With Reason
New Humanist magazine | The RA
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Top 10 With Reason Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best With Reason episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to With Reason for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite With Reason episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
10/19/21 • 45 min
Racism is not an externality to British policing but is integral to its history, says sociologist and ex-youth worker, Adam Elliott-Cooper. He tells Samira Shackle about the ideas behind his book ‘Black Resistance to British Policing’. Recognising racism as far more than just interpersonal or about prejudice alone, he connects it to colonialism and the state, and highlights the role of resistance - including by women of colour who have long championed justice and radical change.
Plus: why the tendency in the UK to see racism as "something that happens somewhere else"? What’s obscured when we talk about “knife crime”? And why must we insist on continuing to talk about whiteness?
Podcast listeners can get a year's subscription to New Humanist magazine for just £13.50. Head to newhumanist.org.uk/subscribe and enter the code WITHREASON
Hosts: Samira Shackle and Alice Bloch
Executive producer: Alice Bloch
Sound engineer: David Crackles
Music: Danosongs
Reading list:
‘Black Resistance to British Policing’ (2021) Adam Elliott-Cooper
W.E.B Du Bois (1868-1963) collected works
‘Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order’ (1978) Stuart Hall et al.
‘Folk Devils and Moral Panics’, (1972) Stanley Cohen
‘There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack’ (1987) Paul Gilroy
‘Women, Race and Class’ (1981) Angela Davis
Frantz Fanon (1925-1962) collected works
‘And Still I Rise’ (2006) Doreen Lawrence
‘Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays’ (1950) George Orwell
‘Leviathan’ (1651) Thomas Hobbes
‘On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life’ (2012) Sara Ahmed
‘Assembly’ (2021) Natasha Brown
‘In Search of Whiteness’ (2017), Lola Okolosie for New Humanist magazine, with Vron Ware
10/26/21 • 39 min
As mainstream space tourism grows ever more likely, New Yorker writer Nicholas Schmidle tells Niki Seth-Smith about life inside the new space race, as explored in his new book 'Test Gods'. What motivates men like Bezos, Branson and Musk? How does the approach to risk in private business compare with that at NASA? And should we be looking to space at all, with so much unresolved here on planet earth? Plus, Nicholas reflects on fatherhood and masculinity, including the life of his father: a fighter pilot and Top Gun grad.
Podcast listeners get a year's subscription to New Humanist magazine for just £13.50 by using the offer code WITHREASON. Subscribe now.
**Recorded in August 2021**
Further reading:
'Test Gods: Tragedy and Triumph in the New Space Race' (2021), Nicholas Schmidle
'The Right Stuff' (1979), Tom Wolfe
'In Praise of Astronauts' (2013) Paul Sims for New Humanist magazine
(M)otherhood and Choice, with Pragya Agarwal
With Reason
10/12/21 • 43 min
What does it mean to contemplate 'motherhood' in a world that values some bodies - and some decisions - over others? Behavioural scientist Pragya Agarwal tells Alice Bloch about her experiences as a woman of South Asian heritage - from abortion, to pregnancy, to surrogacy - and the social, historical and scientific factors that shape how we talk about motherhood. How have women been controlled and contained through history? And how does that continue, worldwide, today?
A candid conversation about maternity and reproductive justice, asking what motherhood means in a world of inequality, prejudice and control.
Hosts: Alice Bloch and Samira Shackle
Exec Producer: Alice Bloch
Sound Engineer: David Crackles
Music: Danosongs
Image artwork: Ed Dingli
If you want access to more fresh thinking, why not subscribe to New Humanist magazine? Head to newhumanist.org.uk/subscribe and enter the code WITHREASON to get a whole year's subscription for just £13.50
Reading list:
'(M)otherhood: On the Choices of Being a Woman' (2021) Pragya Agarwal
Sway: Unravelling Unconscious Bias (2020) Pragya Agarwal
Alice Bloch, Review of 'Childless Voices' by Lorna Gibb (2019) New Humanist Magazine
10/05/21 • 41 min
Carlo Rovelli, the globally celebrated physicist and bestselling storyteller of science, talks to Niki Seth-Smith about the history - and sheer wonder - of quantum theory. How did a feverish young man named Werner Heisenberg, working alone on the North Sea island of Helgoland in 1925, develop a radical insight that would shake the world of physics? What’s its legacy for how we think about the nature of reality and perception itself? And how does the ‘relational’ interpretation of quantum mechanics transform the way that we might see not only the physical world, but our relationships and politics, too?
A fascinating conversation about collaboration and mentorship, our attachment to truth and certainty, and the humbling power of science.
