The Smart Cookies podcast

The Byzantine Empire, Anatolian Seljuks, The Ayyubid Empire, Kingdom of Armenia, The Crusader States, The Abbasid Caliphate, the Nizari Assassins... this isn't a list of factions for a new Age of Empires video game, it's a snapshot of the Middle East in the middle of the 13th century - a time (and place) of incredible diversity, sophistication and struggle. All of these states, whether Christian o...

In the mainstream media China still occupies the role of the main adversary of the West. It's usually portrayed negatively, as a belligerent country and a paragon of human rights abuses. But is China really just an endless Asian gulag, or is the picture a bit more complicated? To find out I talked to Kaiser Kuo, creator and host of the Sinica podcast, and former Director of International Communica...

The omnipresent problem of bad leadership in politics and business seems to be more pressing than ever. So why do we keep choosing incompetent leaders? What kind of people get ahead in the workplace? What does good leadership actually look like? And finally - do I have what it takes to fulfil my lifelong dream and become an effective basketball coach? Tune in to my convo with historian Martin Gutm...

Marci Shore is a historian, chair in European Intellectual history, a professor at the Munk School of Global affairs, and the author of The Taste of Ashes: The Afterlife of Totalitarianism in Eastern Europe. Since she's an expert in the history of totalitarian regimes, I ask her about Hitler's Nazi Germany, the brutal claustrophobia of Stalinism, the twisted psychology of Soviet purges and the tot...

What are the motivations of artificial intelligence CEO's, people like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and Sam Altman? What kind of ideologies are animating Silicon Valley? Why are AI companies, such as Palantir, suddenly signing huge military contracts with the Pentagon? I addressed all of these questions to Nick Srnicek, Senior Lecturer in Digital Economy at King's College London and author of Silicon Em...

Marcus Chown is an award-winning writer, broadcaster and former radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He's the author of The Ascent of Gravity, Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt you and Afterglow of Creation. His latest title, A Crack in Everything: How Black Holes Came in from the Cold and Took Cosmic Centre Stage details the mind-blowing science of black holes, and tra...

In light of a scandalous recent Guardian article which explored why Zoomers think we Millennials are profoundly uncool, I desperately needed some answers. So I turned to Dr. Carolina Are, an Innovation Fellow and a social media researcher at Northumbria University’s Centre for Digital Citizens. We proceeded to talk about the list of perceived millennial sins, the many different aesthetic sensibili...

Dr. Christopher Dillon is Senior Lecturer in Modern German History at King’s College London who has authored many books and articles on the history of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. In this conversation we tackle the supposedly failing economy of the Weimar Republic, how this perception helped the Nazis take power, why big business supported Hitler, but also what economic policies did the N...

Welcome back to the second episode of the extraordinary history of the CRUSADES, with renowned historian Prof. Nicholas Morton from Nottingham Trent University. In this episode we discuss the unexpected military success of the First Crusade, the horrific massacres that followed, the resulting establishment of the Crusader States and the initiation of the Knights Templar - but also their ultimate d...

Nicholas Morton is an Associate Professor in Middle Eastern history at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, and has been teaching Medieval - Middle Eastern History, especially the history of the Crusades, since 2008. In the first part of our conversation on the CRUSADES, we talk about the conditions in medieval Europe at the turn of the 11th century, the religious ideas that made the prospect of...

Dr. James Glattfelder is a theoretical physicist turned complexity scientist, who's interested in the really big picture, questions such as the nature of consciousness, the universe and reality itself. He's also the author of the book The Sapient Cosmos: What a modern-day synthesis of science and philosophy teaches us about the emergence of information, consciousness, and meaning . In this mind-be...

Tim McMahon is a sports writer and journalist covering the NBA for ESPN. He is also the author of the book, Wonder Boy: Luka Doncic and the Curse of Greatness. In this conversation we talk about Luka Doncic's beginnings in the NBA, his exceptional basketball talents and competitive nature, but most of all, we talk about his involuntary move to the Los Angeles Lakers, in what is quickly becoming on...

