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PODCAST

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.

society & culture self-improvement

All Episodes

84:39

Nish Kumar Meets Jimmy Wales - Trust and the Future...

How To Academy Podcast ·

2025/10/31

Two decades ago, Jimmy Wales founded Wikipedia and transformed the world’s access to knowledge. Today, people view Wikipedia 11 billion times every month in the English language alone. Yet in an age of ‘alternative facts’, conspiracies and disinformation, the foundations of Wikipedia are increasingly under threat. The concept at the heart of it all extends to the whole of society: trust Like water and electricity, our society can’t function without it. Without it, we have no knowledge, and without

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82:13

Jens Stoltenberg - Leading NATO in a Time of War

How To Academy Podcast ·

2025/10/28

Jens Stoltenberg was Prime Minister of Norway from 2005-2013, and when he took office as Secretary General of NATO in 2014, the world was already changing. What followed was a decade marked by war, diplomatic crises, and decisions that helped shape our shared security. Now he joins Adam Boulton to go behind closed doors and offer a rare insight into how the world’s most powerful military alliance handles crises and to share why after all this time, NATO still matters.Learn more about your ad

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40:28

Marie Kondo - How to Live

How To Academy Podcast ·

2025/10/24

Marie Kondo’s unique approach to organising our lives and our homes has transformed the relationship we have with the objects around us, helping us all to seek out the joy in our daily lives. In the eleven years since The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up made her famous across the globe, journalists, readers and fans have asked her one question more than any other: what role did Japanese philosophy and culture play in shaping her life and thought? Here, Marie shares her principles for living, and

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31:19

Oscar Nominated Filmmaker Annemarie Jacir — On the...

How To Academy Podcast ·

2025/10/21

A pioneering voice in Arab cinema, Annemarie Jacir has written, directed, and produced over sixteen films, with premieres at Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Locarno, Rotterdam, and Toronto. In 2007, she made history by shooting the first feature film by a Palestinian female director. All four of her feature films have been chosen as Palestine’s Oscar submissions.Set in 1936 during the Arab Revolt in British-ruled Palestine, Palestine 36 chronicles the intertwined lives of farmers, revolutionaries, and

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32:55

Philippa Gregory - Jane Boleyn Reimagined

How To Academy Podcast ·

2025/10/16

Philippa Gregory takes us behind the myths to reveal how Jane Boleyn became a scapegoat of Henry VIII’s tyranny and the historians who defended it. Drawing on the silences of the record and the resilience of women navigating a perilous court, Gregory explores how fiction can reveal the internal lives of historical characters who we think we know so well. In Boleyn Traitor, Jane emerges not as a schemer but as a survivor: navigating a world ruled by fear, spectacle and the whims of a king who bent

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47:27

Ray Nayler - Why Dystopian Fiction Matters

How To Academy Podcast ·

2025/10/14

Returning to the podcast following episodes around his prize-winning debut The Mountain Under the Sea and his acclaimed novella The Tusks of Extinction, Ray Nayler joins us to explore the rise in authoritarian systems of control and celebrate the power of human agency to drive meaningful social change. These are the themes of his new novel Where the Axe is Buried: a dystopian fable set in a near-future Russia where Artificial Intelligences, technocrats, and a Putinesque dictator come into an

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65:13

Dr Kerry Burnight – A Short Guide to Enjoying a Long...

How To Academy Podcast ·

2025/10/10

Dr Kerry Burnight reveals a transformative new approach to aging—one that goes beyond lifespan and healthspan to embrace joyspan: the ability to experience joy from within. Dr Burnight reveals how joy differs from happiness, the damaging effects of internalised ageism, and the surprising abilities—such as judgment, emotional regulation, and humour—that often improve with age. Dr Burnight also shares the four essential practices necessary to expanding our joyspan as we age. With her guidance and

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75:11

Yuval Noah Harari - Making Sense of a World in Crisis

How To Academy Podcast ·

2025/10/07

From our new technological era ushered in by AI, to the fall of democracies across the globe, the world today appears fraught with uncertainty, poised between repeating errors from the past and entering a new age of the unknown. What lies behind tribalistic claims of patriotism, and on what does democracy truly depend? How might technology shape the narrative to come, and what remains in our control? Bestselling author of Sapiens and Nexus, Yuval Noah Harari joins Ritula Shah to help us better

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26:43

Adam Aleksic - How the Internet is Transforming the...

How To Academy Podcast ·

2025/10/03

How has loopholes around social media's censored word, 'kill', found its way into students' essays on Hamlet? What is the history of 'skibidi' and 'delulu' and how are these concepts shaping the way we think, write, and speak? Linguist and content creator Adam Aleksic turns a keen eye to explore how the internet has transformed our linguistic landscape, from the rise of 'YouTube accents' to the meaning of 'brain rot', from the ephemerality of memes to the enduring power of language to shape

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78:08

Robert Macfarlane Meets Elif Shafak – Rivers of Life

How To Academy Podcast ·

2025/09/30

From the Thames to the Tigris, the Ure to the Euphrates, rivers have flowed through the history of humanity, shaping our civilisations and sustaining our species. Robert Macfarlane and Elif Shafak illuminate the life-giving force of rivers, the stories they have inspired, and explore the crucial question of how humans can coexist with the natural world on which our survival depends.From the Epic of Gilgamesh to the gods of old, from the ancient Euphrates to the Thames of today, from lost rivers

