Shiraz Maher examines how the fallout from the US-Iran conflict is reshaping the Gulf States and the wider Middle East, with EI’s Jack Dickens.

Image: Close-up vintage map of the Middle East. Credit: Alamy

Mega-influencers shape the public imagination. Phillip Dolitsky and Luke Moon explore a world where narrative matters more than fact. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: Still from a film version of George Orwell's 1984. Credit: Allstar Picture Library Limited

Gordon Corera contends that to truly understand Vladimir Putin, you have to understand the phenomenon of Chekism. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: Vladimir Putin's East German Stasi identification card issued while he worked as a KGB agent in Dresden in 1985. Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd

Christopher Harding on the birth of Tokyo. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: A woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige. From One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 1856. Credit: incamerastock / Alamy Stock Photo

Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Oxford University, explores Hamlet and its rich critical history with EI’s Alastair Benn and Paul Lay.

Image: Laurence Olivier plays Hamlet in 1948. Credit: Masheter Movie Archive

Rana Mitter explores Xi Jinping’s personal and ideological mindset in conversation with EI’s Jack Dickens.

Image: Then Vice President Xi Jinping makes an address in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. Credit: Imago

Ioannes Chountis de Fabbri on reading as an antidote to the restless spirit of the industrial age. Read by Leighton Pugh.

Image: Edvard Munch's painting of Friedrich Nietzsche. Credit: Darling Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

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