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
May 8, 2026 • 45min
The Last Straight Woman
Phoebe Maltz Bovy, writer and cultural commentator and author of The Last Straight Woman, explores the cultural shifts around heterosexual desire. She traces the book's origins, debates desexualization of female desire, and teases conversations on middle‑aged lust, Cat Person, MeToo narratives, sexual fluidity, and how visual attraction and gendered double standards shape dating.
May 2, 2026 • 32min
Is Fighting Antisemitism a Waste of Time?
Bret Stephens, opinion columnist and editor focused on politics, Israel and antisemitism. He argues for strengthening Jewish institutions and culture rather than persuading unreceptive extremists. He explores how envy, privilege narratives and settler-colonial claims shape modern antisemitism. He critiques victimhood messaging and urges investment in community resilience.
Apr 23, 2026 • 50min
Girls in an Online World
Freya India, writer and author of Girls: Gen Z and the Commodification of Everything, explores how growing up online reshapes teen life. She traces filtered beauty and AI-driven sameness. She examines algorithmic pressures, staged mental-health content, parasocial relationships, privacy choices, and how screens replace real friendships.
5 snips
Apr 20, 2026 • 35min
Documenting a Decade of Academic Meltdowns
Ric Esther Bienstock, documentary filmmaker known for investigative films like Speechless, discusses a decade-long project on campus censorship. She recounts arriving at Evergreen, her fly-on-the-wall filming style, choice of protagonists, and ethical decisions about representation. Conversations cover shouting matches over language, professors ostracized for controversial views, and how institutions responded to protests.
Apr 9, 2026 • 50min
The Search for Truth
Michael Shermer, author and founder of Skeptic Magazine, explains why truth matters. He explores why people reject facts, precautionary bias and social signaling, the role of science and institutions, grounding morality in facts, and how cooperation and expanding empathy shape progress. Short, thoughtful, and provocative.
Apr 5, 2026 • 34min
The Historical Case for Israel
Roy Altman, a U.S. district court judge and author of Israel on Trial, makes a concise legal and historical case for Jewish presence in the land of Israel across millennia. He discusses archaeology and legal evidence, genetic links to the Levant, the Babylonian exile and Persian return, claims like the Khazar theory, Hadrian’s renaming, and whether settler colonialism applies.
12 snips
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.
22 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.
