Quillette Podcast: Recent Episodes
Quillette
Quillette is an online magazine founded by Australian writer Claire Lehmann. The publication has a primary focus on science, technology, news, culture, and politics.
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with Johns Hopkins University professor Yascha Mounk about the role of Karl Marx, Michel Foucault, Edward Said, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in shaping today’s illiberal, identity-fixated political mantras—and how we can help lead progressives back to their liberal roots. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Indian-Canadian podcast host Kushal Mehra interviews Quillette’s Jonathan Kay about the radicalized beliefs and unsettling rituals that now characterize performative progressive politics in Canada and the rest of the Western world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Podcast host Jonathan Kay shares a Nashville breakfast with journalist Christina Buttons and her Quillette-alumnus boyfriend, Colin Wright, author of the popular Substack, Reality’s Last Stand Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with Indian podcaster and YouTuber Kushal Mehra about the raucous, angry, informative, and often hilarious world of Indian YouTube.
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks to veteran Microsoft program manager, R&D coordinator, tablet-computing pioneer, and workplace visionary David Jones about the joy of spreadsheets, the art of “schedule chicken,” Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and “Clippy,” everyone’s least favourite digital office assistant.
Nicole Levitt tells Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay what happened when diversity consultants were hired to teach the mantras of social justice to staff at her Philadelphia-based non-profit organization.
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks to Port Townsend, WA-area swimmer Julie Jaman, the octogenarian whose efforts to keep biological men out of a changing area reserved for girls and women led to accusations of transphobia, a visit with the police, multiple town-council debates, and an ongoing Twitter campaign called #LetJulieSwim.
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks to National Post reporter Terry Glavin about the blockbuster 2021 claim that hundreds of murdered Indigenous children had been found in unmarked graves, the process by which that story began to unravel in the year that followed, and what the whole spectacle tells us about Canada’s intellectual class.
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with Swedish Marxist Malcom Kyeyune, who argues that nominally progressive theories of race and gender are actually aimed at securing influence, employment, and prestige for underemployed university graduates.
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks to author James Kirchick about the closeted lives of gay men living and working in America's capital during the Cold War.
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with renowned evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins about his new book on the science and mythology of life in the air—from puffins and flying squirrels to fairies and angels
Economist editor Helen Joyce, author of ‘Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality,’ explains to Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay why biology must trump politics when it comes to defining who is a woman and who is a man.
Reporter Aaron Sibarium talks to Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay about his recent scoops concerning the campaign against anti-woke Princeton classics professor Joshua Katz, and the unsettling radicalism of student activists at Yale Law School
Veteran technology expert Jim Rutt tells Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay about the hard lessons he’s learned over four decades of creating and implementing content-moderation standards on numerous social-media platforms.
Quillette podcasthost Jonathan Kay speaks with documentary filmmaker Rob Montz about self-made education expert Roland G. Fryer Jr.—who bucked Harvard’s progressive party line on race and education, and then got targeted with dubious harassment claims.
Former Mount Royal University professor Frances Widdowson describes the political, academic, and journalistic taboos surrounding the fate of Indigenous residential-school students in western Canada.
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks to intelligence expert Shmuel Bar about why Putin bungled the war in Ukraine, why NATO didn't do enough to deter the Russians, and what happens next.
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay asks neuroscientist, philosopher, best-selling author, and celebrity podcaster Sam Harris about the key to living a fulfilling and satisfying life (and whether it‘s okay to tell your children they’re bad at sports)
Royal Military College professor Scott Maloney and Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay discuss the state of the war in Ukraine, and consider what Vladimir Putin will do to salvage his widely denounced invasion.
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with Copenhagen-based think-tank scholar and podcaster Jacob Mchangama about why so many human societies have a difficult time tolerating dissent and heresy
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks to Substack's founder and CEO about empowering writers through free expression (and his company's new, foosball-table-free San Francisco offices)
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with David Paisley and Jay VanderWier, two of the many ordinary working-class Canadians who’ve assembled in Ottawa to protest restrictive government COVID policies.
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks to psychology professor Christopher J. Ferguson about his newly published academic paper, "Are Orcs Racist? Dungeons and Dragons, Ethnocentrism, Anxiety, and the Depiction of 'Evil' Monsters"
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks to book author and Skeptic editor Michael Shermer about why scientific media, professional organizations, and academic departments are increasingly succumbing to progressive ideological fads.
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with New York Times opinion columnist Ross Douthat about how his new book—which explores both his own fight against chronic Lyme disease, and the controversy surrounding the condition within the medical community
Quillette's Jonathan Kay ends 2021 by speaking to Bob Tarantino about the things he does when he isn't hosting the Quillette podcast.
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with Wright State University professor Paul Lockhart about the enormous military and political upheavals set in motion by the adoption of gunpowder-based weapons from the 13th Century onward—including the demise of the medieval castle, the empowerment of large centralized states, and the deployment of permanent standing armies.
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks with second-year law student Trent Colbert, who recorded YLS Diversity Director Yaseen Eldik and Associate Dean Ellen Cosgrove as they tried to strongarm him into a public confession.
