Thinking Class

#122 - Richard IV - The Invisible Order That Once Made Men: Initiation, Tradition And What Britain Lost

Richard IV is a writer, cultural commentator and men's mentor whose work has helped thousands of men in Britain and across the West understand what has gone wrong and what can still be recovered.In this episode of Thinking Class, John Gillam speaks with Richard about the invisible order that once gave men a path through life — the initiatory traditions, the moral codes, the religious inheritance — and what has happened to the men who grew up without it. They discuss why so many young men in Britain are adopting a roadman identity that has nothing to do with their own culture; why the Andrew Tate phenomenon is a symptom rather than a cause; what C.S. Lewis predicted about a civilisation that stops giving young men heroes to look up to; and why the Church of England, sitting atop one of the greatest spiritual inheritances in human history, has largely vacated its responsibility to pass it on.John also shares his own journey — from growing up in Northumberland and adopting a globalised identity with no roots in his own people, to studying virtue ethics at a desk while working full time, to baptism and confirmation into the Christian faith — as a case study in what it looks like when a man finds his way back to the tradition of his own people.This is a conversation about what was lost, what it cost, and whether the cycle can turn.Find Richard's work: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RichardTheFourth32Substack and community: https://richardthefourth.substack.com/About Thinking Class: Thinking Class is a long-form interview podcast exploring the cultural, historical, and moral forces shaping England, Britain, and the wider Western world. Hosted by John Gillam, the show features serious conversations with historians, legal scholars, economists, theologians, and public intellectuals. Expect to hear discussion of long-term patterns over headlines and hot-takes.If you value serious conversations about Britain, the West, and the forces shaping our future, why not subscribe:▶️ Subscribe on YouTube🎧 Follow on Spotify📰 Read on Substack🐦 Follow on XNew episodes every week. 

#121 - Kathleen Stock - On Assisted Dying, Human Dignity, And The Post-Christian West

Kathleen Stock is a Contributing Editor to UnHerd, a philosopher, author of Material Girls and Do Not Go Gentle, and one of the most forensically precise thinkers in British public life.A bill is moving through the British Parliament right now that would allow doctors to help their patients die. Its proponents call it assisted dying. Its opponents call it assisted suicide. In Canada, five percent of all deaths now occur through the state-sanctioned equivalent. In Belgium, they have extended it to newborn babies. Canada will allow it for those with mental illness alone from 2027.The question is not only whether the bill is good policy. It is what it reveals about the kind of society we have become — and what we now believe a human life is worth.In this episode of Thinking Class, Kathleen Stock examines the case against assisted dying not as a religious argument but as a philosophical one. Stock identifies three types of advocate — the Freedom Lover, the Merciful Helper, and the Utilitarian who sees humans as units — and subjects each position to the kind of rigorous examination its proponents have largely been able to avoid.We think out lout about: how the word dignity has been captured and inverted by the assisted dying movement, why the safeguards being proposed will not hold, what the Canadian and Belgian trajectories tell us about where this ends, and whether a society that has lost the Christian account of suffering — that it can be meaningful, that it is not simply a problem to be eliminated — has any answer to the question of why a difficult life is worth living.Kathleen Stock's new book Do Not Go Gentle is available here: https://amzn.to/4bUImaPFollow Kathleen on X: @Docstockk | Read her at UnHerdAbout Thinking Class: Thinking Class is a long-form interview podcast exploring the cultural, historical, and moral forces shaping England, Britain, and the wider Western world. Hosted by John Gillam, the show features serious conversations with historians, legal scholars, economists, theologians, and public intellectuals. Expect to hear discussion of long-term patterns over headlines and hot-takes.If you value serious conversations about Britain, the West, and the forces shaping our future, why not subscribe:▶️ Subscribe on YouTube🎧 Follow on Spotify📰 Read on Substack🐦 Follow on XNew episodes every week. 

#120 - Lord Nigel Biggar & Professor Tirthankar Roy - What The British Empire Actually Did To India

For decades, the British Empire in India has been reduced to a simple moral claim: that it was an extractive, exploitative system which left only damage behind.But is that really the full story?In this episode of Thinking Class, John Gillam is joined by Lord Nigel Biggar and Professor Tirthankar Roy to examine what the British Empire — and the East India Company before it — actually did in India, and how that history continues to shape the present.One of India's leading economic historians, Professor Tirthankar Roy challenges the dominant narrative from within — and his conclusions may surprise you.Together, they discuss the main charges levelled against British rule in India, including famine, violence, extraction, and the denial of self-government. They also explore why some of those claims may be justified, why others may be overstated, and how both British and Indian historians are rethinking the role of empire, markets, law, trade, migration, and state power.This conversation goes beyond the usual moral shorthand. It asks how Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras became engines of commerce; how British rule helped create the conditions for law, investment, and global integration; how liberal and constitutional ideas were transmitted; and why India’s rise today makes this history newly relevant.India is now one of the world’s most important rising powers. Its capital, people, and influence increasingly shape life in Britain and across the West. So the question is not simply what happened in the past — but what we think happened, and how that shapes the future relationship between Britain and India.Lord Nigel Biggar is Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral and Pastoral Theology at Oxford and the author of major works on empire, ethics, and public life.The New Dark Age:: https://amzn.to/4kT9NWCLord Biggar’s books: https://amzn.to/4cfUPaZThe Biggar Picture: https://www.nigelbiggar.co.uk/Professor Tirthankar Roy is one of India’s leading economic historians and the author of The East India Company: The World’s Most Powerful Corporation.Professor Roy's books: https://amzn.to/41tWCCF If you enjoy Thinking Class, subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Substack.About Thinking Class:Thinking Class is an independent forum for long-form inquiry examining the political, cultural and civilisational questions shaping England, Britain and the West.Hosted by John Gillam, the show features serious conversations with historians, legal scholars, economists, theologians, politicians, and public intellectuals.Thinking Class is concerned with discovering long-term patterns over headlines and hot-takes. Expect historically-grounded analysis on matters of national character, institutions, demography, democracy, identity, inheritance, institutional continuity and social change.New episodes every week.▶️ Subscribe on YouTube🎧 Follow on Spotify📰 Read on Substack🐦 Follow on X

#119 - John Waters - Ireland's Moral Revolution And The Crisis Of Authority

John Waters is an Irish journalist, author, and columnist known for his work with Hot Press, The Irish Times, and The Irish Independent. He has written on social and political issues, specialising in father's rights and cultural critiques. Ireland changed faster than almost any country in the West. The question now is whether the Irish still recognise the nation they live in. In this episode of Thinking Class, we discuss the moral, cultural and demographic transformation of Ireland over the course of John Waters' lifetime.We explore the Ireland of his youth — ethnically and culturally homogeneous, Catholic, rule-bound, often austere, but also warm, coherent and recognisable — and contrast it with the globalised, post-Catholic, media-managed Ireland of today.We think out loud about:the collapse of the old moral orderthe rise of a new elite classthe decline of journalism and honest public speechthe Enoch Burke case and the Irish judiciaryimmigration, demographic change and public silenceIreland as an economic zone rather than a nationthe relationship between Ireland, Britain and the wider WestJohn Waters is one of Ireland’s most distinctive dissident voices. A former mainstream journalist, he has spent decades chronicling the moral and institutional transformation of Ireland and reflecting on what that change means for ordinary people, national identity and the future of democracy.This is a conversation about Ireland and about what happens when a country forgets how to tell the truth about itself.LinksVisit John Waters website: https://www.johnwaters.ie/Read John Waters Unchained: https://johnwaters.substack.com/About Thinking Class:Thinking Class is an independent forum for long-form inquiry examining the political, cultural and civilisational questions shaping England, Britain and the West.Hosted by John Gillam, the show features serious conversations with historians, legal scholars, economists, theologians, politicians, and public intellectuals.Thinking Class is concerned with discovering long-term patterns over headlines and hot-takes. Expect historically-grounded analysis on matters of national character, institutions, demography, democracy, identity, inheritance, institutional continuity and social change.New episodes every week.▶️ Subscribe on YouTube🎧 Follow on Spotify📰 Read on Substack🐦 Follow on X

#118 - Michael Reiners - The Laws That Quietly Abolished England: Blair's Constitutional Settlement And What Can Be Done About It

Michael Reiners is a writer, lawyer, and architectural historian. Michael is the founder of the Reiners Project, which publishes essays, draft legislation and commentary on English constitutional law and the art and architectural landscape. Britain’s constitutional settlement has changed more in the last few decades than most people realise — and the consequences now reach into identity, speech, governance, and the question of who the country is for.This episode forms part of Thinking Class’ ongoing inquiry: The Question of the West — examining the political, cultural, and civilisational foundations of our common life.We discuss the “Yookayification” idea, the logic (and risks) of a Great Repeal approach to post-1997 constitutional reforms, and why any serious reform programme would need to confront the reality of the permanent state — the administrative machinery and quasi-independent bodies that can constrain elected power.Topics we explore:England vs Britain vs the UK — what the words actually mean (and how they changed)Why “UK” is a very recent political identityIdentity, citizenship, and why law doesn’t always reflect reality“Yookay-ification”, naming, and the politics of placeDevolution, Human Rights, Equality frameworks — and unintended consequencesWhat a serious constitutional “reset” would require (and what could go wrong)The “permanent state” problem: how reform attempts get contained or neutralisedWhat cultural restoration could look like beyond slogansLinksFollow Michael Reiners on X: https://x.com/MCRReinersVisit the Reiners Project: https://reiners.org.uk/About Thinking Class:Thinking Class is an independent forum for long-form inquiry examining the political, cultural and civilisational questions shaping England, Britain and the West.Hosted by John Gillam, the show features serious conversations with historians, legal scholars, economists, theologians, politicians, and public intellectuals.Thinking Class is concerned with discovering long-term patterns over headlines and hot-takes. Expect historically-grounded analysis on matters of national character, institutions, demography, democracy, identity, inheritance, institutional continuity and social change.New episodes every week.▶️ Subscribe on YouTube🎧 Follow on Spotify📰 Read on Substack🐦 Follow on X