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62:49

Corinne Low - What Data Can Tell Us About Women's Lives

How To Academy Podcast ·

2025/09/26

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.Drawing on the economist’s toolkit, she reframes “happiness” as utility, shows how to maximize it under constraints, and treats fertility as “reproductive capital” to be timed and invested thoughtfully. She shifts the spotlight from women “leaning in” to men leveling up at home, and from vibes to data: track time,

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66:15

Mark Kermode – The Stories of Movie Music

How To Academy Podcast ·

2025/09/23

Drawing on everything from Dougal and the Blue Cat to Angel Heart, from Walter Murch’s “pickle jar” of sound to Tarantino-style needle drops, Kermode turns listening into a way of seeing: treat scores as storytelling, not wallpaper; hear nostalgia without depending on it; notice how rooms, acoustics, and “vibrations” change performances; and understand why live accompaniment can transform a film in the moment. Along the way: Ken Russell’s emotional maximalism, Under the Skin’s alien minimalism,

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34:09

Kate Wilson - The Spycops Files

How To Academy Podcast ·

2025/09/19

In 2003, British police infiltrated a group of idealistic young environmental activists, forming sexual relationships and spying without warrant on hundreds of innocent civilians. Among these young activists was Kate Wilson, who developed an intimate relationship with Mark. Unbeknownst to her, Mark was a fictional persona created by the Metropolitan Police to spy on her. After this shocking discovery, Kate Wilson fought back, and now she joins us to tell her story.Learn more about your ad choices

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65:18

Jay Heinrichs - How Classical Rhetoric Can Change...

How To Academy Podcast ·

2025/09/16

Drawing on Aristotle’s playbook, he shows how to turn rhetoric inward: treat the “soul” as your better self, shift from past/present blame to future-tense choices, separate needs from appetites, and tune out the social “white noise” of feeds, trends, and bucket lists that distort motivation. In an age of distraction and burnout, Heinrichs offers practical tools: the “lure and ramp” for easing into new behaviors, kairos (timing) and chaos as opportunity, analogical thinking, rhythmic mantras

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63:04

Philip Hoare - The Revolutionary Genius of William Blake

How To Academy Podcast ·

2025/09/12

A journey of both past and future, of the natural world and metaphysical realms, Philip Hoare guides us through a dreamscape slipping through time and space with the unpredictable guide of William Blake. From William's visions of angels to his radical approach to artistic creation, from his anarchic and seditious writing to the enchanting and democratic force of his art, from his belief in the holiness of every living creature to his staunch opposition to slavery, William Blake was an artistic

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62:59

Dr Jenna Macciochi - The Game-Changing Science of...

How To Academy Podcast ·

2025/09/09

Immunologist Jenna Macciochi reveals the “wellness system” linking body and brain, urging us to focus on healthspan as well as lifespan. She explains “immune age,” inflammaging, and the body’s cycle of inflammation and repair, showing how stress, mind, and lifestyle choices—from sleep and movement to diet—shape immunity.Amid chronic stress, isolation, and processed diets, Macciochi offers evidence-based habits: meditation, community, smart nutrition, and supplementation. She recasts immunity as a

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60:19

Marina Warner - Reimagining Sanctuary for a World in...

How To Academy Podcast ·

2025/09/05

Granted to mythical kings and fugitives alike, enshrined by gods and by communal, human consent, an ancient right since classical times, sanctuary has been a haven, a place of refuge and freedom from harm. It was a sacrilege to lay hands on a sanctuary-seeker: sanctuary was sacred. But in our modern times, with growing crises in displacement, war, and xenophobia, could a revived practice of sanctuary offer refuge and a home for those who seek it? Award-winning novelist, historian, and mythographer

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66:48

Emily Kasriel - The Art of Deep Listening

How To Academy Podcast ·

2025/09/02

Distracted by our own agenda, we so often hear without understanding, impatiently waiting for our turn to speak. Journalist Emily Kasriel joins us to show how shifting from surface-level exchanges to deep listening can enrich our relationships with both others and ourselves. From restoring agency through listening, to how deep listening can create a safe environment to explore deeper vulnerabilities, to how we can use deep listening to diffuse conflict, Emily guide us, step by step, through the art

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69:18

Caitlin Moran Meets Alex James - Cocaine, Crash Diets...

How To Academy Podcast ·

2025/08/26

One winter’s night, Alex James received an unexpected call. Blur had been invited to play their biggest gig ever: Wembley Stadium. The only trouble was, he and his bandmates hadn’t spoken to – or even shouted at – each other for years. And he now had five children, an out-of-control menagerie of cats, and a sprawling farm to run. This is the story of what happened next.Taking us behind the scenes of a raucous, rollercoaster year, Alex tells Times journalist and bestselling author Caitlin Moran how

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92:19

Yuval Noah Harari – Humanity in the Age of AI (Summer...

How To Academy Podcast ·

2025/08/19

Long gone are the days when pigeons relayed our messages; now we have a flood of information at all times, from social media to artificial intelligence, all weaving narratives that shape our lives. But the rise of these new modes of information technology has the power to spread misinformation, challenge independent thought, and even threaten democracy.Bestselling author of Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari joins Robin Ince to explore how humanity can navigate these new networks, and asks, in this

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