Quillette Cetera

By Zoe SankeyNews News Commentary

Quillette Cetera episodes

October 30 Louis Sarkozy on France’s Riots
France’s student protests have turned into the country’s worst unrest in years. Schools have been set alight, thousands of shops looted, and curfews imposed in several cities. With a presidential election six months away, Zoe Sankey talks to Louis Sarkozy in Paris about what’s driving it.
Louis explains why he thinks rioters in France rarely face consequences, and who is actually out on the streets, from black blocs to what’s left of the Gilets jaunes. He argues the chaos is handing Marine Le Pen the presidency. They also talk about France’s long history of revolution, Michel Houellebecq, the Palestinian “omnicause”, and the death threats Louis says he received after celebrating Israel’s strikes on Hezbollah.
Louis Sarkozy is the son of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy. He studied at Valley Forge Military Academy, NYU and American University, and is the author of Napoleon’s Library (2024). He is a regular contributor to The Spectator UK.
Napoleon’s Library: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1399055232?tag=quillette-20
Read Quillette: https://quillette.com
Full transcript coming soon.

00:00 Introduction: France’s riots and Louis Sarkozy
02:40 What sparked the student protests?
05:40 How protests descended into chaos
07:30 Why rioters face few consequences
11:50 How the left justifies the destruction of businesses
15:50 Who is rioting in France?
17:00 The origins of the Yellow Vest movement
19:00 Why different groups are uniting against the system
20:20 Is foreign interference behind the unrest?
22:40 Why Marine Le Pen is gaining support
25:40 France and Australia’s populist political movements
27:40 The rise of anti-establishment politics
32:00 Why people have lost trust in institutions
33:30 France’s history of revolution and political upheaval
38:00 Can France reform without another revolution?
39:50 The dangers and excitement of revolutionary change
41:40 Michel Houellebecq and French intellectual life
43:40 Louis Sarkozy’s Jewish ancestry and support for Israel
45:30 The controversy surrounding “From the river to the sea”
47:00 Death threats over Hezbollah and Israel
49:30 The impact of the Israel–Palestine conflict on political debate
51:30 French colonial history and recognition of Palestine
54:00 Macron’s foreign policy and symbolic gestures
55:30 What has French recognition of Palestine achieved?
56:40 Conclusion

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 1 min
October 16 Robert Lynch on Why We Laugh and Why Status Rules Us
Robert Lynch went from Wall Street to addiction to a PhD in anthropology, and then to substitute teaching, where an eighth grader defaced his prized fossil with a Sharpie. Zoe Sankey talks to him about status, humour and the apes we pretend not to be.

Robert Lynch is a bio-cultural anthropologist who studies how biology, environment and culture shape human behaviour and social mobility. He teaches at High Point University in North Carolina and writes the Substack The Laughing Ape.

Robert tells Zoe how recovery made him more resilient, and why being humbled by a room of fourth graders barely registers by comparison. They talk about the gap between knowing and doing, and what Andre Agassi’s father understood about it; why chimps and even mice laugh; why Robert argues comedy without risk isn’t really comedy; and why a sense of humour ranks so highly in what both men and women want in a partner. Robert also makes the case that America’s national religion is “You think you’re better than me,” and that not every difference is a rank.

Watch Robert’s narrated essay, What an Eighth Grader Taught Me About Status:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z7QFzDy-as

Read Robert Lynch on Quillette:
https://quillette.com/author/robert-lynch/

The Ape in the Basement:
https://quillette.com/2026/09/16/the-ape-in-the-basement-masturbation-jeffrey-toobin/

Naked in America:
https://quillette.com/2026/09/01/naked-in-america-nudism-usa-culture/

What Is the Point of Anthropology?:
https://quillette.com/2026/08/06/what-is-the-point-of-anthropology-robert-trivers-napoleon-chagnon-carolyn-rouse/

Why Is Funny? How America Lost Its Sense of Humor:
https://quillette.com/2020/09/25/why-is-funny-how-america-lost-its-sense-of-humor/

