Thinking Class

Thinking Class is a weekly long-form interview podcast and documentary series exploring the cultural, historical, and civilisational forces shaping Britain, the Anglosphere, and the wider West. Over 15,000 subscribers and 1.4 million plays across all platforms. Hosted by John Gillam, founder of the Albion Institute (Lord Nigel Biggar CBE serves as Advisory Board Chair) and creator of The Call of England and the forthcoming Call of America documentary series. Each episode brings together historians, philosophers, theologians, economists, and public intellectuals for conversations that go beyond the news cycle. Guests have included David Starkey, Lord Jonathan Sumption, Lord Nigel Biggar, Iain McGilchrist, Peter Hitchens, R.R. Reno, Auron MacIntyre, Patrick Deneen, Lionel Shriver, David Goodhart, Carl Trueman, Eric Kaufmann, Carrie Gress, Katharine Birbalsingh, Kathleen Stock, Frank Furedi, Rob Henderson, Robert Tombs, and many more.<

Thinking Class is a society podcast hosted by John Gillam, with 145 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

John Gillam hosts Thinking Class, a society show with 145 episodes published.

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  Thinking Class

  #147 - Father Luke Dysinger OSB - The Last Time Western Civilisation Collapsed One Institution Saved Everything. And It Did It By Accident.

  Oct 1, 20261h 4m

  Father Luke Dysinger is a Benedictine monk of Saint Andrew’s Abbey in Valyermo, California. He trained as a physician, practised family medicine, and at the age of 27 walked away from it all because he fell in love with a way of life centred on prayer. He has lived in the monastery ever since. He studied at the Benedictine House of Studies at Oxford, holds a doctorate in patristic theology, and is now a professor of theology and a bioethicist. In this conversation we think out loud about: Why a trained physician walked away from medicine to become a monk The three Benedictine vows - stability, obedience, and conversion of life - and why they produce institutional coherence that no modern organisation can replicate How the monasteries saved Western civilisation by accident — not by copying manuscripts but by praying them What England lost when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries — and what survived in Evensong Why secular institutions trying to save civilisation without prayer will always feel hollow The Benedict Option — can families and communities outside the monastery build something that lasts? The foundational question monastic prayer forces you to answer: do you believe you are loved by God? What a young man who knows something has gone deeply wrong should do with his life. Related: - Pierre d’Alancaisez — The Custodians Of Beauty Became Its Gravediggers: https://youtu.be/KXn2z3mfCDk - The Base — They Were Trained By The Best In British Theatre: https://youtu.be/sNQ6ank7quI] - Iain McGilchrist — There Is A Great Deal Of Ruin In The Western World: https://youtu.be/yrlmkVl86-0 Watch The Call of England: https://youtu.be/muBQWIP6ZQQ Register your interest for the Albion Institute: https://albioninstitute.org Thinking Class is a long-form interview podcast on the cultural, historical and civilisational forces shaping England, Britain, the Anglosphere and the wider West. Hosted by John Gillam. ▶ YouTube ✍ Substack Spotify Apple X New episodes every Thursday at 3pm.

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  Thinking Class

  #146 - Lola Salem - You Can Win Every Election In The West. If The Whole Of Culture Is Against You Nothing Will Change.

  Sep 24, 20261h 8m

  Dr Lola Salem is a musicologist, cultural critic, and Catholic convert. She is the author of the forthcoming Artless (Polity Press) and writes for The Critic and the Catholic Herald. In this conversation we think out loud about: • The boycott crisis in the arts and how it works in the shadows • Why the right keeps winning elections and losing the civilisation • The left as high-functioning alcoholics of culture • The post-cultural state — institutions remain, the spirit has left • The collapse of the managerial elite • The education pipeline that reproduces institutional capture • Whether the recovery of culture requires the recovery of faith • Verdur_in — small, serious, uncompromising spaces outside the captured institutions Follow Lola's work: - https://x.com/SalemLola - http://salemlola.substack.com Sponsored by Aquinas Tuition: https://aquinastuition.co.uk/ Related: - Pierre d’Alancaisez — The Custodians Of Beauty Became Its Gravediggers: https://youtu.be/KXn2z3mfCDk - The Base — They Were Trained By The Best In British Theatre: https://youtu.be/sNQ6ank7quI] - Iain McGilchrist — There Is A Great Deal Of Ruin In The Western World: https://youtu.be/yrlmkVl86-0 Watch The Call of England: https://youtu.be/muBQWIP6ZQQ Albion Institute: https://albioninstitute.org Thinking Class is a long-form interview podcast on the cultural, historical and civilisational forces shaping England, Britain, the Anglosphere and the wider West. Hosted by John Gillam. ▶ YouTube ✍ Substack Spotify Apple X New episodes every Thursday at 3pm.

  ListenShow Notes
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  Thinking Class

  #145 - Oliver Bennett & Morgan Watkins - They Were Trained To Perform The Greatest Works In Western Civilisation. Now They Say The Whole Thing Has Been Captured By Cowards And Liars.

