Exchanges - Ideas and Argument Podcast

Brazil’s burning issues are discussed with an audience of Brazilians at the Cultura Inglesa in São Paulo. Jonny Dymond and a panel of leading politicians and commentators tackle the recent election of President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, the environment, racism and crime.

India’s key issues are hotly debated with a Delhi audience at the British Council’s HQ. Anu Anand and a panel of leading politicians and commentators tackle jobs, pollution, fake news and the controversy over spending $430m building the world’s tallest statue.

Following a swing to the right in elections last year, Austria is governed by a coalition between the ruling Conservative People’s Party and the far-right Freedom Party. It has taken over the presidency of the Council of the European Union with the motto, “A Europe that protects”, with a focus on efforts to prevent illegal immigration into the EU. Jonathan Dimbleby chairs a public debate on Austria’s political and economic future at the Theatre Museum in Vienna.

After 70 years of independence Global Questions travels to New Delhi to assess India today, where it stands on the international stage, and its fast growing economic strength, which some say could help it rival China as a global powerhouse. Join Zeinab Badawi at Bikaner House in the heart of New Delhi as she brings together an audience drawn from across India, with a high profile panel of political and public figures, to find out if India is set to become the next superpower. On the panel: Meenakshi Lekhi – MP and spokesperson BJP Chhavi Rajawat – Sarpanch, Soda Village Rajasthan Manu Joseph – Writer and journalist Binny Bansal – Co-founder and CEO Flipkart Aditi Mittal – Comedian, writer and actress Producer: Ben Carter

Can engineering solve the world’s problems? Three of the world’s greatest bio engineers discuss climate change, crop failure and infertility at a special event staged in partnership with the Royal Commission for the Great Exhibition of 1851. Professor Madeleine Van Oppen of the Australian Institute of Marine Science is developing heat resistant corals; the Ethiopian agronomist Gebisa Ejeta from Purdue University, USA is engineering drought and pest resistant crops; and Kathy Niakin leads a team at the Crick Institute, UK and is the first scientist worldwide to get national level approval to use CRISPR to edit the DNA of human embryos. They join Razia Iqbal and a public audience at the Natural History Museum in London to discuss important and ground-breaking work.