NewsScienceSociety & CulturePhilosophy

UnHerd with Freddie Sayers

UnHerd

Freddie Sayers from online magazine UnHerd seeks out top scientists, writers, politicians and thinkers for in-depth interviews to try and help us work out what’s really going on. What started as an inquiry into the pandemic has broadened into a fascinating look at free speech, science, meaning and the ideas shaping our world.

Due to popular demand here is a podcast version of our YouTube — available to watch, for free here or by searching ‘LockdownTV’.

Enjoy! And don't forget to rate, like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Play

Open in

28 episodes
Avg 39 min
English

Episodes 28

Newest Oldest Longest

All20 Unplayed20 In progress0 Played0

Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.

Wednesday · 29 min
Emily Jashinsky: The end of trumpism?
Freddie Sayers talks to UnHerd’s Emily Jashinsky about the staggering midterm election results, breaking down how a deeply unpopular war in Iran, skyrocketing gas prices, and systemic voter fatigue shattered Donald Trump’s working-class MAGA coalition and fuelled historic Democratic victories across traditionally red states like Texas, Kansas, and South Carolina. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
October 26 · 33 min
Wolfgang Munchau: The end of the Euro
Freddie Sayers talks to UnHerd’s Wolfgang Munchau about the escalating political turmoil and mounting sovereign debt in France, unpacking how parliamentary deadlock, stagnant economic growth, and the prospect of a Marine Le Pen presidency could spark a catastrophic French debt spiral that spreads to economies like Belgium and Italy, tests the inflation-constrained limits of the European Central Bank, and ultimately risks triggering the collapse of the Eurozone itself - all while British politicians push to rejoin an increasingly fragile European Union. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
October 24 · 41 min
Charles Foster: How to live on the edge
UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers talks to author, Oxford academic, and Royal Geographical Society fellow Charles Foster about his book 'The Edges of the World', exploring why true creativity, spiritual growth, and human flourishing occur at the volatile margins rather than the static centres of life, evolution, and society. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
October 19 · 44 min
France in crisis: What happens next?
This week, riots and looting have spread across French cities after protests over education spiralled out of police control. To some, this is a cautionary tale of unbridled immigration and a warning to other European powers. But look closer and there might be more to the story than you'd find on an X feed. To analyse the mood on the ground and the wider context of the crisis, Freddie is joined by historian of French culture Andrew Hussey and writer Philippe Lemoine. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
October 9 · 30 min
MIT biologist: Is the Russian plague pandemic 2.0?
UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers talks to MIT evolutionary engineer Kevin Esvelt about a suspicious biological researcher's death in Irkutsk, Russia, using the incident to explore the escalating biosecurity risks posed by engineered pandemic weapons, vaccine-evading pathogens, and AI-accelerated gain-of-function research. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
October 1 · 1 hr 12 min
Dr. Iain McGilchrist: AI versus the human soul
Dr Iain McGilchrist has dedicated decades of neuroscience research to unravelling the inner workings of the human mind. But now, a new form of ‘consciousness’ has come to compete with the very idea of being a person. Could artificial intelligence overtake its creators? Join the psychiatrist, philosopher and author of the bestselling book The Master and His Emissary, for a live on-stage conversation with UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
September 24 · 42 min
Prof. Nick Bostrom: The truth about the AI panic
UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers talks to Oxford philosopher Professor Nick Bostrom about the escalating concerns over artificial intelligence, weighing whether catastrophic warnings from industry insiders reflect genuine existential fears or commercial strategy, while analysing technical threats like deceptive alignment and autonomous AI coordination alongside the broader economic, geopolitical, and societal risks of managing superintelligence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
September 7 · 34 min
Wolfgang Munchau: The AfD momentum is unstoppable
Freddie Sayers talks to UnHerd columnist and co-host of The Econoclasts Wolfgang Munchau about the political earthquake triggered by the hard-Right Alternative for Germany’s (AfD) historic election victory in Saxony-Anhalt, examining why young voters and non-voters are turning away from the centrist consensus, the total failure of Germany’s political ‘firewall’ strategy, the collapse of Friedrich Merz’s leadership within the CDU, and how a rising wave of hard-Right governments across France, Italy, and Germany could ultimately paralyse the European Union. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
August 4 · 42 min
Kathleen Stock: The scandal of Jason Arday
Jason Arday, the wunderkind sociologist and youngest ever black professor at Cambridge, has an almost unbelievable backstory. Overcoming illiteracy and autism, he became the jewel in the crown of the university’s pivot towards diversity post-2021. He has been lauded by celebrities, raised millions for charity, suffered abuse from detractors and found time to run hundreds of miles. Or has he? Kathleen Stock, former professor at Sussex University, speaks to UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers about her viral investigation into academia’s ‘DEI darling’ and the plagiarism scandal that shocked Britain. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 21 · 40 min
Ross Barkan: Zohran Mamdani is just the beginning
Freddie Sayers is joined by UnHerd columnist and author Ross Barkan - a former campaign colleague of Zohran Mamdani - to discuss the New York Mayor’s rapid political rise and the controversies defining his tenure. They unpack Mamdani's anti-capitalist economic policies, his radical stance on Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and assess what his brand of democratic socialism signals for the future trajectory of the Democratic Party and American politics as a whole. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 7 · 41 min
Jonathan Haidt: Why Big Tech wants your children
UnHerd's Freddie Sayers talks with social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt about the global momentum toward banning under-16s from social media, exploring the tension between protecting children from addictive platforms and safeguarding free speech from state censorship, while outlining how device-based age checks offer a viable solution where traditional parental controls fail. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
July 3 · 29 min
Norman Finkelstein: How Israel lost the Right
UnHerd's Freddie Sayers talks to American political scientist, author, and prominent scholar of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Norman Finkelstein, about the fracturing of the historically ironclad alliance between the political Right and Israel. They explore how a mixture of 'America First' anti-war sentiment and the financial incentives of the podcast economy have made criticising Israel a lucrative tool for Right-wing influencers, from Tucker Carlson to Candace Owens. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
June 19 · 38 min
Jake Sullivan: Trump has handed Iran victory
In this exclusive UnHerd interview Freddie Sayers meets Jake Sullivan, former National Security Advisor under Joe Biden and chief negotiator during the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Jake Sullivan co-hosts the weekly national security podcast ‘The Long Game’ with Jon Finer, former deputy national security advisor under Sullivan. Freddie and Jake analyse the geopolitical and financial implications of the Trump administration's memorandum of understanding with Iran. Could the concessions of the agreement that suspended the conflict to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for an unprecedented financial windfall of unfrozen assets, waived oil sanctions, and a controversial $300 billion reconstruction fund mark a significant diplomatic surrender? Or is this another example of the 'art of the deal'? Watch the full conversation now. You can listen to Jake's podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-long-game-with-jake-sullivan-and-jon-finer/id1850526014 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
June 1 · 48 min
Will Pope Leo divide the Right?
Freddie Sayers talks to The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles and UnHerd US editor Sohrab Ahmari to explore how Pope Leo XIV’s landmark AI encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, is exposing deep philosophical and political fractures within the American populist Right over global technology regulation, transnational governance, and the Trump administration's relationship with the Vatican. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 21 · 29 min
John Burn-Murdoch: What's causing the fertility crisis?
UnHerd's Freddie Sayers talks to John Burn-Murdoch, the chief data reporter for the Financial Times, as well as Hernan Moscoso-Boedo and Nathan Hudson from the University of Cincinnati, to investigate a controversial new study suggesting that the global proliferation of smartphones and social media since 2007 has drastically altered young people's behaviour, halved face-to-face socialisation, and accelerated a worldwide collapse in fertility rates that cannot simply be explained by the global financial crisis. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 12 · 53 min
Adrian Wooldridge: Why Labour should keep Starmer
UnHerd's Freddie Sayers talks with journalist, author, and historian Adrian Wooldridge about the systemic leadership crisis facing the UK, exploring how the rapid decline of Keir Starmer's Labour government mirrors the previous Conservative downfall and reflects a broader decay of liberalism that necessitates a radical reinvigoration of the centrist tradition. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
April 30 · 40 min
The stage is set for a new WWI
UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers talks with Odd Arne Westad – Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University – about his new book The Coming Storm, which argues that rather than entering a new Cold War, we are actually reliving the high-tension multipolarity of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a dangerous era where rapid technological shifts, the collapse of globalisation, and the friction between a rising China and a nervous United States mirror the exact structural conditions that caused the world to sleepwalk into the catastrophe of World War 1. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
April 13 · 27 min
Orbán's defeat is not a liberal victory
Freddie Sayers talks with UnHerd’s Aris Roussinos reporting from Hungary about the downfall of Viktor Orban’s long-standing administration at the hands of Peter Magyar, explaining that while the landslide victory for the Tisza party appears to be a win for the European establishment, it is actually a political shift that represents a rebranding of the Right rather than a return to liberalism and serves as a primary example of how the broader European continent continues to drift towards the Right. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
April 12 · 1 hr 6 min
Iain McGilchrist: How to escape left-brain thinking
UnHerd's Freddie Sayers talks with neuroscientist and philosopher Dr. Iain McGilchrist about the psychological and cultural crisis resulting from our modern reliance on the brain's analytical left hemisphere, a perspective that views the world as a collection of inanimate parts rather than a living whole, while making a compelling case for the rehabilitation of myth and religious tradition as essential pathways to a deeper, relational truth that can protect Western civilisation from the dehumanising effects of purely mechanistic thinking. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
April 10 · 34 min
John Bolton: Trump should finish the job
UnHerd's Freddie Sayers discusses the ongoing military campaign in Iran with former National Security Advisor John Bolton who delivers a blunt critique of the current administration by arguing that sporadic strikes are a strategic mistake and that the United States must instead commit to a total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and the ultimate goal of regime change to permanently neutralise the threat of a nuclear armed Tehran, while simultaneously delivering a scathing personal assessment of President Trump's impulsive decision-making process. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Showing 1–20 of 28 episodes