The Essay Podcast
Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.
Episodes to download
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The Dark Years—New Ways through the Glens
Mon 19 Feb 2018
1/5 Poet Kenneth Steven remarks on the history of the Scottish Highlands.
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Louise Welsh—All Miss Brodie's Girls
Fri 9 Feb 2018
Louise Welsh reflects on the uncanny in the novels of Muriel Spark.
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Val McDermid—All Miss Brodie's Girls
Thu 8 Feb 2018
Val McDermid discusses Muriel Spark - crime novelist.
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Janice Galloway—All Miss Brodie's Girls
Wed 7 Feb 2018
Janice Galloway discusses Muriel Spark- code maker and code breaker.
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Kate Clanchy—All Miss Brodie's Girls
Tue 6 Feb 2018
Kate Clanchy discusses the work of Muriel Spark - poet.
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Ali Smith—All Miss Brodie's Girls
Mon 5 Feb 2018
Ali Smith presents the first in a series of essays celebrating the work of Muriel Spark.
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Lavinia Greenlaw—Looking Good
Fri 2 Feb 2018
5/5 Five writers on the pleasures of viewing a phenomenon or social activity closely.
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Rachel Cooke—Looking Good
Thu 1 Feb 2018
4/5 Five writers consider the pleasures of viewing a phenomenon or social activity closely.
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Nicholas Shakespeare—Looking Good
Wed 31 Jan 2018
3/5 Five writers consider the pleasures of viewing a phenomenon or social activity closely.
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Lauren Elkin—Looking Good
Tue 30 Jan 2018
2/5 Five writers consider the pleasures of viewing a phenomenon or social activity closely.
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James Fox—Looking Good
Mon 29 Jan 2018
1/5 Five writers consider the art of viewing a phenomenon or social activity closely.
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Clay Bricks—Cornerstones
Fri 12 Jan 2018
5/5 Poet Fiona Hamilton contrasts clay's different states, before and after it's baked hard.
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Gypsum and Alabaster—Cornerstones
Thu 11 Jan 2018
4/5 Archaeologist Rose Ferraby gets to grips with gypsum, the key mineral in plaster.
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North Sea Oil and Gas—Cornerstones
Wed 10 Jan 2018
3/5 Esther Woolfson contrasts Aberdeen, the 'Granite City', with its oil and gas industry.
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Lewisian Gneiss—Cornerstones
Tue 9 Jan 2018
2/5 Writer Sara Maitland conjures with Lewisian gneiss, two-thirds the age of the earth.
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Flint—Cornerstones
Mon 8 Jan 2018
1/5 Alan Garner sparks with flint, the stone that has enabled human civilisation.
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Watershed—Brick, Stone, Steel, Glass
Fri 5 Jan 2018
Nikesh Shukla on Watershed in Bristol and how it helped him fall in love with the city.
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Hafod Eryri—Brick, Stone, Steel, Glass
Thu 4 Jan 2018
Travel writer Phoebe Smith on Hafod Eryri and the chutzpah of building on mountains.
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Chingle Hall—Brick, Stone, Steel, Glass
Wed 3 Jan 2018
Andrew Hurley on the haunting qualities of a 17th-century manor house near Preston.
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Gladstone's Library—Brick, Stone, Steel, Glass
Tue 2 Jan 2018
Novelist Melissa Harrison on the joy of 'sleeping with books' at Gladstone's Library.
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Wigmore Hall—Brick, Stone, Steel, Glass
New Year's Day 2018
Pianist Stephen Hough on Wigmore Hall and how its 'shoebox' design catches the ear.
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Dear William...—More Letters to Writers
Fri 1 Dec 2017
Ian Sansom writes to William Trevor to ask if every silver lining must have a cloud.
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Dear Marianne ...—More Letters to Writers
Thu 30 Nov 2017
Ian Sansom writes to poet Marianne Moore to finally ask her about that tricorn hat
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Dear Oscar...—More Letters to Writers
Wed 29 Nov 2017
Ian Sansom is in the gutter looking at the stars again as he writes to Oscar Wilde.
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Dear Mary...—More Letters to Writers
Tue 28 Nov 2017
Ian Sansom writes to Frankenstein author, Mary Shelley, to ask her how on earth she coped?
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Dear Mary Shelley
Mon 27 Nov 2017
Ian Sansom writes to Frankenstein author, Mary Shelley, to ask her how on earth she coped
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Dear Oscar Wilde
Mon 27 Nov 2017
Ian Sansom is in the gutter looking at the stars as he writes to Oscar Wilde
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Dear William Trevor
Mon 27 Nov 2017
Ian Sansom writes to Irish novelist and playwright, William Trevor
Death in Trieste
A 1760s murder still informs ideas about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex, and death.
Watch: My Deaf World
Five compelling experiences of what it is like to be deaf in 21st-century Britain.
The Book that Changed Me
Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.
Download The Essay
Download all the episodes from the series and listen at your leisure.
