Mo Gawdat was Chief Business Officer of Google X, the experimental development arm of the internet behemoth. He's since written books on how to find happiness and his new one, Scary Smart, warns of the potential dangers posed to the world by super-smart artificial intelligence. Media correspondent for the Sunday Times, Rosamund Urwin, speaks with Mo about the new book, the future of AI, and how business works at the top level of a Silicon Valley tech titan. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared.See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This debate, recorded on Thursday 28th October 2021, was part of Energised, a debate series from Intelligence Squared in partnership with Iberdrola, a leading company in the field of renewable energy. It’s make or break time for the planet. That’s the warning issued by the UN ahead of COP26 in Glasgow this November, when leaders and heads of state from all over the world will meet to agree on global action to fight climate change. The main goal will be for them to commit to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by the middle of the century with interim targets by 2030. If they don’t achieve this, many scientists warn, the effects of rising global temperatures – extreme weather, rising sea levels and warming oceans – may become irreversible. But what are the chances of success? Very little, if previous summits are anything to go by. Despite a COP having taken place every year since 1995 (with the exception of last year due to the pandemic), and all the buzz around the Kyoto Protocol of 2011 and the Paris Agreement of 2015, concentrations of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere have continued to rise steadily, even during the lockdowns of 2020. But this year there is an unprecedented urgency in the run up to the conference. Can the biggest emitters – China, the US, India, Russia and Japan – be persuaded to sign up to legally binding agreements on emissions? Will the voices of people from the Global South, where the effects of the climate crisis are already being felt, be heard? And is the UN’s top-down approach really the best way to tackle the most pressing existential threat facing the world today? We were joined by ScottishPower CEO Keith Anderson and Professor of Energy Policy and Official Fellow in Economics Dieter Helm to debate whether COP26 will make any serious contribution in the fight against climate change. The debate was chaired by Kamal Ahmed.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared.See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With the devastating effects of the climate emergency becoming more urgent by the day, the COP26 summit in Glasgow now represents a pivotal moment in global cooperation on the issue. Can anything meaningful be achieved without collaboration from the big players such as China, the US and the EU? Economist Linda Yueh is joined by journalist and environment specialist Isabel Hilton of China Dialogue plus Bloomberg News climate and energy reporter Akshat Rathi to answer this and get a primer on the big debates ahead. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What does the face of power look like? Who gets commemorated in art and why? And how do we react to statues of figures we deplore? In October 2021 Mary Beard, Britain’s best known classicist, came to Intelligence Squared to talk about the ideas in her new book Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern. To follow along with the images referenced in the podcast visit: https://intelligencesquared.com/slides/ Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this week's Business Weekly, Samira Ahmed speaks to business mogul Sir Richard Branson about becoming a serial entrepreneur developing the Virgin brand, signing some of the biggest names in music and the next frontiers of space travel. How I Found My Voice is an Intelligence Squared podcast that explores how some of the world's greatest artists and thinkers became such compelling – and unique – communicators. If you enjoy this podcast please tell your friends, subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/how-i-found-my-voice/id1455089930 Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Should there be a broad programme of reparations – not just financial compensation, but acknowledgement of the crimes committed and the lasting damage caused by slavery? Or would this just worsen social tensions by reopening old wounds? That's the theme of this week's Sunday Debate.  Arguing for the motion were Kehinde Andrews, Professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City University; and Esther Stanford-Xosei, reparations activist and lawyer. Arguing against the motion were Katharine Birbalsingh, headmistress and co-founder of Michaela Community School in London; and Tony Sewell, educational consultant and CEO of the charity Generating Genius. The debate was chaired by social historian and presenter Emma Dabiri. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The history of Africans in Europe may seem recent – a result of migration in the 20th and 21st centuries – but in her new book, African Europeans, historian Olivette Otele tells a very different story – a story of African presence in Europe that stretches back centuries. Otele writes of African Europeans through the lives of individuals both ordinary and extraordinary. She has uncovered a forgotten past, one that features the Libya-born Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, a Medici duke believed to have been born to a free African woman and enslaved Africans living in Europe during the Renaissance. By exploring a history that has long been overlooked, she sheds light on questions very much alive today: What can movements like Black Lives Matter learn from the long history of Black activism in the UK and Europe? Why are Black Britons such as the Windrush generation often treated as if they aren’t full British citizens? And how can remembering the silenced narratives of our past help us understand the present and lead to a better future? On November 23 2020, Otele will came to Intelligence Squared to reveal this untold story of European and African history. She was in conversation with author and BBC Radio 4 presenter Kavita Puri.—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.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How did one family become associated with an epidemic of drug addiction that has caused the death of almost half a million people? In this episode, award-winning writer and author of Empire of Pain, Patrick Radden Keefe speaks to Hannah Kuchler, the FT’s global pharmaceutical correspondent about how he uncovered fresh material on the Sacklers and discovered a modern parable of greed, corruption and cynical philanthropy. To buy the book click here: https://www.primrosehillbooks.com/product/empire-of-pain-the-secret-history-of-the-sackler-dynasty-patrick-keefe-subscribers/ Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chris Hirst, Global CEO of advertising group Havas Creative, cuts through the bullshit and gets to the heart of modern leadership in this straight-talking podcast brought to you by Intelligence Squared. In this episode Chris Hirst speaks to the internet pioneer and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales who is perhaps the most famous silicon-valley entrepreneur to not become a billionaire. Wikipedia has changed how knowledge is accessed across the world, with 1.5 billion devices accessing the site every month. Jimmy Wales is also founder of the Wikimedia Foundation and co-founder of Wikia, a privately owned free web hosting service he set up in 2004. In 2019 he founded WT.Social, a microblogging site pitched as a 'non-toxic social network...where advertisers don't call the shots'. The service contains no advertisements and runs off donations. To subscribe click here: https://pod.link/1533418365 Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is China an enemy that needs to be reined in, or a potential partner with whom the West should engage? Hear the arguments and decide for yourself.  Speakers: Martin Wolf, Keyu Jin, Sir Malcolm Rifkind. Chair: Carrie Gracie Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices