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Quillette Podcast

Quillette Podcast

339 episodes — Page 1 of 7

The Last Straight Woman

May 8, 202644 min

Is Fighting Antisemitism a Waste of Time?

May 2, 202632 min

Girls in an Online World

Apr 23, 202649 min

Documenting a Decade of Academic Meltdowns

Apr 20, 202635 min

The Search for Truth

Apr 9, 202650 min

The Historical Case for Israel

Apr 5, 202633 min

The Ayatollahs' Assassins

Iona Italia talks to Roya Hakakian about her book ‘Assassins of the Turquoise Palace’ and the past and present crimes of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 27, 202645 min

When Everyone Knows Every Knows...

Iona Italia talks to cognitive psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker about his new book on Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 20, 202645 min

Has the Gay Rights Revolution Gone Too Far for the Gay Community’s Own Good?

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with University College London law professor Ronan McCrea about his new book, The End of the Gay Rights Revolution: How Hubris and Overreach Threaten Gay Freedom. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 17, 202635 min

The Extraordinary Exploits of Agent Zo

Managing Editor Iona Italia talks to historian Clare Mulley about her biography of Polish war heroine Elżbieta Zawacka, aka Agent Zo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 12, 202637 min

Will Post-Islamist Iran Get a Royal Restoration?

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with Iranian-Canadian human-rights activist Kaveh Shahrooz about whether Reza Pahlavi, the eldest son of the last Shah of Iran, might rise to power as a new Prince of Persia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 6, 202634 min

Catching a Serial Killer

Managing Editor Iona Italia talks to Maureen Callaghan about her book American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 26, 202636 min

Why We Need to Talk About Transgender School Shooters

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with journalist Adam Zivo about the 10 February school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia—a mass murder perpetrated by a trans-identified male gunman who was initially identified by police and journalists as a woman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 22, 202648 min

Guests of the Nation

Managing Editor Iona Italia talks to writer Lionel Shriver about her new novel, A Better Life, which tackles the theme of immigration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 11, 202647 min

British Columbia’s Radical Political Landscape

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with B.C. politician Dallas Brodie about why her province continues to promote dubious social-justice policies and myths—including the false claim that 215 dead Indigenous children were discovered four years ago in ‘unmarked graves.’ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 9, 202652 min

The Demise of Private Life

Managing Editor Iona Italia talks to Tiffany Jenkins about her fascinating and provocative new history, 'Strangers and Intimates: The Rise and Fall of Private Life.' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 29, 202653 min

Understanding Journalistic Groupthink

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks to Graham Majin about the recent scandal at the BBC, and the need for reporters to prevent the ‘poison of narrative’ from corrupting their craft Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 17, 202634 min

Fighting for Freedom in Iran

Managing Editor Iona Italia talks to Iranian writer and journalist Roya Hakakian about the protests in Iran and why and how they might succeed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 8, 202615 min

How to Think Like a Human

Managing Editor Iona Italia talks to psychologist David Weitzner about the differences between human cognition and artificial intelligence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 2, 202615 min

Christmas in Byzantium

Quillette’s Jonathan Kay speaks with History of Byzantium podcast host Robin Pierson about the Christian traditions and imperial culture that took root in the eastern half of the Roman Empire . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 24, 202531 min

Sri Lankan by Birth, Tamil by Heritage, Canadian by Choice

⁠Prisoner #1056⁠ author Roy Ratnavel discusses his journey from a prison cell in war-torn Sri Lanka to the heights of Canada’s financial industry—and the (sometimes politically incorrect) lessons about race, immigration, and multiculturalism he’s learned along the way. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 19, 202531 min

The Genius of Jane Austen

Managing Editor Iona Italia talks to Jane Austen scholar John Mullan to commemorate the 250th anniversary of her birth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 17, 20251h 22m

Marriage and Divorce in America

Managing Editor Iona Italia talks to sociologist Nicholas Wolfinger about trends in marriage, divorce, and maternity in the US from the 1950s to the present day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 4, 202515 min

A Gay Author’s Escape from Cults, Drugs, Queer Radicalism, and ‘Scrupulosity’

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with writer Ben Appel about his new memoir, Cis White Gay: The Making of a Gender Heretic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 30, 202546 min

Jesse Brown’s Rude Awakening

In an interview with Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay, Canadaland publisher Jesse Brown discusses how an anti-Israel faction within his own subscriber base tried to cancel him after he began speaking out about the rise of antisemitism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 21, 202552 min

Ancient Christianities: The First 500 Years

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with biblical scholar Paula Fredriksen, whose new book describes the theological diversity that existed among Christian communities before Nicene Christianity was adopted as Rome’s state religion in the fourth century. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 13, 202537 min

Finding Humor in Dark Places

Quillette podcast host speaks with ⁠Healing Roar⁠ founder and comedian Matthew Pettit, who candidly tells audiences about the severe childhood abuse that once propelled him into a life of sexual confusion, meth addiction, crime, and incarceration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 10, 202553 min

A Crisis of Tolerance

Managing Editor Iona Italia talks to Harry Saul Markham about the increasingly acute threat of Islamism in the UK and the normalisation of virulent antisemitism among British Muslims. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 5, 202514 min

Is There a Politically Motivated ‘War on Science’? (And If So, Who’s Waging It?)

