Our writers profile individuals, some well-known, some overlooked, and explore how they shaped the world as we know it. Read by Sebastian Brown.
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Engelsberg Ideas podcasts bring together leading writers, thinkers and historians to discuss the biggest issues facing the world today. You’ll find calm conversations and thought-provoking analysis.
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Three quite daring explorers are circling the globe in 80 episodes, following the path of fictional sourpuss Phileas Fogg in the poorly written novel Around the World in 80 Days. Join them as they get to know a different destination each week whilst delivering a drawn out and mostly damning book review.
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EI Weekly Listen — Francis J. Gavin on the terrible dilemmas of leadership in a thermonuclear world
16:06
16:06
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Nuclear weapons are likely to be around for a long time to come – and the predicaments they create for world leaders are unlikely to be easily solved. Read by Helen Lloyd. Image: President John F. Kennedy with Robert McNamara during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Credit: RBM Vintage Images / Alamy Stock Photo…
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EI Talks... Paris in the Belle Époque with Marie Kawthar Daouda
24:08
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Marie Kawthar Daouda, author and a lecturer in French language and literature at the University of Oxford, joins EI's Alastair Benn to discuss how Belle Époque-era Paris continues to fascinate, with its burgeoning commercial culture, everyday beauty and glittering department stores. Image: Jean Béraud's painting 'Paris, rue du Havre', c. 1882. Cred…
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EI Weekly Listen — James Marriott on why human art matters in the age of AI
15:08
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A world of machine art would be an eerie one. Art connects us to one another. We cannot, and we should not, replace that connection with an uncanny simulacrum of it. Read by Helen Lloyd. Image: The Tribuna of the Uffizi by John Zoffany. Credit: PAINTING / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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Lawrence Freedman on John McDonald, poker-playing popularizer of game theory
13:53
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Lawrence Freedman profiles the Fortune journalist and best-selling author who played a key role in shaping mid-20th century perceptions of strategy and the role of the corporation. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: From left to right: Dorothy McDonald (wife of John, née Eisner), Leon Trotsky and John McDonald in Coyoacan, Mexico, in the 1930s. McDona…
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EI Portraits — Lawrence Freedman on John McDonald, poker-playing popularizer of game theory
13:53
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Lawrence Freedman profiles the Fortune journalist and best-selling author who played a key role in shaping mid-20th century perceptions of strategy and the role of the corporation. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: From left to right: Dorothy McDonald (wife of John, née Eisner), Leon Trotsky and John McDonald in Coyoacan, Mexico, in the 1930s. McDona…
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EI Talks... bringing history to the public with Alice Loxton
31:16
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The historian and broadcaster Alice Loxton joins the EI team to discuss her forthcoming book, Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives, and her fight to bring serious history to a wider public. Image: A jigsaw puzzle from the early nineteenth century, bearing representations of the Kings and Queens of England from William I to George IV. Cr…
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EI Weekly Listen — Katja Hoyer on East Germany's battle for technology
19:54
19:54
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East Germany’s quest to catch up with the technological innovations of the West prompted some remarkable successes, but also expanded the oppression of its mass surveillance apparatus. Read by Helen Lloyd. Image: The Trabant car being manufactured at the East German Sachsenring car plant. Credit: Classic Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo…
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EI Talks... how advertising consumed the counterculture with Ian Leslie
17:43
17:43
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EI's Alastair Benn sits down with Ian Leslie, author of Conflicted: Why Arguments Are Tearing Us Apart and How They Can Bring Us Together, to discuss how the counterculture went mainstream. Image: An advert on the Nike store at Oxford Circus. Credit: Matthew Chattle / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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EI Weekly Listen — Gudrun Persson on Russia’s forever war against Ukraine
21:36
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An often-overlooked fact about the current Russo-Ukrainian War is that over the centuries Russia has waged several wars to try to conquer Crimea and the Donbas area. Read by Helen Lloyd. Image: Ukrania quae et Terra Cosaccorum cum vicinis Walachiae, Moldoviae, by Johann Baptiste Homann (1664–1724), 1720. Credit: history_docu_photo / Alamy Stock Pho…
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Catherine Ostler on Maria Antonia of Bavaria, Electress of many talents
12:56
12:56
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Catherine Ostler profiles Maria Antonia, Electress of Saxony, an artistic polymath who helped re-shape elite culture in the Enlightenment age. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: An 18th-century portrait of Maria Antonia of Bavaria, Electress of Saxony, by Peter Jacob Horemans. Credit: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo…
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EI Portraits — Catherine Ostler on Maria Antonia of Bavaria, Electress of many talents
12:56
