Chris Williamson (born 23 February 1988) is an English

podcaster A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...

and

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

. He appeared on the

first series First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

of the reality show '' Love Island'' in 2015. Since 2018, he has hosted the ''Modern Wisdom''

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

, a show which has been downloaded more than 400 million times.

Early life and education

Williamson was born in 1988 in

Stockton-on-Tees Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in County Durham, England, with a population of 84,815 at the 2021 UK census. It gives its name to and is the largest settlement in the wider Borough of Stockton-on-Tees. It is part of Teesside and the Tees Val ...

North East England North East England, commonly referred to simply as the North East within England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of County DurhamNorthumberland, , Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and part of northern North Yorkshire. ...

. He played

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

as a child and played for the Durham Academy. He received a degree in Business Management and a masters in International Marketing at

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a mem ...

. Whilst studying he began a career in nightclub

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

Career

Williamson was a contestant on the dating game show ''

Take Me Out A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production. Film In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup". Takes of each ...

'' in 2012. He appeared on the

of the reality show '' Love Island'' in 2015 as a model and nightclub promoter. Williamson has stated that he did not feel that he belonged on the show, and that his experiences on ''Love Island'' caused a period of introspection and personal development, and resulted in a desire to contribute to the world by creating "content that genuinely changes the way that people live their daily lives".

''Modern Wisdom''

In 2018, Williamson started his own podcast show, ''Modern Wisdom'', with the subtitle "life lessons from the smartest people on the planet". He has discussed current events, politics, philosophy, science and hobbies with a variety of guests including

Jordan Peterson Jordan Bernt Peterson (born 12 June 1962) is a Canadian psychologist, author, and media commentator. He received widespread attention in the late 2010s for his views on cultural and political issues. Often described as Conservatism, conservativ ...

, Jocko Willink,

Steven Pinker Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a Canadian-American cognitive psychology, cognitive psychologist, psycholinguistics, psycholinguist, popular science author, and public intellectual. He is an advocate of evolutionary psycholo ...

Louise Perry Louise Perry is a British journalist, author and podcast host. She is a features writer for the ''Daily Mail'' and a columnist at the ''New Statesman'', and has been described as a leading reactionary feminist. Perry co-runs the charity We Ca ...

, Will MacAskill,

Robin Dunbar Robin Ian MacDonald Dunbar (born 28 June 1947) is a British biological anthropologist, evolutionary psychologist, and specialist in primate behaviour. Dunbar is professor emeritus of evolutionary psychology of the Social and Evolutionary Neuros ...

, Andrew Huberman, Michael Malice,

Sam Harris Samuel Benjamin Harris (born April 9, 1967) is an American philosopher, neuroscientist, author, and podcast host. His work touches on a range of topics, including rationality, religion, ethics, free will, determinism, neuroscience, meditation ...

Eric Weinstein Eric Ross Weinstein (; born October 26, 1965) is an American investor and financial executive. , he was managing director for the American venture capital firm Thiel Capital. Weinstein hosted a podcast called ''The Portal'', coined the term " i ...

, Douglas Murray, Konstantin Kisin, David Goggins,

Destiny Destiny, sometimes also called fate (), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. Fate Although often used interchangeably, the words ''fate'' and ''destiny'' ...

Nick Bostrom Nick Bostrom ( ; ; born 10 March 1973) is a Philosophy, philosopher known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, whole brain emulation, Existential risk from artificial general intelligence, superin ...

, Martin Schmalz, and

Patrick Moore Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore (; 4 March 1923 – 9 December 2012) was an English amateur astronomer who attained prominence in that field as a writer, researcher, radio commentator and television presenter. Moore's early interest in astro ...

. Williamson has interviewed the authors of over 100 ''New York Times'' bestsellers. As of April 2025, the show had over 3.5 million subscribers on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

and over 400 million downloads.

References

Published 7 October 2022.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Williamson, Chris Living people English podcasters YouTubers from County Durham Love Island (2015 TV series) contestants 1988 births People from Stockton-on-Tees