How To Academy Podcast

Do you avoid conflict? Do you tend to take the blame? Do you take care of others at the expense of yourself? Do you live in a state of hypervigilance? Fawning can appear in a plethora of different ways, it can be visible or invisible; it can manifest in our relationships to sex or money, or in the tendency to 'people-please'. But one thing remains constant: it is about finding safety in an unsafe world, often at our own expense.

Fawning expert and clinical psychologist Dr Ingrid Clayton shines a light on this under-represented but crucial piece...

Widely heralded as the most provocative Norwegian writer since Ibsen and simply ‘one of the finest writers alive’ by the New York Times, Karl Ove Knausgaard’s five-part autobiographical novel sequence My Struggle sent him into the stratosphere of literary fame, inspiring a wave of imitators that continues to this day and cementing his place as an outspoken giant of contemporary literature.

A long-time resident in London, Karl Ove now turns his attention to the capital for the first time in The School of Night, transporting us back to 1980s Deptford and into the psyche of Kristian Hadela...

A boy scout from smalltown America known for his sincere, folksy charm. A chain-smoking maverick dedicated to the pursuit of the Art Life. A womaniser with a female skewing fanbase. A Hollywood outsider who was also a mainstream celebrity. Who was the real David Lynch, and why did his bizarre, avant garde art films - from Eraserhead to Inland Empire - gain him recognition and love far beyond any of his contemporaries? The cultural critic John Higgs returns to the podcast to unpick the meaning of the adjective "Lynchian" and make sense of a man whose work is nothing...

In this episode of the podcast neuroscientist Nicholas Wright reveals how, whether we like it or not, the brain is wired for conflict – in the office or on the battlefield. Blending insights from cutting-edge research with stories from across history, Nicholas joins war correspondent David Patrikarakos to explore the past, present, and future of warfare and reveal the truth about why we fight, lose and win wars.

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The son of Stephen and Tabitha King and brother of Owen King, Joe Hill was raised in a uniquely gifted literary family and has long established a reputation of his own as a first rate storyteller across prose fiction, comics, TV and film. Drawing on influences as diverse as The Secret History, The Hobbit, and his father's dark fantasy classic The Gunslinger, his new novel King Sorrow follows six friends as their Faustian pact with the deliciously cruel eponymous dragon unravels over many decades.

Why is horror good for us? How do you write characters readers with f...

How do we understand the world and our place in it? Do our lives consist of a small number of dramatic turning points, or is there nothing but a series of gradual changes from infancy to old age? Are political elections genuinely transformational, or merely arbitrary points along a shifting cultural timeline? And in physics, how can the continuities of general relativity coexist with the discontinuities of quantum theory?

In Waves and Stones, Graham Harman shows that this paradoxical interaction – the question of whether reality is made up of sudden jumps, or is laid out along a ge...

Julia Belluz and Kevin Hall reveal the insights you need to better understand what's on your dinner plate, how it got there, and why you eat it.

Award-winning health journalist Julia Belluz and internationally renowned nutrition and metabolism scientist Dr Kevin Hall will unpack the science behind our diets, metabolism, and the food systems that shape them. Together, they will explore how our food environment is the key influence on our eating behaviours, challenge popular myths about diet, and reveal why rising rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes are not failures of willpower, but symptoms of a...

Though well-known across Europe by name, the real lives of women such as Joan of Arc and Jadwiga of Poland have been buried under banners of nationalistic agendas that have twisted their stories through the ages. Oxford historian Janina Ramirez joins Sir Tony Robinson to illuminate the truth of these incredible women, and disentangle their real stories from the myths imposed on them through time. From Lady Godiva's real name, Godgifu, and how her eroticised image has overshadowed her real survival as a landowning woman in tumultuous times, to Joan of Arc's journey to becoming a warrior in a...

Today, trauma permeates media, from music and television to films and books. While the increasing openness is welcome, Darren has observed that the webs of digital networks surrounding us and which commodify our most vulnerable experiences often harm us more than help us heal. How did we get here? What role does social media play in commodifying our experiences? And are the stories we’re telling ourselves liberating us or keeping us trapped?

In conversation with Nicola Sturgeon, Darren explores the intersections of trauma, identity, social media, and society, revealing how we can fight back against the la...

In his four Time Travellers Guides to England, historian Ian Mortimer has taken us from the Medieval period all the way to the Regency, revelling not in the business of courts and princes but the minutae of daily life for ordinary men and women. In this podcast, he shares his insights into how the English people have changed over time - and how they have stayed the same. Touching upon liberty and leadership, xenophobia and violence, this whistlestop tour of a thousand years of English life is an unmissable treat for history lovers of all stripes. Who was the...

Two decades ago, Jimmy Wales founded Wikipedia and transformed the world’s access to knowledge. Today, people view Wikipedia 11 billion times every month in the English language alone. Yet in an age of ‘alternative facts’, conspiracies and disinformation, the foundations of Wikipedia are increasingly under threat. The concept at the heart of it all extends to the whole of society: trust Like water and electricity, our society can’t function without it. Without it, we have no knowledge, and without knowledge, we can’t fight back. Derived from decades of observation, participation and discussion with leaders across the world, Jimmy and N...

Jens Stoltenberg was Prime Minister of Norway from 2005-2013, and when he took office as Secretary General of NATO in 2014, the world was already changing. What followed was a decade marked by war, diplomatic crises, and decisions that helped shape our shared security. Now he joins Adam Boulton to go behind closed doors and offer a rare insight into how the world’s most powerful military alliance handles crises and to share why after all this time, NATO still matters.

