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.

Subscribe Listen in podnod RSS feed Show website

388 episodes
Updated July 21

Episodes388

Newest first

Nov 3, 2025 · 1 hr 13 min
The Zohran Mamdani debate
If the polls are to be believed, Zohran Mamdani—a self-described democratic socialist—is poised to become the next mayor of New York City. His history as a police abolitionist, calls for wealth redistribution, and fierce criticisms of Israel have rankled the Big Apple’s old guard, while galvanizing many young Gothamites, including a majority of young Jews. So: should we fear Mayor Mamdani? Join UnHerd for an exclusive in-person debate at our Manhattan headquarters, featuring our columnist Ross Barkan and progressive activist and whistleblower Lindsey Boylan (in support of Mamdani) versus the New York Post’s Miranda Devine and National Review’s Caroline Downey (in opposition). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 29, 2025 · 47 min
Should Europe seize Russian assets? Is a crypto crisis looming?
In this first episode of The Econoclasts, Yanis Varoufakis and Wolfgang Munchau debunk two failed economic orthodoxies shaping our world. First, they dismantle the narrative that Europe is helping Ukraine - and striking a powerful blow against Russia - by raiding Russia’s frozen assets. More than this being legally questionable, is it also economically and geopolitically self-defeating? Next, they expose the "battle" between central banks and anti-establishment crypto rebels as a false choice, revealing it as a dangerous illusion that serves the powerful. Far from being revolutionary, are stablecoins turbo-charging financial instability for the next global crash? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 23, 2025 · 35 min
Helen Andrews on the Great Feminisation
UnHerd's Freddie Sayers speaks with Helen Andrews, former senior editor at The American Conservative and author of Boomers, to discuss her provocative and widely-debated article in Compact Magazine "The Great Feminization". They discuss: why female group dynamics (consensus-seeking, covert undermining, social ostracism) are the engine behind cancel culture; the threat a "feminised" legal system poses to the objective "rule of law," replacing evidence with emotional sympathy; and why this shift wasn't a meritocratic victory, but the result of "social engineering" that makes it "illegal for women to lose." Is this the unspoken truth behind our institutional collapse? Watch the full, explosive conversation with Helen Andrews. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 21, 2025 · 44 min
Can science prove that God exists?
In the age of reason and rationality, what room is there for the transcendent? Authors of the bestselling book God, the Science, the Evidence, Michel-Yves Bollore and Olivier Bonnassies, challenge the materialist consensus and argue that the origins of the universe could still be the work of a creator. They join UnHerd's Freddie Sayers to discuss their research and what it might reveal... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 17, 2025 · 1 hr 5 min
Hitchens & Moore vs. Gove & Ibrahim: The Thatcher Debate
On what would have been her 100th birthday, Freddie Sayers chairs a spirited debate on Thatcherism and the Iron Lady’s place in Britain’s story. How should we understand her legacy in 2025? Did she transform the country for the better — or does she bear responsibility for many of today’s problems? In this all-star debate, journalists Peter Hitchens and Suzanne Moore go head-to-head with former Conservative politician and Spectator editor Michael Gove, and political analyst Reem Ibrahim, in a lively clash over the most divisive figure in modern British history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 15, 2025 · 37 min
Deep dive: Is this the end of trans?
Freddie Sayers sits down with Professor of Politics at the University of Buckingham, Eric Kaufmann, to discuss his latest report on “The Decline of Trans and Queer Identity among Young Americans”, which reveals a significant and surprising shift in the landscape of gender and sexual identity among Generation Z. Professor Kaufmann explains his findings, which show a sharp drop in both trans and queer identification since 2023. Drawing on data from large-scale surveys of US undergraduates, he details how the share of trans-identified students has nearly halved in just two years. Their discussion explores the data, including trends in elite institutions, and delves into the potential reasons for this decline. Is it linked to changes in mental health, the growing distance from the pandemic and lockdowns, or the so-called “anti-woke” vibe shift? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 6, 2025 · 44 min
Steven Pinker: Questions that shouldn't be asked
Freddie Sayers sits down with renowned cognitive psychologist, author, and Harvard Professor of Psychology Steven Pinker to discuss his latest book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows... and explore how common knowledge shapes our social, political, and economic worlds. Their conversation delves into the power and pitfalls of collective thinking, the dynamics of cancel culture and censorship, and the Trump administration’s clashes with academic institutions like Harvard. They also consider whether democracy is in decline, if society is losing its shared sense of reality, and whether there’s still reason to be optimistic about the future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Oct 2, 2025 · 1 hr 3 min
Lord Maurice Glasman: Could Blue Labour stop Reform?
