Unholy Histories: The Humanist Heritage Podcast from Humanists UK

Humanise Live
  • 0.0 (0)
  • History

Join Andrew Copson and Madeleine Goodall—alongside a host of expert guests—as they uncover the hidden histories and untold stories of the people, places, movements, ideas, and events that helped shape British humanism, secularism and freethought.From radical reformers to forgotten dissenters, Unholy Histories explores how reason, skepticism, science, and activism helped build modern Britain—and how these values still shape our society today.Unholy Histories is a Humanists UK Podcast, showcasing the Humanist Heritage Project and produced by Humanise Live. Find out more: https://heritage.humanists.uk/ Support us at: https://humanists.uk/support-us/Start your podcast: https://humanise.live/

Episodes

  1. Can they suffer? Humanism beyond humans and the British animal rights tradition

    1d ago

    Can they suffer? Humanism beyond humans and the British animal rights tradition

    In 1789, the British philosopher Jeremy Bentham asked a deceptively simple question: not whether animals can reason or talk, but whether they can suffer. That question opened a long argument about how a secular, humanist ethics should reach beyond the human — an argument that Victorian reformers like Henry Salt and his Humanitarian League turned into a campaign for animal rights, vegetarianism, the abolition of vivisection and the reform of zoos and blood sports, and that runs in a long line through Bridget Brophy and the Oxford Group of the 1970s to the modern animal rights and vegan movements. This episode traces the humanist ideas at the heart of that tradition, and asks what those Victorian and Edwardian thinkers still have to teach us about how we treat the animals we share the world with. Guests: Dr Helen Cowie, Professor of Early Modern History at the University of York, whose books include Animals in World History and work on zoos, menageries, and the trade in animal commodities. york.ac.uk Dr Andrew Fenton, Professor of Philosophy at Dalhousie University, whose work on animal ethics includes the co-authored The Three Pillars of Ethical Research with Nonhuman Primates and ongoing research on the philosophy of Henry Salt. dal.ca For all references to people, places, and events in this episode and the full series, visit heritage.humanists.uk/podcast Join Humanists UK: humanists.uk/join Discover more Humanist Heritage: heritage.humanists.uk Send us your questions or feedback: Unholy@Humanise.Live Unholy Histories is produced by Humanise Live a production agency creating values-led podcast content. Start podcasting today at humanise.live Music: Small Things by Simon Folwar Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.

    1 hr
  2. Radical Empathy: Civil Rights and The Humanist Ideas That Changed Two Nations

    Jun 17

    Radical Empathy: Civil Rights and The Humanist Ideas That Changed Two Nations

    In February 1965, James Baldwin and William F. Buckley Jr. faced each other across a packed Cambridge Union, debating whether "the American dream is at the expense of the American Negro." Baldwin won the vote by a landslide. But that famous moment was one flashpoint in a much wider struggle. Across the United States and here in Britain, activists, writers and thinkers were challenging injustice, confronting systems of power, and asking fundamental questions about equality, dignity and how we ought to live. Many looked to humanist ideas of reason, shared humanity, and a vision of ethics grounded in human experience.  This episode traces the humanist threads that ran through the civil rights movements on both sides of the Atlantic, from Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry in the United States to the Windrush generation, the 1965 Race Relations Act, and the Black British radical tradition of C.L.R. James, Claudia Jones and Darcus Howe. Guests: Dr Nicholas Buccola, Dr Jules K. Whitehill Professor of Humanism and Ethics at Claremont McKenna College, and author of The Fire Is upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America (Princeton, 2019). nicholasbuccola.com Dr Angelina Osborne, British historian, researcher and heritage consultant, and co-author with Patrick Vernon of 100 Great Black Britons (Robinson, 2020). 100greatblackbritons.co.uk For all references to people, places, and events in this episode and the full series, visit heritage.humanists.uk/podcast Join Humanists UK: humanists.uk/join Discover more Humanist Heritage: heritage.humanists.uk Send us your questions or feedback: Unholy@Humanise.Live Unholy Histories is produced by Humanise Live a production agency creating values-led podcast content. Start podcasting today at humanise.live Music: Small Things by Simon Folwar Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.

    59 min
  3. The First Atheists: How Ancient Greece Questioned the Gods and Influenced Modern Thought

    Jun 10

    The First Atheists: How Ancient Greece Questioned the Gods and Influenced Modern Thought

    Long before the Enlightenment, ancient thinkers were already questioning the gods. In the Greek world of the seventh to fifth centuries BCE, medicine, weather and the natural world began to be explained without divine intervention. Philosophers asked whether the gods existed at all, whether ethics could rest on human reason alone, and whether a meaningful life required belief in an afterlife. The answers they gave — Epicurus on the consolations of mortality, Protagoras on the limits of knowledge, Lucretius on a universe of atoms — would echo through European thought for the next two thousand years, surface again in the Reformation and the Enlightenment, and shape the British humanist movement in ways that are often forgotten. This episode goes back to the ancient world to recover the first humanists, and traces how their ideas reached the radicals, ethical societies, and classical scholars who built modern British humanism. Guests: Professor Edith Hall, Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University, Fellow of the British Academy, and author of A People's History of Classics: Class and Greco-Roman Antiquity in Britain and Ireland, 1689–1939 and Aristotle's Way. /edithhall.co.uk Professor Tim Whitmarsh, Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, and author of Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World. classics.cam.ac.uk For all references to people, places, and events in this episode and the full series, visit heritage.humanists.uk/podcast Join Humanists UK: humanists.uk/join Discover more Humanist Heritage: heritage.humanists.uk Send us your questions or feedback: Unholy@Humanise.Live Unholy Histories is produced by Humanise Live a production agency creating values-led podcast content. Start podcasting today at humanise.live Music: Small Things by Simon Folwar Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.

    49 min
  4. Britain's Most Secular Parliament and the Battle That Built It

    Jun 3

    Britain's Most Secular Parliament and the Battle That Built It

    In 1880 a newly elected MP walked into the House of Commons and refused to swear an oath to God. Parliament refused to let him take his seat. He was re-elected four times. The standoff lasted six years. Charles Bradlaugh's fight ended with the Oaths Act of 1888, a turning point in the recognition of non-religious conscience in British public life. This episode traces that struggle from Bradlaugh's Northampton victory to the 2024 General Election, the most secular Westminster has ever returned, and asks how much religious privilege still shapes power in Britain today. Guests: Professor David Nash, historian of secularism and freethought and co-author of The Humanist Movement in Modern Britain: A History of Ethicists, Rationalists and Humanists (Bloomsbury, 2023). jesus.ox.ac.uk Lizzi Collinge, MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group. lizzicollinge.com For all references to people, places, and events in this episode and the full series, visit heritage.humanists.uk/podcast Join Humanists UK: humanists.uk/join Discover more Humanist Heritage: heritage.humanists.uk Send us your questions or feedback: Unholy@Humanise.Live Unholy Histories is produced by Humanise Live a production agency creating values-led podcast content. Start podcasting today at humanise.live Music: Small Things by Simon Folwar Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.

    42 min
  5. Who Really Wrote Human Rights? The Humanist Roots of the UDHR

    May 27

    Who Really Wrote Human Rights? The Humanist Roots of the UDHR

    In the aftermath of two world wars, a new vision for humanity began to take shape, one grounded in shared dignity, freedom, and cooperation across borders. At the heart of that vision were humanist thinkers, from H.G. Wells, whose Rights of Man helped inspire the movement, to Julian Huxley, the first Director-General of UNESCO. This episode traces the ideas that shaped the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, asks why it still matters, and considers what challenges lie ahead for the universal ideals it enshrines. Guests: Bill Cooke, historian, senior editor of Free Inquiry, and author of A Wealth of Insights: Humanist Thought Since the Enlightenment and H.G. Wells and the Twenty-First Century. secularhumanism.org/authors/cooke-bill/Francesca Klug, human rights scholar and writer, visiting professor at the LSE Centre for the Study of Human Rights, and author of Values for a Godless Age and A Magna Carta for All Humanity. lse.ac.uk/people/francesca-klugFor all references to people, places, and events in this episode and the full series, visit heritage.humanists.uk/podcast Join Humanists UK: humanists.uk/join Discover more Humanist Heritage: heritage.humanists.uk Send us your questions or feedback: Unholy@Humanise.Live Unholy Histories is produced by Humanise Live a production agency creating values-led podcast content. Start podcasting today at humanise.live Music: Small Things by Simon Folwar Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.

    51 min
  6. Born of Mary: LGBT+ Rights & Humanism Shared Fight for Freedoms

    May 20

    Born of Mary: LGBT+ Rights & Humanism Shared Fight for Freedoms

    Join Humanists UK: humanists.uk/join Throughout modern British history, the movements for sexual freedom and freedom of belief have often converged, challenging moral orthodoxy and religious authority in the name of human dignity. This episode traces how humanism and LGBT activism have evolved side by side, and what that shared legacy means today. Guests: Lesley Hall, historian and retired archivist, specialising in sexuality and gender in 19th and 20th century Britain. Author of Sex, Gender and Social Change in Britain since 1880.Peter Parker, cultural historian and biographer, author of Some Men in London: Queer Life, (Vol 1) 1945–1959 & (Vol 2) 1960-1967For all references to people, places, and events in this episode and the full series, visit heritage.humanists.uk/podcast Join Humanists UK: humanists.uk/join Discover more Humanist Heritage: heritage.humanists.uk Send us your questions or feedback: Unholy@Humanise.Live Unholy Histories is produced by Humanise Live a production agency creating values-led podcast content. Start podcasting today at humanise.live Music: Small Things by Simon Folwar Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.

