Skip to content
Sign in
Artwork for Quillette Cetera
NewsNews Commentary

Quillette Cetera

Zoe Sankey

Quillette's Zoe Sankey sits down each fortnight with scientists, writers, activists, and independent thinkers to interrogate the ideas shaping — and dividing — the Western world. From evolutionary psychology and gender to cancel culture, free speech, Islamism, and the collapse of progressive orthodoxies, no topic is too contentious and no question is off limits.

Guests have included policy researchers, evolutionary biologists, political dissidents, and some of the sharpest heterodox thinkers writing today.

If you're tired of being told what to think, this is the podcast for you.

Play
Open in
  • 24 episodes
  • fortnightly
  • Avg 1 hr 7 min
  • English

Episodes 24

NewestOldestLongest
All4Unplayed4In progress0Played0
Counted on this page — what you have heard stays on this device, so it is not something the list can be paged by.
  • Oct 2, 2025 · 1 hr 41 min

    How Intrasexual Competition Suppresses Female Fertility with Dr Dani Sukilowski

    In this episode of the Quillette Podcast, host Zoe Booth speaks with behavioural scientist Dr Dani Sulikowski about the sociocultural and evolutionary drivers behind collapsing fertility rates in Western societies. Drawing on emerging research and data from her own lab, Dr Sulikowski explores how intersexual competition among women, shifting gender norms, and declining testosterone levels in men may be contributing to a wider pattern of reproductive decline. Their conversation covers the psychology of modern mating preferences, the unintended consequences of social narratives around motherhood and career, and the cultural implications of pronatalist and antenatalist ideologies. They also discuss contentious issues such as surrogacy, abortion, and assisted dying—all within the context of civilisational health and long-term population sustainability. This episode offers a thought-provoking examination of the forces shaping human behaviour, fertility, and the future of Western societies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  • #51
    Aug 22, 2025 · 53 min

    Adam Szetela on How Cancel Culture and Sensitivity Readers Are Shaping the Publishing Industry and Silencing Dissent

    In this episode of Quillette Cetera, Zoe Booth speaks with Harvard fellow and Cornell PhD Adam Szetela—author of new book That Book Is Dangerous: How Moral Panic, Social Media, and the Culture Wars Are Remaking Publishing (MIT Press, 2025). A working-class kid turned literary insider, Szetela exposes what he calls “the sensitivity era”: a cultural climate in which books are cancelled before they’re published, authors are shamed into grovelling apologies, and sensitivity readers act as ideological enforcers—surveilling fiction for offence. Drawing on eye-opening examples and experimental research conducted at Cornell’s Social Dynamics Lab, Szetela explains how peer pressure alone can turn readers against even canonical figures like Allen Ginsberg. He also reflects on the publishing industry’s class divide, the fragility of elite institutions, and why pro wrestling and bodybuilding may offer a better education than the Ivy League. From J.K. Rowling and Goodreads mobs to the politics of soccer and masculinity—this is a frank and timely discussion about literary freedom in an age of moral panic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Showing 21–24 of 24 episodes