Intelligence Squared

This is an episode from a new podcast strand launched by Intelligence Squared called How I Found My Voice. Presented by the prominent BBC journalist Samira Ahmed, the podcast explores how some of the world's greatest artists and thinkers became such compelling – and unique – communicators. In this episode Samira Ahmed speaks to poet and activist Benjamin Zephaniah. From racist attacks and police brutality to receiving a letter from Bob Marley telling him that Britain needs him, Zephaniah talks about the moments that shaped and inspired his voice. To hear more episodes of How I Found My Voice go to https://play.acast.com/s/howifoundmyvoice.  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

24 Sep 201948min

Mindfulness – the psychological practice of bringing one's attention to the present moment through meditation – has gone mainstream. It has been enthusiastically co-opted by Silicon Valley and other large corporations as well as schools, governments and even the U.S. military. But what if, instead of changing the world, mindfulness has become a banal form of capitalist spirituality that mindlessly avoids social and political transformation, reinforcing the status quo? That's the view of Ronald Purser, Professor of Management at San Francisco State University, Buddhist practitioner and author of McMindfulness. In this episode of the Intelligence Squared podcast, he was interviewed by Helen Lewis of The Atlantic on his radical critique of the mindfulness industry.  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

20 Sep 201935min

This is an episode from a new podcast strand launched by Intelligence Squared called How I Found My Voice. Presented by the prominent BBC journalist Samira Ahmed, the podcast explores how some of the world's greatest artists and thinkers became such compelling – and unique – communicators. Samira Ahmed speaks to bestselling Turkish novelist Elif Shafak. From keeping a childhood diary and learning different languages to being taken to court on charges of 'insulting Turkishness' through the words of her fictional characters, Shafak talks about the moments that shaped and inspired her voice. To hear more episodes of How I Found My Voice go to https://play.acast.com/s/howifoundmyvoice.  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

17 Sep 201945min

Salman Rushdie is one of the world’s greatest storytellers. He came to the Intelligence Squared stage to discuss his career, his life and his new novel Quichotte with the BBC’s Razia Iqbal. The book is a wild ride through modern America — a society on the verge of moral and spiritual collapse — and examines racism, father–son relationships, the opioid crisis, cyber-spies and the end of the world. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

13 Sep 20191h 5min

This is an episode from a new podcast strand launched by Intelligence Squared called How I Found My Voice. Presented by the prominent BBC journalist Samira Ahmed, the podcast explores how some of the world's greatest artists and thinkers became such compelling – and unique – communicators. In this episode Samira speaks to the BBC's Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet. Renowned as a foreign correspondent in some of the toughest war zones in the past thirty years, Doucet speaks about the moments that shaped her voice from growing up in a small Canadian town to reporting from the front lines in Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen. To hear more episodes of How I Found My Voice go to https://play.acast.com/s/howifoundmyvoice.  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

10 Sep 201949min

Are video games harmful to society? Recently the World Health Organisation classified 'gaming disorder' as a clinical mental health disorder and a danger to public health. But how real is the threat of video game addiction, and what about the potential benefits that gaming can bring to all of us? In this episode of the Intelligence Squared podcast we were joined by Pete Etchells, researcher into the psychological effects of video games and author of Lost In A Good Game: Why We Play Video Games and What They Can Do For Us. He was interviewed by Ros Urwin of The Sunday Times. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

6 Sep 201948min

This is an episode from a new podcast strand launched by Intelligence Squared called How I Found My Voice. Presented by the prominent BBC journalist Samira Ahmed, the podcast explores how some of the world's greatest artists and thinkers became such compelling – and unique – communicators. In this episode, Samira speaks to the best-selling author Sir Philip Pullman, most famous for the acclaimed His Dark Materials fantasy trilogy. From reading Rudyard Kipling as a child to discovering the power of poetry and how to be a storyteller as a teacher, they discuss the moments that shaped and inspired his voice. To hear more episodes of How I Found My Voice go to https://play.acast.com/s/howifoundmyvoice.  Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

2 Sep 201943min

We live in an age of "surveillance capitalism" - where technologies that were meant to liberate us have deepened inequality and stoked divisions. Big tech companies gather our information online and sell it to the highest bidder, and entire industries now depend not only on predicting our behaviour but modifying it too. That's the view of Shoshana Zuboff, Harvard professor and author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. In this week's episode of the Intelligence Squared podcast she was interviewed by Rosamund Urwin on the risks to our freedoms in this new era of human civilisation. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/intelligencesquared. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

30 Aug 201946min