UnHerd with Freddie Sayers

By UnHerdSociety & Culture News Science Philosophy

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Typical duration
41 min
per episode

Based on Podcast App listening data

UnHerd with Freddie Sayers episodes

October 09 MIT biologist: Is the Russian plague pandemic 2.0?
UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers talks to MIT evolutionary engineer Kevin Esvelt about a suspicious biological researcher's death in Irkutsk, Russia, using the incident to explore the escalating biosecurity risks posed by engineered pandemic weapons, vaccine-evading pathogens, and AI-accelerated gain-of-function research.
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31 min
October 01 Dr. Iain McGilchrist: AI versus the human soul
Dr Iain McGilchrist has dedicated decades of neuroscience research to unravelling the inner workings of the human mind. But now, a new form of ‘consciousness’ has come to compete with the very idea of being a person. Could artificial intelligence overtake its creators? Join the psychiatrist, philosopher and author of the bestselling book The Master and His Emissary, for a live on-stage conversation with UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
1 hr 13 min
September 24 Prof. Nick Bostrom: The truth about the AI panic
UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers talks to Oxford philosopher Professor Nick Bostrom about the escalating concerns over artificial intelligence, weighing whether catastrophic warnings from industry insiders reflect genuine existential fears or commercial strategy, while analysing technical threats like deceptive alignment and autonomous AI coordination alongside the broader economic, geopolitical, and societal risks of managing superintelligence.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
43 min
September 07 Wolfgang Munchau: The AfD momentum is unstoppable
Freddie Sayers talks to UnHerd columnist and co-host of The Econoclasts Wolfgang Munchau about the political earthquake triggered by the hard-Right Alternative for Germany’s (AfD) historic election victory in Saxony-Anhalt, examining why young voters and non-voters are turning away from the centrist consensus, the total failure of Germany’s political ‘firewall’ strategy, the collapse of Friedrich Merz’s leadership within the CDU, and how a rising wave of hard-Right governments across France, Italy, and Germany could ultimately paralyse the European Union.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
35 min
August 04 Kathleen Stock: The scandal of Jason Arday
Jason Arday, the wunderkind sociologist and youngest ever black professor at Cambridge, has an almost unbelievable backstory. Overcoming illiteracy and autism, he became the jewel in the crown of the university’s pivot towards diversity post-2021. He has been lauded by celebrities, raised millions for charity, suffered abuse from detractors and found time to run hundreds of miles. Or has he? Kathleen Stock, former professor at Sussex University, speaks to UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers about her viral investigation into academia’s ‘DEI darling’ and the plagiarism scandal that shocked Britain.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
43 min
July 21 Ross Barkan: Zohran Mamdani is just the beginning
Freddie Sayers is joined by UnHerd columnist and author Ross Barkan - a former campaign colleague of Zohran Mamdani - to discuss the New York Mayor’s rapid political rise and the controversies defining his tenure. They unpack Mamdani's anti-capitalist economic policies, his radical stance on Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and assess what his brand of democratic socialism signals for the future trajectory of the Democratic Party and American politics as a whole.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
41 min
July 07 Jonathan Haidt: Why Big Tech wants your children
UnHerd's Freddie Sayers talks with social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt about the global momentum toward banning under-16s from social media, exploring the tension between protecting children from addictive platforms and safeguarding free speech from state censorship, while outlining how device-based age checks offer a viable solution where traditional parental controls fail.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
42 min
July 03 Norman Finkelstein: How Israel lost the Right
UnHerd's Freddie Sayers talks to American political scientist, author, and prominent scholar of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Norman Finkelstein, about the fracturing of the historically ironclad alliance between the political Right and Israel. They explore how a mixture of 'America First' anti-war sentiment and the financial incentives of the podcast economy have made criticising Israel a lucrative tool for Right-wing influencers, from Tucker Carlson to Candace Owens.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
30 min
June 19 Jake Sullivan: Trump has handed Iran victory
In this exclusive UnHerd interview Freddie Sayers meets Jake Sullivan, former National Security Advisor under Joe Biden and chief negotiator during the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Jake Sullivan co-hosts the weekly national security podcast ‘The Long Game’ with Jon Finer, former deputy national security advisor under Sullivan.

Freddie and Jake analyse the geopolitical and financial implications of the Trump administration's memorandum of understanding with Iran. Could the concessions of the agreement that suspended the conflict to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for an unprecedented financial windfall of unfrozen assets, waived oil sanctions, and a controversial $300 billion reconstruction fund mark a significant diplomatic surrender? Or is this another example of the 'art of the deal'? Watch the full conversation now.

You can listen to Jake's podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-long-game-with-jake-sullivan-and-jon-finer/id1850526014
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39 min
June 01 Will Pope Leo divide the Right?
Freddie Sayers talks to The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles and UnHerd US editor Sohrab Ahmari to explore how Pope Leo XIV’s landmark AI encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, is exposing deep philosophical and political fractures within the American populist Right over global technology regulation, transnational governance, and the Trump administration's relationship with the Vatican.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
49 min