Intelligence Squared

The English Renaissance is often remembered as an age of Shakespeare, exploration and cultural flourishing. But it was also shaped by encounters with the Americas. From tobacco in London playhouses to silver from South America and stories of lost cities of gold, the New World became an increasingly powerful presence in English life and imagination.

In this episode, historian Caroline Dodds Pennock speaks with historian Lauren Working about her new book How the Americas Transformed Renaissance England.

What did Elizabethans actually know about Mexico, the Amazon rainforest, or the Chesapeake? How did Indigenous people and knowledge enter the art, fashion, and literature of Shakespeare’s time – and at what cost?

Drawing on a wealth of overlooked sources, Working explores how the Americas became woven into the fabric of Tudor and Stuart society. In doing so, she offers a fresh perspective on England's so-called golden age, revealing the global exchanges, ambitions and inequalities that helped shape the English Renaissance.

Lauren Working is a historian specialising in the cultural and intellectual history of the early modern Atlantic world. She is a lecturer in Early modern literature at the University of York. Her new book is A Golden World: How the Americas Transformed Renaissance England.

Caroline Dodds Pennock is a historian and author whose work focuses on Indigenous American history and the histories of encounter between Europe and the Americas. She is a Professor in International History at the University of Sheffield. Her books include On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe.

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In September 2022, a series of underwater explosions tore through the Nord Stream pipelines beneath the Baltic Sea. The destruction of this $20 billion pipeline severed a major artery of Russian gas supplies to Europe, disrupted economies and triggered a manhunt that strained relations within the NATO alliance.

In this episode, journalist Hannah Lucinda Smith speaks with Wall Street Journal Chief European Political Correspondent Bojan Pancevski about his investigation into this seismic act of sabotage. 

Despite capturing the imagination of millions, the mystery of who blew up the pipeline has so far gone unsolved – was it the CIA? Was it part of the shadow war between Russia and the West? Could Putin himself have been behind it?

Drawing on years of reporting and access to intelligence officials, investigators and key players, Pancevski reconstructs the events behind one of the most consequential acts of sabotage in modern history. 

Bojan Pancevski is Chief European Political Correspondent at The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of The Nord Stream Conspiracy: The Inside Story of the Explosions That Shook the World.

Hannah Lucinda Smith is a journalist and foreign correspondent reporting on global politics, conflict and international affairs.

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Long before Putin's invasion of Ukraine, conflict was simmering on Europe's borders. In overlooked territories in eastern Europe, the eastern Mediterranean and the Caucasus –from the Balkans and Cyprus to Abkhazia on the fringes of Georgia – local disputes spiral into regional crises, global alliances are forged and broken, and power is brokered while the West looks elsewhere.

In this episode, acclaimed correspondent Hannah Lucinda Smith joins Adam McCauley to discuss her new book Hinterlands: Journeys through Europe’s Unfinished Frontiers. She draws on vivid first-hand experience to paint a gripping portrait of Europe at its edges - and the struggles that will define its future.

Hannah Lucinda Smith is a journalist known for reporting across the Middle East and Europe for The Times of London, The Atlantic, WIRED, and others. She is the author of Erdogan Rising, an account of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rise to power, and Zarifa, the memoir of Afghan human rights activist Zarifa Ghafari.

Adam McCauley is a journalist, academic, and policy analyst currently based in Ottawa, Canada.
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This is an episode of Hotels with History, produced by Intelligence Squared on behalf of Perowne International⁠.

We’re in midtown Manhattan to kick off Series 2, at the very heart of New York society: the Waldorf Astoria. An icon born from family rivalry which evolved into the unofficial palace of the city; from Gilded Age ambition and Art Deco grandeur to revolutionary ideas about service, the Waldorf doesn’t just reflect New York’s history... it helped define it.

Check into The Waldorf Astoria here.
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As the main intelligence and security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991, the KGB instilled fear across Russia and sought to sow discord abroad.

This network of government spies was notorious for the often brutal methods it used to keep enemies, loyalists and common people under the thumb of the state. And far from fading as the USSR old guard fell from power, the operatives, methods and networks of the KGB remain at the heart of the Russian state today. Putin himself was a KGB officer for 16 years, including six years as a foreign intelligence officer stationed in Dresden, East Germany.

In May 2026, veteran security correspondent and Rest is Classified co-host Gordon Corera joined us to unveil the inner workings of the KGB and the hidden power struggles that shaped modern Russia. Corera explored the real-life stories of those on the inside; from the spies who lived and died enforcing its rule, to those who were brave enough to resist it.

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