Influenced - New Gurus: 8. Prophets of Doom

Jessica Lanyadoo thinks civil war is coming — she has seen it in the stars. But it isn’t just astrologers who think we’re living through an age of upheaval. Peter Turchin, a Soviet-born professor who studies historical cycles, has already seen one political system collapse in his lifetime. He calls this decade the Turbulent Twenties.

Could our collective anxiety explain the rise of the new gurus?

The New Gurus is a series about looking for enlightenment in the digital world.

Written and presented by Helen Lewis

Series Producers: Morgan Childs and Tom Pooley Story consultant: Geoff Bird Original music composed by Paper Tiger Sound design and mix: Rob Speight Editor: Craig Templeton Smith

A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

Influenced - New Gurus: 7. Bitcoin FC

When Peter McCormack made a fortune investing in Bitcoin, he knew exactly how to spend it - buying his local football team. Helen Lewis travels to the ground of Real Bedford FC, where you can buy a half-time bacon butty in Bitcoin, to hear whether McCormack’s faith has been shaken by the "crypto winter".

How are McCormack and other crypto gurus like Layah Heilpern keeping the faith as the price of Bitcoin tumbles?

The New Gurus is a series about looking for enlightenment in the digital world.

Written and presented by Helen Lewis

Series Producers: Morgan Childs and Tom Pooley Story consultant: Geoff Bird Original music composed by Paper Tiger Sound design and mix: Rob Speight Editor: Craig Templeton Smith

A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

Influenced - New Gurus: 6. Daygamers and Daydreamers

At Oxford University, fellow students remember Tom Ralis as a quiet, nerdy biology student who played percussion in the college orchestra. But even then, he had one ambition - to become a guru.

He reinvented himself as Tom Torero, a pick-up artist who approached women in the street for dates - a practice known as “daygame”. His transformation led to tragedy.

The New Gurus is a series about looking for enlightenment in the digital world.

Written and presented by Helen Lewis

Series Producers: Morgan Childs and Tom Pooley Story consultant: Geoff Bird Original music composed by Paper Tiger Sound design and mix: Rob Speight Editor: Craig Templeton Smith

A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

Influenced - New Gurus: 5. Gazing into the Abyss

In 2018, a New York Times article anointed a group of taboo-breaking intellectual provocateurs as the 'Intellectual Dark Web'. David Fuller was one of those who found this loose grouping of dissident gurus like Jordan Peterson, Joe Rogan and Sam Harris intoxicating – enough to leave the mainstream media and start his own YouTube channel.

But, four years on, he is left wondering - where did it all go wrong?

The New Gurus is a series about looking for enlightenment in the digital world.

Written and presented by Helen Lewis

Series Producers: Morgan Childs and Tom Pooley Story consultant: Geoff Bird Original music composed by Paper Tiger Sound design and mix: Rob Speight Editor: Craig Templeton Smith

A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

City of the Future - An Update from Vanessa

As you might have heard, Sidewalk Labs became a part of Google at the beginning of 2022. So City of the Future has been on hiatus...BUT I’m still creating podcasts that I think CotF listeners would like. And I’d like to share them with you all!

  • Urban Roots. If you enjoyed City of the Future season 4, which was all about equitable development, then you should definitely check out Urban Roots. We not only tell the histories of women and people of color that you probably don’t know, we also draw the throughline from the past to the present, and talk to folks who are doing equitable, preservation-based development that takes those histories into account. Our two-part series on Indianapolis is a great place to start, but we have episodes on Brooklyn, Cincinnati, and Los Angeles, too. Learn more about it by visiting urbanistmedia.org or emailing urbanrootspodcast@gmail.com.
  • Uncertain things. Less for the urbanist than for the person who is seeking to pop their media bubble, my journalist roommate and I created this interview show back in 2020. We purposely seek out academics, writers, journalists, thinkers across the political spectrum — people who actually want to enter into conversation and debate and leave their silos behind. The nice thing about Uncertain things is that I get to talk with whomever I find interesting and insightful, like evolutionary biologist Nicholas Christakis, historian Niall Ferguson, and journalist Caitlin Flanagan. We do sometimes talk to urbanists, too — like Vishaan Chakrabarti, Justin Davidson, and Michael Kimmelman (coming soon). You can subscribe to it at uncertain.substack.com and email us theuncertaintimes@gmail.com

Last two things — I’d love to hear from City of the Future fans! Reach me via vanessaquirk.com. And if you're an urbanism company who would like to hire me for my podcasting/comms expertise, reach out! Again, at vanessaquirk.com

I hope you all have a very happy, safe holiday season. Hopefully I’ll be seeing you — in the future!



