Hugo Rifkind has spent his career observing power. He also grew up inside it — and never quite felt he belonged there.

In this episode, he talks about:

• The Scottish boarding school where violence was a point of pride... until a public inquiry forced the question

• About being Jewish in public life since October 7th, and what it felt like when the people his community relied on weren't there

• The thing he values most — connection — and his honest admission that what he often really means is something more one-sided than that

🎙️Listen to The Sacred: linktr.ee/sacredpodcast

📖 Follow Elizabeth Oldfield: www.elizabetholdfield.com/

💡Produced by Theos Think Tank in partnership with Comment Magazine and with support from The Jerusalem Trust and Open Society Foundations

👉 Follow Hugo Rifkind: https://www.instagram.com/p/DXmPHlqo1Jf/?hl=en-gb

Michael Pollan tried psychedelics at 55. What he found changed everything he thought he knew.

Michael is not a mystic or a guru. He is the kind of writer that scientists, doctors and serious intellectuals trust - someone who changed the way millions of people think about food, farming and the natural world. So when Michael Pollan tried psychedelics at 55 and came back saying the certainties had started to dissolve - the world began to listen in a way they simply wouldn't have for anyone else.

In this conversation, Michael and Elizabeth explore what it actually means to be conscious — and whether we're squandering it. Why does every psychedelic trip seem to arrive at the same slightly cliché and yet, beautiful conclusions? What have we lost by building a science of the mind that brackets out the body, the emotions and everything that actually feels like something? Why is the cool, analytical part of our brain so much louder than the part that knows how to be present — and who benefits from keeping it that way? And what are the algorithms really stealing when they steal our attention?

They cover:

• Why science keeps getting within reach of explaining consciousness — and then losing its nerve

• What psychedelics reveal that embarrasses serious researchers (and why that embarrassment is the clue)

• The Silicon Valley bid to upload consciousness

• How to protect your attention in an age designed to steal it

• Why not-knowing might be the most important skill of our time

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Our guests and listeners to our podcast come from all kinds of perspectives and what draws us together is a desire to be self-aware about our own values and curious about other peoples. Comment your reflections below, we read them all👇

The Sacred is produced in partnership with Comment Magazine, and with support from The Jerusalem Trust and Open Society Foundations.

🎙️Listen to The Sacred: linktr.ee/sacredpodcast

📖 Follow Elizabeth Oldfield: www.elizabetholdfield.com/

💡Produced by Theos Think Tank: www.theosthinktank.co.uk/👉 Michael Pollan's book on Consciousness: https://michaelpollan.com/books/how-to-change-your-mind/

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Chapters

0:00 - Intro trailer

01:45 - What is Sacred to you? Michael Pollan answers

3:45 - When the ego dissolves: what psychedelics actually do

4:25 - Growing up with an alcoholic father and becoming the man with all the answers

6:01 - 'How to Change Your Mind; shifted culture

6:25 - Michael's lifelong obsession with nature

7:22 - Why feelings became an embarrassment to science

8:16 - First experience of psychedelics

9:18 - Is consciousness being polluted — and do we even notice?10:18 - Silicon Valley wants to upload the soul. Here's why that's terrifying

26:13 - Why being a sceptic, not an expert, made the psychedelic book so influential

28:33 - How writers sense a cultural shift before it happens

30:25 - The president who colonised our consciousness and won't leave

32:06 - Elizabeth's encounter with God at age 11

36:33 - The Zen cave, Roshi Joan Halifax, and learning to not know

41:27 - We can't afford to be anything less than present

43:24 - How men get scripted out of their own inner lives

46:10 - Consciousness as the secular word for soul

49:04 - Protect your inner life from the algorithm

52:12 - Why don't they just make a baby? The funniest moment in the book

54:24 - Ayahuasca, idealism and the scientist who changed his mind twice

56:06 - Cultivating the don't-know mind

56:32 - Elizabeth's reflections

What happens after winning Bake Off? Jasmine Mitchell joins us to talk about perfectionism, alopecia, self-image, and learning to be fully yourself in a world obsessed with image.

