Under The Skin with Russell Brand

This week I spoke with Tim Pool. Tim is a journalist, activist, and one of the biggest political YouTubers of the moment. He initially became known for livestreaming the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests. Tim is also known for discussing some of the more difficult questions in relation to politics, including: the issues that divide The Left and The Right, and the issues that cause some of the biggest political fracas and conflicts in the US right now...

This week I spoke with John Higgs! John is a writer, journalist and cultural historian. He writes extensively about William Blake and counter-cultural figures like Alan Moore and Timothy Leary. "William Blake vs the World" and "The Future Starts Here: Adventures in the Twenty-First Century" are just two examples of his work. I am reading some of John’s books on William Blake at the moment and I’m really enjoying them...

This week’s guest is Michael Pollan! Michael is an american author and journalist. He is best known for his books that explore the socio-cultural impacts of food, such as The Botany of Desire and The Omnivore's Dilemma. His latest book is This Is Your Mind on Plants - in this book he explores in particular opium, caffeine, and mescaline. We chat about Michael’s research on various drugs, from caffeine to psychedelics...

This week’s guest is Bret Weinstein! Bret is a professor of biology, an evolutionary theorist, and well known political and cultural commentator. He hosts the DarkHorse podcast with his wife Heather. His new book A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century: Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life is available to pre-order now. We discuss censorship and the difficulty we have as a society at having open discourse and dialogue around controversial topics...

This week I spoke to one of my favourite guests on Under the Skin - Iain McGilchrist. Iain is an author, psychiatrist and former Oxford literary scholar. He came to prominence with his publication "The Master and His Emissary - The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World”. His latest book is called “The Matter With Things.” This is a fantastic podcast that discusses Iain’s work, the differences between the left and the right hemispheres, but also much more than that...

This week I spoke with Tom Kerridge! Tom is a Michelin-starred chef and founder Meals for Marlow a campaign set up during the pandemic to help over worked front line and key workers. They cooked and prepared over 100,000 meals sent out to who needed it most each and every day! Tom’s new book is called Outdoor Cooking. In this podcast we discuss Tom’s career and how he made it as a Chef, his dedication to locally sourced produce and also his charity work...