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Main Edition
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Freddie Sayers 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.
Could Keir Starmer exploit the summer riots to curtail civil liberties? From the return of the Counter Disinformation Unit to the start of live facial recognition, Big Brother Watch's Silkie Carlo joins UnHerd to discuss the UK crackdown.
As news breaks of a British general election, Former Director of Communications at 10 Downing Street Lee Cain and Political Editor of UnHerd Tom McTague join Freddie Sayers for an emergency roundtable.
Glenn Greenwald joins UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers to explore the nuances of free speech in today’s digital world. They discuss the challenges of protecting minority voices while upholding free expression, the dangers of corporate censorship, and the importance of critical thinking in navigating today’s complex information landscape.
Following an explosive investigation into the Global Disinformation Index, viewed 8 million times on X/Twitter, UnHerd has been contacted by dozens of lawmakers and activists raising concerns about rating agencies like the GDI. In this update podcast, Freddie Sayers addresses government officials on the chilling effect of censorship and makes a case to defund the 'disinformation industry'.
UnHerd's Flo Read meets Jonathan Haidt to discuss the dangers of modern technology for younger generations.
Watch it on the UnHerd website:
Listen to the podcast: https://plnk.to/unherd?to=page
Since 2012, youth mental health across the West has steadily declined. Jonathan Haidt is an American social psychologist, co-author of bestseller The Coddling of the American Mind and author of the new book The Anxious Generation. His theory is simple: the introduction of smartphones to children around 2011 accelerated the crisis of social media addiction. He joins UnHerd's Florence Read to discuss parenting, porn and the age of anxiety.
The verdicts of “ratings agencies” such as the GDI, within the complex machinery that serves online ads, are a little-understood mechanism for controlling the media conversation. In UnHerd’s case, the GDI verdict means that we only received between 2% and 6% of the ad revenue normally expected for an audience of our size. Meanwhile, neatly demonstrating the arbitrariness and subjectivity of these judgements, Newsguard, a rival ratings agency, gives UnHerd a 92.5% trust rating, just ahead of the New York Times at 87.5%.
So, what are these “ratings agencies” that could be the difference between life and death for a media company? How does their influence work? And who funds them? The answers are concerning and raise serious questions about the freedom of the press and the viability of a functioning democracy in the internet age.
Since October 7th, old divides between Right and Left on support for Israel were predictably resurfaced. Less expected, however, was a new civil war on the online Right. Compact founder and key figure in the so-called ‘New Right’ Sohrab Ahmari joined UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers to discuss it.
UnHerd's Freddie Sayers talks to Sohrab Ahmari
UnHerd's Freddie Sayers meets Rob Henderson
Why are the top 1% so politically correct? Rob Henderson coined the term ‘luxury beliefs’ to explain how affluent people signal high status with ‘woke’ ideas. In his new memoir ‘Troubled’, Henderson tells the story of a difficult childhood and how it opened his eyes to the hypocrisy of America’s elite. He joins UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers to discuss the concept of luxury beliefs and much more.
Freddie Sayers was joined in Washington DC by Ruy Teixeira, Robby Soave and Emily Jashinsky to ask: who will win in 2024?
UnHerd's Freddie Sayers meets Katharine Birbalsingh, 'Britain's strictest headteacher'.
Florence Read and Freddie Sayers took a film crew (and an armed security guard) into the Tenderloin district to find out the truth for themselves. This special report includes remarkable interviews with city supervisor Dean Preston and Michael Shellenberger, author of San Fransicko, as well as drug users, locals and activists across the West.
Visit https://unherd.com/2023/12/the-battle-for-san-francisco/ to watch.
Former Supreme Court judge, and celebrated historian of The Hundred Years War, Jonathan Sumption joins UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers to discuss continental entanglements past and present, and the disrupted civil and international order we face today.
Professor Tim Spector was one of the “winners” of the Covid era: his ZOE symptom tracker app accrued millions of users during the pandemic
Now he has pivoted back to his true passion, gut health, and taken many of his followers with him. Endorsed by celebrities such as Davina McCall and Carrie Johnson, the new version of the ZOE app promises a personalised nutrition plan and comes with a glucose blood monitor usually used by diabetics. It is proving hugely popular, with over 100,000 subscribers paying up to £600 in their first year — and a further 300,000 on the waiting list.
It boasts all the hallmarks of a scientific endeavour, with endorsements by world-leading experts and numerous studies. But how convincing are its claims?
Deborah Cohen, Newsnight’s former Health Editor, and Margaret McCartney, a GP, undertook a forensic investigation for UnHerd and found that ZOE’s scientific foundations aren’t as strong as they would have you think…
Patrick Brown tells Freddie Sayers why he designed his research to sound catastrophic.
Read the post here.
UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers sits down with Mary Harrington to discuss the Russell Brand investigation and accusations.
Read the Post here
UnHerd's Florence Read sits down with Gad Saad to talk about why the Western world is so depressed.
How can we be happy? This question has preoccupied thinkers from Aristotle to the present day, in various disciplines encompassing philosophy, science and religion. In his latest book, The Saad Truth about Happiness, the Canadian evolutionary behavioural scientist Dr. Gad Saad takes on the subject through a scientific and practical lens. He spoke to UnHerd’s Florence Read about how happiness correlates with our politics, our religious beliefs, and the importance we place on play.
