The EI Podcast

Updated: 09 Oct 2025 • 339 episodes
engelsbergideas.com

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.

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Aaron MacLean, host of the School of War podcast, on AI's threat to the life of the mind. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: The Library Hall of the Upper Lusatian Library of Sciences. Credit: Petr Svarc / Alamy Stock Photo

13 min
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13:53
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Alastair Benn on the magic of Mick Herron’s Slough House series. Image: Still from Apple TV's Slow Horses. Credit: LANDMARK MEDIA / Alamy Stock Photo

14 min
00:00
14:33
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EI's Paul Lay discusses a world order in flux with Stephen Kotkin, historian and biographer of Stalin. Image: A Canadian soldier during a NATO-led operation. Credit: Associated Press

68 min
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01:08:19
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18 Sep 2025 • EN

The Great French Songbook

Why do people the world over enjoy listening to songs sung in French? Critic Muriel Zagha illuminates the living tradition of French chanson.  Image: Juliette Gréco, the French actress and singer. Credit: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

16 min
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16:19
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Alastair Benn explores an attention dilemma that has haunted western thought for centuries. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Detail from Echo and Narcissus by John William Waterhouse, 1903. Credit: SuperStock / Alamy Stock Photo 

14 min
00:00
14:00
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Historian David Cowan explains how radical reform can reshape the state. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: A political caricature, 'Political Dreams, Visions of Peace, Perspective Horrors', by James Gillray of Pitt the Younger. Credit: INTERFOTO / Alamy Stock Photo

15 min
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15:36
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