The EI Podcast
Engelsberg Ideas
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.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Aug 20, 2021 • 19min
EI Weekly Listen – Adrian Wooldridge on why the West needs Plato more than ever
The Victorians saw Plato's Republic as an indispensable guide to reform of the public sphere - we should follow their lead. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/leadership-in-crisis-why-the-west-needs-plato-more-than-ever/
Credit: Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Aug 13, 2021 • 22min
EI Weekly Listen – Richard Whatmore on why revolutions are a disaster
Karl Marx was wrong about revolutions - in practice, they beget Caesars and Napoleons. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/history-shows-revolutions-are-a-disaster/
Credit: Andrew Maclear/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Jul 29, 2021 • 20min
36: EI Weekly Listen – Andrew Graham-Dixon on crisis and great art
Social upheaval has often been a catalyst for artistic change - the Renaissance was no exception. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/crisis-and-the-creation-of-great-art/
Credit: Mauro Magliani for Alinari/Alinari Archives, Florence/Alinari via Getty Images
Jul 28, 2021 • 21min
35: EI Weekly Listen – Tom Holland on the empty metropolis
Empty city London had its harbingers in literature and history. How will it emerge from its isolation? Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/pandemics-and-the-metropolis-city-lockdown-london/
Credit: 1000 Words / Shuttersotck
Jul 22, 2021 • 20min
34: EI Weekly Listen - Donald Sassoon on a world of nations and states
Despite globalisation, the nation state retains its privileged position in world politics. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/a-world-of-nations-and-states-is-here-to-stay/
Credit: AMA/Corbis via Getty Images
Jul 9, 2021 • 22min
33: EI Weekly Listen – Jonathan Fenby on China's great uncoupling
Beijing wants to foster a world where Chinese standards replace those of the post-1945 US-led system. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/chinese-china-the-great-uncoupling/
Credit: Feng Li/Getty Images
Jun 25, 2021 • 25min
31: EI Weekly Listen – David Seedhouse: Covid-19 and the moral case for personal judgement
The tension between independence and compliance is everywhere in society – but in medicine, reason must come before rules. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/covid-19-and-the-moral-case-for-personal-judgement/
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Jun 18, 2021 • 23min
30: EI Weekly Listen – Matthew Goodwin: Meet the Zoomer generation
This period of turbulence could turn today's twenty-somethings into the leaders of a new liberal revolution. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/meet-the-zoomer-generation/
Credit: Jack Taylor/Getty Images
Jun 9, 2021 • 21min
29: EI Weekly Listen – Tim Marshall: New Turkey's old politics
As a result of President Erdogan's embrace of two interlinked geopolitical concepts, 'Strategic Depth' and 'Blue Homeland', Turkey faces international isolation. Read by Leighton Pugh.https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/new-turkeys-old-politics/Credit: Kerem Uzel/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Jun 3, 2021 • 27min
28: Weekly Listen – Graham Stewart on Thatcher's rescue from historical cliché
To argue that Margaret Thatcher attacked the post-war dream is to caricature, not illuminate, her importance to British history. Read by Leighton Pugh.
https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/continuity-thatcher-rescuing-a-complex-leader-from-historical-cliche/
Credit: John Downing/Getty Images