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Marie Kondo’s unique approach to organising our lives and our homes has transformed the relationship we have with the objects around us, helping us all to seek out the joy in our daily lives. In the eleven years since The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up made her famous across the globe, journalists, readers and fans have asked her one question more than any other: what role did Japanese philosophy and culture play in shaping her life and thought? Here, Marie shares her principles for living, and reveal how the traditions of her homeland can help all of us to...

A pioneering voice in Arab cinema, Annemarie Jacir has written, directed, and produced over sixteen films, with premieres at Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Locarno, Rotterdam, and Toronto. In 2007, she made history by shooting the first feature film by a Palestinian female director. All four of her feature films have been chosen as Palestine’s Oscar submissions.

Set in 1936 during the Arab Revolt in British-ruled Palestine, Palestine 36 chronicles the intertwined lives of farmers, revolutionaries, and business owners resisting colonial rule. It’s a stirring portrait of resilience, featuring a stellar cast including Hiam Abbass, Jeremy Irons, and Saleh Bakri.

Philippa Gregory takes us behind the myths to reveal how Jane Boleyn became a scapegoat of Henry VIII’s tyranny and the historians who defended it. Drawing on the silences of the record and the resilience of women navigating a perilous court, Gregory explores how fiction can reveal the internal lives of historical characters who we think we know so well. In Boleyn Traitor, Jane emerges not as a schemer but as a survivor: navigating a world ruled by fear, spectacle and the whims of a king who bent the law to his will. What lessons does the Tudor cou...

Returning to the podcast following episodes around his prize-winning debut The Mountain Under the Sea and his acclaimed novella The Tusks of Extinction, Ray Nayler joins us to explore the rise in authoritarian systems of control and celebrate the power of human agency to drive meaningful social change. These are the themes of his new novel Where the Axe is Buried: a dystopian fable set in a near-future Russia where Artificial Intelligences, technocrats, and a Putinesque dictator come into an unforgettable conflict.

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Dr Kerry Burnight reveals a transformative new approach to aging—one that goes beyond lifespan and healthspan to embrace joyspan: the ability to experience joy from within. Dr Burnight reveals how joy differs from happiness, the damaging effects of internalised ageism, and the surprising abilities—such as judgment, emotional regulation, and humour—that often improve with age. Dr Burnight also shares the four essential practices necessary to expanding our joyspan as we age. With her guidance and practical tips, this is a playbook on how small, intentional habits can transform the experience of aging into one of vitality, purpose, and, m...

From our new technological era ushered in by AI, to the fall of democracies across the globe, the world today appears fraught with uncertainty, poised between repeating errors from the past and entering a new age of the unknown. What lies behind tribalistic claims of patriotism, and on what does democracy truly depend? How might technology shape the narrative to come, and what remains in our control? Bestselling author of Sapiens and Nexus, Yuval Noah Harari joins Ritula Shah to help us better comprehend the perils we face, and what remains within our power to change.

How has loopholes around social media's censored word, 'kill', found its way into students' essays on Hamlet? What is the history of 'skibidi' and 'delulu' and how are these concepts shaping the way we think, write, and speak? Linguist and content creator Adam Aleksic turns a keen eye to explore how the internet has transformed our linguistic landscape, from the rise of 'YouTube accents' to the meaning of 'brain rot', from the ephemerality of memes to the enduring power of language to shape conceptions of belonging. How might these changes shape the languages of tomorrow? Adam reveals the breadth...

From the Thames to the Tigris, the Ure to the Euphrates, rivers have flowed through the history of humanity, shaping our civilisations and sustaining our species. Robert Macfarlane and Elif Shafak illuminate the life-giving force of rivers, the stories they have inspired, and explore the crucial question of how humans can coexist with the natural world on which our survival depends.

From the Epic of Gilgamesh to the gods of old, from the ancient Euphrates to the Thames of today, from lost rivers buried deep beneath our feet to the revival of nature on our own doorsteps...

Drawing on the economist’s toolkit, she reframes “happiness” as utility, shows how to maximize it under constraints, and treats fertility as “reproductive capital” to be timed and invested thoughtfully. She shifts the spotlight from women “leaning in” to men leveling up at home, and from vibes to data: track time, surface invisible labor, and use BATNA thinking to set walk-away points at work and in relationships.

In an age of burnout and performative perfection, Low offers practical moves: pay yourself first with leisure, set boundaries (not just flexibility), negotiate through win-win framing, interview partners like co-CEOs, and ignore the...

Drawing on everything from Dougal and the Blue Cat to Angel Heart, from Walter Murch’s “pickle jar” of sound to Tarantino-style needle drops, Kermode turns listening into a way of seeing: treat scores as storytelling, not wallpaper; hear nostalgia without depending on it; notice how rooms, acoustics, and “vibrations” change performances; and understand why live accompaniment can transform a film in the moment. Along the way: Ken Russell’s emotional maximalism, Under the Skin’s alien minimalism, American Graffiti’s jukebox world-building, and the strange alchemy that turns cues into cinema.

In an age of playlists and temp tracks...

In 2003, British police infiltrated a group of idealistic young environmental activists, forming sexual relationships and spying without warrant on hundreds of innocent civilians. Among these young activists was Kate Wilson, who developed an intimate relationship with Mark. Unbeknownst to her, Mark was a fictional persona created by the Metropolitan Police to spy on her. After this shocking discovery, Kate Wilson fought back, and now she joins us to tell her story.

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Drawing on Aristotle’s playbook, he shows how to turn rhetoric inward: treat the “soul” as your better self, shift from past/present blame to future-tense choices, separate needs from appetites, and tune out the social “white noise” of feeds, trends, and bucket lists that distort motivation.

In an age of distraction and burnout, Heinrichs offers practical tools: the “lure and ramp” for easing into new behaviors, kairos (timing) and chaos as opportunity, analogical thinking, rhythmic mantras (paeans) to quiet negative self-talk, and strategic hyperbole, throwing beyond, to set energizing goals. The result is rhetoric reimagined as a compassionat...

A journey of both past and future, of the natural world and metaphysical realms, Philip Hoare guides us through a dreamscape slipping through time and space with the unpredictable guide of William Blake. From William's visions of angels to his radical approach to artistic creation, from his anarchic and seditious writing to the enchanting and democratic force of his art, from his belief in the holiness of every living creature to his staunch opposition to slavery, William Blake was an artistic genius far ahead of his time. And as Philip reveals, William had always known that he would not...

Immunologist Jenna Macciochi reveals the “wellness system” linking body and brain, urging us to focus on healthspan as well as lifespan. She explains “immune age,” inflammaging, and the body’s cycle of inflammation and repair, showing how stress, mind, and lifestyle choices—from sleep and movement to diet—shape immunity.

Amid chronic stress, isolation, and processed diets, Macciochi offers evidence-based habits: meditation, community, smart nutrition, and supplementation. She recasts immunity as a lifelong practice aimed not just at living longer, but living better.

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Granted to mythical kings and fugitives alike, enshrined by gods and by communal, human consent, an ancient right since classical times, sanctuary has been a haven, a place of refuge and freedom from harm. It was a sacrilege to lay hands on a sanctuary-seeker: sanctuary was sacred.

But in our modern times, with growing crises in displacement, war, and xenophobia, could a revived practice of sanctuary offer refuge and a home for those who seek it? Award-winning novelist, historian, and mythographer Marina Warner contemplates the ancient roots of sanctuary, breathing new life into its imaginative and creative...

Distracted by our own agenda, we so often hear without understanding, impatiently waiting for our turn to speak. Journalist Emily Kasriel joins us to show how shifting from surface-level exchanges to deep listening can enrich our relationships with both others and ourselves. From restoring agency through listening, to how deep listening can create a safe environment to explore deeper vulnerabilities, to how we can use deep listening to diffuse conflict, Emily guide us, step by step, through the art of deep listening and how we can embrace it in our daily life.

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One winter’s night, Alex James received an unexpected call. Blur had been invited to play their biggest gig ever: Wembley Stadium. The only trouble was, he and his bandmates hadn’t spoken to – or even shouted at – each other for years. And he now had five children, an out-of-control menagerie of cats, and a sprawling farm to run. This is the story of what happened next.

Taking us behind the scenes of a raucous, rollercoaster year, Alex tells Times journalist and bestselling author Caitlin Moran how the band made a surprise – and emotional – return, recording an acclaimed al...

Long gone are the days when pigeons relayed our messages; now we have a flood of information at all times, from social media to artificial intelligence, all weaving narratives that shape our lives. But the rise of these new modes of information technology has the power to spread misinformation, challenge independent thought, and even threaten democracy.

Bestselling author of Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari joins Robin Ince to explore how humanity can navigate these new networks, and asks, in this constant deluge of information and misinformation, where can we find real knowledge and truth?

L...

As an evolutionary anthropologist working with human populations around the globe, Herman Pontzer has conducted research that reveals the wonder of our species's evolution and our biological diversity, documenting the connections between lifestyle, landscape, local adaptations and health. He joins Robin Ince to reveal these intricacies and how the way we understand our biology and its interplay with our cultural environments is critical to how we understand our world and one another.

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One of the great mavericks of British music, Kevin Rowland, recounts his formative years and reveals a deeply personal account of his life. From trying to be 'good' at church and to make his mum proud, to thieving and fighting on the outside,  from his early discovery of his love for music as a school boy, to his earliest gigs in his brother's band, Kevin reveals the roots of his musical journey, and the lessons they imparted to him through the years. With an unwavering passion for music and a highly tuned sense of fashion, Kevin rocketed down a p...

Informed by over fifteen years covering the world’s most advanced innovations, Lewington joins journalist Hannah MacInnes to explore the transformative potential of AI and health tech—from early cancer detection and personalised diagnostics to wearable devices that track everything from sleep to blood sugar. Drawing on her new book Hacking Humanity, Lewington shares her own journey of self-experimentation, separates scientific promise from Silicon Valley hype, and asks what it truly means to live a longer, healthier life. With clarity, compassion and infectious curiosity, she shows how we can all take part in shaping a future where medicine is not...

It’s the early 20th century, in the small village of Nagyrév in Hungary. The village is so small, there is no post office, no police, and no doctor. And the men are being poisoned. By their wives. Journalist and author Hope Reese reveals the motivations and consequences of this mysterious chapter of the past, this open secret, which became one of the deadliest mass poisonings in history.

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At the age of twenty-two, Dr Grace Spence Green’s spine was broken at the fourth thoracic vertebra. One day, she was in hospital supporting patients, the next she was fighting for her own life.

As Grace came to understand her new life as a wheelchair user, she also had to reconceptualise how she could be both a doctor and a patient, and her now deeply personal understanding of society’s persistent ableism. She joins Dr Xand van Tulleken to share her journey, from how people’s perception of her post-injury changed dramatically due to ableist mindsets, to how...

Sir David Attenborough, Miriam Margolyes, Nigel Planer, and others join us for a glimpse into Uncharted Territories, a new audio author showcase from John Murray publishers.

This week we have a guest appearance from our friends at John Murray publishers who are sharing Uncharted Territories, their first ever audio author showcase. Here they’ve curated a collection of some of the best historians, memoirists, academics, critics and national treasures publishing on their 2025 non-fiction list to introduce and share clips from their current and upcoming audiobooks. You’ll find some recognisable names and be introduced to some new voices...

