How To Academy Podcast

Neuroscientist Dr Richard Restak – How To Prevent Dementia

05 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Neurologist and professor Richard Restak has dedicated his life to the science of brain health. Now he returns to How To Academy to share more ways to...

Novelist and Macarthur 'Genius' Kelly Link - The Book of Love

01 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kelly Link is the author of ludicrously acclaimed genre-defying short story collections including Magic For Beginners and the Pulitzer nominated Get i...

Daniel Goleman - Emotional Intelligence at Work

23 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Multitasking is a myth. Flow states don’t equate to enlightenment. An emotionally engaged boss is best for business. In this podcast, Harvard psycho...

Novelist and Diplomat Ray Nayler - The Tusks of Extinction

20 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ray Nayler's novel The Mountain in the Sea announced him a major new voice in speculative fiction, able to seamlessly fuse the novel of ideas and the ...

Dr Gemma Newman - The Six Healing Health Habits You Need to Know

16 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Family doctor Dr Gemma Newman has come to understand that body, mind and soul are not separate, and that only through a ‘whole body’ treatment pla...

Amitav Ghosh - How the Opium Trade Shaped Capitalism

13 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

One small plant has played an outsized role in shaping the world we live in today. Engineered by the British Empire with profound consequences for Ind...

Musician James Blunt - Not Safe For Work

09 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The pop star James Blunt has written a memoir about his life as one of the biggest acts of the noughties: a memoir that is filthy, funny, and quite po...

Comedian Ruby Wax - On Mental Health

06 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ruby Wax joins us to share an honest and stirring portrait of the depths of her psyche. Recounting her mental health journey including through a monas...

Physicist Carlo Rovelli Meets Theatre-Maker Simon McBurney

02 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Carlo Rovelli is no ordinary scientist. With a genius for revealing the mysteries the universe to those of us without his gifts, he is the heir to Haw...

Psychotherapist Adam Phillips - What We Must Give Up to Feel More Alive

30 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Both a renowned psychotherapist and the 'best living essayist writing in English' (John Gray), Adam Phillips joins us to reflect upon what we must giv...

Stanford Psychiatrist and Addiction Expert Anna Lembke - The New Neuroscience of Pleasure, Pain, and Balance

26 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We're living in a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting,...

Daniel Dennett v. Robert Sapolsky - Do We Have Free Will?

24 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Do human beings have free will? For Stanford neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky, science clearly demonstrates that free will is a powerful and dangerous i...

Dr Uma Naidoo - How to Calm Your Mind With Food

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We’re in the middle of a global anxiety epidemic. But when it comes to fighting anxiety, you have more control than you think: the power is at the e...

Sathnam Sanghera on the British Empire - Live at Wilderness

16 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Every year we host a big thinker at the music festival Wilderness and our guest in 2023 was Sathnam Sanghera, the Times journalist whose two books on ...

Oxford Data Scientist Hannah Richie - Combating Climate Anxiety

13 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Each month our sister podcast Found in Conversation explores global affairs and innovation with world-leading thinkers. In this episode, Oxford data s...

Economist Mariana Mazzucato - The Entrepreneurial State and the Future of Innovation

09 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Mariana Mazzucato’s ideas have changed how governments see their role in the economy - but where do we go from here? Regular listeners will have hea...

Psychologist Dan Ariely - Why People Are Drawn to Conspiracy Theories, and How to Help

05 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dan Ariely is a superstar TED talker and a world-leading social psychologist, specialising in the study of irrational behaviour and bad decisions. His...

Mary Beard and David Mitchell - On Rulers and Power

22 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Cambridge Professor Mary Beard has done more than anyone to bring the world of ancient Rome to life again. Comedian David Mitchell once studied histor...

Harvard Psychologist David Rosmarin - How To Thrive With Anxiety

19 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Those of us who suffer from anxiety either exhaust ourselves trying to cure it or resign ourselves to a lifetime of fear and worry. What if, instead o...

Hein de Haas - Debunking Myths About Migration

15 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Immigration is probably the most divisive and heated subject in British politics today and the same is true in many other countries, including the Net...

Holistic Psychologist Nicole LePera - How to Heal Your Relationships

12 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why are our closest relationships so often a source of more stress than solace? Whether the relationship is with a romantic partner, a parent, a child...

New York Times columnist David Brooks - How to Know Others and Be Truly Seen

08 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In a society riven by fragmentation, hostility, and misperception, How can we look somebody in the eye and see something large in them, and in turn, s...

Walter Isaacson - The Life of Elon Musk

06 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Walter Isaacson was the editor in chief of Time magazine and CEO of CNN but he's best known to the public for his incredible biographies - including L...

