The EI Podcast

Epizódy

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  The scramble for the Middle East 10.09.2026 48min

  Simon Sebag Montefiore speaks to Jack Dickens about his new book, ‘The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East’. Image: British troops on parade at Jaffa Gate after seizing military control of the region from the Ottoman Empire (1917). Credit: Wikimedia Commons
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  The novel in Britain: from cover to cover 03.09.2026 1h 8min

  Philip Hensher speaks to Alastair Benn about his new book, ‘A History of the Novel in Britain’, a stylish and very personal survey of a great tradition.Image: Portrait of Algernon Talmage circa 1915, by Hilda Fearon. Credit: Alamy
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  Journeys in Europe’s grey zone 27.08.2026 37min

  Hannah Lucinda Smith speaks to Caitlin Allen about her new book, ‘Hinterlands: Journeys through Europe’s Unfinished Frontiers’.Image: United Nations Buffer Zone near the ghost town resort of Varosha, Famagusta, Cyprus. Credit: Alamy
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  Machiavelli still matters 20.08.2026 37min

  Stephen Bowd speaks to Paul Lay about why, 500 years after his death, Niccolò Machiavelli remains one of the world’s most vital political philosophers.Image: Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli (1570). Credit: Alamy
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  The entire history of cinema in one shot 13.08.2026 47min

  Film critic David Thomson speaks to Paul Lay about his new book, ‘A Sudden Flicker of Light: A Revisionist History of the Movies’. Image: A sign advertises the opening of the Hollywoodland housing development in the hills overlooking Los Angeles. Credit: Alamy
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  America’s universal document: a curious history 06.08.2026 49min

  Marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, Michael Auslin speaks to Paul Lay about the document’s powerful yet often strange afterlife. From Philadelphia in 1776, through the Civil War, the Gilded Age, both World Wars and the Cold War, America’s founding document has been a perennial symbol of hope. Image: An illustration from ‘Columbia's Courtship: A Picture History of the United States in Twelve Emblematic Designs in Color with Accompanying Verses’ by Walter Crane (1983). Credit: Alamy
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  The alien world of Homer’s Odyssey 30.07.2026 1h 9min

  What does Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of ‘The Odyssey’ have in common with Homer’s poem? Classicist and actor Orlando Gibbs speaks to Alastair Benn about the strangeness of this ancient epic, which depicts a moral world far removed from Nolan’s secular and post-Christian worldview, and discusses whether its popularity will lead to a renewed interest in the classical world.Image: Odysseus and the Sirens, represented on an ancient Greek vase. Credit: Alamy
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  How wine made the modern world 23.07.2026 38min

  Historian Kathleen Burk speaks to Max Mitchell about the long history of humanity's relationship with wine, taking us on a journey from the ancient Near East to modern France.Image: A vineyard near the Temple of Zeus at Ancient Nemea, Korinthia, Greece. Credit: Alamy 
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  The struggle for Saudi Arabia’s buried past 20.07.2026 19min

  Saudi Arabia’s expensive investment in its future has come with a concurrent focus on its archaeological past but its ambitions risk eradicating the remnants of pre-Islamic history. Read by Leighton Pugh. Read the essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-struggle-for-saudi-arabias-buried-past/.Image: The Qasr Al Farid tomb in Saudi Arabia. Credit: Alamy
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  The diplomats who defeated Hitler 16.07.2026 35min

  Peter Ricketts, Britain’s former ambassador to France, speaks with Paul Lay about a golden age of diplomacy. Image: Archibald Clark Kerr (Britain’s Ambassador to the Soviet Union) and Alexander Cadogan (Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs) at the Potsdam Conference, 1945. Credit: Alamy.
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  The political power of knowing your enemy 13.07.2026 15min

  In war and diplomacy, personal relationships between leaders can shape the course of events in unpredictable ways. Read by Leighton Pugh. Read the essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the-political-power-of-knowing-your-enemy/.Image: Cartoon from Punch showing from Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. Credit: Alamy
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  The return of the Great Powers 09.07.2026 1h 3min

  Brendan Simms talks to EI’s Jack Dickens about a new age of geopolitical rivalry.Image: Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. Credit: Alamy
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  Germany’s new old nuclear dilemma 06.07.2026 20min

  When it comes to nuclear weapons, the concerns that West Germany’s first chancellor wrestled with during the Cold War have not disappeared. In this audio essay, Marina E. Henke suggests that they have simply re-emerged in new forms. Read by Leighton Pugh. Read it here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/germanys-new-old-nuclear-dilemma/Image: A nuclear power plant in Bavaria, circa 1985. Credit: INTERFOTO
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  250 years of the American experiment 02.07.2026 46min

  Paul Lay speaks to Phil Tinline, author of Ghosts of Iron Mountain: The Hoax that Duped America and its Sinister Legacy, about the variety and violence of a country built on high ideals and low conspiracies.Image: The interior of the United States Capitol. Credit: Alamy
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  Where is Russia’s place in the world? 29.06.2026 42min

  Russia is a Near Eastern country now subordinated to East Asia. But Stephen Kotkin argues that historically it has prospered most when tied closely to Europe.Read the original essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/where-is-russias-place-in-the-world/.Image: Map of Russia, 1562. Credit: Alamy
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  Christianity’s debt to Rome 25.06.2026 46min

  What does Christ’s Kingdom owe to the culture of the Roman Empire? Tim Whitmarsh speaks to EI’s Alastair Benn about his new book, Rome’s Age of Revolution: Augustus, Empire and the Making of Christianity.Image: A statue of Augustus Caesar in Turin. Credit: Alamy
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  Jean Eustache: the outsider who reshaped French cinema 22.06.2026 16min

  The filmmaker Jean Eustache’s interest in rural France and his sardonic scepticism about the May ’68 ideologues mark him out from his Nouvelle Vague contemporaries. Read by Leighton Pugh.Read the original essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/portraits/jean-eustache-the-outsider-who-reshaped-french-cinema/. Image: The film director Jean Eustache. Credit: Alamy
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  How to end a war 18.06.2026 43min

  Margaret MacMillan speaks to EI’s Jack Dickens about how wars – and attempts to bring about peace – have shaped every era of human history. Image: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference, 1945. Credit: Alamy
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  Testament to doomed media 15.06.2026 17min

  The old media has failed to rise to the challenge of tech, but we'll miss it when it's gone.Read the original essay here: https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/testament-to-doomed-media/. Image: Woman reading a newspaper. Credit: Alamy
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  Why Armenia’s elections matter 11.06.2026 33min

  Thomas de Waal joins EI’s Jack Dickens to discuss how the recent elections in Armenia could reshape geopolitics in the Caucasus and beyond.Image: Armenian flag with Mount Ararat in background. Credit: Alamy