EI Talks...

Each week, we interrogate the most important and contentious issues of our time. Hosted by Paul Lay and Alastair Benn.

A print of Gaza around 1880.

Episode 18

EI Talks… a deep history of Gaza

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by James Barr, Middle East expert, to discuss Gaza's...

October 27, 2023

Achilles and Memnon fighting on a 300 BC Greek vase.

Episode 17

EI Talks… The Iliad

A new translation of the Iliad is an opportunity to reassess the first great work of Europ...

October 20, 2023

Members of the Hamas Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

Episode 16

EI Talks… Israel’s harrowing week and the consequences for the Middle East

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn are joined by Suzanne Raine, national security and counter-terr...

October 16, 2023

Autumn on the Seine by Claude Monet (1840-1926).

Episode 15

EI Talks… Autumn

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn discuss the idea of Autumn, a season peculiarly rich in cultura...

October 6, 2023

Still from Stanley Kubrick's 1963 film Dr Strangelove.

Episode 14

EI Talks… the problems and perils of nuclear strategy

Paul Lay is joined by Francis J. Gavin, Director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Glob...

September 29, 2023

Carl von Clausewitz.

Episode 13

EI Talks… Clausewitz

Paul Lay is joined by the historian Sir Hew Strachan to discuss Vom Kriege, the military t...

September 22, 2023

During a campaign trip Senator John F. Kennedy greets a roadside crowd in Indiana.

Episode 12

EI Talks… JFK

JFK biographer Fredrik Logevall, in conversation with EI's Paul Lay and Iain Martin, discu...

September 14, 2023

French Rugby poster from the 1930s.

Episode 11

EI Talks… Rugby Union

Paul Lay and Alastair Benn put together an idiot's guide to Rugby Union. The World Cup, th...

September 8, 2023

Mick Jagger in 1975.

Episode 9

EI Talks… Mick Jagger at 80

As the Rolling Stones frontman enters his ninth decade, EI asks whether there is a future ...

July 27, 2023