Intelligence Squared U.K. Debates on Audio & Video

Now Goleman comes to Intelligence Squared for an exclusive talk on the themes of his latest book, Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence.

Intelligence Squared is the world’s leading forum for debate and intelligent discussion.

Nearly four centuries after his death, no writer has come close to matching Shakespeare’s understanding of the world – or his gift for dramatic poetry.

Jane Austen created the definitive picture of Georgian England -- a landscape of Palladian mansions and handsome parsonages, peopled by rigidly-divided classes.

If ever a politician got a bum rap it's Neville Chamberlain. He has gone down in history as the British prime minster whose policy of appeasement in the 1930s allowed the Nazis to flourish unopposed.

How much blame for the current troubles in the Middle East lies with the decisions made by the West in 1919 -- when the Ottoman Empire was carved up arbitrarily into the modern states we know today?

The English language is going to the dogs. "Between you and I" is just one of the howlers those of us with linguistic sensibilities have to endure.

Why are there so many Chinese maths and music prodigies? Because Chinese mothers believe schoolwork and music practice come first, that an A-minus is a bad grade…

Their wide-ranging conversation will in part focus on Eco's latest work of fiction, The Prague Cemetery.

From 2008: Gore Vidal in conversation with Melvyn Bragg. Filmed at the Royal Geographical Society.