How To Academy Podcast

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...

Ray Nayler - What Octopuses and AI Teach Us About Consciousness

21 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ray Nayler's The Mountain in the Sea is a speculative novel about the possibilities of interspecies communication that draws deeply upon contemporary ...

Tracey Shors - A Neuroscientist's Guide to Trauma

17 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Distinguished neuroscientist Tracey Shors has dedicated her life to explaining how the mind and body respond to stressful events we can’t control –...

Mervyn King Meets Martin Wolf - The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism

14 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We are living in an age when economic failings have shaken faith in global capitalism. Political failings have undermined trust in liberal democracy a...

Julia Samuel Meets John and Julie Gottman - How to Make Love Last

10 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What can science tell us about why love lasts? Why do some couples stay together forever, while others fall apart? Is there a formula for building a r...

Daniel Finkelstein Meets Adam Wagner - The Freedoms We Lost in the Pandemic

08 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 26 March 2020, a new law appeared. In 11 pages, it locked down tens of millions of people, confined us to our homes, banned socialising, closed sho...

Tom Rob Smith - Antarctica and Apocalypse

03 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One of the outstanding storytellers of his generation, Tom Rob Smith is best-known for his historical thrillers and acclaimed work as a screenwriter. ...

Morgan Levine - How to Reverse the Ageing Process

31 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Research suggests that only 10-30% of our lifespan is determined by our genetics. This means that the vast majority of how we age is directly related ...

Nouriel Roubini - Megathreats That Imperil the World's Future

27 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Former White House economic advisor Nouriel Roubini joins the podcast for a frightening glimpse into the world’s future. From the worst debt crisis ...

Dr Gabor Maté - Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture

24 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Illness and trauma are defining how we live. 45% of Europeans suffer high blood pressure, and nearly 70% of Americans take at least one prescription d...

Maria Ressa - How to Stand Up to a Dictator

20 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize, TIME Person of the Year, and countless further accolades, her work tracking dis...

Alan Moore - The Magic of Storytelling

17 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Few figures make such a seismic impact on their artistic medium that they transform its reputation from childish pulp entertainment to a vital and exh...

Katy Milkman Meets Annie Duke - How To Quit

13 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We are often told that the secret to success is hard work, determination, and hours of practice. But in a fast-changing world, what if the really cruc...

Felix Flicker - The Magic of Matter

09 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Arthur C Clarke famously declared that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Felix Flicker joins the podcast to make that ...

Jools Holland and Mark Cooper – Celebrating Thirty Years of Music and Mayhem

20 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Join Jools Holland and Mark Cooper as they recount their journey hosting and producing the incredible show, Later... with Jools Holland. Passion for m...

Sathnam Sanghera – Marriage Material

16 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Acclaimed author of Empireland and The Boy with the Topknot Sathnam Sanghera takes us on a journey to a fictional cornershop where a story of three ge...

Chelsea Manning – Information is Power

13 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 2010, Chelsea Manning, working as an intelligence analyst in the United States Army in Iraq, disclosed classified military documents that she had s...

Meik Wiking – Hygge, Home, and Happiness

09 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When Meik Wiking introduced the world to the Danish art of Hygge in 2016 he gave us a revolutionary new way of nurturing happiness at home. Now the in...

Marie Kondo – Kurashi At Home

06 Dec 2022

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...

Lost Realms – An Epic New History of Britain from the Romans to the Vikings

02 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As Tolkien knew, Britain in the ‘Dark Ages’ was an untidy mosaic of kingdoms – an age of saints and gods and miracles, of giants and battles an...

The Pursuit of Growth is a Disaster for Our Country and Our Planet

29 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From Westminster to Beijing, politicians and economists believe growth is the path to progress and prosperity. But are they blindly leading us towards...

Harry Sidebottom - The Mad Emperor Heliogabalus

23 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The teenage emperor Heliogabalus was a polyamorous, sex positive, trans person who began life as a refugee; he was also a profiligate, irresponsible, ...

Siddhartha Mukherjee - The Song of the Cell

18 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The literary heir to Oliver Sacks and Paul Kalanithi, a scientist and doctor with the eloquence and humanitarian sensibility of a philosopher-poet, Dr...