Harvard Business School Prof. Amy Edmondson - Why Learning to Fail Can Teach Us to Thrive

01 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Amy Edmondson is one of the world's most influential organisational psychologists, a professor at Harvard Business School, and an expert on the concep...

Performance Artist Marina Abramović Meets Tim Marlow

28 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Marina Abramovic is an artist who for more than fifty years has pushed her mind and body to their limits - whether walking into a fire and almost dyin...

Immunologist Luke O'Neill - The Joy of Science

24 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Luke O'Neill is a Professor of Biochemistry at Trinity College, Dublin and one of the world's most respected immunologists, with 6 major discoveries t...

Stanford Professor Dr. David Spiegel - How Hypnosis Can Change Your Life

20 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

With more than forty years of clinical and research experience investigating the mind-body connection, Stanford psychiatrist David Spiegel is sought o...

Astronaut Chris Hadfield Meets Robin Ince

15 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A global superstar following his legendary cover version of David Bowie’s Space Oddity aboard the ISS, Colonel Chris Hadfield is also an ace fighter...

Neuroscientist and Philosopher Iain McGilchrist - The Divided Brain and the Meaning of Life

10 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Iain McGilchrist’s book The Master and His Emissary was that rare thing: a bestselling classic of modern philosophy with genuine relevance to human ...

Philippa Gregory - 900 Years of Women's History

07 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For decades, Philippa Gregory has thrilled us with tales of the court and the machinations of kings, queens, and courtiers. Now she turns her attentio...

Albert Read Meets Will Gompertz - Where Good Ideas Come From (and How to Have More)

03 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Conde Nast’s MD Albert Read is on a mission to put the imagination back at the forefront of our lives. Albert joins the podcast to examine how the i...

Werner Herzog Meets Mark Kermode - A Life in Cinema

31 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From his early movies to his later documentaries, he has made a career out of exploring the boundaries of human endurance: what we are capable of in e...

Timothy Garton Ash and Catherine Ashton - The Future of Europe (Bonus Episode)

27 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Every month the How To Academy team release a new episode of Found in Conversation with our friends at Pictet. In this episode, we explore the past, p...

Arthur Brooks - How to Build the Life You Want

24 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A Professor at Harvard Business School specialising in happiness and leadership, Arthur Brooks joins us to share his insights into realising greater h...

Zeke Faux Meets Oliver Bullough - Inside the Wild Rise and Fall of Crypto

20 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Zeke Faux is an investigative reporter for Bloomberg and the author of Number Goes Up - a wild, first hand account of his journey into the world of cr...

Davina McCall and Dr Naomi Potter - How to Thrive Through Menopause

18 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Menopause affects every woman, and yet so many approach it with shame, fear, misinformation or silence. Why is no one talking about this? Who has the ...

Gordon Brown, Mohamed El-Erian, Michael Spence - Fixing the Permacrisis

13 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today we face not one crisis but a cascade: sputtering growth, surging inflation, poor policy responses, an escalating climate emergency, worsening in...

David Nutt - How Psychedelics Can Change Your Life

10 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We are on the cusp of a major revolution in psychiatric medicine and neuroscience. After fifty years of prohibition, criminalisation and fear, science...

Camilla Nord - The New Neuroscience of Mental Health

06 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We commonly misperceive mental health as being all in the mind, and physical pain in the body; but neuroscientist Camilla Nord’s groundbreaking rese...

Michel Faber - Why Music Matters

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Michel Faber is one of the most acclaimed contemporary novelists in the English language; a master of the form able to move effortlessly between histo...

Dr Anders Hansen - How to Be Happier and Less Distracted

30 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"Don't worry, be happy", "focus on the important things", "smile more". We've all heard these platitudes, and we've all been annoyed by them. But how ...

John Higgs - The KLF, the Band That Burned a Million Pounds

26 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

John Higgs has joined this podcast to talk about William Blake, James Bond, and the Beatles - and now he's back with another iconic British cultural e...

Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross - Your Brain on Art

22 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For most of us, the arts are a great source of pleasure. But could making art actually be good for your brain and body? Susan Magsamen is the founder ...

Joyce Carol Oates - Zero Sum

19 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The author of 58 novels, as well as plays, poetry, non-fiction and short stories, Joyce Carol Oates is famed across the literary world for writing at ...

Jesse Coomer - The Power of Breathwork

15 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jesse Coomer was an English professor suffering from what he called "The Modern Human Condition" - in other words, he was a mess of stress and anxiety...

Kristen Ghodsee and Angela Saini - Radical Experiments in the Good Life

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What can we learn from historical attempts to live together and raise children differently? Kristen Ghodsee is a professor at the University of Pennsy...

Dr James Kinross - The New Science of the Microbiome

08 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

James Kinross is a consultant surgeon at Imperial College and one of the world's leading experts on the science of the microbiome — the complex ecos...

Emma Southon - Women of the Roman Empire

05 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Emma Southon is a podcaster and ancient historian. Her new book A History of the Roman Empire in 21 Women does exactly what it says on the tin: sidest...

Rahul Jandial - How to Rewire Your Brain (Summer Repeat)

01 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For years Dr Rahul Jandial, a neurosurgeon and neuroscientist, has transformed the lives of his neurosurgery patients by putting them through ‘brain...

David Christian - A User's Guide to the Future (Bonus Episode)

29 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When you get behind the wheel of a car, throw or catch a ball, change jobs, or move to a new country, you are making a series of predictions about wha...

Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché - Nostalgia is a Weapon

25 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The writer Helen Macdonald is best known for the award winning memoir H is For Hawk and other distinguished works exploring our relationship to the na...

Julia Cameron and Elizabeth Gilbert - The Path to Higher Creativity (Summer Repeat)

22 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Julia Cameron is the author, poet, and screenwriter whose book The Artist's Way is one of the most influential creativity manuals ever written. Elizab...

Alan Philps - Stalin's Disinformation War

18 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alan Philps is the former foreign editor of the Daily Telegraph and an expert on Russian politics. He's the author of a new book called The Red Hotel,...

Marie Kondo - Kurashi at Home (Summer Repeat)

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Marie Kondo became a global superstar when she introduced the world to the life-changing magic of tidying up. Now Marie joins us to share the art of k...

Victoria Belim - The Resilience of Art in Times of War

11 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“Mourning a place is even more difficult than mourning a person,” writes Victoria Belim in The Rooster House. Her book is part-memoir, part-detec...

Dr Pooja Lakshmin - Sustainable Strategies for Real Self-Care

08 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Leading psychiatrist Dr Pooja Lakshmin knows first-hand how toxic the wellness industry can be. In search of radical answers to her own personal exper...

Booker Prize winner George Saunders - Liberation Day (Summer Repeat)

04 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Revisiting one of our favourite episodes of last year, the Booker Prize winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo shares his idiosyncratic take on the hu...

Malcolm Harris - How Palo Alto Conquered the World

02 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How did the suburb of Palo Alto become the epicentre of a global tech revolution, changing not just American capitalism but the world? Malcolm Harris ...

Dr Amy Shah - How to Manage Hunger and Cravings

28 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Our guest on this episode is Amy Shah, a physician who trained at Cornell, Columbia and Harvard. She specialises in nutrition and the mind-body connec...

Andy Clark - How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality

25 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How do our minds build our worlds? One of the most important living thinkers in cognitive science and philosophy joined us with a grand new vision to ...

Christina Wallace - How To Futureproof Your Career

21 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How can you make 'work' work for you? Christina Wallace is a millenial, an entrepreneur, a professor at Harvard Business School, and an expert in buil...

Booker 2022 winner Shehan Karunatilaka - The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

18 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida, war photographer, gambler and closet gay, has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. His dismembered ...

Emma Gannon - The Meaning of Success

14 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Do you think you'd be happier if you won the lottery? Do you spend your days scrolling, thinking everyone else is living life better than you? Have yo...

Richard Dawkins - Live at Wilderness Festival 2022

11 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How To Academy is back at Wilderness Festival this August, where we will be hosting the journalist and author of Empireland Sathnam Sanghera on his ne...

Viorica Marian - The Power of Language

07 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Viorica Marian joins us to explore how crucial multilingualism is to human flourishing. Her new book, The Power of Language, distils her research to s...

Peter Heather - Will the West Fall Like Rome?

04 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What can we learn about the decline of the west from the fall of the Roman Empire? Was decline inevitable for Rome and is it inevitable for the US too...

Lorraine Candy - How to Have a Magnificent Midlife

30 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lorraine Candy is the go-to voice for a generation of women seeking information and guidance. Now the bestselling author of Mum, What’s Wrong With Y...

Scott Shapiro - The Dark Art of Hacking

27 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Scott Shapiro is a professor at Yale who teaches the philosophy of law. He is also a hacker, and the author of a new history of hacking, cybersecurity...

James Comey - The Pursuit of Justice in a Divided America

23 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Since he was fired by Trump for refusing to bend the knee, the former FBI director James Comey has become one of the most insightful and authoritative...

Gretchen Rubin - How to Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life

20 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Our guest on this episode, Gretchen Rubin, writes bestselling books about the routes we can take to find happiness and fulfilment; in the process she'...

William Dalrymple and Sathnam Sanghera - British Imperialism in India

16 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How did the Mughal empire – which then generated just under half the world’s wealth – come to be replaced by the first global corporate power - ...

Richard Ford - A Life in Literature

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Our guest on this episode Richard Ford is one of the masters of American literary fiction. Frequently compared to Updike, Faulkner and Hemingway; he'...

Andre Solo - How To Thrive as a Sensitive Person

09 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever been told you're too sensitive? What if we told you that being sensitive wasn't a weakness, but a superpower? Our guest on this episode ...

Susie Alegre - Protecting Freedom of Thought in the Digital Age

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Susie Alegre is a leading human rights barrister and a pioneer of digital human rights in the age of AI and big tech. In her book Freedom to Think, sh...

Sarah Knight - How to be an Adult and Get Treated Like One

01 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Knight made her name as the author of the sensational anti-self help book The Life Changing Magic of Not Giving a F**K and has sold more than 3 ...

M. John Harrison - Living in an Age of Fantasy

29 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As a member of the 1960s science fiction New Wave, M. John Harrison worked with authors like Michael Moorcock and JG Ballard to he helped turn generic...

Alastair Campbell Meets Beth Rigby - Why Politics Has Gone So Wrong, and How You Can Help Fix It

23 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Alastair Campbell was Tony Blair's communications chief and is now one of the UK's most sought after political commentators; The Rest is Politics, his...

Thomas Hertog - Stephen Hawking's Final Theory of the Universe

19 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Thomas Hertog was Stephen Hawking's PhD student and went on to become a leading cosmologist in his own right. He and Hawking developed a radical new t...

Ruby Wax Meets Julia Samuel - I'm Not As Well As I Thought I Was

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

These days, trying to stay sane in a completely chaotic world makes life incredibly difficult, especially if you're struggling with your mental health...

Fiona Buckland - How to Change Your Life

12 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What makes a fulfilling life, and how can we live one? Life coach Fiona Buckland explores the overwhelming world we live in and the stressors and temp...

Justin Gregg - What Animal Intelligence Tells Us About Human Stupidity

10 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What if human intelligence is more of a liability than a gift? According to the animal cognition expert and author of If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal Just...

Robin Ince Meets Chris van Tulleken - Why We Can't Stop Eating Stuff That Isn't Food

05 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Over the past 150 years, we have entered a new ‘age of eating’ where most of our calories come from an entirely novel set of substances: Ultra-Pro...

Mick Herron - Slow Horses, Bad Actors

02 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Thriller writer Mick Herron is the heir to John Le Carre - the author of the wildly acclaimed Slough House espionage novels. The TV adaptation named...

Eleanor Janega - Going Medieval on Women's Roles in Society

28 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why did the ideal medieval woman have a pot belly and small feet? Which days of the week was sex permitted? Why did the transgender sex workers of Lon...

Alexa Hagerty - Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains

25 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anthropologist Alexa Hagerty spent years working with forensic teams and victims’ families to investigate crimes against humanity in Latin America. ...

Adam Gopnik - The Mystery of Skill and Mastery

21 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 a...

Microsoft President Brad Smith - Tools and Weapons

18 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith hosts conversations with leaders in government, business, and culture that explore the world’s most cr...

Richard Restak - The Neuroscience of Strengthening Your Memory

14 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Octogenerian neurologist Ricard Restak is living proof that a declining memory is not an inevitable fact of ageing. A professor at George Washington U...

Luke Turner - Men at War

11 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist Luke Turner spent his childhood idolising Spitfires and Lancaster Bombers. Now, as an adult, he explores the human lives behind the machin...

Curtis Sittenfeld - Romantic Comedy

07 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 hail...

Julian Baggini - How to Think Like a Philosopher

04 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 w...

Dr Shilpa Ravella - The New Science of Inflammation

23 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Vex King and Kaushal - Get Closer to Love

21 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Amantha Imber - How to Use Time Wisely

17 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 i...

Sir Tony Robinson Meets Peter Frankopan - How a Changing Climate Shaped Civilisation

14 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Frankopan’s ground-breaking history, The Silk Roads, brought a dazzling new perspective to the story of humankind; its sequel, The New Silk Ro...

Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington - How the Consulting Industry Weakens Our Democracy

10 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In conversation with former Editorial Director of BBC News, Kamal Ahmed, world-renowned economist Mariana Mazzucato and her collaborator Rosie Colling...

Nicholas Humphrey - The Invention of Consciousness

08 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We feel, therefore we are. Conscious sensations ground our sense of self. They are crucial to our idea of ourselves as psychic beings: present, exist...

Bernie Sanders Meets Frankie Boyle - It's Okay to Be Angry About Capitalism

02 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

An underdog who became an international icon, unafraid to speak truth to power and defend ordinary people against vested interests and the billionaire...

Blake Morrison - The Power of Art in Grief

28 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 Yo...

Caroline Dodds Pennock - How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe

24 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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...