Quillette Podcast
The Quillette Podcast is a platform for rigorous, academic discussions rooted in common sense and free inquiry. Non-dogmatic and grounded in liberal values, the podcast serves as a beacon for thoughtful conversation on science, politics, philosophy, and culture. Quillette prides itself on intellectual honesty, avoiding ideological extremism in favor of evidence-based reasoning and progress. Hosted by leading voices in academia and journalism, past guests include evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, and journalist Douglas Murray, among others. Expect candid conversations that promote common sense and challenge anti-science and conspiratorial narratives from both the far left and right.
1
Making the Case for ‘Free-Range Parenting’
23 min
2
The Trouble with Tariffs
With John H. Cochrane
15 min
3
How Accurate Is 'Adolescence'?
14 min
4
The Scourge of the ‘Woke Right’
34 min
5
Anti-Zionism, Past and Present
14 min
6
On Book Banning
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with book author Ira Wells about the censorship demands emanating from both sides of the political spectrum.
25 min
7
Christianity and the American Polity
Iona Italia talks to Brookings Institution senior fellow Jonathan Rauch about his latest book, Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy.
14 min
8
Australia’s Antisemitism Crisis
Quillette editor-in-chief Claire Lehmann speaks with Bangladeshi-born Australian psychiatrist and journalist Tanveer Ahmed about the rise of Jew-hatred in their country.
14 min
9
The Great Divergence
Iona Italia talks to evolutionary psychologist David C. Geary about why he believes evolved differences between the sexes have been growing more salient in western societies.
16 min
10
The Canadian Episode: Trump’s Tariffs and Trude...
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with The Line editor Jen Gerson about how U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats have affected Canada’s already fractured political landscape.
40 min
11
‘The Politics of the Academy Have Been Defeated’
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with Yale English professor-turned-essayist William Deresiewicz, who argues that Americans—many Democrats included—are fed up with campus-style progressive radicalism.
15 min
12
'The Power of Nuclear'
Quillette podcast host Iona Italia speaks with Dutch writer Marco Visscher, author of “The Power of Nuclear: The Rise, Fall and Return of Our Mightiest Energy Source”
17 min
13
The Tragedy of California’s Wildfires
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with University of Southern California scholar William Deverell about the enormous fires that have destroyed large swathes of the Los Angeles area.
17 min
14
Reading and Writing Science
With Richard Dawkins.
44 min
15
Did Oliver Cromwell Really Kill Christmas?
In a special yuletide episode, Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with David Crowther about seventeenth-century puritan attitudes toward yuletide debauchery—and about his acclaimed History of England podcast.
17 min
16
'A Theory of Everyone'
With Michael Muthukrishna
17 min
17
In Defence of Julia the Elder
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with Joan Smith, whose new book critically examines the 2,000-year-old propaganda campaign against imperial Rome’s leading women.
19 min
18
'Interintellect and the Modern-Day Salon'
With Anna Gat
18 min
19
Lessons from a Teachers-College Battle Over Fre...
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay discusses recent events at the University of Western Ontario, where instructors spent months denouncing an outspoken education student who’d asked awkward questions about Indigenous reconciliation—until a tribunal concluded they’d violated her rights.
16 min
20
'Making Britain Great Again'
'Making Britain Great Again' with Sam Bowman
20 min
21
The Campaign Against 'Settler Colonialism’
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks to author Adam Kirsch about the growing corps of academics and activists seeking to demonize ‘settler colonialists’ in North America, Australia—and especially Israel.
29 min
22
Canadian Bureaucracy and Its Discontents
Canadian Bureaucracy and Its Discontents, with Nick Osmond-Jones.
21 min
23
How Universities Should Regulate Contentious Sp...
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with prolific Harvard University legal scholar Cass Sunstein about his new book, Campus Free Speech: A Pocket Guide
13 min
24
Unreliable Sources
Iona Italia talks to Jack Despain Zhou (aka "Tracing Woodgrains") about the decline of standards at Wikipedia as a result of the obsessive efforts of ideologically motivated editors.
20 min
25
We Have Never Been Woke
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with scholar Musa al-Gharbi, whose acclaimed new book analyses the rise of progressive ideological orthodoxy as a means for elites to signal status and accumulate ‘cultural capital.’
12 min