Intelligence Squared

How can changing the way we breathe lower stress and blood pressure? Why is touch so important for premature babies and ICU patients? And what can our organs teach us about staying healthy?

Dr Giulia Enders, author of the multimillion-selling Gut, returns with a new book, Organ Speak — an exploration of the lungs, skin, immune system, muscles and brain, and the extraordinary ways our organs work together to keep us alive and well.

In this episode, she joins science communicator Dr Emma Yhnell to discuss how exercise really works, the hidden sophistication of the immune system, why humans evolved to sleep and dream, and whether AI can ever compete with the complexity of the human brain.

Dr Giulia Enders is a physician and author. Her new book, Organ Speak: What it Really Means to Listen to Our Bodies, is available online and in stores now.

Dr Emma Yhnell is an academic and science communicator.
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Are we really alone in the universe?

The question of whether there is extraterrestrial life is one of our oldest questions. And few nations on Earth are more captivated by the prospect of life on Mars than the United States. President Barack Obama recently made headlines by stating he believes aliens are real. And around 41% of Americans believe aliens have made contact with planet Earth.

In May 2026, Orwell Prize-winning journalist Daniel Lavelle joined acclaimed filmmaker and podcaster Jon Ronson to discuss why humans, and Americans in particular, are so obsessed with encountering aliens.

Drawing from Lavelle’s new book, Chasing Aliens, they explored an extraordinary road trip through America’s UFO heartlands – a journey that led Lavelle from fringe believers and interdimensional crystal rituals at the clandestine Skinwalker Ranch, all the way to Harvard astrophysicists and the corridors of government itself. He revealed what he found: not just the truth about UFOs, but something far more unexpected – a deeply moving story about loneliness, belief, and our unshakeable need not to be alone in the cosmos.

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Are we really alone in the universe?

The question of whether there is extraterrestrial life is one of our oldest questions. And few nations on Earth are more captivated by the prospect of life on Mars than the United States. President Barack Obama recently made headlines by stating he believes aliens are real. And around 41% of Americans believe aliens have made contact with planet Earth.

In May 2026, Orwell Prize-winning journalist Daniel Lavelle joined acclaimed filmmaker and podcaster Jon Ronson to discuss why humans, and Americans in particular, are so obsessed with encountering aliens.

Drawing from Lavelle’s new book, Chasing Aliens, they explored an extraordinary road trip through America’s UFO heartlands – a journey that led Lavelle from fringe believers and interdimensional crystal rituals at the clandestine Skinwalker Ranch, all the way to Harvard astrophysicists and the corridors of government itself. He revealed what he found: not just the truth about UFOs, but something far more unexpected – a deeply moving story about loneliness, belief, and our unshakeable need not to be alone in the cosmos.

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Image 1: https://www.war.gov/UFO/#NASA-UAP-VM6-Apollo-17-1972

Image 2: https://www.war.gov/UFO/#NASA-UAP-VM6-Apollo-17-1972

"GIMBAL" video: video: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gimbal_The_First_Official_UAP_Footage_from_the_USG_for_Public_Release.webm

"GOFAST" video: Video: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Go_Fast_Official_USG_Footage_of_UAP_for_Public_Release.webm

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Has far-right thinking entered mainstream politics in the UK? 

In 2025, Britain saw its largest-ever far-right rally, following a summer of flag-waving protests. Then, in May 2026, local elections reshaped England’s political landscape: Labour and the Conservatives suffered heavy losses, while Reform UK surged in popularity.

In this episode, author and journalist Daniel Trilling joins academic Sophie Scott-Brown to examine the rise of populist rightwing nationalism and its growing influence on mainstream politics. While Reform UK remains more moderate than parties like Germany’s AfD or Viktor Orbán’s movement in Hungary, Trilling explores its shift to the right on issues such as immigration — and how populist movements tap into feelings of national decline, humiliation, and the desire for strong, authoritarian leadership.

In a wide-ranging conversation, they discuss why populist right politics is gaining ground, the decline of the two-party system, the dangers of our current political moment, and what can be done to change course. 

Daniel Trilling is a journalist and author, who writes about nationalism, migration and human rights for publications including the London Review of Books, the Guardian and the New York Times. His latest book is If We Tolerate This: How the British Establishment Made the Far Right Respectable. 

Sophie Scott Brown is a historian and philosopher specialising in modern intellectual history and political thought.

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What does it mean to mourn a shared life?

In this episode, essayist and novelist Siri Hustvedt speaks to book critic Mythili Rao about Ghost Stories. Her most personal work yet, it is a searing and intimate meditation on grief, memory and enduring love, written in the aftermath of the death of her husband, writer, poet and filmmaker Paul Auster.

Weaving together journal entries, letters, emails and fragments of Auster’s final writing, Hustvedt reflects on four decades of love, intellectual companionship and family life in New York.

Together they discuss grief not as a single event but as an altered experience of time, memory and presence. Hustvedt discusses the role of writing in mourning, the value of nurturing an inner life in an age of constant distraction, and the intersection of personal grief and political dread in contemporary America.

Siri Hustvedt is a novelist, essayist and poet. Her books include What I Loved, The Blazing World and Memories of the Future. Her latest book is Ghost Stories.

Mythili Rao is a journalist, book critic and podcaster.

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