The EI Podcast

Ranking history

About the show

Latest episodes

• Napoleon’s nest of vipers

  October 8, 2026 · 45 min

  Napoleon appointed a total of 26 Marshals between 1804 and 1815, and they became crucial to his military success. Yet only two of them fought alongside him at the Battle of Waterloo. Andrew Roberts sits down with Paul Lay to discuss his…

• Russia’s war on Ukrainian science

  October 1, 2026 · 38 min

  Earlier this week, a Russian drone strike hit the National Academy of Sciences in central Kyiv, bringing terror to the historic centre of Ukraine’s capital and damaging a symbol of national independence. Paul Josephson speaks to Jack…

• Space and the new clash of civilisations

  September 24, 2026 · 42 min

  Earlier this month, the US confirmed for the first time that it had deployed a space weapon in Earth’s orbit. John B. Sheldon and Jack Dickens discuss the fight for extraterrestrial supremacy.  Image: A mural of a Soviet-era cosmonaut in…

• Reinventing Disraeli

  September 17, 2026 · 59 min

  What did Benjamin Disraeli believe and why is he still invoked as a prophet of modern conservatism? Emily Jones speaks to Paul Lay about her new book, ‘The Disraeli Myth: The Making of a Conservative Tradition’. Image: Portrait of Benjamin…

• The scramble for the Middle East

  September 10, 2026 · 48 min

  Simon Sebag Montefiore speaks to Jack Dickens about his new book, ‘The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East’.  Image: British troops on parade at Jaffa Gate after seizing military control of the region from the Ottoman Empire…

• The novel in Britain: from cover to cover

  September 3, 2026 · 1 hr 8 min

  Philip Hensher speaks to Alastair Benn about his new book, ‘A History of the Novel in Britain’, a stylish and very personal survey of a great tradition. Image: Portrait of Algernon Talmage circa 1915, by Hilda Fearon. Credit: Alamy

• Journeys in Europe’s grey zone

  August 27, 2026 · 37 min

  Hannah Lucinda Smith speaks to Caitlin Allen about her new book, ‘Hinterlands: Journeys through Europe’s Unfinished Frontiers’. Image: United Nations Buffer Zone near the ghost town resort of Varosha, Famagusta, Cyprus. Credit: Alamy

• Machiavelli still matters

  August 20, 2026 · 37 min

  Stephen Bowd speaks to Paul Lay about why, 500 years after his death, Niccolò Machiavelli remains one of the world’s most vital political philosophers. Image: Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli (1570). Credit: Alamy