Episodes

  • EI Weekly Listen — Julian Jackson on De Gaulle’s world in motion

    EI Weekly Listen — Julian Jackson on De Gaulle’s world in motion
    Jun 21 2024
    Part statesman, part prophet, Charles de Gaulle knew instinctively that political success and failure are inevitably interlinked, and that history would be the ultimate judge of both. Read by Helen Lloyd.

    Image: The President of France Charles de Gaulle marches through the streets under the Arc de Triomphe in 1944. Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo
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    18 mins
  • EI Talks... John Law and financial crises with Kwasi Kwarteng

    EI Talks... John Law and financial crises with Kwasi Kwarteng
    Jun 20 2024
    EI's Iain Martin is joined by Kwasi Kwarteng, historian and former Chancellor of the United Kingdom, to discuss the turbulent life of the 18th century financial speculator John Law, whose innovative ideas were credited with bringing Ancien Régime France to the brink of ruin. There are echoes of what happened when the Truss government tried its own financial experiment, he acknowledges.

    Image: A cartoon of John Law (1671–1729), the Scottish economist who was appointed Controller General of Finances of France under King Louis XV. Credit: PRISMA ARCHIVO / Alamy Stock Photo
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    28 mins
  • EI Portraits — Laura Freeman on Helen Sutherland, brave cultivator of the beautiful

    EI Portraits — Laura Freeman on Helen Sutherland, brave cultivator of the beautiful
    Jun 19 2024
    Laura Freeman profiles Helen Sutherland, an isolated, austere, and fastidious heiress who dedicated herself to art. Read by Sebastian Brown.

    Image: Woman Playing a Piano, by Winifred Nicholson. Her work was championed by Helen Sutherland. Credit: Paul Quezada-Neiman / Alamy Stock Photo
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    13 mins
  • EI Weekly Listen — Josef Joffe on Germany, the engine that couldn't

    EI Weekly Listen — Josef Joffe on Germany, the engine that couldn't
    Jun 14 2024
    Celebrated as predestined shepherd in the glory days of Angela Merkel, Germany in the 2020s is an uncertain giant who has defied expectations, good or bad. Read by Leighton Pugh.

    Image: The top of the Reichstag Building. Credit: Artur Bogacki / Alamy Stock Photo
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    23 mins
  • EI Talks... women of the ancient world with Daisy Dunn

    EI Talks... women of the ancient world with Daisy Dunn
    Jun 13 2024
    The leading classicist Daisy Dunn joins EI's Paul Lay to discuss her new book, The Missing Thread: A New History of the Ancient World Through the Women Who Shaped It.

    Image: Nikolaos Gyzis, a 19th Century painter, depicts Sappho playing the lyre. Credit: Photo 12 / Alamy Stock Photo
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    37 mins
  • EI Weekly Listen — Maurizio Viroli on how we can learn from history

    EI Weekly Listen — Maurizio Viroli on how we can learn from history
    Jun 7 2024
    We cannot afford not to rediscover the fine art, nowadays almost forgotten, of learning from history. Read by Leighton Pugh.

    Image: 16th Century engraving by Theodoor Galle, titled The Printing of Books. Credit: The Granger Collection / Alamy Stock Photo
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    18 mins
  • EI Portraits — James Barr on George McGhee, American father to Britain’s Suez Crisis

    EI Portraits — James Barr on George McGhee, American father to Britain’s Suez Crisis
    Jun 6 2024
    James Barr profiles the debonair and open-faced diplomat, George McGhee, whose shuttle diplomacy helped accelerate Britain's decline as a player in the Middle East. Read by Sebastian Brown.

    Image: President John F. Kennedy (left, in rocking chair) meets the newly-appointed US Ambassador to West Germany, George McGhee. Credit: Gibson Moss / Alamy Stock Photo
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    13 mins
  • EI Weekly Listen — Philip Bobbitt on the decay and renewal of the US constitutional order

    EI Weekly Listen — Philip Bobbitt on the decay and renewal of the US constitutional order
    May 31 2024
    A new constitutional order is coming. Read by Leighton Pugh.

    Image: The Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. Credit: Lane Erickson / Alamy Stock Photo
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    34 mins