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Catherine Ostler profiles Maria Antonia, Electress of Saxony, an artistic polymath who helped re-shape elite culture in the Enlightenment age. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: An 18th-century portrait of Maria Antonia of Bavaria, Electress of Saxony, by Peter Jacob Horemans. Credit: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo…
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EI Talks... Ronald Reagan's grand strategy with William Inboden
32:19
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EI's Angus Reilly discusses how Ronald Reagan put economic openness at the heart of the battle for ideas against Soviet Communism with William Inboden, author of The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink. Image: Ronald Reagan at the Durenberger Republican convention Rally, 1982. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy St…
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EI Weekly Listen — Iskander Rehman on early modern information overload
22:53
22:53
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The sense of being overwhelmed and constantly distracted is nothing new. Historians and policymakers should look to the 17th century for guidance on how to grapple with information overload. Read by Helen Lloyd. Image: Rembrandt's 'Portrait of a Scholar', 1631. Credit: PRISMA ARCHIVO / Alamy Stock Photo…
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EI Talks... marketing Classical music with Richard Bratby
21:45
21:45
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EI's Alastair Benn discusses the condition of Classical music today with Richard Bratby, chief Classical music critic of The Spectator. Image: Music scores. Credit: Tim Gainey / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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EI Weekly Listen — Julian Jackson on De Gaulle’s world in motion
17:52
17:52
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Part statesman, part prophet, Charles de Gaulle knew instinctively that political success and failure are inevitably interlinked, and that history would be the ultimate judge of both. Read by Helen Lloyd. Image: The President of France Charles de Gaulle marches through the streets under the Arc de Triomphe in 1944. Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy …
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EI Talks... John Law and financial crises with Kwasi Kwarteng
28:10
28:10
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EI's Iain Martin is joined by Kwasi Kwarteng, historian and former Chancellor of the Exchequer, to discuss the turbulent life of the 18th-century financial speculator John Law, whose innovative ideas were credited with bringing Ancien Régime France to the brink of ruin. There are echoes of what happened when the Truss government tried its own finan…
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Laura Freeman on Helen Sutherland, brave cultivator of the beautiful
12:49
12:49
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Laura Freeman profiles Helen Sutherland, an isolated, austere, and fastidious heiress who dedicated herself to art. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: Woman Playing a Piano, by Winifred Nicholson. Her work was championed by Helen Sutherland. Credit: Paul Quezada-Neiman / Alamy Stock PhotoBy EI Portraits
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EI Portraits — Laura Freeman on Helen Sutherland, brave cultivator of the beautiful
12:49
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Laura Freeman profiles Helen Sutherland, an isolated, austere, and fastidious heiress who dedicated herself to art. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: Woman Playing a Piano, by Winifred Nicholson. Her work was championed by Helen Sutherland. Credit: Paul Quezada-Neiman / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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EI Weekly Listen — Josef Joffe on Germany, the engine that couldn't
23:19
23:19
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Celebrated as predestined shepherd in the glory days of Angela Merkel, Germany in the 2020s is an uncertain giant who has defied expectations, good or bad. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: The top of the Reichstag Building. Credit: Artur Bogacki / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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EI Talks... women of the ancient world with Daisy Dunn
36:41
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The leading classicist Daisy Dunn joins EI's Paul Lay to discuss her new book, The Missing Thread: A New History of the Ancient World Through the Women Who Shaped It. Image: Nikolaos Gyzis, a 19th Century painter, depicts Sappho playing the lyre. Credit: Photo 12 / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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EI Weekly Listen — Maurizio Viroli on how we can learn from history
18:29
18:29
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We cannot afford not to rediscover the fine art, nowadays almost forgotten, of learning from history. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: 16th Century engraving by Theodoor Galle, titled The Printing of Books. Credit: The Granger Collection / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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James Barr on George McGhee, American father to Britain’s Suez Crisis
13:19
13:19
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James Barr profiles the debonair and open-faced diplomat, George McGhee, whose shuttle diplomacy helped accelerate Britain's decline as a player in the Middle East. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: President John F. Kennedy (left, in rocking chair) meets the newly-appointed US Ambassador to West Germany, George McGhee. Credit: Gibson Moss / Alamy St…
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EI Portraits — James Barr on George McGhee, American father to Britain’s Suez Crisis
13:19
13:19
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James Barr profiles the debonair and open-faced diplomat, George McGhee, whose shuttle diplomacy helped accelerate Britain's decline as a player in the Middle East. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: President John F. Kennedy (left, in rocking chair) meets the newly-appointed US Ambassador to West Germany, George McGhee. Credit: Gibson Moss / Alamy St…
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EI Weekly Listen — Philip Bobbitt on the decay and renewal of the US constitutional order
