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The myth and magic of spy fiction
Are we living through a golden age of espionage drama? And what do spy stories tell us about the true nature of the secret world?
EI's Alastair Benn…
10 months, 4 weeks ago
How the GDR fell in love with the West
Citizens of the GDR were exposed to an idealised version of western freedoms made up of luxury shopping, blue jeans and cowboy flicks. Read by Helen …
11 months ago
Pittacus, the good tyrant
After unpromising beginnings and innumerable controversies, Pittacus, seventh-century ruler of Mytilene on Lesbos, should be remembered as one of the…
11 months ago
The power of shareholder democracy
The limited liability company remains the best vehicle for capitalistic endeavour. Read by Helen Lloyd.
Engelsberg Ideas is funded by the Axel and M…
11 months, 1 week ago
The dawn of the post-literate society
Is the era of mass literacy over? And what might a post-literate society look like?
EI's Alastair Benn is joined by Times columnist James Marriott a…
11 months, 1 week ago
What drives Vladimir Putin?
Putin’s justifications for invading Ukraine uncannily reflect the motivations of one of Russian literature’s most famous antiheroes, Dostoevsky's Rod…
11 months, 2 weeks ago
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, rocket man
The Russian recluse, a scientific self-starter who left school at 14, developed pioneering theories of space travel that anticipated the great feats …
11 months, 2 weeks ago
Liberty in the shadow of Bonaparte
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…
11 months, 3 weeks ago
The case for Classics
Is the study of Latin in peril? And what does the future hold for the ancient inheritance? EI's Alastair Benn is joined by Daisy Dunn, classicist and…
11 months, 3 weeks ago
How 1970s California created the modern world
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 part…
1 year ago