Conversations with Peter Boghossian

Harry Saul Markham, a 25-year-old recent graduate of University College London (UCL), takes a keen interest in addressing threats to democracy, social cohesion, and the rights of minorities.

In his roles as a Junior Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy and an Advisory Board member of Academics for Academic Freedom, he has been involved in media interviews, discussions with policymakers, j...

I spoke with US commentator and author David Pakman, host of the wildly popular progressive YouTube channel, The David Pakman Show. David just published a new book, "The Echo Machine: How Right-Wing Extremism Created a Post-Truth America". It’s extraordinarily rare for a left-leaning figure to accept my invitation to come on the show and have a conversation, and I’m grateful David did. Our conversation was civil, respectful, and en...

In Budapest, US scholar Raymond Ibrahim and I hit the streets to confront the growing problem of Muslim immigration in Western countries and the cowardice of our leaders to be honest about the nature of the problems this creates.

It is often claimed that Muslims and Christians have coexisted peacefully for centuries. Raymond dismantles this myth, tracing a history of Islamic doctrines that sow division. Beyond cultural practices li...

I sat down with Australian science educator Brett Hall to tackle the claim: The universe is “queerer than we can suppose.” This idea stems from British scientist J.B.S. Haldane, who wrote in his 1927 book Possible Worlds and Other Essays, “The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.” Haldane was struck by reality’s strangeness, esp. in light of early 20th-century science. He thought that our m...

Every month, I host a virtual hangout for my Paid Substack Subscribers (Join now and join us for the next one! https://boghossian.substack.com). In February, I was joined by Mia Hughes and Brett Hall to tackle delusional transgender ideology.

My subscribers brought thoughtful questions that cut to the heart of the issue: The concept of gender, the pressure to use preferred pronouns, the rise of furries(!), and men in women’s spaces...

Ian Rowe, founder of Vertex Partnerships Academy and Katharine Birbalsingh, headmistress of Michaela Community School in England, and I had a fireside chat. Ian and Katherine are pioneers in education, building schools that should be models for all to emulate.

Their approach is grounded in timeless virtues: resilience, courage, justice, temperance, wisdom, and virtue. Indeed, these virtues are posted on the walls in every Vertex cl...

Psychedelic historian Tom Hatsis was an atheist until he tried psychedelics. Then he went from atheist to theist. Psychedelic encounters reshaped his understanding of the divine.

In our conversation, Hatsis and I dove into the enigmatic world of psychedelics, exploring their history, safety, and transformative potential. Hatsis, a meticulous researcher, unpacked the distinctions between DMT, Ayahuasca, psilocybin mushrooms, and 5-M...

I spoke with Dane Jacob Mchangama, founder of The Future of Free Speech, research professor at Vanderbilt, and Senior Fellow at FIRE. While we’re both staunch free speech advocates, we debated its best “branding.” I argued for framing free speech less as a moral absolute—how I once described it as cognitive liberty—and more as a practical tool for error correction, challenging bad ideas and refining truth....

My guest for this episode was Jamie Roberts, author of the excellent Intellectual Dark Web: A History (and Possible Future). We traced the IDW’s rise, fragmentation, and legacy. The Intellectual Dark Web (IDW) emerged as a loose alliance of heterodox thinkers—figures like Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, and the Weinstein brothers—who challenged mainstream narratives on free speech, identity politics, and meri...

My friend Tim Urban, author of one of the most important books of the last 50 years, What’s Our Problem? We dove straight into the deep end—discussing the three existential threats facing the West.

From there we segued into the urgency of clear writing and habits of thought to the role of reasoning and truth-seeking in the age of AI. Then we explored the question on everyone’s mind: Is Western society collapsing before our eyes?

Wa...

How did a group of fringe activists at WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health) manage to dupe the entire international medical establishment? That’s the question I posed to Mia Hughes, an Ottawa-based British journalist and director of Genspect Canada.

Mia is also the world’s leading expert in this subject and author of The WPATH Files report. The report exposed widespread, ghastly medical mistreatment of chil...

I sat down with Leonardo Orlando, an expert in political science and international relations as well as a fantastic human, to discuss the ascent of Argentina's President Milei. Leonardo is a Visiting Fellow at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium in Budapest. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and International Relations from Sciences Po Paris, a BA and MA in Philosophy from Sorbonne, and a post-doctorate in Cognitive Science and Evol...