The Laughing Ape:
https://robertc12.substack.com/

Subscribe to Quillette:
https://quillette.com/

Chapters
00:00 Introducing Robert Lynch
00:47 Why biological differences matter
01:00 Evolutionary psychology and human nature
01:13 Sex drive differences, and taboo
01:23 Old ideas, modern culture
01:42 Cancel culture, shaming and where norms go next
02:00 From Wall Street to academia and recovery
03:53 The viral fossil essay
06:10 Status and social signalling
07:59 Classroom management and teaching culture
10:02 Adversity, addiction and resilience
11:57 Laughter across species
13:58 The cultural roots of humour
15:56 Why comedy needs risk
17:57 Humour as a fitness signal
19:58 Resilience and not taking yourself too seriously
21:57 How culture and adversity shape humour
24:07 Humour and suffering
26:01 Laughter in humans and animals
27:58 The evolutionary basis of humour
30:01 Humour, risk and social cohesion
32:02 Humour in human evolution
33:59 Why humour matters in life
35:59 Humour and relationships
38:02 Is a sense of humour inherited?
39:58 Talking openly about taboos
42:06 The future of humour in a changing world

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 18 min
October 02 Inside Human Rights Watch: Danielle Haas on How NGOs Stopped Being Neutral
Danielle Haas spent almost 14 years as a senior editor at Human Rights Watch, overseeing the organisation’s thematic and geographic research. In November 2023, she left—and in an exit email to colleagues, she set out her concerns about the rigour of the organisation’s work on Israel. Since then, dozens of current and former staff from across the sector have come forward with similar accounts. Together they founded EiGHT, an insider-led initiative pushing for accountability in the human rights and humanitarian world, which this year published a report drawing on testimony from more than 70 people across nine major organisations.
Danielle joins Zoe Sankey to discuss how NGO reports actually get made, who reviews them before they go out, what happens to staff who don’t toe the ideological line, and why she believes the sector needs independent outside scrutiny. For more from Danielle, read her recent Quillette essay, “J.K. Rowling vs. Amnesty.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
55 min
September 18 Zineb Riboua on Iran, the Houthis, Israel and the Battle for the Middle East
Zineb Riboua is a research fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East and founder of its China in MENA Project. She joins Zoe Sankey to discuss Iran, the Houthis, Israel, Turkey, Islamism, China’s influence in the Middle East, and the growing ideological divide between the West and its opponents.
Why is Iran escalating from a position of weakness? What do the Houthis actually want? And how does the ideology of third-worldism connect Islamists with parts of the Western left?
Riboua explains Iran’s strategy of “buying time”, the impact of sanctions and the naval blockade, China’s role as a source of support for Tehran, and the Houthis’ search for new patrons—including their growing interest in al-Shabaab. She also discusses Morocco-Israel normalisation, the changing balance of power in the Middle East, Turkey and Erdoğan’s ambitions, and the prospects for Syria-Israel normalisation.
The conversation then turns to Europe and the West: why some young North African men become radicalised after migrating to Europe, the spread of Islamist and anti-Western ideas, and the rise of third-worldism as a political framework.
Finally, Riboua discusses the rise of AI doomerism, China’s role in the debate, the politics of degrowth and environmentalism, declining fertility in the Middle East, and what demographic change means for the future of the region and the West.
Zineb Riboua: https://zinebriboua.com
Read Quillette: https://quillette.com
00:00 Introduction to Zineb Riboua and the geopolitical context
01:57 Iran’s strategy of buying time and recent escalation
03:50 Sanctions and economic pressure on Iran
05:50 Yemen, the Houthis and regional support
09:07 What do the Houthis actually want?
11:57 The Houthis’ religious and ideological motivations
15:00 Arab, Persian and Bedouin identities
17:56 Zineb Riboua on Morocco, Jewish heritage and Israel
22:02 Islamist radicalisation and antisemitism in Europe
26:11 Foreign influence and the rise of third-worldism
28:59 What is third-worldism?
34:08 Israel’s changing geopolitical role
36:06 AI doomerism, China and the “psyop” theory
39:10 AI panic, regulation and geopolitics
43:00 Degrowth, environmentalism and anti-human ideology
45:01 What young people in the Middle East want
47:04 Falling fertility and the region’s demographic problem
48:59 Turkey, Erdoğan and the struggle for influence
52:08 Syria-Israel normalisation and Turkey’s role
54:54 American politics and the future of US support for Israel
58:10 Why Israel matters to American technology and power
59:58 Closing remarks

