Intelligence Squared

Do you feel as if there is often too much to do in too little time? We are all familiar with overwhelm – an unsettling sense that it is just impossible to keep up with the demands of everyday life.

In January 2026 Claudia Hammond – psychologist, award-winning writer and presenter of BBC Radio 4’s All in the Mind – came to the Intelligence Squared stage to share her scientific insights into how we can all live better and avoid fatigue.

Drawing from her new book, Overwhelmed, she provided a practical toolkit, using the best evidence from psychology and neuroscience, to offer strategies to help us tackle procrastination, imposter syndrome, perfectionism and more.

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How does Greece’s Byzantine and Ottoman past shape its future?

In this episode, Helen Carr speaks to journalist and author Sean Matthews about Greece’s shifting geopolitical role and alliances.

Caught between wars raging in both Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Greece is an island of relative stability. Popularly considered the cradle of Western civilization, this is a Christian Orthodox state on the edge of the Islamic world. And, after a half-century of integration into NATO and the EU, Greece is now reabsorbing into the Near East, as the West fractures and new Middle Eastern powers rise. As Greek-American journalist Sean Matthews argues, the country’s importance as a cultural and geopolitical hybrid is growing.

Sean is a Greek-American journalist who has covered a wide swath of the Middle East. 

He is a correspondent with Middle East Eye, and has also written for The Economist and Al-Monitor, among others. The New Byzantines: The Rise of Greece and Return of the Near East is his first book.

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Alan Davies is one of the UK’s most-loved comedians best known for starring in the BBC series Jonathan Creek, and for his regular appearances on comedy quiz show QI since 2003. 

In September 2025 he came to Intelligence Squared for an evening of laughs and reflection on his life in comedy and TV. Drawing on the themes of his new memoir White Male Stand-Up he shared some of the funniest moments from his career, revealed some of the highs and lows that have shaped him as a person and answer questions on how the world of white male stand-ups is changing in 2025 and beyond. 

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Alan Davies is one of the UK’s most-loved comedians best known for starring in the BBC series Jonathan Creek, and for his regular appearances on comedy quiz show QI since 2003. 

In September 2025 he came to Intelligence Squared for an evening of laughs and reflection on his life in comedy and TV. Drawing on the themes of his new memoir White Male Stand-Up he shared some of the funniest moments from his career, revealed some of the highs and lows that have shaped him as a person and answer questions on how the world of white male stand-ups is changing in 2025 and beyond. 

---

This is the first instalment of a two-part episode. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full ad free conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more.

For £4.99 per month you'll also receive:

- Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts

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- 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events 

... 

Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99:

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It is over ten years since the release of Spike Jonze’s film Her, in which a lonely man begins a relationship with a computer programme voiced by Scarlett Johansson. Since then, AI companions have surged in popularity. A new generation is now growing up with large language models and the chatbots they power, with AI entities playing the role of friends, lovers, mentors and therapists.

If this all feels like a Black Mirror episode come to life, says author James Muldoon, you are not far off the mark. For a new book, Love Machines, he has talked to hundreds of users, developers, psychologists  — and synthetic personas  — to understand this new world of human-AI relationships. In this episode, he talks to Carl Miller about these new forms of love, intimacy and connection; the unregulated corporations seeking to profit from the ‘loneliness economy’; and what the rise of artificial intelligence in our personal lives might mean for our relationships with one another.

James Muldoon is a sociologist whose work explores the human side of artificial intelligence and other technologies. His new book, Love Machines, is available to buy now.

If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all our full conversations, plus all of our Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more.

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