Best Institute of Intellectual History Podcasts (2025)

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Ep 135 - Misyar, Secret Wives, Polygamy, Mut'ah: Halal or Haram? | Habeeb Akande 2:25:03

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2h ago2:25:03

2:25:03

Habeeb Akande joins BITC to talk misyar, secret wives, polygamy, passport wives, sex negative culture, and the nafs. We unpack how some men cherry pick fiqh to justify secrecy, how praiseworthy aims differ from loophole hunting, and what real justice and consent look like in practice. We also ask the question, have Muslims adopted a Christian style…

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What Happens When We Forget British History | Gawain Towler 19:53

5h ago19:53

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What if the most radical act today is remembering who we are? In this brilliant, rousing address, political strategist and historian-in-spirit Gawain Towler argues that British history is not a relic – it’s a shield, a compass, and the last line of defence against tyranny, technocracy, and cultural amnesia. From Kipling to Alan Macfarlane, from the…

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Sectarianism in Philosophy

1d ago

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What is the relation between philosophy’s claim to disinterested universal rational inquiry and its historical existence as an assemblage of apparently sectarian schools? This is the question that formed the topic for a conversation that Valery Vino initiated with Ian Hunter.By Ian Hunter and Valery Vino

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Ep. 2 ft. Rev. Kristina Sinks: The Impact of White Jesus 55:35

3d ago55:35

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Visit our website: https://www.bibleisblackhistory.com/ Watch and subscribe on youtube: https://youtu.be/ghYhFDDVml8 In this conversation, Dr. Theron D. Williams and Rev. Kristina Sinks explore the implications of the image of White Jesus, discussing its historical context, psychological impact, and its role in perpetuating racial bias and white su…

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Post-Liberalism vs Populism: Why we need a moral revolution | John Milbank 34:26

6d ago34:26

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Is populism enough? Or is the real crisis deeper – moral, spiritual, civilisational? In this sweeping and provocative lecture, theologian and political philosopher John Milbank argues that post-liberalism is not a reactionary impulse or a right-wing fad, but a serious and British-born intellectual tradition rooted in the thought of Alasdair MacInty…

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The Rise and Fall of the House of Diggs 57:52

11d ago57:52

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This week Dr. Hettie V. Williams is in conversation with Dr. Marion Orr about his recent book House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Consequential Black Congressman, Charles C. Diggs, Jr (University of North Carolina Press, 2025). Williams is a professor of history in the Department of History and Anthropology at Monmouth University an…

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The empty lives of millennials | Helen Searls 25:17

13d ago25:17

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Can a generation obsessed with authenticity even recognise what’s real anymore? This wide-ranging and incisive talk explores Vincenzo Latronico’s Perfection, a haunting millennial rewrite of Georges Perec’s Things: A Story of the Sixties (1965). What begins as an exercise in literary homage becomes something far deeper: a cultural diagnosis of a ge…

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Ep 134 - Professor Joel Hayward on Rethinking Medina’s Covenant, Treaties & Statecraft 2:08:36

18d ago2:08:36

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Professor Joel Hayward unpacks how Medina actually worked, the Sahifat al Madinah, parallel pacts by clan, covenant enforcement, and the Prophet’s statecraft in moments like the Sawiq raid, the Qaynuqa crisis, the Nadir siege, and the Trench. We dig into source criticism, what the early texts really say, and why the dominant narrative needs a rethi…

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Is citizenship just a bit of paper? Dolan Cummings 34:35

21d ago34:35

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What does it mean to belong – to a country, a culture, a civilisation? In this provocative and wide-ranging talk, we explore the deep tensions between citizenship and belonging in modern Britain and the West. From the strange status of “Britishness” to the hollowing out of national identity under liberal universalism, this talk challenges the idea …

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Interview With Prof. Karsten Lemmer – German Aerospace Center DLR – Licensing, Startups and IP Strategy For a Large Research Institution in Germany – IP Fridays – Episode 167 26:30

27d ago26:30

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Interview with Prof. Karsten Lemmer, Executive Board Member of the German Aerospace Center DLR responsible for ‘Innovation, Transfer and Research Infrastructure’. ECJ strengthens enforcement of national trademarks across borders: In its ruling C-76/24, the ECJ clarified that trademark owners can also take action against trademark-infringing goods i…

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How We Lost the Space to Be Human | Tiffany Jenkins 39:57

27d ago39:57

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What happens when everything becomes public – our thoughts, our feelings, even our intimacy? In this sweeping and brilliant talk, we trace the collapse of the boundary between public and private life, showing how an idea once central to Western freedom – the right to a private self – has quietly disintegrated. From 17th-century sermons warning agai…

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Why You Feel Like a Stranger in Your Own Country | Professor Frank Furedi 36:06

