How To Academy Podcast

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Vedic Meditation Teacher Jillian Lavender — How to Find Clarity Oct 16, 2026

Show notes

Sometimes life can feel like a lot. Even on a good day you will experience stress and fatigue. The nature of modern living guarantees it. However, the problem is not that we think too much, but that our nervous systems are too wound up to rest.

In this episode of the podcast, leading vedic meditation expert and founder of London Meditation Centre, Jillian Lavender, discusses how meditation is the most powerful tool to reset your system and rest deeply. Despite this, many of us hold countless misconceptions about what meditation is, how we do it, and why it is good for us. Jillian breaks down these common myths to reveal how this ancient practice can help you maintain your sense of self, provide clarity and move forward. Jillian also unpacks how meditation helps us recover more quickly from stress, improves sleep, and strengthens intuition.

In a world that is not slowing down, and where many of our decisions are being outsourced, Jillian argues that cultivating your ability to rest, reset, and trust your own instinct has never mattered more.

Join us live! How To Academy hosts world-renowned artists, thinkers, and leaders live on stage across the UK and USA. Find out who’s appearing near you at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠howtoacademy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Become a Member: How To Plus members receive £15 off every live event ticket, free access to biweekly livestreams, and an exclusive members-only podcast. Find out more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠howtoacademy.com/htasubscribe⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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Daron Acemoglu Meets Martin Wolf– What Happened to Liberal Democracy? Oct 13, 2026

Show notes

Why is liberal democracy losing public confidence—and what would it take to renew it? Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu joins Financial Times chief economics commentator Martin Wolf to discuss.

Liberalism offered a glittering promise of shared prosperity, equality, democratic values and the free pursuit of knowledge. Once a tantalising beacon of hope, today it has begun to erode and decay at the hands of elitism, intolerance and rising autocracy.

One of the world’s most influential economists, Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu sits down with Martin Wolf to chart the rise and fall of liberal democracy – from the key thinkers that shaped liberal philosophy, to the subsequent growing distance between educated elites and working-class communities, increasing cultural divisions, and weakening of shared prosperity. Daron and Martin also examine the impact of AI, what democracies can learn from countries such as Denmark and Switzerland, and how societies should respond to rising authoritarianism without abandoning liberal principles.

One could say that liberalism is broken. So what comes next? Join us to hear bold, realistic, and hopeful new ideas from one of the preeminent thinkers of our age.

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Philosopher Lani Watson – The Power of Asking Questions in a World That Wants Answers Oct 09, 2026

Show notes

From an early age we learn to stop asking questions, judged and rewarded for the answers we give, not the questions we ask. In this episode, Lani Watson traces the hidden life of the question – from school, to therapy, to dating. Drawing on research across psychology, philosophy and neuroscience, Lani explains why we start questioning long before we can speak, how the act of asking fires up the brain's reward systems and primes us to learn, and why questions, and who gets to ask them, are never neutral.

In a world rushing towards answers, Lani Watson shows us how deeply questions matter, and how we might recover our most under-appreciated human capacity.

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David Duchovny Meets Gina Gershon: About Time Oct 06, 2026

Show notes

David Duchovny has spent three decades refusing to stay in one lane. Two-time Golden Globe winner, four-time Emmy nominee, New York Times bestselling novelist, musician with three studio albums, filmmaker whose directorial debut premiered at Tribeca: the range is, by any measure, unusual. What connects it all is a preoccupation with the things that resist easy articulation. Grief, fathers, time, the self we can’t quite catch.

David sits down with acclaimed actress, author, and musician Gina Gershon for a wide-ranging conversation that touches on poetry, acting, and the creative process. David and Gina will dive into into The X-Files, Californication, life on and off screen, and what a life spent creating teaches you about mortality, failure, and the stubborn desire to get it right. An unmissable conversation with one of America’s most restlessly creative minds.

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Bonus Episode: New Frontiers with Miriam Margoyles, Reece Sheersmith, Damien Lewis and more... Oct 06, 2026

Show notes

This week we have a guest appearance from our friends at John Murray, who have curated a curated a collection of some of the best historians, memoirists, academics, critics and national treasures publishing on their 2026 non-fiction list to introduce and share clips from their current and upcoming books. You’ll find some recognisable names and be introduced to some new voices.

Listen to Miriam Margolyes on Britain, Graham Farmelo on the life of Stephen Hawking, Reece Sheersmith on the supernatural, Amy Jeffs on King Arthur and much more.

Join us live! How To Academy hosts world-renowned artists, thinkers, and leaders live on stage across the UK and USA. Find out who’s appearing near you at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠howtoacademy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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Natasha Polisczuk Meets Louisa Young – The Golden Hours Sep 25, 2026

Show notes

In this episode, Louisa Young joins journalist and editor Natasha Poliszczuk to discuss the making of The Golden Hours, the sixth Cazalet novel. Louisa explains what it takes to inherit half a million words and fifty-five characters, why some of them had unfinished business she felt compelled to go back for, and how to write the sixties as they actually arrived. She will also discuss the rapid decline of the English upper middle class and the social observations that make the Cazalet Chronicles so beloved.

Join us for a fascinating look at what it means to be trusted with a world somebody else made, and how to carry it into a decade that changed everything.

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Bestselling Mindset Coach Ben Crowe – How to Change Your Life Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

Having worked with top athletes and sportspeople, leading tech and finance corporations, and the World Health Organisation, Ben Crowe is one of the world's most in-demand mindset coaches. In this episode of the podcast, he reveals simple-yet-profound perspective shifts that will change the way you see the world and yourself. Showing how these perspective shifts are relevant to everyone, Ben demonstrates how self-compassion, imagination and appreciation can turn adversity into possibility, remove pressure and help us find that elusive balance between confidence and happiness, achievement and fulfilment.

Join us for the only guide you need to shift your outlook, improve connection, and build confidence.

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Bestselling Novelist China Mieville – On Grief, Ghosts, and Empire Sep 19, 2026

Show notes

The central figure of the New Weird, an unofficial movement fusing science fiction, fantasy, and horror with a literary sensibility, China Mieville is equally known for his award-winning, internationally bestselling novels, which include Perdido Street Station, The City and the City and The Last Days of New Paris, and his work as activist, historian, and scholar of the Marxist Left.

He joins us for a (mostly) spoiler-free conversation unveiling his most ambitious work of fiction to date. A heady brew of literary fiction, military and espionage adventure stories, horror, post-colonial magical realism, and much else besides, The Rouse is a milestone in Mieville's career and a landmark in modern fantasy writing. We discuss how he has personally changed in the two decades of the novel's gestation, the social status of the octopus, the end of the British empire, and the nature of grief and loss. Also: Ghostbusters!

Join us live! How To Academy hosts world-renowned artists, thinkers, and leaders live on stage across the UK and USA. Find out who’s appearing near you at ⁠howtoacademy.com⁠.

Become a Member: How To Plus members receive £15 off every live event ticket, free access to biweekly livestreams, and an exclusive members-only podcast. Find out more at ⁠howtoacademy.com/htasubscribe⁠.

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Bestselling Mythologist Amy Jeffs – The Life of King Arthur Sep 16, 2026

Show notes

A scholar, author, artist, and musician, Amy Jeffs is a polymath of British mythology, bringing the greatest stories of the Middle Ages to life in extraordinary books including Storyland, Wild, and Old Songs. She returns to the podcast to share a new life of King Arthur -- drawn not from Mallory's Morte d'Arthur, as most modern adaptations of his story are, but from older, darker, stranger, and more magical sources. This is a story you have never heard before: of a warlord and Roman Emperor, raised by fairies to conquer much of the known world.

Join us live! How To Academy hosts world-renowned artists, thinkers, and leaders live on stage across the UK and USA. Find out who’s appearing near you at ⁠⁠⁠⁠howtoacademy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠.

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Time Woman of the Year Zahra Joya — The Vanishing Girl of Kabul Sep 14, 2026

Show notes

Zahra Joya grew up under the first Taliban regime, when girls were banned from school. For years she dressed as a boy to access the basic rights denied to her. She became a journalist in Kabul, and founded a news organisation reporting on the lives of Afghan women. In 2021, when the Taliban took over power once again, she was forced to flee the country.

In this episode of the podcast, Zahra discusses her experience of growing up under Taliban rule, the US-led war, their withdrawl in 2021, and the world's decision to look away in the wake of the Taliban's return to power. Zahra reflects on exile, the women still reporting from inside Afghanistan, and why she believes women's rights are everyone's responsibility.

Join us live! How To Academy hosts world-renowned artists, thinkers, and leaders live on stage across the UK and USA. Find out who’s appearing near you at ⁠⁠⁠howtoacademy.com⁠⁠⁠.

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