How To Academy Podcast

Bestselling author, artist, and the Observer’s agony aunt Philippa Perry joins cartoonist Becky Barnicoat for a conversation about the highs and lows of raising small children.  From the unglamorous reality of post-partum to the tumult of baby supplies, from the challenges of bedtime to the comically dishevelled appearance of new parenthood, discover the deeply strange new world of  parenting, rul...

Today Lorna Tucker is a feted documentary maker whose subjects include Vivienne Westwood and Katherine Hepburn — a life she could not have imagined as a young woman who fled a troubled home to live on the streets. Once a thief, sex worker, and drug addict, estranged from her family and in trouble with gangs and the police, her memoir Bare will make you see a hidden world for the first time and cha...

From the far-right violence that broke out in the summer of 2024 to the hatred directed at Muslims in public life during the Gaza conflict, anti-Muslim racism is dangerously out-of-control. Fed by a network of media outlets, think tanks, commentators, and even the entertainment industry, Islamophobia not only passes the dinner table test but is also Britain’s bigotry blind spot. For too many, Musl...

While many of us are sleeping, another world awakens in the night hours. Author Dan Richards reveals the thrumming life of the night, from night shifts on postal trains to the art of focaccia, from the rhythm of shipping forecasts to the humanity which society often fails to recognise in homelessness. Dan illuminates the nighttime world, and explores the deeply personal relationship we each have w...

LSE’s Paul Dolan reveals how we can stop hating the people we disagree with, and how we can foster a more tolerant society. We like to think that we’re tolerant, but many of us struggle to engage with people whose opinions differ strongly from our own – even if they might have something useful to contribute to the debate. We’re all falling victim to what Professor Paul Dolan defines as beliefism....

Our greatest living nature writer, Robert Macfarlane shares with Horatio Clare a single, transformative idea: are rivers alive? Robert Macfarlane is both the author of prize-winning bestsellers including Underland, Landmarks, and The Old Ways, and an artistic polymath whose collaborators include many of the most distinguished artists, musicians, and poets of our time, including Olafur Eliasson, Jo...

Neurologist and Oxford Professor Dr Masud Husain explores the intricacies of the brain, and how much our sense of self can change through brain disorders. From a woman who could not recognise the motions of her own hand, to a driven and outgoing man whose sudden stroke rendered him apathetic to all he used to care about, Dr Husain explores the bounds of the self, the need for a deeply human connec...

The story of Elizabethan theatre is often told through the artistic genius of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Critic and scholar Daniel Swift has a different story to tell: that of the businessmen who dreamed of the first professional theatre, fought against civil and religious authorities to have it built, and, ultimately, fought each other. How did the Burbage family lay the foundations for...

Gina Rippon delves into the emerging science of female autism, asking why it has been systematically ignored and misunderstood for so long. Generations of researchers, convinced autism was a male problem, failed to recognise or study it in women. But new research is shedding light on female autism, revealing how autism is different for women and girls, and that camouflaging – hiding autistic trait...

Slavoj Žižek, one of the most outrageous and maverick thinkers of our time, joins Robin Ince for deep dive into his life and thought. From his life and education in the former Yugoslavia under communist rule, where his master’s thesis was denounced by the authorities for being ‘not Marxist enough’ and he fought to democratise Slovenia and defend human rights, to his current position as one of the...

Muscle: it shapes us and allows us to shape who we want to be. Author and athlete Bonnie Tsui explores the world of muscle in all its rich personal, cultural, and biological complexity. From the intricate link between muscle and brain health, to redefining strength and societal roles, to how our muscle allows us to feel more present in our everyday life, Bonnie reveals how muscle is far more than...

Dissolving the boundaries that usually divide surgeon and patient, award-winning novelist and surgeon Gabriel Weston illuminates a new journey into the human anatomy. From the emotion of entering the operating theatre, to what an autopsy can tell us about our own humanity, Gabriel explores the moving phenomenon that is the human body, in all its life-giving wonder. Learn more about your ad choices...

