Quillette Narrated

Latest Episodes:

Last Ditch Bar's Mask Row Is Nothing New Sep 30, 2026

Show notes

The Last Ditch bar mask row is nothing new. Julie Bindel recalls 1980s lesbian feminism, when disability and illness became badges of authenticity and status.

https://quillette.com/2026/09/28/lesbian-fragility-then-and-now/

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Billy Bunter and the Feud George Orwell Lost Sep 10, 2026

Show notes

George Orwell attacked the Billy Bunter stories as snobbish propaganda. Their creator, Frank Richards, wrote back and won one of the few fights Orwell lost.

Written by David Cohen, read by William Lang.

https://quillette.com/2026/08/08/billy-bunter-and-the-man-from-animal-farm-charles-hamilton-george-orwell/

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What an Eighth Grader Taught Me About Status Aug 19, 2026

Show notes

Bio-cultural anthropologist, Robert Lynch, shares how an eighth grader's prank on a 510-million-year-old fossil changed his view on status and self-worth.

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What 7 October Taught Me About Decolonisation: Maarten Boudry Jul 30, 2026

Show notes

A philosopher explains how 7 October exposed decolonisation as a dangerous, Manichaean ideology — not harmless academic theory.

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Inside Australia’s Black Market Tobacco Crisis Jul 28, 2026

Show notes

Australia’s war on tobacco created a $5.6B black market and a surge in gang violence.

Written by Andrew Bushnell.

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I Chaired Canada's Human Rights Tribunal. Here's What I Saw. Jul 20, 2026

Show notes

During my time chairing the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, I sometimes felt like the agent of a state-funded extortion ring, writes David Thomas.

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The Menace of a Respectable Hatred Jul 12, 2026

Show notes

What remains of a person, an institution, or a civilisation that dishonours itself when Jews and Israel become the targets of hatred and violence?

By Yuki Zeman

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Never Neverland: What the Michael Jackson Biopic Leaves Out Jun 08, 2026

Show notes

As Michael Jackson's new biopic crosses $790 million at the box office, the allegations against him remain largely unaddressed by mainstream culture. In this long read for Quillette, Andrew Hammel examines the evidence methodically — the police searches at Neverland, the corroborated physical descriptions, the pattern of relationships with boys from vulnerable homes, and the accounts of Wade Robson and Jimmy Safechuck. Jackson was acquitted at trial in 2005, and Hammel weighs that fact alongside the rest of the record. The result is one of the most thorough and dispassionate examinations of the case to date.

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The Enhanced Games: How to Take Drugs and Still Lose to High Schoolers May 29, 2026

Show notes

The Enhanced Games handed athletes a boatload of drugs. They still ran slower than high school boys, missed every world record, and proved that steroids can't replace talent plus daily boring work.

Written by Steve Magness, a performance coach and the author of Do Hard Things.

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Intifadas Bring Neither Justice Nor Peace May 25, 2026

Show notes

Calls to “globalise the intifada” have produced a wave of antisemitic terror and encourage an unending cycle of violence.

By ⁠John Aziz⁠

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