Helen Pluckrose documents the evolution of the ideas that inform today's social justice activism, from its origins in French postmodernism to its refinement within activist academic fields. As Pluckrose argues in her new book Cynical Theories, this dogma is recognisable as much by its real-world manifestations, such as cancel culture and social-media feeding frenzies, as by its tenets, which are all too often embraced as axiomatic in mainstream media: namely, that knowledge is a social construct; science and reason are tools of oppression; all human interactions are sites of oppressive power play; and language is dangerous.

Pluckrose claims that the unchecked proliferation of these anti-Enlightenment beliefs presents a threat not only to liberal democracy but also to modernity itself. The podcast was hosted by the writer and journalist Helen Joyce.