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks to Newsweek editor Batya Ungar-Sargon about her new book, "Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy"—and her political voyage from doctrinaire progressive to self-described "left-wing populist"
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with California State University professor Nancy Segal about her career spent studying twins, and her new book, Deliberately Divided.
Author Michael Shellenberger speaks with Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay about his new book, San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with author Will Storr about his new book detailing the profound role of status-seeking in shaping human societies
'Enlightenment Now' author Steven Pinker speaks with Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay about his newly published book, 'Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters'
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with NYU professor and “Coddling of the American Mind” Co-Author Jonathan Haidt about the emotionally destructive effect of social media on many young users
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with 36-year-old biotech entrepreneur and author Vivek Ramaswamy about how corporate elites burnish their progressive bona fides (and distract their critics) with anti-racism slogans and hashtags—instead of taking concrete steps to address real inequalities within their organizations.
Jonathan Kay interviews TV host and podcaster Josh Szeps about Australia's unique experience in managing the COVID pandemic—and the urban legends the country's quarantine system has spawned among right-wing pundits on the other side of the world
Philosopher Peter Boghossian tells Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay why he no longer felt he could provide his students with a proper education in the current ideological climate.
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with Jamie Kilstein about the challenges he's faced since his excommunication from California's progressive entertainment circles
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks to author Simon Edge about his new book, in which a fictional flat-earth advocacy group campaigns against the idea of a spherical earth (not to mention the 'globularist' 'TERGs' who oppose the new 'True Earth' orthodoxy) in the name of social justice.
Host Jonathan Kay interviews Afghanistan expert Terry Glavin about the complex mix of warlords and foreign players who may seek to undo the country’s takeover by Taliban forces
Host Jonathan Kay interviews Vancouver-based queer comedian Jessica Pigeau about her recent Quillette essay describing the clash between good comedy and strident social-justice activism
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with British writer Milli Hill about the online mob that accused her of transphobia in late 2020—and why she still refuses to describe women as "birthing people."
Quillette editor and podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with David Bernstein, founder of the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values, about his life as a journalist and self-described “lapsed Jew”
Veteran professor and public intellectual Glenn Loury is interviewed by Australia's Josh Szeps for Quillette's Free Thought Live series. Professor Loury discusses America's political polarization, black voters, American history, and the 2020 election.
Quillette’s Jonathan Kay talks to activist Christopher Rufo about his new status as conservative intellectual celebrity—and asks whether the rising opposition to progressive ideological radicalism can go too far
Quillette’s Jonathan Kay speaks to film writer Christian Toro about the increasingly direct identity-politics messaging that now is being pushed on North American toddlers.
Quillette's Jonathan Kay speaks to City Journal writer Heather Mac Donald about how a single drama workshop caused Juilliard students to feel "traumatized"—sparking an activist campaign aimed at undermining the elite performing-arts school's famously rigorous standards.
Quillette's Toby Young talks to free speech advocate and Brookings Institution Fellow Jonathan Rauch about his new book The Constitution of Knowledge.
Quillette’s Jonathan Kay talks to UFO expert Michael Shermer about why we keep searching the skies for signs of alien visitors (and why we always come away disappointed)
Quillette’s Razib Khan speaks with veteran science writer Nicholas Wade about why so many scientists and journalists are now exploring theories about the origins of COVID-19 that, not so long, ago, were being dismissed as conspiracy theories.
Host Jonathan Kay speaks with conservative activist, book author, and Quillette contributor Kenny Xu about the pressures that Asian-Americans now face to toe the line on progressive race orthodoxies—including acquiescing to their own unfavorable treatment in elite school admissions
Quillette founder Claire Lehmann speaks with “Cynical Theories” co-author (and Grievance Studies Hoax collaborator) Helen Pluckrose about the influence of postmodern ideas in the formulation of the latest iterations of Critical Race Theory, Queer Theory, and other “intersectional” doctrines
Quillette’s Jonathan Kay speaks with Hong Kong-based professor Peter Baehr about the many ways in which free speech and democratic politics are being suppressed by China’s mainland communist government,
Want to suggest a topic or guest, critique a segment, or just let us know what you think? We want to hear from you.
Quillette Editor-in-Chief Claire Lehmann talks to The Australian writer Bernard Lane about the severe risks associated with rushing gender dysphoric children into puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgery—and the rising tide of concerned parents who are pushing back against the campaign to reflexively ‘affirm’ children’s beliefs about their inner identity.
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks to Richard Hanania, President of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, about his much-discussed essay, “Why is Everything Liberal? Cardinal Preferences Explain Why All Institutions are Woke”
Quillette founder Claire Lehmann talks to author and activist Michael Shellenberger about how environmental alarmism and ideological blind spots often prevent us from having a rational discussion about the best way to address climate change while growing national economies
Quillette’s Jonathan Kay speaks with Bard University history professor Sean McMeekin about his new book, which describes how the fears and ambitions of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin shaped the course of the Second World War
Quillette's Jonathan Kay talks to author James Kirchick about his recent Tablet article documenting how the American Civil Liberties Union abandoned its core mission in favor of doctrinaire progressive politics
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks to journalist Daphne Merkin, author of a widely discussed 2018 New York Magazine article on Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn, about HBO’s highly torqued documentary, 'Allen v. Farrow,' and the dubious claims it contains.