34:00
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A new constitutional order is coming. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: The Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. Credit: Lane Erickson / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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EI Talks... the history of democracy with Erica Benner
55:43
55:43
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Erica Benner applies ancient wisdom to modern problems in her new book Adventures in Democracy: The Turbulent World of People Power. She shares her insights with EI's Deputy Editor, Alastair Benn. Image: Gathering of the Areopagus, a deliberative court that met in the open air in ancient Athens. Credit: North Wind Picture Archives / Alamy Stock Pho…
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EI Weekly Listen — Lars Trägårdh on the origins of Swedish democracy
34:50
34:50
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‘Democracy’ is in Sweden built on a basis fundamentally different from the one associated with the development of liberal democracy in the West. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Midsummer Dance by Swedish artist Anders Zorn (1860-1920) painted in 1897. A classic of Swedish art history showing traditional folk dancing in the Dalarna countryside in the …
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Dominic Sandbrook on Jesse Ventura, the wrestling governor who blazed a trail for Trump
14:47
14:47
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Dominic Sandbrook profiles Jesse Ventura, the former Navy SEAL and WWE champion who won Minnesota’s governorship in 1999 on an anti-elite ticket. His transition from showbiz to politics was a precursor of the age of Trump – but ’the Body’ was no ordinary populist. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura yells to the crowd a…
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EI Portraits — Dominic Sandbrook on Jesse Ventura, the wrestling governor who blazed a trail for Trump
14:47
14:47
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Dominic Sandbrook profiles Jesse Ventura, the former Navy SEAL and WWE champion who won Minnesota’s governorship in 1999 on an anti-elite ticket. His transition from showbiz to politics was a precursor of the age of Trump – but ’the Body’ was no ordinary populist. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura yells to the crowd a…
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EI Weekly Listen — Josef Joffe on the future of the European Union
17:51
17:51
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What is the future of the European Union? The EU is sui generis. It certainly cannot be a nation state. Nor is it destined to turn into a Staatsnation or willed nation. Then what? Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: European Union flags. Credit: Brian Lawrence / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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EI's Paul Lay and Alastair Benn ask: do we really live in an age of upheaval? Image: Turner's Vesuvius in Eruption. Credit: Artefact / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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EI Weekly Listen — Simon Mayall on the history of the modern Middle East
22:58
22:58
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The current violence and turmoil in the Middle East is expressive of a conflict between rival ideas, between the modern nation state and an old, historical concept of an Islamic caliphate. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Abdel Nasser at a rally after the rupture of relations with Syria. Credit: colaimages / Alamy Stock Photo…
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James Hardie on Heinrich Biber, composer of rapture and ravings
10:09
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James Hardie on the violinist-composer who mixed the sacred and profane in his fantastical music, a lost genius of the 17th century. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: A print of Heinrich Biber. Credit: The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock PhotoBy EI Portraits
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EI Portraits — James Hardie on Heinrich Biber, composer of rapture and ravings
10:09
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James Hardie on the violinist-composer who mixed the sacred and profane in his fantastical music, a lost genius of the 17th century. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: A print of Heinrich Biber. Credit: The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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EI Weekly Listen — Lawrence James on the invention of jingoism
33:43
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Jingoism was a natural offshoot of late Victorian imperialism. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Poster for a British imperial railway company. Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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A small but riveting exhibition at London's National Gallery tells the dramatic story of the troubled Renaissance master's 'last' painting. Image: The Martyrdom of St Ursula, 1610. Credit: incamerastock / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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EI Weekly Listen — Steven Grosby on the persistence of nationhood
22:15
22:15
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What is a nation, what is its significance, and to what problems of life is its persistence a response? Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Lucas Cranach's The Crossing of the Red Sea, 1530. Credit: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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Vanessa Harding on Nehemiah Wallington, Puritan chronicler who had far less fun than Pepys
13:09
13:09
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Vanessa Harding on the God-fearing diarist Nehemiah Wallington whose personality was far removed from the cosmopolitanism of Samuel Pepys, his fast-living contemporary. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: An excerpt from Nehemiah Wallington's diary, dated 1654. Credit: Folger Shakespeare Library.By EI Portraits
