How To Academy Podcast

We get used to dirty air, people grow to accept authoritarianism, take foolish risks, and we are more liable to believe misinformation than ever before. Too much of a good thing might be bad news after all. Rituals and habituation cause acclimatization and indifference. So how do we keep life interesting? Exciting events, relationships, stimulating jobs and breathtaking works of art lose their sparkle after time. People stop noticing what is wonderful and they also stop noticing what is terrible. With examples of her research, Professor Tali Sharot shares tips for how to keep life sparkling and vital, from the workplace to world news. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Philosophy Tom Chatfield loves technology and the humanities with equal passion, and has spent a lifetime thinking about our relationship to the devices we shape and that in turn shape us. Neither a luddite nor a utopian, he seeks to tell a new and more nuaunced story about the role of technology in our evolution and in our present. Should we be frightened of the rise of AI and the extermination of desirable jobs? Are Silicon Valley stories like the Singularity legitimate possibilities for our future or only folktales for a digital age? What can the Amish teach us about when to embrace new gadgets? You'll discover the answer to these questions and more on this episode of the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The author of the New York Times bestseller Such a Fun Age returns with a tale of campus politics, desire, and bad behaviour. How much of yourself are you willing to trade to get what you want? Unfolding in a University of Arkansas dormitory, Kiley Reid's new novel Come and Get It is a smart, stylish and scathing investigation of our money-obssessed society. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Neurologist and professor Richard Restak has dedicated his life to the science of brain health. Now he returns to How To Academy to share more ways to strengthen our memory and prevent the onset of Alzheimer's. From memory tricks to new friendships, learn how to protect your memory, while making life more vivid along the way. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kelly Link is the author of ludicrously acclaimed genre-defying short story collections including Magic For Beginners and the Pulitzer nominated Get in Trouble. Now, after almost three decades at the top of her game, she's written a novel: The Book of Love. It's very funny, smart, and already certain to be one of the books of the year for both literary and genre critics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Multitasking is a myth. Flow states don’t equate to enlightenment. An emotionally engaged boss is best for business. In this podcast, Harvard psychologist, global bestselling author and former New York Times writer debunks the myths we’ve been told about the workplace, with practical examples of how to train your mind to focus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ray Nayler's novel The Mountain in the Sea announced him a major new voice in speculative fiction, able to seamlessly fuse the novel of ideas and the novel of adventure. In his new novella The Tusks of Extinction, Ray continues his exploration of the science of the mind and animal communication and extends his passionate plea for deeper respect for the natural world with the story of Dr. Damira Khismatullina, an expert in elephant behaviour given the task of raising a new breed of mammoths resurrected by to occupy the Siberian steppe. Tusks confirms his place as one of the most relevant and thrilling authors of our time -- in any genre. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Family doctor Dr Gemma Newman has come to understand that body, mind and soul are not separate, and that only through a ‘whole body’ treatment plan can we truly heal. From gratitude to love, from mindfulness to healthy eating, Dr Newman joins us to share free healing practices that we can adopt into our daily lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

One small plant has played an outsized role in shaping the world we live in today. Engineered by the British Empire with profound consequences for India, China, and the world at large, the opium trade was a critical part of colonial history. But its influence extends far beyond the 18th and 19th centuries. In this episode of the podcast, novelist Amitav Ghosh traces the links between the trade and the origins of the world's biggest corporations and most powerful American families, and considers its relevance to the unfolding tragedy of America's contemporary opioid crisis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The pop star James Blunt has written a memoir about his life as one of the biggest acts of the noughties: a memoir that is filthy, funny, and quite possibly a fantasy. It's called Loosely Based on a Made Up Story. He joined us for an In Conversation event with BBC 6 Music's Matt Everitt last year: a conversation that quickly became very, very, not safe for work... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ruby Wax joins us to share an honest and stirring portrait of the depths of her psyche. Recounting her mental health journey including through a monastery, a mental institution, and therapy, she shares her candid understanding of depression and her meaningful search for inner peace. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Carlo Rovelli is no ordinary scientist. With a genius for revealing the mysteries the universe to those of us without his gifts, he is the heir to Hawking, Sagan, and Feynman; and alone among the leaders of theoretical physics, he draws as much upon art, philosophy, and myth as equations and experiments to illuminate the splendour and strangeness of reality. Now he joins one of the UK’s preeminent theatre practitioners, the wildly innovative actor, director, and founder of Complicite, Simon McBurney, to explore the most exhilarating questions in science and art. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Both a renowned psychotherapist and the 'best living essayist writing in English' (John Gray), Adam Phillips joins us to reflect upon what we must give up in order to feel more alive. To give up or not to give up? The question can feel inescapable but the answer is never simple. Giving up our supposed vices is one thing; giving up on life itself is quite another. One form of self-sacrifice feels positive, something to admire and aspire to, while the other is profoundly unsettling, if not actively undesirable. There are always, it turns out, both good and bad sacrifices, but it is not always clear beforehand which is which. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're living in a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting... We've all become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption. Dr Anna Lembke is here to help. Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine, chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic, and an internationally renowned expert in addiction medicine treatment and education, she joins MindHealth360 Founder and Editor Kirkland Newman to share the secret of finding balance in our age of indulgence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Do human beings have free will? For Stanford neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky, science clearly demonstrates that free will is a powerful and dangerous illusion. Without free will, it makes no more sense to punish people for antisocial behaviour than it does to scold a car for breaking down. But for philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett, free will is not only compatible with our current scientific knowledge but justified by it. Free will underwrites our moral and artistic responsibility – and reason and self-control are both real and desirable. Coming together to debate this question for the first time, these two intellectual giants delve deep into the science and philosophy of the mind and get to the heart of this ancient and vitally important question. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re in the middle of a global anxiety epidemic. But when it comes to fighting anxiety, you have more control than you think: the power is at the end of your fork. Psychiatrist and chef Dr Uma Naidoo joins us with a guide for taking back control, helping us to understand how food can be an indispensable tool in improving mental health. This podcast is presented in partnership with MindHealth360. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Every year we host a big thinker at the music festival Wilderness and our guest in 2023 was Sathnam Sanghera, the Times journalist whose two books on the history of the British Empire - Empireland and Stolen History - have transformed the way we think about our past and present. Sathnam returns to How To Academy on 25th January to tell us about Empireworld - his new book about the lasting impact of the Empire on other nations. A few tickets are still available on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Each month our sister podcast Found in Conversation explores global affairs and innovation with world-leading thinkers. In this episode, Oxford data scientist and TED star Hannah Richie and investor Rosa Sangiorgio reveal how we can overcome the climate crisis and become the first sustainable generation in history. If you enjoy the episode, you can subscribe to Found In Conversation on Apple or Spotify. Hannah explores the themes of this episode in more depth in her new book Not the End of the World, which is out now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mariana Mazzucato’s ideas have changed how governments see their role in the economy - but where do we go from here? Regular listeners will have heard the economist Mariana Mazzucato on this podcast before -- with George the Poet on modern-day moonshot programmes to can transform the economy, and with journalist Kamal Ahmed with a searing critique of the consulting industry. She recently returned to How To Academy to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the groundbreaking book that launched her career in the public eye - The Entrepreneurial State. The book that makes the compelling case that the state is not a bureaucratic machine standing in the way of progress, but a powerful force for innovation. What does that mean for the world in 2024 and the decades to come? She joined Hannah MacInnes to tell us more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dan Ariely is a superstar TED talker and a world-leading social psychologist, specialising in the study of irrational behaviour and bad decisions. His new book Misbelief is a guide to why some people adopt conspiratorial beliefs and how the rest of us can help rather than make things worse - and offer advice to help us reduce our own susceptibility to such beliefs. He joined the podcast to share his insights. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cambridge Professor Mary Beard has done more than anyone to bring the world of ancient Rome to life again. Comedian David Mitchell once studied history and won’t let it off the hook for the mess it’s made of everything. They came together to tell the story of our rulers -- from the emperors who ruled Britannia under the Roman occupation to the kings and queens who succeeded them and created England as we know it today. Mary's new book Emperor of Rome and David's new book Unruly are both available from our bookshop.org page. Buy either book there and help support Primrose Hill Books, our local independent bookseller partner since 2013. You can also join us live for Mary's next How To Academy event, where she will be speaking with her fellow classicist Josephine Quinn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Those of us who suffer from anxiety either exhaust ourselves trying to cure it or resign ourselves to a lifetime of fear and worry. What if, instead of fighting our anxiety, we could turn it into a strength? Harvard's David Rosmarin has developed strategies to harness the power of anxiety to learn about ourselves, deepen our relationships with others, and achieve our deepest goals and dreams. His constructive, compassionate, and evidence-based approach will not rid you of your anxiety. Instead, it will empower you to reach your fullest potential because of it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Immigration is probably the most divisive and heated subject in British politics today and the same is true in many other countries, including the Netherlands - where our guest on this episode, Hein de Haas, is a Professor focused on migration and development. His new book How Migration Really Works is an eye-opener for anyone seeking an understanding of why people immigrate and what it means for their origin countries and destination countries. Neither left-wing or right-wing, the book illuminates what's really at stake when we open or close our borders. If you enjoy the episode, pick up a copy from our bookshop and help support our local independent bookseller, Primrose Hill Books. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why are our closest relationships so often a source of more stress than solace? Whether the relationship is with a romantic partner, a parent, a child, a friend or a colleague, the dynamic is so often the same - you'd like the relationship to change for the better, yet nothing you try seems to work. Clinical psychologist Nicole LePera, creator of the global online community The Holistic Psychologist, joins the podcast to help us revolutionise our relationships. Her new book How to Be the Love You Seek is a guide to breaking frustrating patterns of loneliness, disconnection and resentment and learning how to build security and share compassion with others. If you enjoy this episode of the show, you can pick up a copy from our bookshop.org page and help support our local independent bookseller partner, Primrose Hill Books. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In a society riven by fragmentation, hostility, and misperception, How can we look somebody in the eye and see something large in them, and in turn, see something larger in ourselves? How can we foster deeper connections at home, at work, and throughout our lives? The New York Times columnist and bestselling author of The Road to Character joins Will Storr to share a practical, inspiring guide to understanding others and being understood in turn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Walter Isaacson was the editor in chief of Time magazine and CEO of CNN but he's best known to the public for his incredible biographies - including Leonardo da vinci, Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs. He is the official biographer of Elon Musk and shadowed Musk through the saga of his purchase of Twitter. He joined us in London for a conversation with Matthew d'Ancona. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amy Edmondson is one of the world's most influential organisational psychologists, a professor at Harvard Business School, and an expert on the concept of psychological safety. She joined to answer a simple, provocative question: what if it is only by learning to fail that we can truly hope to succeed? Her new book Right Kind of Wrong doesn't tell us that failure is a problem; but it doesn't tell us to fail fast, fail often either. It tells us how to fail well. She joined Hannah MacInnes to share more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Marina Abramovic is an artist who for more than fifty years has pushed her mind and body to their limits - whether walking into a fire and almost dying from smoke inhalation, being stripped and attacked while passively allowing the public to manipulate her with tools and weapons, or sitting without interruption in MOMA for more than 700 hours facing the public. She's currently in London playing Maria Callas on stage at the English National Opera; and she's got a major retrospective of her work at the Royal Academy. We brought her together for a live ons stage interview with the director of the design museum, Tim Marlow, to talk about Nomadic Journey And Spirit of Places - her new book collecting notes, sketches, poetry, and doodles made while travelling. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Luke O'Neill is a Professor of Biochemistry at Trinity College, Dublin and one of the world's most respected immunologists, with 6 major discoveries to his name. He's also an infectiously enthusiastic broadcaster and public advocate for science. He's also a newspaper columnist and now the author of a wildly fun new history of science called To Boldly Go Where No Book Has Gone Before. He joined the How To Acadmey Podcast to tell us about his own career, and share the stories of both the most celebrated and unsung figures in the history of science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With more than forty years of clinical and research experience investigating the mind-body connection, Stanford psychiatrist David Spiegel is sought out the world over for his expertise on the therapeutic potential of hypnosis – sharing his insights with everyone from world leaders at the WEF in Davos to health podcast superstar Andrew Huberman. Now he joins How To Academy to reveal what self-hypnosis can do for you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A global superstar following his legendary cover