How To Academy Podcast
How To Academy is London's home of big thinking. From Nobel laureates to Pulitzer Prize winners, we invite the world’s most influential voices to share new ideas for changing ourselves, our communities, and the world. Our biweekly podcast is your chance to hear in-depth from the most exciting thinkers in global culture.
1
Bestselling Mythologist Amy Jeffs – The Life of...
Why does the legend of King Arthur still enthral us in 2026? Amy Jeffs reveals the matter of Britain as you've never heard it before.
30 min
2
Time Woman of the Year Zahra Joya — The Vanishi...
Time Woman of the Year, Zahra Joya, discusses growing up under the Taliban, and reporting on a country where women have been ordered into silence.
45 min
3
Kimon de Greef — A Trip into the Psychedelic Un...
Investigative journalist Kimon de Greef reveals the wild world of 'toad medicine' and the guru-like physician who became the face of a global psychedelic movement.
37 min
4
Jo Marchant – The Science and Mystery of the Pr...
Science journalist Jo Marchant reveals the dynamic, creative process of the present moment – one in which we all play a part.
56 min
5
Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon – The Future is Peace
Two activists: one Palestinian, one Israeli. Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon uncover how we can achieve peace, both in the Holy Land, and throughout the world.
57 min
6
Naomi Klein - The Mirror World of Conspiracists...
Winner of the inaugural Women's Prize for Non-Fiction, Naomi Klein takes us down the rabbit hole of far-right conspiracy theories – and asks what we can do find our way out.
57 min
7
Yuval Noah Harari – Making Sense of a World in ...
69 min
8
Mary Beard and David Mitchell – On Rulers and P...
Cambridge classicist Mary Beard and beloved comedian David Mitchell share the histories of Roman and English rulers like you’ve never heard them before.
70 min
9
Oscar-nominated Filmmaker Maite Alberdi – A Chi...
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Maite Alberdi discusses her latest documentary A Child of My Own – a deeply human and daring story of motherhood, grief, identity, and the immense pressures placed on women.
26 min
10
Carissa Véliz– AI, Prediction, and the Fight fo...
Oxford Philosopher and award-winning author Carissa Véliz explores the history, hidden dangers, and human cost of prediction in the age of AI.
54 min
11
Cathy Haynes – How To Live By Nature's Rhythms
Curator and educator Cathy Haynes reveals the forgotten art of understanding how nature marks time, and calls upon us to notice the daily wonders of the natural world.
49 min
12
Joe Hill Meets Frank Miller – A Life in Comics
The creator of The Dark Knight Returns and 300 Frank Miller joins Joe Hill for a deep dive into his life and art, revealing the inspiration behind his iconic comics and his secrets of storytelling.
46 min
13
Catharine Edwards - The Life of Cicero and the ...
Renowned historian Catharine Edwards joins bestselling novelist Robert Harris to illuminate the extraordinary life and mind of Cicero, and the ultimate fall of the Roman Republic.
61 min
14
Suzy Hansen – Turkey in the Age of Erdoğan
Pulitzer finalist Suzy Hansen chronicles the age of authoritarianism in Turkey — through an intimate portrait of its people.
40 min
15
Daniel Mendelsohn – Translating Homer's Odyssey
Editor-at-Large of The New York Review of Books and an award-winning, bestselling classicist, Daniel Mendelsohn reflects on the resonance of the Odyssey after twenty-eight centuries.
66 min
16
Nir Eyal - The Science-Backed Way to Stop Limit...
Stanford’s Nir Eyal reveals a pragmatic, science-backed guide to dismantling the hidden beliefs that hold us back.
58 min
17
Sir Roger Deakins – Reflections of a Cinematogr...
Widely celebrated as the greatest cinematographer of all-time, Roger Deakins shot The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo, Skyfall and 1917. He shares stories from a remarkable life in cinema.
71 min
18
Emma Southon - How Slavery Made the Roman Empire
Acclaimed historian Emma Southon uncovers the groundbreaking truth of the millions of forgotten enslaved people who built the Roman Empire.
54 min
19
George Osborn — Video Games, Politics, and the ...
Video games are the world's most popular form of entertainment—and authoritarian governments have been quicker to take advantage of their reach than liberal democracies. George Osborn asks what we can do about it.
42 min
20
Therapist Emmy van Deurzen – The Philosopher’s ...
Pioneering therapist Emmy van Deurzen looks to existential philosophy to reframe the way we understand ourselves and our relationships.
61 min
21
Bill Browder and Jamison Firestone: Chaos and M...
When their lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was assassinated for exposing the largest tax theft in Russian history, Bill Browder and Jamison Firestone began a global battle against Putin’s mafia state.
70 min
22
Tom McTague – Britain in Europe: The Hidden His...
Editor-in-Chief of The New Statesman Tom McTague offers a definitive history of Britain’s tumultuous relationship with Europe as it’s never been told before.
51 min
23
Malala Yousafzai - Finding My Way
How do you rebuild yourself when your world changes overnight? The youngest ever Nobel laureate joins Pandora Sykes with an intimate and vulnerable look at her life as a young woman.
74 min
24
Antonia Senior – The Cambridge Five and the Mak...
Journalist, novelist and historian Antonia Senior offers a radical new look at how five people allowed an ideological obsession to overshadow loyalty to their country.
50 min
25
M. John Harrison - The End of Everything
In his new novel The End of Everything, the grandmaster of speculative fiction confronts the limits of human understanding.
40 min