Prof. James Hankins: The return of Western civilisation

Order 'The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition' by Professor James Hankins here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Golden-Thread-Ancient-World-Christendom/dp/1641773995UnHerd's Freddie Sayers talks with Professor James Hankins, a forty-year veteran of Harvard University, about the precarious state of the Western tradition and the burgeoning resistance movement in classical education. Moving through a 2,500-year narrative arc from the ancient Greek invention of reason to the modern-day "cult of innovation," Hankins warns that elite institutions are suffering from a dangerous cultural amnesia. But, despite the degradation of the canon, offers a defiant hope rooted in history, arguing that Western civilisation has survived near-extinction before and remains ripe for a new Renaissance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UnHerd's Freddie Sayers talks to Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), about a new report revealing that 2025 has officially surpassed 2020 as the worst year on record for campus censorship and scholar sanctions. Despite the Trump administration’s campaign promises to restore free expression, Lukianoff details a disturbing shift where the political right has adopted the very cancel culture tactics it once decried, led by government officials who are now directly intervening to investigate, defund, and even deport students for controversial speech. From the fallout of the Charlie Kirk assassination to the use of executive orders to ban student groups, they explore why the new wave of state-sponsored retaliation is creating a chilling effect across American universities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UnHerd's Freddie Sayers speaks with Steve Gallant, a convicted murderer who served 16 years in prison and became known as a hero during the 2019 London Bridge terror attack, where he famously helped subdue the attacker, Usman Khan, with a narwhal tusk on his first-ever day release.Gallant recounts the dramatic events of that day, which led to a royal pardon and an early release, but the conversation delves deeper into the complex reality of rehabilitation and the growing threat of organised Islamist terror networks—or "the Brotherhood"—who are gaining authority and converting other inmates within the UK's high-security prisons. Gallant offers an urgent warning on the failures of the system to challenge radical ideology and reflects on the difficult question of whether true change is possible for long-term prisoners. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UnHerd's Freddie Sayers speaks with migration expert Dr. Madeleine Sumption to dissect the latest ONS figures which reveal a dramatic crash in UK net migration. Is this truly caused by an alarming "exodus of fed-up Brits," as some headlines suggest, or is the surge in people leaving the country, in fact, the long-overdue re-migration of earlier non-EU and EU immigrants—a data-driven truth that fundamentally upends how the media and public understand the entire politics of immigration? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UnHerd's Freddie Sayers speaks with Oxford epidemiologist Professor Sunetra Gupta - one of the three primary authors of the Great Barrington Declaration - to uncover why the UK’s massive £200 million COVID inquiry has produced a conclusion she calls an "insult" to the public intelligence. With the report claiming that locking down just one week earlier would have saved 23,000 lives, Gupta dismantles the modelling behind the headline and ask the questions the inquiry refused to: Why was the clear counter-evidence of Sweden ignored? And did the scientific establishment betray its own duties by choosing the certain harm of lockdown over the uncertain control of a virus? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UnHerd's Freddie Sayers gives his reaction to the UK’s £200 million COVID inquiry and the official narrative. After 800 pages, the report reaches the conclusion that Britain’s only mistake was not locking down sooner - but at what cost? From the missing chapter on Sweden’s success to the ignored collateral damage inflicted on a generation of children, was the lockdown experiment actually a civilisational error that the state is now too afraid to admit? And is the inquiry an establishment whitewash that sets the stage for future authoritarianism? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UnHerd's Freddie Sayers talks with writer and philosopher Matthew Crawford about the creeping tyranny of the "Smart City"—a vision of the future where urban life is optimised by data, and human unpredictability is treated as a "bug" to be fixed. But what is the spiritual cost of a "frictionless" existence? As tech giants begin to govern like nation-states and cars become subscription services that can be throttled from afar, Crawford asks the question: are we building paradise, or a "glorious, collisionless" prison? From the defiance of skateboarders to the ULEZ "Blade Runners" destroying cameras in London, they discuss the fight to reclaim the "unruly felicities" of a life truly worth living. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UnHerd's Freddie Sayers dives into the legal and political firestorm surrounding President Trump's threatened lawsuit against the BBC. He is joined by three expert guests to unpack the case from every angle: Professor Burt Neuborne, founding legal director of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, analyses the US legal arguments and whether Trump can actually win; Joshua Rozenberg, legal journalist and the BBC's former legal correspondent, discusses the internal crisis at the BBC and its "perceived liberal bias"; and Seth Stern, director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, explores the wider "chilling effect" of such lawsuits on press freedom. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UnHerd's Freddie Sayers talks with Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford, Sir Dieter Helm, about the great climate "self-delusion." As global leaders, royals, and celebrities jet into Rio for the 30th UN Climate Summit (COP 30), Helm - one of the world's most respected climate economists - argues the entire Net Zero project, championed by the very elites at the summit, is built on smoke and mirrors, and reveals: why 30 years of COPs have been ineffective; the core deceit politicians have been telling the public for decades; how the West's green policies are actually helping China while leading to our own self-sabotage; and why the UK's "clean energy" dream is a fantasy that is leading to economic ruin. What is the real path forward, and is it too late to fix the mess we've made? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the wake of the Huntingdon train stabbing and ensuing online reaction, UnHerd's Freddie Sayers sits down with journalist for The Times Fraser Nelson to analyse the growing perception of a violent, migrant-driven crimewave in the UK. Responding to disputed data from the Ministry of Justice that foreigners are convicted of up to 23% of sex crimes, as well the rise in low-level crime and isolated atrocities, Nelson argues against the narrative and details how violent crime, including knife attacks and murder, has actually been in a steep decline, reaching multi-decade lows even as immigration has doubled. Is the migrant crimewave real or is there a stark disconnect between the statistical reality and the public's fear? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.