How To Academy Podcast
Episodes
M. John Harrison - The End of Everything
19 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
One of the leaders of British science fiction's 1960s New Wave, M. John Harrison has spent the subsequent five decades inventing new and exhilarating ...
Mark Williamson – How To Live a Happier Life
16 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What does it mean to be happy? Whilst it’s not always possible to change our circumstances, Action for Happiness founder Mark Williamson believes th...
Carol Cadwalladr Meets Karen Hao - Sam Altman, ChatGPT, and the Global Resistance
13 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Karen Hao joins The Nerve's Carole Cadwalladr for an eye-watering insider account of Sam Altman’s Open AI and the burgeoning resistance against it. ...
Novelist Elodie Harper – Boudicca's Daughter
09 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Boudicca had two daughters, but history records their existence and nothing more. Sunday Times bestselling author Elodie Harper joins us to discuss he...
Caroline Sylge – How To Retreat
05 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Caroline Sylge reminds us to press pause on the daily overwhelm of modern life by bringing the magic and solace of retreating into your every day. Wh...
Novelist Erica Wagner - Washington Roebling and the Art of Life Writing
02 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Erica Wagner may be the first ever author to write both a landmark biography and a historial novel about the same person. The engineer Washington Roeb...
Neurologist Majid Fotuhi – How To Age-Proof Your Brain
29 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Neurologist Majid Fotuhi is leading the charge in revolutionising how we understand human intelligence, brain health and age-related cognitive decline...
Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris - On Birds, Wonder, and Loss
26 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A great thinning of the skies is underway. Dusk and dawn are growing quiet as birdlife faces a rapid decline across the world. It does not have to be ...
Jessamy Hibberd – How to Free Your Mind From Overthinking
19 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Thinking about your life is a normal part of being human. Often, it is helpful to analyse a situation or revisit a problem in your mind, but if you ...
Phil Tinline - Iron Mountain and the Birth of American Conspiracy Culture
15 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
How did a 1960s spoof of Cold War technocracy become a bible for far-right militias in the present? Political journalist Phil Tinline traces the stran...
Freya India - The Commodification of Girls and How to Fight Back
12 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Coming of age has always been a time of angst and inner turmoil, especially for girls. But today, those worries exist in a world of AR filters, TikTok...
Tom Holland Meets Armando Iannucci — What The Lives of the Caesars Can Teach Us About Politics
08 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Tom Holland is a storyteller whose range and erudition seem to be as unbounded as history himself. Already a wildly acclaimed bestselling author, his ...
Holistic Psychologist Nicole LePera – Reparenting the Inner Child
05 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
We all carry the imprint of our earliest years. Childhood is brief, yet its impact is lifelong. Some parts of us were met with love while other parts ...
Nina Allan - The Many Worlds of JG Ballard
01 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Born into an upper-middle class family and raised in colonial Shanghai, JG Ballard's worldview was profoundly shaped by his internment by the occupyin...
Antony Beevor – Rasputin and the Downfall of the Romanovs
28 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
When Russia's Dowager Empress was pregnant with the future Tsar, she dreamed that a peasant would one day kill her son. The idea terrified her, and fo...
Ecologist Suzanne Simard - Lessons of the Forest
24 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Suzanne Simard transformed our understanding of forests, her groundbreaking research for the Mother Tree Project revealing how the forest is a livi...
James Muldoon - Love Rewired in the Age of AI
21 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
From friendship, to romance, to even therapy, AI companions are on the rise, and AI companion apps alone have now been downloaded more than 220 millio...
Neuroscientist Mark Solms - Was Freud Right?
17 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Pioneering neuropsychologist Mark Solms reveals how science is proving Freud correct and explores what this might mean for our mental healthcare syste...
Zakia Sewell Meets Jeremy Deller - The Quest for a Hidden Britain
07 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Writer and broadcaster Zakia Sewell is on a mission to uncover an alternative spirit of Britain – found in otherworldly folk songs, ancient legends,...
Peter Jones - The Secret History of the Seven Deadly Sins
02 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In 2026 the Seven Deadly Sins have become a bit of harmless fun, more associated with ice creams and videogame villains than the immortal soul. But in...
Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin — How to Harness the Power of Music
31 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Daniel Levitin returns to How To Academy to explore how music can transform our health and wellbeing—repairing our bodies, calming our minds, and he...
Ayala Panievsky–Fighting Censorship in the Age of Populism
27 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Heavy-handed censorship is unnecessary when one can manipulate people to censor themselves… From the birth of 'the strategic bias', to weaponizing ...
Oren Harman - The Human History of Metamorphosis
24 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
As a boy, Oren Harman set up his own bedroom "laboratory" to uncover the caterpillar's transformation into a butterfly. But these marvellous creatures...
Dr Gavin Francis – Making Sense of Mental Health
19 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Between a quarter and a fifth of young people in the UK now suffer from a mental disorder. One in four adults are prescribed psychiatric medication. T...
C. Thi Nguyen - How to Stop Playing Someone Else's Game
13 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
C. Thi Nguyen considers games of all kinds to be an art form, no less beautiful than cinema, literature, or music: but the qualities that make games a...
Keza MacDonald - How Nintendo Changed the World
06 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Guardian journalist and lifelong Nintendo superfan Keza MacDonald is the author of a new history of that reveals how the company's unique culture tran...
Neuroscientist Paul Goldsmith – How to Thrive in a World We Weren’t Made For
03 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In a world transformed beyond recognition, the neural systems that once kept our ancestors alive now leave us overwhelmed, distracted, and dissatisfie...
Jennifer Breheny Wallace – Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection
27 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Feeling seen, needed, and valued isn't just a nice-to-have—it's essential for our wellbeing and society's future. When people feel they truly matter...
Natalie Haynes and Robin Ince - The Myth of Medea, Reimagined
24 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Priestess, witch, daughter of a brutal king: Medea is the greatest tragic heroine of the classical world. But, as Sunday Times bestselling writer Nata...
Wayne McGregor – How to Unlock Your Physical Intelligence
20 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
How much do you know about your body? How much does your body know about you? The most acclaimed choreographer of our age, Sir Wayne McGregor’s trai...
Filmmaker Petra Costa - Democracy on a Knife-edge
17 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
When we spoke to Petra Costa last, her film Apocalypse in The Tropics had just been released on Netflix. The film, which leaves us in the aftermath of...
Stanford's Ben Rein – The Neuroscience of Social Connection
13 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
It’s not just what you feed your brain that matters—it’s who. From your morning coffee order, to weaving through commuters on the train, sittin...
Award-winning Novelist Joanna Kavenna - How to Play a Game Without Rules
10 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A riotious comic novel of ideas, Seven tells the story of an unnamed philosopher plunged into the strange world of Theodoros Apostalakis: dentist, p...
Investigative Journalist Oliver Bullough - How the Money Launderers Won
06 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Whether you’re a fraudster, a cartel boss, a corrupt politician, a kleptocrat or a terrorist mastermind, your options to move and hide your money ar...
Psychobiologist Daisy Fancourt – How the Arts Can Transform Your Health
03 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
How does art affect our brains and bodies, down to our very DNA? Psychobiologist Daisy Fancourt reveals the extraordinary effect of art on our health,...
Tim Minshall - Your Life is Manufactured
30 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Where do the things we buy actually come from? And how did they become the products on our store shelves, the food in our pantries, and the familiar i...
Rutger Bregman Meets George Monbiot - How to Change the World
27 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Global sensation Rutger Bregman joins George Monbiot to show how small groups of committed individuals changed the course of history – and how you c...
Amy Jeffs – Stories of Love and Death From Traditional Ballads
23 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the podcast, Amy Jeffs reveals the spellbinding world behind Old Songs, her exploration of traditional British ballads and the stor...
Data Scientist Hannah Ritchie – How to Solve Climate Change in 50 Questions and Answers
20 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
With so many conflicting headlines out there, it’s tough to sort fact from fiction when it comes to climate change and the solutions we need for a c...
Sam Conniff and Katherine Templar-Lewis –The Uncertainty Toolkit
16 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the ‘Do you have five minutes?’ message from your boss. The ‘We need to chat’ from a loved one. Those spiralling thoughts at 3 a.m. and...
Mark Galeotti - How Crime Organises the World
13 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Far from being distant and peripheral, organised crime shapes our everyday lives, from the materials used to construct our homes to the illicit funds ...
Paul Davies - The New Quantum Revolution
09 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
100 years on from Schrödinger’s equation, we’re on the cusp of the second Quantum revolution. Everything is about to change again – but how? ...
RF Kuang - To Hell with Love
19 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bestselling novelist Rebecca F. Kuang returns to How To Academy in conversation with Hannah MacInnes to dive into her new novel, Katabasis, inviting u...
Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman — The Human Cost of Alabama's Prison System
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman went into an Alabama state prison to film a revival meeting, they discover that the prisoners wanted to talk...
Ingrid Clayton – Why the Need to Please Makes Us Lose Ourselves
10 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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?...
Karl Ove Knausgaard – The School of Night
05 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
John Higgs - Unravelling the Spell of David Lynch
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Neuroscientist Nicholas Wright – How the Brain Shapes War
25 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 offic...
Joe Hill - The One With the Dragons
21 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 repu...
HYPERLAND: Graham Harman on the Nature of Reality
18 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 serie...
Julia Belluz and Kevin Hall – Why We Eat What We Eat
14 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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. Awar...
Sir Tony Robinson Meets Janina Ramirez - The Real Women Behind the Medieval Myths
11 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 nationali...
Nicola Sturgeon Meets Darren McGarvey - Trauma Industrial Complex
07 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today, trauma permeates media, from music and television to films and books. While the increasing openness is welcome, Darren has observed that the we...
Ian Mortimer - The Time Traveller's Guide to England
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Nish Kumar Meets Jimmy Wales - Trust and the Future of Democracy
31 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Two decades ago, Jimmy Wales founded Wikipedia and transformed the world’s access to knowledge. Today, people view Wikipedia 11 billion times every ...
Jens Stoltenberg - Leading NATO in a Time of War
28 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 chan...
Marie Kondo - How to Live
24 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Award-Winning Filmmaker Annemarie Jacir — On the Making of Palestine 36
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A pioneering voice in Arab cinema, Annemarie Jacir has written, directed, and produced over sixteen films, with premieres at Cannes, Berlin, Venice, L...
Philippa Gregory - Jane Boleyn Reimagined
16 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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. ...
Ray Nayler - Why Dystopian Fiction Matters
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Returning to the podcast following episodes around his prize-winning debut The Mountain Under the Sea and his acclaimed novella The Tusks of Extinctio...
Dr Kerry Burnight – A Short Guide to Enjoying a Long Life
10 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Kerry Burnight reveals a transformative new approach to aging—one that goes beyond lifespan and healthspan to embrace joyspan: the ability to exp...
Yuval Noah Harari - Making Sense of a World in Crisis
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Adam Aleksic - How the Internet is Transforming the Future of Language
03 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 'de...
Robert Macfarlane Meets Elif Shafak – Rivers of Life
30 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From the Thames to the Tigris, the Ure to the Euphrates, rivers have flowed through the history of humanity, shaping our civilisations and sustaining ...
Corinne Low - What Data Can Tell Us About Women's Lives
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Drawing on the economist’s toolkit, she reframes “happiness” as utility, shows how to maximize it under constraints, and treats fertility as “...
Mark Kermode – The Stories of Movie Music
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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, Ke...
Kate Wilson - The Spycops Files
19 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2003, British police infiltrated a group of idealistic young environmental activists, forming sexual relationships and spying without warrant on hu...
Jay Heinrichs - How Classical Rhetoric Can Change Your Life
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 fu...
Philip Hoare - The Revolutionary Genius of William Blake
12 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Dr Jenna Macciochi - The Game-Changing Science of Lifetime Health
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Immunologist Jenna Macciochi reveals the “wellness system” linking body and brain, urging us to focus on healthspan as well as lifespan. She expla...
Marina Warner - Reimagining Sanctuary for a World in Crisis
05 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Granted to mythical kings and fugitives alike, enshrined by gods and by communal, human consent, an ancient right since classical times, sanctuary has...
Emily Kasriel - The Art of Deep Listening
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Distracted by our own agenda, we so often hear without understanding, impatiently waiting for our turn to speak. Journalist Emily Kasriel joins us to ...
Caitlin Moran Meets Alex James - Cocaine, Crash Diets and the Return of Blur (Summer Repeat)
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Yuval Noah Harari – Humanity in the Age of AI (Summer Repeat)
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 intelligenc...
Herman Pontzer – The Surprising Science of Human Diversity and Evolution
15 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As an evolutionary anthropologist working with human populations around the globe, Herman Pontzer has conducted research that reveals the wonder of ou...
Dexys' Kevin Rowland - A Life Story
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One of the great mavericks of British music, Kevin Rowland, recounts his formative years and reveals a deeply personal account of his life. From tryin...
Lara Lewington – How Technology is Rewriting the Future of Our Health
08 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Informed by over fifteen years covering the world’s most advanced innovations, Lewington joins journalist Hannah MacInnes to explore the transformat...
Hope Reese - The Dark History of the Angel Makers of Nagyrév
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Dr Grace Spence Green - On Recovery, Disability, and Radical Acceptance
01 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
A Journey into Uncharted Territories with David Attenborough, Miriam Margolyes, Nigel Planer, and others...
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sir David Attenborough, Miriam Margolyes, Nigel Planer, and others join us for a glimpse into Uncharted Territories, a new audio author showcase from ...
Laura Spinney - How One Ancient Language Went Global
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
John Tregoning - A Curious Scientist’s Guide to Wellness, Ageing and Death
17 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How does the body stay alive? And what does ageing really mean, from the inside ? Biomedical scientist and Professor of Vaccine Immunology at Imperial...
Filmmaker Petra Costa - Apocalyptic Christianity and the Rise of the Far-Right
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Oscar nominated for her film The Edge of Democracy, which documented the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and the rise of Jair Bolsonaro, Petra...
Dolly Jones - How to Combine a Career and Family
11 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Historian of Science Thomas Levenson — How Humans Discovered Germs
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Jeremy Hunt - Can Britain Be Great Again?
04 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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, mar...
Robin Ince - Journeys in Neurodiversity
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tracing his journey through his diagnosis with ADHD, Robin Ince explores his own insecurities and discoveries along the way, from the importance of vu...
Afua Hirsch In Conversation with Caroline Darian, Daughter of Dominique Pelicot
30 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Caroline Darian, daughter of Dominique Pelicot, shares with Afua Hirsch a rallying cry for change, and confronts the hidden violence that too many end...
Jon Watts - The Life and Assassination of Dom Philips and the Mission to Save the Amazon
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On 5 June 2022, award-winning journalist Dom Phillips was working on a book about the Amazon rainforest, alongside the indigenous expert Bruno Pereira...
Isabel Allende - On the Power of Story, Resistance, and Humanity
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Isabel Allende shares the story of Emilia del Valle, her unforgettable new heroine on a treacherous, life-changing journey during the Chilean Civil wa...
Daniel Davis - The Real Science of Immune Health
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 immu...
Glennon Doyle, Amanda Doyle, and Abby Wambach — We Can Do Hard Things
13 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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,...
Geoff Dyer - A Life in Writing
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Quinn Slobodian - The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right
06 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Rolf Dobelli - How To Lead a Good Life
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 go...
Philippa Perry Meets Becky Barnicoat – The Joy and Chaos of Parenting
30 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bestselling author, artist, and the Observer’s agony aunt Philippa Perry joins cartoonist Becky Barnicoat for a conversation about the highs and low...
Filmmaker Lorna Tucker - On Homelessness and Addiction
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today Lorna Tucker is a feted documentary maker whose subjects include Vivienne Westwood and Katherine Hepburn — a life she could not have imagined ...
Sayeeda Warsi - Muslims Don't Matter
23 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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-Musli...
Dan Richards - Stories from the Night
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 shift...
LSE Behavioural Economist Paul Dolan - How to Stop Hating People We Disagree With
16 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 w...