The EI Podcast
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
July 17, 2025 • 29 mins
Historian Katherine Bayford exposes the fractures and contradictions that doomed the Confederacy from within. Read by Leighton Pugh.
FURTHER READING:
The rift that doomed the Confederacy | Katherine Bayford
Image: A statue of Alexander Stephens in the US Congress. Credit: Sipa US / Alamy Stock Photo
FURTHER READING:
The rift that doomed the Confederacy | Katherine Bayford
Image: A statue of Alexander Stephens in the US Congress. Credit: Sipa US / Alamy Stock Photo
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July 10, 2025 • 56 mins
This year marks the centenary of the publication of Franz Kafka’s novel, The Trial - a seminal work that continues to captivate and unsettle its readers. EI’s Alastair Benn and Paul Lay are joined by Karolina Watroba, author of Metamorphoses: In Search of Franz Kafka, to discuss Josef K’s tragic entanglement with a suffocating bureaucracy.
Image: Portrait of Franz Kafka. Credit: history_docu_photo / Alamy Stock Photo ...
Image: Portrait of Franz Kafka. Credit: history_docu_photo / Alamy Stock Photo ...
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July 3, 2025 • 20 mins
Historian Nicholas Morton explores how a miracle of marketing brought the Knights Templars to prominence. Read by Leighton Pugh.
FURTHER READING:
The Knights Templars and the pursuit of Christendom | Nicholas Morton
Image: A Victorian illustration of the Knights Templars. Credit: Glasshouse Images / Alamy Stock Photo
FURTHER READING:
The Knights Templars and the pursuit of Christendom | Nicholas Morton
Image: A Victorian illustration of the Knights Templars. Credit: Glasshouse Images / Alamy Stock Photo
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June 26, 2025 • 24 mins
The writer Josh Mcloughlin reflects on the art of chorography, one of English literature’s most eccentric and mercurial forms. Read by Leighton Pugh.
FURTHER READING:
The lost art of chorography | Josh Mcloughlin
Image: Renaissance map of Europe showing England. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Phot
FURTHER READING:
The lost art of chorography | Josh Mcloughlin
Image: Renaissance map of Europe showing England. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Phot
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June 19, 2025 • 18 mins
Historian Damian Valdez reflects on the meaning of 1975, a fateful year for the international order. Read by Leighton Pugh.
FURTHER READING:
1975, the year that made the modern world | Damian Valdez
Image: A helicopter is pushed off the overcrowded deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hancock (CV-19) off the coast of South Vietnam during the fall of Saigon. Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo
FURTHER READING:
1975, the year that made the modern world | Damian Valdez
Image: A helicopter is pushed off the overcrowded deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hancock (CV-19) off the coast of South Vietnam during the fall of Saigon. Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo
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June 12, 2025 • 42 mins
EI’s Paul Lay joins historian Tim Bouverie to discuss ‘Allies at War’, his gripping new book on how Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin’s uneasy alliance led to the end of the Second World War – and reshaped the global order in ways that are still felt today.
Image: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at Yalta. Credit: Niday Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo
Image: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at Yalta. Credit: Niday Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo
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June 5, 2025 • 18 mins
Writer Luka Ivan Jukic laments the all-but-total disappearance of facial hair from politics. Read by Leighton Pugh.
FURTHER READING:
What happened to the politician’s moustache? | Luka Ivan Jukic
Image: A double portrait of Mozaffar al-Din Shah, the fifth Qajar shah of Iran. Credit: Penta Springs Limited / Alamy Stock Photo
FURTHER READING:
What happened to the politician’s moustache? | Luka Ivan Jukic
Image: A double portrait of Mozaffar al-Din Shah, the fifth Qajar shah of Iran. Credit: Penta Springs Limited / Alamy Stock Photo
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May 29, 2025 • 20 mins
Journalist and author Jenny McCartney celebrates the magic of squalor, and explores how generations of artists have seen the sublime in slime. Read by Leighton Pugh.
FURTHER READING:
On squalor | Jenny McCartney
Image: Walter Sickert's Easter Monday. Credit: Logic Images / Alamy Stock Photo
FURTHER READING:
On squalor | Jenny McCartney
Image: Walter Sickert's Easter Monday. Credit: Logic Images / Alamy Stock Photo
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May 22, 2025 • 22 mins
Geopolitical analyst Charly Salonius-Pasternak examines Finland's long journey to full membership of the Western alliance, and explores how the Nordic nation could play a leading role in its future.
FURTHER READING:
Why Finns joined the fight | Charly Salonius-Pasternak
Image: During the Soviet-Finnish war (1939-1940) skiers of the Finnish army in white camouflage made lightning and effective attacks...
FURTHER READING:
Why Finns joined the fight | Charly Salonius-Pasternak
Image: During the Soviet-Finnish war (1939-1940) skiers of the Finnish army in white camouflage made lightning and effective attacks...
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May 15, 2025 • 13 mins
The late Christopher Coker, Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics for almost 40 years, explains why, although the love of liberty is not unique to the West, the lust for liberty is. Read by Helen Lloyd.
