How To Academy Podcast

Born into an upper-middle class family and raised in colonial Shanghai, JG Ballard's worldview was profoundly shaped by his internment by the occupying Japanese army in the Second World War — an experience that formed the basis of Empire of the Sun, the novel that brought him international fame. For his countless devoted fans his genius lies not only in this singular semi-autobiographical novel but in his outrageous, nihilistic, bravura works where cutting-edge technologies, social pathologies, and human nature collide — from 1973's Crash to his final novel Kingdom Come, which depicts the rise of the far-right in the UK.

The novelist Christopher Priest began a biography of Ballard before his passing in 2024; his wife Nina Allan completed the work, in the process turning a book about Ballard's life into a tribute to both Ballard and Christopher. In this episode of the podcast, she shares her insights into both authors' lives and works and explores what they have to say to us in 2026.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Russia's Dowager Empress was pregnant with the future Tsar, she dreamed that a peasant would one day kill her son. The idea terrified her, and for the rest of her days she 'lived under the pressure of the prophecy'. Grigori Rasputin had no official position. A barely literate moujhik from Siberia, he had no forces at his command. He was a devoted monarchist, not a revolutionary. And yet, through his uncanny seduction of the imperial household, he contributed more than any other individual to the collapse of the greatest autocracy in the world. Now one of our foremost historians, Sir Antony Beevor, joins us to pierce the fog of fantasy and reveal an unparalleled portrait of one of history’s greatest masterminds.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dr Suzanne Simard transformed our understanding of forests, her groundbreaking research for the Mother Tree Project revealing how the forest is a living symphony of finely honed cycles of birth, growth, death and rebirth that hold the key to protecting the natural world. In conversation with Robin Ince, Suzanne reveals this intricate interconnectedness and the luminous wonder that forests continue to inspire in human minds—and calls on us to protect these threatened ecosystems. By rediscovering our own kinship with nature, working closely with First Nations communities, and developing new understandings of sustainable forestry, Suzanne shares how we can protect and nurture these crucial networks for generations to come.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From friendship, to romance, to even therapy, AI companions are on the rise, and AI companion apps alone have now been downloaded more than 220 million times worldwide. Oxford Internet Institute researcher James Muldoon takes us on a captivating and uncanny journey to the frontier of human-computer interaction, exploring what happens to our relationships with each other as artificial intelligence enters our personal lives. “They are real to me” may be the growing sentiment, but what are the tensions and contradictions at the heart of AI companionship? James explores what it means to be human in a world increasingly dominated by these sorts of relationships—what do we gain, and what do we lose? Crucially, what can we do to fulfil other people's emotional needs so they don’t turn to AI?
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pioneering neuropsychologist Mark Solms reveals how science is proving Freud correct and explores what this might mean for our mental healthcare systems and our lives.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices