Ben Yeoh Chats
Episodes
Hannah Ritchie On Climate Honesty, Hope, And The Future. Discussing her book Clearing The Air.
26 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hannah Ritchie — one of the most lucid and data-driven voices in climate and sustainability — returns to talk about her new book Clearing the Air...
Robert Beckley: Lessons from 40 Years in Policing, Hillsborough & Civic Service
14 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Retired police officer Robert Beckley reflects on 40 years of service — from Brixton to Hillsborough and beyond. We discuss crisis response, insti...
Do We Still Build Beautiful? Samuel Hughes on Architecture & Cities
20 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Samuel Hughes, editor at Works in Progress, joins me to talk architecture, planning, and how we think about beauty in our cities.“Most buildings in...
Tim Mak: War Reporting in Ukraine
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tim Mak moved to Ukraine in 2022, a day before war broke out. Tim, a former US investigative correspondent, decided to stay and start up his own repor...
Françoise Girard: Feminism, Activism, and the Power of Storytelling
13 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Françoise Girard is an activist and founder of Feminism Makes Us Smarter. We discuss Francois' journey from studying law in Montreal to becoming ...
Sumit Paul-Choudhury: Optimism, Navigating Life's Challenges And Uncertainties
30 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sumit discusses how his wife dying reshaped his views on optimism, differentiating between pragmatic optimism and blind faith. He explores how havin...
Samir Varma: Free Will, Physics, Traffic, Bees, Emotions, Chaos Theory, Cricket, Finance
11 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Samir Varma is a physicist, investor, and author of the book: The Science of Free Will, How Determinism Affects Everything from the Future of AI to Tr...
Mary-Ann Ochota: Adventure, Resilience, Unveiling Hidden Histories, Archeology And The Ancient World
04 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mary-Ann Ochota is a broadcaster, anthropologist, and writer known for her work on Time Team and books on archaeology and the British landscape. “A...
Rebecca Lowe: Exploring Freedom, Moral Philosophy, Technology And The Best Society
28 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Political philosopher Rebecca Lowe discusses her views on freedom, equality, and the ethical implications of emerging technologies. Currently writing ...
Daisy Christodoulou: Football, VAR Video Assisted Referee, Education, and the Art of Learning
12 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Daisy Christodoulou is an acclaimed author in the field of education. Daisy has also written a book on video assisted refereeing (VAR) in football. W...
Peter Gray: Transforming Education, Play, Parenting and Self-Directed Learning
01 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Gray is a psychologist and author of Free to Learn. For many years, he has been studying the importance of play. Gray discusses his perspectiv...
Julia Garayo Willemyns: Policy Ideas, Progress, Growth, AI, Talent, human flourishing
18 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Julia Garayo Willemyns is a startup founder and co-director of the think tank UK Day One, which focuses on advancing UK policy for long-term growth an...
Julian Gough: Minecraft End Poem, Evolution Of The Universe, Being Creative, working in public, writing childrens' books
20 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Julian Gough is an award-winning writer and musician. We explore the breadth of his creative journey, from crafting the 'End Poem' in Minecraf...
Ruth Chang: How to make Hard Choices, philosophy, agency and commitment
02 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ruth Chang is a prominent philosopher known for her work in decision theory, practical reason, and moral philosophy. She is currently a professor at t...
Hansong Li: China, political economy, intellectual history, Tangut and Hamilton, the Musical
14 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hansong Li is a political theorist and historian of political, economic, and legal thought. We discussed a breadth of topics ranging from the Tangut l...
Rasheed Griffith: Progress, Caribbean, Policy, Food, Music, Talent Assessment, Culture
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rasheed Griffith discusses the factors impeding progress in the Caribbean and shares his optimism for the region. He identifies the decline in public ...
Henry Oliver: Late Bloomers, Second Act, Hidden Talent, Biography, John Stuart Mill
19 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A conversation with Henry Oliver, author of 'A Second Act', exploring the concept of late bloomers. Transcript here. Oliver elaborates on soci...
Alyssa Gilbert: Climate Tech Innovation, Policy, Technology
01 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Alyssa Gilbert, the director of the Center for Climate Change Innovation at the Grantham Institute, talks about the current gaps in climate technology...
Garrett Graff: Aliens, Mysteries Of UFOs, Watergate, 9/11, Government Trust
14 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Garrett Graff, a writer and historian who specializes in 'near history', discusses his book, 'UFO', about the US government's sear...
Hannah Ritchie: Not the End of the World, sustainability, climate, progress
26 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this in-depth conversation, data scientist and researcher Hannah Ritchie delves into key insights from her new book 'Not The End of The World&#...
Hana Loftus: Architecture, Regeneration, Planning, Resilience, Design, Jaywick Sands
10 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hana Loftus is a co-founder of HAT Projects. HAT are award winning architects, planners and enablers for the built environment. Projects include: Lon...
