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
Sep 14, 2023 • 39min
EI Talks... JFK
JFK biographer Fredrik Logevall, in conversation with EI's Paul Lay and Iain Martin, discusses Kennedy's enduring and 'iconic' status, his claims to greatness, his style, and what his example offers for a divided America.
Image: During a campaign trip Senator John F. Kennedy greets a roadside crowd in Indiana. Credit: American Photo Archive / Alamy Stock Photo
Sep 8, 2023 • 22min
EI Weekly Listen — Christopher Coker on the changing meaning of patriotism in war
Dying to defend territory is an ancient human need - but war in the 21st century may not follow the script. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: English propaganda poster from the First World War showing a column of soldiers and civilians marching to war. Credit: Photo 12 / Alamy Stock Photo
Sep 8, 2023 • 32min
EI Talks... Rugby Union
In the latest episode of EI Talks... Paul Lay and Alastair Benn put together an idiot's guide to Rugby Union. The World Cup, the sport's showcase competition, kicks off tonight. The team gives their predictions.
Image: French Rugby poster from the 1930s. Credit: Lordprice Collection / Alamy Stock Photo
Sep 1, 2023 • 24min
EI Weekly Listen — Remaking the moral case for capitalism by Iain Martin
A defence of capitalism will have to rest first and foremost on an appeal to ethics, obligation, and duty. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Aug 25, 2023 • 23min
EI Weekly Listen — Spoken history: the modern importance of indigenous cultures by John Hemming
Our information-rich civilisation is not superior or inferior to the pre-literate world of Brazil's indigenous peoples, just different. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Aug 11, 2023 • 14min
EI Weekly Listen — Mark Plotkin on the price of deforestation
The destruction of rainforests threatens valuable cultures and reams of possible medical innovations. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Credit: Dennis Frates / Alamy Stock Photo
Aug 4, 2023 • 25min
EI Weekly Listen — On the good society by David Goodhart
A good society is one with a proper balance between the aptitudes of ‘head’, ‘hand’ and ‘heart’. The modern knowledge economy, however, has delivered higher and higher returns to the cognitive elite and reduced the relative pay and status of manual and caring jobs. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Jul 28, 2023 • 24min
EI Weekly Listen — Time to regulate the development of AI by Maria Borelius
The risks we now face are vast, as is the potential upside of the technology. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Art installation on the theme of AI. Credit: Michele D'Ottavio / Alamy Stock Photo
Jul 27, 2023 • 41min
EI Talks... Mick Jagger at 80
As the Rolling Stones frontman enters his ninth decade, EI asks whether there is a future for ageing rockers.
Image: Mick Jagger in 1975. Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo
Jul 20, 2023 • 22min
EI Weekly Listen — What the Silicon Valley idealists got wrong by Nicholas Carr
The internet and social media were supposed to democratise knowledge and unite the world. Things didn't quite turn out that way. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook. Credit: Kristoffer Tripplaar / Alamy Stock Photo
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