Jasmine reflects on growing up in a home shaped by hospitality, losing her hair as a teenager, learning to let go of perfection, and the unexpected journey that took her from medical school to winning British Bake Off 2025.

Elizabeth Oldfield and Jasmine explore:

• Why “go slow” became Jasmine’s grounding philosophy

• Her journey with alopecia and being fully seen

• Reality TV, public image and is Bake Off different from the rest?• Why hospitality and shared meals matter so deeply

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🎙️Listen to The Sacred: linktr.ee/sacredpodcast

📖 Follow Elizabeth Oldfield: www.elizabetholdfield.com/

💡Produced by Theos Think Tank: www.theosthinktank.co.uk/👉 Follow Jasmine: https://www.instagram.com/jasmine.mitchell/tagged/?hl=en

Nearly a decade into The Sacred, we’re still doing the same thing: having honest and curious conversations with people who see the world differently.

We're wondering why - like the return of spring - seeking to understand another person at a deep level never seems to get old.

There's something about learning to truly understand people outside our “tribe” that feels challenging and pleasurable all at once and we're seeing (nine years later!) just how much we need these conversations today.

As Maff Potts says, “the answer to our problems is each other.”

So this is a practice, a community and a place to sit with the hard questions and we're really glad you’re doing it with us.

— The Sacred Team - Elizabeth, Josh, Amari & Joe

👀 You may notice that our visuals have been levelled up. We’re delighted that our team is growing and The Sacred will be getting a lot more beautiful and creative!

✍️ Substack: https://thesacredpodcast.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips

💡 Theos Think Tank: www.theosthinktank.co.uk/

The world wasn’t built for everyone. Leah Libresco Sargeant on feminism, care, and the myth of the “neutral” human.

Join our community of people listening curiously to different perspectives: https://www.youtube.com/@thesacredpodcast/videos

Leah has spent her life following philosophy to its limits, from Kantian questions of moral truth to reckoning with human vulnerability. Her journey reveals what happens when the world is built for a ‘neutral human’ - and who it leaves behind.

This conversation explores feminism, gender difference, care, and what it really means to take morality seriously.

Leah is the writer of Dignity of Dependence, works in of family policy and is the host of Other Feminisms on Substack.

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✍️ Find us on Substack: https://thesacredpodcast.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips

📖 Follow Elizabeth Oldfield: www.elizabetholdfield.com/

💡 Produced by Theos Think Tank: www.theosthinktank.co.uk/👉Check out Leah's substack: https://www.otherfeminisms.com/

We spoke to Stig Abell on how to live if nothing is ultimately sacred.

Elizabeth Oldfield and Stig explore detective fiction and our longing for justice, the consolations of books in an age of infinite scroll, the quiet crises many of us are living through, and whether “muddling along” might be the most honest way live.

This is a conversation about meaning and what remains when you’re not sure there is any.

We talk about:

• Why Stig feels more profane than sacred

• Books as portals out of panic

• Detective fiction and our longing for resolution

• The exhausting, competitive condition of modern life

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🎙️Listen to The Sacred: linktr.ee/sacredpodcast

📖 Follow Elizabeth Oldfield: www.elizabetholdfield.com/

💡Produced by Theos Think Tank: www.theosthinktank.co.uk/

👉 Check out Stig’s work: https://www.instagram.com/thestigabell/?hl=en

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:28 What is Sacred to You? Stig Abell Answers02:48 Questioning the Concept of the Sacred

04:32 Suspicion of Institutions and Freedom in Randomness

06:13 The Principles of Fairness and Kindness

08:56 Work ethics, Loughborough roots, and the story behind “Stig"

12:11 Reading and the Pre-internet childhood

14:35 Reading as Empathy and Sacred Practice

15:58 The Nature of Doubt and Certainty

17:42 Evolution, Randomness, and Meaning Without Agency

19:59 Do “holy” moments require God?