Most of us speak a descendant of one ancient tongue: Proto-Indo European. Almost all of Europe shares the DNA of its legacy. Acclaimed journalist and author of international bestseller Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World Laura Spinney explores the origins of this ancient language and how it spread far from its cradle near the Black Sea. Reaching the coasts of Scotland and the western reaches of China, traveling across the Mediterranean and deep into South Asia, Indo-European unites Dante’s Inferno and the Rig Veda, the knights of Arthurian legend and the early Hit...

How does the body stay alive? And what does ageing really mean, from the inside ? Biomedical scientist and Professor of Vaccine Immunology at Imperial College London John Tregoning reveals the science of staying alive, ageing, and death. Journeying from the nature of genes to the science of inflammation, from today's anti-ageing craze to real health foods and the evolving landscape of diagnostic care, John reveals how we can lead healthier, better-informed lives.

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Oscar nominated for her film The Edge of Democracy, which documented the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and the rise of Jair Bolsonaro, Petra Costa returns to the subject of Brazil's fragile democracy in Apocalypse in the Tropics. Streaming now on Netflix, Apocalypse explores the relationship between evangelical Christianity and the far-right, following the televangelist Silas Malafaia in his work campaigning for Jair Bolsonaro. Petra joins the podcast to discuss this precarious moment in Brazilian politics and its significance for democracies around the world.

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When high-flying journalist Dolly Jones had her children, the idea of returning to work felt daunting. She struggled to find material to galvanise and reassure her, and to make her feel that anything was possible.

She set out to change all of that, gathering practical advice, life-hacks and guilt-avoidance strategies from a diverse range of women in a wide variety of industries – fashion designers, taxi drivers, journalists, actors, employment lawyers, doctors, bankers, health specialists, entrepreneurs and restaurateurs.

In this empowering episode, Dolly acts as a ‘ladder down’ to the next generation of working women from a gene...

Today, you are far more likely to die of heart disease, cancer, or accident than you are to die of an illness caused by a germ: but for most of human history, microorganisms were our greatest nemesis. As recently as 1900, pnuemonia, influenza, tuberculosis, and gut infections accounted for half of all deaths in the United States. And yet, humans had known of the existence of germs since the invention of the microscope and the Scientific Revolution in the 17th century - to precious little advantage. Thomas Levenson joins the podcast to tell the epic story of how we finally c...

Former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt shares a thought-provoking vision of our place in the world in the century ahead.

Is Britain a minor player, marginalised by our departure from the EU and dwarfed by the rise of new economies? Or is there a major role for us to play in a rapidly changing international order?

With the election of President Trump, the answer to that question matters. A world that was already becoming more dangerous has also become more unpredictable. As competition increases between economic and military superpowers, others must make choices. If the UK...

Tracing his journey through his diagnosis with ADHD, Robin Ince explores his own insecurities and discoveries along the way, from the importance of vulnerability, to finding greater meaning and happiness, to the beauty of connecting with others through shared neurodiversity. Illuminating how diagnosis can help individuals find and understand their best selves, Robin also reveals how society—from individuals to wider school systems—can change to create a more welcoming world.

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Caroline Darian, daughter of Dominique Pelicot, shares with Afua Hirsch a rallying cry for change, and confronts the hidden violence that too many endure in silence.

The Pelicot mass rape trial was unprecedented in scope and nature, captivating France and the world. Dominique’s daughter, Caroline Darian, shares with journalist Afua Hirsch her family’s strength and resilience in the face of Dominique’s horrific crimes and turns the tables on the abusers, placing the blame squarely at their feet and shining a spotlight on chemical submission.

She tells us the complex story of her father...

On 5 June 2022, award-winning journalist Dom Phillips was working on a book about the Amazon rainforest, alongside the indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, when they were both shot dead. They are believed to have been assassinated by one of the criminal networks whose ecological exploitation they were working to expose.

A team of expert writers took up his partially completed manuscript, committed to his mission of uncovering the truth about deforestation and searching for solutions. This team was led by Jonathan Watts, Global Environment Editor for The Guardian, who tells How To Academy this remarkable story. It is a...

Isabel Allende shares the story of Emilia del Valle, her unforgettable new heroine on a treacherous, life-changing journey during the Chilean Civil war of 1891. Past and present merge in this conversation, as Isabel explores how her new heroine—who reminds us of Isabel herself— confronts the tyranny and injustice of her time. As tyranny and injustice bleeds into the present, Isabel shares her convictions on today's oppressions, and illuminates how the power of storytelling gives voice to the silenced, the innocent, and to our common humanity.

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We are surrounded by bold claims and quick fixes for ‘boosting’ our immune health. But one thing the science is clear on is that everyone’s immune system is unique – what is good for one person may not work well for another. So how do we separate the bogus claims from the useful advice? Head of Life Sciences and Professor of Immunology at Imperial College, Daniel Davis, helps us sort the facts from the fiction.

From the genetics of immune health to the myth of Vitamin C, from evidence-backed studies on chronic stress to the gaps in knowledg...

The hosts of the blockbuster podcast We Can Do Hard Things share a fresh guide to being alive and answer life's most difficult questions.

Every day, Glennon Doyle spirals around the same questions: Why am I like this? How do I figure out what I want? How do I know what to do? Why can’t I be happy? Am I doing this right?

The harder life gets, the less likely she is to remember the answers she’s spent her life learning.

In a particularly difficult year, Glennon was diagnosed with anorexia, her si...

