How To Academy Podcast

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 sanctu...

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 vulnerabiliti...

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...

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 Ha...

As an evolutionary anthropologist working with human populations around the globe, Herman Pontzer has conducted research that reveals the wonder of our species's evolution and our biological diversity, documenting the connections between lifestyle, landscape, local adaptations and health. He joins Robin Ince to reveal these intricacies and how the way we understand our biology and its interplay wi...

One of the great mavericks of British music, Kevin Rowland, recounts his formative years and reveals a deeply personal account of his life. From trying to be 'good' at church and to make his mum proud, to thieving and fighting on the outside,  from his early discovery of his love for music as a school boy, to his earliest gigs in his brother's band, Kevin reveals the roots of his musical journey,...

Informed by over fifteen years covering the world’s most advanced innovations, Lewington joins journalist Hannah MacInnes to explore the transformative potential of AI and health tech—from early cancer detection and personalised diagnostics to wearable devices that track everything from sleep to blood sugar. Drawing on her new book Hacking Humanity, Lewington shares her own journey of self-experim...

It’s the early 20th century, in the small village of Nagyrév in Hungary. The village is so small, there is no post office, no police, and no doctor. And the men are being poisoned. By their wives. Journalist and author Hope Reese reveals the motivations and consequences of this mysterious chapter of the past, this open secret, which became one of the deadliest mass poisonings in history. Learn mor...

At the age of twenty-two, Dr Grace Spence Green’s spine was broken at the fourth thoracic vertebra. One day, she was in hospital supporting patients, the next she was fighting for her own life. As Grace came to understand her new life as a wheelchair user, she also had to reconceptualise how she could be both a doctor and a patient, and her now deeply personal understanding of society’s persistent...

Sir David Attenborough, Miriam Margolyes, Nigel Planer, and others join us for a glimpse into Uncharted Territories, a new audio author showcase from John Murray publishers. This week we have a guest appearance from our friends at John Murray publishers who are sharing Uncharted Territories, their first ever audio author showcase. Here they’ve curated a collection of some of the best historians, m...

Most of us speak a descendant of one ancient tongue: Proto-Indo European. Almost all of Europe shares the DNA of its legacy. Acclaimed journalist and author of international bestseller Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World Laura Spinney explores the origins of this ancient language and how it spread far from its cradle near the Black Sea. Reaching the coasts of Scotland...

How does the body stay alive? And what does ageing really mean, from the inside ? Biomedical scientist and Professor of Vaccine Immunology at Imperial College London John Tregoning reveals the science of staying alive, ageing, and death. Journeying from the nature of genes to the science of inflammation, from today's anti-ageing craze to real health foods and the evolving landscape of diagnostic c...

Oscar nominated for her film The Edge of Democracy, which documented the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and the rise of Jair Bolsonaro, Petra Costa returns to the subject of Brazil's fragile democracy in Apocalypse in the Tropics. Streaming now on Netflix, Apocalypse explores the relationship between evangelical Christianity and the far-right, following the televangelist Silas Malafaia in...

When high-flying journalist Dolly Jones had her children, the idea of returning to work felt daunting. She struggled to find material to galvanise and reassure her, and to make her feel that anything was possible. She set out to change all of that, gathering practical advice, life-hacks and guilt-avoidance strategies from a diverse range of women in a wide variety of industries – fashion designers...

Today, you are far more likely to die of heart disease, cancer, or accident than you are to die of an illness caused by a germ: but for most of human history, microorganisms were our greatest nemesis. As recently as 1900, pnuemonia, influenza, tuberculosis, and gut infections accounted for half of all deaths in the United States. And yet, humans had known of the existence of germs since the invent...

Former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt shares a thought-provoking vision of our place in the world in the century ahead. Is Britain a minor player, marginalised by our departure from the EU and dwarfed by the rise of new economies? Or is there a major role for us to play in a rapidly changing international order? With the election of President Trump, the answer to that question matters. A world that...

Tracing his journey through his diagnosis with ADHD, Robin Ince explores his own insecurities and discoveries along the way, from the importance of vulnerability, to finding greater meaning and happiness, to the beauty of connecting with others through shared neurodiversity. Illuminating how diagnosis can help individuals find and understand their best selves, Robin also reveals how society—from i...

Caroline Darian, daughter of Dominique Pelicot, shares with Afua Hirsch a rallying cry for change, and confronts the hidden violence that too many endure in silence. The Pelicot mass rape trial was unprecedented in scope and nature, captivating France and the world. Dominique’s daughter, Caroline Darian, shares with journalist Afua Hirsch her family’s strength and resilience in the face of Dominiq...

On 5 June 2022, award-winning journalist Dom Phillips was working on a book about the Amazon rainforest, alongside the indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, when they were both shot dead. They are believed to have been assassinated by one of the criminal networks whose ecological exploitation they were working to expose. A team of expert writers took up his partially completed manuscript, committed to...

Isabel Allende shares the story of Emilia del Valle, her unforgettable new heroine on a treacherous, life-changing journey during the Chilean Civil war of 1891. Past and present merge in this conversation, as Isabel explores how her new heroine—who reminds us of Isabel herself— confronts the tyranny and injustice of her time. As tyranny and injustice bleeds into the present, Isabel shares her conv...

We are surrounded by bold claims and quick fixes for ‘boosting’ our immune health. But one thing the science is clear on is that everyone’s immune system is unique – what is good for one person may not work well for another. So how do we separate the bogus claims from the useful advice? Head of Life Sciences and Professor of Immunology at Imperial College, Daniel Davis, helps us sort the facts fro...

The hosts of the blockbuster podcast We Can Do Hard Things share a fresh guide to being alive and answer life's most difficult questions. Every day, Glennon Doyle spirals around the same questions: Why am I like this? How do I figure out what I want? How do I know what to do? Why can’t I be happy? Am I doing this right? The harder life gets, the less likely she is to remember the answers she’s spe...

A louche slacker and a restless wanderer, an Englishman most at home abroad, a comic genius and a whip smart critic of art and culture: Geoff Dyer is a literary colossus, an original voice whose writings circulate around his favourite themes – sex, death, drugs, spirituality, travel, and boredom – while also being utterly different to one another. Now he joins Fat White Family's Lias Saoudi to ref...

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, neoliberalism, with its belief in the virtues of markets and competition, seemed to have triumphed. But in the decades that followed, neoliberalism had a problem: the rise of social movements, from civil rights and feminism to environmentalism, were now proving roadblocks in the road to freedom, nurturing a culture of government dependency, public spending,...

How can we live a good life? Perhaps a good life is hard to define, but as bestselling author Rolf Dobelli reveals, we can learn how to cultivate a good life through habits to avoid—from watching too much news to 'winging' your way through the week. Merging stoicism and no-nonsense practicality, Rolf shares how we can live rationally and meaningfully, nurturing healthy relationships and habits wit...