

Quillette Narrated
Quillette
Narrated versions of selected Quillette essays.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Mar 31, 2026 • 15min
Once Upon a Time...Film Critics Became Joyless—A Review
Tarantino is quintessentially American. He lets us linger and watch Tate in all her Technicolor radiance. He lets us love her. What’s more, he lets her watch and love herself.

Mar 27, 2026 • 19min
Beautiful Visions
Van Morrison turns eighty.

Mar 18, 2026 • 23min
The Many Faces of Tucker Carlson
A review of Jason Zengerle's biography of Tucker Carlson, tracing his fall from gifted journalist to antisemitic demagogue. By Graham Daseler.
00:00 — Carlson’s childhood debate (playing Carter vs Reagan)
01:16 — Introduction to Zengerle’s book Hated by All the Right People
01:52 — Lesson: attacking opponents vs defending ideas
02:15 — Early career as a strong, independent conservative writer
03:23 — Exposé of Grover Norquist
03:43 — Transition to television and rise as a pundit
04:05 — Joining CNN’s Crossfire
05:10 — Realisation: television > print for influence
05:31 — Washington elite social life and prominence
06:17 — Jon Stewart confrontation and fallout
07:33 — Career decline: PBS → MSNBC → failures
08:41 — Founding The Daily Caller
09:23 — Shift toward click-driven, sensational content
10:05 — “There is no line” — collapse of editorial standards
10:29 — Competition with Breitbart and hiring extremists
11:10 — Obsession with TV exposure
12:06 — Return to prominence with Fox News (2016)
12:49 — Embrace of Trump-era populism
13:06 — Private disdain vs public support for Trump
13:28 — Ratings peak and influence inside the White House
14:27 — Shift in ideology and embrace of conspiracies
15:08 — Patriot Purge and January 6 claims
15:36 — Dominion lawsuit and internal contradictions
16:06 — Exit from Fox News (2023)
16:28 — Move to Twitter/X and podcast dominance
17:00 — Increasing focus on antisemitic themes
17:46 — Controversial guests (e.g. Churchill revisionism)
18:00 — Interview with Nick Fuentes
18:16 — Selective questioning and double standards
19:00 — Personal continuity vs ideological transformation
19:22 — Reinvention as anti-elite populist
19:54 — Turn toward fringe conspiracy content
20:14 — Carlson as symbol of media degradation
20:37 — Comparison to historical demagogues
21:27 — Parallel with Joseph Sobran’s trajectory
21:47 — Ongoing political influence despite setbacks
22:00 — Conclusion: enduring opportunism and audience-first approach

Mar 11, 2026 • 14min
The Most American King: Abdullah of Jordan
Aaron Magid's biography examines how Jordan's King Abdullah has navigated 25 years of regional turmoil through Western alliances and survival.
Written by Michael M. Rosen

Mar 8, 2026 • 35min
Kissinger and Cambodia
Henry Kissinger’s policies influenced Cambodia’s fate, but they alone did not cause the rise of the Khmer Rouge.

Mar 4, 2026 • 46min
Erasing the Word 'Woman'
This presentation is written and narrated by Dr Karleen Gribble, a researcher specialising in maternal and child health with particular expertise in breastfeeding and lactation policy.
Dr Gribble argues that the replacement of sex-based language like "women," "mothers," and "breastfeeding" with gender-neutral terms like "pregnant people," "birthing bodies," and "chest feeding" in healthcare represents a failure of evidence-based medicine, cultural imperialism, and abuse of institutional power. She traces how this language shift originated in the United States around 2010–15 and spread globally through academic journals, publishers, health organisations, and funding bodies.
She contends that these changes are being implemented without any research demonstrating benefits, while the limited existing studies show women find the language confusing, offensive, or dehumanising. Dr Gribble argues this is particularly problematic because it violates public health principles requiring clear communication, may harm vulnerable women with low health literacy, and imposes Western gender ideology on non-Western cultures. She documents how researchers and health professionals who question this shift face professional retaliation, and how her own research proposals to study the impact of desexed language were rejected as offensive.
Dr Gribble calls for urgent research on the actual health impacts of this language change and a return to evidence-based practice that prioritises clear, dignified communication in women's healthcare.

Mar 2, 2026 • 20min
Progressive Moral Reasoning and Iran’s Revolt
A critique of how moralizing discourse shapes Western attention to Iran’s 2026 revolt. Discussion of why many Iranians favor pragmatic restoration like constitutional monarchy. Exploration of how moral lenses misread slogans and replace institutional legitimacy with moral judgments. Examination of the costs when politics is seen mainly as exposing injustice rather than building authority.

Feb 26, 2026 • 14min
Islamism: Shooting the Messenger
The British establishment tends to deflect attention from the dangers of Islamism by attempting to silence those who point them out.

Feb 11, 2026 • 25min
The Mediocrity Feedback Loop
If leading media critics don’t expect much, filmmakers won’t deliver much.

Feb 3, 2026 • 35min
The Sexual Paradise That Never Was
How Margaret Mead’s romanticised account of Samoan life became the founding myth of cultural determinism—and why it endures despite having been thoroughly debunked.