A louche slacker and a restless wanderer, an Englishman most at home abroad, a comic genius and a whip smart critic of art and culture: Geoff Dyer is a literary colossus, an original voice whose writings circulate around his favourite themes – sex, death, drugs, spirituality, travel, and boredom – while also being utterly different to one another. Now he joins Fat White Family's Lias Saoudi to reflect on his own coming of age, from discovering his early love for reading to his years spent at grammar school, and tracing his enduring dedication to literature through the years.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, neoliberalism, with its belief in the virtues of markets and competition, seemed to have triumphed. But in the decades that followed, neoliberalism had a problem: the rise of social movements, from civil rights and feminism to environmentalism, were now proving roadblocks in the road to freedom, nurturing a culture of government dependency, public spending, political correctness and special pleading.  Neoliberals needed an antidote.

They found it in nature. Historian Quinn Slobodian explains how neoliberal thinkers drew on the language of science to embed the idea of ‘competition’ ever deeper into socia...

How can we live a good life? Perhaps a good life is hard to define, but as bestselling author Rolf Dobelli reveals, we can learn how to cultivate a good life through habits to avoid—from watching too much news to 'winging' your way through the week. Merging stoicism and no-nonsense practicality, Rolf shares how we can live rationally and meaningfully, nurturing healthy relationships and habits with those around us and ourselves.

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Bestselling author, artist, and the Observer’s agony aunt Philippa Perry joins cartoonist Becky Barnicoat for a conversation about the highs and lows of raising small children.  From the unglamorous reality of post-partum to the tumult of baby supplies, from the challenges of bedtime to the comically dishevelled appearance of new parenthood, discover the deeply strange new world of  parenting, ruled by a tyrannical tiny leader, growing bigger and more loved by the day.

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Today Lorna Tucker is a feted documentary maker whose subjects include Vivienne Westwood and Katherine Hepburn — a life she could not have imagined as a young woman who fled a troubled home to live on the streets. Once a thief, sex worker, and drug addict, estranged from her family and in trouble with gangs and the police, her memoir Bare will make you see a hidden world for the first time and change the way you think about the most vulnerable members of society.

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From the far-right violence that broke out in the summer of 2024 to the hatred directed at Muslims in public life during the Gaza conflict, anti-Muslim racism is dangerously out-of-control. Fed by a network of media outlets, think tanks, commentators, and even the entertainment industry, Islamophobia not only passes the dinner table test but is also Britain’s bigotry blind spot. For too many, Muslims don’t matter.

But that's not stopping Baroness Warsi. Having made her career by speaking up and standing out, she once again fearlessly urges us to change course, dismantle toxic bigotry, and stop the...

While many of us are sleeping, another world awakens in the night hours. Author Dan Richards reveals the thrumming life of the night, from night shifts on postal trains to the art of focaccia, from the rhythm of shipping forecasts to the humanity which society often fails to recognise in homelessness. Dan illuminates the nighttime world, and explores the deeply personal relationship we each have with the night hours.

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LSE’s Paul Dolan reveals how we can stop hating the people we disagree with, and how we can foster a more tolerant society.

We like to think that we’re tolerant, but many of us struggle to engage with people whose opinions differ strongly from our own – even if they might have something useful to contribute to the debate. We’re all falling victim to what Professor Paul Dolan defines as beliefism. Now Paul joins us to reveal the importance of exposing ourselves to diverging opinions, and how we can lean into difference and create environments that are...

Our greatest living nature writer, Robert Macfarlane shares with Horatio Clare a single, transformative idea: are rivers alive?

Robert Macfarlane is both the author of prize-winning bestsellers including Underland, Landmarks, and The Old Ways, and an artistic polymath whose collaborators include many of the most distinguished artists, musicians, and poets of our time, including Olafur Eliasson, Johnny Flynn, and Jackie Morris.

Inspired by the activists, artists and lawmakers of the young ‘Rights of Nature’ movement, Macfarlane takes us on an exhilarating exploration of the past, present and futures of this ancient, urgent concept.

Trans...

Neurologist and Oxford Professor Dr Masud Husain explores the intricacies of the brain, and how much our sense of self can change through brain disorders. From a woman who could not recognise the motions of her own hand, to a driven and outgoing man whose sudden stroke rendered him apathetic to all he used to care about, Dr Husain explores the bounds of the self, the need for a deeply human connection between doctor and patient, and the cutting-edge science helping people recover from even the most extreme cases of brain disorders.

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The story of Elizabethan theatre is often told through the artistic genius of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Critic and scholar Daniel Swift has a different story to tell: that of the businessmen who dreamed of the first professional theatre, fought against civil and religious authorities to have it built, and, ultimately, fought each other. How did the Burbage family lay the foundations for a golden age of drama? Find out in this episode of the podcast.

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Gina Rippon delves into the emerging science of female autism, asking why it has been systematically ignored and misunderstood for so long. Generations of researchers, convinced autism was a male problem, failed to recognise or study it in women. But new research is shedding light on female autism, revealing how autism is different for women and girls, and that camouflaging – hiding autistic traits to fit in – is far more widespread than we thought. From social belonging to the connection between diagnosis and community, Gina illuminates the importance of better understanding the full spectrum of autistic experience.

Le...

Slavoj Žižek, one of the most outrageous and maverick thinkers of our time, joins Robin Ince for deep dive into his life and thought.

From his life and education in the former Yugoslavia under communist rule, where his master’s thesis was denounced by the authorities for being ‘not Marxist enough’ and he fought to democratise Slovenia and defend human rights, to his current position as one of the 21st century’s most renowned public intellectuals, Slavoj Žižek has travelled into territory where few of us dare to tread.

The man widely known as ‘the most...

