Women of colour have to navigate a world of work where they are often discriminated against because of their race as well as their gender. But despite the challenges, they are increasingly making their way to the top and carving out a new ‘normal’ for younger generations. To celebrate their succe...

For 15 years, Intelligence Squared has vigorously championed the spoken word. The finest speakers from across the globe have come to our stage — to argue, to move, to persuade and change minds. Their speeches epitomise the vital role that public speaking plays in our lives. To celebrate the power...

The battle between two of the greatest dystopian novels Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four is strikingly urgent in our world of Donald Trump, 'fake news', and technological advances. On the Intelligence Squared stage, we have Will Self arguing for Brave New World and Adam Gopnik arguing for...

The Battle Of The Great 19th-century Novelists with Professor John Mullan arguing for Dickens and historian Simon Schama arguing for Tolstoy. Bringing their arguments to life with readings we had Tom Hiddleston, star of Marvel's Thor and The Avengers, and Zawe Ashton, acclaimed for her roles in F...

For 15 years, the power of the spoken word has been at the heart of Intelligence Squared’s mission. Argument and debate, we believe, can move, persuade and create real change. Now, in these anxious and divided times, we held a special event that celebrated the positive, transformative force of an...

They are the titans of the spy novel, who have elevated thrillers to the level of literary fiction. Much imitated, much adapted by the big and small screens, Ian Fleming and John Le Carré have painted our picture of post-war espionage: Fleming through the dashing figure of James Bond, with his lu...

‘I believe fiction has a strange power, a profound weirdness, that enables it to destabilise the collective imaginings we inherit and reproduce’ – Mohsin Hamid

Mohsin Hamid is the internationally bestselling author of the novels The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Exit West. In September he came to...

Umberto Eco was in conversation with Paul Holdengräber, Director of LIVE at the New York Public Library.

Their wide-ranging conversation in part focused on Eco's latest work of fiction, The Prague Cemetery. The book is an historical pseudo-reconstruction set in a 19th-century Europe teeming with...

Novelists worship him. Critics fall over themselves to explain his genius. His celebrity fans say his books are like drugs. ‘I just read 200 pages and I need the next volume like crack. It’s completely blown my mind,’ Zadie Smith tweeted. What they’re all raving about is Karl Ove Knausgaard’s bes...

There’s a new school of history that’s revolutionising the way we look at the past. For centuries, our history has been taught in separate chunks, with the classical, European world divided from China and the East. This traditional, somewhat lazy history of civilisation, zeroing in on the Western...

Filmed at the Royal Geographical Society on 30th June 2008.

What is it about Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol that has enchanted the public since its publication in 1843? Few people are as well placed to answer that question than John Mullan and Simon Callow. Mullan is a professor of English literature, whose recent book, The Artful Dickens, reveals the...

Hercules, Prometheus, Pandora. The compelling characters of Greek mythology continue to fascinate readers thousands of years after their stories were first told. In February 2023 leading classicist Sarah Iles Johnston came to Intelligence Squared to discuss their enduring popularity and also to p...

Human beings have been telling stories for thousands of years, but what actually makes for a good story? Authors have been trying to settle on the great principles of compelling writing for as long as people have been writing. Yet, as Deepa Anappara and Taymour Soomro argue, something has gone am...

In an age where the line between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation seems ever more blurred, can anyone actually own a culture? On April 24, acclaimed author and public intellectual Martin Puchner comes to Intelligence Squared to talk about the themes of his new book Culture: A New ...

For too long our schools and universities have excluded people of colour from the canon of great writers. All students, whatever their heritage, should be able to see themselves reflected in the books they read. In our increasingly diverse society that means that Plato and Socrates, Locke and Hum...

Messalina was the third wife of the Emperor Claudius and one of the most notorious women of the Roman world. Historians Tacitus and Suetonius wrote that the Empress Messalina was 'a ruthless and sexually insatiable schemer.' The stories they told about her included nightly visits to a brothel and...

What is it to imagine exactly? How do we go about it, and why is it so important that we imagine for ourselves? On July 3 author and Condé Nast Britain managing director Albert Read comes to Intelligence Squared to explain that the imagination is not just the preserve of artists and creatives but...

Sam McAlister is the woman who secured the infamous Newsnight interview with Prince Andrew, when he claimed to Emily Maitlis that he was in a Pizza Express in Woking on the night Virginia Giuffre alleges he slept with her. The interview made headlines around the world and had a serious impact on ...

What was Rome like during its zenith? Find out on July 11 when acclaimed historian and co-host of The Rest Is History podcast Tom Holland comes to Intelligence Squared to paint a vivid picture of Rome during the Pax Romana, when Rome was the world’s great superpower. Drawing on his new book Pax: ...

Can we love the art of monstrous men? Can we truly separate the art from the artist? Should we boycott their work or should we still appreciate their genius despite their actions?

To answer these questions author and critic Claire Dederer came to Intelligence Squared in July 24. In conversation...

For almost 40 years, the Parthenon Marbles, or Elgin Marbles as they are also known, have been at the centre of the great restitution debate. Taken from Greece in contested circumstances by Lord Elgin in the 19th century, the marble sculptures that were part of the Parthenon and other structures ...