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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.

Decarbonisation is triggering a new great-power race. As demand for green technologies and sustainable power sources grows, Washington and Beijing are battling for control of cobalt, lithium, copper, and nickel - the critical metals that will determine who lands on top of the global energy transition.

In this episode, Nicolas Niarchos joins host Atossa Araxia Abrahamian to discuss The Elements of Power, a sweeping investigation into the war for the global supply of battery metals. From the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Indonesia and beyond, Niarchos uncovers a world shaped by rapacious colonial legacies, Cold War maneuvering, corporate rivalry, and dazzling technological innovation. 

Niarchos argues that as wealthy nations push to electrify their economies, the human and environmental costs are pushed out of sight - onto miners working by hand, polluted communities, and territories still treated as expendable.

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:

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Are Lithium and Cobalt the New Oil? The Elements of Power, with Nicolas Niarchos

Jon Lee Anderson is considered one of the great foreign correspondents of our time. Since the late 1980s, his on-the-ground reporting in Afghanistan has provided invaluable insight into decades of conflict and political upheaval. For The New Yorker magazine he covered the US-backed Mujahideen’s insurrection in Kabul, was an eyewitness to the new war launched by the US against the Taliban and their Al-Qaeda allies within days of the 9/11 attacks, and reported on the supposed quick and easy victory of America while Osama bin Laden was still in hiding. 

On February 10, Anderson joins us in person to reflect on his decades-long career, throughout which he has traced the missteps of the US-led war in Afghanistan, now widely regarded as one of the greatest foreign policy failures of the modern era. 

Join us live at the Kiln Theatre and ask your questions in the audience Q&A.

---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.

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

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The New Yorker’s Jon Lee Anderson on Afghanistan: An American Catastrophe (Part Two)

Jon Lee Anderson is considered one of the great foreign correspondents of our time. Since the late 1980s, his on-the-ground reporting in Afghanistan has provided invaluable insight into decades of conflict and political upheaval. For The New Yorker magazine he covered the US-backed Mujahideen’s insurrection in Kabul, was an eyewitness to the new war launched by the US against the Taliban and their Al-Qaeda allies within days of the 9/11 attacks, and reported on the supposed quick and easy victory of America while Osama bin Laden was still in hiding. 

On February 10, Anderson joins us in person to reflect on his decades-long career, throughout which he has traced the missteps of the US-led war in Afghanistan, now widely regarded as one of the greatest foreign policy failures of the modern era. 

Join us live at the Kiln Theatre and ask your questions in the audience Q&A.

---

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/
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The New Yorker’s Jon Lee Anderson on Afghanistan: An American Catastrophe (Part One)

This is an episode of The Specialist, your weekly dose of wonder. In The Specialist, explore the significance and journey of an extraordinary work through the eyes of those that know it best.

On today’s episode, Frank Everett, Sotheby's Vice Chairman, Jewelry Americas, discusses the string of faux pearls that belonged to the legendary Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Estimated at $500-$700, it was the power of provenance that drove them to sell for over $200,000. Frank is largely self-taugh and moved through the major jewelry houses before joining Sotheby’s, where his knowledge of the design and history of great period jewels has led him to oversee record-breaking sales. He has his own popular video series - Frank's Files - and a cult following.

Further details about the episode subject
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The Specialist | Jackie O's Faux Pearls, with Frank Everett

What it might mean – biologically, socially, and philosophically – if death becomes optional?

Humanity has long dreamed about the idea of immortality. And in 2026, many believe that dream could soon become a reality. The world’s most powerful technologists and investors are pouring billions into engineering immortality itself. For these modern-day immortalists, aging is no longer an inevitability – it’s a technical glitch that can be hacked, reversed, or eradicated altogether.

On today’s episode, award-winning broadcaster and academic Aleks Krotoski speaks to host Carl Miller about the moguls, effective altruists, geroscientists and entrepreneurs who are seeking to disrupt death. 

Drawing on Krotoski’s new book The Immortalists, they discuss encounters with radical life extensionists transfusing their teenage son’s blood, transhumanists who want to upload consciousness to the cloud, biohackers flogging AI-powered wellness apps and billionaire kingmakers building brand-new nations.

