EI Talks…

EI's Alastair Benn discusses the condition of Classical music today with Richard Bratby, chief Classical music critic of The Spectator.

Image: Music scores. Credit: Tim Gainey / Alamy Stock Photo

EI's Iain Martin is joined by Kwasi Kwarteng, historian and former Chancellor of the Exchequer, to discuss the turbulent life of the 18th-century financial speculator John Law, whose innovative ideas were credited with bringing Ancien Régime France to the brink of ruin. There are echoes of what happened when the Truss government tried its own financial experiment, he acknowledges.

Image: A cartoon of John Law (1671–1729), the Scottish economist who was appointed Controller General of Finances of France under King Louis XV. Credit: PRISMA ARCHIVO / Alamy Stock Photo 

The leading classicist Daisy Dunn joins EI's Paul Lay to discuss her new book, The Missing Thread: A New History of the Ancient World Through the Women Who Shaped It.

Image: Nikolaos Gyzis, a 19th Century painter, depicts Sappho playing the lyre. Credit: Photo 12 / Alamy Stock Photo

Erica Benner applies ancient wisdom to modern problems in her new book Adventures in Democracy: The Turbulent World of People Power. She shares her insights with EI's Deputy Editor, Alastair Benn.

Image: Gathering of the Areopagus, a deliberative court that met in the open air in ancient Athens. Credit: North Wind Picture Archives / Alamy Stock Photo

EI's Paul Lay and Alastair Benn ask: do we really live in an age of upheaval?

Image: Turner's Vesuvius in Eruption. Credit: Artefact / Alamy Stock Photo 

A small but riveting exhibition at London's National Gallery tells the dramatic story of the troubled Renaissance master's 'last' painting.

Image: The Martyrdom of St Ursula, 1610. Credit: incamerastock / Alamy Stock Photo 

Self-interest, imperial competition and new threats in Europe - T.G. Otte examines the complex 120-year long history of the Entente Cordiale with EI's senior editor, Paul Lay.

Image: First prize winner at the Covent Garden fancy dress ball in 1905, a lady dressed in an elaborate costume as the Entente Cordiale. Credit: Chronicle / Alamy Stock Photo 

EI's Deputy Editor Alastair Benn speaks to Suzanne Raine, visiting professor in the Department of War Studies at King's College London, about the evolution of the terrorist threat and its long history.

Image: Anarchist outrage at the Liceo theatre in Barcelona, 1893. Credit: Photo 12 / Alamy Stock Photo 

Daisy Christodoulou punctures the hype around the applications of Large Language Models and chatbots to the field of learning. Will AI really revolutionise education?

Image: Mechanical brain. Credit: Sibani Das / Alamy Stock Vector 

Geoff Andrew, the BFI's programmer-at-large, and film critic Muriel Zagha sit down with EI's Deputy Editor Alastair Benn to discuss the varied, visionary and eccentric creations of the German filmmaker Werner Herzog.

Credits: The audio clips at 0:07 and 4:13 are taken from Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer, directed by Thomas von Steinaecker. The film was released on BFI Player and BFI Blu-ray on 19 February. Courtesy of BFI Distribution.

The audio clip at 53:30 is an excerpt from The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser. It is currently on release in selected cinemas via the BFI. It aired at 27 Picturehouse sites on Friday 1 March. Courtesy of BFI Distribution.

Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. Worldview is produced by Alastair Benn and Marie Jessel. The sound engineer is Gareth Jones.

Image: Werner Herzog on the set of Fitzcarraldo, 1982. Credit: Collection Christophel / Alamy Stock Photo 

Llewelyn Morgan, author of Horace: A Very Short Introduction, joins EI's Paul Lay to explore the Augustan poet's vast and complex legacy.

Image: Bust of Horace. Credit: Cum Okolo / Alamy Stock Photo 

Alwyn Turner, author of Little Englanders: Britain in the Edwardian Era, speaks to Paul Lay about the early 20th century, an age of anxiety.

Image: Street musicians in London in the Edwardian era. Credit: KGPA Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo 

Ahron Bregman, author of Cursed Victory: A History of Israel and the Occupied Territories, outlines his vision for a lasting peace between Israel, Palestinians and the Arabs.

Image: An Israeli flag is seen through a dust cloud near the border with the Gaza strip. Credit: Eddie Gerald / Alamy Stock Photo 

Daniela Richterova, Senior Lecturer in Intelligence Studies at the Department for War Studies, King's College London, reflects on the efforts the Soviet Union made to court African states and liberation movements during the Cold War and draws parallels with China and Russia's new scramble for Africa.

Image: A monument to Arab-Soviet Friendship at the Aswan dam, Egypt. Credit: Matyas Rehak / Alamy Stock Photo

Alastair Benn is joined by Christopher Harding, cultural historian of Japan and author of The Light of Asia: A History of Western Fascination with the East, to discuss the life and work of celebrated animator Mayazaki Hayao and his latest (and last?) film, The Boy and the Heron, a semi-autobiographical exploration of wartime bereavement, courage and ultimate redemption.

