How To Academy Podcast

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  Suzy Hansen – Turkey in the Age of Erdoğan 31.07.2026 44分

  In the midst of a world in upheaval, Erdoğan has remade Turkey in his own image. Once a shining portal that straddled East and West, Istanbul's streets now teem with nationalistic fervour, political repression and rampant corruption. In the old Ottoman neighbourhood of Karagumruk, journalist Suzy Hansen goes looking for the truth about modern Turkey. In this episode of the podcast, Suzy will show how– through the lives of local inhabitants–  conflicts are spiralling into regional crises, deepening the fault lines now fracturing Europe and the Middle East. Join us for an eye-opening account of a nation on the frontlines of history– the rise of an autocrat, the resurrection of an empire, and the human stories unfolding in its shadow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Daniel Mendelsohn – Translating Homer's Odyssey 28.07.2026 1時間 12分

  America’s most celebrated living classicist, Daniel Mendelsohn’s new translation of Homer’s Odyssey has been universally acclaimed as the greatest and most authentic ever to appear in English; capturing both the music and archaic grandeur of Homer while bringing to vivid life the gripping adventure, profound human insight, and powerful themes that ensure this epic poem will continue to be celebrated and loved as one of the greatest works of culture for as long as there are humans alive to hear it. As Christopher Nolan’s new film guarantees a surge of new excitement to this timeless tale of monsters and men, of grief and homecoming, Daniel offers his personal reflections on the meaning of the poem both now and across the ages, and explore the challenges and particularities of translating the Greek of Homer the into modern English. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Nir Eyal - The Science-Backed Way to Stop Limiting Yourself 24.07.2026 1時間 3分

  Beliefs change how we see the world, how we experience suffering, and change what we are able to achieve. The defining characteristics of people who achieve their goals are persistence and the belief that they are capable of reaching what they set out to do. Drawing on neuroscience, psychology, and unforgettable case studies, behavioural expert Nir Eyal reveals how the hidden assumptions we carry shape what we see, how we feel, and what we do—and how to replace them with beliefs that expand what’s possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Sir Roger Deakins – Reflections of a Cinematographer 21.07.2026 1時間 17分

  Over the course of a fifty-year career, Sir Roger Deakins has proven to be the greatest artist and visionary that the craft of cinematography has ever known. In conversation with James Ellis Deakins and George MacKay, Roger shares the stories behind crafting some of the most iconic and beloved films of all time, from 1917 to No Country For Old Men. From the uniting nature of the film set to the artistic process encompassing conception and technical craft, Roger illuminates the enduring power of cinematography and shares his creative vision from behind the lens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Emma Southon - How Slavery Made the Roman Empire 17.07.2026 1時間

  We associate the Romans with majesty and greatness: we marvel at their straight roads and innovative underfloor heating, at the dominance of their army and navy, at the grandeur of their palaces and temples. But the Romans were also enslavers. Acclaimed historian Emma Southon reveals why we have long perpetuated such a limited view of Roman history, one that has effectively erased slaves and their humanity. In this groundbreaking exploration spanning the Empire's homes, theatres and circuses, its fields, markets, and roads, Emma challenges us to take away a more human image of the Roman Empire, in all its harrowing reality, and restores a deeply human understanding of the brutality that built the Empire and which underlay almost every aspect of Roman life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  George Osborn — Video Games, Politics, and the Battle for Influence 14.07.2026 47分

  Video games are far more than an entertainment product: they connect people across the globe, creating digital communities capable of shaping reality. And bad actors across the world are keenly aware of their power. Saudi Arabia is spending tens of billions of dollars acquiring video games businesses to wash its reputation. Russia has funded video game development to help spread disinformation about the war in Ukraine. Steve Bannon utilised tactics deployed by online video game communities to propel Donald Trump into the White House. In this episode of the podcast, industry insider George Osborn joins us to highlight what democracies must do to protect and harness the immense power of play before the essential battle for digital influence is lost for good. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Therapist Emmy van Deurzen – The Philosopher’s Guide to Everyday Existence 09.07.2026 1時間 6分