Quillette's Jonathan Kay talks to two ex-Portlanders about how the COVID-19 pandemic and a year of violent protests turned their once beloved city into a fractured, downwardly mobile arena for America's culture war.
Quillette’s Jonathan Kay speaks to Canadian researcher Andrew Lustig about his research on the web-based communities of individuals who believe they are surrounded by evidence of an enormous “gangstalking” conspiracy, involving dozens or even hundreds of individuals, aimed at causing them to become insane or commit suicide.
Quillette’s Jonathan Kay speaks with Concordia University marketing professor Gad Saad about his take-no-prisoners social-media style, Lebanese politics, and the inner ideological life of Seth Rogen
Jonathan Kay interviews comedian, social critic, and book author Andrew Doyle on why he thinks government censors are a bigger threat to a free society than the bigots they’re seeking to cancel.
Host Jonathan Kay talks to long-time New Republic literary editor Leon Wieseltier about ‘Liberties,’ the ambitious literary journal he founded after getting Me-Too’d—and many other subjects besides, including the future of journalism, the innocence of Woody Allen, the allure of jazz music, and Nicolas Cage’s underrated cinematic masterpiece, 'Gone In 60 Seconds'
Quillette's Jonathan Kay speaks to eminent French sociologist Nathalie Heinich, founder of a new organization that opposes the spread of America's race-fixated academic movements into French campuses. While many conservatives have traditionally complained about the excesses of "French theory," Prof. Heinich argues, many harmful ideas are now crossing the Atlantic in the opposite direction.
Quillette’s Jonathan Kay talks to Brian Amerige—a former team leader at Facebook, and now the CEO of Thoughtful—about the content-moderation lessons he’s learned from established social-media giants, and how we can create something better.
Quillette’s Jonathan Kay speaks with Bill Ottman, co-founder of the Minds social-media network, about the challenges facing Silicon Valley communications giants
Columbia University professor and Atlantic Magazine writer John McWhorter speaks with political satirist and TV presenter Josh Szeps about the transformation of radicalized progressive politics into a religious-style belief system
Jonathan Kay speaks with Cheri Jacobus, a veteran Republican Party worker and conservative media figure who was mobbed and deplatformed after she called out Donald Trump for his abusive rhetoric and dubious campaign tactics
Jonathan Kay speaks to Philippe Lemoine about problematic assumptions embedded in the models used to support COVID lockdown policy. Yes, separating people helps reduce virus transmission and saves lives. But forced isolation also can generate serious (and often life-threatening) risks. Moreover, how much of the beneficial effects attributed to lockdowns are the result of disease-avoidant behaviours that most of us would engage in anyway?
University of New Mexico social psychologist Tania Reynolds speaks with Jonathan Kay about Nature Communications' questionable decision to retract a controversial article, the intrusion of ideology into scholarship about academic mentorship, and the principles of evolutionary biology that may affect female professional relationships
Jonathan Kay talks to colleague Toby Young about the fine line between journalism and activism, the politics of censorship, and his start-up year at the Free Speech Union
As the conservative movement enters a period of post-Trump flux, American Compass CEO Oren Cass explains to Quillette's Jonathan Kay why a right-leaning coalition with organized labor now makes sense
Yale Sociologist and Physician Nicholas Christakis speaks to Quillette’s Jonathan Kay about the origins of COVID-19, how it compares to Bubonic plague and Spanish Flu, and the way it will shape the future of our societies
Jonathan Kay speaks to famed Middle Eastern historian Benny Morris, whose latest book explores the ethnic cleansing of Turkey during the last decades of the Ottoman Empire
Jonathan Kay speaks to Wall Street Journal contributor Abigail Shrier about the epidemic of teenage girls seeking gender reassignment, the backlash against her book—and the backlash against the backlash
Jonathan Kay speaks to public health expert David Paltiel about how mass vaccination could help end the COVID-19 pandemic
Author Shelby Steele speaks to Quillette’s Jonathan Kay about white guilt, the ‘poetic truth’ of Ferguson, the dead end of racial grievances, and the creative process of working with his son Eli
Brad Polumbo speaks to Quillette’s Jonathan Kay about life as a gay conservative journalist in Washington, D.C., the politics of outing Republican lawmakers, the complex political tensions between LGB and T, and the new journalistic climate that he expects will emerge under Joe Biden.
Jeffrey Flier—physician, endocrinologist, researcher, and 21st Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard University—speaks to Quillette’s Jonathan Kay about Pfizer’s recent announcement that its candidate COVID-19 vaccine was shown to be more than 90% effective in preliminary testing
While Trump’s hopes of a second Presidential term seem to be vanishing, his surprisingly strong showing among Black, Hispanic, Muslim, and Asian voters is challenging the progressive claim that Trump's appeal is rooted primarily in racism. Quillette’s Jonathan Kay discusses these surprising election results with author and journalist Jamil Jivani.
