestseller. 

In May 2026, Stuart joined us live in London for an evening on identity, resilience, and the themes of his new novel John of John. 

In John of John, Stuart returns to the themes of class, family, masculinity, and sexuality. It is the story of John-Calum Macleod, who returns to his childhood home on the island of Harris. Out of money and with little to show for his art school education, he sinks back into his old life, caught between the two poles of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, weaver, and pillar of their local Presbyterian church, and his Glaswegian grandmother Ella, who has kept a faltering peace with her son-in-law for decades.

---

If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full ad free conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more.

For £4.99 per month you'll also receive:

- Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts

- Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series

- 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events 

... 

Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99:

- Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts

- Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series

…

Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access.

…

Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more.

https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An Evening with Douglas Stuart (Part Two)

Douglas Stuart is one of the most successful writers in Britain today. He is celebrated globally for his honest portrayals of human relationships and working-class life. In 2020 he won the Booker Prize for his debut novel Shuggie Bain, a searingly honest novel set in 1980s Glasgow about a boy named Shuggie trying to save his mother, Agnes, from alcoholism and poverty. 

His second novel Young Mungo, a story of the dangerous first love of two young men, was released in 2022 and became a number one Sunday Times Bestseller. 

In May 2026, Stuart joined us live in London for an evening on identity, resilience, and the themes of his new novel John of John. 

In John of John, Stuart returns to the themes of class, family, masculinity, and sexuality. It is the story of John-Calum Macleod, who returns to his childhood home on the island of Harris. Out of money and with little to show for his art school education, he sinks back into his old life, caught between the two poles of his childhood: his father John, a sheep farmer, weaver, and pillar of their local Presbyterian church, and his Glaswegian grandmother Ella, who has kept a faltering peace with her son-in-law for decades.

---

This is the first instalment of a two-part episode. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full ad free conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more.

For £4.99 per month you'll also receive:

- Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts

- Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series

- 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events 

... 

Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99:

- Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts

- Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series

…

Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access.

…

Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more.

https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An Evening with Douglas Stuart (Part One)

In this episode, journalist Hannah Lucinda Smith speaks with economists Soumaya Keynes and Chad Bown about our new era of global trade wars.

Drawing on their new book How to Win a Trade War, Keynes and Bown shed light on the historical roots of our modern trade infrastructure and how tariffs, export controls and supply chain battles are drastically reshaping the global economy.

The conversation examines the increasingly fraught economic relationship between the US and China, the growing use of economic coercion, and what the future holds for the world stage as countries increasingly treat trade as a strategic weapon rather than a cooperative system.

Soumaya Keynes is an economist and journalist. She is the co-author of How to Win a Trade War and host of the podcast The Economics Show.

Chad Bown is an economist specialising in international trade and economic policy. He served as chief economist at the U.S. Department of State in the Biden administration from January 2024 to January 2025. He is the co-author of How to Win a Trade War.

Hannah Lucinda Smith is a journalist and foreign correspondent reporting on global politics and international affairs.

---

If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more.

For £4.99 per month you'll also receive:

- Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts

- Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series

- 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events 

... 

Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99:

- Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts

- Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series

…

Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access.

…

Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more.

https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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How To Win a Trade War, with Soumaya Keynes and Chad Bown

What do we lose when a language dies?

Roughly 7,000 languages are spoken around the world today. Over half of them are expected to vanish in the next century – along with the wealth of information they contain, the family ties they represent, and the psychological benefits they confer. 

In May 2026 journalist Sophia Smith Galer joined us live to explore how this mass extinction event is one of the most urgent cultural emergencies we’re facing today.

Drawing on her globe-spanning investigation, How to Kill a Language, Smith Galer shed light on linguicide, its root causes, and what we lose when a language dies. From Ghana to Greece, Ukraine to Ecuador, her research ultimately led her back home: to Italy, where piaśintein, the Gallo-Italian language of her grandparents, is on the brink of vanishing forever.

Smith Galer also discussed the communities bringing their languages back, from Kurdish activists in Iran to Karuk campaigners in the forests of California
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How To Kill A Language, with Sophia Smith Galer (Part Two)

How To Kill A Language, with Sophia Smith Galer (Part One)

How can changing the way we breathe lower stress and blood pressure? Why is touch so important for premature babies and ICU patients? And what can our organs teach us about staying healthy?

Dr Giulia Enders, author of the multimillion-selling Gut, returns with a new book, Organ Speak — an exploration of the lungs, skin, immune system, muscles and brain, and the extraordinary ways our organs work together to keep us alive and well.

In this episode, she joins science communicator Dr Emma Yhnell to discuss how exercise really works, the hidden sophistication of the immune system, why humans evolved to sleep and dream, and whether AI can ever compete with the complexity of the human brain.

Dr Giulia Enders is a physician and author. Her new book, Organ Speak: What it Really Means to Listen to Our Bodies, is available online and in stores now.

Dr Emma Yhnell is an academic and science communicator. 
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The Secret Life of Our Organs and How They Keep us Healthy, with Dr Giulia Enders

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