The EI Podcast

 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. 

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

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

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

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss the explosion of tourism in the modern era and what might come next. Image: Travel poster encouraging tourists to visit Blackpool. Credit JJs / Alamy Stock Photo

This celebration of wealth, its frequent elevation to an almost religious level, and its justification not only in terms of its social utility but also, and more remarkably, in personal terms, is one of the defining characteristics of the Florentine public culture and private ethos in the fifteenth century and beyond. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: An opulent fresco in Renaissance Florence. Credit: Peter Horree / Alamy Stock Photo

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn calmly discuss the uses and misuses of anger. Image: Thai mural in the temple of the Emerald Buddha, Bangkok. Credit: Sabena Jane Blackbird / Alamy Stock Photo

We must rescue our cities from a culture of ugliness. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Sol House, Northampton. Credit: Paul Hanson / Alamy Stock Photo 

Paul Lay and Iskander Rehman discuss masters of early modern statecraft: the Duke of Sully, Cardinal Richelieu, and Cardinal Mazarin. Image: Cardinal Richelieu at the Siege of La Rochelle. Credit: Niday Picture Library  /  Alamy Stock Photo

Even with all its data and technology, contemporary conflict fits uneasily with our definitions of modernity. Read by Leighton Pugh Image: Mosul's old city destroyed by bombing. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo