How To Academy Podcast

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...

Nature Writer and Cambridge Professor Robert Macfarlane - Is a River Alive?

13 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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

Masud Husain - A Neurologist’s Guide to the Self and the Brain

09 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Neurologist and Oxford Professor Dr Masud Husain explores the intricacies of the brain, and how much our sense of self can change through brain disord...

Daniel Swift – Art, Commerce, and the Origin Story of William Shakespeare

06 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The story of Elizabethan theatre is often told through the artistic genius of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Critic and scholar Daniel Swift has ...

Gina Rippon - How Science Failed Autistic Women

02 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Gina Rippon delves into the emerging science of female autism, asking why it has been systematically ignored and misunderstood for so long. Generation...

Robin Ince Meets Slavoj Žižek - The World In 2025

29 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Bonnie Tsui - Rethinking Muscle and the Way We Move

25 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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, c...

Gabriel Weston - A New Journey Through the Human Anatomy

22 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dissolving the boundaries that usually divide surgeon and patient, award-winning novelist and surgeon Gabriel Weston illuminates a new journey into th...

Yung Pueblo - How To Love Better

18 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 be...

John Higgs - The Story of Doctor Who

15 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Anne-Laure Le Cunff - How Everyday Curiosity Can Help You Reach Your Goals

11 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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? Neuroscienti...

Edward Fishman - How the Global Economy Became a Weapon of War

08 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Foreign policy expert and Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University, Edward Fishman, joins us to reveal the history of sanctions and the threats ...

Visualisation Expert Maya Raichoora - How to Think, Feel, and Perform Like the Top 1%

04 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Journalist Annabelle Hirsch - A History of Women in 101 Objects

01 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There is a neglected history. Not a sweeping, definitive, exhaustive history of the world but something quieter, more intimate and particular. Now in ...