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
Sep 9, 2022 • 47min
From VisiCalc to Global Cloud Computing: Lessons from a Lifelong Love Affair with Digital Technology
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks to veteran Microsoft program manager, R&D coordinator, tablet-computing pioneer, and workplace visionary David Jones about the joy of spreadsheets, the art of “schedule chicken,” Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and “Clippy,” everyone’s least favourite digital office assistant. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 29, 2022 • 32min
When Workplace Anti-Racism Training Goes Off the Rails
Nicole Levitt tells Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay what happened when diversity consultants were hired to teach the mantras of social justice to staff at her Philadelphia-based non-profit organization. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 12, 2022 • 23min
Meet the 80-Year-Old Feminist Who Got Banned From the YMCA for Protesting Male Bodies in the Women‘s Locker Room
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks to Port Townsend, WA-area swimmer Julie Jaman, the octogenarian whose efforts to keep biological men out of a changing area reserved for girls and women led to accusations of transphobia, a visit with the police, multiple town-council debates, and an ongoing Twitter campaign called #LetJulieSwim. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Aug 3, 2022 • 43min
Canada’s Unmarked-Graves Social Panic: How Did the Media Get This Blockbuster Story So Wrong?
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks to National Post reporter Terry Glavin about the blockbuster 2021 claim that hundreds of murdered Indigenous children had been found in unmarked graves, the process by which that story began to unravel in the year that followed, and what the whole spectacle tells us about Canada’s intellectual class. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 19, 2022 • 30min
Understanding Wokeness as a Make-Work Strategy for the Privileged Class
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with Swedish Marxist Malcom Kyeyune, who argues that nominally progressive theories of race and gender are actually aimed at securing influence, employment, and prestige for underemployed university graduates. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jul 6, 2022 • 36min
James Kirchick on ‘Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington’
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks to author James Kirchick about the closeted lives of gay men living and working in America's capital during the Cold War. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 20, 2022 • 27min
Richard Dawkins on the Wonders of Flight
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with renowned evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins about his new book on the science and mythology of life in the air—from puffins and flying squirrels to fairies and angels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 5, 2022 • 48min
‘Sex Realism’ Versus ‘Sex Denialism’: Is the Tide Finally Turning Against Gender Ideology?
Economist editor Helen Joyce, author of ‘Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality,’ explains to Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay why biology must trump politics when it comes to defining who is a woman and who is a man. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 23, 2022 • 46min
Progressive Social Panic at Yale and Princeton
Reporter Aaron Sibarium talks to Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay about his recent scoops concerning the campaign against anti-woke Princeton classics professor Joshua Katz, and the unsettling radicalism of student activists at Yale Law School Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
May 8, 2022 • 35min
How Elon Musk Can Promote Free Speech—Without Turning Twitter Into One Big ‘Dumpster Fire’
Veteran technology expert Jim Rutt tells Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay about the hard lessons he’s learned over four decades of creating and implementing content-moderation standards on numerous social-media platforms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