US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are ready to do a deal, according to the historian, military strategist and advisor to the US government Edward Luttwak. The comments were made in a discussion this week with UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers, during which Luttwak argued that “a shift in the overall situation” has resulted in both leaders being more willing to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war.
The author, who has worked inside and outside of the Pentagon and the US Department of State for decades, believes that channels between the CIA and the Kremlin are sufficiently open for peace talks to develop. Following the aborted Wagner Group uprising at the end of last month, CIA chief William Burns spoke directly to Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service, to reassure him there was no CIA involvement in the rebellion. For Luttwak, this implies “a certain overall attitude and willingness to communicate”, while Naryshkin’s very presence in the Kremlin is further evidence that the war could be coming to an end.
How can normal people resist the increasingly technocratic and soulless nature of human life? Freddie Sayers sits down with writer Paul Kingsnorth at the UnHerd Club to find out.
Read the Post here
Edward Blum joins us to discuss affirmative action on the grounds of race, particularly with regard to the elite University and Colleges where it is currently a major part of the admission process.
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Freddie Sayers is joined by former French Ambassador Gérard Araud to dive into the topic of whether the Western world is coming to an end and if we are seeing the appearance of a world of great powers.
Read the Post here
Florence Read meets Jaron Lanier to discuss the development of Artificial Intelligence, where it is going, what we can expect and if it's humans or the machines which are the problem.
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Freddie introduces UnHerd's brand new podcast, These Times.
These Times is the history of today’s politics with Tom McTague and Helen Thompson
Each week Tom and Helen explore the great forces and ideas that led us to where we are right now. It’s a politics podcast for those who want a deeper, historical understanding of the news, to understand what has really shaped our world and why.
Subscribe today searching 'These Times' in your preferred podcast app, or click here for a direct link to the show on all main podcast providers: https://unherd.com/these-times-with-tom-mctague-and-helen-thompson/
Freddie sayers in conversation with Robert F Kennedy Jr discussing vaccines, the domination of the democratic governments by corporate power, NATO, the CIA and more.
From the left-brain right-brain divide to the metaphysics of magic, Dr Iain McGilchrist addresses the profound questions of living well. The esteemed thinker was in conversation with Freddie Sayers at the UnHerd Club on 20th April 2023.
Read the article here
What the governments and media are saying in public is quite different to what they may be saying in private. Anatol Lieven, former war correspondent joins us to discuss the question of Crimea and how different the discussions in private are compared to what we hear in the public eye.
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UnHerd's Freddie Sayers meets former CIA Analyst Martin Gurri to discuss Jack Teixeira and the Pentagon leaks.
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Is disinformation a little more than a buzzword? Is it part of a far bigger movement? Freddie Sayers is joined by Jacob Siegel to discuss disinformation and America's new censorship complex.
Read the Post here
UnHerd's Flo Read meets philosopher Susan Neiman to discuss the meaning of the word 'woke' and why we use it.
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If offence is against the rules, what hope is there for radical writing? Join world-famous author Lionel Shriver to discuss the decline of in-your-face fiction and the sinister rise of sensitivity readers.
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UnHerd's Freddie Sayers meets Matt Stoller to discuss the case against the Silicon Valley Bank collapse.
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UnHerd's Freddie Sayers meets Chris Miller, economic historian and author of Chip War.
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UnHerd's Freddie Sayers is joined by PayPal co-founder David Sacks to examine the fallout from the collapse of SVB Bank.
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UnHerd's Freddie Sayers sits down with UnHerd contributor Mary Harrington to discuss her new book, Feminism Against Progress.
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UnHerd's Freddie Sayers meets journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who wrote the minute by minute lockdown discussions.
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Marianne Williamson, the bestselling self-help author and former Democratic primary candidate, is back in the race to become US President. She is due to announce officially tomorrow, which will make her the first Democrat to put their name in the ring for 2024, before even Joe Biden. In 2020, Williamson (a total political unknown at the time) vied for the progressive vote, but lost out to the better-known Senator Bernie Sanders. Yet since then she has grown a loyal following of young voters who call themselves the ‘Orb Gang’ in reference to her New Age spiritualism. Can a new generation of American voters take her to the White House? UnHerd's Flo Read spoke to her from the UnHerd studio to find out.
Read the Post here
Fiona Hill has been closely involved in matters to do with Russia and Ukraine advising American administrations for many years. We discuss NATO's "open door", negotiation with Putin, what would be different if Trump was still in office and much more.
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UnHerd's Freddie Sayers meets Jeffrey Sachs to debate who really blew up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
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UnHerd's Freddie Sayers and Louis-Vincent Gave discuss the current COVID situation in China.
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UnHerd's Freddie Sayers meets Michael Kofman.
Michael Kofman is the Director of the Russia Studies Program at the Center for Naval Analyses and a Fellow of the Center for a New American Security. He joined UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers to give an update on the situation on the ground in Ukraine and debate the risks and benefits of pursuing an ‘all-out’ victory against Russia.
The military analyst on the risks and rewards of Western intervention
UnHerd's Freddie Sayers speaks to journalist Peter Hitchens about a disturbing new Big Brother Watch report into UK government spying and censorship.
Read the Post here
UnHerd's Freddie Sayers chats with American philosopher Matthew B. Crawford in the UnHerd studio.
Check out Matthew's Substack here
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UnHerd's Freddie Sayers meets Dr. Margery Smelkinson and Dr. Leslie Bienen to discuss the efficacy of facemasks.
Read the full Post article here:
