Quillette Podcast
Quillette
The Quillette Podcast is a platform for rigorous, academic discussions rooted in common sense and free inquiry. Non-dogmatic and grounded in liberal values, the podcast serves as a beacon for thoughtful conversation on science, politics, philosophy, and culture. Quillette prides itself on intellectual honesty, avoiding ideological extremism in favor of evidence-based reasoning and progress. Hosted by leading voices in academia and journalism, past guests include evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, and journalist Douglas Murray, among others. Expect candid conversations that promote common sense and challenge anti-science and conspiratorial narratives from both the far left and right.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Mar 27, 2026 • 45min
The Ayatollahs' Assassins
Roya Hakakian, Jewish-Iranian writer and investigative journalist, recounts state-sponsored killings and landmark trials tied to Iran's regime. She describes the Mykonos assassinations, the Mykonos trial's legal impact, Tehran's hit lists and targeting of Kurds, and how diplomacy masked covert violence. Short, vivid scenes and legal drama drive the conversation.
11 snips
Mar 20, 2026 • 45min
When Everyone Knows Every Knows...
Steven Pinker, Harvard cognitive psychologist and linguist, talks about his book on common knowledge. He unpacks coordination problems like language, money, and driving. He explores how public signals create power, how silence or deniability preserves relationships, and how recursive mind-reading shapes humor, teasing, and social change.
Mar 17, 2026 • 35min
Has the Gay Rights Revolution Gone Too Far for the Gay Community’s Own Good?
Ronan McCrea, a UCL professor of constitutional and European law and author of The End of the Gay Rights Revolution, outlines how recent gains could be fragile. He discusses threats from both conservative and leftist alliances, the impact of migration and religious conservatism, shifting sexual cultures and Pride rituals, and tensions between radical activism and reformist strategies.
Mar 12, 2026 • 37min
The Extraordinary Exploits of Agent Zo
Clare Mulley, award-winning historian who writes about women in WWII, discusses Elżbieta Zawacka, aka Agent Zo, and her daring parachute drop into occupied Poland. Short scenes cover Zoe's prison teaching and leadership, her lifelong campaign for recognition of female fighters, the scale of women in the Polish resistance, Warsaw Uprising brutality, and Soviet manipulation after the war.
Mar 6, 2026 • 35min
Will Post-Islamist Iran Get a Royal Restoration?
Kaveh Shahrooz, an Iranian-Canadian lawyer and human rights activist, offers expert analysis on Iran's politics and the monarchy. He explores generational divides, nostalgia for the Pahlavi era, and Reza Pahlavi's rising profile. Discussion also covers IRGC economic power, ethnic minority grievances, and risks around succession and restoration.
Feb 26, 2026 • 37min
Catching a Serial Killer
Maureen Callaghan, investigative journalist and author of American Predator, delves into the hunt for Israel Keyes. She traces his childhood and early psychopathy. She outlines his meticulous kill kits, interstate methods, and double life as a contractor and father. She also reflects on investigative lessons, military training links, and the challenges of extracting truth from perpetrators.
10 snips
Feb 22, 2026 • 49min
Why We Need to Talk About Transgender School Shooters
Adam Zivo, a Toronto journalist and National Post columnist covering LGBT and cultural issues, discusses the Tumbler Ridge school shooting and its complex online traces. He explores anime-influenced personas, gender dysphoria amid psychiatric comorbidity, media and police handling of reported sex, and tensions between affirmation and clinical scrutiny.
Feb 11, 2026 • 48min
Guests of the Nation
Lionel Shriver, novelist and cultural commentator known for We Need to Talk About Kevin, discusses her novel A Better Life. She explains choosing a Honduran protagonist and 2023–24 setting. Conversations cover character dynamics, immigration as incentives and territory, narrator reliability, artistic freedom amid progressive pressure, and reactions to recent political violence.
Feb 9, 2026 • 52min
British Columbia’s Radical Political Landscape
Dallas Brodie, a former MLA and lawyer who founded the 1BC party, discusses British Columbia’s unique progressive tilt. She covers shifting labour politics, West Coast cultural parallels, SOGI’s evolution in schools, the Kamloops graves controversy and its political fallout. She also explains caucus infighting, her documentary on reconciliation narratives, and why she stayed in politics.
13 snips
Jan 29, 2026 • 54min
The Demise of Private Life
Tiffany Jenkins, historian and author of Strangers and Intimates, explores how ideas of privacy evolved from ancient times through Victorian England to today. She traces changing boundaries between public and private, the rise of conscience and intimate culture, debates over state oversight and data, and how politics moved into personal life. Short, provocative history that connects past to modern privacy tensions.