Sunil Amrith is a professor of History at Yale University. He is the author of four books, and a recipient of multiple awards including a MacArthur “Genius” fellowship. His latest book is called The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years. In this conversation we explore the impact the environment has on the development of civilisations - we begin a 1000 years ago in medieval...

Jake Adelstein was a reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun , Japan’s largest newspaper, from 1993 to 2005. He has also written for The Daily Beast / Newsweek , The Independent , and The Guardian , and is a regular contributor to The Atlantic Wire . However, most of us will probably be familiar with the name from the hit TV series Tokyo Vice, which is based on his memoir. In this conversation we talk ab...

Dr. Nafeez Ahmed is a trans-disciplinary academic, investigative journalist and systems theorist, who's also the author of the best-selling book, “The Alt Reich: The Network War to Destroy the West from Within”. In this conversation we're talking about the long historical reach of the far-right, it's shadowy resurgence after WWII, as well as it's current, frightening grip on Western politics. We a...

Dr. Ariel Zeleznikow - Johnston is a neuroscientist, and a Research Fellow at Monash University. He's also the author of the acclaimed book, The Future Loves You: How and Why We Should Abolish Death. In this conversation we talk about the current prospects of brain preservation, the possibilities of mind revival in the future, and also about the implications of living unimaginably long lives.

Batja Mesquita is a social psychologist, an affective scientist, and a pioneer of cultural psychology. She is a professor of psychology at the University of Leuven, Belgium, and director of the Center for Social and Cultural Psychology at the University of Leuven. She's also the author of the groundbreaking book, “Between Us - How Cultures Create Emotions,” In this conversation we explore the comp...

The holiday season is here, which means we need to have a conversation about... ALCOHOL. And that's why I invited dr. Sally Adams, an alcohol researcher from the University of Birmingham, to the pod to discuss the physiological and psychological effects of alcohol consumption, the risks associated with drinking, and the cultural expectations surrounding alcohol use. We also talked about alcohol's...

Phillip Goff is a professor of philosophy at Durham University and the author of extremely thought-provoking books, such as Consciousness and Fundamental Reality, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness and his last one Why? The Purpose of the Universe. We talk about the utterly improbable conditions for life in the universe, the stubborn problem of human consciousness, the...

Timothy Ryback is the co-founder of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation in the Hague. Some of His previous books include the highly acclaimed Hitler's Private Library: The Books that Shaped his Life, The Last Survivor: Legacies of Dachau, and Hitler's first Victims: The Quest for Justice. His latest book, Takeover: Hitler's Final Rise to Power just came out and has already been...

Dr. Justin Sledge is a professor of philosophy and religion whose work focuses on the Western Esoteric Tradition, particularly in religious and philosophical thought. He's also the host and creator of the extremely popular Youtube channel, Esoterica. In this exhilarating conversation we talk about the fascinating tradition of summoning demonic entities, mystical experiences and magic, as well as t...

As an undying fan of Ridley Scott's Gladiator, I've always wanted to learn the real history of these celebrated, yet mysterious figures - and now I finally have the chance... Alexander Mariotti is a Roman historical consultant and a leading speaker on gladiatorial life, combat, and weaponry. Following academic work, his main focus has been working as an advisor to the media, featuring in countless...

Dr. Emmanuel Maggiori is a software engineer, writer, and speaker, who's on a mission to help develop a more balanced view about the tech and AI industries in the midst of the relentless hype. He's also the author of the books Smart Until It's Dumb and Siliconned: How the tech industry solves fake problems, hoards idle workers, and makes doomed bets with other people's money. We talk about the pot...

Professor Norman Finkelstein is a political scientist whose primary fields of research are the politics of the Holocaust and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He's the author of many books, such as The Holocaust Industry , I'll burn that bridge when I get to it , and Gaza: an Inquest into its martyrdom. We talk about the origins of Zionism, the current state of Israeli society, the horror of the c...

The story of dog domestication seems as simple as pie - humans took some wolf puppies, brought them over to the campfire and the rest is history... However, the truth is far less straightforward and far murkier, sometimes even downright bizarre. From rabbits and chickens, to dogs and cats, prof. Greger Larson, an evolutionary geneticist from University of Oxford breaks down the extremely complicat...