How To Academy Podcast

Mesopotamian civilisation filled more than half of human history: a culture with advanced mathematics and astronomy, a religion that influenced both ancient Greece and the Bible, and a literature that continues to inspire the blockbuster movies of 2025. Yet few of us today know anything about it. Taking us into the lib

Across the headlines, we appear to be falling into a post-truth world. But the questions that most resonate with humanity—on life, death, love, and leadership—remain as pertinent as they were in the age of Socrates. Now philosopher and University of Chicago Professor Agnes Callard joins us to examine how Socratic thoug

Whether its the football pitch of the FIFA Women’s World Cup or the diving board of the Olympics, Dr Kate Hays is a woman who knows how to win. Now she joins us to reveal the techniques that create winning mentalities - from breathing techniques to widening the bases from which we draw confidence - that allow us to cre

After Kurt Cobain, Bob Dylan is Courtney Love’s all-time rock’n’roll hero. Todd Almond performed Dylan’s songbook on Broadway. They join us for a deeply personal celebration of the legendary songwriter. An electrifying, bewitching singer who, in the words of The New York Times can simultaneously imbue a single sustaine

Optimism, irrational though it might be, is central to the human psyche: it gives us an advantage both in everyday life and in the evolutionary race. Sumit Paul-Choudhury joins us to share his theory of rational optimism: possibilism. Without this optimism we would never have survived the unpredictable – and often host

Tom Holland is a storyteller whose range and erudition seem to be as unbounded as history itself. Now he brings us closer than ever to the lives of the first twelve Roman emperors. The ancient Roman empire was the supreme arena, where emperors had no choice but to fight, to thrill, to dazzle. To rule as a Caesar was to