Anthropologist Alexa Hagerty spent years working with forensic teams and victims’ families to investigate crimes against humanity in Latin America. In this harrowing and deeply personal conversation with Luke Naylor-Perrott, she explores what science can tell us about atrocities and resistance, grief and care, ritual and justice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The New Yorker's Adam Gopnik is a master literary stylist, acclaimed as one of wisest and most insightful figures in American journalism. But was he already too advanced in years to master other skills - including those that require as much of the body as they do of the mind? He studied with a boxer, a dancer, a driving instructor, a fine artist and more in pursuit of the secrets of mastery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith hosts conversations with leaders in government, business, and culture that explore the world’s most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society. In this episode, Strive Masiyiwa, a pioneer of Africa’s telecoms industry and influential global tech tycoon, discusses his work to ensure that all 1.3 billion+ Africans get access to digital infrastructure, close the digital skills gap, and invest in the continent’s young entrepreneurs...
Octogenerian neurologist Ricard Restak is living proof that a declining memory is not an inevitable fact of ageing. A professor at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dr Restak has dedicated his life to the science of brain health, and joins the podcast with evidence-based tools and techniques drawn from a lifetime of research and practice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Journalist Luke Turner spent his childhood idolising Spitfires and Lancaster Bombers. Now, as an adult, he explores the human lives behind the machines. Who goes to TankFest - and who plays the SS? Are we more obsessed with war machines than living human beings of flesh and blood? How did tank commanders grieve for their crews? What would it have been like to kill someone with a bayonet? Why did Quentin Crisp say Blitz era London like "a paved double bed"? Why was the war a time of queer liberat...
Curtis Sittenfeld has made a name for herself as one of America’s most exciting writers and her novels Prep, American Wife and Rodham have been hailed as modern classics. Her latest novel, Romantic Comedy, follows a scriptwriter who has given up on romance with Sittenfeld's trademark warmth and intelligence. In this episode, she speaks to Esme Bright about the pitfalls and pleasures of romantic comedies, celebrity obsession in the US, why everyone wants to be the main character on TikTok, and wh...
Julian Baggini is a philosopher who disavows jargon in favour of a clear and accessible approach to the tenets of philosophical enquiry. He joins us with a a guide to the habits and practices of philosophical thought that can make a difference to our daily lives. Why is a good driver like a good thinker? Should we really 'question everything' as free thinkers? How can we live a good life for ourselves and those around us? Is winning an argument more important than being right? Find out from one ...
Inflammation has traditionally been thought of as the body's response to injury and foreign microbes. But as the threats we face have evolved, what if it were now the root cause of modern disease? New science has revealed low-level, smouldering inflammation, simmering quietly and undetected, behind everything from heart disease and cancer to mysterious autoimmune conditions. A doctor at the forefront of this field, Shilpa Ravella joins How To Academy to explain what we know of this elusive pheno...
Do you love your partner but want to rekindle that ‘in love’ feeling? Do you go on plenty of dates but can’t seem to click with the right person? Do you keep having the same conflicts with your partner? The bestselling author of Healing is the New High Vex King and his wife Kaushal have the answers. Drawing on their own relationship, they joined us in London to share practical guidance for learning to love authentically and unconditionally. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices....
As one of Australia's most influential behavioural scientists, Amantha Imber's advice is in-demand everywhere from Disney to Google. She's an expert in helping people do their best work without burning out, ensuring that the third of our waking lives we spend in the office is both impactful and meaningful. She joins the podcast to share her insights into the way you think about and use your time: the subject of her new bestselling book, Time Wise. From dealing with imposter syndrome to knowing w...
Peter Frankopan’s ground-breaking history, The Silk Roads, brought a dazzling new perspective to the story of humankind; its sequel, The New Silk Roads, mapped China’s emerging global empire. He joined us to share the story of how the climate has shaped the rise and fall of civilisations across time with actor and presenter Sir Tony Robinson. Discover how harvests built empires, drought fanned the flames of war and storms and floods buried civilisations... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...
In conversation with former Editorial Director of BBC News, Kamal Ahmed, world-renowned economist Mariana Mazzucato and her collaborator Rosie Collington expertly debunk the myth that consultancies always add value to the economy. Presenting a wealth of original research, they argue for investment and collective intelligence within all organizations and communities, and for a new system in which public and private sectors work innovatively for the common good. Learn more about your ad choices. V...
We feel, therefore we are. Conscious sensations ground our sense of self. They are crucial to our idea of ourselves as psychic beings: present, existent, and mattering. But what does this magical dimension of experience amount to? What’s it for, and why has it evolved? Humphrey's solution implies that phenomenal consciousness, far from being primitive, is a relatively late and sophisticated evolutionary development. The implications, for the existence of sentience in nonhuman animals, are startl...
An underdog who became an international icon, unafraid to speak truth to power and defend ordinary people against vested interests and the billionaire class, Bernie Sanders is more than a politician: he is an inspiration to anyone unwilling to accept a system fuelled by uncontrolled greed. Senator Sanders joins comedian and bestselling author Frankie Boyle live on stage at How To Academy to demand fundamental economic and political change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.c...
Thirty years ago the poet and critic Blake Morrison forged the way for a new genre of confessional memoir with his groundbreaking book And When Did You Last See Your Father?. His new memoir Two Sisters is an even more poignant and profound exploration of family and human frailty, fusing personal storytelling with an examination of sibling relationships in history and literature. Esme Bright sat down with Blake to find out more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Our guest on this episode, Caroline Dodds Pennock, is the UK's only Aztec historian. Countless books have been written about Europeans in the Americas in the age of Discovery but Caroline's new book On Savage Shores is the first to tell the story of the tens of thousands of indigenous Americans who came to Europe: as enslaved people, diplomats, explorers, servants and traders. She sat down with Luke Naylor Perrott to tell us more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoi...
