How To Academy Podcast

How To Academy is London's home of big thinking. From Nobel laureates to Pulitzer Prize winners, we invite the world’s most influential voices to share new ideas for changing ourselves, our communities, and the world. Our biweekly podcast is your chance to hear in-depth from the most exciting thinkers in global culture.

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Episodes

Quinn Slobodian - The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right

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....

Jun 06, 2025•1 hr 6 min

Rolf Dobelli - How To Lead a Good Life

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoice...

Jun 03, 2025•1 hr 5 min

Philippa Perry Meets Becky Barnicoat – The Joy and Chaos of Parenting

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. Learn more about your ad cho...

May 30, 2025•1 hr 18 min

Filmmaker Lorna Tucker - On Homelessness and Addiction

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. Learn more about your ad choices...

May 27, 2025•30 min

Sayeeda Warsi - Muslims Don't Matter

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 ...

May 23, 2025•1 hr 17 min

Dan Richards - Stories from the Night

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

May 21, 2025•49 min

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