28d ago36:06

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Alienation. Estrangement. A loss of voice. Across the West, millions feel like strangers in the very places they once called home – but are told they're not allowed to say it. Frank Furedi cuts through the noise and exposes the silent war on language, belonging, and common sense. This is not just cultural drift – it's a deliberate attempt by elites…

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Ep 133 - Shaykh Asim Yusuf on Ghazali's Ihya: Timeless Wisdom for Modern Seekers 1:55:49

1M ago1:55:49

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Shaykh Dr Asim Yusuf joins Boys in the Cave for a deep dive into Imam al Ghazali’s Ihya Ulum al Din, how to read it in our time, and how its spiritual psychology maps onto modern clinical insights. We cover decontextualizing and recontextualizing sacred texts, the metaphysics of eating, marriage and companionship, contentment in a consumer world, a…

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Why the Attack on Tradition is an Attack on Civilisation | Professor Ian Pace 26:43

1M ago26:43

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The concept of high culture has come under sustained attack. Once understood as a repository of human achievement, high culture is now dismissed as elitist, exclusionary, or worse—merely the expression of dead white European males. The modern academy, far from upholding cultural excellence, now works to deconstruct it. But high culture is not merel…

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What makes Western Civilisation special? | Bruno Waterfield 36:01

1M ago36:01

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Words are civilisation’s golden-thread: the durable link from Homer to Orwell that turns tribes into free peoples. Yet our own elites now treat language as toxic waste to be inspected, licensed or burned. This lecture storms through 2,000 years to show why killing words means killing the West itself. Lose the freedom to read and speak, and the West…

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Episode 132 - Dr. Yasir Qadhi on Rethinking Western Islam: Institutions, Salafism & The Tradition 1:53:06

2M ago1:53:06

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Dr Yasir Qadhi joins us to unpack Salafism, sectarianism, and how Muslims in the West can move from labels to leadership. We talk about what healthy disagreement looks like, why unity does not mean uniformity, and how communities can build real capacity, from mosques and schools to media, philanthropy, and liberal arts education. We get specific ab…

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Reclaiming the institutions: can civilisation be rescued? | Professor Simon Haines 19:37

2M ago19:37

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Modern universities have become bureaucratic engines of conformity, hostile to the very civilisation they owe everything to. In this eye-opening lecture, Professor Simon Haines, founding director of the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation (Sydney), explains how we can rescue the humanities by reintroducing students to the foundational texts – no…

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The Crisis of Cultural Institutions | Vicky Richardson 32:32

2M ago32:32

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As Vicky Richardson argues in this talk, cultural institutions today stand at a crossroads. Once dedicated to excellence, artistic achievement, and the preservation of tradition, they are now paralysed by fear. Leadership teams are more concerned with ideological positioning than curatorial expertise, and in their attempts to reframe institutions a…

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Update UK Trademark Caselaw – Doctrine of Postsale Confusion – Interview With Joshua Cunnington – Lutnick Suggests 5% Patent-Value Fee – UPC Court of Appeal Does Not Endorse Referral to the CJEU – IP Fridays ... 24:38

2M ago24:38

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I am Rolf Claessen and my Co-Host Ken Suzan and I are welcoming you to episode 166 of the IP Fridays Podcast. Today’s interview guest is Joshua Cunnington, who is Managing Associate at Stephenson Harwood in the UK. My Co-Host Ken Suzan talks with him about an update on Trademark Caselaw in the UK, e.g. the Doctrine of Postsale Confusion. Before we …

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Ep. 1 ft. Dr. Walter McCray: Exploring Black Presence in the Bible 49:16

2M ago49:16

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Watch on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO3W80HU5uw In this inaugural podcast of the Bible is Black History Institute, Dr. Theron D. Williams discusses the significance of the Black presence in the Bible with Dr. Walter McCray. They explore the historical context, critique existing scholarship, and emphasize the importance of underst…

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Episode 131 - The Future of Western Muslims: Resistance, Sufism & Activism | Dr. Shadee Elmasry 1:22:55

2M ago1:22:55

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In this episode, Dr. Shadee Elmasry joins us for a powerful conversation about the challenges and responsibilities facing Muslims in the West today. We reflect on whether Muslims are in an “Abyssinia phase” or if the time has come to invest fully in building lasting institutions that can preserve faith and serve future generations. The discussion e…

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The War on Human Potential | Dr Ashley Frawley 22:44

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The Industrial Revolution was supposed to set humanity free. It promised progress—mastery over nature, freedom from suffering, and a future shaped by human reason. It gave us the means to solve problems that once seemed like fate, to subject the world to human ingenuity and build a civilisation of liberty, equality, and fraternity. But something we…

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Beauty and the Footnote: Universities and the Study of Literature 1:01:09

2M ago1:01:09

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Stefan Collini, FBA. Professor Emeritus of Intellectual History and English Literature, University of Cambridge. The Donald Winch Lectures in Intellectual History.University of St Andrews. 11th, 12th & 13th October 2022. In the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, universities expanded to include a wide range of what came to be regarde…

