Quillette Cetera

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.

Quillette Cetera is a news podcast hosted by Zoe Sankey, with 70 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Zoe Sankey hosts Quillette Cetera, a news show with 70 episodes published.

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  Quillette Cetera

  Crémieux on Fertility Collapse, Ozempic, IQ & Why Pit Bulls Are the Way They Are

  Aug 6, 20261h 12m

  Zoe Sankey sits down with Crémieux (the pen name of researcher Jordan Lasker), the formerly anonymous X writer-researcher whose data threads on genetics, demographics and metabolic drugs have drawn a following of more than 260,000 — including some very prominent readers. It's a wide-ranging conversation. They cover collapsing fertility rates and the Victorian obscenity trial he argues helped set them falling; his case that dog breeds — pit bulls especially — behave the way they were bred to, and why he thinks people resist that; what he makes of the evidence on GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and retatrutide, microplastics, and the wellness industry; El Salvador's transformation under Nayib Bukele; IQ testing, genetics and embryo selection; populism, personality and politics; free will; and being Jewish and atheist at once. ⏱️ Chapters: 00:00 Intro — who Crémieux is and how he built his following 02:24 Fertility collapse and the Bradlaugh–Besant trial 05:00 Silphium, abortion and the long human history of family planning 06:00 Strong convictions, and why he wants to live forever 07:49 Brian Johnson, longevity and the wellness-hype problem 10:56 Microplastics: what the evidence actually shows 13:24 Zinc, Accutane and the biology of acne 18:08 Ivermectin, Demodex mites and skin 20:22 Pet rats, lab rats, and which animals we call "cute" 22:56 UFOs and the Trump-era document releases 25:11 Pit bulls: breeding, behaviour and public denial 30:06 Ira Glass, greyhounds and virtue-signal dog ownership 34:11 GLP-1 drugs: Ozempic, retatrutide and the medical turnaround 36:00 His own weight loss, muscle and travel-for-work 37:57 Próspera, El Salvador and Bukele's gang crackdown 42:49 Duterte, Hanania's Kakistocracy and populism 45:42 IQ, classical liberalism and organising society 47:12 China, dumping, open-source AI and pharmaceutical free-riding 50:36 Tariffs and the destination-based cash flow tax 51:49 Hope, ageing, and the generational wealth question 55:14 Truth-seeking, reform, and why people don't change their minds 56:46 Jewishness, identity and defining who counts as a Jew 59:11 Antisemitism, zero-sum thinking and its long tradition 1:01:05 The future of Israel and the Hilonim birth rate 1:04:04 IQ tests, Mensa and gaming the matrices 1:05:27 Embryo selection and raising smart kids 1:08:36 Nature, nurture and what mothers influence 1:09:20 Politics shaping personality — and the La Piere study 1:14:30 The Big Five, intelligence and conscientiousness 1:18:14 Free will: Pinker vs. Harris 1:20:38 The name "Crémieux" and Adolphe Crémieux 1:21:59 Wrap-up — Subscribe to Quillette: https://quillette.com Listen on Apple & Spotify Follow Quillette: https://twitter.com/Quillette — Guest: Crémieux — https://x.com/cremieuxrecueil | Substack: https://cremieux.xyz — Referenced in this episode: • Rob Brooks, "The Tragedy of the Unwanted Child" (Quillette) — https://quillette.com/2022/06/24/the-tragedy-of-the-unwanted-child-what-ancient-cultures-did-before-abortion/ • The Bradlaugh–Besant trial (1877) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradlaugh%E2%80%93Besant_trial • Richard Hanania, Kakistocracy — https://link.amazon/B0g92Tesm • Herasight (embryo screening) — https://www.herasight.com • Orchid (embryo screening) — https://www.orchidhealth.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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  Quillette Cetera

  Why Ireland Became Europe's Most Antisemitic Country | Rachel Moiselle

  Jul 22, 20261h 18m

  Rachel Moiselle is a PhD candidate at Trinity College Dublin and one of Ireland's most visible activists against antisemitism. In this episode of Quillette Cetera, she joins Zoe Sankey to discuss what it's like to defend a community of roughly 3,000 Jews in a country that largely denies it has an antisemitism problem at all. Rachel talks candidly about the ignorance surrounding Jewish culture in Ireland, how left-wing ideology has shaped anti-Israel sentiment and political discourse, and why Irish national identity has become entangled with the Palestinian cause. She also shares a very different side of her work: her research into Irish Sign Language, deaf culture, and the role AI translation technology plays for a minority language community, and how that experience shaped her thinking on identity and belonging more broadly. The conversation moves through her own path toward converting to Judaism, the friendships she's gained and lost since October 7th, the online abuse that followed her Sunday Independent article, and why she still believes speaking up is worth the cost. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction and guest background 02:30 Antisemitism in Ireland: perceptions and realities 08:02 The Irish Jewish community: size, ignorance, and challenges 11:57 Denial of antisemitism and its consequences 13:57 The influence of left-wing ideology and anti-Israel sentiment 17:00 Irish national identity, flags, and cultural symbolism 20:57 Ireland's history, independence, and reunification debates 24:12 The role of the EU and language education in Ireland 30:09 Language revival, Irish Sign Language, and cultural identity 37:03 Deaf community, minority identity, and activism 41:08 Technology, sign language translation, and deaf culture 46:02 Jewish identity, conversion, and community engagement 1:03:51 Friendship, loss, and personal resilience 1:14:00 Social media, online abuse, and activism 1:24:05 Future outlook, hope, and community support Guest: Rachel Moiselle on X: https://twitter.com/RachelMoiselle More from Quillette: Read Quillette: https://quillette.com Follow us on X: https://x.com/Quillette Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quillette Subscribe to Quillette Cetera for more conversations on free speech, identity, and the ideas shaping public life. #Antisemitism #Ireland #JewishCommunity #Quillette #IrishPolitics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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  Episode #68

  The NGO Industrial Complex: Gerald Steinberg on How Human Rights Became a Racket

  Jul 3, 20261h 4m

  NGOs have a great deal of influence over our lives. This episode uncovers the hidden power structures behind the world's most powerful non-governmental organisations — and why they deserve far more scrutiny than they get. Zoe Sankey sits down with Gerald Steinberg — founder of NGO Monitor and professor emeritus of political science at Bar-Ilan University — to discuss the evolution of NGOs from altruistic civil society groups into political powerhouses, the funding sources and transparency issues within organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and how they've come to shape the UN and international policy on Israel. "Ken Roth is hugely powerful as an individual." "Their reports often lack substantive verification." Gerald pulls back the curtain on how civil society was hijacked by political and ideological agendas, case studies of NGOs with alleged ties to governments and terrorist organisations, the UN accreditation process and what it really takes to get a seat at the table, and the power dynamics inside these organisations' leadership. 00:00 Introduction to Gerald Steinberg and His Work 02:56 Understanding NGOs: Definitions and Historical Context 06:07 The Evolution and Influence of NGOs 09:06 The Political Landscape of NGOs 12:05 NGO Monitor: Purpose and Function 15:00 The Power Dynamics within NGOs 18:06 Whistleblowers and Internal Critiques 20:52 The Future of NGOs and Their Impact 31:46 The Influence of NGOs on Global Politics 35:14 The Halo Effect: Media and NGO Relationships 40:27 The Writing and Impact of NGO Reports 50:12 The Future of NGOs and the UN 57:49 Zionism: Misunderstood and Maligned Read Gerald Steinberg's full body of work at Quillette: 👉 https://quillette.com/author/gerald-steinberg/ Resources: — NGO Monitor: https://www.ngo-monitor.org — UN Watch: https://www.unwatch.org — The War of Return by Einat Wilf: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594039624?tag=quillette-20 Follow NGO Monitor: — Twitter/X: https://x.com/NGOMonitor — Website: https://www.ngo-monitor.org Subscribe to Quillette Cetera for more fearless conversations wherever you get your podcasts, and head to Quillette.com for the stories mainstream media won't touch. #NGO #HumanRights #Amnesty #UnitedNations #Israel #Quillette Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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  Episode #66

  Oikophobia: Why the West Hates Itself | Benedict Beckeld

  Jun 19, 20261h 7m

  What does it mean for a civilisation to turn against itself? In this episode, Quillette's Zoe Sankey speaks with philosopher and author Benedict Beckeld — whose 2019 Quillette essay on oikophobia remains one of our site's most popular pieces — about the recurring historical phenomenon he has spent his career documenting: the tendency of successful Western societies to denigrate their own culture, institutions, and inheritance. Drawing on his book Oikophobia: Our Western Self-Hatred, published by Cornell University Press, Beckeld traces the pattern from ancient Athens and Imperial Rome to contemporary Europe and the Anglosphere, arguing that cultural self-repudiation is not a modern aberration but a predictable feature of prosperous, secure civilisations. The conversation ranges widely: the assimilability of Islam, the distinction between monoethnicity and monoculturalism, the demographic significance of Israel, the theological differences between the three Abrahamic religions, and the question of whether the West can recover its civilisational confidence before external pressures force the issue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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  Quillette Cetera

  Hava Mendelle: From Climate Activist to Critic of Radical Left and Gaza Flotilla

  Jun 8, 20261h 10m

  Hava Mendelle defies easy categorisation. Openly gay and proudly Jewish, she is a fifteen-year Australian Army veteran, emergency department nurse, published author, and co-founder of Minority Impact — a coalition of Australian minorities united in their opposition to Islamic radicalism and far-left extremism. She writes for The Spectator Australia, The Times of Israel, and The Jewish Independent, and has been making waves on social media for her unflinching commentary on antisemitism, the activist left, and the slow erosion of Australian national identity.In this conversation with Quillette's Zoe Sankey, Hava traces a remarkable personal journey — from an orthodox Jewish childhood and boarding school in Israel, to climate activism and Marxist study groups at university, to her current role as one of Australia's most clear-eyed critics of the movements she once moved in. They discuss the red-green alliance, the activists behind the Gaza flotilla, the radicalisation of the Australian Greens, why the United Nations deserves far more scepticism than it receives, and what October 7th changed — for Hava personally, and for Jewish Australians more broadly Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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