Thinking Class

This is a compilation episode about the state of boys and families in Britain, the ideological crusades that have undermined them, why the loss of faith and hyper-liberalism are to blame for this, and what may be required to save our individual and collective souls.

You can expect to hear from Ed Davies of the Centre for Social Justice, Lois McClatchie Miller from the Alliance for Defending Freedom, Connor Tomlinson of Courage Media, Neema Parvini a.k.a. Academic Agent, the philosophers Carl Trueman and Ryszard Legutko, Father Benedict Kiely, Philip Pilkington and Bijan Omrani.

Enjoy the show, Classmates, and don't forget to subscribe.

About Thinking Class:
Thinking Class is a long-form interview podcast exploring the cultural, historical, and moral forces shaping England, Britain, and the wider Western world.

Hosted by John Gillam, the show features serious conversations with historians, academics, and independent thinkers.

Thinking Class is concerned with discovering long-term patterns over headlines and hot-takes. Expect historically-grounded analysis on matters of national character, institutions, demography, belief, and political legitimacy.

New episodes every week.

▶️ Subscribe on YouTube
🎧 Follow on Spotify
📰 Read on Substack
🐦 Follow on X

Momus Najmi is a writer, cultural commentator, and history enthusiast. He writes The World of Momus on Substack and runs a YouTube channel exploring Britain’s cultural, political, and civilisational predicament.

In this conversation, we think out loud about a question many sense but struggle to articulate: has Britain lost its way and if so, what would genuine reform actually require?

We explore:

•  why Britain’s problems are not merely economic or political, but cultural and spiritual; 
• whether the monarchy and wider institutions are capable of reform; and why the next general election is unlikely to resolve the country’s underlying crisis
• the possibility that Britain faces a prolonged period of stagnation or decline before any meaningful renewal can take place; and 
• what individuals can do in the meantime.

Our conversation ranges across the importance of building local, cultural, and intellectual strongholds; the role of Christianity in sustaining civilisation; reflections on Catholicism and institutional faith; the limits of podcasting and public commentary; and Momus’ own reassessment of how to participate in public life.

To see my previous conversation with Momus in February 2024 follow click here. 

You can find Momus’s work here:

• Website
• YouTube 
• X/Twitter
• Instagram

About Thinking Class:
Thinking Class is a long-form interview podcast exploring the cultural, historical, and moral forces shaping England, Britain, and the wider Western world.

Hosted by John Gillam, the show features serious conversations with historians, academics, and independent thinkers.

Thinking Class is concerned with discovering long-term patterns over headlines and hot-takes. Expect historically-grounded analysis on matters of national character, institutions, demography, belief, and political legitimacy.

New episodes every week.

▶️ Subscribe on YouTube
🎧 Follow on Spotify
📰 Read on Substack
🐦 Follow on X

Father Benedict Kiely is a priest of the Anglican Ordinariate of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the founder of nasarean.org, a charity that supports and advocates for persecuted Christians across the Middle East and beyond, offering practical aid to displaced families and small businesses.

Christian persecution is one of the world’s most underreported realities—and its neglect tells us something about Western moral attention. Fr Benedict Kiely describes the realities facing Christians abroad, and reflects on what aggressive secularism and moral fashion mean for public life at home.

We think out loud about:

• What persecution looks like in daily life (Middle East, Nigeria)
• Why media attention is selective—and what it reveals
• Christian–Muslim relations and prospects for coexistence
• Patriotism, faith, and public courage
• Why hope matters when institutions lose moral clarity

Enjoy the show Classmates and don't forget to subscribe. 

You can find Fr. Benedict’s work here:

• Nasarean.org

About Thinking Class:
Thinking Class is a long-form interview podcast exploring the cultural, historical, and moral forces shaping England, Britain, and the wider Western world.

Hosted by John Gillam, the show features serious conversations with historians, academics, and independent thinkers.

