
The EI Podcast
The EI Podcast brings you weekly conversations and audio essays from leading writers, thinkers and historians. Hosted by Alastair Benn and Paul Lay. Find the EI Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or search The EI Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Latest episodes

Apr 24, 2025 • 1h 3min
China vs the WTO: The Inside Story
EI's Alastair Benn and Paul Lay are joined by Michael Sheridan, author of two books on China and a foreign correspondent for 40 years, to discuss China’s rise, its subsequent entry into the international trading system, and its contemporary status as the problem child of our globalised world.
FURTHER READING:
China and America, the great decoupling | Michael Sheridan
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. This episode of The EI Podcast was hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn, and produced by Caitlin Brown. The sound engineer was Gareth Jones.
Image: An electronics recycling facility in Shanghai, China. Credit: Cavan Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Apr 17, 2025 • 18min
Madame Bovary and the problem of desire
Marie Daouda, lecturer in French language and literature at the University of Oxford, shows how the pursuit of apparently 'real' desires comes at the expense of collective truth. The consequences can be disastrous. Read by Helen Lloyd.
FURTHER READING:
The truth shall set us free | Marie Daouda
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Isabelle Huppert, Madame Bovary 1991. Credit: Collection Christophel / Alamy Stock Photo

12 snips
Apr 11, 2025 • 16min
The German key to European liberty
Brendan Simms, founder and Director of the Centre for Geopolitics at the University of Cambridge, illustrates why contemporary Germany struggles to muster a serious military response to the Russian challenge. Read by Helen Lloyd.
FURTHER READING:
The German key to European liberty | Brendan Simms
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: The Congress of Vienna (1814-1815). Napoleon watching the Tsar, the Emperor of Austria and King of Prussia dividing up Europe. Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy

8 snips
Apr 10, 2025 • 1h 3min
The making of Trump's worldview
In this discussion, Charlie Laderman, a Senior Lecturer in International History at King's College London, dives into the foundations of Donald Trump's worldview. He unpacks the inconsistencies of Trump's foreign policy and how they echo historical American sentiments. The conversation touches on Trump's erratic behavior, the impact of globalization and demographics on America's identity, and the shift in US foreign policy towards self-interest. Laderman highlights how understanding these themes can reveal opportunities amid global unpredictability.

Apr 4, 2025 • 34min
How Russia negotiates
Iuliia Osmolovska, head of the GLOBSEC Kyiv Office, argues that Ukrainians are better placed than their Western partners to decode the Russian negotiating style. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Street art in Tbilisi of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin playing chess. Credit: Georg Berg / Alamy Stock Photo

Mar 28, 2025 • 20min
Liberty under attack
Juliet Samuel, columnist for The Times newspaper, highlights that a belief in liberty is not self-evident and its expansion is not inevitable. Read by Helen Lloyd.
FURTHER READING:
Liberty under attack from enemies within | Juliet Samuel
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Second world war propaganda poster. Credit: Photo 12 / Alamy Stock Photo

Mar 27, 2025 • 51min
The uses of comedy
What makes us laugh? And why should it matter?
EI's Alastair Benn and Paul Lay are joined by the critic Mathew Lyons to discuss the uses of comedy.
FURTHER READING:
The subtle art of English comedy | Alastair Benn
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn, and produced by Caitlin Brown. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.
Image: Eduard von Grützner's Falstaff, 1873. Credit: INTERFOTO / Alamy Stock Photo

Mar 21, 2025 • 18min
Gazing back to see China’s future
We must study the centuries-long history that has forged the DNA of Chinese political thinking and make it part of our conversations about China today. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: The Great Wall of China. Credit: nagelestock.com / Alamy Stock Photo

Mar 14, 2025 • 22min
The myth of Venice
Liberty was central to the idea of Venice, but was remarkably fragile. The republic had to guard it fiercely and expound it as a tangible way of living for flawed human beings. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Procession in Piazza San Marco by Gentile Bellini, 1496. Credit: Peter Barritt / Alamy Stock Photo

Mar 7, 2025 • 20min
Spartacus, history’s nowhere man
Spartacus is a figure who floats between history and allegory. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Promotional poster for the film, Spartacus. 1960. Credit: Allstar Picture Library Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo
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