We might know how to love deeply, but when tensions rise and miscommunication mingles with blame, how can we learn to love better? New York Times bestselling poet and author Yung Pueblo shares with Poppy Jamie his own journey through learning how to love healthily, and reveals how we can grow in our own relationships to strengthen communication, embrace the present, and reject the myth of perfecti...

How did a low budget sci-fi show widely loathed by its creators the BBC go on to become a bedrock of British culture that means the world to millions of children and adults alike? Today, the Doctor and his extraterrestrial enemies, sonic screwdriver, and magical blue box are instantly recognisable to almost anyone living on the British isles. But the story of Doctor Who is far more than the story...

In a goal-obsessed world, how can we become our best selves without falling into a rat race that leaves us feeling burnt out and unhappy? Neuroscientist and entrepreneur Anne-Laure Le Cunff shares a new guide on reaching our goals through the 'experimental mindset', a journey and practice that combines the power of curiosity with creativity and self-discovery. From debunking the myth of finding 'o...

Foreign policy expert and Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University, Edward Fishman, joins us to reveal the history of sanctions and the threats to economic security today. From the role of sanctions during the Cold War to economic warfare against Iran, Russia, and China, to Trump's current sanctions across the globe, Fishman reveals the power of economic warfare—and the chaos it can wreak in...

Visualisation: a neurological mental training technique used by the top athletes in the world to perform at their best. Now, you can learn how to use it too. With simple and actionable steps, mental fitness expert Maya Raichoora reveals a playbook on using visualisation to reach your goals, while redefining success to encompass a deeper sense of meaning. From how to incorporate visualisation into...

There is a neglected history. Not a sweeping, definitive, exhaustive history of the world but something quieter, more intimate and particular. Now in this episode, journalist Annabelle Hirsch reveal that history: a single journey, picked out in 101 objects, through the fascinating, too-often-overlooked, manifold histories of women, to show that the past has always been as complicated and fascinati...

How do we comprehend the depths of love in hindsight, and the immensity of grief? How can we say 'I love you' to a listener who is no longer alive? And how do we find forgiveness and learn to forgive ourselves? Lead singer and lyricist of Snow Patrol, Gary Lightbody, shares the raw and emotional story of grief, love, and life, upon losing his father in 2019, a journey which inspired the band's lat...

As the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch for three decades, Kenneth Roth has dedicated his life to investigating and uncovering abuses across the globe – and pressuring offending governments to stop them. From using the power of unyielding honesty to take on the world's most brutal autocrats and their sycophants, to the resilience of civilians' search for truth even under strict censorship,...

Mesopotamian civilisation filled more than half of human history: a culture with advanced mathematics and astronomy, a religion that influenced both ancient Greece and the Bible, and a literature that continues to inspire the blockbuster movies of 2025. Yet few of us today know anything about it. Taking us into the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, scholar and playwright Selena Wisnom rev...

Across the headlines, we appear to be falling into a post-truth world. But the questions that most resonate with humanity—on life, death, love, and leadership—remain as pertinent as they were in the age of Socrates. Now philosopher and University of Chicago Professor Agnes Callard joins us to examine how Socratic thought can continue to guide us and ground us, breathing new life into the rigour of...

Whether its the football pitch of the FIFA Women’s World Cup or the diving board of the Olympics, Dr Kate Hays is a woman who knows how to win. Now she joins us to reveal the techniques that create winning mentalities - from breathing techniques to widening the bases from which we draw confidence - that allow us to create the best performance under the greatest pressure. An essential conversation...

After Kurt Cobain, Bob Dylan is Courtney Love’s all-time rock’n’roll hero. Todd Almond performed Dylan’s songbook on Broadway. They join us for a deeply personal celebration of the legendary songwriter. An electrifying, bewitching singer who, in the words of The New York Times can simultaneously imbue a single sustained note with “a plea, a wound, and a threat”, Courtney Love occupies a singular p...

Optimism, irrational though it might be, is central to the human psyche: it gives us an advantage both in everyday life and in the evolutionary race. Sumit Paul-Choudhury joins us to share his theory of rational optimism: possibilism. Without this optimism we would never have survived the unpredictable – and often hostile – world we evolved into. Yet optimism is not reserved for times of extremity...