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 4 min
September 04 Why Populism Ends in Disaster with Richard Hanania
Richard Hanania is a political scientist and president of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology. He spent about a decade as one of the most influential voices on the online right — first writing pseudonymously in the alt-right, later as one of the intellectual influences on the Silicon Valley tech right. Then he watched his own ideas take power, and changed his mind.
His new book is Kakistocracy: Why Populism Ends in Disaster. Kakistocracy is Greek for rule by the worst. The argument inside it is one very few people are willing to make right now: that Western elites are not overrated but underrated, and that our institutions work far better than we give them credit for.
Zoe and Richard get into Australia's populist surge, what actually makes someone an elite, the backlash against skilled immigration and the H-1B fight in the States, whether Sydney's housing crisis is really about immigration, and what frightens him most — which turns out to have a lot to do with fertility.
Also: is Zoe an elite? Are you? There's a test.
00:00 Who is Richard Hanania
02:27 The case that elites are underrated
04:50 What actually makes someone an elite
07:04 Do people care about the truth?
08:45 When federal bureaucrats became shitposters
09:38 Populism as rule by the id
11:33 Australia's populist surge
15:57 The awkward part: immigration
18:45 Australian vs American assimilation
21:46 Is Pauline Hanson a serious person?
23:33 Getting elites to take immigration seriously
26:06 Cofnas, Arday and academic gatekeeping
30:03 The H-1B backlash explained
32:58 Zero immigration and the fertility problem
34:05 Anti-Indian sentiment in Australia
35:40 Is Sydney's housing crisis about immigration?
38:30 The chapter Zoe couldn't finish
39:12 Are you an elite? Take the test
41:28 The Manosphere, and what a "chud" is
44:14 Nine-fifty in the morning in Sydney
46:32 The thinkers behind the book
48:15 AI, fertility, and what frightens him most
50:50 Why nobody's pairing up

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
56 min
August 21 The Truth About the Gender Pay Gap with David Maywald
Author David Maywald joins Zoe Sankey to discuss the female wage premium among young Australians, the collapse of male rites of passage, and why boys are told from primary school that masculinity is a problem to be managed.

His essay for Quillette: https://quillette.com/2026/05/05/the-emerging-female-wage-premium/ The Relentless War on Masculinity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1764339703?tag=quillette-20
00:00 Young women are out-earning young men
04:48 Why boys never got the same lift
11:14 The post-war family was the anomaly
15:12 Childlessness and a stake in the next generation
22:03 The rites of passage boys no longer have
28:49 Why it's rites, plural
36:58 100 of the Best Books for Men
45:21 Where the bias against boys begins
48:20 Why only 17% of primary teachers are men
55:19 What young men actually think
1:00:01 Abbie Chatfield and the podcast that started this one
1:10:12 Male psychology: the next frontier

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 17 min
August 06 Crémieux on Fertility Collapse, Ozempic, IQ & Why Pit Bulls Are the Way They Are
Zoe Sankey sits down with Crémieux (the pen name of researcher Jordan Lasker), the formerly anonymous X writer-researcher whose data threads on genetics, demographics and metabolic drugs have drawn a following of more than 260,000 — including some very prominent readers.
It's a wide-ranging conversation. They cover collapsing fertility rates and the Victorian obscenity trial he argues helped set them falling; his case that dog breeds — pit bulls especially — behave the way they were bred to, and why he thinks people resist that; what he makes of the evidence on GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and retatrutide, microplastics, and the wellness industry; El Salvador's transformation under Nayib Bukele; IQ testing, genetics and embryo selection; populism, personality and politics; free will; and being Jewish and atheist at once.
⏱️ Chapters:
00:00 Intro — who Crémieux is and how he built his following
02:24 Fertility collapse and the Bradlaugh–Besant trial
05:00 Silphium, abortion and the long human history of family planning
06:00 Strong convictions, and why he wants to live forever
07:49 Brian Johnson, longevity and the wellness-hype problem
10:56 Microplastics: what the evidence actually shows
13:24 Zinc, Accutane and the biology of acne
18:08 Ivermectin, Demodex mites and skin
20:22 Pet rats, lab rats, and which animals we call "cute"
22:56 UFOs and the Trump-era document releases
25:11 Pit bulls: breeding, behaviour and public denial
30:06 Ira Glass, greyhounds and virtue-signal dog ownership
34:11 GLP-1 drugs: Ozempic, retatrutide and the medical turnaround
36:00 His own weight loss, muscle and travel-for-work
37:57 Próspera, El Salvador and Bukele's gang crackdown
42:49 Duterte, Hanania's Kakistocracy and populism
45:42 IQ, classical liberalism and organising society
47:12 China, dumping, open-source AI and pharmaceutical free-riding
50:36 Tariffs and the destination-based cash flow tax
51:49 Hope, ageing, and the generational wealth question
55:14 Truth-seeking, reform, and why people don't change their minds
56:46 Jewishness, identity and defining who counts as a Jew
59:11 Antisemitism, zero-sum thinking and its long tradition
1:01:05 The future of Israel and the Hilonim birth rate
1:04:04 IQ tests, Mensa and gaming the matrices
1:05:27 Embryo selection and raising smart kids
1:08:36 Nature, nurture and what mothers influence
1:09:20 Politics shaping personality — and the La Piere study
1:14:30 The Big Five, intelligence and conscientiousness
1:18:14 Free will: Pinker vs. Harris
1:20:38 The name "Crémieux" and Adolphe Crémieux
1:21:59 Wrap-up
—
📩 Subscribe to Quillette: https://quillette.com
🎧 Listen on Apple & Spotify
🐦 Follow Quillette: https://twitter.com/Quillette
—
Guest: Crémieux — https://x.com/cremieuxrecueil | Substack: https://cremieux.xyz
—
Referenced in this episode:
• Rob Brooks, "The Tragedy of the Unwanted Child" (Quillette) — https://quillette.com/2022/06/24/the-tragedy-of-the-unwanted-child-what-ancient-cultures-did-before-abortion/
• The Bradlaugh–Besant trial (1877) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradlaugh%E2%80%93Besant_trial
• Richard Hanania, Kakistocracy — https://link.amazon/B0g92Tesm
• Herasight (embryo screening) — https://www.herasight.com
• Orchid (embryo screening) — https://www.orchidhealth.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 15 min
July 23 Is Ireland Europe's Most Antisemitic Country? | Rachel Moiselle
Rachel Moiselle is a PhD candidate at Trinity College Dublin and one of Ireland's most visible activists against antisemitism. In this episode of Quillette Cetera, she joins Zoe Sankey to discuss what it's like to defend a community of roughly 3,000 Jews in a country that largely denies it has an antisemitism problem at all.
Rachel talks candidly about the ignorance surrounding Jewish culture in Ireland, how left-wing ideology has shaped anti-Israel sentiment and political discourse, and why Irish national identity has become entangled with the Palestinian cause. She also shares a very different side of her work: her research into Irish Sign Language, deaf culture, and the role AI translation technology plays for a minority language community, and how that experience shaped her thinking on identity and belonging more broadly.
The conversation moves through her own path toward converting to Judaism, the friendships she's gained and lost since October 7th, the online abuse that followed her Sunday Independent article, and why she still believes speaking up is worth the cost.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction and guest background
02:30 Antisemitism in Ireland: perceptions and realities
08:02 The Irish Jewish community: size, ignorance, and challenges
11:57 Denial of antisemitism and its consequences
13:57 The influence of left-wing ideology and anti-Israel sentiment
17:00 Irish national identity, flags, and cultural symbolism
20:57 Ireland's history, independence, and reunification debates
24:12 The role of the EU and language education in Ireland
30:09 Language revival, Irish Sign Language, and cultural identity
37:03 Deaf community, minority identity, and activism
41:08 Technology, sign language translation, and deaf culture
46:02 Jewish identity, conversion, and community engagement
1:03:51 Friendship, loss, and personal resilience
1:14:00 Social media, online abuse, and activism
1:24:05 Future outlook, hope, and community support
Guest:
Rachel Moiselle on X: https://twitter.com/RachelMoiselle
More from Quillette:
Read Quillette: https://quillette.com
Follow us on X: https://x.com/Quillette
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quillette
Subscribe to Quillette Cetera for more conversations on free speech, identity, and the ideas shaping public life.
#Antisemitism #Ireland #JewishCommunity #Quillette #IrishPolitics