Influenced - New Gurus: 4. White Women’s Tears

The rise of the Black Lives Matter movement brought renewed interest in corporate diversity gurus. But Regina Jackson and Saira Rao were ahead of the curve, pursuing their own unique anti-racist education programme.

Tired of talking to individual white women about their racism, they decided to invite a group of them for dinner, and confront them with their bias and bigotry. There was one rule - no crying.

The New Gurus is a series about looking for enlightenment in the digital world.

Written and presented by Helen Lewis

Series Producers: Morgan Childs and Tom Pooley Story consultant: Geoff Bird Original music composed by Paper Tiger Sound design and mix: Rob Speight Editor: Craig Templeton Smith

A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

Influenced - New Gurus: 3. Fitter, Happier, More Productive

As an author, broadcaster and journalist, Helen Lewis is drowning in deadlines. Join her race against the clock to see if productivity gurus can help her optimise her workflow, change her habits, and consume entire books in 15 minutes.

That is, if she can stop checking her phone long enough to pay attention.

The New Gurus is a series about looking for enlightenment in the digital world.

Written and presented by Helen Lewis

Series Producers: Morgan Childs and Tom Pooley Story consultant: Geoff Bird Original music composed by Paper Tiger Sound design and mix: Rob Speight Editor: Craig Templeton Smith

A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

Influenced - New Gurus: 2. Taking the Urine

Will Blunderfield grew up, he says, an unhappy, unhealthy kid. Now he feels great — as a “wild naked man” who drinks his own urine.

Across the world, wellness is a multi-billion pound industry, even though some of its practices are unproven, extreme or even harmful. So why are so many people unimpressed with what 21st century medicine can offer them, and turning to internet gurus instead?

The New Gurus is a series about looking for enlightenment in the digital world.

Written and presented by Helen Lewis

Series Producers: Morgan Childs and Tom Pooley Story consultant: Geoff Bird Original music composed by Paper Tiger Sound design and mix: Rob Speight Editor: Craig Templeton Smith

A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

Influenced - New Gurus: 1. The Birth of the New Guru

In 2011, some mourners at Steve Jobs’ memorial service were confused by his final gift to them – a book called Autobiography of A Yogi. Others understood his message perfectly - the Apple founder had spent his entire life searching for his own guru. Instead, by creating the iPhone, he became one. But did Jobs’ personal quest for enlightenment also help create the modern guru?

The New Gurus is a series about looking for enlightenment in the digital world.

Written and presented by Helen Lewis

Series Producers: Morgan Childs and Tom Pooley Story consultant: Geoff Bird Original music composed by Paper Tiger Sound design and mix: Rob Speight Editor: Craig Templeton Smith

A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds

Influenced - Welcome to The New Gurus

Everywhere you look on the internet, people are giving — and receiving — advice. Advice that promises to transform our lives. How to eat. How to think. How to get rich. How to manage our time.

Across 8 episodes, Helen Lewis travels through the strange, powerful and sometimes hidden digital spaces created by these new gurus. Where did they come from? How much power do these charismatic individuals wield? And why are so many of us turning away from the mainstream — mainstream medicine, mainstream politics and the mainstream media - and embracing the power of charismatic individuals instead?

Along the way, she considers the dubious benefits of ‘butthole sunning’, seeks help from some productivity gurus, meets a crypto millionaire who bought a football team, and wonders if the architecture of the internet will always drive us to extremes.

This is The New Gurus, a series about looking for enlightenment in the digital world.