How To Academy Podcast

Bestselling novelist Rebecca F. Kuang returns to How To Academy in conversation with Hannah MacInnes to dive into her new novel, Katabasis, inviting us on a journey to the underworld and back. From the literal and metaphorical meanings of descending to hell, to the question of eternity, to the imaginative expanse of Rebecca's literary vision in an age where freedom of expression is under threat, Rebecca illuminates the art of her craft and imagination with humour, warmth, and deeply personal contemplation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman went into an Alabama state prison to film a revival meeting, they discover that the prisoners wanted to talk to them off-camera and share their stories; after Andrew and Charlotte left, the incarcerated men were able to use contraband mobile phones to reveal the hidden realities of prison life. Their stories included the horrifying death of prisoner Stephen Davis at the hands of guard, and a labour strike coordinated across the prisons (that is beginning again at the time of recording).  This deeply harrowing and impactful film reveals a secret world most of us dare never to think about: in the UK, it's available to stream now on Sky. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Do you avoid conflict? Do you tend to take the blame? Do you take care of others at the expense of yourself? Do you live in a state of hypervigilance? Fawning can appear in a plethora of different ways, it can be visible or invisible; it can manifest in our relationships to sex or money, or in the tendency to 'people-please'. But one thing remains constant: it is about finding safety in an unsafe world, often at our own expense. Fawning expert and clinical psychologist Dr Ingrid Clayton shines a light on this under-represented but crucial piece of the trauma puzzle, bringing clarity and support. Drawing on twenty years of clinical psychology work, as well as a lifetime of insight as a recovering fawner herself, she shares tools to find meaningful, reciprocal connections – and finally be ourselves.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Widely heralded as the most provocative Norwegian writer since Ibsen and simply ‘one of the finest writers alive’ by the New York Times, Karl Ove Knausgaard’s five-part autobiographical novel sequence My Struggle sent him into the stratosphere of literary fame, inspiring a wave of imitators that continues to this day and cementing his place as an outspoken giant of contemporary literature. A long-time resident in London, Karl Ove now turns his attention to the capital for the first time in The School of Night, transporting us back to 1980s Deptford and into the psyche of Kristian Hadeland, a deliciously loathsome young Norwegian willing to do anything for art and for fame. Joining us for an exclusive conversation with the author of Boy Parts, Eliza Clark, Karl Ove will take us on an unforgettable journey into the darkness of the human psyche and explore the Faustian pacts we make for artistic glory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A boy scout from smalltown America known for his sincere, folksy charm. A chain-smoking maverick dedicated to the pursuit of the Art Life. A womaniser with a female skewing fanbase. A Hollywood outsider who was also a mainstream celebrity. Who was the real David Lynch, and why did his bizarre, avant garde art films - from Eraserhead to Inland Empire - gain him recognition and love far beyond any of his contemporaries? The cultural critic John Higgs returns to the podcast to unpick the meaning of the adjective "Lynchian" and make sense of a man whose work is nothing less than a cultural phenomenon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices