Thinking Class

John Gillam
  • 4.6 (5)
  • Society & Culture
  • Weekly

Thinking Class is a weekly long-form interview podcast and documentary series exploring the cultural, historical, and civilisational forces shaping Britain, the Anglosphere, and the wider West. 20,000 subscribers and 2 million plays across all platforms. Hosted by John Gillam, founder of the Albion Institute (Lord Nigel Biggar CBE serves as Advisory Board Chair) and creator of The Call of England and the forthcoming Call of America documentary series. Each episode brings together historians, philosophers, theologians, economists, and public intellectuals for conversations that go beyond the news cycle. Guests have included David Starkey, Lord Jonathan Sumption, Lord Nigel Biggar, Iain McGilchrist, Peter Hitchens, R.R. Reno, Auron MacIntyre, Patrick Deneen, Lionel Shriver, David Goodhart, Carl Trueman, Eric Kaufmann, Carrie Gress, Katharine Birbalsingh, Kathleen Stock, Frank Furedi, Rob Henderson, Robert Tombs, and many more. If you value serious conversation about England, Britain, the Anglosphere, and the forces shaping our civilisation, this is the show for you. New episodes every Thursday. Albion Institute: albioninstitute.orgSubstack: thinkingclass.substack.comYouTube: youtube.com/@ThinkingClassX: x.com/thinkingclasses Contact: thinkingclasspod@gmail.com

  1. 3h ago ·  Video

    #150 - David McGrogan - The British State Is Not Broken And The System Is Working Exactly As It Was Designed

    David McGrogan is a legal scholar at Northumbria University and the author of the Substack News from Uncibal. In this conversation, we think out loud about: • Why the intelligentsia wanted to show mercy to the most treasonous man in British history • Rebecca West and the moral vocabulary Britain abandoned • Policing by consent becoming policing by negotiation — and why nobody trusts the police • The shoplifter who comes every day — and why calling the police is a punchline • Bukele, Napoleon, and the ancient Greek cycle of democratic collapse • The Empire of Diversity — why Hobbes explains what is happening • Why Jonathan Sumption is wrong — and why no free society on earth has survived this level of division • Britishness vs Englishness — and what needs to be said that nobody will say • What living in Japan taught him about the state, morality, and the adults who stopped policing themselves Related episodes: Lord Jonathan Sumption — Democracy and Mass Immigration (#115): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wnqc62Q5aE Peter Hitchens — The Cultural Revolution (#42): https://youtu.be/GtYZ2brdBX4 Sponsored by Aquinas Tuition: https://aquinastuition.co.uk Watch The Call of England: https://youtu.be/muBQWIP6ZQQ Register your interest for the Albion Institute: https://albioninstitute.org Thinking Class is a long-form interview podcast on the cultural, historical and civilisational forces shaping Britain, the Anglosphere and the wider West.  ▶ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThinkingClass  ✍ Substack: https://thinkingclass.substack.com/  🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/37vvzrlxpo8eORDoTDRtbH  🍎 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/thinking-class/id1717021615  🐦 X: https://x.com/thinkingclasses  New episodes every Thursday at 3pm.

  2. Oct 22 ·  Video

    #149 - Bella d'Abrera - How Australia Became A Warning For Every Western Democracy

    Bella d'Abrera is the former Director of the Foundations of Western Civilisation Programme at the Institute of Public Affairs in Australia and the author of Mindless. In this conversation, we think out loud about: • How Paulo Freire conquered every teachers' college in the Anglosphere • The deliberate destruction of the humanities — Shakespeare removed, grievance installed • Geoffrey Blainey — death threats for questioning immigration • The state of Australia — demographic transformation and national mythology • Why the capture of education is a project, not a failure • What recovery actually requires — at the level of a parent, not a policy paper • Thomas Sowell on the political bigotry of the left Sponsored by Aquinas Tuition: https://aquinastuition.co.uk/ Watch The Call of England: https://youtu.be/muBQWIP6ZQQ Register your interest for the Albion Institute: https://albioninstitute.org Thinking Class is a long-form interview podcast on the cultural, historical and civilisational forces shaping Britain, the Anglosphere and the wider West. ▶ YouTube ✍ Substack 🎧 Spotify 🍎 Apple 🐦 X New episodes every Thursday at 3pm.

  3. Oct 15 ·  Video

    #148 - Marie Kawthar Daouda - They Told Her She Was A Victim Of The West. She Became Its Greatest Defender.

    Dr Marie Kawthar Daouda is a French-Moroccan scholar at the University of Oxford and the author of Not Your Victim. In this conversation we think out loud about: Why a French-Moroccan Oxford scholar wrote a love letter to British civilisationMacIntyre and the question of story — what happens when a civilisation loses its narrativeThe French Revolution as spiritual catastrophe and its influence on the modern universityVictimhood as cultural capital and what it does to the people it claims to liberateThe noble savage myth — Rousseau, permanent infancy, and the worst form of moral racismIslamic aniconism and the unique curiosity of the European eyeTolkien, Lewis, and the civilisational importance of loving homeThe Oxford students of 1917 — and what this generation owes themFind Marie's work:  SubstackBuy 'Not Your Victim'Related episodes: Nathan Pinkoski — https://tinyurl.com/bde3s72mBijan Omrani — https://tinyurl.com/yxyu6nkzPierre d'Alancaisez — https://tinyurl.com/yc27jp65Watch The Call of England: https://youtu.be/muBQWIP6ZQQ Register for the Albion Institute: albioninstitute.org Thinking Class is a long-form interview podcast on the cultural, historical and civilisational forces shaping England, Britain, the Anglosphere and the wider West.  Hosted by John Gillam.  ▶ YouTube ✍ Substack 🎧 Spotify 🍎 Apple 🐦 X New episodes every Thursday at 3pm.

  4. Oct 8 ·  Video

    #147 - Bernard Hibbs - No Wealth, No Career & No Phone: Inside The Radical Christian Community Hiding In The English Countryside

    Bernard Hibbs is a member of the Bruderhof; an intentional Christian community of three hundred people living in East Sussex without money, without mortgages, and without personal possessions. Everything is held in common and if someone needs something, they ask and they receive it. The Bruderhof have lived this way for over a hundred years. In this conversation we think out loud about: How three hundred people actually live without moneyThe founding of the Bruderhof in nineteen-twenties Germany and its expulsion at gunpoint by the SSWhat it means to make lifetime vows of membershipThe consumer trap and whether we need everything the modern world tells us to want, and what we could gain if we turned away from itIf Christ-centeredness is the only thing that can hold a community like this togetherWhether ordinary families can learn anything from the Bruderhof without joining oneRelated: Luke Dysinger — The Last Time Western Civilisation Collapsed One Institution Saved Everything: https://youtu.be/HC3PLGAQhIMThe Base — They Were Trained By The Best In British Theatre: https://youtu.be/sNQ6ank7quILola Salem — You Can Win Every Election. If The Whole Of Culture Is Against You Nothing Will Change: https://youtu.be/6dWWMysaN3EWatch The Call of England: https://youtu.be/muBQWIP6ZQQ Register your interest for the Albion Institute: https://albioninstitute.org Thinking Class is a long-form interview podcast on the cultural, historical and civilisational forces shaping England, Britain, the Anglosphere and the wider West.  Hosted by John Gillam.  ▶ YouTube ✍ Substack 🎧 Spotify 🍎 Apple 🐦 X  New episodes every Thursday at 3pm.

  5. Oct 1 ·  Video

    #146 - Father Luke Dysinger OSB - The Last Time Western Civilisation Collapsed One Institution Accidentally Saved Everything

