Episodes

  • Jeremy Jennings on liberty in the shadow of Bonaparte

    Jeremy Jennings on liberty in the shadow of Bonaparte
    Jan 17 2025
    Benjamin Constant’s considered response not only to the mass murder inflicted by the French Revolution, but to the attempt to reduce the whole French population to the condition of willing slaves under Bonaparte’s First Empire, provides a diagnosis of the character of many subsequent totalitarian regimes. Read by Helen Lloyd.

    Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

    Image: Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine were crowned Emperor and Empress of France on 2 December 1804. Credit: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo
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    19 mins
  • Francis J. Gavin on how 1970s California created the modern world

    Francis J. Gavin on how 1970s California created the modern world
    Jan 10 2025
    What happened in California in the 1970s played an outsized role in creating the world we live in today – both in the United States and in large parts of the globe – for better or worse. Read by Helen Lloyd.

    Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

    Image: 1970s commercial airline advert. Credit: ClassicStock / Alamy Stock Photo
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    22 mins
  • Alexander McCall Smith on the writer's right to speak freely

    Alexander McCall Smith on the writer's right to speak freely
    Dec 20 2024
    While we may think we have moved beyond the censorship of the past, writers' artistic freedoms are still constrained. Read by Helen Lloyd.

    Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

    Image: Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence was the subject of a watershed obscenity trial. Credit: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo.
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    18 mins
  • Kori Schake on the price of freedom

    Kori Schake on the price of freedom
    Dec 13 2024
    The arc of history only bends towards justice when people of goodwill grab hold of it and wrench it in the direction of justice. Read by Helen Lloyd.

    Image: The Freedom is Our Religion banner in Maidan Square, Kyiv. Credit: Ali Kerem Yucel / Alamy Stock Photo
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    18 mins
  • David Butterfield on Epicurus, Lucretius, and the myth of mythlessness

    David Butterfield on Epicurus, Lucretius, and the myth of mythlessness
    Dec 6 2024
    Myths frame and tailor the past in a way that can ground and stabilise a community, however large or small. By situating them within the fabric of history, myths provide a sense of tradition and belonging to rally around. Read by Helen Lloyd.

    Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

    Image: A statue of Romulus and Remus on the Capitoline Hill in Rome. Credit: Russell Kord / Alamy Stock Photo
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    22 mins
  • Elisabeth Braw on the importance of understanding the West's adversaries

    Elisabeth Braw on the importance of understanding the West's adversaries
    Nov 29 2024
    With deterrence and compellence becoming more crucial than they have been in over three decades, understanding what makes foreign leaders tick is of the utmost importance. Read by Helen Lloyd.

    Image: Silhouettes of Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. Credit: KLYONA / Alamy Stock Photo
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    19 mins
  • Henrik Meinander on Gustaf Mannerheim, leader of a free Finland

    Henrik Meinander on Gustaf Mannerheim, leader of a free Finland
    Nov 22 2024
    Gustaf Mannerheim's rise from a troubled youth to Finland's great wartime leader illustrates how leadership is forged by both personal traits and the unpredictable tides of history. Read by Helen Lloyd.

    Image: Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, centre, discusses strategy against the Russians at his field headquarters on the Finnish-Russian border, April 1942. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo
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    20 mins
  • Rory Medcalf on the Australian way of war and peace

    Rory Medcalf on the Australian way of war and peace
    Nov 15 2024
    Australia stands at the forefront of democratic resistance against China's expanding influence, reshaping its strategy and alliances to meet the challenges of a contested Indo-Pacific. Read by Helen Lloyd.

    Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit.

    Image: Two US Air Force B-2 Spirits fly alongside four Royal Australian Air Force EA-18G Growlers and a RAAF E-7A Wedgetail, August 2022. Credit: UPI / Alamy Stock Photo
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    27 mins