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with theoretical physicist and cosmologist Lawrence Krauss about ⁠his latest book projec⁠t, in which renowned scholars speak out about threats to open inquiry and the scientific process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 1, 202533 min

Machetes in Melbourne

Managing Editor Iona Italia talks to criminal justice researcher Andrew Bushnell about the many causes of the recent surge in crime in Melbourne. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 25, 202514 min

From Cult Child to Chess Wunderkind

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with Danny Rensch about his astounding journey from the ‘Church of Immortal Consciousness’ to the role of Chief Chess Officer at Chess.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 20, 202537 min

Desexing the Language of Motherhood

Managing Editor Iona Italia talks to Dr Karleen Gribble, who works in the field of maternal and infant health, on the impacts of desexed language on women’s healthcare and wellbeing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 9, 202515 min

Managing the Growing Gender-Critical Counterrevolution

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks with Canadian Genspect director Mia Hughes about the emerging ‘gender glasnost’—and the best way to continue rolling back the excesses of trans activism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 4, 202545 min

The End of Woke

Managing Editor Iona Italia talks to author Andrew Doyle about his new book, The End of Woke: How the Culture War Went Too Far and What to Expect from the Counter-Revolution. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 25, 202515 min

When New Netherland Became New York

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with Russell Shorto, whose new book chronicles the extraordinary events in 1664 that delivered Manhattan from the Dutch to the British. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 20, 202535 min

Should Feminists Work with the Right?

Managing Editor Iona Italia talks to philosopher Holly Lawford-Smith about her new book, Feminism Beyond Left and Right. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 11, 202514 min

RFK Jr.’s Unprecedented Attack on Life-saving Vaccines

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with Stanford University infectious diseases expert Jake Scott about the perils of rolling back immunization treatments for COVID, RSV, and Measles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 6, 202538 min

The Modular Mind

Managing Editor Iona Italia talks to evolutionary psychologist Rob Kurzban about his book Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite: Evolution and the Modular Mind. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aug 28, 202514 min

A Jewish Girl in Revolutionary Iran

Managing Editor Iona Italia talks to Roya Hakakian about her extraordinary memoir, Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aug 22, 202515 min

What Does It Take to Develop a ‘Scrabble-Shaped Brain’?

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks to linguist, mathematician, and tournament organizer John Chew about the world of ultra-elite Scrabble word-masters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aug 16, 202543 min

Parsi: A Fiercely Contested Identity

Iona Italia talks to novelist and historian Nev March about how a series of landmark court cases in the 19th and 20th centuries upended both the Indian legal system and the Parsi community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aug 8, 202516 min

How LGB Became Estranged from T

Gay activist-turned-journalist Adam Zivo explains how radicalized forms of trans and queer advocacy became a liability to the once-united LGBT movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jul 31, 202536 min

War and the End of Empire

Iona Italia talks to historian and film-maker Phil Craig about the latest in his series of books about World War II: 1945: A Reckoning: War, Empire and the Struggle for a New World. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jul 25, 202516 min

When Entertainment Reporting Gets Political

Quillette podcast host interviews veteran entertainment journalist Ben Mulroney—whose career has taken him to the Oscars red carpet and Kelly Ripa’s studio—about how ideological fads have damaged his industry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jul 17, 202536 min

The First Journalists

The philosopher Stephen Harrop interviews Quillette’s Managing Editor Iona Italia about her book Anxious Employment on the journalism of Enlightenment London. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jul 11, 202516 min

Social Work Without Stereotypes

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks to Heterodox Academy scholar Nafees Alam about the need to challenge political orthodoxies in the field of social work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jul 7, 202530 min

Science vs Māori Knowledge

Iona Italia talks to Professor Kendall Clements of the University of Auckland about attempts to conflate traditional Maori knowledge with science, which, he argues, debases both. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jun 27, 202516 min

The Wars Before the War

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay interviews Jonathan Spyer, director of research at the Middle East Forum, about how Israel laid the groundwork for its war with Iran by confronting threats in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jun 18, 202536 min

The Catastrophe Hour

Writer Meghan Daum talks to Iona Italia about her new essay collection, The Catastrophe Hour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jun 13, 202515 min

Enforced Ideological Conformity Among British Artists

Dancer and choreographer Rosie Kay talks to Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay about the three radioactive political topics that can derail an artist’s career. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jun 4, 202527 min