Thinking Class is concerned with discovering long-term patterns over headlines and hot-takes. Expect historically-grounded analysis on matters of national character, institutions, demography, belief, and political legitimacy.

New episodes every week.

▶️ Subscribe on YouTube
🎧 Follow on Spotify
📰 Read on Substack
🐦 Follow on X

Tom Jones is a writer and a councillor for Scotton and Lower Wensleydale, North Yorkshire. He is the author of the Substack, The Potemkin Village Idiot and has written for The Spectator, The Critic, Conservative, Home, CapX, UnHerd and The Guardian.

In this conversation, Tom and I think out loud about the dramatic shift in British political discourse since 2024, why public trust in institutions is at an all-time low, and what it means to say Britain is now operating under an “anarcho-tyranny”, why there is a growing public scepticism toward the judicial system and the implications of this, why Britain’s political culture is beginning to resemble that of South Africa, and what the consequences of mass immigration and communal politics may be for national cohesion, the Conservative Party’s identity crisis, the deep structural problems facing the British state, and why he believes radical political reform is not only necessary, but urgent, and much, much more. 

If you missed our first conversation from February 2024, I’d recommend going back and giving that a listen too.

Enjoy the show Classmates and don't forget to subscribe. 

You can find Tom’s work here:

• Tom’s Substack
• X/Twitter

You can follow and subscribe to Thinking Class on:

• X/Twitter
• YouTube
• Substack

You can watch the full show on YouTube or you can watch/listen to it on Substack

Ryszard Legutko is a Polish scientist and politician, professor of philosophy, publicist, author of over twenty books on socio-political topics, translator and commentator of Plato’s works. He specializes in political and social philosophy, ancient philosophy and the history of philosophy. Ryszard has served as a member of the European Parliament since 2009 and is Chairman of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group in the European Parliament.

In this conversation, Ryszard and I think out loud about revolutionary movements of today, why the fall of communism did not lead to a clear victory for liberalism, why sexuality has been politicised and is central to revolutionary movements along with sexuality, why strong family structures are seen as threats to political revolutions, how conservative media has suffered state persecution in Poland, how the liberal establishment has historically accommodated communist ideologies, why eprsonal growth often involves challenging long-held beliefs and why the current political climate in Poland reflects a generational battle and much, much more.

Enjoy the show Classmates and don't forget to subscribe. 

You can find Ryszard’s work here:

• Ryszard’s Website
• Ryszard's Youtube channel
• Ryszard's books

You can follow and subscribe to Thinking Class on:

• X/Twitter
• YouTube
• Substack

Mark Walsh is a teacher of embodiment, trauma, education, and resilience. He is the author of Embodiment: Working with the Body in Training and Coaching and Embodied Meditation. Mark also hosts the Embodiment Podcast, which has been downloaded over two million times, and was the founder of the Embodiment Conference, which brought together over 1,000 teachers and half a million participants.

In this conversation, Mark and I think out loud about the importance of embodiment, connection, and community in modern life, how modernity leads us to disembodied lives, why we should reconnect to our spiritual nature, why we need to foster healthy relationships to thrive, how cultural dislocation threatens Western societies, what the challenges faced by men are today, the impact of modernity's cultural disconnection from nature and community, the practical steps people can take to reconnect with life, the importance of physicality, nature, what the role of men in society is and much much more.

Enjoy the show Classmates and don't forget to subscribe. 

You can find Mark’s work here:

• Mark’s Website
• Mark’s Books

You can follow and subscribe to Thinking Class on:

• X/Twitter
• YouTube
• Substack

Ed Davies is Policy Director of the Centre of Social Justice. A veteran of health policy, he has a storied career as a journalist, editor, and policy wonk and has worked for several UK government cabinet ministers during his career. His work has focused on the role of relationships in making us truly happy and healthy.