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EI Portraits — Vanessa Harding on Nehemiah Wallington, Puritan chronicler who had far less fun than Pepys
13:09
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Vanessa Harding on the God-fearing diarist Nehemiah Wallington whose personality was far removed from the cosmopolitanism of Samuel Pepys, his fast-living contemporary. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: An excerpt from Nehemiah Wallington's diary, dated 1654. Credit: Folger Shakespeare Library.By Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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EI Weekly Listen — Adrian Wooldridge on meritocracy
29:45
29:45
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The biggest division in modern society is between the meritocracy and the people, the cognitive elite and the masses, the exam-passers and the exam-flunkers. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Caricature of a Cambridge University library in the Georgian era. Credit: Thomas Rowlandson / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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EI Talks... the Entente Cordiale with T.G. Otte
36:13
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Self-interest, imperial competition and new threats in Europe - T.G. Otte examines the complex 120-year long history of the Entente Cordiale with EI's senior editor, Paul Lay. Image: First prize winner at the Covent Garden fancy dress ball in 1905, a lady dressed in an elaborate costume as the Entente Cordiale. Credit: Chronicle / Alamy Stock Photo…
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EI Weekly Listen — Mariano Sigman on how language has shaped human consciousness
13:30
13:30
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How did our ancestors think? Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: A play is performed in an ancient Greek theatre. Credit: Classic Image / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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Peter Frankopan on Anna Komnene, the princess who chronicled Byzantium’s changing fortunes
13:08
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Peter Frankopan on the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene who, banished to a convent for her political ambition, devoted her gifts of observation to charting the fortunes of her father's empire – etching her legacy as Europe's first female historian. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: Anna Komnene, a Byzantine princess and scholar. Credit: history_docu_p…
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EI Portraits — Peter Frankopan on Anna Komnene, the princess who chronicled Byzantium’s changing fortunes
13:08
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Peter Frankopan on the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene who, banished to a convent for her political ambition, devoted her gifts of observation to charting the fortunes of her father's empire – etching her legacy as Europe's first female historian. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: Anna Komnene, a Byzantine princess and scholar. Credit: history_docu_p…
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EI Weekly Listen — Nathan Shachar on ideology in science
20:04
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There is no linear, moral progress in knowledge and science. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Triple-microscope made by the optician Camille Sebastien Nachet in Paris. Credit: gameover / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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EI's Deputy Editor Alastair Benn speaks to Suzanne Raine, visiting professor in the Department of War Studies at King's College London, about the evolution of the terrorist threat and its long history. Image: Anarchist outrage at the Liceo theatre in Barcelona, 1893. Credit: Photo 12 / Alamy Stock Photo…
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EI Weekly Listen — Gregory Feifer on the mirage of Russian power
16:30
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The mistake many Western countries make is to take Russia largely at face value. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Nesting Russian dolls showing former leaders. Credit: Mr Standfast / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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Gillian Clark on the many ways of seeing Saint Monica
14:20
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Gillian Clark on Saint Monica, mother to Augustine of Hippo and lionized by the Latin Church, a women of many names and many more mysteries. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: Saint Augustine and his mother, Saint Monica. Credit:: Carlo Bollo / Alamy Stock PhotoBy EI Portraits
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EI Portraits — Gillian Clark on the many ways of seeing Saint Monica
14:20
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Gillian Clark on Saint Monica, mother to Augustine of Hippo and lionized by the Latin Church, a women of many names and many more mysteries. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: Saint Augustine and his mother, Saint Monica. Credit:: Carlo Bollo / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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EI Weekly Listen — Peter Heather on empire and development in first millennium Europe
36:35
36:35
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The story of first millennium Europe is one of remarkable economic change and demographic upheaval; a precocious analogue to the modern era of globalisation. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Charlemagne. Credit: The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock PhotoBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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EI Talks... AI and education with Daisy Christodoulou
39:31
39:31
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Daisy Christodoulou punctures the hype around the applications of Large language models (LLMs) and chatbots to the field of learning. Will AI really revolutionise education? Image: Mechanical brain. Credit: Sibani Das / Alamy Stock VectorBy Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts
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