Muscle: it shapes us and allows us to shape who we want to be. Author and athlete Bonnie Tsui explores the world of muscle in all its rich personal, cultural, and biological complexity. From the intricate link between muscle and brain health, to redefining strength and societal roles, to how our muscle allows us to feel more present in our everyday life, Bonnie reveals how muscle is far more than just what we are made of.

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Dissolving the boundaries that usually divide surgeon and patient, award-winning novelist and surgeon Gabriel Weston illuminates a new journey into the human anatomy. From the emotion of entering the operating theatre, to what an autopsy can tell us about our own humanity, Gabriel explores the moving phenomenon that is the human body, in all its life-giving wonder.

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We might know how to love deeply, but when tensions rise and miscommunication mingles with blame, how can we learn to love better? New York Times bestselling poet and author Yung Pueblo shares with Poppy Jamie his own journey through learning how to love healthily, and reveals how we can grow in our own relationships to strengthen communication, embrace the present, and reject the myth of perfection. From loving our partners to loving ourselves, Yung Pueblo illuminates the importance of compassion and self-understanding.

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How did a low budget sci-fi show widely loathed by its creators the BBC go on to become a bedrock of British culture that means the world to millions of children and adults alike?

Today, the Doctor and his extraterrestrial enemies, sonic screwdriver, and magical blue box are instantly recognisable to almost anyone living on the British isles. But the story of Doctor Who is far more than the story of a family television programme that found its audience: it's the story of how folk heroes and myths are made, how society and the...

In a goal-obsessed world, how can we become our best selves without falling into a rat race that leaves us feeling burnt out and unhappy? Neuroscientist and entrepreneur Anne-Laure Le Cunff shares a new guide on reaching our goals through the 'experimental mindset', a journey and practice that combines the power of curiosity with creativity and self-discovery. From debunking the myth of finding 'one big purpose' in life, to how we can be anthropologists studying the wonder of our own lives, to how we can create new patterns and habits uniquely tailored to our goals, Anne-Laure shares the joy...

Foreign policy expert and Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University, Edward Fishman, joins us to reveal the history of sanctions and the threats to economic security today. From the role of sanctions during the Cold War to economic warfare against Iran, Russia, and China, to Trump's current sanctions across the globe, Fishman reveals the power of economic warfare—and the chaos it can wreak in the wrong hands.

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Visualisation: a neurological mental training technique used by the top athletes in the world to perform at their best. Now, you can learn how to use it too. With simple and actionable steps, mental fitness expert Maya Raichoora reveals a playbook on using visualisation to reach your goals, while redefining success to encompass a deeper sense of meaning. From how to incorporate visualisation into your daily life, to how we can strengthen our character in the most trying of times, Maya reveals how we can better equip ourselves to reach our goals and create the best version of ourselves...

There is a neglected history. Not a sweeping, definitive, exhaustive history of the world but something quieter, more intimate and particular. Now in this episode, journalist Annabelle Hirsch reveal that history: a single journey, picked out in 101 objects, through the fascinating, too-often-overlooked, manifold histories of women, to show that the past has always been as complicated and fascinating as the women who peopled it.

From the objects you thought you knew, like the Bayeux tapestry, to those of domesticity, pleasure (a sixteenth century glass dildo) and subjugation (a thumbscrew), we uncover together the women celebrated by history...

How do we comprehend the depths of love in hindsight, and the immensity of grief? How can we say 'I love you' to a listener who is no longer alive? And how do we find forgiveness and learn to forgive ourselves? Lead singer and lyricist of Snow Patrol, Gary Lightbody, shares the raw and emotional story of grief, love, and life, upon losing his father in 2019, a journey which inspired the band's latest album, The Forest is the Path. This conversation is a testament to the power of music and to the endurance of love.

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As the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch for three decades, Kenneth Roth has dedicated his life to investigating and uncovering abuses across the globe – and pressuring offending governments to stop them. From using the power of unyielding honesty to take on the world's most brutal autocrats and their sycophants, to the resilience of civilians' search for truth even under strict censorship, Kenneth reveals the ceaseless fight for accountability and change to shape a better world. From Putin and Trump, to Xinjiang, China, to Israel and Palestine, Kenneth explores the greatest challenges to human rights today, and the power we...

Mesopotamian civilisation filled more than half of human history: a culture with advanced mathematics and astronomy, a religion that influenced both ancient Greece and the Bible, and a literature that continues to inspire the blockbuster movies of 2025. Yet few of us today know anything about it. Taking us into the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, scholar and playwright Selena Wisnom reveals a world of gods and monsters, poets and bureaucrats that is both utterly strange and strangely familiar.

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Across the headlines, we appear to be falling into a post-truth world. But the questions that most resonate with humanity—on life, death, love, and leadership—remain as pertinent as they were in the age of Socrates. Now philosopher and University of Chicago Professor Agnes Callard joins us to examine how Socratic thought can continue to guide us and ground us, breathing new life into the rigour of inquiry and the importance of truth.

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Whether its the football pitch of the FIFA Women’s World Cup or the diving board of the Olympics, Dr Kate Hays is a woman who knows how to win. Now she joins us to reveal the techniques that create winning mentalities - from breathing techniques to widening the bases from which we draw confidence - that allow us to create the best performance under the greatest pressure.

An essential conversation for any individual who wants to succeed, any team which wants to thrive, and anyone who wants to fulfil their potential.

After Kurt Cobain, Bob Dylan is Courtney Love’s all-time rock’n’roll hero. Todd Almond performed Dylan’s songbook on Broadway. They join us for a deeply personal celebration of the legendary songwriter.

An electrifying, bewitching singer who, in the words of The New York Times can simultaneously imbue a single sustained note with “a plea, a wound, and a threat”, Courtney Love occupies a singular place in the rockstar pantheon.