In this conversation, Ed and I think out loud about the issues surrounding family dynamics and breakdown in the UK, the alarming statistics regarding family structures, the rise of fatherless households and the decline of marriage, what cultural shifts have influenced family formation or increasing lack thereof, why family formation and well-being should be prioritised over GDP, the concerning state of boys and young men in society and why they are struggling, the impact of technology on relationships, the need for male-only spaces to nurture boys and men's masculinity, the reasons behind and challenges of worklessness, the role of romantic relationships in employment, the need for reform in the criminal justice system, the housing crisis and much, much more.

You can find Ed’s work here:

• CSJ Website

You can follow and subscribe to Thinking Class on:

• X/Twitter
• YouTube
• Substack

Philip Pilkington is a macroeconomist and investment professional. He is the author of a book on economic theory, The Reformation in Economics and his most recent book is The Collapse Of Global Liberalism: And The Emergence Of A Post-Liberal World Order. Philip also runs the Macrocosm substack. Philip regularly writes for a variety of outlets, including Unherd, The Spectator, The Telegraph, The New York Post, Moneyweek, First Things, American Affairs, The Critic, and Postliberal Order. He is co-host of the popular geopolitics podcast Multipolarity. Philip also has a significant following on X @philippilk.

In this conversation, Philip and I think out loud about why global liberalism as ruling ideology has collapsed globally, why modern liberalism might have been a phenomenon of the baby boomers, the contradictions in American democracy, why many of the social issues we see today are due to what Philip calls 'hyper-liberalism', why humans resist being seen as economic widgets alone and why the distance between liberal philosophers and those deemed 'far-right' are smaller than you think, why it is liberals and not nationalists that are war-mongers, how the Russia-Ukraine war demonstrates the impotence of the standard-bearers of global liberalism in the West, why the great man theory is true, and much much more.

You can find Philip’s work here:

• Books
• X/Twitter
• Unherd
• Substack

You can follow and subscribe to Thinking Class on:

• X/Twitter
• YouTube
• Substack

Lois McLatchie-Miller is a Senior Legal Communications Officer for the Alliance For Defending Freedom International. Lois is a writer, speaker, and thinker on issues of bioethics, faith, family and freedom.

In this conversation, Lois and I think out loud about abortion, how prevalent it is and how it became so prevalent, the methods used, changing cultural perceptions, why the emotional impacts on women are so high, how men can think about it, the political landscape surrounding abortion, how there are generational differences in attitudes towards abortion, what a post-Christian Britain means for societal views on abortion, why the Barbie film might have been more traditional in tone rather than a longing for feminist utopia that it was perceived as, Lois' changing views on the birth control pill, and much much more.

This is a difficult conversation, which contains graphic medical descriptions of the various means abortions. 

You can find Lois’s work here:

• X/Twitter
• ADF International
• The Spectator

You can follow and subscribe to Thinking Class on:

• X/Twitter
• YouTube
• Substack

You can watch the full show on YouTube or you can watch/listen to it on Substack

Alan Macfarlane is a historian and anthropologist who taught at the University of Cambridge for 34 years. He is now Professor Emeritus of Anthropological Science and a Life Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. His comparative work spans England, Nepal, Japan, and China, with a particular focus on the origins and nature of the modern world.

In this conversation, Alan and I think out loud about the history of the English people's relationship with money, how this compares with China, the cyclical nature of civilizations, whether Alan thinks China will suffer a collapse, the effectiveness of China's political system (and its surprising meritocracy), the historical nature of class relations in England and why our view of the aristocracy is not quite right, and the historical context of gender relations, specifically women's freedom and rights, and much, much more.

My first conversation with Alan 

My Second conversation with Alan 

Enjoy the show, Classmates, and don't forget to subscribe.

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You can find Alan’s work here:

• Alanmacfarlane.com
• Ayabaya - YouTube
• Books

You can follow and subscribe to Thinking Class on:

• X/Twitter
• YouTube
• Substack

You can watch the full show on YouTube or you can watch/listen to it on Substack: