Lionel Barber and Zanny Minton Beddoes on the Story of the World’s Wildest Investor, Part One

This is the second instalment of a three-part episode. Japan’s Masayoshi Son has purportedly invested or controlled assets worth $1trn in the past two decades through his media-tech giant, SoftBank. He bankrolled Alibaba, China’s internet colossus, before the world had heard about it. He plotted with Steve Jobs to turn the iPhone into a miracle product and he invested in hundreds of tech start-ups, helping to fuel the biggest boom Silicon Valley has ever seen. The business magnate is the focus of former FT Editor Lionel Barber's new book, Gambling Man: The Wild Ride of Japan's Masayoshi Son. In this episode, Barber joins Editor-in-Chief of The Economist Zanny Minton Beddoes live onstage to discuss what we can learn from Son’s remarkable story. This is the second instalment of a three-part episode. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to the full conversation immediately as an early access subscriber, 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 - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events ... Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series ... Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Japan’s Masayoshi Son has purportedly invested or controlled assets worth $1trn in the past two decades through his media-tech giant, SoftBank. He bankrolled Alibaba, China’s internet colossus, before the world had heard about it. He plotted with Steve Jobs to turn the iPhone into a miracle product and he invested in hundreds of tech start-ups, helping to fuel the biggest boom Silicon Valley has ever seen. The business magnate is the focus of former FT Editor Lionel Barber's new book, Gambling Man: The Wild Ride of Japan's Masayoshi Son. In this episode, Barber joins Editor-in-Chief of The Economist Zanny Minton Beddoes live onstage to discuss what we can learn from Son’s remarkable story. This is the first instalment of a three-part episode. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to the full conversation immediately as an early access subscriber, 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 - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events ... Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series ... Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the second instalment of a three-part episode. The foods we turn to behind closed doors are deeply personal, saturated in memories and topped with a healthy dollop of guilty pleasure. In Comfort Eating, the podcast and accompanying book of the same name, Grace Dent – one of the UK's best-loved food writers – throws open her kitchen cupboards to reveal why we hold these secret snacks, naughty nibbles and hand-me-down recipes so dear to our hearts. She was joined live onstage at London's Union Chapel recently by comedian and host of the The Guilty Feminist podcast, Deborah Frances-White, to discuss the deep connections between food, memory, love and life. This is the second instalment of a three-part episode. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to the full conversation immediately as an early access subscriber, 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 - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events ... Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series ... Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The foods we turn to behind closed doors are deeply personal, saturated in memories and topped with a healthy dollop of guilty pleasure. In Comfort Eating, the podcast and accompanying book of the same name, Grace Dent – one of the UK's best-loved food writers – throws open her kitchen cupboards to reveal why we hold these secret snacks, naughty nibbles and hand-me-down recipes so dear to our hearts. She was joined live onstage at London's Union Chapel recently by comedian and host of the The Guilty Feminist podcast, Deborah Frances-White, to discuss the deep connections between food, memory, love and life. This is the first instalment of a three-part episode. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to the full conversation immediately as an early access subscriber, 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 - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events ... Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series ... Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the second instalment of a three-part episode. Gary Younge has had a ringside seat during the biggest events in modern Black history: accompanying Nelson Mandela on his first election campaign, joining revellers on the southside of Chicago during Barack Obama’s presidential election victory, entering New Orleans days after Hurricane Katrina, covering the rise of Black Lives Matter and interviewing prominent figures including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Maya Angelou and Stormzy. Now as the UK faces new waves of racial tension and division, Younge came to the Intelligence Squared stage to draw from his book Dispatches From The Diaspora and to discuss what can we learn from the past to make sense of the present. Recently awarded the Orwell Prize for Journalism, one of the nation’s most powerful political voices joined us to discuss reporting on the diaspora from its frontlines. Joining Younge in conversation for this three-part episode is the writer and journalist Aniefiok Ekpoudom. This is the second instalment of a three-part episode. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to the full conversation immediately as an early access subscriber, 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 - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events ... Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series ... Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gary Younge has had a ringside seat during the biggest events in modern Black history: accompanying Nelson Mandela on his first election campaign, joining revellers on the southside of Chicago during Barack Obama’s presidential election victory, entering New Orleans days after Hurricane Katrina, covering the rise of Black Lives Matter and interviewing prominent figures including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Maya Angelou and Stormzy. Now as the UK faces new waves of racial tension and division, Younge came to the Intelligence Squared stage to draw from his book Dispatches From The Diaspora and to discuss what can we learn from the past to make sense of the present. Recently awarded the Orwell Prize for Journalism, one of the nation’s most powerful political voices joined us to discuss reporting on the diaspora from its frontlines. Joining Younge in conversation for this three-part episode is the writer and journalist Aniefiok Ekpoudom. This is the first instalment of a three-part episode. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to the full conversation immediately as an early access subscriber, 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 - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events ... Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series ... Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How should we remember Napoleon, the man of obscure Corsican birth who rose to become emperor of the French and briefly master of Europe? In this archive debate from 2014, as the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo approached, Intelligence Squared brought together two of Britain’s finest historians to debate how we should assess Napoleon’s life and legacy. Was he a military genius and father of the French state, or a blundering nonentity who created his own enduring myth? Was his goal of uniting the European continent under a common political system the forerunner of the modern ‘European dream’? Or was he an incompetent despot, a warning from history of the dangers of overarching grand plans? 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. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events ... Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series ... Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. ... Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more. https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dame Maggie Aderin-Pocock is an award-winning space scientist, broadcaster, author and familiar face from the BBC's The Sky at Night programme. She's also Chancellor of the University of Leicester and for this episode she joins us to discuss her new book, The Story of the Solar System: A Visual Journey. In conversation with Aderin-Pocock for the podcast is scientist, communicator and Fellow at Edinburgh University's Centre for Reproductive Health, Güneş Taylor. Let us know your thoughts! Take a moment to fill in our Intelligence Squared Audience Survey and be in with the chance of winning a £50 Amazon gift card. 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. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events ... Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series ... Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. ... Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more. https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the second instalment of a three-part episode. Henry V reigned over England for nine years and four months before he died at the early age of 35. He was known as a hardened, sometimes brutal, warrior, yet one who was also intelligent and artistic. He was a leader who made many mistakes, who misjudged his friends and family members, yet always seemed to triumph when it mattered. As king, he saved a shattered country from economic ruin, put down rebellions and secured England’s borders; in foreign diplomacy he made England a serious player on the world stage once more. Yet through his conquests in northern France, he sowed the seeds for three generations of calamity at home, in the form of the Wars of the Roses. In September 2024 historian Dan Jones came to Intelligence Squared to tell the epic story  of this controversial historical figure. Drawing from his new book Henry V: The Astonishing Rise of England’s Greatest Warrior King, Jones explained why Henry is such an important figure in English history and why his legacy still inspires cultural and political leaders today. Jones was joined in conversation by historian, broadcaster and novelist Kate Williams.  This is the second instalment of a three-part episode. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to the full conversation immediately as an early access subscriber, 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 - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events ... Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series ... Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Henry V reigned over England for nine years and four months before he died at the early age of 35. He was known as a hardened, sometimes brutal, warrior, yet one who was also intelligent and artistic. He was a leader who made many mistakes, who misjudged his friends and family members, yet always seemed to triumph when it mattered. As king, he saved a shattered country from economic ruin, put down rebellions and secured England’s borders; in foreign diplomacy he made England a serious player on the world stage once more. Yet through his conquests in northern France, he sowed the seeds for three generations of calamity at home, in the form of the Wars of the Roses. In September 2024 historian Dan Jones came to Intelligence Squared to tell the epic story  of this controversial historical figure. Drawing from his new book Henry V: The Astonishing Rise of England’s Greatest Warrior King, Jones explained why Henry is such an important figure in English history and why his legacy still inspires cultural and political leaders today. Jones was joined in conversation by historian, broadcaster and novelist Kate Williams.  This is the first instalment of a three-part episode. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to the full conversation immediately as an early access subscriber, 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 - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events ... Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series ... Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices