The EI Podcast

Updated: 04 Dec 2025 • 347 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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John Tasioulas examines how a classical conception of democracy – distinct from liberal democracy – may offer the resources needed to meet the challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Rudolph Müller, View of the Acropolis from the Pynx (1863). Credit: Eraza Collection

21 min
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21:43
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27 Nov 2025 • EN

The Risorgimento myth

Gerald Warner on the origins of a 'black legend' designed to discredit the once-flourishing Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: A painting displaying the splendour of the Neapolitan fleet. Credit: The Picture Art Collection

22 min
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22:40
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EI's Paul Lay is joined by technology analyst Dan Wang to discuss how China has engineered its way to global power status.  Image: New high-rise buildings in China. Credit: ton koene

43 min
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43:51
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Bill Emmott profiles Lafcadio Hearn, the Anglo-Irish-Greek foreign correspondent who made Japan his home. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Lafcadio Hearn photographed with his wife, Setsuko Koizumi, and their son. Credit: GRANGER - Historical Picture Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

19 min
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19:35
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Bestselling author Andrew Ross Sorkin discusses his new book, 1929: The Inside Story of The Greatest Crash in Wall Street History, with EI's Iain Martin. Image: The Wall Street financial crash of 1929, with a city businessman speculator trying to sell his car for $100 cash, having lost all on the stock market. Credit:

32 min
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32:16
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Historian Damian Valdez on international order's 19th-century origins. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Mexican general Agustín de Iturbide rides through a ceremonial arch to welcoming officials in Mexico City on September 27, 1821, after decisively winning independence for Mexico. Credit: Album / Alamy Stock Photo 

20 min
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20:23
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