    58 min
  7. Good Without God: The Fight for Secular Education

    May 13

    Good Without God: The Fight for Secular Education

    Education has always been central to humanist thought, from the founding of the Moral Instruction League in 1897 to Margaret Knight's scandalous 1955 BBC broadcasts on raising children without religion. This episode traces the long humanist tradition of moral and civic education in Britain, and asks how children form their identities and worldviews in an increasingly non-religious society. Guests: Dr Lois Lee, senior lecturer in secular studies at the University of Kent, whose research examines contemporary forms of non-religiosity and the formation of humanism in childhood. explainingatheism.orgDr Susannah Wright, associate professor in the history of education at Oxford Brookes, whose work focuses on secularism, war and peace in the history of British education. brookes.ac.ukFor all references to people, places, and events in this episode and the full series, visit heritage.humanists.uk/podcast Join Humanists UK: humanists.uk/join Discover more Humanist Heritage: heritage.humanists.uk Send us your questions or feedback: Unholy@Humanise.Live Unholy Histories is produced by Humanise Live a production agency creating values-led podcast content. Start podcasting today at humanise.live Music: Small Things by Simon Folwar Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.

    51 min
  8. Atheists Before the Enlightenment: Doubters Before the Age of Reason

    May 6

    Atheists Before the Enlightenment: Doubters Before the Age of Reason

    Many people assume humanism began with the Enlightenment. But sceptical, rational, human-centred ideas have a much longer history. This episode travels back to the centuries before the so-called Age of Reason to meet the freethinkers, doubters, and proto-humanists who challenged religious orthodoxy when doing so could mean prison, exile, or death, and asks what their courage tells us about the slow erosion of religious certainty. Guests: Professor Michael Hunter, Emeritus Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London, Fellow of the British Academy, and author of Atheists and Atheism Before the Enlightenment: The English and Scottish Experience. https://www.bbk.ac.uk/about-us/fellows/michael-hunterDr Patrick McGhee, Honorary Research Fellow at Durham University. https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/patrick-mcgheeFor all references to people, places, and events in this episode and the full series, visit heritage.humanists.uk/podcast Join Humanists UK: humanists.uk/join Discover more Humanist Heritage: heritage.humanists.uk Send us your questions or feedback: Unholy@Humanise.Live Unholy Histories is produced by Humanise Live a production agency creating values-led podcast content. Start podcasting today at humanise.live Music: Small Things by Simon Folwar Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.

    49 min
  9. Heroines of Freethought: The Women Who Defied God and the Patriarchy

    Apr 29

    Heroines of Freethought: The Women Who Defied God and the Patriarchy

    Throughout history, women have been leading voices for reason, equality, and human progress, even if their stories have too often been overlooked. Taking its title from Sara Underwood's 1876 collection, this episode sheds light on some of the women who defied religious and social convention, and asks what their legacy means for humanism today. Guests: Nan Sloane, historian, trainer, and author of Uncontrollable Women: Radicals, Reformers and Revolutionaries. nansloane.comAnnie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, co-host of Freethought Radio, and editor of Women Without Superstition. ffrf.orgFor all references to people, places, and events in this episode and the full series, visit heritage.humanists.uk/podcast Join Humanists UK: humanists.uk/join Discover more Humanist Heritage: heritage.humanists.uk Send us your questions or feedback: Unholy@Humanise.Live Unholy Histories is produced by Humanise Live a production agency creating values-led podcast content. Start podcasting today at humanise.live Music: Small Things by Simon Folwar Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.

    59 min

  10. Season 1 Trailer

    Introducing Unholy Histories: The Humanist Heritage Podcast from Humanists UK

    Unholy Histories is the new Humanist Heritage Podcast from Humanists UK and inspired by the research of the Humanist Heritage Project. Join Andrew Copson and Madeleine Goodall as they uncover the rebels, reformers, and freethinkers who shaped a more open and compassionate Britain. The first episodes go live very soon. Subscribe now via your preferred podcast app to be notified the moment new episodes are released. Join Humanists UK: humanists.uk/join Discover more Humanist Heritage: heritage.humanists.uk Send us your questions or feedback: Unholy@Humanise.Live Unholy Histories is produced by Humanise Live a production agency creating values-led podcast content. Start podcasting today at humanise.live Music: Small Things by Simon Folwar Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation.

    2 min

Trailer

About

Join Andrew Copson and Madeleine Goodall—alongside a host of expert guests—as they uncover the hidden histories and untold stories of the people, places, movements, ideas, and events that helped shape British humanism, secularism and freethought.From radical reformers to forgotten dissenters, Unholy Histories explores how reason, skepticism, science, and activism helped build modern Britain—and how these values still shape our society today.Unholy Histories is a Humanists UK Podcast, showcasing the Humanist Heritage Project and produced by Humanise Live. Find out more: https://heritage.humanists.uk/ Support us at: https://humanists.uk/support-us/Start your podcast: https://humanise.live/

Information

You Might Also Like