  How can we find our own direction and purpose in a world of endless possibilities? When life feels too much, is it possible to free ourselves from the concerns that weigh us down? Psychotherapist and psychologist Emmy van Deurzen looks to philosophy to offer a guide to the everyday challenges of living, providing a lifeline for rebuilding trust in the world through existentialism. In this illuminating conversation, Emmy will invite you to step back and discover what really matters. By considering each of the four key aspects of our experience: physical, social, personal and spiritual, Emmy will reveal that freedom starts when you decide to cease letting your life be a thoughtless accident. Harnessing over fifty years' experience in psychology and philosophy, Emmy will show us how to deal with dilemmas and difficulties of every kind, so that even when survival takes all you have, you can rekindle confidence in your own abilities and revitalise your capacity to relate to others. Join us to discover a more engaged way of living that is purposeful, deliberate and buoyant. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Bill Browder and Jamison Firestone: Chaos and Murder in Putin's Russia 07.07.2026 1時間 15分

  Neither Bill Browder, a hedge fund manager, nor Jamison Firestone, a corporate lawyer ever intended to become activists fighting the Russian government.  Both were building businesses in Moscow, great believers in Russia, and had front-row seats as Russia’s nascent disorderly democracy gave way to Putin’s initially stable but ultimately corrupt dictatorship. Bill’s Hermitage Capital was the largest foreign portfolio investor in post-Soviet Russia; Jamison was the founder of the country’s first independent foreign law firm. In the Yeltsin years when Bill launched his investment fund, Jamison found himself defending himself and his clients from mafia attacks, dealing with corrupt police officers, and much more. When Putin came to power, the bandits disappeared, but over time the State became the new Mafia and eventually destroyed rule of law. The turning point for both men was when their offices were raided by the police and the registration documents for Hermitage confiscated, Bill and Jamison found themselves at the centre of the biggest tax theft in Russian history: and their lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was assassinated for uncovering the truth. In an attempt to get justice for Magnitsky they ended up going to war with the entire Russian Government, working with Alexei Navalny to expose corruption and lobbying governments across the globe to pass the Magnitsky Acts, sanctioning Russia’s most powerful people. Bill and Jamison join us to share the deeply moving and ultimately chilling story of their time in Russia and fighting Putin from abroad.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Tom McTague – Britain in Europe: The Hidden History of a Revolution 30.06.2026 57分

  How did a country go from joining the Common Market in 1973, only to leave the European Union in an explosive referendum a little over forty years later? Acclaimed political writer Tom McTague chronicles the battle of ideas, events, and personalities that led to the decision which shocked the nation. Drawing on unpublished sources and exclusive interviews, Tom will unearth the roots of ideological conflict that raged between the leading politicians of the twentieth century as they fought for the future of Europe – Charles de Gaulle, Harold Macmillan, Jean Monnet, Enoch Powell and Margaret Thatcher. Alongside these famous figures, he will uncover the lesser-known actors in Britain’s great post-war drama – the Eurosceptic student radicals, Cold Warriors, eccentric billionaires, and political strategists – who turned the tide of history. Join us for a riveting story of the clashing ideals that have pulled at Britain’s public imagination for more than seven decades, raising that most elemental of questions: who are we? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Malala Yousafzai - Finding My Way 26.06.2026 1時間 19分

  Thrust onto the public stage at just fifteen years old after the Taliban’s brutal attack on her life, Malala quickly became an international icon — but away from the cameras and crowds, she was a young woman struggling to find her place in a world that was telling her the role she had to play. She joins Pandora Sykes to share her extraordinary story: not the one you think you know, but the one she has been waiting to tell. From transformative friendships and first love, to courage, fear, and her enduring commitment to education for girls around the world, Malala reveals an honest and deeply empowering portrait of her journey to finding her way. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Antonia Senior – The Cambridge Five and the Making of The Soviet Empire 23.06.2026 55分

  Why did five gilded, charming men, blessed with brains, beauty, and opportunity, choose to betray their country? During their time at Cambridge University in the 1930s, Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Kim Philby, John Cairncross and Keeper of the Queen's Pictures Anthony Blunt undertook a clandestine regime to supply British and US intelligence material to the Soviets. Thanks to his Cambridge spies, until the implosion of the spy ring in May 1951, there was barely a secret, and barely a decision made that Stalin did not know about. Using recently declassified files, Antonia Senior will explore how The Five became tools in Stalin's imperial scheme, and responsible– directly and indirectly– for the deaths of thousands of men and women fighting against Soviet domination. Antonia will also uncover how The Five were shielded by the British establishment, exposed as much by their own incompetence as by forensic investigation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  M. John Harrison - The End of Everything 23.06.2026 44分

  One of the leaders of British science fiction's 1960s New Wave, M. John Harrison has spent the subsequent five decades inventing new and exhilarating literary worlds that push against the boundaries of genre and expectations of the novel form. Now he returns to the post-apocalyptic milieu with The End of Everything: the story of an artist and her nephew eking out a life in a fictional Kent seaside town where reality itself has collapsed. Offering an oblique satire of life in contemporary Britain and the chaos of our post-truth age, the novel is as strange, demanding, and frightening as the times we live in. In this episode of the podcast, Harrison shares his thoughts on the purpose and value of imaginative fiction, the convergence of his real and authorial selves, and the freedom he has found in old age to write exactly what he wants without compromise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Mark Williamson – How To Live a Happier Life 16.06.2026 1時間 1分

  What does it mean to be happy? Whilst it’s not always possible to change our circumstances, Action for Happiness founder Mark Williamson believes that we all have the potential to take action to feel better. Blending scientific insights with years of real-world experience, Mark will offer much-needed practical ways to make life happier beyond typical self-help advice, covering a wide range of themes which contribute to lifelong wellbeing. Mark’s guide to happiness will help shift our values from what we can get to what we can give; from seeking validation to finding connection; and from just surviving to actively thriving. Rather than focussing on an unrealistic end point of complete happiness, Mark will reveal that happiness is not just a personal quest, but a gift that can enrich our communities and our world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Carol Cadwalladr Meets Karen Hao - Sam Altman, ChatGPT, and the Global Resistance 13.06.2026 1時間 15分

  Karen Hao joins The Nerve's Carole Cadwalladr for an eye-watering insider account of Sam Altman’s Open AI and the burgeoning resistance against it. When it comes to Artificial Intelligence, what do we really have to be afraid of? When long-time AI expert and award-winning journalist Karen Hao began covering OpenAI in 2019, she thought they were the good guys. Founded as a nonprofit with safety enshrined as its core mission, it was meant, its leader Sam Altman told us, to act as a check against more purely market forces. But the mask quickly fell. She witnessed the company’s meteoric rise first-hand, and as the company came to abandon its founding principles, she sounded the alarm about the sinister impact the company and the wider industry is having on society. As Artificial Intelligence becomes a common enemy, creatives, protesters, labourers, and researchers across the world are fighting back; and Karen is at the heart of documenting this burgeoning global movement. An unmissable listen for anyone concerned with the seismic impacts of this new technology and the motives of the people who make it. This episode is presented in partnership with The Nerve. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Novelist Elodie Harper – Boudicca's Daughter 09.06.2026 37分

  Boudicca had two daughters, but history records their existence and nothing more. Sunday Times bestselling author Elodie Harper joins us to discuss her latest novel, Boudicca's Daughters, which reimagines Boudicca and her daughters from the colonised side of history, and explores the inner lives of two young women caught inside a revolution they did not choose. In this episode of the podcast, Elodie will discuss the challenge of writing characters from the historical margins, the hidden Roman Britain her research uncovered, and the moral complexity at the heart of Boudicca's story. She will ask: what does it truly mean to be on the right side of history? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Caroline Sylge – How To Retreat 05.06.2026 1時間 2分

