Two of the greatest living adventurers meet Hannah MacInnes to reflect on what motivates their journeys across the polar ice. Bringing together two record-breaking polar explorers –Norwegian Erling Kagge and his British counterpart Ben Saunders – this podcast offers a profound and illuminating meditation on the life of a polar explorer. The first man ever to reach the North and South Poles unsupported and the first to conquer both the Poles and Mt. Everest, a Cambridge educated philosopher, international art dealer, lawyer, politician, publisher and bestselling author, Erling Kagge’s achievements belie his faith in the sacred value of silence and solitude in the modern age. Joining him in the podcast is Ben Saunders, whose accomplishments include skiing solo to both poles and leading The Scott Expedition – the longest human powered journey in human history. 'After having put my shoes on and let my thoughts wander, I am sure of one thing - to put one foot in front of the other is one of the most important things we do.' – Erling Kagge Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How can we escape our age of discontent? In this week's podcast, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz challenges us to throw off the free market fundamentalists and reclaim our democratic power. We all the sense that something has gone wrong with the American economy – with consequences that continue to reverberate across the globe. But just how did a few corporations come to dominate entire sectors, leading to skyrocketing inequality and sluggish growth? How did the financial industry write its own regulations, the tech companies accumulate reams of personal data without oversight, and the government negotiate international trade deals against the interests of workers? Joseph Stiglitz is America’s preeminent economic thinker. A Nobel laureate, bestselling author, advisor to Clinton and former chairman of the World Bank, he joins the How To Academy Academy Podcast to answer the question of why the economy is rigged in favour of elites - and rally us around a new vision of capitalism that puts people ahead of profits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nearly a decade in the making, Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women is a global phenomenon. Hailed instantly as a feminist classic, this staggering work of nonfiction is the result of thousands of hours spent in the company of its subjects – three women whose lives reveal profound and previously unspoken truths about life and love, womanhood and desire. Lisa joins the How To Academy Podcast to tell the Guardian's Hadley Freeman how Three Women came to be. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Never make a New Year’s Resolution again after hearing this podcast from the world’s most renowned expert in forming new habits –Stanford behavioural scientist, BJ Fogg. There are entire worlds of advice on how to lose weight, how to sleep better, how to perform better on the job, how to have better sex, and every other aspect of human behaviour you might wish to change in the New Year. But we all know from bitter experience that none of these new habits last beyond February. The week's How To Academy Podcast will help you finally keep the promises you have made to yourself. BJ Fogg is the legendary Stanford researcher whose class inspired the founder of Instagram and whose ideas are cited by almost every guru of habit formation and behavioural change – from Tim Ferris to Robert Sutton. He joined Matthew Stadlen to introduce a simple method empirically proven to create results for all behavioural issues – from weight loss and better sleep to quitting smoking and exercising more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this week’s episode, Google’s former CEO Eric Schmidt, VP Jonathan Rosenberg and Director of Executive Communications Alan Eagle present a blueprint for farsighted leadership. They are among the most influential CEOs on the planet – bona fide icons of the digital age. But what else do Jeff Bezos, Sheryl Sandberg, Sundar Pichai, Marissa Meyer and Steve Jobs have in common? They all learned to lead from the legendary coach and business executive, Bill Campbell. His mentoring of some of the most successful modern entrepreneurs has helped to create well over a trillion dollars in market value, and played an instrumental role in the growth of many of Silicon Valley’s most powerful companies. Google’s senior leaders Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle experienced first-hand how the man fondly known as Coach Bill built trusting relationships, fostered personal growth-even in those at the pinnacle of their careers, inspired courage, and identified and resolved simmering tensions that inevitably arise in fast-moving environments. They joined Matthew Stadlen on the How To Academy Podcast to tell us more about Bill’s ideas and methods, and honour his legacy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“There are times when I’ve gone back and cried, and I do think at times, ‘Is it worth it?’ But I have to carry on fighting because it can’t become a normalised thought pattern in our society that a woman of colour is not bright enough, can’t make her own money, can’t be successful, or is told she has made it on her back. I will stand up as long as I can.” – Gina Miller Gina Miller has taken the government to court not once but twice – and won. In the face of abuse and threats -- including a crowdfunded campaign to sponsor her assassination -- she has risen to become an icon to anyone who believes in transparency, democracy and the rule of law. Her life story is one of extraordinary resilience, and her courage is an inspiration whether we are striving to change the future of British politics or facing very different trials. Sent to England from Guyana to study aged 10, she worked as a teenage chamber maid when currency controls left her cut off from her family’s support. Aged 24, she gave birth to a daughter with brain damage, and after her first marriage ended, became a single mother. She was assaulted at law school and today faces death threats online and on the street. Letters are sent to her home telling her that her children are ‘mongrels’. Yet faced with a lifetime of hardship and flagrant abuse she has risen to become perhaps the most influential and inspirational activist of our age. In this week's How To Academy Podcast, Gina draws on a lifetime of fighting injustice and looks at the moments that made her; the trauma, failures and successes that gave her the confidence in her voice, the ability to know how to use it and the strength not to let others diminish it, even when it came at incredible cost. To those who say one person cannot make a difference, Gina Miller is irrefutable proof that you can. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Imitated and envied across the globe, the British welfare state was once revolutionary. But in 2020, our society faces urgent challenges that can only be solved with new and highly innovative solutions. In this week's podcast, social designer and WEF Young Global Leader Dr. Hilary Cottam meets Matthew Stadlen to reveal her vision of a system that puts human connection first. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He is the world’s most beloved scientist – an inspiration for all who seek understanding, meaning and truth in the vastness of the cosmos. Now Neil deGrasse Tyson joins the How To Academy Podcast to ask: what is our place in the universe? Neil deGrasse Tyson has dedicated his life to exploring and explaining the mysteries of our universe. As Director of the Hayden Planetarium, the host of Cosmos and StarTalk, a New York Times bestselling author and owner of one of the 200 ‘most followed’ Twitter accounts on the entire planet, he might just be the most influential scientist alive today. Every year, Professor Tyson receives thousands of letters – from students to prisoners, scientists to priests. Some seek advice, others yearn for inspiration; some are full of despair, others burst with wonder. His replies are by turns wise, funny, and mind-blowing. In this podcast, Neil shares his favourite ideas from decades of correspondence - exploring issues from atheism to aliens, racism in America to the cosmic perspective on human life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From the dive bars of the Lower East Side to the beaches of Bali, the Connecticut Christmas Tree farm where she was raised to the Mumbai ashram where she sought solace after a difficult divorce, Elizabeth Gilbert is a world traveller whose unending search for answers to life’s biggest questions have made her the voice of a generation. Aged 34, she left her home, husband and career to travel alone across the world; her chronicle of that journey became EAT, PRAY, LOVE, an international bestseller so popular TIME magazine declared her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Since then she has produced one critically acclaimed bestseller after another. From COMMITTED, her memoir about making her peace with the institution of marriage, to BIG MAGIC, a book encapsulating her the joyful spirit she brings to her creative work, her works resonate profoundly with all of us who wish to confront heartbreak, tragedy and desperation with openness, imagination and wisdom. In celebration of the release of her new novel CITY OF GIRLS, she joined the How To Academy to explore her life to date. In this conversation with journalist Hannah MacInnes, she considered her thoughts on genius and creativity, sex and adventure, wonder and fear, leaving no stone unturned in her remarkable story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In Episode Five of the How To Academy Podcast, Matthew Stadlen meets Preet Bharara, the former US district attorney who successfully prosecuted some of the most high-profile crimes in America. Along the way he gained notoriety as the ‘Sheriff of Wall Street’, was banned from Russia by Vladimir Putin and earned the distinction of being one of the first federal employees fired by Trump. In this wide-ranging conversation Preet takes us into the gritty, tactically complex, often sensational world of America’s criminal justice system – and gives us his inside take on the Mueller Report and President Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Once a generation an environmentalist dares to speak truth to power with such force that they cannot be silenced. In Episode 4 of the How To Academy Podcast, Matthew Stadlen meets David Wallace-Wells, whose terrifying vision of unfolding climate catastrophe may just be the wake-up call we need to save the future. Climate change is worse, much worse, than you think. The slowness of climate change is a fairy tale, perhaps as pernicious as the one that says it isn't happening at all, and if your anxiety about it is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible, even within the lifetime of a teenager today. In this podcast, David presents a sober, scientific but utterly terrifying vision of the unfolding 21st century. What will it be like to live on a pummelled planet? What will it do to our politics, our economy, our culture and sense of history? And what action can we all take, today, to minimise the damage? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this week's podcast, two giants of cognitive science - neuroscientist Gina Rippon and psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen - go head-to-head to debate one of the most contested and controversial ideas in the history of science: do men and women have essentially different brains? Setting this debate has potentially far-reaching consequences for the future of medicine and mental health treatment, the workplace and society as a whole. But do studies claiming to show differences between the brains of men and women actually uncover an inconvenient truth? Or are they merely attempts to justify the sexist status quo? It’s time to accept that brains should not be ‘sexed’, says Gina Rippon. It’s misleading to attribute any differences in behaviour, abilities, achievements, or personality to the possession of either a female brain or a male brain. And she argues that new techniques can prove it. After centuries of ingrained neurosexism, neuroscience’s cutting-edge breakthroughs should at last liberate us from outdated misunderstandings of what our brains can and cannot do. Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen takes a different perspective. Whilst he agrees that individuals’ brains should not and cannot be ‘sexed’, he reminds us that group studies of males and females do reveal differences on average: Men on average are better at analysing systems and women on average are better at empathising with people. And he marshals evidence from studies of prenatal hormones and genetics that these traits have both biological and cultural roots. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices