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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Resisting Tyranny—New Generation Thinkers 2017
Wed 5 Jul 2017
3/5 Jonathan Healey on changing ways of resistance to state control and prevailing ideology.
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A Focus on Fasting—New Generation Thinkers 2017
Tue 4 Jul 2017
2/5 Christopher Kissane from the London School of Economics explores the history of fasting.
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A Romanticist Reflects on Breastfeeding—New Generation Thinkers 2017
Mon 3 Jul 2017
1/5 Corin Throsby explores attitudes towards breastfeeding.
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Isaac Rosenberg's Dead Man's Dump—Minds at War: Series 4
Fri 23 Jun 2017
5/5 Santanu Das explores the poetic world of Bristol-born Isaac Rosenberg.
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Mata Hari's Final Performance—Minds at War: Series 4
Thu 22 Jun 2017
4/5 Elif Shafak on the elaborate and provocative performances and photo shoots of Mata Hari.
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Siegfried Sassoon's Letter to The Times—Minds at War: Series 4
Wed 21 Jun 2017
3/5 Joanna Bourke on Siegfried Sassoon and his celebrated protest against the conflict.
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Gertrude Bell—Minds at War: Series 4
Tue 20 Jun 2017
2/5 Tarek Osman considers the writing of Gertrude Bell.
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Marcel Duchamp—Minds at War: Series 4
Mon 19 Jun 2017
1/5 Heather Jones on the war connections and controversy around Marcel Duchamp's work Fountain
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Philip Melanchthon—Luther's Reformation Gang
Fri 5 May 2017
5/5 Brian Cummings tells the story of Philip Melanchthon, Martin Luther's right-hand man.
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Johann Walther—Luther's Reformation Gang
Thu 4 May 2017
4/5 Dr Stephen Rose discusses Johann Walther, the man behind Luther's musical Reformation.
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Katharina von Bora—Luther's Reformation Gang
Wed 3 May 2017
3/5 Charlotte Woodford on the contribution of Katharina Von Bora to Luther's Reformation.
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Thomas Muntzer—Luther's Reformation Gang
Tue 2 May 2017
2/5 Andy Drummond profiles Thomas Muntzer, the failed revolutionary of the Reformation.
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Martin Luther—Luther's Reformation Gang
Mon 1 May 2017
1/5 Lyndal Roper profiles the father of the Reformation, Martin Luther.
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Late Style: Penelope Lively
Fri 28 Apr 2017
Thoughts on writing fiction as you get older from the novelist Penelope Lively.
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Late Style: Douglas Dunn
Thu 27 Apr 2017
Writing back the years: thoughts on poetry after retirement by Douglas Dunn.
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Late Style: Paul Bailey
Tue 25 Apr 2017
The novelist Paul Bailey discusses writing in his ninth decade.
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Vicki Feaver—Late Style
Mon 24 Apr 2017
1/5 Poet Vicki Feaver gives her thoughts on writing as one becomes older.
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Sex Shops—Hanging On
Fri 21 Apr 2017
Author Andrew Martin discusses sex shops, especially those in London's Soho.
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The Telephone—Hanging On
Wed 19 Apr 2017
Author Andrew Martin explains his liking for traditional telephones.
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The Ventriloquist Doll—Hanging On
Tue 18 Apr 2017
Andrew Martin on ventriloquists' dolls, one of the social phenomena managing to survive.
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The Boating Pond—Hanging On
Mon 17 Apr 2017
Andrew Martin celebrates the pastime of sailing model boats on ponds.
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Killing Time in Imperial Japan—Free Thinking 2017
Fri 31 Mar 2017
10/10 Christopher Harding discusses Tokyo in the early 20th century.
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Creating Modern India—Free Thinking 2017
Thu 30 Mar 2017
9/10 Preti Taneja on the architectural links between Letchworth Garden City and New Delhi.
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England's First European—Free Thinking 2017
Wed 29 Mar 2017
8/10 Exploring Fynes Moryson's An Itinerary, a European travel book from the early 17th century
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The Magic Years—Free Thinking 2017
Tue 28 Mar 2017
7/10 Medical historian Matthew Smith explores 1970s US psychiatry: a time of hope and promise.
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Faith, Fire and the Family—Free Thinking 2017
Mon 27 Mar 2017
6/10 Catherine Fletcher on the story of her grandfather, a missionary in India.
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Russia's Sacred Ruins—Free Thinking 2017
Fri 24 Mar 2017
5/10 Victoria Donovan explores the dilemmas of post-war reconstruction in Soviet Russia.
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The British Writer and the Refugee—Free Thinking 2017
Thu 23 Mar 2017
4/10 Katherine Cooper on the work by British writers to save colleagues in Europe during WWII.
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.
