EI Weekly Listen Podcast
1) How the state can do more for less
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 Gill...Show More
2) The espionage revolution
David Omand, ex-head of GCHQ, the British government's world-renowned cyber agency, explores how intelligence officers exploit the latest technological advances. Image: Digital espionage is on the ri...Show More
3) Graham Greene's Vietnam
EI's Alastair Benn and Paul Lay are joined by Jonathan Esty, of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, to discuss Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, published 70 years ago, a grippin...Show More
4) How the Nazis weaponised Charlemagne
Samuel Rubinstein explores how Nazi historiographers sought to present Adolf Hitler as the heir to Charlemagne. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: A large Sèvres presentation plate celebrating Nazism's al...Show More
5) Why do we get the wrong leaders?
James Vitali reflects on the profound importance of political judgement. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: The front door of Number 10 Downing street. Credit: GreatBritishStock.com / Alamy Stock Photo
6) Why liberal democracies win total wars
Journalist Duncan Weldon shows how liberal capitalist economies adapt to total war. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Second World War-era British propaganda. Credit: Venimages / Alamy Stock Photo
7) No more Napoleons: British grand strategy in the 19th century
EI’s Paul Lay joins historian Andrew Lambert to discuss his book ‘No More Napoleons: How Britain Managed Europe from Waterloo to World War One', Lambert's provocative new study of how Britain maximise...Show More
8) The rift that doomed the Confederacy
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...Show More
9) The Trial at 100: revisiting Kafka’s prophetic masterpiece
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 ...Show More
10) How the Knights Templars conquered Christendom
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 ...Show More