Danielle Keats Citron - How to Protect Dignity and Identity in the Digital Age

15 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Law Professor and MacArthur fellow Danielle Citron takes the conversation about technology and privacy out of the boardrooms and op-eds to reach reade...

Live Debate: "Now is the Time to Make Peace in Ukraine"

11 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Support for the policy of arming Ukraine remains hugely popular. Zelensky is a hero to millions and has become an icon, while many of us in the UK wea...

Joyce Tyldesley - The Life, Death, and Afterlife of Tutankhamun

09 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The pharaohs ruled Egypt for two and a half thousand years but none continue to excite the world's imagination like Tutankhamun. Joyce Tyldesley is a ...

Yuval Noah Harari Meets Katherine Rundell - Unstoppable Us

01 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever wondered how we got here? From hunting mammoths, to flying to the moon? Historian Yuval Noah Harari introduced millions of readers to th...

George Saunders - Liberation Day

28 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

George Saunders' first new collection of stories in ten years is a powerful reminder of why he is widely considered to be the greatest short story wri...

Geena Davis - Dying of Politeness

25 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

At the age of three Geena Davis announced to her parents she was going to be an actor. With a slew of iconic film and television roles now under her ...

Kate Summerscale - The History of Phobias and Manias

23 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

'Fascinating ... Phobias and manias create a magical space between us and the world' Malcolm Gaskill, author of the No 1 bestseller, The Ruin of All W...

Kate Mosse - Warrior Queens and Quiet Revolutionaries

20 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Kate Mosse has dedicated her life to promoting women’s stories – through her award-winning fiction, plays and essays, the creation and leadership ...

Amy Jeffs - Tales of the Medieval Wilderness

14 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Amy Jeffs brings legends of the medieval world to life through art, music, and the written word. Her debut book Storyland retold Britain's myths of or...

Irvine Welsh - Confessions of a Novelist

11 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Junkie, DJ, punk, pill popper, petty criminal, binge drinker, screenwriter, TV repairman: Irvine Welsh has lived more lives than the average man of le...

Stephen Fry Meets Steven Pinker - Enlightenment Now

04 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In anticipation of our next in-person live event with Steven Pinker in conversation with Richard Dawkins, we wanted to share a previous appearance fro...

Clover Stroud - The Red of My Blood

30 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A few weeks before Christmas, Clover Stroud’s sister Nell Gifford, founder of Gifford’s Circus, died of breast cancer, aged forty-six. Just days b...

Dr Gabor Maté - Why We Get Sick

27 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Gabor Maté will return in-person to How To Academy next month. In anticipation, we're sharing our podcast interview recorded on his last visit in ...

John Higgs - Bond, the Beatles, and the British Psyche

23 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

60s Britain produced not only the most biggest band in the history of music, but the most successful movie character of all time. In this episode of t...

Dr Ellen Vora - The Anatomy of Anxiety

21 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Backed by the latest scientific research and her own clinical work, Dr Ellen Vora offers a fresh, much needed look at mental health, offering actiona...

Adrian Hon - How Corporations and Governments Use Videogames to Control Us

16 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The creator of the wildly successful running app Zombies, Run! and a columnist for the prestigious videogame industry magazine EDGE, Adrian Hon makes ...

Cornelia Parker Meets Carlo Rovelli - The Hidden Nature of Things

13 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

One of Britain's most acclaimed visual artists, Cornelia Parker's sculptures challenge our sense of what an artwork can be. Both an eminent theoretica...

Mark Bergen - Inside YouTube's Chaotic Rise to Global Domination

09 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In conversations about the role of Big Tech in the spread of misinformation and propaganda, YouTube rarely receives the same attention as Facebook, Tw...

Charlotte Fox Weber - A Journey Into Human Desire

07 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The lives and problems of psychotherapist Charlotte Fox Weber's clients vary, but all are united by a common question: what do I really want? In this ...

Melanie Joy - How to Get Relationships Right

02 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Relationships are complicated. Yet it's an unfortunate reality that while most of us have to learn complex geometry that we'll probably never use, we ...

David Mitchell - Dishonesty is the Second Best Policy (Summer Repeat)

30 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Lying is probably as old as human language itself – an inevitable consequence of humanity’s greatest superpower. And comedian, Observer columnist ...