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/

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Could Silicon Valley Billionaires Cure Aging? With Aleks Krotoski

What if DNA could be edited as easily as software? What if we could delete disease, redesign organisms, and eventually rewrite ourselves?

In this episode, Adrian Woolfson joins host Güneş Taylor to discuss his book, On the Future of Species. As artificial intelligence fuses with synthetic biology, Woolfson argues that we are beginning to decode the grammar of the genome - learning not just to read life, but to write it.

Today, scientists are still in the scribbling phase, editing microbes and viruses. Tomorrow, we may design entirely new organisms or resurrect lost ones. Evolution would no longer be destiny. It would be a choice.

But who gets to choose? And what happens to ecosystems, and human nature itself when genomes become editable?

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/

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Will AI Design New Organisms From Scratch? With Adrian Woolfson

2026 opened with a bang on the world stage. With Donald Trump's aggressive approach to foreign policy and the release of the Epstein files threatening more political upheaval, it's clear that this year will be another test of resilience for the global economy.

On February 9, Chief Economics Commentator for the Financial Times Martin Wolf joined us for the latest installment of The Intelligence Squared Economic Outlook, in partnership with Guinness Global Investors. In conversation with BBC broadcaster Jonny Dymond, he argued these could be the final days of Keir Starmer’s tenure as British PM, and what this means for the British economy.

More broadly he shed light on the implications of American antagonism for the existing world order, and what the rising wave of populism from left and right could mean for the economic policies of incumbent parties in the UK, Europe, US and beyond.

Widely regarded as one of the world’s most influential writers on the global economy and a multi-award-winning financial journalist, Wolf has been chronicling and analysing geopolitical and economic upheaval for nearly 40 years. He has written five bestselling books. His latest, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, maps out the implications of globalisation, technological development and the impact of democratic decline on the global economy.

This recording is part of The Intelligence Squared Economic Outlook series of events made in partnership with Guinness Global Investors, an independent British fund manager that helps both individuals and institutions harness the future drivers of growth to achieve their investment goals.

To find out more visit: https://www.guinnessgi.com/
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Is it Game Over for Keir Starmer? Martin Wolf for The Intelligence Squared Economic Outlook 2026 (Part Two)

Is it Game Over for Keir Starmer? Martin Wolf for The Intelligence Squared Economic Outlook 2026 (Part One)

What does it mean to belong when the very idea of home is under threat?

In this episode we’re joined by award-winning author and political thinker Ece Temelkuran. Forced into exile for her critical views of President Erdoğan, Temelkuran has long signalled the alarm that fascism threatens not only her home country Türkiye, but the whole democratic world. Her first book in English, How to Lose a Country, received international praise. Her second, Together, offers ‘a way out from the political and moral insanity’ that is ushered by the global rise of fascism. 

Now Temelkuran joins host Mythili Rao to discuss her new book, Nation of Strangers, a powerful and personal reappraisal of the concept of exile, migration and rebuilding home in the 21st century.

Increasingly, oppression seems to be spreading, institutions crumbling, and certainties dissolving. Across the world, the number of refugees and exiles, the dispossessed and displaced, the politically homeless and economically excluded is growing. In response, Nation of Strangers takes the form of intimate, urgent letters written from one stranger to another, exploring alienation, resistance, solidarity and hope. 
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Fascism, Exile, and Redefining Home in the 21st Century, with Ece Temelkuran

Each of us takes on average 25,000 breaths a day. Yet, as a species we have lost the ability to breathe correctly – and this has consequences for our health. That’s the argument of bestselling author James Nestor who has travelled the world to explore how ancient cultures used breathing as a medicine to help heal the body and calm the mind..

In February 2026 we were joined by Nestor for an eye-opening talk, as he explained the science and traditions of how the simple act of breathing can transform our health and wellbeing.

Drawing from his bestselling book Breath Nestor showed how the way we breathe affects everything, from sleep to allergies, mental health and athletic performance. He also shared the remarkable stories of others who have changed their lives through the power of breath. 

Nestor challenged our understanding of our most basic biological function, and explained where we have gone wrong and how we fix it.

----

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

Will AI Design New Organisms From Scratch? With Adrian Woolfson

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