David Freeman
108 episodes listed below
Serious books, patient questions.
The Author Archive Podcast favors patient, plain-spoken interviews with authors whose books carry serious arguments. David Freeman keeps the pace steady, asking direct questions about heresy, the New Right, religion, old age, the Holocaust, and science under pressure.
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The Author Archive Podcast is a book interview series with a noticeably old-school patience. David Freeman usually begins plainly, names the book, and asks the author to account for the thing that drove it. The result is guided conversation rather than staged performance. It can be warm. It can also turn suddenly grave when the material demands it. Catherine Nixey’s episode on Heresy follows ancient Christian stories, rival divine figures, and the changing meaning of heresy from choice into danger. Laura K. Field’s conversation on Furious Minds moves through Trump-era conservatism, Straussian political philosophy, modernity, and the intellectual defense of the MAGA New Right. Robin Dunbar’s appearance frames religion as something observed through science and group behavior rather than defended from inside faith. Prue Leith’s episode is lighter but not slight, using cooking, television, writing, and curiosity to talk about being old without retreating from life. The Sir Martin Gilbert archive conversation is the most severe material here. It asks how a writer writes about the Holocaust without becoming numb to it, and it keeps the horror central without leaning on spectacle. Richard Dawkins brings the show into more combative territory with The War on Science, arguing about ideology, climate denial, vaccines, sex, gender, and public medicine. Freeman’s method is consistent across the range. He asks, listens, paraphrases, and nudges the guest toward the sharper version of the answer. The show is not trying to be fast, glossy, or heavily produced. Some recent episode excerpts are crowded by advertising, and a few feeds appear to include little usable conversation. Still, the core identity is clear. These are interviews for people who like books as arguments, not just as products. The subjects are broad, but the center of gravity is history, belief, politics, memory, and the way public ideas harden into consequences.
Made for: Best for listeners who like author interviews with historical weight, political argument, religious context, and room for long answers. It suits people who prefer thoughtful questioning over quick takes.
What sets it apart: Its strength is the archive-minded interview style: Freeman lets authors explain difficult material, then brings the conversation back with a plain question or concrete example. The show feels less like promotion and more like a careful conversation around the book’s central claim.
Authors talking to David Freeman about their books. Most of the conversations are from David’s personal archive that have been collected over the past 40 years.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
David Freeman turns author interviews into accessible records of ideas, institutions and remembered experience.
David Freeman uses books as doors into the forces that shape public memory. His interviews begin with an author's central subject, then press on definitions, evidence and personal stakes. Catherine Nixey traces alternative early Christian traditions in Heresy, while Laura K.
From frostbite to heresy, David Freeman finds the question you would ask the author yourself.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A sharp look at how sacred stories survive, shift, and get policed.
David Freeman and Catherine Nixey use Heresy to make a larger argument about how sacred stories survive, shift, and get policed over time. The conversation keeps circling back to a subtitle that points to Jesus and the other sons of God, a gospel scholars think helped shape the…
A clear look at the MAGA New Right's intellectual defense of Trump.
Laura K. Field traces the MAGA New Right through its intellectual defense of Trump, linking the movement's rise to the Republican takeover that began in 2016 and extended through J.D. Vance's place on the 2024 ticket.
A warm, candid chat about aging, writing, cooking, and staying curious.
Prue Leith is treated here as someone who keeps aging in practical view, not as a slogan. The strongest thread is her plain preference for writing over cooking, which gives the conversation a steady center as it moves through television work, her book, and the routines that keep…
A clear, combative conversation that uses Lysenko to frame current fights over science, climate, medicine, and language.
Freeman starts with Richard Dawkins on The War on Science, a collection of essays that Dawkins says was planned before Trump was re-elected, so it does not address the new administration's attack on science.
Three travel lives, each left to speak in its own register.
The episode moves through three travel lives without trying to smooth out the differences. Sir Ranulph Fiennes speaks with a plain account of what he has lived through, Eric Newby looks back with the calm of someone taking stock after a long road, and Lucy Irvine brings a…
Sports history, business deals, and politics, with Michael Payne turning the rise of the modern sports business into a lively talk.
Michael Payne treats his career as a study in how sports business took shape in the 70s. He says he was better at negotiating sponsorship deals behind the scenes than winning races, and that tension gives the conversation its shape.
Serious conversations with a human touch.
Real-life insulin talk, minus the polish.
Real talk for life with diabetes.
Host David Freeman interviews Catherine Nixey about her book 'Heresy: Jesus Christ and the Other Sons of God,' which draws on non-Christian Roman sources alongside the over 40 surviving gospels that did not make the biblical canon.
The Author Archive sits down with Laura K.
This episode features an interview with Professor Robin Dunbar discussing the evolutionary origins of religion, why it persists in human societies, and the role of group size in religious communities.
Prue Leith tells David Freeman that she is 86, prefers to be called a writer, and still thinks writing gives her more satisfaction than cooking.
This episode features a 2000 interview with historian Sir Martin Gilbert discussing his book 'Never Again' about the Holocaust, exploring its emotional toll on writers and the broader context of Jewish life before and after the war.
David Freeman opens a sharp conversation with Richard Dawkins about *The War on Science*.
David Freeman opens with Sir Ranulph Fiennes, who looks back at what he has achieved and jokes about the frostbite that changed his hand.
David Freeman talks with Michael Payne about a career on sport's business side.
Roger Hammond discusses his book 'Lynn and Me: Our Life with MS and Beyond', which evolved from a self-help guide into a memoir blending biography, love story, and practical advice for those affected by multiple sclerosis.
Joe Boyd discusses his memoir 'White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s' and his experiences as a record producer in London's 1960s music scene, including his connections with artists like Muddy Waters and Elektra Records.
This episode features an interview with author Paul Alexander about his book 'Bitter Crop', which explores the final year of jazz legend Billie Holiday's life, aiming to provide a more accurate and sympathetic portrayal of her as a historical and cultural figure.
David Freeman interviews Ruth Werner, a remarkable Soviet spy who lived in Oxfordshire and discusses her life, espionage work, and connections to the area.
Dennis McNally discusses his journey from writing about Jack Kerouac to chronicling the Grateful Dead, exploring the band's role in Bohemian culture and Jerry Garcia's intellectual depth.