version of David Bowie’s Space Oddity aboard the ISS, Colonel Chris Hadfield is also an ace fighter pilot, a veteran of two space walks, the author of multiple New York Times bestsellers, the former NASA Director of Operations in Russia, one of the most popular TED talkers of all time, an adviser to SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, and was personally asked by King Charles to help lead a new project to protect the space environment. He joins the How To Academy Podcast to share out-of-this-world stories from his life to date, including not only his time as an astronaut but his early days as an RCAF pilot intercepting Soviet bombers in North American airspace. His new novel The Defector – the sequel to his million-selling thriller The Apollo Murders – takes us into the world of Cold War fighter pilots in a dizzying game of spies, lies, and a possible high level defection playing out across three continents. It’s a tale sizzling with the kind of detail and authenticity that only one of the world’s best fighter pilots can provide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Iain McGilchrist’s book The Master and His Emissary was that rare thing: a bestselling classic of modern philosophy with genuine relevance to human life. It’s sequel, The Matter With Things, takes McGilchrist’s core insights into the nature of the mind and brain and explores their relevance for the myriad problems of modern life and civilisation. Drawing together his insights as a scholar and practitioner of medicine, psychiatry, neuroscience, philosophy, theology and the arts, and directly addressing our contemporary malaise and the future of life on earth, McGilchrist returns to the podcast to articulate a compelling argument for a new philosophy of living. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For decades, Philippa Gregory has thrilled us with tales of the court and the machinations of kings, queens, and courtiers. Now she turns her attention not to the lives of our rulers but the ordinary women whose lives and accomplishments are missing from the national story: a hidden history of those who had no legal presence, no voice in government and no right to own property – but still ruled, governed, and made fortunes. Highlighting the drive, ingenuity and vast contribution made, Philippa puts women back where they belong in our history – centre stage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Conde Nast’s MD Albert Read is on a mission to put the imagination back at the forefront of our lives. Albert joins the podcast to examine how the imagination has evolved through the millennia, and how you can nurture and cultivate your own creativity. His interlocutor Will Gompertz was a Director of the Tate Galleries and is now the Artistic Director of the Barbican. A household name from his time as the BBC’s first ever Arts Editor, he’s the internationally bestselling author of books distilling his insights from a lifetime of working with and learning from the world’s most creative people. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From his early movies to his later documentaries, he has made a career out of exploring the boundaries of human endurance: what we are capable of in exceptional circumstances and what these situations reveal about who we really are. But these are not just great cinematic themes. All his life, Herzog would embrace risk and danger, constantly looking for challenges and adventures. He joins Mark Kermode to reveal the influences and ideas that drive his creativity and have shaped his unique view of the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Every month the How To Academy team release a new episode of Found in Conversation with our friends at Pictet. In this episode, we explore the past, present, and future of the European Project with Oxford Prof Timothy Garton Ash and Baroness Catherine Ashton, former EU Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A Professor at Harvard Business School specialising in happiness and leadership, Arthur Brooks joins us to share his insights into realising greater happiness, no matter how challenging your circumstances. Drawing upon the ideas in Build the Life You Want, his new book co-authored with Oprah Winfrey, he will offer not unrealistic promises of perfect bliss, but evidence-based tools to meet you wherever you are and make greater happiness a choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Zeke Faux is an investigative reporter for Bloomberg and the author of Number Goes Up - a wild, first hand account of his journey into the world of crypto currencies and the larger than life he met along the way - including Sam Bankman Fried, the founder of FTX. He joined us for a conversation with Oliver Bullow, the author of Butler to the World and Moneyland. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Menopause affects every woman, and yet so many approach it with shame, fear, misinformation or silence. Why is no one talking about this? Who has the correct information? And how can we get it? Davina McCall and Dr Naomi Potter are here to tell you the truth, so you can make informed decisions about your life and your body. By exploring and explaining the science, debunking damaging myths, and smashing the taboos around the perimenopause and menopause, Davina and Naomi will equip you to make the most informed decisions about your health and your life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today we face not one crisis but a cascade: sputtering growth, surging inflation, poor policy responses, an escalating climate emergency, worsening inequality, increasing nationalism and a decline in global co-operation. But though the situation seems dire, it is not yet broken beyond repair. In this episode, we bring together former UK PM Gordon Brown, business leader and