Long-view politics, history, and power.
The EI Podcast treats current affairs as the latest chapter in a much longer story. Its interviews and audio essays move from liberalism, empire, and identity to Iran, Yemen, Latin America, and American power.
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The EI Podcast approaches politics and culture as problems with long memories. It is not a rapid-fire current affairs show. Its preferred form is the guided conversation, with editors setting out the stakes before asking guests to build a larger argument. That gives the series a composed, essay-like rhythm. Recent episodes move across the Houthis in Yemen, Iran’s use of Scottish nationalism, Trump’s imperial worldview, British naval strategy after Waterloo, and the strained future of liberalism. The range is wide, but the method is consistent. Present crises are placed beside older doctrines, imperial habits, literary traditions, religious conflicts, and strategic fears. A discussion of Western identity becomes a debate about the canon, medieval thought, schools, race, and belonging. An episode on Latin America frames Venezuela, Cuba, sanctions, oil, and security services as part of a renewed American hemispheric strategy. An audio essay on epic poetry asks whether history has lost a form capable of carrying awe, tragedy, and public meaning. The show is calm on the surface, but its subjects are rarely gentle. It often returns to war, state power, minority movements, autocracy, terrorism, migration, drugs, sanctions, and the pressure placed on liberal institutions. The guests are allowed room to explain. The questions are long because the assumptions matter. That patience is the show’s strength. It does not flatten geopolitics into personalities or culture into mood. It treats ideas as active forces, capable of shaping armies, schools, trade routes, empires, and elections. The best fit is a listener who wants argument, context, and historical depth without theatrical outrage. The EI Podcast offers a serious editorial map of a world where old conflicts keep finding new instruments.
Made for: For listeners who want serious political and cultural analysis with historical depth. It suits people who prefer guest-led argument, patient context, and geopolitical complexity over quick reaction.
What sets it apart: The series stands out by pairing current conflicts with older intellectual and strategic traditions. Its mix of guided interviews and audio essays gives it more shape than a loose expert chat.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
The EI Podcast uses patient guest interviews and historical distinctions to clarify political ideas, foreign policy choices, and the forces shaping international conflict.
The EI Podcast builds its interviews around a defining question, then lets a guest establish the history and distinctions needed to answer it.
Cuba's oil lifeline sits beside John Stuart Mill when you want more than a headline.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Marie Kortha Dauda links race, education, and the West's layered past in a patient conversation about inherited complexity.
The EI Podcast frames the West's identity anxieties through a question that can seem casual until Marie Kortha Dauda explains why "Where are you really from?" may land as an aggression when put to someone who does not look like the average Caucasian.
A focused EI Podcast discussion of Venezuela, Cuba, and Washington's pressure campaign in its near abroad.
The EI Podcast frames Washington's renewed attention to Latin America around a concrete first move: the Trump administration's January operation in Caracas, which captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and brought him to the United States.
A serious, historically minded case for renewing liberalism under pressure from polarization, autocracy, and its own establishment habits.
Adrian Waldridge treats liberalism as a tradition worth defending precisely because it is so difficult to pin down. With Paul Leigh, he moves through its American, British, and European meanings, the tolerant fudge he associates with Erasmus, and the harder question of whether…
A clear historical reading of the pressures, continuities and ambitions shaping Trump's second-term foreign policy.
Jack Dickens asks historian Brendan Sims whether Donald Trump's second-term foreign policy amounts to more than a rush of separate initiatives.
A measured look at Kissinger's political power and the reputation that outlived it.
Henry Kissinger's public legacy is framed through Thomas A. Schwartz's account of him as a political figure, not just a foreign policy strategist.
A patient, historically grounded guide to the Houthis' roots and Red Sea pressure campaign.
This episode treats the Houthis as more than a shorthand for Iran-backed disruption. Jack Dickens's conversation with Elizabeth Kendall starts in Yemen's Zaydi, or "Fiver," Shia tradition, using its ideas of leadership, succession, and authority to explain why the movement's…
A near-daily politics rundown from Dana Goldberg and Alison Gill on Trump-era legal fights.
Three Slate journalists debate the week's politics, plus live shows and author interviews.
Mike Pesca opens with a monologue, then digs into Supreme Court ethics and Iran policy.
Juliet Samuel argues that the greatest threats to liberty come from within our own societies, not from foreign regimes.
Thomas Schwartz, author of 'Henry Kissinger and American Power', discusses Kissinger's legacy a year after his death.
The EI Podcast explores the Houthis' role in the Middle East conflict since October 2023, with host Jack Dickens interviewing expert Elizabeth Kendall.
A discussion on China's rise, its entry into the WTO, and its current trade relationship with the US, featuring insights from a foreign correspondent and an editor.
This episode explores the myth of Venice as a unique bastion of liberty during the Renaissance, tracing its origins and evolution in civic culture.
Andrew Ross Sorkin discusses his book '1929' about the Wall Street Crash, comparing it to the 2008 crisis and exploring causes, consequences, and lessons for today.
Marie Kortha Dauda discusses her book 'Not Your Victim' and argues for embracing the complexity of the past and heritage, challenging simplistic views on race and identity.
Rob McHare investigates Iran's use of Scottish nationalism as a tool to undermine the UK, recounting a protest in Yazd.
A discussion on the Trump administration's assertive geopolitical strategy in Latin America, focusing on the capture of Venezuelan President Maduro and escalating pressure on Cuba.
An expert interview exploring the Houthis' role in the Middle East conflict, their motivations, and their impact on regional stability.
Michael Oslin explores how epic poetry could revive history by capturing the emotional truth of tragic events like war and financial crises, potentially bridging divides in understanding the past.
Paul Leigh interviews Adrian Waldridge, Global Business Columnist at Bloomberg and author of "Centrists of the World Unite, The Lost Genius of Liberalism," about what liberalism means.
The EI Podcast’s “Trump’s imperial worldview” follows Donald Trump from the 1980s to his 2025 second inauguration, with Jack Dickens interviewing Cambridge historian Brendan Sims.
The EI Podcast examines how the Iran-US conflict is testing Gulf states whose economic plans depend on stability around the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-fifth of global crude oil trade passes.
Andrew Lambert discusses his book on British grand strategy from 1815 to 1914, focusing on how Britain managed Europe after the Napoleonic Wars.