23:54 The Press and Public Appetite For Bad News

29:56 Navigating the Complexities of Journalism

32:02 Navigating the Media Landscape

36:05 Being unboxable, tribal politics, and scepticism as a way of life

37:58 Highbrow, Lowbrow, and the Freedom to Read Widely

39:32 Imposter Syndrome and Self-Perception

43:17 The Comfort of Genre Fiction

46:42 The Search for Justice in Storytelling

49:24 The Human Need for Narrative

54:03 The Crisis of Modern Existence

56:41 Quiet Struggles and the Fear of Being Useless

58:51 Recognising Flaws in Ourselves and Others

Keywords:

A wide-ranging conversation with Stig Abell on doubt, belief, meaning, secularism, faith and scepticism, fairness and kindness, journalism and media ethics, detective fiction and crime novels, books and reading as refuge, panic attacks and anxiety, modern life and burnout, human rights and Christianity’s cultural legacy, tribalism and political identity, institutions and individual conscience, and how to live well - or at least muddle through - in an age of uncertainty and infinite scroll.

In this episode, Elizabeth Oldfield is joined by political theorist and author Sophie Lewis to explore one of the most provocative ideas: the abolition of the family.

Reflecting on her own complicated adolescence, Sophie asks what it would mean to reorganise society around love and collective care rather than accumulation?

Drawing on her book, Abolish the Family, Sophie argues that the nuclear family carries impossible burdens in a capitalist society - privatising care, exhausting women, and quietly treating children as property. Could we imagine a world where love, care, and kinship extend beyond the walls of the nuclear family?

Together, they talk about:

• Why “utopia” is a practice, not a destination

• The hidden labour inside the private household

• Surrogacy, reproduction and the myth of “unassisted” motherhood

• Are autonomy and care are opposites, or inseparable?

• Jesus’ radical redefinition of family and the overlap between Christianity and communism

• What Sophie really means by abolition

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🎙️ Follow The Sacred: linktr.ee/sacredpodcast

📖 Follow Elizabeth Oldfield: www.elizabetholdfield.com/

💡 Produced by the ‪@thinktanktheos‬ www.theosthinktank.co.uk/

👉 Check out Sophie Lewis' work: https://www.instagram.com/reproutopia/?hl=en--

Chapters:00:00 Intro01:30 What is Sacred to you? Sophie Lewis answers12:15 - Sophie’s complex family history and personal struggles17:08 - Educational journey and radicalisation at university 20:28 - The meaning of utopia as a non-attachment process 24:22 - Connections between faith, love, and collective action 31:42 - Dissecting the concept of "Full Surrogacy Now" 36:39 - The biological myths around kinship and their political implications 43:46 - The paradox of abolition47:01 - Abolishing slavery through a radical reimagining of humanism 50:04 - Redefining family and kinship beyond blood ties 58:37 - How revolutionary care structures could have supported Sophie’s mother 60:45 - Sophie’s dedication to collective love and care as sacred practices 65:55 - The importance of shared purpose, synchronised action, and community

Keywords:

Sophie Lewis interview, abolish the family, radical feminist theory, Marxist feminism, political theory podcast, communisation of care, collective care, kinship networks, utopian thinking, libertarian communism, red love, family abolition, post-capitalist society, rethinking family, surrogacy ethics, gestational labor, parenthood and care, children belong to all of us, abolitionist thought, freedom and care, communal living, shared responsibility, parenting in modern society, radical theory for everyday life, anti-capitalist ideas, feminist politics, climate activism and radical thought, human geography theory, political philosophy podcast, queer runaway experiences, care as politics, social justice ideas, ethical community building, friendship as radical practice, collective freedom, family and society, abolitionist feminism, pregnancy and labor politics, communal childcare, mutual aid networks, parenting beyond the nuclear family, utopian visions, practical radicalism, human interconnection, radical love, ethics of kinship, parenting as shared labor, post-nuclear family ideas, political critique of capitalism, community-centered society, love and autonomy, humanism and care, social reproduction theory, feminist philosophy, radical theory conversation, future of family, abolitionist imagination