

Thinking Class
John Gillam
Join John Gillam and his guests in reclaiming the space to think out loud and learn to pay attention to what matters. Including guests like David Starkey, Peter Hitchens, Roy Baumeister, Spencer Klavan, Eric Kaufmann, Paul Embery, Frank Furedi, David Goodhart, Carl Trueman, Connor Tomlinson, Ed West, Neema Parvini, Nigel Biggar, Robert Tombs, and Helen Pluckrose.
Episodes
Mentioned books

May 17, 2024 • 48min
#027 - Emma Wells - Building Beautiful To Save Our Souls
Emma Wells is an English church historian, academic, consultant author, and broadcaster, specialising in the ecclesiastical and architectural history of the late medieval and early modern age. Emma is the author of two books, including the 2021 book Heaven on Earth: Lives & Legacies of the world's greatest cathedrals; and the 2016 book Pilgrim routes of the British Isles. Emma is working on her third book at the time of recording.In this episode, Emma and I talk about why the medieval and dark ages gave us much more than we give them credit for, why so many cathedrals were built and what drove the elites who built them and funded them, the nature of beauty and whether it is objective or subjective, why we came to prize efficiency and utility over beauty, if our cities are becoming increasingly ugly because we have become less spiritual, and why our towns would be better off if the planning office was overseen by King Charles III.Emma and I agreed on so much, however not so on whether beauty is objective or subjective. Emma makes the argument that what is deemed beautiful goes in and out of fashion, while i don't believe that anyone would really find brutalist architecture beautiful in a month of Sundays. This is because i believe beauty and awe are linked and that awe-inspiring beauty is something which touches the soul rather than simply being about taste. I'd be interested to hear what you all think.Before you dive in, you would be really helping me out if you clicked subscribe on whatever platform you are listening to the show on. The more subscribers we have, the more guests we can attract, and the faster Thinking Class grows.Enjoy the show Classmates.

May 10, 2024 • 1h 5min
#026 - Carl Trueman - These Ideas Have Been Terrible For Our Humanity And Our Culture
Dr Carl Trueman is a Christian theologian and ecclesiastical historian. Carl is Professor of Biblical and Religious Studies at Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania. He has written many books including, 'The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution.' He contributes to First Things), blogs regularly at Reformation21 and co-hosts the Mortification of Spin podcast.In this episode, Carl and I talk about the importance of our cultural elite in shaping how we see the world, what the four ages of man are and why we're now living in the age of psychological man, why modernity and the ideas of today make us less human, the impact of the God-shaped hole the Western world in modernity on us all, how behaviour in the public square has become increasingly coarse even among our leaders, the surprising return of Christianity to the public sphere, why Richard Dawkins is in the horns of a dilemma now that he is part of 'Team Christianity', and the ideological and religious choices in front of us.This was a deeply engaging and heartfelt conversation. Carl is a wonderful soul. I admire his ability to present such a clear-eyed analysis of the ideas that have shaped us for good and ill in such an everyday human way. Whatever your beliefs - from all faiths or none - I think you'll resonate with what's being said here.Before we dive in, you would be really helping me out if you clicked subscribe on whatever platform you are listening to or watching on. The more subscribers we have, the more guests we can attract, and the faster Thinking Class grows.Enjoy the show class mates and don't forget to subscribe.Show notes- https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rise-Triumph-Modern-Self-Individualism/dp/1433556332/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Zhe0jozC4dOISFQbImVqoDfab1IMd5dIYABdOcUdgB0mu8-Q11e8zTvmkajuduUWQhbOJh9CcLoem4mO6AYfMw.dG_u9asc19H0FVXCx4Ve7ZgaMu3S1V_By_Hn_C-WBDw&qid=1715319879&sr=8-1- https://amazon.co.uk/Crisis-Confidence-Reclaiming-Historic-Individualism/dp/1433590018/ref=sr_1_2?crid=7YJ5LF5COQGW&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.zCpJnm_BzpAFYaEHBqybEedfDynaHjE94YOVq3qiuq1A9ZQ5yN9SG_F9Y17k0l27yWHe4Y-V6dB9GLmPMZNNWHw5jcVqK1p-yNoU20-jfVxjP0r1PhgNitvFBq6a9dbVN8QZ5niGiQC_1KRV5EcW_a-SK2ircImI3IevwGEo_ia6cjjHF1bkM_zFRWFV7ZvZFQcsV3xzaXa2Gm8e2ov6FW4pMukigXoR3b8nMfaVesI.O9ZiJQfmyKW0qUUXtdwCl0zxcNoPQ4O_qtfnWnLTv0Y&dib_tag=se&keywords=carl+trueman+books&qid=1715319925&sprefix=carl+tru%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-2

May 3, 2024 • 1h 2min
#025 - Eric Kaufmann - The Taboos That Produced A Woke Cultural Revolution
Eric Kaufmann is Professor of Politics at the University of Buckingham. He is the author of Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration and the Future of White Majorities (Penguin, 2018; Abrams, 2019), Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth (Profile, 2010), Taboo: How Making Race Sacred Produced a Cultural Revolution (Forum, 2024) and numerous academic books and papers.He is an editor of the journal Nations & Nationalism, and has written for New York Times, Times of London, Financial Times, Newsweek International, Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines.In this episode, Eric and I talk about why the spread of Woke ideas contributed to him leaving his long-held post at Birkbeck College, University of London for the University of Buckingham, how to define woke academically, whether universities can be reformed, how public and private leaders have become more culturally aligned to the left over the years, the nature of cultural socialism, cultural liberalism, and cultural conservatism, and why the former doesn't lead to flourishing, whether diversity, equity and inclusion can be reformed, how we came to be governed by the anti-racism taboo, whether there is a link between woke and mental health, and the impact of cultural leftism on the ability to have public discussion about salient political topics like immigration.We cover a lot of ground in this episode. Eric shows the benefits of taking a clear-eyed analysis to popular ideologies that have spread. I've nothing but admiration for him standing up to the mob and for forging a respectful path for the rest of us to follow in talking about the issues of the day without being governed solely by emotion.Before we dive in, you would be really helping me out if you clicked subscribe on whatever platform you are listening to the show on. The more subscribers we have, the more guests we can attract, and the faster Thinking Class grows.Enjoy the show class mates

Apr 26, 2024 • 59min
#024 - Sebastian Milbank - We Think We Know What Freedom Is But We Don't
Sebastian Milbank is the Executive Editor of The Critic magazine, and a journalist, writer and academic with a special interest in political theology.In this episode, Sebastian and I talk about why the changing media landscape is due to dissident energy, why liberalism has a dark side, why the concept of freedom itself is about more than just free choice, how the liberty won in the French Revolution continues to have an impact today, why the centre right has been losing so much over the years and the left has been winning, why Britain's governance and infrastructure is suffering grave issues, what self-governance is, why it's important, and whether we can get it back in a world obsessed with central government and outsourcing responsibility, and the necessity for modern Britain to rediscover its history and culture, and why leaders are failing because they have fallen into the habit of following.Enjoy the show class mates.

Apr 19, 2024 • 1h 5min
#023 - Helen Pluckrose - How To Keep Liberal Principles Alive In An Illiberal World
Helen Pluckrose is a political and cultural writer and commentator, addressing current affairs from a liberal humanist perspective. Her particular focus is Critical Social Justice (woke) scholarship and activism. Helen took part in the Grievance Studies Affair (along with Peter Bogossian and James Lindsay) which submitted shoddy, ridiculous and ideologically biased papers to academic journals known for publishing Critical Social Justice scholarship. In 2020, she co-authored Cynical Theories with James Lindsay, which traced the evolution of postmodern thought into Critical Social Justice scholarship. In that same year, she co-founded Counterweight, an organization for helping individuals push back at authoritarian Critical Social Justice policies and training programs at their place of work, university or child's school. Helen continues to work with individuals and organizations to resist ideological capture. Helen really just wants you to value evidence-based epistemology and consistently liberal principles.Helen and I talk about why critical theories are too narrow a way to see the world, why they have lead to the authoritarianism we see today, what prospect we see of a freer world, why some say liberalism is dead and why those who value liberalism must practice it if it is to survive, if conservatism and liberalism can live side by side, and why leaders of public and private institutions should be guided by gentle reform over revolution.What this conversation brought out for me is why even in these fractious, polarised times, where it is easy to find yourself self-censoring or being censored and that there are many who wish to censor their opponents, that we should be careful not to fall into tribalism.Enjoy the show class mates.Show notes- Cynical Theories - Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay- The World of Yesterday - Stefan Zweig- The New Leviathans: Thoughts After Liberalism - John Gray

Apr 12, 2024 • 1h 5min
#022 - Dr. Paul Morland - Demography Is Destiny: What Future Have We Chosen?
Dr. Paul Morland is an author and broadcaster who writes and speaks about population and the big demographic trends across the world, both contemporary and historic.Described as the 'UK's leading demographer' and 'one of the world's pre-eminent demographers', Paul has written three books: ‘Tomorrow’s People’, ‘The Human Tide’ and ‘Demographic Engineering’ and his work has been translated into nine languages. He has written for and been interviewed in many of the world’s leading newspapers and magazines including the Financial Times, the Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The Toronto Globe and Mail, Der Spiegel and the Jerusalem Post. He has broadcast on many outlets including BBC Radio 4. In this episode, Paul and I talk about the reasons behind population decline, why demographic models are so trustworthy when others aren't, whether immigration policies can make a difference in the face of huge movements of people, the nature of diasporas and the potential for integration, the ability of societies to maintain themselves with crashing birthrates, the impact of religion and culture on birthrates, and whether government policy or differing personal priorities are best-placed to lead to a demographic renaissance.Enjoy the show class mates.Show notesTomorrow's People: The Future of Humanity In Ten Numbers

Apr 5, 2024 • 38min
#021 - Elisabeth Braw - Goodbye Globalisation, Hello Divided World
Elisabeth Braw is a columnist at Foreign Policy, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, and the author of "Goodbye Globalization. In this episode, Elisabeth and I talk about what globalisation is and why we are saying goodbye to it as we know it, why we should trade with countries similar in values, the different approaches taken across the West in dealing with the end of globalisation, why ESG is having a negative impact on the defense sector and Western countries' ability to defend themselves, and why the West's liberalism blinded it to other countries' cultures and priorities.Enjoy the show, class mates.

Mar 29, 2024 • 1h 1min
#020 - Momus Najmi - Britain Is Suffering A Clash Of Civilisations
Momus Najmi is writer, commentator, and podcaster. Host of The World of Momus podcast and author of the Substack 'The World of Momus'. Momus has made appearances on broadcast media such as GB News and on podcasts such as New Culture, British Thought Leaders, and many more. In this episode, Momus and I talk about his experience of leaving Islam, why he chose to England and Britain as the place he wished to call home, the tension between British culture and Islam, and the impact of mass immigration on culture.Show notesWorld of Momus - SubstackMomus Najmi - X

Mar 22, 2024 • 1h 8min
#019 - Ian Williams: China's Influence Is Everywhere But It's Future Is Not Golden
Ian Williams is an author and award-winning journalist who has reported from across the world. He covered business and technology for the Sunday Times before moving to television. He was a foreign correspondent, first for Channel 4 News in Moscow and Asia, and then for NBC news, based in Bangkok and Beijing. Ian has travelled and reported from across China and has also covered conflicts across the Balkans, the Middle East, and Ukraine. In this episode, Ian Williams and I talk about the political class’s response to China in recent decades, what Britain and the western world should be concerned about, the Chinese Communist Party’s influence on academia in Britain, China’s capability for innovation, the future of its Belt & Road Initiative, and why China’s rise is not as inevitable as it seems.Show notes- How China bought Cambridge - The Spectator- Britain finally wakes up to China's influence operations - The Spectator

Mar 15, 2024 • 1h 4min
#018 - Lionel Shriver: Why I Left Britain (And Feel Guilty About It)
Lionel Shriver is an author of 8 books, including, 'We Need To Talk About Kevin', which won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2005 and a journalist, with a fortnightly column in The Spectator and a contributor to The Times. In this episode, Lionel and I talk about mass immigration to Britain and the subsequent demographic transformation, why populism is thriving even without political representation, the role complacency plays in a country's future, cultural decline and the prospect of renewal, and the fragility of order.Show notesI'm leaving Britain - and I feel guilty