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
Yuval Noah Harari - Making Sense of a World in...
In an age of uncertainty, renowned historian Yuval Noah Harari joins Ritula Shah to make sense of a world in crisis and help us better understand the perils we face.
69 min
2
Adam Aleksic - How the Internet is Transforming...
Linguist and content creator Adam Aleksic takes us down a deep dive into how social media has reshaped the way we write and speak—and how it might transform the language of tomorrow.
24 min
3
Robert Macfarlane Meets Elif Shafak – Rivers of...
Robert Macfarlane and Elif Shafak illuminate the life-giving force of rivers, the resilience of storytelling, and our intricate relationship with the natural world.
72 min
4
Corinne Low - What Data Can Tell Us About Women...
Corinne Low blends clear-eyed economics with real-world experience to make life’s biggest choices—career, family, partnership—feel navigable, evidence-based, and genuinely empowering.
57 min
5
Mark Kermode – The Stories of Movie Music
Mark Kermode blends a lifelong love of cinema with backstage craft to make film music—and the way it shapes our lives—feel vivid, human, and delightfully luminous.
61 min
6
Kate Wilson - The Spycops Files
Kate Wilson reveals the story of her relationship with Mark, a fictional character contrived by the Metropolitan Police to spy on her. After twenty years of pursuing the truth and seeking justice, she joins us to unravel a dark reality of state surveillance.
29 min
7
Jay Heinrichs - How Classical Rhetoric Can Chan...
Jay Heinrichs blends timeless rhetorical technique with contemporary pop culture to make changing habits—and hitting goals—feel achievable and even fun.
60 min
8
Philip Hoare - The Revolutionary Genius of Will...
Baillie Gifford Prize-winning author Philip Hoare takes us on a unique journey through William Blake’s exhilarating artistic vision and eccentric genius.
57 min
9
Dr Jenna Macciochi - The Game-Changing Science ...
Immune resilience: what does it mean across a lifetime, and how can we rethink it today?
57 min
10
Marina Warner - Reimagining Sanctuary for a Wor...
Sanctuary: what did this ancient right use to mean, and how might we change the way we understand it today? Historian and mythographer Marina Warner explores the roots of sanctuary, and how we can reimagine this ancient right for our world in need.
55 min
11
Emily Kasriel - The Art of Deep Listening
Why do so many conversations leave us feeling unheard and disconnected? Journalist Emily Kasriel reveals the answer: perhaps it is because we have forgotten how to truly and deeply listen.
61 min
12
Caitlin Moran Meets Alex James - Cocaine, Crash...
Blur’s legendary bassist Alex James shares his heartfelt and hilarious account of being catapulted back into the limelight with Times journalist Caitlin Moran.
64 min
13
Yuval Noah Harari – Humanity in the Age of AI (...
Humanity has always evolved with its technology, but now a new threat looms. Yuval Noah Harari joins us to explore how the rise of artificial intelligence is reshaping humanity as we know it.
87 min
14
Herman Pontzer – The Surprising Science of Huma...
Evolutionary anthropologist Herman Pontzer takes us on a tour through the science of human diversity and evolution, and the intricate interplay between our bodies and our environments.
57 min
15
Dexys' Kevin Rowland - A Life Story
Dexys's Kevin Rowland invites us in for an unvarnished account of his wild rock-n’roll life.
60 min
16
Lara Lewington – How Technology is Rewriting th...
At a time when fear and confusion often dominate our conversations around artificial intelligence, Lara Lewington offers a radically hopeful alternative: technology not as a threat to our humanity, but as a means to extend and enhance it.
60 min
17
Hope Reese - The Dark History of the Angel Make...
The women of Nagyrév are desperate. They're abused by their husbands. In response, their village's midwife asked one question: "Why bother with them?" Her solution was arsenic. Journalist Hope Reese joins us to tell the story.
34 min
18
Dr Grace Spence Green - On Recovery, Disability...
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, the next she was fighting for her own life.
52 min
19
A Journey into Uncharted Territories with David...
Sir David Attenborough, Miriam Margolyes, Nigel Planer, and others join us for a glimpse into Uncharted Territories, a new audio author showcase from John Murray publishers.
47 min
20
Laura Spinney - How One Ancient Language Went G...
Acclaimed journalist Laura Spinney explores the epic story of one ancient language, Proto-Indo-European, and how it spread to encompass the largest language family in the world today.
53 min
21
John Tregoning - A Curious Scientist’s Guide to...
Biomedical scientist John Tregoning reveals the sursprising science of how our bodies keep us alive – and the simple, scientifically supported changes we can make to lead healthier lives.
59 min
22
Filmmaker Petra Costa - Apocalyptic Christianit...
In Brazil's fragile democracy, the rise of Evangelical Christianity threatens the barrier between church and state. Petra Costa meets the key players in her new Netflix documentary, Apocalypse in the Tropics.
17 min
23
Dolly Jones - How to Combine a Career and Family
Leading journalist and digital strategist Dolly Jones shares a funny, practical and crucial guide for thriving at work after having children.
60 min
24
Historian of Science Thomas Levenson — How Huma...
Two centuries passed between humans discovering the existence of germs and realising that these tiny organisms caused infectious diseases. What took so long?
50 min
25
Jeremy Hunt - Can Britain Be Great Again?
Former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt shares a thought-provoking vision of our place in the world in the century ahead.
70 min