A new constitutional order is coming. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: The Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. Credit: Lane Erickson / Alamy Stock Photo
Erica Benner applies ancient wisdom to modern problems in her new book Adventures in Democracy: The Turbulent World of People Power. She shares her insights with EI's Deputy Editor, Alastair Benn. Image: Gathering of the Areopagus, a deliberative court that met in the open air in ancient Athens. Credit: North Wind Picture Archives / Alamy Stock Photo
‘Democracy’ is in Sweden built on a basis fundamentally different from the one associated with the development of liberal democracy in the West. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Midsummer Dance by Swedish artist Anders Zorn (1860-1920) painted in 1897. A classic of Swedish art history showing traditional folk dancing in the Dalarna countryside in the extended summer evening light. Credit: Universal Art Archive / Alamy Stock Photo
Dominic Sandbrook profiles Jesse Ventura, the former Navy SEAL and WWE champion who won Minnesota’s governorship in 1999 on an anti-elite ticket. His transition from showbiz to politics was a precursor of the age of Trump – but ’the Body’ was no ordinary populist. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura yells to the crowd at his People's Inauguration in Minneapolis. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo
What is the future of the European Union? The EU is sui generis. It certainly cannot be a nation state. Nor is it destined to turn into a Staatsnation or willed nation. Then what? Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: European Union flags. Credit: Brian Lawrence / Alamy Stock Photo
EI's Paul Lay and Alastair Benn ask: do we really live in an age of upheaval? Image: Turner's Vesuvius in Eruption. Credit: Artefact / Alamy Stock Photo
The current violence and turmoil in the Middle East is expressive of a conflict between rival ideas, between the modern nation state and an old, historical concept of an Islamic caliphate. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Abdel Nasser at a rally after the rupture of relations with Syria. Credit: colaimages / Alamy Stock Photo
James Hardie on the violinist-composer who mixed the sacred and profane in his fantastical music, a lost genius of the 17th century. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: A print of Heinrich Biber. Credit: The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock Photo
Jingoism was a natural offshoot of late Victorian imperialism. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Poster for a British imperial railway company. Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo
A small but riveting exhibition at London's National Gallery tells the dramatic story of the troubled Renaissance master's 'last' painting. Image: The Martyrdom of St Ursula, 1610. Credit: incamerastock / Alamy Stock Photo
What is a nation, what is its significance, and to what problems of life is its persistence a response? Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Lucas Cranach's The Crossing of the Red Sea, 1530. Credit: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo
Vanessa Harding on the God-fearing diarist Nehemiah Wallington whose personality was far removed from the cosmopolitanism of Samuel Pepys, his fast-living contemporary. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: An excerpt from Nehemiah Wallington's diary, dated 1654. Credit: Folger Shakespeare Library.
The biggest division in modern society is between the meritocracy and the people, the cognitive elite and the masses, the exam-passers and the exam-flunkers. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Caricature of a Cambridge University library in the Georgian era. Credit: Thomas Rowlandson / Alamy Stock Photo
Self-interest, imperial competition and new threats in Europe - T.G. Otte examines the complex 120-year long history of the Entente Cordiale with EI's senior editor, Paul Lay. Image: First prize winner at the Covent Garden fancy dress ball in 1905, a lady dressed in an elaborate costume as the Entente Cordiale. Credit: Chronicle / Alamy Stock Photo
How did our ancestors think? Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: A play is performed in an ancient Greek theatre. Credit: Classic Image / Alamy Stock Photo
Peter Frankopan on the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene who, banished to a convent for her political ambition, devoted her gifts of observation to charting the fortunes of her father's empire – etching her legacy as Europe's first female historian. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: Anna Komnene, a Byzantine princess and scholar. Credit: history_docu_photo / Alamy Stock Photo
There is no linear, moral progress in knowledge and science. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Triple-microscope made by the optician Camille Sebastien Nachet in Paris. Credit: gameover / Alamy Stock Photo
EI's Deputy Editor Alastair Benn speaks to Suzanne Raine, visiting professor in the Department of War Studies at King's College London, about the evolution of the terrorist threat and its long history. Image: Anarchist outrage at the Liceo theatre in Barcelona, 1893. Credit: Photo 12 / Alamy Stock Photo
The mistake many Western countries make is to take Russia largely at face value. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Nesting Russian dolls showing former leaders. Credit: Mr Standfast / Alamy Stock Photo
Gillian Clark on Saint Monica, mother to Augustine of Hippo and lionized by the Latin Church, a women of many names and many more mysteries. Read by Sebastian Brown. Image: Saint Augustine and his mother, Saint Monica. Credit:: Carlo Bollo / Alamy Stock Photo
Rod SS
A very interesting and thought provoking series of podcasts. I also enjoy the excellent narration.
Andrew
why do Americans persist with the idea that their 2 months of incompetent input at the end of the great war is what defeated the Germans. just deluded and bizarre.
Andrew
what an awful monologue. misuse of statistics. misinterpretation of speeches. select I've quoting. nothing at all to say on China. useless. make use of your time elsewhere than listening to that. take care.