--- title: "Podcast" date: "2026-04-23T11:27:19+01:00" modified: "2026-07-31T13:05:03+01:00" url: "https://heritage.humanists.uk/podcast/" post_id: 13801 --- # Podcast Join **Andrew Copson** and **Madeleine Goodall**—alongside a host of expert guests—as they uncover the hidden histories and untold stories of the people, places, movements, ideas, and events that helped shape humanism, secularism, and freethought in the UK and beyond. From radical reformers to forgotten dissenters, *Unholy Histories* explores how reason, skepticism, science, and activism helped build the modern world—and how these values still shape our society today. [Listen to Unholy Histories](https://unholyhistories.humanists.uk/2489236/follow) --- Episode 1: Heroines of Freethought ------------------------------------ - [With Annie Laurie Gaylor and Nan Sloane](#with-annie-laurie-gaylor-and-nan-sloane)This episode explores the legacies of women who challenged religious orthodoxy and patriarchal structures, laying the groundwork for modern humanist and feminist thought. [Listen to the episode](https://unholyhistories.humanists.uk/2489236/episodes/19045054-heroines-of-freethought-with-annie-laurie-gaylor-nan-sloane) [Read the show notes: Heroines of Freethought](https://heritage.humanists.uk/podcast/heroines/) - - [ Sara A. Underwood ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/sara-a-underwood/) - [ Emma Martin ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/emma-martin/) - [ Ernestine Rose ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/ernestine-rose/) - [ George Eliot ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/george-eliot/) Episode 2: Atheism Before the Enlightenment --------------------------------------------- - [With Michael Hunter and Patrick McGhee](#with-michael-hunter-and-patrick-mcghee)Many people assume humanism began with the Enlightenment. But sceptical, rational, human-centred ideas have a much longer history. [Listen to the episode](https://unholyhistories.humanists.uk/2489236/episodes/19101846-atheism-before-the-enlightenment-with-michael-hunter-and-patrick-mcghee) [Read the show notes: Atheism Before the Enlightenment ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/podcast/before-the-enlightenment/) - - [ Thomas Aikenhead ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/thomas-aikenhead/) - [ Christopher Marlowe ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/christopher-marlowe/) - [ Thomas Hobbes ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/thomas-hobbes/) - [ John Toland ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/john-toland/) Episode 3: Moral Education Without Religion --------------------------------------------- - [With Lois Lee and Susannah Wright](#with-lois-lee-and-susannah-wright)Explore the long history of humanist campaigning in education — from the Victorian pioneers of the Moral Instruction League to the 20th century architects of ‘life-stance’ education and citizenship studies. [Listen to the episode](https://unholyhistories.humanists.uk/2489236/episodes/19163472-moral-education-without-religion-with-lois-lee-susannah-wright) [Read the show notes: Moral Education Without Religion](https://heritage.humanists.uk/podcast/education-without-religion/) - - [ Moral Instruction League ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/moral-instruction-league/) - [ Frederick James Gould ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/frederick-james-gould/) - [ Margaret Knight ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/margaret-kennedy-knight/) - [ L. Susan Stebbing ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/l-susan-stebbing/) Episode 4: Born of Mary ------------------------- - [With Lesley Hall and Peter Parker](#with-lesley-hall-and-peter-parker)Uncovering the close connections between the movements for sexual freedom and freedom of belief, from the sex-reform societies of the Victorian era to the decriminalisation campaigns of the mid-20th century, and the founding of the Gay Humanist Group (now LGBT Humanists). [Listen to the episode](https://www.buzzsprout.com/2489236/episodes/19198046) [Read the show notes: Born of Mary](https://heritage.humanists.uk/podcast/born-of-mary/) - - [ LGBT Humanists ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/lgbt-humanists/) - [ British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/bsssp/) - [ From the archives: Being Rational About Being Gay ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/from-the-archives-being-rational-about-being-gay/) - [ Into the Archives, Out of the Closet ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/exhibition/into-the-archives-out-of-the-closet/) Episode 5: Who Really Wrote Human Rights? ------------------------------------------- - [With Bill Cooke and Francesca Klug](#with-bill-cooke-and-francesca-klug)This episode explores the humanist ideas and individuals that helped to shape the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). From H. G. Wells’ pioneering wartime declaration to the concept of a ‘common human family’. [Listen to the episode](https://unholyhistories.humanists.uk/2489236/episodes/19228676-the-universal-declaration-of-human-rights-with-bill-cooke-francesca-klug) [Read the show notes: Universal Declaration of Human Rights](https://heritage.humanists.uk/podcast/udhr/) - - [ H. G. Wells ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/h-g-wells/) - [ Julian Huxley ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/julian-huxley/) - [ Barbara Wootton ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/barbara-wootton/) - [ UNESCO ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/object/constitution-of-unesco/) Episode 6: Britain’s Most Secular Parliament and the Battle That Built It --------------------------------------------------------------------------- - [With David Nash and Lizzi Collinge](#with-david-nash-and-lizzi-collinge)This episode explores Charles Bradlaugh’s long battle for the right to affirm in Parliament, and discusses how far we’ve come since the Oaths Act of 1880. [Listen to the episode](https://www.buzzsprout.com/2489236/episodes/19272647) - - [ Charles Bradlaugh ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/charles-bradlaugh/) - [ Charles Bradlaugh’s Struggle to Enter Parliament ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/charles-bradlaughs-struggle-to-enter-parliament/) - [ Humanist Parliamentary Group ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/humanist-parliamentary-group/) - [ Time for Reflection in the Scottish Parliament ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/article/time-for-reflection/) Episode 7: The First Atheists ------------------------------- - [With Edith Hall and Tim Whitmarsh](#with-edith-hall-and-tim-whitmarsh)Long before the Enlightenment, ancient thinkers were already questioning the gods, and looking to their fellow humans for happiness. This episode explores some of these figures, and those inspired by them centuries later. [Listen to the episode](https://www.buzzsprout.com/2489236/episodes/19312208) - - [ Democritus: the ‘laughing philosopher’ ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/object/the-laughing-philosopher/) - [ Lucretius ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/lucretius/) - [ Humanism: a global heritage ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/article/humanism-a-global-heritage/) - [ Cambridge Heretics ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/the-cambridge-heretics/) Episode 8: Radical Empathy ---------------------------- - [With Nicholas Buccola and Angelina Osborne](#with-nicholas-buccola-and-angelina-osborne)This episode traces the humanist threads that ran through the civil rights movements on both sides of the Atlantic, from Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry in the United States to the Windrush generation, the 1965 Race Relations Act, and the Black British radical tradition of C.L.R. James, Claudia Jones and Darcus Howe. [Listen to the episode](https://www.buzzsprout.com/2489236/episodes/19351371) - - [ African American Humanism ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/article/african-american-humanism/) - [ James Baldwin ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/james-baldwin/) - [ Recording of James Baldwin at Cambridge ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/object/recording-of-james-baldwin-in-cambridge/) - [ First European performance of A Raisin in the Sun ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/a-raisin-in-the-sun/) Episode 9: Can they suffer? ----------------------------- - [With Helen Cowie and Andrew Fenton](#with-helen-cowie-and-andrew-fenton)This episode explores how humanist ethics should reach beyond the human — an argument that Victorian reformers like Henry Salt and his Humanitarian League turned into a campaign for animal rights, vegetarianism, the abolition of vivisection and the reform of zoos and blood sports, and that runs in a long line through Bridget Brophy and the Oxford Group of the 1970s to the modern animal rights and vegan movements. [Listen to the episode](https://www.buzzsprout.com/2489236/episodes/19365846) - - [ Henry S. Salt ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/henry-s-salt/) - [ Humanitarian League ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/the-humanitarian-league/) - [ Brigid Brophy ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/brigid-brophy/) - [ Letter from Thomas Hardy ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/object/letter-from-thomas-hardy/) Episode 10: Imagining better futures -------------------------------------- - [With S I Martin and Katie McGregor Stone](#with-s-i-martin-and-katie-mcgregor-stone)From H.G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon to Naomi Mitchison, Octavia Butler, Samuel Delany and the writers reimagining the genre of science fiction today, this episode asks how imagining the possible helps us change the present – and boldly go towards a better future. [Listen to the episode](https://www.buzzsprout.com/2489236/episodes/19410135) - - [ Starship Enterprise ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/object/starship-enterprise/) - [ H. G. Wells ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/h-g-wells/) - [ Naomi Mitchison ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/naomi-mitchison/) - [ Terry Pratchett ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/terry-pratchett/) Episode 11: Building the common good -------------------------------------- - [With Neil Kinnock and Colin Tyler](#with-neil-kinnock-and-colin-tyler)This episode explores the ideas and individuals at the heart of what became the welfare state, from the British idealists to the likes of Bevan and Beveridge. [Listen to the episode](https://www.buzzsprout.com/2489236/episodes/19440266) - - [ Humanism and the common good ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/article/humanism-and-the-common-good/) - [ Aneurin Bevan ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/aneurin-bevan/) - [ William Beveridge ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/william-beveridge/) - [ T. H. Green ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/thomas-hill-green/) Episode 12: The “open conspiracy” ----------------------------------- - [With Callum Brown](#with-callum-brown)In this episode, we discuss “the open conspiracy” — a decades-long campaign by 94 leading humanists who set out to rewrite Britain’s moral laws, overturning moral theocracy in favour of individual autonomy, humanitarianism, and internationalism. From the decriminalisation of homosexuality and suicide to divorce law reform, abortion rights, nuclear disarmament, and the abolition of capital punishment, we trace the humanist influence on a staggering array of transformative changes. [Listen to the episode](https://www.buzzsprout.com/2489236/episodes/19468674) - - [ John Boyd Orr ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/john-boyd-orr/) - [ Barbara Wootton ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/barbara-wootton/) - [ Ludovic Kennedy ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/ludovic-kennedy/) - [ May Seaton-Tiedeman ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/may-seaton-tiedeman/)