Podcast - Quillette

Podcast #276: On Book Banning

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with author Ira Wells about the censorship demands emanating from both sides of the political spectrum.

Quillette / Ira Wells / Jonathan Kay

15 Mar 2025 · 3 min read

Podcast #275: Christianity and the American Polity

Iona Italia talks to Brookings Institution senior fellow Jonathan Rauch about his latest book, Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy.

Quillette

6 Mar 2025 · 28 min read

Podcast #274: David Frum on Donald Trump’s Betrayal of Ukraine

Jonathan Kay speaks with Atlantic writer David Frum about Trump’s pro-Russian political cult. Also discussed: Israel, the fate of Gaza, Justin Trudeau, and the strange social panic surrounding Canada’s (as yet undiscovered) ‘unmarked graves.’

Quillette

1 Mar 2025 · 2 min read

Podcast #273: Australia’s Antisemitism Crisis

Quillette editor-in-chief Claire Lehmann speaks with Bangladeshi-born Australian psychiatrist and journalist Tanveer Ahmed about the rise of Jew-hatred in their country.

Quillette / Claire Lehmann / Tanveer Ahmed

23 Feb 2025 · 2 min read

Podcast #272: The Great Divergence

Iona Italia talks to evolutionary psychologist David C. Geary about why he believes evolved differences between the sexes have been growing more salient in western societies.

Quillette / David C. Geary

14 Feb 2025 · 24 min read

Podcast #271: The Canadian Episode—Trump’s Tariffs and Trudeau’s Travails

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with The Line editor Jen Gerson about how US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats have affected Canada’s already fractured political landscape.

Quillette

8 Feb 2025 · 14 min read

Podcast #270: ‘The Politics of the Academy Have Been Defeated’

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with Yale English professor-turned-essayist William Deresiewicz, who argues that Americans—many Democrats included—are fed up with campus-style progressive radicalism.

Quillette / William Deresiewicz

1 Feb 2025 · 9 min read

Podcast #269: Ancient Australians

Quillette podcast host Iona Italia talks to “Mungo Manic” about his extensive research into the lives of the ancient Australians.

Quillette / Mungo Manic

24 Jan 2025 · 65 min read

Podcast #268: The Power of Nuclear

Quillette podcast host Iona Italia talks to Dutch writer Marco Visscher, author of ‘The Power of Nuclear: The Rise, Fall and Return of Our Mightiest Energy Source.’

Quillette

18 Jan 2025 · 26 min read

An image of William Deverell, a white middle aged man and an orange background

Podcast #267: The Tragedy of California’s Wildfires

Jonathan Kay speaks with University of Southern California scholar William Deverell about what he calls the ‘new fire regime in the American West.’

Quillette

12 Jan 2025 · 13 min read

Podcast #266: Reading and Writing Science

Iona Italia talks to eminent evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins about science, literature, and genetics.

Quillette / Richard Dawkins

4 Jan 2025 · 23 min read

Podcast #265: Did Oliver Cromwell Really Kill Christmas?

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with David Crowther about seventeenth-century puritan attitudes toward yuletide debauchery—and about his acclaimed History of England podcast.

Quillette

24 Dec 2024 · 15 min read

Podcast #264: A Theory of Everyone

Iona Italia talks to cultural evolutionary theorist Michael Muthukrishna, author of ‘A Theory of Everyone,’ about the human dual inheritance—part inherited, part taught—and about how energy availability underpins everything.

Quillette

21 Dec 2024 · 39 min read

Podcast #263: In Defence of Julia the Elder

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with Joan Smith, whose new book critically examines the 2,000-year-old propaganda campaign against imperial Rome’s leading women.

Quillette

14 Dec 2024 · 15 min read

Podcast #262: Interintellect and the Modern-Day Salon

Iona Italia talks to globetrotter and intellectual magpie Anna Gat about her modern-day salon, Interintellect.

Quillette

6 Dec 2024 · 36 min read