A whistleblower at an elite Massachusetts women’s college talks to Jonathan Kay about how a single 2018 incident on campus unleashed public-shaming measures that targeted the school’s lowest-paid workers—all in the name of social justice
Rick Ross, executive director of the Cult Education Institute, speaks with Jonathan Kay about infamous cult leader (and now convicted felon) Keith Raniere, who spent 14 years suing Ross for telling the truth about NXIVM
Literary superstar Lionel Shriver shares her thoughts about the pandemic, the rush to embrace Covid orthodoxy by politicians and scientists and the suppression of dissenting voices by big tech and the mainstream media, including hers
Jonathan Kay speaks with Stanford University student and autism activist Lucy Kross Wallace about her former life as a militant social-justice activist—and what she learned about a movement that she now describes as a “cult.”
Jonathan Kay talks to writer Asra Nomani about the campaign to end race-neutral admissions testing at Thomas Jefferson High School in Virginia, America’s best public high school—and the disturbing attacks on Asian academic “culture” that have accompanied it
Quillette Editor Jonathan Kay talks to Stuart Buck about how the rapid pace of COVID-19 science has exposed longstanding problems with the methods we use to validate scientific research
Quillette Editor Jonathan Kay talks to concert cellist Daniel Lelchuk about the timeless, global appeal of Beethoven—and the turbulent historical world that inspired the great German composer’s works.
Quillette Editor Jonathan Kay talks to economist-turned-author Jeff Rubin about his new book, The Expendables How the Middle Class Got Screwed By Globalization—and the devastating consequences of globalization that many progressive thinkers seem reluctant to talk about.
Quillette Editor Jonathan Kay talks to scientist and author Dr Debra Soh about the misinformation being peddled to young people about biological sex and transition—and the most humane ways to help people who experience gender dysphoria. Debra has just published The End of Gender.
Quillette Editor-in-Chief Claire Lehmann talks to Think Inc Founder Suzi Jamil about the rewards and challenges of bringing the world’s greatest thinkers to Sydney—and their new collaboration, Free Thought Live. You can reserve a spot at their first joint event on September 26th—in which the political satirist and television presenter Josh Szeps interviews Professor John McWhorter—here.
Quillette Editor-in-Chief Claire Lehmann talks to Dr Tanveer Ahmed about how we should accept the presence of shame in our lives without succumbing to despair or outrage mobs.
Tech entrepreneur Chris Best talks about Substack, his self-publishing platform that is attracting journalists like Andrew Sullivan, Jesse Singal and Jen Gerson
Author Douglas Murray talks about the new Afterword to The Madness of Crowds, his best-selling book about identity politics, and the events of the last six months which have accelerated the toxic trends he warned about
Trans Pioneer Buck Angel on the afterlife of a porn actor, his campaign for LGBT rights, and the reality of biological sex
Christopher Rufo, Director of the Center on Wealth & Poverty at Discovery Institute, talks to Jonathan Kay about the ideology fuelling the violent protests in Seattle and Portland.
Yoram Hazony, author of The Virtue of Nationalism, talks about the why liberal institutions like the New York Times have proved so vulnerable to capture by the hard Left. He wrote about this recently for Quillette.
Peter Cohen, a university fundraiser, talks about the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, its impact on MIT, and Ronan Farrow’s flawed reporting. He recently wrote about all of the above for Quillette.
Quillette Managing Editor Colin Wright explains why scientists no longer always feel free to speak up in the face of pseudoscience, and why he gave up his hunt for a job as a professor in the field of evolutionary biology for a career in journalism.
Quillette contributor and Cambridge PhD student Rob Henderson talks to Toby Young about how cancel culture became one of America's most successful exports and why upper middle class whites have embraced the woke agenda. Rob recently wrote a piece for Quillette entitled America Exports Cancel Culture to the World.
Canadian comedian Ryan Long talks to Jonathan Kay about the nature of comedy in the current political climate. Ryan Long's skit "When Wokes and Racists Actually Agree on Everything" has recently gone viral.
Editor-in-Chief Claire Lehmann talks to Jonathan Kay about how and why she created Quillette, and her plans for its future.
Michael Shellenberger, President of Environmental Progress, talks to Jonathan Kay about global warming, natural disasters, media scaremongering—and why the world is actually getting safer, notwithstanding the scaremongering of Extinction Rebellion.
Renowned physicist Lawrence Krauss talks to Jonathan Kay about his Quillette essay Racism Is Real. But Science Isn’t the Problem and explains why he expressed skepticism about the sincerity of the #strike4blacklives campaign supported by so many science organisations.
Professor Eric Kaufmann talks to Toby Young about his Quillette essay The Great Awakening and the Second American Revolution. He believes American may be going through something akin to China's Cultural Revolution in which many aspects of American society, from the constitution to the name of the country, could change.
