The future. It’s all there, in front of us. It could go wonderfully. Or it could go badly wrong. It will inevitably require our passions and our ingenuity. So how do we see the challenges early on, find solutions and help make the world a better place? For ourselves, for our families, for everyone. Welcome to The Futureverse, a new series brought to you by Intelligence Squared and in partnership with Y TREE.In the first episode of The Futureverse podcast, From the Ancients to AI, host Kamal Ahmed and a panel of experts explore the history of the future as an idea. Dr Aleks Krotoski, social psychologist, researcher and science communicator, explains why planning for the future is at the heart of being human. Dr Amanda Rees, a historian of science based at the University of York, and Alexander Boxer, author of A Scheme of Heaven, look back at the history of the future as a concept; how have we juggled planning and prediction from ancient times through to modernity? And Dirk Helbing, Professor of Computational Social Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, reveals how we might be able to stream data into a giant simulator that could help us predict – and prepare for – events in the future.Come with us into The Futureverse: http://intelligencesquared.com/futureverseFor more information and to register to watch an event featuring Sir Antony Gormley, Mo Gawdat and Clover Hogan, please visit: y-tree.com/futureverseFind out more about Dirk’s latest project - how to build a “digital twin” of the Earth, here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358571489 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Journalist and Russia expert Owen Matthews and Radek Sikorski, former foreign minister of Poland, discuss the biggest crisis Europe has faced since the Second World War. In conversation with investigative reporter Manveen Rana, Matthews and Sikorksi explain the background to the crisis and attempt to answer: what does Putin want?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anna Delvey and Simon Leviev, now infamously known as The Fake Heiress and The Tinder Swindler, are two characters who have infiltrated pop culture and gripped Netflix viewers over recent months. Their joint claim to fame? They're both notorious con artists. So why are viewers and listeners so drawn to these stories of true crime? Writer and author Rachel Williams and journalist Erlend Ofte Arntsen were closely involved in the real-life stories that shaped Netflix's The Tinder Swindler and Inventing Anna. They join journalist and broadcaster Manveen Rana to help provide some answers.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rob Davies is an investigative journalist for The Guardian and his new book, Jackpot, tells the story of how Britain came to be one of the largest gambling markets in the world. The book describes how the mainstreaming of gambling advertising in the early 2000s combined with high-tech microtargeting of online gamblers has meant that the industry today is profiting from preying on the most vulnerable in society. Joining Rob to discuss the book is Joey D'Urso, investigations writer at The Athletic UK. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Carl Erik Fisher is a psychiatrist, bioethicist and recovering alcoholic who has spent years tracing the history of addiction. His new book is The Urge: Our History of Addiction, a sweeping study of the issue and an urgent call for a more expansive, nuanced and compassionate view of one of society's most difficult challenges. In conversation with Carl is physicist, oceanographer and science presenter, Helen Czerski. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Canadian novelist and writer Esi Edugyan's latest work is a collection of nonfiction writing, Out of the Sun: Essays at the Crossroads of Race. The book’s five essays discuss the interpretation of Black identity within art and culture across the past few centuries, while also reflecting on the author’s own sense of place as a creative within that ongoing story. Esi is joined by the curator, art historian, writer and presenter, Aindrea Emelife, to discuss the new book.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kristian Rönn is CEO and co-founder of Normative, a start-up which provides carbon-accounting software for businesses. His young company is official software provider of the UN-backed SME Climate Hub initiative, and he joins economist and broadcaster Linda Yueh to explain how adding up the cost of our impact on the environment needs to start today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As Russia amasses tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine’s northern and eastern border fears are mounting that President Putin plans to invade the country. The stakes could not be higher, and each move by both Russia and its military rivals in the West will have potentially catastrophic consequences for the country caught in the crossfire: Ukraine. Is there another option? In this programme, we debate the motion: The West Should Seek a Compromise with Russia Over Ukraine. Joining us to discuss it is Anatol Lieven, Senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Washington DC and author of Ukraine and Russia: A Fraternal Rivalry. We're also joined by Chris Miller, Jeane Kirkpatrick Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of We Shall Be Masters: Russian Pivots to Asia from Peter the Great to Putin. Chair for this debate is Larisa Brown, Defence Editor for The Times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Justin Webb is a familiar voice to many radio listeners. He has been co-presenting the BBC’s flagship morning current-affairs show, The Today programme, for over a decade. His new memoir, The Gift of a Radio: My Childhood and other Train Wrecks, is an unflinching but darkly humorous account of an often turbulent upbringing. He joins fellow radio journalist and podcast producer Poppy Damon to discuss the book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Professor Guy Leschziner's new book, The Man Who Tasted Words, seeks to shed light on our experiences of the different senses. In the book, Guy meets individuals such as Valeria, for whom music is accompanied by colours and James, after which the book is named: a man who tastes words. The new title follows Guy's previous book on the mysteries of sleep, The Nocturnal Brain. He joins broadcaster, author and science communicator Helen Czerski to talk about it all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices