Thinking Class

#140 - Stephen Blackwood - The Man Who Built A University Because The West Forgot What Education Is For

Stephen Blackwood is President and Founder of Ralston College in Savannah, Georgia. The Chancellor is Dr Iain McGilchrist. He is on the advisory board for the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC). This episode is supported by Aquinas Tuition, which provides bespoke academic tutoring for children who deserve to be stretched, not managed.In this conversation, we think out loud about:— What Blackwood saw inside the Western university system at its highest level that made him believe the existing institutions could not be saved— How Boethius took the seeds of civilisation and cast them into the future from a prison cell — and why that matters now more than ever— Why "the mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be lit" and why Ralston brings students to Samos, Greece, to light them on fire— The deathbed test: did I live as I should have lived? And why no culture that fails to help its people answer that question deserves to endure— Why the universities are the most upstream influence over the degradation of Western culture— The difference between legal protection of free speech and a culture of genuine truth-seeking— What Tocqueville saw in America that Britain is losing, which is to say self-governance as the precondition for democracy— Why Roger Scruton was right that a culture is just the things we have loved, and transmitting it is just teaching others to love them too— What growing up as the eldest of ten on a Canadian farm taught Blackwood about human nature, duty, and what a human being at full gallop looks likeFind Stephen Blackwood and Ralston College:- Website: ralston.ac- Podcast: The Ralston College Podcast- YouTubeRelated episodes you might enjoy:— Iain McGilchrist — There Is A Great Deal Of Ruin In The Western World And This Is Why— Carl Trueman — The West Killed God. Then It Killed Man. Now Something Darker Is Coming— Pierre d'Alancaisez — The Custodians Of Beauty Became Its GravediggersWatch The Call of England, a documentary series retracing a 1927 journey through England to discover what remains of the national inheritance:Watch Episode 1 hereWatch Episode 2 hereThinking 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🐦 XNew episodes every Thursday at 3pm.

#139 - Tom Ough & Calum Drysdale - How Britain Forgot How To Build And Why The Consequences Are Coming

Tom Ough is Senior Editor at UnHerd and author of The Anti-Catastrophe League. Calum Drysdale is an engineer and writer. Together they host Anglofuturism — a podcast exploring ambitious, outlandish, and remarkably achievable ideas to revitalise Britain from their thatched space station. Robert Jenrick declared himself an Anglofuturist at a 2025 conference. Curtis Yarvin has appeared on their show.In this conversation, we think out loud about:— What Anglofuturism actually is — and whether the Britain it imagines is one that also knows who built it and why it matters— Whether you can be an Anglofuturist without being a cultural conservative — and whether material renewal without cultural renewal is just efficiency— Whether Britain can become Europe's energy powerhouse — offshore wind, Rolls-Royce SMRs, North Sea oil, battery storage — without paving over the green and pleasant land— Whether population growth is necessary for prosperity — or whether a high-tech, high-skill country can stabilise its population and still thrive— Why the technocratic class that would need to deliver the Anglofuturist future is the same class that produced the decline — and whether it can be removed— The demographic question that Anglofuturism cannot avoid — and what "a future that feels like home" requires— Whether beauty is a non-negotiable — and who decides what beautiful means when the institutions that once knew have been captured— What the ordinary Briton, the CEO, and the Prime Minister should each do on Monday morningFind Anglofuturism:Substack: anglofuturism.substack.comYouTube: youtube.com/@anglofuturismSpotify: open.spotify.com/show/0PxQEO62ESL7DYmZHLgQIDRelated episodes you might enjoy:— Pierre d'Alancaisez — The Custodians Of Beauty Became Its Gravediggers: https://youtu.be/KXn2z3mfCDk— William Clouston — Why British Politics Governs Against The National Interest: https://youtu.be/Rm2Qp-1qnJw— Michael Lind — Why America & Britain Keep Betraying Their Working Class: https://youtu.be/YN212csIsvU— Jonathan Rose — What The British Working Class Lost And Who Is Responsible: https://youtu.be/OKHcEo2QrJg— Lord Tony Sewell — Life At The Bottom In Broken Britain: https://youtu.be/WKf26_Va_yMThe Call of England - a documentary series retracing a 1927 journey through England to discover what remains of the national inheritance:Watch Episode 1 here: https://youtu.be/muBQWIP6ZQQWatch Episode 2 here: https://youtu.be/jbVZfSR3ZF4Thinking 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: https://www.youtube.com/@ThinkingClass✍ Substack: https://thinkingclass.substack.com🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/37vvzrlxpo8eORDoTDRtbH🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/thinking-class/id1717021615🐦 X: https://x.com/thinkingclassesNew episodes every Thursday at 3pm.

#138 - Ricardo Duchesne - The Greatness And Ruin Of Western Civilisation

Ricardo Duchesne is a Puerto Rican-born Canadian historical sociologist. He studied history at McGill University, received his PhD in Social and Political Thought from York University (awarded the Doctoral Prize for best dissertation of the year), and served as professor of sociology at the University of New Brunswick until his retirement in 2019. His major works include The Uniqueness of Western Civilisation, and Greatness and Ruin. In this conversation, we think out loud about:— What made the West so continuously innovative across thousands of years — from the Indo-Europeans through Greece and Rome to the modern era— Why the Faustian drive — the relentless urge to create, discover, and push beyond every known boundary — appears unique to European civilisation— The discovery of the thinking self in ancient Greece and whyself-consciousness and reason developed differently in the West— Why the very qualities that made the West great — rationalism,individualism, universalism — contain the seeds of its own unravelling— How liberal progressivism evolves logically from John Locke through John Stuart Mill to open borders and multiculturalism— Why capitalism and liberalism together have created a system that structurally resists reform— Whether civilisational recovery is possible — or whether we are witnessing an irreversible declineFind Ricardo Duchesne:X: x.com/dr_duchesneBooks: https://link.amazon/B00NSP1LARelated episodes you might enjoy:— Iain McGilchrist — There Is A Great Deal Of Ruin In The WesternWorld And This Is Why: https://youtu.be/yrlmkVl86-0— Carl Trueman — The West Killed God. Then It Killed Man. NowSomething Darker Is Coming: https://youtu.be/zwhbWVc1PgU?si=za3CftJjNxgiKXBd— Jonathan Rose — What The British Working Class Lost And Who IsResponsible: https://youtu.be/OKHcEo2QrJg?si=BR4hwL26sdoMS8_4— Pierre d'Alancaisez — The Custodians Of Beauty Became ItsGravediggers: https://youtu.be/KXn2z3mfCDk?si=AHSHOEcfvNNKYq7GThe Call of England — a documentary series retracing a 1927journey through England to discover what remains of the nationalinheritance: - Watch Episode 1 here: https://youtu.be/muBQWIP6ZQQ?si=T1W7cpepCo-qCwmv- Watch Episode 2 here: https://youtu.be/jbVZfSR3ZF4?si=Sblz4ZW_U2Gh8RWVThinking 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: https://www.youtube.com/@ThinkingClass✍ Substack: https://thinkingclass.substack.com🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/37vvzrlxpo8eORDoTDRtbH🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/thinking-class/id1717021615🐦 X: https://x.com/thinkingclassesNew episodes every Thursday at 3pm.

#137 - Clement Knox - How Only The British Could Make America Before America Could Make Itself

Clement Knox is a writer and historian. He is the author of The Scramble for America: How the United States Conquered a Continent (William Collins, 2026), and writes at Past Notes on Substack.Two hundred and fifty years ago, the United States was thirteen coastal colonies clinging to the Atlantic seaboard. Within a single lifetime, it became a continental empire stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific — and the founding generation openly called it exactly that: an empire. This conversation asks how it happened, and who actually did it, because the people who crossed the Appalachians, fought the wars, and settled the frontier were not a random sample of humanity. They were the descendants of specific English and British folkways, and their story tells us a great deal about the inheritance they carried across the ocean.In this conversation we think out loud about:Why the founding generation openly called their own project an empire — and why that fact became invisible to later AmericansFrederick Jackson Turner's argument that America only became culturally distinct once settlers crossed the Appalachians and had to build civilisation anewDavid Hackett Fischer's four British folkways and which of them actually drove the push westwardWhy the Scots-Irish Borderers who settled Appalachia resemble the Bedouin of Arabia more than they resemble the East Coast settlements they left behindThe recurring tension between liberty and order in the Anglo-American character, from the Whiskey Rebellion to the modern dayGeorge Washington as a land speculator and enclosure man who died the richest man in the country — the story behind the mythWhy neither the settlers nor the Native Americans held a monopoly on civilisation or savagery, and what a forensic reading of the primary sources actually showsWhy Clement changed his mind about universalism — and what that means for how the modern world's institutions were builtAnd if you haven't already, go and watch The Call of England — my documentary series retracing H.V. Morton's 1927 journey to find out what's left of the old country. Episode one and two are live now on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCHptEOmbMRzSV7TQqVMJxAVohAEnvLdA&si=VcpwRhAUmrcrWOTmFind Clement Knox:Substack: https://clementknox.substack.comRelated episodes:— Gary Gerstle — The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: https://youtu.be/KbCyaKcj0E8?si=jtY9S8tX493eqUkz— Michael Lind — Why America & Britain Keep Betraying Their Working Class: https://youtu.be/YN212csIsvU?si=a9BsVmo0sqGI-qoy— David Starkey — Britain as a Disaster Since 1945: https://youtu.be/aI3tBbqMmXY?si=SI9B_qVavRQH-EGb— Katharine Birbalsingh — She Told 4,000 People The West Is Committing Suicide: https://youtu.be/L60dtIoALgA?si=yXhD5G8C-4zEueiRThinking Class is a long-form interview podcast on the cultural, historical, and moral forces shaping England, Britain, and the wider Western world. Hosted by John Gillam.▶ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThinkingClass✍️ Substack: https://thinkingclass.substack.com🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/37vvzrlxpo8eORDoTDRtbH🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/thinking-class/id1717021615🐦 X: https://x.com/thinkingclassesNew episodes every Thursday at 3pm.

#136 - Katharine Birbalsingh - Why Britain Stopped Believing Children Need Discipline

Katharine Birbalsingh is the headmistress and founder of Michaela Community School in Wembley, and a former UK Social Mobility Commissioner.She built the most successful school in Britain from nothing — in one of London's poorest boroughs — by insisting on the things the educational establishment now treats as radical: discipline, gratitude, knowledge, and the belief that every child is capable of excellence. Her results are extraordinary. Almost nobody in the profession will copy her.In this conversation, we think out loud about:Why Katharine believes children are born naughty rather than good — and why saying so out loud triggered a national media stormWhy the most progressive schools in Britain are often the expensive private ones, not the state schools everyone assumes are failingWhat actually happens inside a school that treats children as capable of excellence rather than victims of circumstanceThe ARC speech that caused a stir — on minoritarian victimhood, institutional shame, and why she thinks a certain group of people in Britain need to simply "take a break"Her real disagreement with Connor Tomlinson — whether ancestry or shared values are what actually holds a nation togetherWhy she believes schools now shape children more powerfully than families do — and what that means for the future of the countryFind Katharine Birbalsingh:- Strictly Education: https://www.youtube.com/@StrictlyEdPod- Michaela School: https://www.michaela.education/Related episodes:- Lord Tony Sewell — Life At The Bottom In Broken Britain: https://youtu.be/WKf26_Va_yM?si=AjIKvZdCndHSyTx4- Frank Furedi — In Defence of Populism: https://youtu.be/qTdxAR40T4E?si=MREy9eLow-XGWoS4Jonathan Rose — What The British Working Class Lost And Who Is Responsible: https://youtu.be/OKHcEo2QrJg?si=cE6cr_Ypgs6geVyhThe Call of England — a documentary series retracing a 1927 journey through England to discover what remains of the national inheritance. Watch Episode 1 here: https://youtu.be/muBQWIP6ZQQ?si=y2zHLbn8juRbQidlThinking 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: https://www.youtube.com/@ThinkingClass✍ Substack: https://thinkingclass.substack.com🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/37vvzrlxpo8eORDoTDRtbH🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/thinking-class/id1717021615🐦 X: https://x.com/thinkingclassesNew episodes every Thursday at 3pm.