UnHerd’s Contributing Editor Jonny Ball (aka Despotic Inroad) sits down with Lord Maurice Glasman, the Labour peer and political theorist behind Blue Labour, at Labour party conference 2025 in Liverpool. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is under fire and polling as the least popular on record — Glasman argues that the party faces a battle for its very soul. In this conversation, he traces the history of the movement he founded, Blue Labour, and its critique of the Labour party’s transformation into what he sees as metropolitan and liberal, detached from its working-class roots. Glasman highlights how the working class and young voters are drifting to Nigel Farage’s Reform, why the best predictor of whether you vote Labour is whether you went to private school, and what it would take to reverse Labour’s decline: a renewed focus on industrial strategy, job creation, and working-class empowerment. Can Blue Labour stop Reform’s rise and save Labour? Could Reform actually replace Labour as the voice of working people? And what, if anything, should Labour learn from MAGA and Trump’s populist success? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 29, 2025 · 1 hr 23 min
Paul Kingsnorth: How to fight the Machine
UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers welcomes Paul Kingsnorth to the UnHerd Club an exclusive interview about his new book Against the Machine. Kingsnorth has spent decades charting the alienation and upheaval brought about by modernity. In this wide-ranging interview he sets out why he sees today’s technological order as inhuman, why AI may be the 'Antichrist', and why he believes the West must be allowed to die. What does it mean to live as a dissident inside the Machine? And what lines must we draw if we are to remain human? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 17, 2025 · 40 min
James Lindsay: Beware Right-wing cancel culture
Has the political Right become what it once despised? In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's assassination, a wave of firings and online campaigns has many asking if a "woke right" has finally arrived, adopting the very tactics of cancel culture it used to condemn. Freddie Sayers sits down with author and commentator James Lindsay for a conversation about this dangerous new chapter in the culture wars. As calls for "retribution" grow louder, what is the line between legitimate accountability for those in public trust and the illiberal, mob-like vengeance taking hold? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 15, 2025 · 29 min
Dr Martin Kulldorff: What I told RFK Jr about vaccines
Freddie Sayers speaks with Dr. Martin Kulldorff — co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration and newly appointed chair of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) — to discuss his and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s views on vaccines, the recent turmoil at the CDC that has seen senior officials resign or be removed, and his reflections on the global pandemic response, from Sweden’s no-lockdown strategy to the United States’ vaccine mandates. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 12, 2025 · 45 min
Thomas Chatterton Williams: The centre cannot hold
In the wake of Charlie Kirk's killing, what does this precarious moment mean for American politics? UnHerd's Freddie Sayers speaks to Thomas Chatterton Williams, author of 'Summer of Our Discontent: The Age of Certainty and the Demise of Discourse' about the eerie parallels between 2020 and 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 11, 2025 · 31 min
Is Charlie Kirk's murder a tipping point?
Freddie Sayers is joined by Undercurrents host Emily Jashinsky, reporting from the White House, and UnHerd's US Editor Sohrab Ahmari to discuss the immediate aftermath of the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. On the somber anniversary of September 11th, they analyse the profound and frightening fallout, including the sense that a "seal has been broken" in American politics, the potential for a J. Edgar Hoover-style crackdown on left-wing groups by an angered Trump administration, and the grim question of whether civil debate can survive in an era of escalating violence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 4, 2025 · 45 min
Matt Taibbi: Has Elon Musk ruined politics?
Try High Flavanol Cocoa (Stem Cells & Nitric Oxide): (40% OFF PROMO FOR 48HR) https://blackforestsupplements.com/UNHERD UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers speaks with journalist and author Matt Taibbi. A former Rolling Stone reporter and now publisher of Racket News, Taibbi was chosen by Elon Musk to help release the “Twitter Files,” exposing political and government influence on online speech. In this conversation, he reflects on Musk’s promise to turn Twitter into a “digital town square,” the re-platforming of Trump and other controversial voices, and the mission creep that has left X accused of amplifying right-wing politics while throttling critics. Has Musk delivered a freer public square? And how do these questions play out in Britain, where viral flashpoints like “Sophie of Dundee” and the arrest of writer Graham Linehan at Heathrow over X posts about trans issues have turned free speech into a front-line cultural battle? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 30, 2025 · 32 min
Lina Khan: How to break the monopoly machine
UnHerd’s US Editor Sohrab Ahmari interviews former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan. As head of the Biden FTC, Khan shook up decades of corporate deference — suing Big Tech, targeting drug middlemen, and reviving antitrust enforcement. In this conversation, she reflects on the collapse of the brief “post-neoliberal” consensus, warning that corporations now use both woke and anti-woke rhetoric to shield their power, while Trump’s return has revived old patterns of lobbyist capture and green-lit mega-mergers. Can Democrats truly embrace economic populism? Was the populist moment just a mirage? And is antitrust still America’s frontline battle against monopoly power? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 27, 2025 · 34 min
Is this the Disenlightenment?
UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers brings together two leading voices on the decline of reading and the future of literacy: Times columnist and cultural critic, James Marriott, and YouTuber and philosopher, Jared Henderson. Marriott has written extensively about what he calls the dawn of a “post-literate society.” For him, the slow death of English literature and the retreat from serious reading mark a cultural crisis, with far-reaching consequences for politics, education, and civic life. He argues that without books and deep reading, society risks becoming shallow, distracted, and dangerously unserious. Henderson agrees and sees the problem through a different lens. On his YouTube channel he has chronicled the “male reading crisis” in American colleges, showing how boys and young men are abandoning reading altogether. But rather than mourning literature’s decline, he focuses on practical ways to reignite reading habits, from choosing the right books to rebuilding attention in an age of screens. In this discussion, Freddie Sayers asks: Is literacy truly collapsing, or simply evolving into new forms? As AI, smartphones and digital media reshape our minds, is the future of reading one of decline — or reinvention? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 19, 2025 · 1 hr 16 min
Ukraine: Realist vs Idealist
UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers brings together two starkly opposed voices on the Ukraine war and the future of world order: John Mearsheimer, University of Chicago professor and leading realist, and Matthew Syed, Sunday Times columnist, broadcaster and author. Mearsheimer has long argued that NATO expansion and Western policy blunders set the stage for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. From a realist standpoint, he warns that Russia’s position is essentially non-negotiable and that Ukraine must cut a deal now if it is to avoid further devastation. For Mearsheimer, ignoring the hard facts of great-power politics and clinging to Western rhetoric risks only catastrophic escalation. Syed sees things very differently. In a recent Sunday Times column, he criticised the West’s handling of Ukraine, from the failed Alaska summit. He accused Western governments of failing Ukraine and directly attacked Mearsheimer’s realist position as “morally deranged” and fatally weak. For Syed, only moral clarity and Western resolve — not accommodation with Putin — can change the course of the war. In this debate, Freddie Sayers asks: Is realism just disguised defeatism? Is idealism dangerously naïve in the age of Trump, Putin and Xi? And, after the White House summit with Zelensky, does the West finally have a coherent strategy — or is Ukraine still being left to fight alone? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 12, 2025 · 42 min
Tim Cook: Genius or villain?
UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers speaks with journalist and author of new book Apple in China, Patrick McGee – who was the Financial Times’s principal Apple reporter from 2019 to 2023 – about the man at the centre of Apple’s China story: CEO Tim Cook. On August 1st, Cook quietly became Apple’s longest-serving leader, overtaking Steve Jobs — a milestone that came days before a high-profile White House appearance in which he warmly praised Donald Trump. The move was widely seen as a calculated bid to secure political goodwill as US–China tensions threaten Apple’s business. Before becoming CEO, Cook built Apple’s vast Chinese supply chain — training millions of workers and investing billions in infrastructure — giving the company unmatched manufacturing power but also a deep reliance on China’s authoritarian system. Now, McGee says, he is scrambling to shift production elsewhere while navigating Washington politics. His book, Apple in China, charts how Cook’s choices drove Apple’s rise — and its vulnerabilities — as speculation grows over his future and who might replace him. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 7, 2025 · 25 min
Richard Dawkins: Why men and women are different
UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers interviews renowned evolutionary biologist Professor Richard Dawkins about the enduring biological differences between men and women — and why recognising them remains essential in the face of growing ideological pressure. Dawkins lays out the evolutionary and genetic foundations that distinguish the sexes. He addresses the growing influence of gender ideology and the way it has infiltrated scientific institutions, education, and public discourse. From the redefinition of sex to the silencing of researchers, Dawkins warns that a once-clear understanding of biology is being sacrificed to political orthodoxy — and makes the case for defending scientific truth against the encroachment of dogma. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 5, 2025 · 43 min
DEBATE: Is Israel’s war in Gaza moral?
Journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon and UnHerd US Editor Sohrab Ahmari discuss the MAGA pivot against Israel in recent weeks and the reasons for waning support for Netanyahu's war from the American Right. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.