Glennon Doyle - How to Find Yourself (Summer Repeat)

26 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There is a voice of longing inside each woman. We strive to be good: good partners, daughters, mothers, employees, and friends. We hope all this striv...

Richard Dawkins - The Meaning of Life (Summer Repeat)

22 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The creator of the word ‘meme’ and of the hugely influential ‘selfish gene’ model of evolution, he is the epitome of the truly public intellec...

Layla Saad - How to Fight White Supremacy (Summer Repeat)

19 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Hannah MacInnes meets author, influencer and activist Layla Saad, whose Instagram challenge #MeAndWhiteSupremacy encouraged people to own up and sha...

Derren Brown - How To Be a Little Happier (Summer Repeat)

15 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Since he introduced us to his singular and inimitable brand of psychology, stagecraft and magic in 2000, Derren Brown has played Russian Roulette on l...

Patrick Radden Keefe - True Stories of Killers, Grifters, and Crooks

12 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The New Yorker’s Patrick Radden Keefe is America’s most celebrated living reporter. He documented the hunt for the drug lord Chapo Guzman and the ...

Philip Ball - How to Make Sense of Inhuman Minds

09 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Acclaimed science writer Philip Ball joins us to explore the rich diversity of thinking minds – from human to other mammals, insects, computers and ...

Alice Sherwood - How to Fight Back Against Counterfeit Culture

02 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We live in an age when the pursuit of authenticity – from living our 'best life' to eating artisan food – matters more and more to us, but where t...

Daniel Pink - The Power of Regret

26 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Daniel Pink, the New York Times bestselling author of When and Drive and one of the world’s leading thinkers on business, creativity and human behav...

Daniel Pick - a New History of Thought Control

22 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1953, a group of prisoners of war who had fought against the communist invasion of South Korea were released. They chose - apparently freely - to m...

Tara Porter - A Psychologist's Guide to Life for Girls and Young Women

19 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For girls and young women these are shifting times: never before have they had so much freedom and choice; but never before have they had so many dema...

Chris Patten - The Future of Hong Kong

15 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In June 1992 Chris Patten went to Hong Kong as the last British governor, to try to prepare it not for independence, but for handing back in 1997 to t...

Jeremy Hunt - The Future of the NHS

12 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Every week there are 150 avoidable deaths in England; tragedies that could have been prevented if we were better at learning from mistakes. As the for...

Bonnie Wright - How to Nurture Yourself and the Planet

08 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Bonnie Wright and Evanna Lynch rose to fame as Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter series, and now use their public platforms to help ...

Francesco Dimitri - The Search for Wonder

06 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Born in Puglia, Italy and now resident in London, Francesco Dimitri is a member of an extremely exclusive club -- authors who write and publish in a l...

Suzie Sheehy - The Matter of Everything

01 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For millennia, people have asked questions about the nature of matter. In the twentieth century, this curiosity led to an unprecedented outburst of sc...

Michael Ignatieff - Finding Solace in Dark Times

28 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As a young historian at Cambridge and Oxford, he did not rest in the ivory tower but brought his erudition on the great stories and crises of the day,...

Ken Liu - Storytelling is Our Most Important Technology

24 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The winner of major genre awards including the Nebula, the Hugo, and the World Fantasy Award, Ken Liu is an author and futurist whose fictions both in...

Susan Cain - How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole

21 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Some of us inhabit a bittersweet state instinctively, others avoid it as much as we can; some of us arrive there when we reach a certain age, or after...

Jane McGonigal - How to See the Future Coming

17 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Futurist Jane McGonigal creates games that predict and simulate hard to imagine futures. In this episode of the podcast, she teaches us to think like ...

Colm Toibin and Terence Killeen - Ulysses Unbound

14 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

One hundred years since its publication confirmed James Joyce as one of the greatest writers in the English language and a fearless creative genius wi...

Alice Roberts - Buried

10 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Alice Roberts trained as a physician, and now employs her scientific knowledge to uncover new evidence about the history of Britain, combining scienti...

Rory Stewart - The State of the Nation

06 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Born in Hong Kong and raised in Malaysia, commissioned in the Black Watch when only a teenager, Rory Stewart’s career bears little resemblance to th...