Quillette contributor Helen Joyce talks to Jonathan Kay about the many ways in which gender ideologues have tied themselves in knots by trying to make the sisterhood more "inclusive".
Joel Kotkin, executive director of the Urban Reform Institute and author of The Coming of Neo-Feudalism, talks to Toby Young about the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on American cities and the rioting that broke out following the death of George Floyd. Joel recently wrote about this in a piece entitled Pandemics and Pandemonium for Quillette.
Glenn Loury, a professor of economics at Brown University, talks to Jonathan Kay about the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd. Professor Loury recently published a piece about this in Quillette entitled 'Condemn the Violence Without Equivocation.'
Former Bush speech writer David From talks to Jonathan Kay about the damage done by the Trump presidency and the way forward for America.
Writer and Journalist Cathy Young talks to Jonathan Kay about her investigations into Tara Reade’s evolving accusations against Joe Biden, and explains why the ranks of Reade’s supporters are shrinking.
Thomas Hale, Associate Professor at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government, talks to Jonathan Kay about a new research project aimed at comparing international policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
John Lloyd, co-founder of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford, talks to Toby Young about the geopolitical fall-out from the coronavirus crisis. Will the Conservatives win the next UK election? Can the EU recover its authority? And is this China's Chernobyl?
Jennifer Abbasi, associate managing editor at the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), talks to Jonathan Kay about new COVID-19 antibody tests that may help stop the pandemic and save the lives of those who are already infected.
Jonathan Kay, Canadian editor of Quillette, talks to associate editor Toby Young about his recent article on COVID-19 superspreaders.
Nadia Guo, a sex worker and lawyer, talks to Jonathan Kay about the devastating impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the sex trade—although it's been great for the webcam business.
Science writer, author and Skeptic editor-in-chief Michael Shermer talks to Toby Young about his new book Giving the Devil His Due: Reflections of a Scientific Humanist. They talk about a range of free speech issues, including hate speech, Holocaust denial, the Pentagon Papers and Wikileaks.
Dr Jemma Geoghegan, a virologist at the University of Otago, talks to Jonathan Kay on how viruses evolve and the lessons we can learn about social distancing from fish, dogs and rabbits.
Talat Chughtai, Director of the Trauma Intensive Care Unit at Hamad General Hospital, talks to Jonathan Kay about COVID-19, the triage decisions he's having to make and what we've learnt from China about how best to treat it.
Kentucky State political science professor Wildred Reilly talks to Toby Young about his new book Taboo: 10 Facts You Can't Talk About, as well as the "1776" project, which he's a contributor to.
Science writer Matt Ridley talks to Toby Young about coronavirus, the prospects of finding a vaccine within the next 18 months, and his new book How Innovation Works: Serendipity, Energy, and the Saving of Time.
Andy Lamey, author of Duty and the Beast, explains why conservatives are starting to care about animal rights, not just liberals.
Bo Winegard, long-standing Quillette contributor, has lost his job as an assistant professor at Marietta College. No reason was given, but he believes it's because his research interests included the genetic influence on psychological differences.
Quillette columnist Coleman Hughes on why he and some other prominent black intellectuals have created the "1776" project, a response to the New York Times's 1619 Project.
The late Canadian journalist Christie Blatchford gave a speech last year about the importance of due process and the dangers of the #MeToo moral panic. These are the edited highlights.
Israeli political theorist Yoram Hazony talks to Toby Young about the national conservatism conference in Rome and why British Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski should not have been reprimanded by his party for attending.
Venture capitalist Michael Solana talks to Jonathan Kay about interstellar corporatocracy—and why we should welcome it.
Charles Murray, co-author of The Bell Curve, talks to Toby Young about his new book Human Diversity: The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class.
Patricia Marcoccia and Maziar Ghaderi of Holding Space Films talk to Jonathan kay about the time they spent chronicling the daily life of Canada’s most famous public intellectual—and how critics on both sides reacted to The Rise of Jordan Peterson.
Richard Bradford, author of Orwell: A Man of Our Time, talks to Toby Young about why Orwell still has a great deal to teach us 70 years after his death.
Stand-up comedian and guest host Jamie Kilstein talks to comedy impresario Paul Provenza about Ricky Gervais's monologue at the Golden Globes and whether comedy is finally emerging from under a cloud of woke humourlessness.
Daniel Hannan, the Conservative Member of the European Parliament for South East England, talks to Toby Young about his lifelong friendship with the late Conservative philosopher Sir Roger Scruton.
Harvard Historian James Hankins on what the great Renaissance humanists can teach us about virtue and statecraft. Plus: Why so many get Machiavelli wrong.
Armando Simón, forensic psychologist and science writer, talks to Jonathan Kay about why it would be a mistake to try and put a man on Mars. Simón recently set out the case against a manned space flight to Mars in Quillette.
Dr James Cantor, clinical psychologist and sexologist, talks to Jonathan Kay about his recent peer-reviewed critique of the AAP's unscientific guidelines on treating trans children.
Toby Young talks to Jonathan Kay about the Conservatives' victory in the UK General Election in which Labour suffered its worst defeat since 1935.
Alireza Nader, Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, talks to Jonathan Kay about the recent political protests in Iran and the regime's brutal response.
Philosopher Benedict Beckeld talks to Jonathan Kay about why so many intellectuals and young people loathe the culture of the West.
Political pundit Mark Halperin talks to Jonathan Kay about his new book, How to Beat Trump.
Author Meghan Daum talks to Jonathan Kay about her new book, The Problem With Everything.
Veteran political journalist Steve Richards talks to Toby Young about the U.K.'s forthcoming General Election, becoming a stage performer late in life, and his recent book about recent British Prime Ministers.
Director of Research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies David Adesnik talks to Jonathan Kay about the latest developments in the Middle East.
Jesse Singal, contributing writer at New York magazine, talks to Jonathan Kay about being targeted for cancellation by Nicole Cliffe, a well-known left-wing journalist.
David Frum, ex-speechwriter for George W Bush and senior editor at the Atlantic, talks to Jonathan Kay about the result of the recent Canadian election. Does Justin Trudeau deserve a second term as Prime Minister?
Professor Brian Kalt, an expert on US constitutional law and the presidency, talks to Jonathan Kay about his new book on the 25th Amendment and the difficulties of using it to remove a president
Ex-Jehovah's Witness Amber Scorah talks to Jonathan Kay about leaving the Christian sect and her book Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life.
Conservative intellectual Douglas Murray talks to Toby Young about the moral shortcomings of identity politics and the Marxist underpinnings of the Social Justice movement, both subjects of his new book.
Samantha Geimer, who was raped by Roman Polanski when she was 13, talks to Jonathan Kay about why she has refused to be cast as a victim and how she's dealt with the controversy her stance has generated, particularly in the #MeToo era. She is steeling herself for another bout of unwanted attention when Polanski's new film—An Officer and a Spy—is released next month.
New York Times editor and opinion writer Bari Weiss talks to Jonathan Kay about How to Fight Anti-Semitism, her new book on the rise in anti-Semitism in the U.S. on the Left and the Right and what we can do to combat it.
Gay rights activist Shane Windmeyer talks to Jonathan Kay about his changing attitude to Chick-fil-A, which recently opened its first outlet in Toronto. As the founder of Campus Pride, a nationwide LGBT student activist group, Windmeyer was originally a sworn enemy of Chick-fil-A because the company has donated to groups opposed to same-sex marriage. But Dan Cathy, the son of Chick-fil-A's founder and the company's COO, reached out to Windmeyer in 2012 and the two have since become friends.
Yale Law School professor Anthony Kronman talks to Jonathan Kay about his new book The Assault on American Excellence in which he laments the decline of aristocratic values in America's elite universities.
Carl Gardner, a former government lawyer, talks to Toby Young about Boris Johnson's decision to prorogue parliament, whether it's constitutionally legitimate, and what the political ramifications are.
Nadim Kobeissi, a professor at NYU and director of a cryptography consulting firm, tells Jonathan Kay about the risks posed by Libra, Facebook's new cryptocurrency.
Portland State philosophy professor Peter Boghossian talks to Jonathan Kay about his forthcoming book—How to Have Impossible Conversations.
Bruce Gilley, professor of political science at Portland State, talks to Toby Young about not being able to get his course on conservative political thought approved by his faculty, and his efforts to fight back against progressive authoritarianism on campus.
Heterodox Academy 2019 conference highlights presented by Jonathan Kay, featuring Steven Pinker, Karith Foster, Jennifer Collins Bloomquist, Dan Mogulof, Lara Schwartz, Brandon Calhoun and Coleman Hughes.
Toby Young, Quillette's associate editor, talks to Jonathan Kay about Boris Johnson, Britain's new Prime Minister whom Toby first met 36 years ago when they were students together at Oxford.
Journalist and YouTuber Nancy Rommelmann talks to Jonathan Kay about how Portland became the most woke city in America, what it's like living there, and why she's moving. She provides an update on the targeting of her husband's coffee shop by an outrage mob after she expressed some reservations about aspects of the #MeToo movement.
Wilfred Reilly, an assistant professor of political science at Kentucky State University, talks to Toby Young about his new book documenting the prevalence of hate crime hoaxes and what that tells us about contemporary American society.
Jamie Kilstein, comedian and podcaster, talks to Jonathan Kay about his departure from LA, Andy Ngo's Antifa beating and what it's like to hang out with Moby.
Nicholas Christakis, Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale, talks to Jonathan Kay about his new book Blueprint and what evolution can teach us about overcoming conflict.
Mike Wacker, the ex-Google software engineer who was fired for exposing the company's liberal bias, talks to Jonathan Kay talks.
Quillette contributor and nuclear energy expert Michael Shellenberger talks to Toby Young about what Chernobyl, the critically-acclaimed HBO mini-series, got wrong and why that matters.
Francis Fukuyama is interviewed by guest host Alexandra Hudson about the themes of his new book Identity: The Demand For Dignity and the Politics of Resentment.