FURTHER READING:
The West’s lust for liberty | Christopher Coker
Image: Leonidas at Thermopylae, by Jacques-Louis David, 1814. Credit: Peter Horree / Alamy Stock Phot...
FURTHER READING:
The West’s lust for liberty | Christopher Coker
Image: Leonidas at Thermopylae, by Jacques-Louis David, 1814. Credit: Peter Horree / Alamy Stock Phot...
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May 8, 2025 • 59 mins
In this episode of The EI Podcast, the historian Bijan Omrani is joined by EI's Paul Lay to explore the indelible mark Christianity has left on England’s identity and culture.
FURTHER READING:
The tragic decline of Christian rituals | Bijan Omrani
Image: South View of Salisbury Cathedral, JMW Turner. Credit: Penta Springs Limited / Alamy Stock Photo
FURTHER READING:
The tragic decline of Christian rituals | Bijan Omrani
Image: South View of Salisbury Cathedral, JMW Turner. Credit: Penta Springs Limited / Alamy Stock Photo
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May 1, 2025 • 17 mins
Agnès Poirier, journalist and broadcaster, examines how the liberation of France in 1944 opened the way for Paris to become a laboratory of ideas. Read by Helen Lloyd.
FURTHER READING:
The liberation of France made the modern world | Agnès Poirier
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Parisians gather around the Arc de Triom...
FURTHER READING:
The liberation of France made the modern world | Agnès Poirier
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Parisians gather around the Arc de Triom...
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April 24, 2025 • 62 mins
EI's Alastair Benn and Paul Lay are joined by Michael Sheridan, author of two books on China and a foreign correspondent for 40 years, to discuss China’s rise, its subsequent entry into the international trading system, and its contemporary status as the problem child of our globalised world.
FURTHER READING:
China and America, the great decoupling | Michael Sheridan
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the...
FURTHER READING:
China and America, the great decoupling | Michael Sheridan
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the...
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April 17, 2025 • 18 mins
Marie Daouda, lecturer in French language and literature at the University of Oxford, shows how the pursuit of apparently 'real' desires comes at the expense of collective truth. The consequences can be disastrous. Read by Helen Lloyd.
FURTHER READING:
The truth shall set us free | Marie Daouda
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
...
FURTHER READING:
The truth shall set us free | Marie Daouda
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
...
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April 10, 2025 • 16 mins
Brendan Simms, founder and Director of the Centre for Geopolitics at the University of Cambridge, illustrates why contemporary Germany struggles to muster a serious military response to the Russian challenge. Read by Helen Lloyd.
FURTHER READING:
The German key to European liberty | Brendan Simms
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
FURTHER READING:
The German key to European liberty | Brendan Simms
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
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April 10, 2025 • 62 mins
What are the deep roots of Trump's worldview? Can we learn to read Trump’s behaviour? And are there opportunities to be had for those who can?
EI's Alastair Benn and Paul Lay are joined by Charlie Laderman, Senior Lecturer in International History at King's College London, to discuss how to interpret the Trump White House.
This episode was recorded on 7th April.
FURTHER READING:
How Iran’s T...
EI's Alastair Benn and Paul Lay are joined by Charlie Laderman, Senior Lecturer in International History at King's College London, to discuss how to interpret the Trump White House.
This episode was recorded on 7th April.
FURTHER READING:
How Iran’s T...
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April 4, 2025 • 33 mins
Iuliia Osmolovska, head of the GLOBSEC Kyiv Office, argues that Ukrainians are better placed than their Western partners to decode the Russian negotiating style. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Street art in Tbilisi of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin playing chess. Credit: Georg Berg / Alamy Stock Photo
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Street art in Tbilisi of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin playing chess. Credit: Georg Berg / Alamy Stock Photo
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March 28, 2025 • 20 mins
Juliet Samuel, columnist for The Times newspaper, highlights that a belief in liberty is not self-evident and its expansion is not inevitable. Read by Helen Lloyd.
FURTHER READING:
Liberty under attack from enemies within | Juliet Samuel
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Second world war propaganda poster. Credit: Photo ...
FURTHER READING:
Liberty under attack from enemies within | Juliet Samuel
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: Second world war propaganda poster. Credit: Photo ...
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March 27, 2025 • 50 mins
What makes us laugh? And why should it matter?
EI's Alastair Benn and Paul Lay are joined by the critic Mathew Lyons to discuss the uses of comedy.
FURTHER READING:
The subtle art of English comedy | Alastair Benn
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn, and produced by Caitlin Brown...
EI's Alastair Benn and Paul Lay are joined by the critic Mathew Lyons to discuss the uses of comedy.
FURTHER READING:
The subtle art of English comedy | Alastair Benn
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit. EI Talks... is hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn, and produced by Caitlin Brown...
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March 21, 2025 • 17 mins
Roel Sterckx, the Joseph Needham Professor of Chinese History, Science, and Civilization at Cambridge University, makes the case for studying China's centuries-long history. Read by Helen Lloyd.
FURTHER READING:
Gazing back to see China’s future | Roel Sterckx
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: The Great Wall of China. Cr...
FURTHER READING:
Gazing back to see China’s future | Roel Sterckx
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.
Image: The Great Wall of China. Cr...
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