The EI Podcast

Jonathan Sumption surveys the last generation of spies before the creation of Europe's professional intelligence services. Read by Leighton Pugh.
Image: King Charles VI of France prepares for war. Credit: Science History Images / Alamy Stock Photo

EI's Jack Dickens is joined by Charlie Laderman, associate professor at the University of Florida’s Hamilton Center, to discuss how the United States’ hemispheric ambitions emerged from great-power competition – and why the Monroe Doctrine still matters.
Image: A satirical cartoon lampooning the expansion of the Monroe Doctrine. Credit: Photo 12

Alastair Benn is joined by Leo Damrosch, author of Storyteller: The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson, to explore the life and legacy of the celebrated Scottish writer, including one of his most enduring literary achievements, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Image: 'Robert Louis Stevenson' by John Singer Sargent, 1885. Credit: IanDagnall Computing

EI's Paul Lay is joined by Helen Thompson to discuss US–China rivalry, the growing importance of the Western Hemisphere in geopolitics, and the inherent instability of a multipolar world.

Image: Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Victory Parade marking the 70th anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany in the Second World War. Credit: Associated Press

EI's Paul Lay is joined by neuroscientist Nicholas Wright to discuss how the brain shapes war, and how war shapes the brain.

Image: The brain as a weapon of war. Credit: fStop Images GmbH