Nick Spencer speaks to Cécile Fabre. 10/05/2022 Strange as it may seem given what they do, ethics is very important to the intelligence services. But how do you – how even can you – spy ethically? In this episode, Nick Spencer speaks to Prof. Cécile Fabre about her book Spying Through a Glass Darkly: The Ethics of Espionage and Counter-Intelligence.

Nick Spencer speaks to Naomi Oreskes. Science is the basis of so much in the modern world that to ask why we should trust it seems unnecessary, even wrong. Yet, people do, and not all of them for the best motives. In this episode, Nick Spencer speaks to Prof. Naomi Oreskes about her book Why Trust Science? which answers ‘science sceptics’ of all stripes, and opens up new perspectives on the importance of diversity in science.

Nick Spencer talks to historian Kyle Harper. Covid-19 was not the first pandemic in history, and it won’t be the last. We have lived with disease throughout our history, and our history has accordingly been shaped, sometimes transformed, by disease. But how? In the final episode of this series of Reading Our Times, Nick Spencer talks to the historian Kyle Harper about his new book Plagues upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History.

Nick Spencer speaks to Anna Rowlands about what the Common Good means and what it offers a society like ours. The Common Good is a remarkably popular phrase, used widely by the left and the right, the religious and the secular. But does it actually mean anything? Is it so elastic as to have no real content? In this episode, Nick Spencer talks to Anna Rowlands about her new book Towards a Politics of Communion, about what the Common Good means and what it offers a society like ours.

Nick Spencer speaks to Prof. Janet Soskice Even as formal religious adherence wanes (at least in the West), people go on talking about God and spiritual matters. But how is that even possible? How can you talk about someone (or something) that is beyond language? Is all God-talk literally nonsense? In this episode, Nick Spencer speaks to Prof. Janet Soskice about her classic Metaphor and Religious Language and her forthcoming 'Naming God' about how on earth we can hope to talk about God.

Nick Spencer talks to Prof. Sumantra Bose Secularism is supposed to epitomise reasonableness and fairness – the refusal to favour one (non/religious) group over another. Yet, it is coming under fierce pressure across the world. Why? In this episode Nick Spencer talks to Prof. Sumantra Bose about his book Secular States, Religious Politics, and looks at the future of secularism in the 21st century.

Nick Spencer speaks to journalist and author Helen Joyce. Debates around sex, gender and identity have emerged as some of the most important, and heated, of our time. But what are the issues – scientific, philosophical, ideological, anthropological – that lie beneath them? In this episode, Nick Spencer talks to the journalist and author Helen Joyce about her book Trans, and the tensions underlying the debate.

Iain McGilchrist, an esteemed author known for his insights on the divided brain's influence on Western thought, shares captivating ideas with Nick Spencer. They discuss the clash between materialism and a rich understanding of existence. McGilchrist emphasizes how the left and right hemispheres of the brain shape our perception and consciousness. The conversation also explores the evolving nature of truth and the importance of experiential knowledge over mere facts. Listeners are invited to reflect on what it truly means to know and understand.

Nick Spencer speaks to primatologist Frans de Waal. There was a time (and not so long ago) we thought animals were 'mere machines’, incapable of inner life or emotions. Now we know better and are beginning to understand the extraordinarily rich inner life of primates and some other species. In the first episode of this series of Reading Our Times, Nick Spencer talks to the eminent primatologist Frans de Waal about his book Mama's Last Hug which explores the moving and fascinating world of animal emotions and what they tell us about ourselves.

Nick Spencer speaks to Adrian Pabst. The last 30 years have seen liberalism fall from heights of triumph at the end of the Cold War to a place of genuine fragility. Both in Western countries and even more so elsewhere, liberalism appears to be in retreat. What comes next? Some argue that liberalism will bounce back. Others that populism or authoritarianism are set to dominate things for the foreseeable future. But still others have argued for a ‘postliberal’ alternative, which spans the traditional left and right, and integrates the best of the liberal tradition but without its errors and problems. In the final episode of series two of Reading Our Times, Nick Spencer speaks to Adrian Pabst, one of the leading thinkers of this movement about his book, Postliberal politics: The coming era of renewal.