Her friend and collaborator Todd Almond is a Broadway multi-hyphenate equally acclaimed as a performer, lyricist and playwright...

Optimism, irrational though it might be, is central to the human psyche: it gives us an advantage both in everyday life and in the evolutionary race. Sumit Paul-Choudhury joins us to share his theory of rational optimism: possibilism.

Without this optimism we would never have survived the unpredictable – and often hostile – world we evolved into. Yet optimism is not reserved for times of extremity. Its benefits manifest throughout our everyday lives: our relationships, careers, bodies and minds. And it will play a critical role in overcoming the challenges of the 21st century.

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Tom Holland is a storyteller whose range and erudition seem to be as unbounded as history itself. Now he brings us closer than ever to the lives of the first twelve Roman emperors. The ancient Roman empire was the supreme arena, where emperors had no choice but to fight, to thrill, to dazzle. To rule as a Caesar was to stand as an actor upon the great stage of the world. Delving into his new translation of Suetonius’s Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Tom Holland joins George Osborne to illuminate the lives of the Caesars as never seen bef...

Yes, that meeting could have been an email. And that email? Maybe it should have been a voice memo. The hidden secrets of virtual communication are many and mysterious, but CEO of Ping Group Andrew Brodsky joins us with an actionable guide on how to communicate better virtually. From how to decide between an email chain and an in-person meeting, to tips for maintaining 'eye contact' on camera, to whether using emojis can help build trust, Andrew's guide backed by extensive research reveals the dos and don'ts of virtual communication, and how tech can improve our work lives for...

We’re constantly told that money is the shortcut to a good life, the only type of wealth worth pursuing. But what would it mean to lead a truly wealthy life? It may involve money, but in the end, it will be defined by everything else. Entrepreneur and writer Sahil Bloom joins Chris Donnelly to reveal the five types of wealth—Time, Social, Mental, Physical, and Financial—and how a balance of all five leads to a life truly rich in meaning and satisfaction.

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We remember the Renaissance as an age of human flourishing: a rebirth after centuries of misery, a return to the glories of antiquity where the culture of Greece and Rome was not only imitated but surpassed. But is that reputation deserved, or a construct of future historians with their own goals in mind? Starring Battle-Popes, necromancers, sculptors, scholars, and assassins, Ada Palmer's new book Inventing the Renaissance is a wild ride through some of the most thrilling and important events in world-history and a glimpse into the making of the modern world.

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How can we say 'no' when it matters most? Cornell University's Dr Sunita Sah joins us to share the radical need for each of us to rediscover our core values, and shares how we can navigate a fraught world while staying true to ourselves. Exploring the balance between defiance and safety, justice and belonging, Professor Sah reveals how we can each live more authentically and make decisions that align with our vales in the moments that matter most.

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'Chinese and Any Other Asian.' On official documents, a vast range of identities in the East and South East Asian (ESEA) population in the UK is reduced to a single vague checkbox, an act of Othering with a history several centuries in the making. Academic, poet, and journalist Dr Anna Sulan Masing seeks to change the narrative. Exploring the history of the ESEA population in the UK, which spans on the one hand Empire, violence, and appropriation, and on the other, creativity, fusion, and multiplicity, Anna Sulan reveals a multifaceted history. From how the mythos of MSG drew...

History and geopolitical intrigue meet fiction under the masterful skill of #1 New York Times bestselling author Neal Stephenson. He joins us with a new tale: Polostan, a vividly imagined historical epic that traces the enigmatic life of protagonist Dawn Rae Bjornberg. Her life criss-crosses some of the 20th century’s pivotal scenes, from Leningrad to the Great Depression. When a surprising revelation about her past puts her in the crosshairs of U.S. authorities, Dawn returns to Russia, where she is groomed as a spy by the organisation that later becomes the KGB. An expert at merging thrilling fiction wit...

Lola Young has been an actress, an academic, an activist and campaigner, well known for her work on modern slavery and climate justice. But from the age of eight weeks to eighteen years, she was moved between foster care placements and children’s homes in North London. It would take many decades before she was able to begin the search for answers to the long-standing questions that would help her make sense of her childhood.

Now she tells Hannah MacInnes the powerful story of how she defied the odds of the ‘care cliff’ to become one of the co...

Why are are the rich getting richer? Why is prosperity moving further and further out of reach for most people? An iconoclast unafraid to speak truth to power, George Monbiot joins comedian Frankie Boyle to take on the fringe philosophy which the wealthy elite have hijacked to guard their fortunes and power. While neoliberalism permeates society, from our mental and economic wellbeing to the foundation of democracy itself, the fight to restore democracy to the people is far from over. George reveals how we can fight back.

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We live in the here and now much less than we tend to think. Imagination isn’t the exception in our daily lives; it’s our default setting. Far from being a faculty used only in creative endeavours, the imagination is used constantly when we reminisce, anticipate, plan, daydream and read. Yet only now are we beginning to understand exactly how it works.

From hallucination to sleepwalking, REM to delusions and the curious case of the mind’s eye, neuroscientist Professor Adam Zeman guides us through the latest science of imagination. Drawing on research in neuroscience, the study...

Whether anticipating the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in his short story Radicalised, helping the world to wake up to the grift of the social media giants through his concept of 'Enshittification', or imagining a genuinely better world to replace the dystopia of our present in novels like The Lost Cause and Walkaway, Cory Doctorow is equally accomplished as an award-winning storyteller and as an analyst of our present and near future.

His new series of noirish crime thrillers transport us into a Silicon Valley where grifters, gangsters, and plutocrats wreck chaos. Cory's...