Podcast listeners can get a year's subscription to New Humanist magazine for just £13.50. Head to newhumanist.org.uk/subscribe and enter the code WITHREASON Hosts: Niki Seth-Smith and Samira Shackle
Exec producer: Alice BlochSound engineer: David CracklesArtwork: Christopher Wahl (photograph), Ed Dingli (artwork)Music: Danosongs
Further reading:
'Helgoland' (2021), Carlo Rovelli
'There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness' (2020), Carlo Rovelli
'The Order of Time', (2018), Carlo Rovelli
'Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity' (2016) Carlo Rovelli
'Seven Brief Lessons on Physics' (2015), Carlo Rovelli'‘‘The beauty in physics is the kind of beauty that people have embodied in art’’
A Q&A with Frank Wilczek (2015) by Daniel Trilling, New Humanist magazine.
Bonus: Rutger Bregman and Philippe Sands - Are Humans Naturally Good? From How To Academy
With Reason
09/30/21 • 62 min
A special episode from the How To Academy Podcast. Human rights lawyer and award-winning author Philippe Sands QC meets the Dutch historian and viral superstar Rutger Bregman to hear a new argument: that it is realistic, as well as revolutionary, to assume that people are good.
How To Academy is London’s home of big thinking. In livestream and through live events, they host the world’s biggest thinkers, artists, entrepreneurs and leaders – from Ai Weiwei to Malcolm Gladwell, Bill Gates to Patti Smith, Isabel Allende to Denis Mukwege. Each week, their podcast offers an in-depth interview with their most exciting recent guests. The show's available on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts - just search for How to Academy.
How to Fix the Internet, with Chris Bail
With Reason
04/13/21 • 42 min
Polarisation is seen as a threat to democracy - and social media is seen as a cause. But what can be done? Does the blame really lie with tech alone? And what could the virtual public square look like if we dared to hit "reset" and redesigned our apps from scratch? A radical and counter-intuitive conversation between Chris Bail, head of the Polarization Lab at Duke University, and Samira Shackle, editor of New Humanist magazine, on tribalism, extremism, and not logging off. For fans of Azeem Azhar, Jonathan Haidt, Nick Srnicek and Shoshana Zuboff.
Podcast listeners can get a year's subscription to New Humanist magazine for just £13.50. Head to newhumanist.org.uk/subscribe and enter the code WITHREASON
Hosts: Samira Shackle and Niki Seth-Smith
Executive producer: Alice Bloch
Sound engineer: David Crackles
Music: Danosongs
Further Reading:
"Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make Our Platforms Less Polarizing" (2021) Chris Bail
www.polarizationlab.com
"Terrified: How Anti-Muslim Fringe Organizations Became Mainstream" (2014) Chris Bail
"The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion" (2012), Jonathan Haidt
"The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" (2018) Shoshana Zuboff
"Platform Capitalism" (2016) Nick Srnicek
"Does the Left Have a Problem with Empathy?" (2020) Nicola Cutcher, New Humanist Magazine
03/23/21 • 39 min
In the last two decades, the UK has deported thousands of people to Jamaica, many of whom left that country as children and grew up in the UK. Luke de Noronha talks to Alice Bloch about his moving and urgent study of four such young men. How have racism and inequality shaped their lives? What hope remains? And why does language matter when we talk about ‘foreign criminals’? A conversation about borders and exclusion, citizenship and listening. For readers of Paul Gilroy, Gary Younge, Amelia Gentleman, Les Back and Reni Eddo-Lodge.
Hosts: Alice Bloch and Samira Shackle
Producer: Alice Bloch
Music: Danosongs
To support what we do and access more fresh thinking, why not subscribe to New Humanist magazine? Head to newhumanist.org.uk/subscribe and enter the code WITHREASON to get a whole year's subscription for just £13.50
Further reading:
‘Deporting Black Britons: Portraits of Deportation to Jamaica (2020) Luke de Noronha
‘The Windrush Betrayal’ (2019) Amelia Gentleman
‘Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race’ (2017) Reni Eddo-Lodge
‘Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands’ (2017) Stuart Hall, with Bill Schwarz
‘Rethinking Racial Capitalism’ (2018) Gargi Bhattacharyya
‘Us and Them? The Dangerous Politics of Immigration Control’ (2013) Bridget Anderson
‘There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack’ (1987), Paul Gilroy
‘Teaching Racial Tolerance’ (1972) Research Report, New Humanist Magazine
03/09/21 • 37 min
In the era of #MeToo, it’s assumed that the empowered woman can and must express her desires clearly. But in ‘Tomorrow Sex Will be Good Again’, Katherine Angel argues that this an unreasonable burden to place upon women. She explains why to Niki Seth-Smith, as the two of them discuss questions such as: How do we make sex good again, while attending to power and violence? What's at risk in speaking out about sex? And how can we really research our innermost wants and desires?
A discussion about sex and pleasure, feminism and consent. For readers of Susie Orbach, Vanessa Springora, Emilie Witt and Michel Foucault.
Hosts: Niki Seth-Smith and Samira Shackle
Producer: Alice Bloch
Music: Danosongs
Photo: Matthew Sperling
To support what we do and access more fresh thinking, why not subscribe to New Humanist magazine? Head to newhumanist.org.uk/subscribe and enter the code WITHREASON to get a whole year's subscription for just £13.50
Further reading:
'Tomorrow, Sex Will Be Good Again: Women And Desire In The Age of Consent' (2021) Katherine Angel
'Unmastered: A Book on Desire, Most Difficult To Tell' (2012) Katherine Angel
'What do Women Want: Adventures in the Science of Female Desire' (2013) Daniel Bergner
'The History of Sexuality: 1: The Will to Knowledge' (1976, 1978) Michel Foucault
‘The Female Sexual Response: A Different Model’ (2000), Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, Rosemary Basson
‘Reconceptualising women’s sexual desire and arousal in DSM-5’ (2015),
Psychology & Sexuality, Cynthia Graham
'Untrue: why nearly everything we believe about women and lust and infidelity is untrue and how the new science can set us free', (2018) Wednesday Martin
‘Why I'm Glad My Daughter Had Under-age Sex’ (2004), New Humanist Magazine, Sally Feldman
12/15/20 • 39 min
The co-author of ‘Work Want Work: Labour and Desire at the End of Capitalism’ on how the logic of work has crept into all we do, and how we might untangle ourselves. Will the Covid-19 pandemic offer a way out? Or will it simply increase the twin blights of under- and over-employment – not to mention our addiction to digital labour online?
For readers of David Graeber, Donna Haraway, Aaron Bastani, Paul Mason and David Frayne.
To support what we do and access more fresh thinking, why not subscribe to New Humanist magazine? Head to newhumanist.org.uk/subscribe and enter the code WITHREASON to get a whole year's subscription for just £13.50.
Presenters: Samira Shackle & Niki Seth-Smith
Producer: Alice Bloch
Music by Danosongs
Reading List:
- Mareile Pfannebecker and James A. Smith (2020) 'Work Want Work: Labour and Desire at the End of Capitalism'
- David Graeber (2018) 'Bullshit Jobs'
- Aaron Bastani (2019) 'Fully Automated Luxury Capitalism'
- Paul Mason (2019) 'Clear Bright Future: A Radical Defence of the Human Being'
- Tiqqun (1999/2012) 'Preliminary Materials for a Theory of the Young-Girl'
- Donna Haraway (1985) 'A Cyborg Manifesto'
- Sophie Lewis (2019) 'Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family'
- New Humanist magazine (2019) 'Fighting for the Future' by Niki Seth-Smith
12/08/20 • 37 min
Why do we value some forms of knowledge over others? Minna Salami discusses her bold new book ‘Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone’ and its radical call to move beyond the damaging confines of the ‘euro-patriarchal’ to embrace a deeper way of knowing.
A conversation on decolonisation, iconoclasm, sisterhood, sexism and gender. For readers of Audre Lorde, bell hooks, James Baldwin and W E B Du Bois.
Listeners can get a year's subscription to New Humanist magazine for just £13.50. Head to newhumanist.org.uk/subscribe and enter the code WITHREASON.
Presenters: Alice Bloch & Samira Shackle
Producer: Alice Bloch
Music by Danosongs
Further reading:
- Minna Salami (2020) ‘Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone’
- Audre Lorde (1984) ‘The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House’
- Audre Lorde (1979) ‘An Open Letter to Mary Daly’
- Mary Daly (1978) ‘Gyn/Ecology’
- W E B Du Bois (1903) ‘The Souls of Black Folk’
- James Baldwin (1956) ‘Giovanni’s Room’
- Nikesh Shukla (ed) (2016) ‘The Good Immigrant’
- New Humanist magazine (2020) - Charting Black Lives in the Fin de Siecle, by Lola Okolosie
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FAQ
How many episodes does With Reason have?
With Reason currently has 20 episodes available.
What topics does With Reason cover?
The podcast is about Sociology, Society & Culture, Spirituality, Research, Intelligent, Podcasts, Social Sciences, Religion, Science, Philosophy, Interviews, Academic and Politics.
What is the most popular episode on With Reason?
The episode title 'Inside The New Space Race, with Nicholas Schmidle' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on With Reason?
The average episode length on With Reason is 40 minutes.
How often are episodes of With Reason released?
Episodes of With Reason are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of With Reason?
The first episode of With Reason was released on Nov 17, 2020.
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