Ray Nayler's The Mountain in the Sea is a speculative novel about the possibilities of interspecies communication that draws deeply upon contemporary philosophy and neuroscience, as well as his extensive experience working in central and south east Asia. Mountain tells the story of Dr Ha Nguyen, a marine biologist invited by a shadowy tech company to the Con Dao archipelago in Vietnam to investigate whether a colony of octopuses have developed language and culture. It's a novel blending high adv...
Distinguished neuroscientist Tracey Shors has dedicated her life to explaining how the mind and body respond to stressful events we can’t control – from difficult childhoods to bereavements, stressful jobs to pregnancy. Some dissipate with time; while other, long-term stresses – like the experience of the pandemic - can change the structure of our brains. Now, drawing on years of research into the long and short-term effects of stress and trauma, she joins the podcast to share her insights into ...
We are living in an age when economic failings have shaken faith in global capitalism. Political failings have undermined trust in liberal democracy and in the very notion of truth. The ties that ought to bind open markets to free and fair elections are being strained and rejected, even in democracy's notional heartlands. Some now argue that capitalism is better without democracy; others that democracy is better without capitalism. What can be done? In this episode of the podcast, Martin Wolf an...
What can science tell us about why love lasts? Why do some couples stay together forever, while others fall apart? Is there a formula for building a relationship that endures the test of time? Widely regarded as America’s leading relationship experts, Drs John and Julie Gottman have studied love for more than fifty years. In conversation with eminent psychotherapist and author Julia Samuel, they share ideas for realising deeper intimacy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com...
On 26 March 2020, a new law appeared. In 11 pages, it locked down tens of millions of people, confined us to our homes, banned socialising, closed shops, gyms, pubs, places of worship. It restricted our freedoms more than any other law in history, justified by the rapid spread of a deadly new virus. A state of emergency was declared, lasting for 764 days, during which time ministers brought in over 100 new restrictions, almost never debated, increasingly confusing the public, and some - we would...
One of the outstanding storytellers of his generation, Tom Rob Smith is best-known for his historical thrillers and acclaimed work as a screenwriter. His new novel Cold People exploring the history of colonialisation and the future of genetic engineering through the lens of speculative fiction. Alien occupiers force the last remanants of humanity to begin a new civilisation in the one place on Earth they cannot survive: Antartica. What will remain of human nature and morality when threatened wit...
Research suggests that only 10-30% of our lifespan is determined by our genetics. This means that the vast majority of how we age is directly related to choices we make everyday - how and what we eat, exercise and sleep quality, to name a few. Dr Morgan Levine, Head of the Ageing in Living Systems Lab at Yale University, joins the podcast to share her insights into the cutting-edge developments in the science of aging and longevity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adch...
Former White House economic advisor Nouriel Roubini joins the podcast for a frightening glimpse into the world’s future. From the worst debt crisis the world has ever seen, to governments pumping out too much money and causing inflation, to borders that are blocked to workers and many shipments of goods, to the rise of a new superpower competition between China and the US, to pandemics and climate change that strike directly at our most populated cities, to the threat to jobs coming from AI, we ...
Illness and trauma are defining how we live. 45% of Europeans suffer high blood pressure, and nearly 70% of Americans take at least one prescription drug. The renowned physician, addiction expert and author Gabor Maté joined us live on stage in London to dissect the underlying causes of this malaise - physical and emotional, and connect the dots between our personal suffering and the pressures of modern-day living. Over four decades of clinical experience, Dr Gabor Maté has found that the common...
The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize, TIME Person of the Year, and countless further accolades, her work tracking disinformation networks seeded by her own government, spreading lies to its own citizens laced with anger and hate, has landed her in trouble with the most powerful man in the country: President Duterte. Now, hounded by the state, she has multiple arrest warrants against her name. In this episode of the podcast, Maria joins us to tell the story of how...
Few figures make such a seismic impact on their artistic medium that they transform its reputation from childish pulp entertainment to a vital and exhilarating creative form, capable of exploring the great mysteries of metaphysics, science, and the human spirit – but Alan Moore is one. A modern-day alchemist who transmuted comic books into literary gold, his works not only inspired a later generation of authors who are now household names, from Neil Gaiman to Susanna Clarke, but filmmakers, arti...
We are often told that the secret to success is hard work, determination, and hours of practice. But in a fast-changing world, what if the really crucial skill is knowing when to stick at something and when to change track and walk away? Former pro poker player turned decision making expert Annie Duke joins Wharton School economist Katy Milkman to make the under-appreciated case for quitting and also shows you how to get really good at it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.c...
Arthur C Clarke famously declared that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Felix Flicker joins the podcast to make that case, sharing some of the wonders that his own field of condensed matter physics has revealed and offering a glimpse of breathtaking new technologies to come. If you've ever wanted to know about the *real* magical properties of crystals, how to make sense of the quantum realm, or why mirrors reverse you from left to right but not top to bottom, thi...
Join Jools Holland and Mark Cooper as they recount their journey hosting and producing the incredible show, Later... with Jools Holland. Passion for music has never shone brighter: listen to Jools and Mark as they pull back the curtain on classic performances to reveal that the show is just as magical, if even more chaotic, than you imagined. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
