Podcast
How To Academy Podcast
Hosted by How To Academy · EN
How To Academy is London's home of big thinking. From Nobel laureates to Pulitzer Prize winners, we invite the world’s most influential voices to share new ideas for changing ourselves, our communities, and the world. Our biweekly podcast is your chance to hear in-depth from the most exciting thinkers in global culture.
36episodes
Episodes
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Catharine Edwards - The Life of Cicero and the Fall of the Roman Republic
1w ago01:06:17Tap to summarizeRising from provincial obscurity to the highest elected office in Rome, Cicero became the greatest orator of his age. Yet Cicero was far more than a master of rhetoric. His long and turbulent life unfolded alongside the collapse of the Roman Republic. Catharine Edwards, one of the world’s foremost experts on Roman history, joins bestselling novelist Robert Harris to trace the many facets of Cicero’s life and legacy – his phenomenal oratory, his political ambitions, his philosophical undertakings, and his ultimate demise. Together, they explore how his uneasy response to the rise of autocratic power continues to provoke admiration and debate today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Suzy Hansen – Turkey in the Age of Erdoğan
2w ago00:44:52Tap to summarizeIn 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
2w ago01:12:09Tap to summarizeAmerica’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
3w ago01:03:31Tap to summarizeBeliefs 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
3w ago01:17:00Tap to summarizeOver 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
4w ago01:00:00Tap to summarizeWe 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
4w ago00:47:04Tap to summarizeVideo 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
Jul 901:06:23Tap to summarizeHow 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
Jul 701:15:26Tap to summarizeNeither 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
Jun 3000:57:08Tap to summarizeHow 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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