Lucy Easthope: Disaster Recovery, Risk, Hope, Planning, Memoir, When The Dust Settles
10 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Lucy Easthope is a professor, lecturer and leading authority on emergency planning and recovering from disaster. Lucy has advised on major disasters o...
Nina Gené: Venture Philanthropy, Jasmine Social Investments, Impact Investing
29 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Nina Gené is CEO of Jasmine Social Investments. Nina leads Jasmine’s investment strategy and diligence process, guiding the team to identify and su...
Pen Vogler: Food History, Culture, Class, Strawberries, Sugar, Industrialisation, Eating Habits
03 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Pen Vogler is a food historian. Her latest book is Stuffed: A History of Good Food and Hard Times in Britain. Her previous books include work on food ...
Joanne Limburg: Autism, Feminism, Motherhood, Grief, Writing, Jewishness, Letters to my Weird Sisters
14 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Joanne Limburg is an award-winning British writer known for her poetry, novels, and memoirs. In the podcast, she discusses her latest book Letters to ...
Fuchsia Dunlop: Chinese Cuisine, Culture, History, Philosophy, Knife skills, Texture and Mouthfeel
30 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Fuchsia Dunlop is a cook and food writer specialising in Chinese cuisine. She was the first Westerner to train as a chef at the Sichuan Institute of H...
Fergus Butler-Gallie: priesthood, frocks, scouse, faith, Liverpool, and Mummified Hearts
19 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Fergus Butler-Gallie is a priest and writer. His latest book, Touching Cloth, is a memoir on his time as a priest in Liverpool. We cover many topics ...
David Edmonds: Derek Parfit, future selves, paradox, effective altruism, philosophy, biography
02 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
David Edmonds is a philosopher, writer, podcaster and presenter. His most recent book is a biography of Derek Parfit. Parfit: A philosopher and his mi...
David Ruebain: disability, protest movements, law, equality, inclusion, interdependence
05 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
David Ruebain is one of the most thoughtful thinkers I know on disability, equality and the law. He is currently a Pro-Vice Chancellor at the Universi...
Jennifer Doleac: reducing crime, policing, justice, policy
08 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jennifer Doleac studies the economics of crime and discrimination. In July 2023, Jenn will join Arnold Ventures as the Executive Vice President of Cri...
Patrick House: Neuroscience and Understanding Consciousness
28 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Patrick House is a neuroscientist and writer. His research focused on the neuroscience of free will and in particular how mind-control parasites alt...
Chris Stark: 2023, Climate Policy, NetZero, Adaptation, Heating, Buildings, Incentives
24 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Chris Stark is the Chief Executive of the UK’s Climate Change Committee. The committee is an independent statutory body which advises the UK and the...
Jade O'Brien: stock broker to teacher, reflections on finance and education, women in finance
03 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jade O’Brien was a stock broker (equity sales) for over 7 years. She then retrained as a teacher and has taught in both the state sector and t...
Kanjun Qiu: AI, metascience, institutional knowledge, trauma models, structure of knowledge, creativity and dance
17 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kanjun is co-founder and CEO of Generally Intelligent, an AI research company. She works on metascience ideas often with Michael Nielsen, a previous p...
Florence Evans: Mud Larking, Art Collecting, Dealing and Curating
29 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Florence Evans is an art dealer, historian, curator, collector and mud larker. We chat on what does mudlarking tell us about history ? What does...
Michael Nielsen: metascience, how to improve science, open science, and decentralisation
15 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Nielsen is a scientist at the Astera Institute. He helped pioneer quantum computing and the modern open science movement. He is a leading thin...
Saloni Dattani: making science better, important questions in science, open science, reforming peer review, vaccines and optimism.
08 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Saloni Dattani is a founding editor at Works in Progress, a researcher at Our World in Data and a commissioning editor at Stripe Press. She has recent...
Jérôme Tagger: sustainability, ESG as a negotiation, impact, investing, preventable surprises
02 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jérôme Tagger is CEO of Preventable Surprises. Jérôme is a thinker on long term ESG trends (a catch-all phrase for extra-financial environment, so...
Mark Koyama: How the World Became Rich, economic history, intangibles, culture, progress
09 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Koyama is an Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason. Mark researches comparative national state economic development and the rise of re...
Jacob Soll: History of Free Market ideas, Adam Smith, Hamilton, Cicero, Machievelli, History of Accounting
24 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jacob Soll is a professor of philosophy, history and accounting. His latest book is Free Market: The History of an Idea. Jake has works on the history...
Naomi Fisher: home education, unschool, agency in learning, meltdowns, child-led learning, cognitive psychology
31 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Naomi Fisher is a clinical psychologist. She has written a book: Changing Our Minds: How children can take control of their own learning. The book is ...
Kana Chan: living in a zero waste village in Japan, Kamikatsu
10 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Kana Chan is living in Kamikatsu which is Japan’s first “zero waste” village in rural Japan. She writes a substack at Tending Gardens and ...
Larry Temkin (pt 2): Critiques of Effective Altruism, long-termism, potential problems of international aid, philosophy
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Larry Temkin is a moral philosopher. He has major works on inequality (book: Inequality); transitivity and social choices (when A > B > C,...
Larry Temkin (pt 1): Moral Philosophy, transitivity, critiques of effective altruism, international aid, pluralism
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Larry Temkin is a moral philosopher. He has major works on inequality (book: Inequality); transitivity and social choices (when A > B > C,...
Leigh Caldwell: cognitive economics, power of stories, how the mind consumes dreams and plans future actions
22 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Leigh Caldwell is a cognitive economist. Leigh has done excellent work around the psychology of pricing and exploring how people consume intangible pr...
David Finnigan: Making Theatre, Improving Creativity, Learning From Failure, Art In A Time Of Climate
05 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
David Finnigan is an award winning theatre maker, writer and games creator from Ngunnawal country, Australia. David produces performances and writing ...
Sophie Purdom: Climate Tech Investing, Brown Spinning, Venture, Sustainability, newsletters, investment philosophy, life advice
26 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sophie Purdom co-writes a climate and innovation newsletter read by tens of thousands, ClimateTech VC. Sophie has worked in start ups as an oper...
Francesca Sanderson: impact arts investing, social impact, creativity, living off-grid
19 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Francesca Sanderson managed an ethical equities fund at JPMorgan as an asset manager but quit that to live for a year living off grid. She then ...
Nadia Asparouhova: Future Of Philanthropy, Science Funding, Creator Economy, Family Stories and Independent Research.
11 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Nadia Asparouhova (previously writing under Nadia Eghbal) is an independent researcher with widely read essays on a range of topics most recently phil...
Carl Saxton-Pizzie: Building A £30m Sustainable Grocery Delivery Company, Mental Health, Sustainability
20 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Carl Saxton-Pizzie trained as an actor and worked in tv before founding a sustainable grocery delivery company, Wholegood, in 2007 (with a van and £5...
Annemarie Naylor: Public Goods, Sovereign Health Fund, Technology And Future Of Justice
22 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Annemarie is Director of Innovation for the Seetec Group. Before that, she was, Director of Policy and Strategy at Future Care Capital - a national ch...
Sophie Woolley: Deaf culture, hearing culture and her creative journey
10 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What is it like to go deaf and then gain back your hearing? On this episode, I speak to Sophie Woolley. Sophie is a writer, performer and theatre make...
Stian Westlake on the intangible economy, recession, stagnation, inequality, BS jobs and new institutions
21 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Stian Westlake is the chief exec at the Royal Statistical Society, and before that he was a policy advisor to government and the executive director at...
Stephan Guyenet On Diet, Obesity Models, and Obesity Drugs
14 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Stephan Guyenet completed a PhD in neuroscience, then went on to study the neuroscience of obesity and eating behavior as a postdoc. He’s also been ...
Alec Stapp: policy for progress, under-researched areas, science of science, biosecurity
28 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Alec is the co-founder and co-CEO of the Institute for Progress. The IFP is dedicated to to accelerating scientific, technological, and industrial pro...
Chris Stark: CEO UK's Climate Change Committee; climate policy, NetZero, adaptation, innovation, cost-benefit and what we should be doing
07 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Chris Stark is the Chief Executive of the UK’s Climate Change Committee. The committee is an independent statutory body which advises the UK and dev...
David Spiegelhalter: COVID statistics, thinking about risk in life and medicine
11 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
David Spiegelhalter is an expert on medical statistics. He was the president of the Royal Statistical Society and is Chair of the Winton Centre for Ri...
Stephen Unwin: Theatre Over The Decades, What Disability Teaches Us
05 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Steve Uwin is a theatre director and writer. Amongst many accomplishments he has been the artistic director of the Rose theatre, founder of ETT, Engli...
Zeke Hausfather: State Of Climate Science, Energy Systems, Post COP26, Tipping Points, Tail Risks
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Zeke Hausfather is a climate scientist and energy systems analyst whose research focuses on observational temperature records, climate models, and mit...
Aella: escort work, home school, rationalism, circling, working in a factory, losing faith, polls and endless questions | Podcast
14 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Aella is perhaps most famous on twitter for shining a light on the life and economics of Camgirls and escorts; and asking challenging questions. But h...
Jason Mitchell: poetry, sustainable investing, hedge funds, carbon tax, offsets, regulation, activism and stakeholder capitalism
08 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jason Mitchell is Co-Head of Responsible Investment at Man Group. He was a hedge fund manager and he is a poet. He’s a deep thinker on all things su...
