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, was forced to flee the country.

In this episode of the podcast, Zahra will discuss 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 will reflect 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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When Kimon de Greef began an investigation into the smuggling of white sage, a Californian herb popular in the wellness movement, he could not have foreseen that the story would lead him into the dark heart of the psychedelic renaissance and one of its most prominent advocates, Dr. Octavio Rettig: a Mexican physician dedicated to spreading the practice of smoking the secretions of the Sonoran Desert toad. The experience promises extraordinary relief for those suffering from PTSD, depression and drug addiction - but can also be fatal...

Join us for a story of cults, cartels, and corporations that is stranger than fiction and still unfolding today.

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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What if the present moment – the ‘now’– isn’t just a tick of the clock? We feel that the present is everything; all we can know, yet physics finds no universal 'now'. So where does that leave us – and what is the 'now' we experience?

Science journalist Jo Marchant draws on state-of-the-art discoveries in neuroscience, psychology, cosmology and quantum physics, to show how we each carve out our lived experience – sensations and emotions, actions and decisions – through our interactions with the world. Join us to explore how this evolving, interconnected tapestry is the source of our lives and selves, and perhaps even reality itself.

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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“People have lost hope that peace is possible. Talking about peace seems too vulnerable, too naïve, too dangerous. We have resigned ourselves to this unending war as the only way forward. But we have tried this. We have tried war. The only war that is won is one that leads to peace.”

On paper, Maoz Inon and Aziz Abu Sarah should not be friends. Aziz's brother was killed by Israeli forces. Maoz lost both his parents in the 7 October 2023 attacks. And yet these two lifelong peace activists have embarked on a searing journey to understand this holy, bloodstained land and explore each other’s personal and national histories. In this episode of the podcast, Maoz and Aziz will take us inside that journey, sending the message that the people have the power to make change, and peace is achievable.

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As conspiracy theories, political polarisation and the blurred boundaries between truth and misinformation continue to shape our public life, Naomi Klein's prize-winning book Doppleganger (2023) feels more relevant than ever before. In this fascinating episode of the podcast, Naomi joins journalist Moya Lothian-McLean to explore the strange world of far-right conspiracy theories, wellness influencers and online radicalisation. What can following her own doppelganger into this mirror world teach us about our increasingly polarised politics, and how can escape this collective vertigo and get back to fighting for what really matters?

Naomi will be joining us again on Wed, 30 September, with writer and activist Astra Taylor, and in conversation with David Olusoga, for a new reckoning with our age. We find ourselves in the clutches of End Times Fascism, and Naomi will take us on a journey inside the far-right Armageddon complex – and show us how to break the doom loop before it’s too late. Tickets and details can be found here.

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 an age of uncertainty, renowned historian Yuval Noah Harari joins Ritula Shah to make sense of a world in crisis and help us better understand the perils we face.

In this episode of the podcast, bestselling author of Sapiens and Nexus Yuval Noah Harari joins Ritula Shah to explore the forces shaping our uncertain future: from the rise of AI and the changing nature of information, to nationalism, democracy and the question of what remains within our control. In a world increasingly difficult to predict, how can we make sense of where we are heading?

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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Cambridge Professor Mary Beard has done more than anyone to bring the world of ancient Rome to life again. Comedian David Mitchell once studied history and won’t let it off the hook for the mess it’s made of everything. In this special episode of the podcast, they join forces to tell the epic story of our rulers – from the emperors who ruled Britannia under the Roman occupation to the kings and queens who succeeded them and created England as we know it today.

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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After experiencing multiple miscarriages and the societal shame that comes with it, recently married Alejandra fakes a pregnancy. What starts as an elaborate lie turns into a complex charade that threatens to upend her life and relationship, and ultimately unleashes a media scandal that shakes the entire country.

In this episode of the podcast, Oscar nominated documentary filmmaker Maite Alberdi will offer a uniquely intimate look at the incident through the words of those who lived it, examining the crushing weight of societal expectations, the elusive nature of truth, and the enduring power of family.

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Today's computer scientists play the same role as the oracles of the ancient world and the astrologers of the Middle Ages. Modern predictions not only advise on war, crop output, and marriages, algorithms and statisticians now determine whether we can get a loan, a job, an apartment, or an organ transplant. And when we cede ground to these predictions, we lose control of our own lives.

In this powerful reassessment of the ways prediction shapes our everyday lives, Oxford professor Carissa Véliz will explain how putting too much stock in others' predictions makes us vulnerable to charlatans, con artists, dubious technology, and self-deception. Carissa will outline how a free and robust society requires not more prediction, but better preparation.

Join us to explore the hidden dangers of prediction in the age of AI, and what we must do to reclaim control of our lives.

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Today, in our clock-bound, screen-immersed world, most of us rely on machines to mark the hours. Past generations, however, would tell time by shadows shrinking, the midday glow over a mountaintop, the crowing of the rooster in the darkness. They noticed the flowers that close at noon, sensed how the quality of light changes at dusk, and marked time at night by the motion of the stars.

Artist and educator Cathy Haynes uncovers the patterns that once shaped the rhythm of our days, showing us how devoting an evening to tracing the stars might help us savour the fullness of the moment, how noticing the daily routines of swallows and blackbirds might bring us forms of companionship that lift us out of narrow human concerns.

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