Quillette

Quillette Podcast

News EN ↓ 344 episodes

Long-form conversations with scientists, writers, historians, and public intellectuals on the ideas shaping — and dividing — the Western world. Mostly hosted by Jonathan Kay — Canadian journalist, author, and Quillette editor whose books include Among the Truthers , a landmark investigation into conspiracy culture. Kay brings a rare combination of intellectual range, genuine curiosity, and willingness to push back, whether the subject is evolutionary biology, cancel culture, geopolitics, or the philosophy of free speech. Non-dogmatic, evidence-driven, and unafraid of controversy.

Author

Quillette

Episodes

Jamie Kilstein talks to Quillette's Jonathan Kay about his move to Arizona 12.07.2019 24:03

Jamie Kilstein, comedian and podcaster, talks to Jonathan Kay about his departure from LA, Andy Ngo's Antifa beating and what it's like to hang out with Moby. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Professor Nicholas Christakis talks to Quillette's Jonathan Kay talks about his new book Blueprint 05.07.2019 35:06

Nicholas Christakis, Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale, talks to Jonathan Kay about his new book Blueprint and what evolution can teach us about overcoming conflict. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Google whistleblower Mike Wacker talks to Quillette's Jonathan Kay 04.07.2019 17:08

Mike Wacker, the ex-Google software engineer who was fired for exposing the company's liberal bias, talks to Jonathan Kay talks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nuclear expert Michael Shellenberger talks to Quillette's Toby Young about the woeful shortcomings of Chernobyl, the HBO mini-series 28.06.2019 34:59

Quillette contributor and nuclear energy expert Michael Shellenberger talks to Toby Young about what Chernobyl, the critically-acclaimed HBO mini-series, got wrong and why that matters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Francis Fukuyama talks to Quillette's Alexandra Hudson about identity politics 25.06.2019 40:19

Francis Fukuyama is interviewed by guest host Alexandra Hudson about the themes of his new book Identity: The Demand For Dignity and the Politics of Resentment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Coleman Hughes talks to Quillette's Jonathan Kay about his reparations testimony 22.06.2019 18:13

Coleman Hughes talks to Jonathan Kay about what it was like testifying to Congress about reparations and the reaction his testimony has received. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonah Goldberg and Aaron Sibarium talk to Quillette's Toby Young about the conservative themes of Avengers: Endgame 19.06.2019 56:05

Jonah Goldberg and Aaron Siberium talk to Toby Young about the conservative manifesto buried just beneath the surface of Avengers: Endgame. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kathrine Jebsen Moore talks to Quillette's Jonathan Kay about how the knitting community has got tangled up with identity politics 14.06.2019 19:46

Kathrine Jebsen Moore talks to Jonathan Kay about how the Instagram knitting community has been torn apart by Social Justice mobs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

gay icon Sky Gilbert talks to Quillette's Jonathan Kay about being excommunicated by Toronto's LGBT community 07.06.2019 44:00

Sky Gilbert, gay playwright and drag queen, talks to Jonathan Kay about the history of Canada's gay community and being excommunicated by the LGBT theater company he founded. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eric Kaufmann and Sunder Katwala talk to Quillette's Toby Young about the European elections 28.05.2019 54:53

Eric Kaufmann, author of Whiteshift, and Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, talk to Toby Young about the European election results. Is national populism in decline? If not, how concerned should we be? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Greg Ellis, host of Quillette Narrated, talks to Quillette's Jonathan Kay about his career as a voice actor 23.05.2019 35:13

Voice actor Greg Ellis talks to Jonathan Kay about working with the producers of Dragon Age, Call of Duty and God of War, and the difference between voicing video game characters and cartoon characters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Professor Nigel Biggar talks to Quillette's Toby Young about academic outrage mobs and how to defeat them 15.05.2019 47:58

Nigel Biggar, Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at Oxford, talks to Toby Young about his experience of being mobbed by his colleagues. They discuss what motivates academic outrage mobs and what can be done to defend free speech at British and American universities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Doriane Lambelet Coleman talks to Quillette's Jonathan Kay about the Caster Semenya trial 10.05.2019 20:03

Doriane Lambelet Coleman, the 800m-runner-turned-academic, talks to Jonathan Kay about the Court of Arbitration for Sport's rejection of Caster Semenya's appeal. As a result of the decision, Semenya will not be able to compete in women's middle distance events unless she chemically alters her testosterone level. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Clint Margrave and Timothy Green, two Los Angeles-based poets, talk to Quillette's Jonathan Kay about the public shaming of fellow poet Frank Sherlock 03.05.2019 33:33

Clint Margrave and Timothy Green, two poets, talk to Jonathan Kay about the shunning of fellow poet Frank Sherlock after he confessed to having been in a skinhead band in the 1980s. Clint Margrave recently wrote an article about Frank Sherlock's public shaming for Quillette. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Claire Fox, veteran journalist and broadcaster, talks to Quillette's Toby Young about standing for the European Parliament as a Brexit Party candidate 30.04.2019 55:34

Journalist and broadcaster Claire Fox talks to Toby Young about being a Brexit Party candidate in the forthcoming European Parliament election. How did a former Communist become a candidate for a populist, right-of-centre party? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Coleman Hughes talks to Quillette's Jonathan Kay about an allegedly racist incident at Barnard College 23.04.2019 22:32

Coleman Hughes talks to Jonathan Kay about his latest Quillette article, which concerns an allegedly racist incident at Barnard College. Coleman, who is an undergraduate at Columbia, doesn't think the Barnard employees involved are guilty of racism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jamie Kilstein talks to Quillette's Jonathan Kay about leaving the Social Justice cult and becoming a non-tribal comedian 19.04.2019 32:59

stand-up comedian Jamie Kilstein talks to Jonathan Kay about leaving the Social Justice Left, having Robin Williams as a patron, and his new, non-tribal, un-woke podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sir Roger Scruton talks to Quillette's Toby Young about getting sacked by the British Government after being targeted by a Twitter mob 15.04.2019 34:18

Sir Roger Scruton, the conservative philosopher, talks to Toby Young about getting sacked as an advisor to the British Government after making some politically incorrect remarks, and the implications of his defenestration for intellectual freedom more widely. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tyler Cowen talks to Quillette's Jonathan Kay about libertarianism, viewpoint diversity in Washington, D.C., and his new online university 11.04.2019 28:36

Tyler Cowen, economics professor at George Mason University, talks to Jonathan Kay about the limits of libertarianism, viewpoint diversity in Washington, D.C., and Marginal Revolution University, his new online education venture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Professor Robert Tombs talks to Quillette's Toby Young about Brexit and Britain's future 03.04.2019 48:38

Robert Tombs, Cambridge history professor, talks to Toby Young about why he supports Brexit, why so many of his colleagues don't, whether the English intelligentsia's loathing of their country is a uniquely English characteristic and what their reaction is likely to be if the U.K. does eventually leave the European Union. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob Montz, the filmmaker who is documenting the growing free speech crisis in America's universities, talks to Quillette's Jonathan Kay 29.03.2019 41:33

Rob Montz, the Washington, DC-based documentarian who has made a succession of slick, entertaining videos about the free speech crisis engulfing America's universities, talks to Jonathan Kay. You can see some of Rob's videos, with some additional commentary from Jon, on Quillette's website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Catholic journalist Caroline Farrow talks to Quillette's Toby Young about being investigated by the British police for misgendering a transwoman 26.03.2019 28:37

Six months ago, Catholic journalist Caroline Farrow appeared on a TV show called Good Morning Britain to debate Susie Green, a trans activist. That led to a chain of events that saw Caroline being investigated by the British police for misgendering Susie's daughter Jackie, a transwoman who was born male and underwent sexual reassignment surgery in Thailand at the age of 16. She talks to Toby Young...

Irshad Manji, a gay, progressive Muslim, talks to Quillette's Jonathan Kay about her new book Don't Label Me 20.03.2019 27:09

liberal Muslim Irshad Manji talks to Jonathan Kay about her new book Don't Label Me in which she urges all sides in the culture wars to listen more carefully to each other. She also reflects on the journey she's been on, from an aggressive combatant in various debates to reflective participant. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stand-up comedian Andrew Doyle talks to Quillette's Toby Young about Titania McGrath, his brilliant satirical creation on Twitter. 13.03.2019 31:16

Andrew Doyle, stand-up comedian and Spiked-online columnist, talks to Toby Young about Titania McGrath, his satirical creation on Twitter who describes herself as a "radical intersectionalist poet committed to feminism, social justice and armed peaceful protest." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quillette's Jonathan Kay talks to Danish expert Kay Xander Mellish on Denmark's rape culture, gender equality and the new, female-Led, right-wing Danish party 07.03.2019 18:46

Jonathan Kay talks to Kay Xander Mellish, author of How to Live in Denmark (2014) and How to Work in Denmark (2018) about the recent Amnesty International report claiming Denmark has a "pervasive rape culture," as well as what it's like living in the country ranked number two in the world for gender equality and why a female-led, right-wing political party is on the rise. Learn more about your ad...