In this episode, my grappling coach Yousuf Nabi and I discuss Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, coaching, competition, mental health, and building community. Yousuf shares how he started training BJJ after first discovering the Gracie family through early MMA footage, and how that eventually led him to open Elements in Brighton as a way to create more training opportunities locally. We talk about how the gym evolved from a passion project into a proper business and community, why Jiu-Jitsu can build confidence, resilience, humility, and comfort under pressure, and why losing can often teach you more than winning. Yousuf also explains what makes a good coach, why listening to students matters, and how creating a welcoming culture starts with leading by example. Finally, we discuss the Elements Grapplethon, a 12-hour non-stop sparring event raising money for Grassroots Suicide Prevention, and why Jiu-Jitsu can act as a kind of physical therapy for people struggling with mental health. You can support the podcast on Patreon here: 🔗 https://tr.ee/y8wVLs 🙏It does not unlock extra episodes or exclusive content, because I want everything I make to remain free and available to everyone. Your support helps me keep improving the podcast and bringing on interesting guests. I appreciate it!

In this episode, Professor Graham Priest and I explore logic, paradoxes, metaphysics, and Buddhist philosophy. We discuss what logic is, what makes an argument valid, and how philosophers think about premises, conclusions, reasoning, and theories of logic. Professor Priest explains classical logic, non-classical logic, paraconsistent logic, contradictions, explosion, and why some philosophers think certain contradictions may be true. We also explore the liar paradox, Russell’s paradox, realism, idealism, materialism, anti-realism, Wittgenstein, and the relationship between truth and reality. Finally, we discuss Eastern philosophy, Buddhist ideas of emptiness and interdependence, the ethics that follow from them, four-cornered logic, and how Indian and Buddhist traditions can expand the way we think about logic, metaphysics, and human flourishing.You can support the podcast on Patreon here: 🔗 https://tr.ee/y8wVLs 🙏It does not unlock extra episodes or exclusive content, because I want everything I make to remain free and available to everyone. Your support helps me keep improving the podcast and bringing on interesting guests. I appreciate it!

In this episode, Professor Ian Hodder and I explore Çatalhöyük, one of the world’s most important archaeological sites. We discuss what archaeology is, how excavation works, and why Çatalhöyük gives us such a rare insight into the beliefs, myths, art, and daily life of people living around 9,000 years ago. Professor Hodder explains the role of ancestors, vultures, wild animals, domesticating plants and animals, and the transition from hunter-gatherer life to settled farming communities. We also discuss his theory of entanglement, how humans become trapped by the things they create, and how this applies both to agriculture and modern technologies like AI. Finally, we explore hierarchy, egalitarianism, gender, matrilineal society, reflexive archaeology, community participation, and what Çatalhöyük can teach us today about living with less hierarchy, less consumption, and more collective care.

In this episode, Professor Ruth Kinna and I explore anarchism, mutual aid, self-government, and anti-authoritarian political thought. We discuss what anarchism means, its history and major thinkers, including Proudhon, Bakunin and Kropotkin. We also examine property, violence, revolutionary change, community organisation, co-operatives, mutual defence and how anarchist ideas can be practised through everyday grassroots action. Finally, Professor Kinna explains mutual aid, anarchist approaches to decision-making, and how communities can organise without creating fixed or permanent systems of authority.

In this episode, Professor David Geary and I discuss sex differences, mathematical cognition, and the evolution of the human mind. We explore why maths, reading, and writing are evolutionarily recent skills, how they build on older systems like language and number sense, and why children may struggle with maths or reading. We also discuss male and female cognitive similarities and differences, including language, visual-spatial reasoning, mechanical reasoning, and how these may affect education. Finally, we talk about backlash to sex differences research, pregnancy and brain changes, human brain evolution, self-awareness, and why nature and nurture should be understood as working together rather than against each other.

In this episode, Professor Geoffrey West and I explore complexity, scaling laws, cities, biology, and the future of humanity. We discuss what makes a system “complex” rather than simple and why physics can describe so much of the universe through elegant equations, yet still struggles to capture the messy world of organisms, cities, companies, politics, poetry, conflict, and human society. We also examine scaling laws in biology and cities: why larger animals use energy differently, why heart rate and metabolism change with size, and how similar mathematical patterns appear in urban systems. Professor West explains why bigger cities need less infrastructure per person but produce more socioeconomic activity — including more innovation, wealth, crime, and disease. Finally, we discuss sustainability, innovation, collapse, technology, AI, social change, and whether humanity can keep reinventing itself fast enough to avoid crisis. Professor West argues that technological innovation alone may only postpone collapse, and that genuine sustainability will also require deep social and political innovation.

In this episode, Dr. Sophie Scott-Brown and I explore anarchism, democracy, political power, and the history of radical political thought. We discuss what anarchism is, why it is difficult to define, and why anarchist thought is often more pluralistic than people assume. Dr. Scott-Brown explains how anarchism challenges permanent structures of authority and how people already organise parts of everyday life through informal cooperation. We also examine representative democracy, direct democracy, citizens’ assemblies, radical democracy, and libertarian socialism. Dr. Scott-Brown reflects on the limits of representation, the possibilities and problems of referenda and people’s assemblies, and why democracy may need to be understood as something more fluid, participatory, and self-critical. Finally, we discuss the history of radical politics in post-war Britain, the New Left, anti-nuclear activism, education, universities, neoliberalism, political violence, nonviolent protest, social movements, and what present-day movements can learn from the past.

In this episode, Dr. Carl Safina and I explore animal minds, sentience, consciousness, and humanity’s relationship with the natural world. We discuss how other animals experience the world, what makes humans similar to and different from other species, and whether animals such as insects, worms, birds, mammals, dolphins, and octopuses may be conscious or sentient. Dr. Safina explains animal culture, learning, awareness, emotion, and the difficulty of knowing where consciousness begins in the living world. We also discuss why humans often feel disconnected from nature, how Western ideas and consumer culture have shaped our relationship with the living world, and why environmental destruction requires both personal responsibility and large-scale public policy. Finally, we explore food ethics, animal farming, fishing, ethical consumption, and how we might live with more respect for animals and nature.

In this episode, Professor Graham Oppy and I explore arguments for and against the existence of God. We discuss cosmological, design, moral, ontological, and other arguments, as well as naturalism, atheism, agnosticism, and how worldviews are formed. Professor Oppy explains what makes a philosophical argument strong, why disagreements about God are so difficult to resolve, and why he thinks there are no successful arguments on either side that force everyone to agree. We also explore the problem of evil, animal suffering, divine attributes, Pascal’s wager, miracles, the resurrection, religious experience, and whether someone can be a Christian without believing in supernatural claims. Finally, we discuss faith, hope, free will, and what it means to trust in things outside of our control.

In this episode, Mr Alfie Kohn and I explore why rewards can backfire just as punishment can. We discuss intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, why grades, praise, bonuses, and incentive systems can undermine genuine interest, and why rewards and punishments are ultimately two forms of control. Mr Alfie explains how parents can move away from conditional acceptance and towards working with children to solve problems, while helping them feel loved regardless of their achievements. We also explore how schools could change by moving beyond grades, tests, homework, competition, and rigid curricula. Finally, we discuss authentic assessment, portfolios, conversations with students, student choice, and why education should focus less on memorisation and more on deep thinking, curiosity, collaboration, and real-world understanding.