Nicolas Humphrey has been studying the evolution of intelligence and consciousness for over 50 years. He has been a Lecturer in Psychology at Oxford, Assistant Director of the Subdepartment of Animal Behaviour at Cambridge, Senior Research Fellow in Parapsychology at Cambridge, Professor of Psychology at the New School for Social Research, New York…

I had a fascinating conversation with John-Paul (@jpreads6. His TikTok account is one of the most prominent in an engaging and community focused niche, black literary fiction. The books mentioned in the episodes are: Honey and Spice, by Bolu Babalola The Sex Lives of African Women by Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson Small Wor…

Shane O'Mara is a Professor of Experimental Brain Research in Trinity College Dublin, and am a Principal Investigator in, and currently the Director of, the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and a member of the academic staff of the School of Psychology. I had the please of discussing with him, his latest book titled: Talking Heads: The New…

I had a lovely conversation with Costa (@NotThatCosta) about all things books. His TikTok account is one of my favourite to follow to hear some fascinating book reviews and recommendations. Fair to say that after this episode, my 'to be read list' has grown much larger! The books mentioned in this episode includes: 1984, by George Orwell Why Are Al…

Patrick Fagan is a Sunday Times bestselling author, and public speaker, and consults for brands and political campaigns around the world. I had the please of discussing with him, his latest book which he co-authored with journalist Laura Dodsworth titled: Free Your Mind: The New World of Manipulation and How to Resist It. Some of the topics discuss…

Dr Phil Whitaker has lived in a variety of locations around the UK including Nottingham, where he studied in medicine, and Oxford, where he undertook postgraduate training in general practice. I had the please of discussing with him, his latest book titled: What Is a Doctor?: A GP's Prescription for the Future. Using stories and case studies from a…

Arianne Shahvisi is a Kurdish-British writer and academic philosopher. Raised in Lancashire and Essex, she studied astrophysics and philosophy at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, and now teaches applied philosophy at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, where her research focusses on gender, race, migration, and health. She writes regul…

Professor Sean F. Ennis is an economist, author and expert. He focuses on company behavior, competition and regulation. He has developed economic market analysis for governments, academia and the private sector. After receiving a BA Hons from King’s College, Cambridge and a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley, he spent more than two d…

Bart Elmore is an award-winning professor and writer who investigates the impact of big business on our environment. I had the pleasure of speaking with Bart about his latest book titled: Country Capitalism: How Corporations from the American South Remade Our Economy and the Planet. Where in the book, he uses the histories of five southern firms―Co…

Dr. Marcus Collins is an award-winning marketer and cultural translator with one foot in the world of practice--as the head of strategy at Wieden+Kennedy, NY--and one foot in the world of academia--as a clinical assistant professor of marketing at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. His deep understanding of brand strategy and cons…

Prof. Lewis Dartnell is a research scientist, presenter and author based in London, UK. He graduated from Oxford University with a First Class degree in Biological Sciences and completed his PhD at University College London in 2007. He now holds the Professorship in Science Communication at the University of Westminster. He has also published five …

Mary-Jane Rubenstein is Professor of Religion and Science in Society at Wesleyan University, and is affiliated with the Philosophy Department and the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. She holds a B.A. from Williams College, an M.Phil. from The University of Cambridge, and a Ph.D. in from Columbia University. Her research unearths the…

She studied at Oxford and Manchester, gaining her PhD in 2000. Postdoctoral research and teaching followed, including a prestigious Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Fellowship, before she was appointed to a lectureship at Birkbeck in 2004. She became Professor of Mathematics there in 2013, and served in various management roles in…

William D. Eggers is the Executive Director of Deloitte’s Center for Government Insights where he is responsible for the firm’s public sector thought leadership. He also serves as a fellow at the National Academy of Public Administration, a governance futures council member at the World Economic Forum, an advisory board member at What Works Cities …

Dr. Rank is widely recognized as one of the foremost experts and speakers in the country on issues of poverty, inequality, and social justice. His research and teaching have focused on poverty, social welfare, economic inequality, and social policy. Dr. Rank has published numerous scholarly articles. His first book, Living on the Edge: The Realitie…

Steven H. Miles is Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Bioethics. His medical career was in Internal Medicine and Geriatrics. He is a former Maas Family Endowed Chair in Bioethics at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis. Dr. Miles has published thirty chapters and more than 200 medical articles on medical ethics, human rights, t…

Jeff Maynard is an author and documentary maker specialising in historical subjects. Jeff is renowned for uncovering little-known, or long forgotten historical events. His research is undertaken over many years, and he uses that research to reveal character driven stories. I spoke to him about his latest book The Frontier Below: The Past, Present a…

David Delmar Sentíes is a professional designer and interface developer with experience working with award-winning startups, as well as established brands. Before founding Resilient Coders, he was at PayPal, leading a cross-disciplinary team of designers and coders. He helped set up PayPal's startup incubator, Start Tank, and served as its UX subje…

Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned security technologist, called a “security guru” by The Economist. He is the author of over one dozen books—including his latest, A Hacker’s Mind—as well as hundreds of articles, essays, and academic papers. His influential newsletter “Crypto-Gram” and his blog “Schneier on Security” are read by over 250…

Eleanor's current research focuses on the conceptualisation of sex and its influence on society in the medieval and early modern period. She speacialises in sexuality, propaganda, apocalypticism, urbanity, and empire, in the late medieval and early modern periods, with a particular emphasis on Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire. She holds a PhD in H…

Jon Shelton is associate professor and chair of democracy and justice studies. He is the author of The Education Myth: How Human Capital Trumped Social Democracy (Cornell University Press, 2023) and Teacher Strike! Public Education and the Making of a New American Political Order, which was the winner of the International Standing Conference of the…

Paul is the Co-founder of Tamarack Institute and for 20 years was the CEO/Co-CEO. He is the founder and was the director of Vibrant Communities a national network of nearly 500 cities and communities ending poverty, deepening community, building youth futures and advancing climate transitions. Prior to that Paul founded and served as the CEO of Com…

Liz Bucar is a leading expert in religious ethics, a professor of religion at Northeastern University, and a prizewinning author. Her writing, teaching, and public lectures cover a wide range of topics—from sexual reassignment surgery to the politics of religious clothing--but generally focus on how a deeper understanding religious difference can c…

Charles Dunst is deputy director of research & analytics at The Asia Group, an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a contributing editor of American Purpose. He has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and Foreign Policy, among other outlets. An erstwhile foreign correspondent, he …

Amy Finkelstein is the John & Jennie S. MacDonald Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the co-founder and co-Scientific Director of J-PAL North America, a research center at MIT that encourages and facilitates randomized evaluations of important domestic policy issues. She is also the founding Editor of Americ…

​Martin Puchner, the Byron and Anita Wien Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Harvard University, is a prize-winning author, educator, public speaker, and institution builder in the arts and humanities. His writings range from philosophy and theater to world literature and culture and have been translated into many languages. His new…

Jacob Harold is a social change strategist, author, and executive. From 2012 to 2021, Harold served as President & CEO of GuideStar and co-founder of Candid. Fast Company called Candid “the definitive nonprofit transparency organization.” Each year, more than 20 million people use its data on nonprofits, grants, and social sector practice. The NonP…

Dr. Emily Bashah is a licensed psychologist, author and podcast co-host with a private practice in Scottsdale, Arizona. An expert witness in criminal, immigration, and civil courts, she has worked on high-profile cases covering issues of domestic terrorism and capital offenses, as well as first-degree murder. I spoke with Dr. Bashah about the book …

Seth Gillihan is a licensed psychologist who specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). He was a full-time faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania from 2008 to 2012, and taught in the Psychology Department at Haverford College from 2012-2015. He has been in private practice since 2012. Seth completed a doctorate in psychology at th…

Dr. Bruce McIvor, lawyer and historian, is a partner at First Peoples Law LLP, a law firm dedicated to defending and advancing Indigenous Peoples’ inherent and constitutionally protected title, rights and treaty rights. His work includes both litigation and negotiation on behalf of Indigenous Peoples. Bruce is recognized nationally and internationa…

Frank Marrero has lived different lives in this grace of abundant years. He was in the newspapers and on TV at the age of two, going off of high-dives; he was the only kid he knew who built his own flying machine and survived several 'flights'. He was an original 'parkour' madman; did 'free climbing' in Yosemite; mastered rope-swinging; did cliff d…

Prof. Fuentes is an anthropologist whose research focuses on the biosocial, delving into the entanglement of biological systems with the social and cultural lives of humans, our ancestors, and a few of the other animals with whom humanity shares close relations. From chasing monkeys in jungles and cities, to exploring the lives of our evolutionary …

Joseph Chapa is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force and holds a PhD (DPhil) in philosophy from the University of Oxford. His areas of expertise include just war theory, military ethics, and especially the ethics of remote and autonomous weapons. His doctoral research investigates an individual rights-based account of just war theory. He is a…