Dan Goodley: what disability teaches us about being human, social models, technology, interdependence, medicalisation and advice
01 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dan Goodley is a professor of disability studies and education at the School of Education, University of Sheffield. Dan co-directs iHuman, which sits ...
Bec Hill: Comedy, The Right To Offend, Faith, Arts And Crafts, ADHD And Best Uses For Duct Tape
24 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Bec Hill is an actor, comedian and writer famous for flip charts with misheard music lyrics. She has a wide array of talents including as a writer, a ...
Meaghan Kall, epidemiologist: COVID advice, Long COVID, vaccine waning, disability, HIV, social determinants of health; career advice
11 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Meaghan Kall is an epidemiologist at what used to be known as Public Health England but is now the UK Health Security Agency. She and her colleagues h...
Clare Montagu: Running a hospice during COVID, how to die well, being a special advisor to government; economics of a hospice.
03 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Clare Montagu was the Chief Operating Officer of one of London’s largest hospice groups, Trinity Hospice. Before that, she was a UK government minis...
Jonathan Wolff: valuing life, philosophy, COVID, disability models, society of equals, musical performance, life advice
26 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jonathan Wolff is the Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy. Before he was Professor of Philosophy and Dean of Arts and Humanities at...
Diane Coyle: innovation, intangibles, inequality, sustainability and measuring beyond GDP
31 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Economist Diane Coyle is the Bennett Professor of Public Policy, Cambridge University. She co-directs the Bennett Institute, where she heads res...
Mark Ravenhill: Making Theatre, Curiosity, Listening and Stories Under the Rainbow Flag
23 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Ravenhill is one of our greatest living theatre makers. I claim this in part because of the length of his writing career, 25 years+ and still goi...
Sally Phillips: clowning, comedy, family life, disability and faith
18 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sally Phillips is well known for her award winning acting, writing and comedy. She had roles in 'I'm Alan Partridge', 'Smack the Pony', 'Green Wing', ...
Catherine Howarth on shareholder activism, growing back better and change makers
25 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How does individual shareholder activism work? How does personal agency and systems change work together in a theory of change? How do we become chang...
Tassos Stevens on making theatre, play and creative processes
18 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Tassos Stevens is artistic director of Coney. The transcript of the podcast here. Prior to Coney, he did a doctorate in Psychology, won the inau...
Matt Clancy on innovation, progress studies and remote work.
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Matt Clancy is a progress fellow at Emergent Ventures. He teaches at Iowa State University and writes on Substack a newsletter called New Things Under...
Trailer: Ben Yeoh Chats for people curious about the world.
01 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Short introduction to Ben Yeoh Chats. If you are curious about the world this show is for you. I have extended conversations across humanities and sci...
Lee Simpson on improvisation, story telling and what improv tells us about being human.
29 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Lee Simpson is a founder member of Improbable (theatre makers and improvisers), a long time Comedy Store Player (since the 1980s) and one of Paul Mert...
Leopold Aschenbrenner on existential risk, German Culture, Valedictorian efficiency
23 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I had an excellent chat with Leopold Aschenbrenner. Leopold is a grant winner from Tyler Cowen’s Emergent Ventures. He went to Columbia Univer...
C Thi Nguyen on games philosophy, agency, real world gamification and what drinking games tell you about humanity
20 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I chat with C. Thi Nguyen who used to be a food writer and is now a philosophy professor at University of Utah. Thi thinks about trust, ar...
Anton Howes on innovation history, the improving mindset and progress studies.
21 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Anton Howes on innovation history, the improving mindset and progress studies. Anton Howes is an innovation historian and policy thinker, we have a fa...
Tom Gosling On Incentives, Corporate Purpose, Netzero; Singing and Happiness
16 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Tom Gosling was a partner at PwC, and an advisor to boards around executive pay and incentives, governance, and strategy. He's currently an Executive ...
Jonathan Meth on disability arts, dramaturgy and asking questions
13 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jonathan Meth is a dramaturg, extraordinaire, director, curator, very involved in the European theatre and disability arts. He's a lecturer at Goldsmi...
Rishi Dastidar on life, poetry, and writing.
28 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Rishi Dastidar and I chat about life, poetry, writing and poets always having another job. Rishi gives advice on how to be a poet, embracing Insta poe...
Mya-Rose Craig, Birdgirl
15 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I chat to Mya-Rose Craig, aka Birdgirl, about her love of birding touching upon birdsong and the mysteries of migration. We discuss accessibilty to na...
Rebecca Giggs. Fathoms: the world in the whale.
11 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We discuss the award winning book, Fathoms: the world in the whale by Rebecca Giggs. Our conversation covers seeing the history of humanity through th...