One winter’s night, Alex James received an unexpected call. Blur had been invited to play their biggest gig ever: Wembley Stadium. The only trouble was, he and his bandmates hadn’t spoken to – or even shouted at – each other for years. And he now had five children, an out-of-control menagerie of cats, and a sprawling farm to run. This is the story of what happened next.

Taking us behind the scenes of a raucous, rollercoaster year, Alex tells Times journalist and bestselling author Caitlin Moran how the band made a surprise – and emotional – return, reco...

Erudite and comic, ironic and profound, philosopher Slavoj Žižek has travelled into territory where few of us dare to tread – and aged 75 he shows no signs of becoming less provocative. In this electric conversation with Yanis Varoufakis the pair explore whether progress is a good thing, where the new technologies of our age are taking us and why Slavoj is known as ‘the most dangerous philosopher in the West’.

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Both infinitely larger than ourselves and one of humanity's greatest commonalities, the night sky has shaped millennia of human history. Cosmologist Roberto Trotta joins us to reveal what the mysteries of the stars can illuminate about the mysteries of humankind, from our earliest origin myths to our methods of timekeeping which formed around the visibility of stars around the globe. From Babylon to the North Pole, from the beginning of time to the Neanderthals, from our own backyards to imaginations of Venus, this is a voyage across space and time.

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Orhan Pamuk has traveled far and wide, around the world, across the page, and in the landscapes of his mind. Now he joins Erica Wagner to illuminate his craft. From his travels around the world to his reflections on fellow writers, from journal entries scrawled across the span of over a decade to the beginnings of his creative process, Orhan joins us to explore not only his artistic method, but also how daily happenings and larger currents have shaped his oeuvre.

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Can scientists now preserve human minds beyond death - and if so, should they? Australian neuroscientist and science communicator Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston joins us to explain the cutting-edge of his field.

The dream of immortality has existed for as long as the human imagination and until now remained just that: a dream. But neuroscientist and science communicator Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnston believes that neuroscientists can, and should, use cutting-edge tools to help cheat death by preserving us until such time that we can be brought back to life. He joins us on the podcast to make a...

‘Could you write what you write if you weren’t so tiny, Joan?’ -Eve Babitz, in a letter to Joan Didion, 1972

One was the New York name on literary lips. The other, a Los Angeleno fireball with a ferocious wit and writerly ambitions. But what started off a relationship of nurture and collaboration quickly became one of the sourest relationships in literature.

This is the golden age of Hollywood, where artists and movie stars mix with writers and rock-n-rollers in drug-fuelled parties on Franklin Avenue.

Drawing on never-before-seen correspondence between Joan and Eve – letters...

George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham: never had King James I's court seen a man of such exquisite beauty. Capturing the heart of the King, becoming his lover and right-hand man, Villiers thus found himself at the heart of court politics too. But along with his angelic face he also had a brilliant mind.

Renowned historian and biographer Lucy Hughes-Hallett reveals the life of this astonishingly beautiful and clever young lord, and illuminates the tender relationship he shared with the prudent King which history has mischaracterised as a coward. From Villiers's spectacular rise, to his...

Few historical figures in the British political landscape have been as monumental as Winston Churchill. By the time of his death at the age of 90 in 1965, many thought him to be the greatest man in the world. But what was his life really like? And what might he make of the world today?

Churchill's definitive biographer Andrew Roberts joins Matthew D'Ancona to illuminate Churchill in his full complexity, from his childhood to his closest relationships, to even his financial troubles. He also shares what Churchill might make of the greatest political crises we face...

The seven deadly sins are the vices of humankind that define immorality, the roots of all evil in the world. But do these sins really represent moral failings, or are they important and useful human functions that aid us? 

In this episode of the podcast, neurologist Dr Guy Leschziner shares the evolutionary benefits of gluttony, greed, sloth, pride, envy, lust and anger. From continuing the existence of the human race to protecting against famine, he reveals a new perspective that engenders compassion and removes judgement from our interactions with each other.

Duration: 01:02:52

In the Kabul offices of Moby Group, Afghanistan's largest media company, hundreds of men and women continue to bring programmes and news to the country even after the return of the Taliban. From talk shows to breaking news to educational programmes for young girls, the television empire that began as a small radio station continues to brave the country's shifting political landscape.

Now Moby's CEO Saad Mohseni joins Rory Stewart to reveal the dedication and complexity of maintaining a free press, and traces his own journey in the wider history of Afghanistan in peace and in war...

We are expected to operate with industrial-era efficiency at work. But creativity and high-quality ideas can't be generated on the assembly line. So how can we curate the best mental ecosystem for learning, creativity, and problem-solving? From adapting the pace of our work to optimising moments of discovery and illumination, Dr Mithu Storoni explores the gears of our brain and what we can do to make the most of our brain power.

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We live in a world where uncertainty is inevitable. How should we deal with what we don’t know? And what role do chance, luck and coincidence play in our lives?

Cambridge statistician and beloved broadcaster David Spiegelhalter has spent his career dissecting data in order to understand risks and assess the chances of what might happen in the future.

In this episode of the podcast, recorded live in London with live examples with the audience, he guides us through the principles of probability, showing how it can help us think more analytically about everything fr...

How do you balance kindness and competence in the workplace? How can you get the success you deserve, earn credit for your accomplishments, and navigate complex office politics without antagonising your colleagues?

Over decades of research, behavioural scientist Alison Fragale encountered these recurring questions from high-powered and early-career women alike, determining that many women’s workplace issues boil down to the perception of others. Now she joins us to share her insights, offering actionable strategies that can help women elevate their esteem, all while remaining authentic to themselves.

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