Coleman Hughes talks to Jonathan Kay about what it was like testifying to Congress about reparations and the reaction his testimony has received.
Jonah Goldberg and Aaron Siberium talk to Toby Young about the conservative manifesto buried just beneath the surface of Avengers: Endgame.
Kathrine Jebsen Moore talks to Jonathan Kay about how the Instagram knitting community has been torn apart by Social Justice mobs.
Sky Gilbert, gay playwright and drag queen, talks to Jonathan Kay about the history of Canada's gay community and being excommunicated by the LGBT theater company he founded.
Eric Kaufmann, author of Whiteshift, and Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, talk to Toby Young about the European election results. Is national populism in decline? If not, how concerned should we be?
Voice actor Greg Ellis talks to Jonathan Kay about working with the producers of Dragon Age, Call of Duty and God of War, and the difference between voicing video game characters and cartoon characters.
Nigel Biggar, Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at Oxford, talks to Toby Young about his experience of being mobbed by his colleagues. They discuss what motivates academic outrage mobs and what can be done to defend free speech at British and American universities.
Doriane Lambelet Coleman, the 800m-runner-turned-academic, talks to Jonathan Kay about the Court of Arbitration for Sport's rejection of Caster Semenya's appeal. As a result of the decision, Semenya will not be able to compete in women's middle distance events unless she chemically alters her testosterone level.
Clint Margrave and Timothy Green, two poets, talk to Jonathan Kay about the shunning of fellow poet Frank Sherlock after he confessed to having been in a skinhead band in the 1980s. Clint Margrave recently wrote an article about Frank Sherlock's public shaming for Quillette.
Journalist and broadcaster Claire Fox talks to Toby Young about being a Brexit Party candidate in the forthcoming European Parliament election. How did a former Communist become a candidate for a populist, right-of-centre party?
Coleman Hughes talks to Jonathan Kay about his latest Quillette article, which concerns an allegedly racist incident at Barnard College. Coleman, who is an undergraduate at Columbia, doesn't think the Barnard employees involved are guilty of racism.
stand-up comedian Jamie Kilstein talks to Jonathan Kay about leaving the Social Justice Left, having Robin Williams as a patron, and his new, non-tribal, un-woke podcast.
Sir Roger Scruton, the conservative philosopher, talks to Toby Young about getting sacked as an advisor to the British Government after making some politically incorrect remarks, and the implications of his defenestration for intellectual freedom more widely.
Tyler Cowen, economics professor at George Mason University, talks to Jonathan Kay about the limits of libertarianism, viewpoint diversity in Washington, D.C., and Marginal Revolution University, his new online education venture.
Robert Tombs, Cambridge history professor, talks to Toby Young about why he supports Brexit, why so many of his colleagues don't, whether the English intelligentsia's loathing of their country is a uniquely English characteristic and what their reaction is likely to be if the U.K. does eventually leave the European Union.
Rob Montz, the Washington, DC-based documentarian who has made a succession of slick, entertaining videos about the free speech crisis engulfing America's universities, talks to Jonathan Kay. You can see some of Rob's videos, with some additional commentary from Jon, on Quillette's website.
Six months ago, Catholic journalist Caroline Farrow appeared on a TV show called Good Morning Britain to debate Susie Green, a trans activist. That led to a chain of events that saw Caroline being investigated by the British police for misgendering Susie's daughter Jackie, a transwoman who was born male and underwent sexual reassignment surgery in Thailand at the age of 16. She talks to Toby Young about this ordeal.
liberal Muslim Irshad Manji talks to Jonathan Kay about her new book Don't Label Me in which she urges all sides in the culture wars to listen more carefully to each other. She also reflects on the journey she's been on, from an aggressive combatant in various debates to reflective participant.
Andrew Doyle, stand-up comedian and Spiked-online columnist, talks to Toby Young about Titania McGrath, his satirical creation on Twitter who describes herself as a "radical intersectionalist poet committed to feminism, social justice and armed peaceful protest."
Jonathan Kay talks to Kay Xander Mellish, author of How to Live in Denmark (2014) and How to Work in Denmark (2018) about the recent Amnesty International report claiming Denmark has a "pervasive rape culture," as well as what it's like living in the country ranked number two in the world for gender equality and why a female-led, right-wing political party is on the rise.
Bo Winegard, long-standing Quillette contributor and assistant psychology professor, talks to Toby Young about three of his articles: On the Reality of Race and the Abhorrence of Racism, Centrism: A Moderate Manifesto and The Great Awokening.
Mary Hudson, a former teacher in New York's public high school system, talks to Quillette's Jonathan Kay about how black students are being let down by school leaders and administrators who are afraid to discipline unruly children for fear of being accused of racism. This conversation follows Hudson's article on the subject for Quillette.
Brian Amerige, a former software engineer at Facebook, talks to Quillette's Jonathan Kay about the company's content moderation policy and why it is making a mistake in trying to prohibit hate speech. This conversation follows Amerige's article on the subject for Quillette.
Matthew Goodwin, professor of politics at the University of Kent and co-author of National Populism: The Revolt Against Liberalism, talks to Quillette's Toby Young about Brexit, Trump, the rise of national populism in Europe and America, and what its impact is likely to be on the future of social democracy.
Skeptic editor Michael Shermer talks to Quillette's Jonathan Kay about Holocaust denialists, Social Justice Warriors, the importance of bringing reason and science to bear on political debates, and why it is that smart people believe dumb things.
Kat Rosenfield, young-adult author and prolific vlogger and journalist, talks to Quillette's Jonathan Kay about Amélie Wen Zhao, a YA writer who's withdrawn her debut novel Blood Heir after being mobbed for allegedly breaching various politically correct protocols that all YA authors, including people of color, are expected to observe.
Bill Kristol, founder of the Weekly Standard, talks to Quillette's Jonathan Kay about the future of journalism, conservative politics and the stars who emerged from his magazine's pages, including David Brooks, John Podhoretz and Christopher Caldwell.
Listen to the speeches made at Quillette's party in Toronto by Quillette founder Claire Lehmann, stand-up comic Jamie Kilstein, Skeptic editor Michael Shermer, Quillette's Canadian editor Jonathan Kay, author and philosopher Christina Hoff Sommers and Quillette's associate editor Toby Young. Thanks to Holding Space Films for supplying us with the audio.
Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker talks to Quillette's Jonathan Kay talks to about his book Enlightenment Now and why the critics who took him to task for celebrating the Enlightenment are wrong.
Jesse Singal, a New York-based writer, talks to Quillette's Jonathan Kay about the reaction to his controversial cover story for The Atlantic about transgender adolescents. Among other things, Singal interviewed a number of adults who have "detransitioned"—had a change of heart about switching genders after undergoing irreversible medical procedures. This provoked accusations of "transphobia" from trans activists, who argued that highlighting these cases would make parents and mental health professionals needlessly sceptical when reacting to children's self-diagnosis of gender dysphoria and make it more difficult for those children to get medical treatment.
Jeff McMahan, professor of moral philosophy at Oxford and co-founder of the Journal of Controversial Ideas, a new academic periodical in which contributors will be given the option of publishing their papers pseudonymously, talks to Quillette's Toby Young. They discuss why the journal is needed, how 'controversial' ideas will be defined and Professor McMahan responds to some of the criticisms that have greeted the idea, both from the Social Justice Left and the liberal centre.
Corinna Cohn, a trans woman and Indianapolis-based software developer who disagrees with Twitter's policy of banning users who "deadname" trans people and, more generally, doesn't believe she is obliged to support the causes associated with the Social Justice movement just because Social Justice Warriors support trans rights, talks to Canadian editor Jonathan Kay.
Jonathan Church, Quillette contributor and economist, talks to associate editor Toby Young about 'white privilege,' 'white fragility,' 'color-blind racism,' 'unconscious bias,' 'micro-aggressions' and why the Social Justice Left is more interested in punishing whites than understanding the complexity of racial inequality.
Coleman Hughes, Quillette columnist and Columbia University student, talks to Canadian editor Jonathan Kay about being out of step with the prevailing orthodoxy at an Ivy League college, classical liberalism and playing in Rihanna's backup band in 2016.
Heather Mac Donald, a Fellow of the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal and the author of several books, most recently The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture, talks to Canadian editor Jonathan. Among other topics, they discuss her run-in with Black Lives Matter, her experience of being mobbed on campus and the free speech crisis afflicting America's universities.
Meghan Murphy, the founder of Feminist Current, a radical feminist blog and podcast, talks to Canadian editor Jonathan Kay. Meghan was recently banned from Twitter for 'dead-naming' and 'misgendering' trans women, activities that are now prohibited in Twitter's terms of service. She wrote about this for Quillette.
Eric Kaufmann, a politics professor at Birkbeck College and the author of Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration and the Future of White Majorities, and Ben Cobley, author of The Tribe: The Liberal-Left and the System of Diversity, talks to associate editor Toby Young. Kaufmann recently wrote a piece for Quillette about white privilege, arguing that non-whites discriminate in favour of whites as well as whites, so declining white populations won't necessarily end white privilege, and Ben Cobley's book was recently reviewed in Quillette by Helen Dale in which she praised him for explaining "how a frankly bonkers set of beliefs has stolen the Labour Party" and for showing "the danger of viewing people as members of fixed identity groups."
Dr. Theodore Hill, professor emeritus of mathematics at Georgia Institute of Technology, talks to Canadian editor Jonathan Kay. Hill recently wrote an article for Quillette about how a paper of his on the Greater Male Variability Hypothesis was accepted and retracted by The Mathematical Intelligencer and The New York Journal of Mathematics, following a lobbying effort by mathematicians who disapproved of his point of view.
Dr Jordan Peterson talks to associate editor Toby Young In Quillette's first official podcast. Among other things, they discuss The Coddling of the American Mind, Peterson's plans to set up a new university, and the baffling resilience of hard Left ideology.