How To Academy Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Emma Gannon - The Meaning of Success Jul 14, 2023

Show notes

Do you think you'd be happier if you won the lottery? Do you spend your days scrolling, thinking everyone else is living life better than you? Have you ever got a long-awaited promotion and thought 'Oh. Is that it?'

Emma Gannon had everything she'd longed for: a string of successful books to her name, a thriving portfolio career, speaking engagements around the world. She was also burned out and confused at why she felt unhappy, yet still striving for more.

After taking a deep look at her own journey, and interviewing many other successful people on her podcast Ctrl, Alt, Delete, she has realised that our overly celebrated and traditional version of success is making us lonely, unfulfilled and dispirited. Now she has worked out a way to do things differently.

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Richard Dawkins - Live at Wilderness Festival 2022 Jul 11, 2023

Show notes

How To Academy is back at Wilderness Festival this August, where we will be hosting the journalist and author of Empireland Sathnam Sanghera on his new history of the British Empire aimed at younger readers: Stolen History. In anticipation we wanted to share our event from last year's Wilderness, this time with the scientist and author of groundbreaking books including The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins.

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Viorica Marian - The Power of Language Jul 07, 2023

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Viorica Marian joins us to explore how crucial multilingualism is to human flourishing. Her new book, The Power of Language, distils her research to share how language shapes our self-conception, our decisions, and the society we create. From the politics that underlie whether we categorise a language as a “language” or a “dialect”, to the ways language has shaped our identities or been employed to discriminate, to how maths and poetry too can be understood as languages, this episode illuminates the unimaginable power of the languages we speak.

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Peter Heather - Will the West Fall Like Rome? Jul 04, 2023

Show notes

What can we learn about the decline of the west from the fall of the Roman Empire? Was decline inevitable for Rome and is it inevitable for the US too? Historian Peter Heather is the co-author of Why Empires Fall, a new book exploring the parallels between the 5th century and the 21st. He joined Luke Naylor Perrott to explore what new lessons we can learn from ancient history.

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Lorraine Candy - How to Have a Magnificent Midlife Jun 30, 2023

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Lorraine Candy is the go-to voice for a generation of women seeking information and guidance. Now the bestselling author of Mum, What’s Wrong With You? and co-host of chart-topping podcast Postcards from Midlife joins How To Academy for a witty, compelling, honest and reassuring guide to living a magnificent midlife. Drawing together advice from experts and her own personal experiences, Lorraine will help you feel less alone and embrace this liberating and transformational new stage of life.

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Scott Shapiro - The Dark Art of Hacking Jun 27, 2023

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Scott Shapiro is a professor at Yale who teaches the philosophy of law. He is also a hacker, and the author of a new history of hacking, cybersecurity and cyberwar called Fancy Bear Goes Phishing. In it, he sets out to answer three questions: why is the internet so insecure? how do hackers exploit its vulnerabilities? And what can we do about it? If you've ever wondered whether hackers are all savants with black hoodies who can break into the pentagon from their basements, Scott is here to disabuse you of that notion, and reveal that the truth is a whole lot more interesting.

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James Comey - The Pursuit of Justice in a Divided America Jun 23, 2023

Show notes

Since he was fired by Trump for refusing to bend the knee, the former FBI director James Comey has become one of the most insightful and authoritative defenders of American democracy and the institutions of American justice. James has just released a new novel inspired his experience prosecuting the mafia in new york: Central Park West. It's a wild ride, sizzling with crime, corruption, and conspiracy. He joined us in London at the Conduit for a conversation with the club's founder, Paul van Zyl. He talked to Paul about his new calling as a novelist following a long career in the pursuit of justice, and shared his insights into the state of america today.

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Gretchen Rubin - How to Get Out of Your Head and Into Your Life Jun 20, 2023

Show notes

Our guest on this episode, Gretchen Rubin, writes bestselling books about the routes we can take to find happiness and fulfilment; in the process she's become part of the zeitgeist, even appearing as an answer on Jeopardy!. Her latest book is Life in Five Senses; a guide to using getting out of our heads so we can appreciate all that the world around us has to offer. She joined us in conversation with Hannah MacInnes.

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William Dalrymple and Sathnam Sanghera - British Imperialism in India Jun 16, 2023

Show notes

How did the Mughal empire – which then generated just under half the world’s wealth – come to be replaced by the first global corporate power - the East India Company? And how does the legacy of British imperialism continue to shape life and culture in Britain today? Bringing together Empireland author and Times columnist Sathnam Sanghera and bestselling award-winning historian William Dalrymple, this episode of the How To Academy Podcast will tell a story that is barely taught in schools or mentioned in museums but is critically important to who we are as a nation in the 21st century.

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Richard Ford - A Life in Literature Jun 13, 2023

Show notes

Our guest on this episode Richard Ford is one of the masters of American literary fiction. Frequently compared to Updike, Faulkner and Hemingway; he's the author of The Sportswriter, Let Me Be Frank With You, and the Pulitzer Prize winning Independence Day - all of which chart the life of his imperfect everyman Frank Bascombe.

Ford's new novel Be Mine is the last of the Frank Bascombe books and finds his protagonist in his later years embarking on a trip to Mt Rushmore with his terminally ill son.

In this conversation with Esme Bright, Ford reflects on the responsibility of the writer, the politics of language and the prospect of happiness in an imperfect world.

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