339 episodes

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.

How To Academy Podcast How To Academy

    • Society & Culture

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.

    Naomi Klein - The Mirror World of Conspiracists and the Far-Right

    Naomi Klein - The Mirror World of Conspiracists and the Far-Right

    When Naomi Klein discovered that a woman who shared her first name, but had radically different, harmful views, was getting chronically mistaken for her, it seemed too ridiculous to take seriously.
    Then suddenly it wasn't. She started to find herself grappling with a distorted sense of reality, becoming obsessed with reading the threats on social media, the endlessly scrolling insults from the followers of her doppelganger. Why had her shadowy other gone down such an extreme path? To find out, Klein decided to follow her double into a bizarre mirror world: one of conspiracy theories, anti-vaxxers and hucksters, where wellness influencers make common cause with fire-breathing far-right propagandists.
    In this episode of the podcast, Naomi joins journalist Moya Lothian-McLean to explore why our politics has become so polarised, and ask what we can do to escape this collective vertigo and get back to fighting for what really matters.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 1 hr 6 min
    Clover Stroud - On Home, Belonging, and Letting Go

    Clover Stroud - On Home, Belonging, and Letting Go

    When her husband's work required journalist Clover Stroud to uproot from Oxfordshire to Washington DC, she began a deep and profound reflection on the many ways she was tethered to her home -- from family roots to knowledge of its ancient history, an appreciation of the local landscape to precious personal memories -- and considered what it would mean to break that tie. This lyrical and moving episode of the podcast that everyone will be able to relate to, wherever you were raised.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 1 hr 7 min
    Anna Funder - Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life

    Anna Funder - Mrs Orwell's Invisible Life

    If you read the major biographies of George Orwell you would be hard-pressed to know that his wife Eileen shaped his life and writing in profoundly significant ways: from saving his life in the Spanish civil war to seeding the ideas for Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. The award-winning author of Stasiland Anna Funder has uncovered Eileen's story in full and joins us on the podcast to share her insights into the character and times of Eric Blair and his tempestuous first marriage.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 49 min
    Booker Prize winner Richard Flanagan - On Love, Memory, and History

    Booker Prize winner Richard Flanagan - On Love, Memory, and History

    One of Australia's leading authors, Richard Flanagan won the Booker for The Narrow Road to the Deep North, a novel informed by his father's experiences as a slave labourer in the second world war. He returns to that subject in his new book Question 7, a profound and powerful book that contemplates love and death, resilience and tragedy, and how the world shapes fiction and fiction shapes the world in turn.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 47 min
    My Octopus Teacher star Craig Foster - How to be Wild

    My Octopus Teacher star Craig Foster - How to be Wild

    A decade ago, living in a city and feeling exhausted and empty, Craig Foster decided to return to his birthplace—the Cape of Good Hope—and dive into the great African Sea forest each day. His daily oceanic adventures not only helped him “rewild”, but helped him come to see his own “amphibious soul” as a powerful metaphor for the human condition. 
    Now, in conversation with his close friend Kate Humble, he shares his insights into the wonder of the natural world. From understanding diverse species through the smallest details of their call, their tracks, and their habits, to learning how to reconnect with our most ancient common tongue—the language of wildlife—he reveals how we are all born wild, and that we have the power to reconnect with our innermost nature: nature itself. 
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 1 hr 13 min
    Charles Duhigg - How to be a Supercommunicator

    Charles Duhigg - How to be a Supercommunicator

    Who and what are supercommunicators? They’re the people who can steer a conversation to a successful conclusion. They are able to talk about difficult topics without giving offence. They know how to make others feel at ease and share what they think. They’re brilliant facilitators and decision-guiders. How do they do it? In this podcast Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg unravels the secrets of the supercommunicators, unpacking the different types of everyday conversation and pinpointing why some go smoothly while others swiftly fall apart.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 1 hr 12 min

Top Podcasts In Society & Culture

Dear Future Wifey
Laterras R. Whitfield
Tonight's Conversation Podcast
Ace Metaphor
Naked with Jade and Jamal
Jade x Jamal
Quite Frankly
Quite Frankly
Woman Evolve with Sarah Jakes Roberts
The Black Effect and iHeartPodcasts
Comments by Celebs
Comments By Celebs and Audacy

You Might Also Like

Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee
Dr Rangan Chatterjee: GP & Author
Slo Mo: A Podcast with Mo Gawdat
Mo Gawdat
The Motherkind Podcast
Zoe Blaskey
Sounds True: Insights at the Edge
Tami Simon
All in the Mind
BBC Radio 4
Therapy Works
Julia Samuel