  Caroline Sylge reminds us to press pause on the daily overwhelm of modern life by bringing the magic and solace of retreating into your every day. What comes into your mind when you hear the word 'retreat'? Meditation at a mountain monastery, or a trip to far-flung places? While ‘retreats’ can be misconceived as expensive, time-consuming or inaccessible, Caroline Sylge shows us that they don’t have to be. Whether it's for a long weekend, a day, or even an hour, Caroline will help you retreat whoever you are, and whatever your budget or schedule. In this practical guide, Caroline will offer realistic activities to bring the magic of retreating into your life, including how to create a retreat space, and how to retreat with friends and family as well as alone. Using the seasons as an optional guide, Caroline will take us through a range of activities to help you find and sustain a happier version of yourself. From decluttering, to coaching your own life, from finding your flow, to learning how to say no, Caroline will enable you to restore, repair and rejuvenate. Whether you are managing stress and overwhelm, in need of a life change, want to kickstart your creativity or find deep rest and sanctuary, join us for a guide to reconnecting with yourself in sustainable and meaningful ways. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Novelist Erica Wagner - Washington Roebling and the Art of Life Writing 02.06.2026 30分

  Erica Wagner may be the first ever author to write both a landmark biography and a historial novel about the same person. The engineer Washington Roebling took up residence in her head when she was sixteen years old and crossed the Brooklyn Bridge for the first time; her 2017 book Chief Engineer was a cradle-to-the-grave biography giving us the facts of his life, and her new novel Wash boldly imagines his interior life, moving freely across time, space and memory to replicate the experience of selfhood. In this episode of the podcast, she shares her insights into the mind of an extraordinary man and the art of life writing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Neurologist Majid Fotuhi – How To Age-Proof Your Brain 29.05.2026 1時間 8分

  Neurologist Majid Fotuhi is leading the charge in revolutionising how we understand human intelligence, brain health and age-related cognitive decline. By uncovering the true wonder of how the brain works and its infinite potential for growth and change, Majid will reveal how targeted lifestyle changes can prevent, treat, and even reverse cognitive decline. Following Majid’s 12-week programme, more than 80% of patients achieve exceptional improvements in memory, focus and other cognitive functions. In elderly patients with mild cognitive impairment, MRIs show a 3% increase in the volume of the hippocampus, the key brain region for learning and memory. Drawing on these clinical trials, Majid will provide essential strategies to optimize brain health through diet, sleep, and managing stress. Majid will also offer practical, scalable techniques to enhance memory, problem-solving, and focus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris - On Birds, Wonder, and Loss 26.05.2026 1時間 18分

  A great thinning of the skies is underway. Dusk and dawn are growing quiet as birdlife faces a rapid decline across the world. It does not have to be this way — but we will not save what we do not love. From how sparrowhawks' eyes change colour throughout the bird's life, to how cuckoo birds use surprising stealth as mothers, the creators of The Lost Words Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris illuminate the miracle that is birdlife, and reveal the threats which shadow these extraordinary creatures. With warmth and urgency, they call upon us to remember how birds have long intersected with the histories of our ancestors, and how we can fight for a future where these wild lives continue to interweave with our own. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  Jessamy Hibberd – How to Free Your Mind From Overthinking 19.05.2026 1時間 3分

  Thinking about your life is a normal part of being human.  Often, it is helpful to analyse a situation or revisit a problem in your mind, but if you find yourself constantly dwelling on your thoughts – with no sign of resolution – then it becomes a problem. In this episode of the podcast, acclaimed clinical psychologist Dr Jessamy Hibberd will show you how to break free from the cycle of overthinking. Through expert advice, and real-life examples from her clinic, Jessamy will reveal the reasons behind why we get stuck in overthinking patterns. Dr Jessamy will offer practical tips to increase your awareness of your overthinking habits, identify your doom spirals, and help you find healthier coping strategies that redirect your thoughts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices