Bonus: Rutger Bregman and Philippe Sands - Are Humans Naturally Good? From How To Academy

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.

Previous Episode

Why our minds need the wild, with Lucy Jones

For centuries, we’ve had an intuitive sense that connecting with “nature” is good for our wellbeing. But what’s the hard evidence? What exactly is “nature” anyway? Should we be wary of it being prescribed as a catch-all cure for complex problems? And what impact does nature writing itself actually have? Science writer Lucy Jones talks to Alice Bloch about her prize-winning book ‘Losing Eden’, which surveys the mass of research – from the work of Carl Jung to cutting-edge neurology, medical and social science – on why our minds need the wild.
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
Hosts: Alice Bloch and Samira Shackle
Exec Producer: Alice Bloch
Sound Engineer: David Crackles
Music: Danosongs
Image: Gemma Brunton (photo), Ed Dingli (artwork)
Reading list:
Lucy Jones (2020) ‘Losing Eden: Why Our Minds Need the Wild’
Richard Mabey (2005) 'The Nature Cure'
Mary-Jayne Rust (2020) 'Towards an Ecopsychotherapy'
Carl Jung, collected works.
Richard Smyth (2019) ‘In search of the "nature cure"’, New Humanist magazine.

Next Episode

Quantum Physics & Philosophy, with Carlo Rovelli

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.