Joyce Tyldesley is professor of Egyptology in the Department of Classics, Ancient History, Archaeology and Egyptology (CAHAE), within the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures. She studied the archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean at Liverpool University, then obtained a D.Phil in prehistoric archaeology from Oxford University. Joyce has also p…

Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE is a prodigy in every sense of the word. Aged 11, she was the youngest girl ever to pass A-level computing, and was just 20 years old when she received her Master’s Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Oxford. She is also the co-founder of Stemettes, an award-winning social initiative dedicate…

Howard Yaruss is an economist, professor, attorney, businessman, and activist who greatly enjoys explaining complex issues in a clear, interesting and easily accessible way. He graduated from Brown University, studied at the London School of Economics and earned a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught a variety of courses on…

Jordan E. Taylor is a historian, writer, editor, and teacher. His book is titled Misinformation Nation: Foreign News and the Politics of Truth in Revolutionary America Some of the topics we discussed includes: How was news being circulated in Revolutionary America? The known phrase of 'knowledge is power' but how 'power' controlled 'knowledge' at t…

Matthew Cobb is a is professor of Zoology at the University of Manchester. His latest book is The Genetic Age: Our Perilous Quest To Edit Life Some of the topics we discussed includes: What were his worries of genetic engineering (GE) that led him to writing the book? The business of GE and what the influx of money changed. Why was the year 1980 pi…

Mikko Hyppönen is a global security expert, speaker and author. He works as the Chief Research Officer at WithSecure and as the Principal Research Advisor at F-Secure. He has written on his research for the New York Times, Wired and Scientific American and he appears frequently on international TV. He has lectured at the universities of Stanford, O…

Chantel Prat, PhD is a Professor at the University of Washington with appointments in the Departments of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Linguistics, and at the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, the Center for Neurotechnology, and the Institute for Neuroengineering. A cognitive neuroscientist by training, her interdisciplinary research inves…

Daniel Z. Lieberman, M.D. is a clinical professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at George Washington University. He is also a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a recipient of the Caron Foundation Research Award, and he has published over 50 scientific reports on behavioral science. He has provided insight on psyc…

As well as being an author, Susan Linn is a psychologist, award-winning ventriloquist and a world-renowned expert on creative play and the impact of media and commercial marketing on children. Her latest book is Who’s Raising the Kids?: Big Tech, Big Business, and the Lives of Children. Some of the topics we discussed includes: The oversized and un…

Dr Blair Bigham an award-winning journalist, scientist and physician who trained in emergency and critical care medicine at McMaster and Stanford Universities. He was a Global Journalism Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Associate Scientist at St Michael’s Hospital. His work has appeared in newspapers, magazines, newscasts, podcasts a…

Dean A. Haycock, is a science and medical writer who earned a Ph.D. in neurobiology from Brown University and a fellowship at The Rockefeller University. He is the author of several books including: Tyrannical Minds, Psychological Profiling, Narcissism and Dictatorship, Characters on the Couch, Exploring Psychology Through Literature and Film, The …

In this episode, I sat down with Dr Rhona Morrison, she is retired doctor (consultant forensic psychiatrist) from Scotland, who spent more than 30 years working in the NHS with mentally disordered offenders. She is also the author of the book titled I Don't Talk to Dead Bodies: The Curious Encounters of a Forensic Psychiatrist. The book delves into…

In this episode, I sat down with Aaron L Friedberg, he is Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. Over the past two decades he has written numerous books and articles warning of the dangers of an intensifying economic, military, and ideological rivalry between China and the West, including : A Contest for Supremacy:…

In this episode, I sat down with Psyche A. Williams-Forson, she is Associate Professor and Chair of American Studies at the University of Maryland and author of the book Eating While Black: Food Shaming and Race in America. Some of topics in the episode we discussed includes: How this book is about: 'worrying about yourself' and its purpose is also…

In this episode, I sat down with Jon Danielsson the author of the book The Illusion of Control: Why Financial Crises Happen, and What We Can (and Can’t) Do About It. Jon Danielsson is Reader in Finance at LSE and Co-Director of the Systemic Risk Centre. His research interests cover systemic risk, financial risk, econometrics, economic theory and fi…

In this episode, I sat down with Astrid and Chinny, they are the authors of the book It's a Continent: Unravelling Africa's History One Country at a Time Some of topics in the episode we discussed includes: What influenced their decisions regarding the topics they wanted to write about for each country Whether their views on countries such as the U…

In this episode, I sat down with Jefferson Morley, author of the book Scorpions' Dance The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate Some of the things we discussed includes: The process of putting the book together and the 50th anniversary of the Watergate Scandal. The relationship between President Richard Nixon and head of the CIA, Richard Helms. …