former chair of President Obama's Global Development Council Mohamed El-Erian, and Nobel laureate economist Michael Spence to share their bold new plan to fix our world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are on the cusp of a major revolution in psychiatric medicine and neuroscience. After fifty years of prohibition, criminalisation and fear, science is finally showing us that psychedelics are not dangerous or harmful. Instead, when used according to tested, safe and ethical guidelines, they are our most powerful newest treatment of mental health conditions, from depression, PTSD, and OCD to disordered eating and even addiction and chronic pain. Professor David Nutt, one of the world's leading Neuropsychopharmacologists, has spent 15 years researching this field and joined us at The Conduit to share his findings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We commonly misperceive mental health as being all in the mind, and physical pain in the body; but neuroscientist Camilla Nord’s groundbreaking research presents a new view of mental health – one that reframes mental health as an intricate, self-regulating process which is different for all of us. It's the subject of her new book, The Balanced Brain, and of this conversation with Hannah MacInnes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Michel Faber is one of the most acclaimed contemporary novelists in the English language; a master of the form able to move effortlessly between historical, contemporary, and futuristic settings in pursuit of emotional truth. But music, not literature, is his first love, and in his new book Listen he draws on that passion to investigate why music matters to us and how it works its magic. The owner of thousands upon thousands of records, Michel draws on an encylopedic knowledge of both mainstream and avante garde musics to get to approach that seemingly ineffable question: why do we listen? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"Don't worry, be happy", "focus on the important things", "smile more". We've all heard these platitudes, and we've all been annoyed by them. But how can we actually live a life filled with more happiness and less distraction? Psychiatric specialist and bestselling author Dr Anders Hansen believes the first step is understanding the wiring of our brains - and how modern society is built to hijack it. Anders sits down with Luke Naylor-Perrott to discuss how we can stop this hijacking, translating cutting-edge neuroscience into day-to-day tips. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John Higgs has joined this podcast to talk about William Blake, James Bond, and the Beatles - and now he's back with another iconic British cultural export: the electronic band sometimes called The KLF. He's just released the 10th Anniversary Edition of his book trying to make sense of why they set fire to a million pounds then vanished from public life. His attempt to figure out the answer takes him on a wild ride with counterculture icon Robert Anton Wilson, comic book genius Alan Moore, country superstar Tammy Wynette, and a dead sheep. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For most of us, the arts are a great source of pleasure. But could making art actually be good for your brain and body? Susan Magsamen is the founder and director of the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she studies how the brain and biology change when we participate in the arts. She's the author of Your Brain on Art, a new book making a powerful and persuasive case for the medicinal benefits of art. She wrote the book with Ivy Ross, Vice President of Design for Google's hardware division, and both authors joined David Malone to tell us more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The author of 58 novels, as well as plays, poetry, non-fiction and short stories, Joyce Carol Oates is famed across the literary world for writing at a speed which leaves her contemporaries trailing in the dust. But the fact of her productivity – and the sheer challenge of keeping up with such a prodigious writer – too often masks the more significant truth: that Joyce Carol Oates may be the most original, erudite, and versatile voice in American letters. In this podcast, we dive into the stories of her new collection Zero Sum and hear her take on the strange and troubled times we live in. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jesse Coomer was an English professor suffering from what he called "The Modern Human Condition" - in other words, he was a mess of stress and anxiety. He learned to combat that with breath training and cold exposure, and now teaches his techniques to athletes, the military, and beyond. He's the author of a new book called The Language of Breath - it's already out in the US and comes out in the UK in October. He joined Hannah MacInnes a couple of weeks back to tell us more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What can we learn from historical attempts to live together and raise children differently? Kristen Ghodsee is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Everyday Utopia, a new guide to experimental communities from the Pythagorians to the present. She talked to the journalist, author, and broadcaster Angela Saini about the past, present, and future of family life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

James Kinross is a consultant surgeon at Imperial College and one of the world's leading experts on the science of the microbiome — the complex ecosystem of bacteria, viruses and other microbes inside us. In a livestream from hospital, where he had literally just finished operating, he took Hannah MacInnes on a tour of this amazing inner universe and told us what it means for our overall health and wellbeing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices