Episodes

  • EI Weekly Listen — Lars Trägårdh on the origins of Swedish democracy

    EI Weekly Listen — Lars Trägårdh on the origins of Swedish democracy
    May 24 2024
    ‘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
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    35 mins
  • EI Portraits — Jesse Ventura: the wrestling governor who blazed a trail for Trump

    EI Portraits — Jesse Ventura: the wrestling governor who blazed a trail for Trump
    May 23 2024
    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
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    15 mins
  • EI Weekly Listen — Josef Joffe on the future of the European Union

    EI Weekly Listen — Josef Joffe on the future of the European Union
    May 17 2024
    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
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    18 mins
  • EI Talks... the age of upheaval

    EI Talks... the age of upheaval
    May 17 2024
    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
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    45 mins
  • EI Weekly Listen — Simon Mayall on the history of the modern Middle East

    EI Weekly Listen — Simon Mayall on the history of the modern Middle East
    May 10 2024
    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
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    23 mins
  • EI Portraits — Heinrich Biber: composer of rapture and ravings

    EI Portraits — Heinrich Biber: composer of rapture and ravings
    May 9 2024
    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
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    10 mins
  • EI Weekly Listen — Lawrence James on the invention of jingoism

    EI Weekly Listen — Lawrence James on the invention of jingoism
    May 3 2024
    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
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    34 mins
  • EI Talks... Caravaggio

    EI Talks... Caravaggio
    May 2 2024
    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
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    37 mins