How To Academy

On this week's podcast, Matthew Stadlen meets activist and microfinance pioneer Chetna Gala Sinha, whose work in rural India empowers some of the world's poorest women. When Chetna Gala Sinha moved from her home town of Mumbai to rural Mhaswad as a young economics graduate, she saw first-hand how lack of access to banking facilities deprived local women of the opportunity to employ their entrepreneurial skills and lift themselves out of poverty. Since then, she has dedicated her life to creating the financial, technological and educational infrastructure needed by women in rural India to support themselves -- and been acknowledged the world over as one of the most influential activists of her generation. Today the Mann Deshi Bank manages millions of dollars and the Mann Deshi Foundation educates hundreds of thousands of women in business skills -- with profoundly significant consequences. In our turbulent age, it is easy to become sceptical about the power of one person to make a difference in the world. This week's podcast is proof that they can. Apologies for the occasionally bumpy sound in this week's episode.

In this week’s podcast, independent politician and London Mayoral candidate Rory Stewart tells Hannah MacInnes what he's discovered about British democracy in his time an MP and minister. Born in Hong Kong and raised in Malaysia, commissioned in the Black Watch when only a teenager, a bestselling author and Professor at Harvard, Rory Stewart’s career bore little resemblance to the typical 21st century career politician - and that before he being fired by the Conservative Party for rebelling against a hard Brexit. In this conversation, he gives us the inside scoop on how government works - and how it doesn't.

Where do the best ideas come from? In this week’s podcast, Matthew Syed takes Matthew Stadlen on a fascinating journey through the new science of creative problem-solving. It’s time to think again about where the best ideas come from. Individual intelligence and homogenous teams are fine for addressing simple problems -- but groupthink can spell disaster for more complex tasks. That’s why Times columnist and former Olympian advocates a brave new idea: Cognitive Diversity. In this week’s podcast, he reveals how cognitive diversity strengthens any company, institution or team, providing a powerful new tool for creative problem-solving that breaks down echo chambers and gives a competitive advantage to leaders willing to listen. What’s the difference between the herd mentality and the wisdom of crowds? Why are so few problems solved in meetings? What do the CIA’s failings before 9/11, a communications breakdown on Mount Everest, and the differences between American and Japanese scientists have in common? You’ll discover the answers to all these questions and many more in this week’s How To Academy Podcast.

For this week's podcast, Hannah MacInnes and bestselling historian Simon Sebag Montefiore assembled an all-star cast to bring to life history's greatest speeches - from conquerors and revolutionaries, activists and athletes, dreamers and killers. You'll meet Elizabeth I and Genghis Khan, Muhammad Ali and Winston Churchill, Greta Thunberg, Martin Luther King and many more - with insights from Simon revealing how these powerful speeches enlighten our past, enrich our present and inspire - and hold warnings for - our future. The cast includes Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones, Four Weddings and a Funeral); Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter, Star Trek: Discovery); Paapa Essiedu (Hamlet, RSC); Kate Phillips (Wolf Hall, The Crown), and Jade Anouka (Cleaning Up, Trauma).

Roger NcNamee was Mark Zuckerberg’s mentor in the first days of Facebook. In this week's How To Academy Podcast, he explains why he's now devoted to stopping the behemoth he helped to create. If you had told Roger McNamee three years ago that he would soon be devoting himself to stopping Facebook from destroying democracy, he would have howled with laughter. He had mentored many tech leaders in his illustrious career as an investor, but few things had made him prouder, or been better for his fund's bottom line, than his early service to Mark Zuckerberg. Still a large shareholder in Facebook, he had every good reason to stay on the bright side. Until he simply couldn't. In this week's How To Academy Podcast, Roger tells Matthew Stadlen about his reckoning with the catastrophic failure of the head of one of the world's most powerful companies to face up to the damage he is doing.