Pandora Sykes Meets Tina Brown - The Inside Scoop on the House of Windsor

31 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In her New York Times bestselling biography of Princess Diana, The Diana Chronicles, former Vanity Fair and New Yorker editor Tina Brown wrote the def...

Sam Knight - The Premonitions Bureau

27 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1966, John Barker, a dynamic psychiatrist working in an outdated British mental hospital, established the Premonitions Bureau to investigate psychi...

John Cleese Meets Iain McGilchrist - On Consciousness and Creativity

24 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A creative pioneer whose genius has placed him alongside Chaplin, Keaton, and his fellow Pythons as one of the greatest British comedy talents of all-...

Minnie Driver - Managing Expectations

20 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Minnie Driver joined us live on stage in London to tell transport us from her unconventional childhood to subsequent fame, sharing poignant stories an...

Owen Jones Meets Michael Lewis - The Fifth Risk

17 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Next month Michael Lewis will join us in-person in London for a live, on-stage event exploring his life and work from Liar's Poker through to the pres...

Robin Ince Meets Neal Stephenson - Termination Shock

13 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With fans including Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, and Peter Thiel, no living fiction author has more influence among the elite technologists shaping our wo...

Eliot Higgins - We Are Bellingcat

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How did a collective of self-taught internet sleuths end up solving some of the biggest crimes of our time? Eliot Higgins is the founder of Bellingcat...

The Metaverse - Hype or Hyperreality?

06 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For forty years humans have dreamed of persistent virtual worlds. Today, video games and their peripherals are pushing the boundaries of digital immer...

Ann Patchett - These Precious Days

03 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A literary alchemist, Ann Patchett plumbs the depths of her experiences to create gold: essays that are both self-portrait and landscape, each vibrant...

Robin Ince Meets Richard Dawkins

29 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever dreamt you could fly? Or imagined what it would be like to glide and swoop through the sky like a bird? Do you let your mind soar to unk...

Ed Miliband - How to Fix Our World

26 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For the past four years, Ed Miliband has been discovering and interviewing brilliant people all around the world who are successfully tackling the big...

Dispatches from Afghanistan

22 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Bringing together leading Afghan politician and women’s rights advocate Fawzia Koofi, who was a member of the recent delegation negotiating peace wi...

Matthew Green - A Journey Into the Shadowlands

19 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From Old Winchelsea to Skara Brae, Matthew Green transports us to Britain's shadowlands - the once thriving towns and cities that are now lost to time...

Julia Samuel - Every Family Has a Story

11 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Our family relationships fundamentally influence our health and happiness -- but we think too narrowly about the impact of our families on our lives. ...

Philip Oltermann - The Stasi Poetry Circle

08 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1982, East Germany's fearsome secret police - convinced that writers were embedding subversive messages in their work - decided to train their own ...

Simon Sebag Montefiore and Luke Harding - The History of the Ukraine-Russia Conflict

05 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The concept of a shared, single heritage and culture is central to Vladimir Putin’s justification for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But what is t...

Max Porter - Why Art Should Challenge Us

01 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Max Porter broke new ground with his highly-original debut Grief is a Thing With Feathers, and firmly established himself as a major literary talent w...

Alan Moore and B. Catling - The Power of Imagination

29 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Few figures make such a seismic impact on their artistic medium that they transform its reputation from childish pulp entertainment to a vital and exh...

Olia Hercules and Alissa Timoshkina - #CookForUkraine

25 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Food writers Olia Hercules and Alissa Timoshkina have been friends since university and together they have come together to launch #CookForUkraine - a...

Yanis Varoufakis Meets David Wengrow - The Dawn of Everything

21 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What if everything we thought we knew about the origins of human civilisation is a myth? In their book The Dawn of Everything, the late David Graeber ...

Paul Craddock - The Surprising History of Organ Transplants

18 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Medical historian Dr Paul Craddock joins the How To Academy Podcast to takes us on a journey from sixteenth-century skin grafting to contemporary stem...

Suzanne Simard - Finding the Mother Tree

15 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Raised in the hardy forest communities of British Columbia, scientist Suzanne Simard overturned conventional beliefs in proving that trees and plants ...

Jon Ronson and Brian Klaas - On Psychopaths and Power

08 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of the How To Academy Podcast, author and documentarian Jon Ronson and political scientist Brian Klaas investigate the relationship be...