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 20 min
July 22 Is Ireland Europe's Most Antisemitic Country? | Rachel Moiselle
Rachel Moiselle is a PhD candidate at Trinity College Dublin and one of Ireland's most visible activists against antisemitism. In this episode of Quillette Cetera, she joins Zoe Sankey to discuss what it's like to defend a community of roughly 3,000 Jews in a country that largely denies it has an antisemitism problem at all.
Rachel talks candidly about the ignorance surrounding Jewish culture in Ireland, how left-wing ideology has shaped anti-Israel sentiment and political discourse, and why Irish national identity has become entangled with the Palestinian cause. She also shares a very different side of her work: her research into Irish Sign Language, deaf culture, and the role AI translation technology plays for a minority language community, and how that experience shaped her thinking on identity and belonging more broadly.
The conversation moves through her own path toward converting to Judaism, the friendships she's gained and lost since October 7th, the online abuse that followed her Sunday Independent article, and why she still believes speaking up is worth the cost.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction and guest background
02:30 Antisemitism in Ireland: perceptions and realities
08:02 The Irish Jewish community: size, ignorance, and challenges
11:57 Denial of antisemitism and its consequences
13:57 The influence of left-wing ideology and anti-Israel sentiment
17:00 Irish national identity, flags, and cultural symbolism
20:57 Ireland's history, independence, and reunification debates
24:12 The role of the EU and language education in Ireland
30:09 Language revival, Irish Sign Language, and cultural identity
37:03 Deaf community, minority identity, and activism
41:08 Technology, sign language translation, and deaf culture
46:02 Jewish identity, conversion, and community engagement
1:03:51 Friendship, loss, and personal resilience
1:14:00 Social media, online abuse, and activism
1:24:05 Future outlook, hope, and community support
Guest:
Rachel Moiselle on X: https://twitter.com/RachelMoiselle
More from Quillette:
Read Quillette: https://quillette.com
Follow us on X: https://x.com/Quillette
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quillette
Subscribe to Quillette Cetera for more conversations on free speech, identity, and the ideas shaping public life.
#Antisemitism #Ireland #JewishCommunity #Quillette #IrishPolitics

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 20 min
July 03 The NGO Industrial Complex: Gerald Steinberg on How Human Rights Became a Racket
NGOs have a great deal of influence over our lives. This episode uncovers the hidden power structures behind the world's most powerful non-governmental organisations — and why they deserve far more scrutiny than they get.

Zoe Sankey sits down with Gerald Steinberg — founder of NGO Monitor and professor emeritus of political science at Bar-Ilan University — to discuss the evolution of NGOs from altruistic civil society groups into political powerhouses, the funding sources and transparency issues within organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and how they've come to shape the UN and international policy on Israel.

"Ken Roth is hugely powerful as an individual." "Their reports often lack substantive verification." Gerald pulls back the curtain on how civil society was hijacked by political and ideological agendas, case studies of NGOs with alleged ties to governments and terrorist organisations, the UN accreditation process and what it really takes to get a seat at the table, and the power dynamics inside these organisations' leadership.

00:00 Introduction to Gerald Steinberg and His Work
02:56 Understanding NGOs: Definitions and Historical Context
06:07 The Evolution and Influence of NGOs
09:06 The Political Landscape of NGOs
12:05 NGO Monitor: Purpose and Function
15:00 The Power Dynamics within NGOs
18:06 Whistleblowers and Internal Critiques
20:52 The Future of NGOs and Their Impact
31:46 The Influence of NGOs on Global Politics
35:14 The Halo Effect: Media and NGO Relationships
40:27 The Writing and Impact of NGO Reports
50:12 The Future of NGOs and the UN
57:49 Zionism: Misunderstood and Maligned

Read Gerald Steinberg's full body of work at Quillette:
👉 https://quillette.com/author/gerald-steinberg/

Resources:
— NGO Monitor: https://www.ngo-monitor.org
— UN Watch: https://www.unwatch.org
— The War of Return by Einat Wilf: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594039624?tag=quillette-20

Follow NGO Monitor:
— Twitter/X: https://x.com/NGOMonitor
— Website: https://www.ngo-monitor.org

Subscribe to Quillette Cetera for more fearless conversations wherever you get your podcasts, and head to Quillette.com for the stories mainstream media won't touch.

#NGO #HumanRights #Amnesty #UnitedNations #Israel #Quillette

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
1 hr 6 min

About Quillette Cetera

From the publisher's feed

Quillette's Zoe Sankey sits down each fortnight with scientists, writers, activists, and independent thinkers to interrogate the ideas shaping — and dividing — the Western world. From evolutionary psychology and gender to cancel culture, free speech, Islamism, and the collapse of progressive orthodoxies, no topic is too contentious and no question is off limits.