  Sep 17, 20261h 12m

  Oliver Bennett and Morgan Watkins are the co-founders of The Base and RADA-trained actors with nearly twenty years of experience in British film, television, and theatre. In this conversation, we think out loud about: What The Base is and why it exists The campification of British theatre and the shame around the Western canon The Edinburgh Fringe as a monument to progressive capture and why the RSC is rehearsing a lesbian Othello set against the climate crisis Meeting Shakespeare on his own terms (the third position beyond progressive deconstruction and conservative nostalgia) The working men’s club with a library, what the working class built and what was taken from them Why not a single pro-Brexit play was produced in a country that voted 52% to leave Why today’s rebels know nothing about the past they claim to be rebelling against Whether counter-institutions like The Base can survive without funding The return of masculinity and the need for men to stand up Find The Base: thebasecreates.com X: @thebasecreates Substack YouTube Related: Pierre d’Alancaisez — The Custodians Of Beauty Became Its Gravediggers: https://youtu.be/KXn2z3mfCDk Carl Trueman — The West Killed God. Then It Killed Man: https://youtu.be/zwhbWVc1PgU Frank Furedi — In Defence of Populism: https://youtu.be/qTdxAR40T4E Watch The Call of England: https://youtu.be/muBQWIP6ZQQ Albion Institute: albioninstitute.org Thinking Class is a long-form interview podcast on the cultural, historical and civilisational forces shaping England, Britain, the Anglosphere and the wider West. Hosted by John Gillam. ▶ YouTube ✍ Substack Spotify Apple X New episodes every Thursday at 3pm.

  ListenShow Notes
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  Thinking Class

  #144 - Ben Jones - Britain Has Become An Island Of Strangers. And You’re Not Allowed To Say So.

  Sep 10, 202655 min

  Dr Ben Jones is the Director of Case Management at the Free Speech Union and author of Island of Strangers: Diversity, Decline & Free Speech In Crisis In this conversation, we think out loud about: When saying “it’s a free country” died in Britain and what replaced it 6,000 people punished for speaking in five years, and what the Free Speech Union’s caseload reveals about modern Britain How hyperdiversity and the decline of Christianity have destroyed the shared moral universe Why the ethno-nationalist vs civic-nationalist debate is irrelevant — both will be swept away by events Britain’s pre-revolutionary state: the last time this happened, we executed a king Why Islam poses a distinct challenge that cannot be reconciled with Western liberal values The ruling class has seceded from the nation and treats the population as an obstacle The psychological toll of cultural dispossession and why he now has to spell “Ben Jones” The state is sponsoring an invasion inflicted primarily on women and girls, which has created a crisis of legitimacy Why 2029 may be the last chance to turn this around Find Ben Jones: X Island of Strangers Related episodes: Nathan Pinkoski — France Sacrificed Free Speech To Keep The Peace: https://youtu.be/ztpqjZq9h4M?si=DtQxUi4K84cPYapg Auron MacIntyre — The West Has Already Become A Total State: https://youtu.be/GbTU7HrQlU8?si=zg8pwO_MVhPor9qo R.R. Reno — What Happens When The West’s Strong Gods Return: https://youtu.be/U_cXZnkU-JI?si=shQ2C4lKRNP5sBqN Lionel Shriver — Immigration, Demography, And Belonging: https://youtu.be/IWG6zPX0EpE?si=CJ_W1ogZtHbhzCJk Watch The Call of England: https://youtu.be/muBQWIP6ZQQ Thinking Class is a long-form interview podcast on the cultural, historical and civilisational forces shaping England, Britain, the Anglosphere and the wider West. Hosted by John Gillam. ▶ YouTube ✍ Substack Spotify Apple X New episodes every Thursday at 3pm.

  ListenShow Notes
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  Thinking Class

  #143 - Auron MacIntyre - The West Has Already Become A Total State And Most People Inside It Have No Idea

  Sep 3, 20261 hour

  Auron MacIntyre is the host of The Auron MacIntyre Show on Blaze TV and the author of The Total State . Auron previously taught high school before leaving education to build his media platform, writes the Substack The Total State , and appears across conservative and heterodox media. In this conversation, we think out loud about: Why every Western state is becoming total and why the HR department is the new political commissar How bureaucracies automatically recognise one another as authoritative and create a self-reinforcing system Why it’s not a state-run media but a media-run state and that distinction changes everything Why Britain is further along the path to total control than any country in the West The First Amendment and American federalism as defence mechanisms and whether they will hold Why Texas told the federal government no and the federal government backed down Why the system doesn’t need boxcars it just closes your bank account Why constitutions don’t make people, people make constitutions and what happens when you change the people John Adams at Edgehill: the English foundations of American liberty R.R. Reno’s strong gods: will they return, and whose gods will they be? Why the right cannot govern when it wins and what formation institutions must be built Find Auron MacIntyre: X YouTube Instagram The Total State : https://link.amazon/B0fCMJp6R Sponsored by Aquinas Tuition - bespoke academic tutoring for children who deserve to be stretched, not managed: https://aquinastuition.co.uk/ Related: Nathan Pinkoski - France Sacrificed Free Speech To Keep The Peace R.R. Reno - What Happens When The West’s Strong Gods Return Carl Trueman - The West Killed God. Then It Killed Man Watch The Call of England: https://youtu.be/muBQWIP6ZQQ ▶ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThinkingClass ✍ Substack: https://thinkingclass.substack.com Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/37vvzrlxpo8eORDoTDRtbH Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/thinking-class/id1717021615 X: https://x.com/thinkingclasses New episodes every Thursday at 3pm.

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