How To Academy Podcast

Isabel Allende has spent nearly fifty years writing novels that refuse to stay quiet. From The House of the Spirits to A Long Petal of the Sea, her fiction moves between the political and the deeply personal, carrying the weight of history without losing its humanity. With over 80 million copies sold, she is one of the most widely read authors alive.

In this episode of the podcast, Isabel joins us to explore the intuition, the failures, and the hard-won wisdom that have shaped a literary life of extraordinary range. She offers insight into her life and process, and shares guidance for aspiring writers: How does a story form? How can you embrace the mysteries of magic and life in your work, and find your unique voice? How can you surrender to the process of writing?

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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In the early days of Ancient Greece, queer love was celebrated. The most famous warrior in antiquity loved another man, the poet whose lyrics were memorised by philosophers and kings sang of her desire for women. Men could swear oaths of undying love and live out the rest of their lives together in peace. What fragments survive of this ancient world all tell us one thing: it was not a sin to be queer.

In this episode of the podcast, historian Harry Tanner uncovers the origins of homophobia in the West, following the traces of this sinister idea as it swept across the ancient Mediterranean. Harry reveals how inequality, fear, and an obsession with self-control are the repeated crises which drive societies to turn on their queer citizens, time and time again, since the dawn of history. Harry also turns to how we can move forward and resist homophobia in the future.

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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Mentored by the late great Douglas Adams, the film and TV producer Arvind Ethan David has made an extraordinary career playing in the universes of other writers. His debut prose novel The Great Game takes this concept to its logical endpoint, as the heroes of Victorian and Edwardian fiction mix with real historical figures in a collision of adventure serial hi-jinks and reflections on the consequences of British colonialism. With a cast including Raffles, Churchill, Holmes, Adler, Tarzan, and Wells, The Great Game proves that big ideas and entertainment can comfortably coexist in a single glorious novel.

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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What does it actually mean to be beautiful? And where did our ideas of beauty and normality come from? In this episode of the podcast, writer Roisin Kiberd traces the surprisingly violent history of Botox, unpacks why blonde hair carries centuries of loaded meaning, and uncovers the secretive ritual collectors go through to buy a Birkin bag. She also digs into the murky ethics of online shopping, second-hand fashion, and online wellness culture.

Join us for a far-reaching and personal look at the beauty standards we hold ourselves to– and who they're really serving.

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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What are executive functions and why are they so important? In this episode of the podcast, world-renowned neuroscientist Dr Adrian Owen unpacks how executive functions drive everything over the course of our lives, allowing us to create and retrieve memories, understand our own and others’ emotions, plan our short and long-term goals, and much more. Drawing on gripping case studies and cutting-edge research, Adrian maps out the architecture of our brains and these executive functions, revealing the importance of them to both the potential of our brains and to our very ways of being. Adrian also provides practical advice to maintain our executive functions at every stage of our lives.

Join us for a remarkable picture of both the brain’s brilliance and its fragility, and a closer understanding of what it is that makes each of us human.

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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On 1 February, 1910, vivacious music-hall performer, Belle Elmore, suddenly vanished from her north London home, causing alarm among her circle of female friends– the entertainers of the Music Hall Ladies’ Guild– who demanded an immediate investigation. They could not have known what they would provoke: the unearthing of a gruesome secret, followed by a fevered manhunt for the prime suspect: Belle’s husband, medical fraudster, Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen and his mistress Ethel Le Neve.

In this episode of the podcast, prizewinning social historian Hallie Rubenhold joins us for an epic examination of one of the most infamous murders of the twentieth century, and gives voice to the women who have never properly been heard. Shifting focus away from the sensationalised male perpetrator, Hallie centres the lives of the women involved: his murdered wife Belle Elmore, his first wife Charlotte, and his mistress Ethel Le Neve. Hallie also discusses the Crippen case as an early media spectacle, and how a historian’s perspective can help us question the myths, biases, and assumptions that shape the true-crime stories we tell.

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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One of the most remarkable and progressive physicians of the Victorian age, Dr Joseph Bell's incredible powers of deductive reasoning astonished his students -- including the young Arthur Conan Doyle. Oxford-trained medical historian Lindsey Fitzharris reveals what Sherlock Holmes owes to the work of a real life crime-solving surgeon, and how he came, like Conan Doyle, to finally resent his association with Baker Street's most famous resident. Join us for a journey into the smog-wreathed streets of Edinburgh for a tale of true crime, bloody medicine, literary genius, and the convergence of art and life.

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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Author and journalist Naomi Klein and writer and activist Astra Taylor join Historian David Olusoga to explore how apocalyptic visions of the future are working to justify the present-day costs of AI – from energy and water-hungry data centres to job displacement and mass surveillance. Naomi and Astra also trace the links between religious end-times movements, ethno-nationalism, climate anxiety, and anti-immigrant politics. They make the case for how we can resist, how communities are organizing across political divides, and why material improvements in people’s lives matter. 

Join us to understand the alliances shaping the far-right Armageddon complex, and why we must choose solidarity and “hereness” over escape.

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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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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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.

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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