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Why human beings are not animals | Ann Furedi 43:14

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In this talk, Ann Furedi argues that Human civilization is built on the distinctiveness of our species—the awareness that we exist in time, with a past, present, and future, and that we are unique in our capacity for rationality, morality, and creativity. But this foundational understanding is being dismantled. 🔹 Posthumanism & Post-Anthropocentris…

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Episode 130 - Jungian Psychology & Ibn Arabi Metaphysics: The Secrets of the Soul | Dr. Samir Mahmoud 1:42:25

3M ago1:42:25

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In this thought-provoking episode, Dr. Samir Mahmoud joins us for a deep dive into the intersections of Islamic spirituality and Jungian psychology. We explore how classical Islamic thinkers like Ibn Arabi, Al-Ghazali, and Ibn Sina understood the soul, and how their insights resonate - and diverge - from the work of Carl Jung. We discuss the concep…

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How the Industrial Revolution changed the world, and why its under attack | Dr Nikos Sotirakopoulos 16:20

3M ago16:20

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The Industrial Revolution was the single greatest leap forward in human history. As Nikos Sotirakopoulos argues in this talk, it didn’t just give us more—more wealth, more technology, more life expectancy—it gave us a different kind of life altogether. It unleashed human ingenuity, freed individuals from drudgery, and created a society where innova…

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Beauty and the Footnote: Universities and the Study of Literature 54:04

3M ago54:04

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Stefan Collini, FBA.Professor Emeritus of Intellectual History and English Literature, University of Cambridge. The Donald Winch Lectures in Intellectual History.University of St Andrews.11th, 12th & 13th October 2022. In the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, universities expanded to include a wide range of what came to be regarded …

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Is there a clash of civilisations? | Dr Tim Black 42:53

3M ago42:53

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The fall of the Soviet Union in 1989 was supposed to be a triumphant moment for the West. But, as Tim Black argues in this lecture, instead of securing a lasting victory for liberal democracy, it created an existential crisis. For decades, the Cold War had given the West a clear sense of purpose—defeating communism, leading the "Free World," and sh…

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Interview With J. Christian Wichard, Deputy Director General at the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection in Germany – History of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) – Important Changes ... 46:49

3M ago46:49

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I am Rolf Claessen and my co-host Ken Suzan and I are welcoming you to episode 165 of our IP Fridays podcast! Today’s interview guest is Christian Wichard, who is the Deputy Director General of at the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection and he has been doing that for about 14 years, with a short brek from 2009 to 2014, where he as D…

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The West's cultural crisis | Professor Bill Durodie 29:14

3M ago29:14

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In this important lecture, Professor Bill Durodie argues that the real threat to Western civilisation isn’t external—it’s internal. We are not in a clash of civilisations but a crisis of culture. 🔹 Loss of Shared Culture – Tradition has been discarded, but nothing has replaced it. Fragmentation replaces continuity. 🔹 From Resilience to Fragility – …

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Beauty and the Footnote: Universities and the Study of Literature 1:06:10

3M ago1:06:10

1:06:10

Stefan Collini, FBA. Professor Emeritus of Intellectual History and English Literature, University of Cambridge. The Donald Winch Lectures in Intellectual History. University of St Andrews. 11th, 12th & 13th October 2022. In the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, universities expanded to include a wide range of what came to be regard…

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Odious Debt: Bankruptcy, International Law, and the Making of Latin America

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In this episode, Derek van Voorst speaks with Dr Edward Jones Corredera, who is senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law and assistant lecturer at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (Madrid). The discussion focused on his recent book, Odious Debt: Bankruptcy, International La…

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Western Civilisation at a crossroads | Lord Frost 22:00

3M ago22:00

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Lord Frost, the former chief negotiator for the UK's Brexit negotiations, argues in this talk that Western Civilization, the most creative and dynamic force in human history, now stands at a crossroads. The defining elements of its success—intellectual dynamism, economic freedom, individual autonomy, and the ability to absorb and refine ideas—are u…

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The fight for civilisation | Frank Furedi 49:37

3M ago49:37

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Western civilisation faces a two-pronged assault – but are both attackers closer than they appear? In this uncompromising lecture, Professor Frank Furedi exposes the internal collapse of civilisational confidence in the West and its convenient projection onto foreign foes. From the lecture halls of London to the tunnels of Gaza, decolonisation and …

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#1. Richard Whatmore, can Intellectual History save liberty?

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Roots and Branches: First episode out now.Intellectual Historian Richard Whatmore (University of St Andrews) explains why the Enlightenment, 18th century republicanism and the history of free states matter for today’s global politics.Subscribe to Roots and Branches on Spotify or iTunes by visiting the Episode Website below.…

Institute Of Intellectual History Podcasts