Image: A still from The Boy and the Heron directed by Miyazaki Hayao. Credit: BFA / Alamy Stock Photo 

In December 1941, the Japanese military attacked Pearl Harbor, making the Second World War a truly global conflict. Paul Lay is joined by Charlie Laderman to discuss a month that shook the world.

Image: Three US battleships stricken during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941. Credit: GRANGER - Historical Picture Archive / Alamy Stock Photo 

What is the deep meaning of 2023? Alastair Benn is joined by Paul Lay and Iain Martin to set a dramatic year in perspective.

Image: A woman lights a candle to express solidarity with Israel. Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo 

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by Matthew Hefler, post-doctoral fellow at the Ax:son Johnson Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy, to discuss the changing role of intelligence services in an era of intense geopolitical competition.

Image: The MI6 building in Vauxhall, London. Credit: Alex Segre / Alamy Stock Photo 

What went wrong for the western alliance in Afghanistan? Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by John Ferris, author of Behind the Enigma: The Authorised History of GCHQ, Britain's Secret Cyber-Intelligence Agency, to discuss whether liberal states can still carry out effective counter-insurgency operations.

Image: U.S. Marines search a compound in Afghanistan. Credit: Stocktrek Images, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo 

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by Calder Walton, author of Spies: The epic intelligence war between East and West, to discuss how governments can use covertly acquired intelligence as a powerful tool to influence debate and how easily it can all go wrong.

Image: US Ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson, second from right, confronts Soviet delegate Valerian Zorin, first on left, with a display of reconnaissance photographs during an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council at the United Nations headquarters in New York, on October 25, 1962. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by Kate Cooper, author of Queens of a Fallen World, to discuss the women who shaped the life of Augustine of Hippo.

Image: A 17th century painting of Saint Augustine and Saint Monica. Credit: The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo 

Paul Lay, Alastair Benn and Iain Martin discuss the cultural legacy of the Fab Four and why the Beatles story continues to fascinate sixty years on.

Image: The Beatles showing their MBE Insignias after receiving them from the Queen. Credit: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo 

Paul Lay is joined by Kori Schake to examine the rise and fall of the inspirational Shawnee leader Tecumseh who used strategy to defy America's westward expansion.

Image: Shawnee chief Tecumseh confronting William Henry Harrison in Indiana. Credit: North Wind Picture Archives / Alamy Stock Photo

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by James Barr, historian of the Middle East, to discuss Gaza's long and complex history and how it continues to be felt in the present day.

Image: A print of Gaza around 1880. Credit: Holy Land Art / Alamy Stock Photo

A new translation of the Iliad is an opportunity to reassess the first great work of European literature.

Image: Achilles and Memnon fighting in Greek pottery dating to 300 BC. Credit: Peter Horree / Alamy Stock Photo 

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by Suzanne Raine, national security and counter-terrorism expert, and Michael Goldfarb, author and broadcaster, to discuss Hamas' terrorist outrage and the uncertain future that follows for the region.

Image: Members of the Hamas Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss the idea of Autumn, a season peculiarly rich in cultural resonances.

Image: Autumn on the Seine, Claude Monet (1840-1926). Credit: IanDagnall Computing / Alamy Stock Photo 

Paul Lay is joined by Francis J. Gavin, Director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins SAIS, to discuss nuclear statecraft past and present.

Image: Still from Stanley Kubrick's 1963 film Dr Strangelove. Credit: TCD/Prod.DB / Alamy Stock Photo

Paul Lay is joined by the historian Sir Hew Strachan to discuss On War, the military theorist Carl von Clausewitz's seminal text, and the indispensable guide to the conduct and practice of war.

Image: Carl von Clausewitz. Credit: ART Collection / Alamy Stock Photo 

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.

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 

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 

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 

 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 

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 

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by Times columnist James Marriott to discuss whether Artificial Intelligence poses an existential threat to the arts.

Image: Man as Industrial Palace, a poster commissioned by German physician and author Fritz Kahn in 1926. Credit: JJs / Alamy Stock Photo 

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by Alexander Lee, biographer of Niccolò Machiavelli, to discuss the Renaissance thinker's foundational contribution to the study of statecraft.

Image: Niccolò Machiavelli. Credit: GL Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss the deep meaning of Cricket in light of the forthcoming Ashes series between England and Australia, and the recent wider changes the game has undergone.

Image: The Ashes urn. Credit: David Bagnall / Alamy Stock Photo 

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss the future of Classical music.

Image: String quartet playing in the Saint Nicholas Shopping centre, London. Credit: RayArt Graphics / Alamy Stock Photo

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss the London Defence Conference and the return of strategic thinking to the Western alliance.

Image: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks with the director of the London Defence Conference, Iain Martin. Credit: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo  

In the first episode of the Engelsberg Ideas editorial podcast, EI Talks..., Iain Martin, Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss Artificial Intelligence and how it might shape the future for better... or worse.

 
Image: Programmable humanoid robot NAQ. Credit: Lilyana Vynogradova / Alamy Stock Photo