With nothing more than passion, a laptop and a dream, Marie Forleo created a digital empire that inspires millions. She’s the star of the award-winning show MarieTV, with over 47 million views, and the author of a new guide to high achievement that Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert says ‘will change lives’. Named by Oprah as a thought leader for the next generation, Marie presents her award-winning online show, Marie TV and podcast to her 1.5 million fans around the world. She is the founder of B-School, a transformative online business school and she has mentored young business owners at the Richard Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship. MarieForleo.com is one of Forbes magazine's Top 100 Websites for Entrepreneurs and her work has appeared in Inc. magazine, Women's Health and Entrepreneur among others. She joined the How To Academy Podcast to teach us what she’s learned on her path to success. In conversation with journalist Hannah MacInnes, Marie teaches us to train our brains to think more creatively and positively – especially in the face of setbacks.

The climate crisis is the single biggest threat to human survival. And it is happening right now. We all understand that time is running out - but do we truly believe it? Caught between the seemingly unimaginable and the apparently unthinkable, how can we take the first step towards action, to arrest our race to extinction? Jonathan Safran Foer is on a mission to demystify climate change. His ability to spin beauty, wit and insight from tragedy in novels like 'Everything is Illuminated' and 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close' have seen him lauded as the most gifted storyteller of his generation. And his ‘shocking, incandescent, brilliant’ (Times) bestseller 'Eating Animals' shifted attitudes away from industrialised farming and meat-eating for good. He joined Matthew Stadlen on stage at How To Academy to bring the climate crisis to life – and offer us a way out. They explored how the task of saving the planet will involve a great reckoning with ourselves - with our all-too-human reluctance to sacrifice immediate comfort for the sake of the future. But we have done it before and we can do it again. Collective action is the way to save our home and way of life. And it all starts with what we eat, and don't eat, for breakfast… Praise for Jonathan Safran Foer: 'Should be compulsory reading. A genuine masterwork. Read this book. It will change you' Time Out 'Everyone who eats flesh should read this book' Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall 'Universally compelling. Jonathan Safran Foer's book changed me' Natalie Portman 'Gripping [and] original. A brilliant synthesis of argument, science and storytelling. One of the finest books ever written on the subject of eating animals' Times Literary Supplement 'Horrifying, eloquent, timely' Spectator 'If you eat meat and fish, you should read this book. Even if you don't, you should. It might bring the beginning of a change of heart about all living things' Joanna Lumley

Learn how to prevent and heal illnesses related to hidden stress with the help of acclaimed physician Dr. Gabor Maté. Can a person literally die of loneliness? Is there a connection between the ability to express emotions and Alzheimer’s disease? Is there such a thing as a “cancer personality”? One of the world’s most sought after and celebrated physicians, Dr. Gabor Maté is the leading expert on the role the mind-body connection plays in illness and health. Drawing on scientific research and the author’s decades of experience as a practicing physician, he joined journalist Hannah MacInnes to explore the role that stress and emotions play in an array of common diseases, including arthritis, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and multiple sclerosis. "Gabor Maté’s connections―between the intensely personal and the global, the spiritual and the medical, the psychological and the political―are bold, wise and deeply moral. He is a healer to be cherished." -- Naomi Klein

This week's How To Academy Podcast is a masterclass with one of the greatest British actors of her generation: Juliet Stevenson. Best known for film work including TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY, EMMA and MONA LISA SMILE, acclaimed for her work on the stage including DEATH OF A MAIDEN (ROYAL COURT), MEASURE FOR MEASURE (RSC) and HAPPY DAYS (Young Vic), she joined Matthew Stadlen to impart what she's learned about the art, craft and business of acting over four decades.

In this week’s How To Academy podcast, Matthew Stadlen meets advertising legend Rory Sutherland for a lesson in using the power of psychology to make ideas, products and businesses triumph. In our data-driven age, businesses usually try to use logic, algorithms and theory to drive sales and solve problems. But there’s a problem with this rational approach: humans are innately illogical, and make unconscious decisions based largely on our emotions. What if there was a deeper, underlying logic to explain our irrational selves? How can leaders tap into this ‘psycho-logic’ to drive their brands, products and businesses to global success? Ogilvy Vice Chairman Rory Sutherland’s has the answer. His inimitable flair and polymath’s curiosity has made him a TED Talk superstar with over 6.5 million views, a globally sought-after keynote speaker, and a Radio 4 regular with two acclaimed radio series under his belt. In this podcast, he presents his ground-breaking theory of creative alchemy. Blend cutting-edge behavioural science, jaw-dropping stories and a touch of branding magic, Rory shows why the demand for logic is stifling our ability to solve problems – and presents a startlingly original set of tools for finding creative solutions.

In this week's podcast, Melinda Gates makes a timely and necessary call to action for women’s empowerment. For the last twenty years, Melinda Gates has been on a mission to find solutions for people with the most urgent needs, wherever they live. Throughout this journey, one thing has become increasingly clear to her: If you want to lift a society up, you need to stop keeping women down. In this moving and compelling conversation with journalist Hannah MacInnes, Melinda shares lessons she’s learned from the inspiring people she’s met during her work and travels around the world – the people who’ve given focus and urgency to her life. She will help us to see ways in which we can all lift women up – wherever we live.

For the last 33 years, John Humphrys has held politicians to account as the host of our most popular news programme - Radio 4's Today. In this week's How To Academy Podcast, Matthew Stadlen - a man who is himself no stranger to asking tough questions of those in power - sat down with him to explore what John has learned from a lifetime at the forefront of current affairs in the UK.

In Episode 9 of the How To Academy podcast, the nation’s most loved science communicator, Oxford mathematician Marcus Du Sautoy, explores the potential of artificial intelligence to think creatively. From driving cars to writing legal contracts, new developments in AI are shaking up the status quo, as we find out how many of the tasks humans engage in can be done equally well, if not better, by machines. But can machines be creative? Will they soon be able to learn from the art that moves us, and understand what distinguishes it from the mundane? What will it mean to be human when an algorithm can paint like Rembrandt, compose like Mozart, and write like Shakespeare? In this podcast, Oxford mathematician Marcus du Sautoy examines the nature of creativity with science filmmaker David Malone. How much of our emotional response to art is a product of our brains reacting to pattern and structure? Exactly what does it mean to be creative in mathematics and art, language and music? Will a computer ever compose a symphony or write a prize-winning novel? And if so, would we be able to tell the difference?

In Episode 8 of the How To Academy Podcast, Matthew Stadlen meets  restaurant critic and raconteur Giles Coren, for a freewheeling and hilarious conversation about truth, love and clean cutlery. Giles Coren is a man of many talents. A restaurant critic, Times columnist, TV presenter, and award-winning novelist, his taste, wit and inability to suffer fools have made him an icon to anyone who values great writing and clever opinions. He is perhaps the ultimate dinner party guest; and though we cannot offer supper with Giles in a world-class restaurant, How Academy proudly presents the next best thing: Giles in conversation with LBC’s Matthew Stadlen, on the subject of supper in world-class restaurants. Giles reflects on the most delicious, ethical and sustainable dining experiences in the UK - alongside a rambunctious and laugh out loud review of his relationships, career and life to date.

Could psychedelic drugs change our worldview? In Episode 7 of the How To Academy podcast, Michael Pollan tells Matthew Stadlen about his journey to the frontiers of the human mind. For twenty years the author and activist Michael Pollan has been writing about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect, including, most famously, in his acclaimed books on the ethics and ecology of food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma and The Botany of Desire. That path recently led him to investigate the role of mind altering drugs in humans culture - from shamans and magic mushroom hunts to the pioneering labs mapping our brains - and to put himself forward as a guinea-pig. In this podcast, LBC presenter Matthew Stadlen asks Michael about his dive into this extraordinary world, taking a tough but open-minded approach to the promises and perils of the new science of psychedelics.