Intelligence Squared: Arts & Culture

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Introducing 'Black History and Culture,' an Intelligence Squared collection. In this carefully curated selection we revisit some of our favourite live events and podcasts from the past 20 years, journeying through the rich and diverse tapestry of Black history and culture. We showcase great creators and thinkers, including the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, Alicia Garza; poet and activist, Benjamin Zephaniah; and playwright, novelist, critic and broadcaster, Bonnie Greer. We also delve into debates such as ‘Should the West Pay Reparations For Slavery?’ and ‘Hip-Hop vs Shakespeare.’ Join us as we examine the past, engage with the present, and ignite conversations that shape our future.

When did you first hear of GPT, Claude, DALL-E or Bard? Feels like a while ago, right? In barely over a year AI has penetrated our conversations, our places of work and it now dominates the culture. It also threatens to make some of those pillars of society redundant in years to come. Join researcher and author Carl Miller for POWER TRIP to see where that journey is leading us – and whether anyone can stop the ride.  The future of humanity will be impacted by technology in ways we may never have predicted. Across five episodes, POWER TRIP charts the past, present and future of AI, exploring the strangest and most startling ideas of the digital age. Want the future right now? Become a Member of Intelligence Squared to get all the full length episodes of POWER TRIP and much much more.  Just visit intelligencesquared.com or click the Try Free button on Apple.

Why did we go to war in Iraq? What went wrong? And how has this war shaped the region and the world we live in today? These are just some of the questions that we explore in ‘Iraq: Legacy of War’, a limited podcast series brought to you by Intelligence Squared to mark twenty years since the US-led invasion in 2003. Through interviews with policy-makers, military personnel, journalists, academics and Iraqi citizens, we reflect on the legacy of one of the most significant military interventions in modern history

A Members Exclusive Limited Series from Intelligence Squared. Head to www.intelligencesquared.com/membership to become a member today and listen whenever you get your podcasts. In recent months it can feel like Saudi Arabia is intent on buying the world. Its Public Investment Fund (PIF) has bought up much of golf, sports teams, many of the globe’s best soccer players to its domestic league, and it owns huge chunks of many of the most famous companies on the planet. But Saudi Arabia is not just on a shopping spree. The once insular, oil rich kingdom is transforming into a major diplomatic player, a pivotal actor in the energy transition, an ever-stronger military power, and a host to high-end cultural events, like the FIFA World Cup in 2034. It feels like the era of the Saudi Project. And the country will become a bigger part of all of our lives. But what exactly is the kingdom trying to achieve? And will it succeed? This series speaks to world leading experts to go past the headlines and help listeners understand Saudi Arabia and it's ambitions more clearly. Providing unique analysis and insight into the complex moral questions all Western nations will have to answer as they work with a rising Saudi Arabia in the years ahead.

The oil industry has historically operated in relative invisibility. Mysterious offshore rigs hundreds of miles out to sea can appear like images of a foreign land; refinery chimneys rising beyond the edges of some of our biggest cities are easy to mistake for just another factory; and bustling offices, the site of monumental decisions affecting generations to come, are just as faceless as the next. Out of sight – and often out of mind.  But such invisibility belies the overwhelming, ever-presence of oil. It’s in the fuel that powers our cars and aircrafts. It’s in our children’s plastic toys and trinkets. It’s in unseen flows of power, wealth and social capital. It’s in our art galleries, and our sports teams. It’s embedded in our economic policy, our communities, the very structure of our country.  So, what exactly do we mean when we talk about oil? How is our relationship with it changing? And what would stopping oil really look like?  These are just some of the questions that we will explore in this series from Intelligence Squared, drawing on recent research from the Fraying Ties? project, supported by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council. Through discussion with industry insiders, policy-makers, activists, politicians, trade unionists, ex-oil rig workers and academics we look at the industry in its complexity and ask: given the climate emergency, how must the industry change to facilitate a just, renewable energy transition, and what might a new world – one in which we’ve ceased burning fossil fuels altogether – look like?