    Father Luke Dysinger is a Benedictine monk of Saint Andrew’s Abbey in Valyermo, California. He trained as a physician, practised family medicine, and at the age of 27 walked away from it all because he fell in love with a way of life centred on prayer. He has lived in the monastery ever since. He studied at the Benedictine House of Studies at Oxford, holds a doctorate in patristic theology, and is now a professor of theology and a bioethicist. In this conversation we think out loud about: Why a trained physician walked away from medicine to become a monkThe three Benedictine vows - stability, obedience, and conversion of life - and why they produce institutional coherence that no modern organisation can replicateHow the monasteries saved Western civilisation by accident — not by copying manuscripts but by praying themWhat England lost when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries — and what survived in EvensongWhy secular institutions trying to save civilisation without prayer will always feel hollowThe Benedict Option — can families and communities outside the monastery build something that lasts?The foundational question monastic prayer forces you to answer: do you believe you are loved by God?What a young man who knows something has gone deeply wrong should do with his life.Related: - Pierre d’Alancaisez — The Custodians Of Beauty Became Its Gravediggers: https://youtu.be/KXn2z3mfCDk - The Base — They Were Trained By The Best In British Theatre: https://youtu.be/sNQ6ank7quI] - Iain McGilchrist — There Is A Great Deal Of Ruin In The Western World: https://youtu.be/yrlmkVl86-0 Watch The Call of England: https://youtu.be/muBQWIP6ZQQ Register your interest for the Albion Institute: https://albioninstitute.org Thinking Class is a long-form interview podcast on the cultural, historical and civilisational forces shaping England, Britain, the Anglosphere and the wider West. Hosted by John Gillam.  ▶ YouTube ✍ Substack 🎧 Spotify 🍎 Apple 🐦 X New episodes every Thursday at 3pm.

  6. Sep 17 ·  Video

    #145 - Oliver Bennett & Morgan Watkins - They Were Trained To Perform The Greatest Works In Western Civilisation And They Say The Whole Thing Has Now Been Captured By Cowards And Liars

    Oliver Bennett and Morgan Watkins are the co-founders of The Base and RADA-trained actors with nearly twenty years of experience in British film, television, and theatre. In this conversation, we think out loud about: What The Base is and why it exists The campification of British theatre and the shame around the Western canonThe Edinburgh Fringe as a monument to progressive capture and why the RSC is rehearsing a lesbian Othello set against the climate crisisMeeting Shakespeare on his own terms (the third position beyond progressive deconstruction and conservative nostalgia)The working men’s club with a library, what the working class built and what was taken from them Why not a single pro-Brexit play was produced in a country that voted 52% to leaveWhy today’s rebels know nothing about the past they claim to be rebelling againstWhether counter-institutions like The Base can survive without fundingThe return of masculinity and the need for men to stand upFind The Base:  thebasecreates.com X: @thebasecreatesSubstackYouTubeRelated:  Pierre d’Alancaisez — The Custodians Of Beauty Became Its Gravediggers: https://youtu.be/KXn2z3mfCDkCarl Trueman — The West Killed God. Then It Killed Man: https://youtu.be/zwhbWVc1PgUFrank Furedi — In Defence of Populism: https://youtu.be/qTdxAR40T4EWatch The Call of England: https://youtu.be/muBQWIP6ZQQ  Albion Institute: albioninstitute.org Thinking Class is a long-form interview podcast on the cultural, historical and civilisational forces shaping England, Britain, the Anglosphere and the wider West. Hosted by John Gillam.  ▶ YouTube ✍ Substack 🎧 Spotify 🍎 Apple 🐦 X New episodes every Thursday at 3pm.

  7. Sep 10 ·  Video

    #144 - Ben Jones - Britain Has Become An Island Of Strangers And You’re Not Allowed To Say So

    Dr Ben Jones is the Director of Case Management at the Free Speech Union and author of Island of Strangers: Diversity, Decline & Free Speech In Crisis In this conversation, we think out loud about: When saying “it’s a free country” died in Britain and what replaced it6,000 people punished for speaking in five years, and what the Free Speech Union’s caseload reveals about modern BritainHow hyperdiversity and the decline of Christianity have destroyed the shared moral universeWhy the ethno-nationalist vs civic-nationalist debate is irrelevant — both will be swept away by eventsBritain’s pre-revolutionary state: the last time this happened, we executed a kingWhy Islam poses a distinct challenge that cannot be reconciled with Western liberal valuesThe ruling class has seceded from the nation and treats the population as an obstacleThe psychological toll of cultural dispossession and why he now has to spell “Ben Jones”The state is sponsoring an invasion inflicted primarily on women and girls, which has created a crisis of legitimacyWhy 2029 may be the last chance to turn this aroundFind Ben Jones:  XIsland of StrangersRelated episodes:  Nathan Pinkoski — France Sacrificed Free Speech To Keep The Peace: https://youtu.be/ztpqjZq9h4M?si=DtQxUi4K84cPYapgAuron MacIntyre — The West Has Already Become A Total State: https://youtu.be/GbTU7HrQlU8?si=zg8pwO_MVhPor9qoR.R. Reno — What Happens When The West’s Strong Gods Return: https://youtu.be/U_cXZnkU-JI?si=shQ2C4lKRNP5sBqNLionel Shriver — Immigration, Demography, And Belonging: https://youtu.be/IWG6zPX0EpE?si=CJ_W1ogZtHbhzCJkWatch The Call of England: https://youtu.be/muBQWIP6ZQQ Thinking Class is a long-form interview podcast on the cultural, historical and civilisational forces shaping England, Britain, the Anglosphere and the wider West. Hosted by John Gillam.  ▶ YouTube ✍ Substack 🎧 Spotify 🍎 Apple 🐦 X New episodes every Thursday at 3pm.

  8. Sep 3 ·  Video

    #143 - Auron MacIntyre - The West Has Already Become A Total State And Most People Inside It Have No Idea

    Auron MacIntyre is the host of The Auron MacIntyre Show on Blaze TV and the author of The Total State. Auron previously taught high school before leaving education to build his media platform, writes the Substack The Total State, and appears across conservative and heterodox media. In this conversation, we think out loud about: Why every Western state is becoming total and why the HR department is the new political commissarHow bureaucracies automatically recognise one another as authoritative and create a self-reinforcing systemWhy it’s not a state-run media but a media-run state and that distinction changes everythingWhy Britain is further along the path to total control than any country in the West The First Amendment and American federalism as defence mechanisms  and whether they will holdWhy Texas told the federal government no and the federal government backed downWhy the system doesn’t need boxcars it just closes your bank accountWhy constitutions don’t make people, people make constitutions  and what happens when you change the people John Adams at Edgehill: the English foundations of American liberty  R.R. Reno’s strong gods: will they return, and whose gods will they be? Why the right cannot govern when it wins and what formation institutions must be builtFind Auron MacIntyre: XYouTubeInstagramThe Total State: https://link.amazon/B0fCMJp6RSponsored by Aquinas Tuition - bespoke academic tutoring for children who deserve to be stretched, not managed: https://aquinastuition.co.uk/ Related:  Nathan Pinkoski - France Sacrificed Free Speech To Keep The PeaceR.R. Reno - What Happens When The West’s Strong Gods ReturnCarl Trueman - The West Killed God. Then It Killed ManWatch The Call of England: https://youtu.be/muBQWIP6ZQQ ▶ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThinkingClass  ✍ Substack: https://thinkingclass.substack.com  🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/37vvzrlxpo8eORDoTDRtbH  🍎 Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/thinking-class/id1717021615  🐦 X: https://x.com/thinkingclasses  New episodes every Thursday at 3pm.

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About

Thinking Class is a weekly long-form interview podcast and documentary series exploring the cultural, historical, and civilisational forces shaping Britain, the Anglosphere, and the wider West. 20,000 subscribers and 2 million plays across all platforms. Hosted by John Gillam, founder of the Albion Institute (Lord Nigel Biggar CBE serves as Advisory Board Chair) and creator of The Call of England and the forthcoming Call of America documentary series. Each episode brings together historians, philosophers, theologians, economists, and public intellectuals for conversations that go beyond the news cycle. Guests have included David Starkey, Lord Jonathan Sumption, Lord Nigel Biggar, Iain McGilchrist, Peter Hitchens, R.R. Reno, Auron MacIntyre, Patrick Deneen, Lionel Shriver, David Goodhart, Carl Trueman, Eric Kaufmann, Carrie Gress, Katharine Birbalsingh, Kathleen Stock, Frank Furedi, Rob Henderson, Robert Tombs, and many more. If you value serious conversation about England, Britain, the Anglosphere, and the forces shaping our civilisation, this is the show for you. New episodes every Thursday. Albion Institute: albioninstitute.orgSubstack: thinkingclass.substack.comYouTube: youtube.com/@ThinkingClassX: x.com/thinkingclasses Contact: thinkingclasspod@gmail.com

Information

  • Creator
    John Gillam
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    149
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Thinking Class
  • Show Website
    Thinking Class

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