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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Romesh Gunesekera - The Orphan Eye—The Writer's Dickens
Tue 20 Dec 2011
2/5 Romesh Gunesekera on how Dickens addresses the move from childhood into the world beyond.
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Tessa Hadley - Rooms and Reality—The Writer's Dickens
Mon 19 Dec 2011
1/5 Tessa Hadley on how Dickens paints the reality of his world through characters' houses.
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Black and White: Messrs Smith and Carlos and Norman
Thu 2 Feb 2017
Lindsay Johns explains the inspiration he draws from a black and white photo on his desk.
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Black and White: Yin and Yang
Wed 1 Feb 2017
Xiaolu Guo remembers lessons learned from her father growing up in China.
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Black and White: Words on the Page
Tue 31 Jan 2017
Writer Glyn Maxwell on whether we have become too black and white, and too binary.
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Black and White: Parental Advisory Explicit Lyrics
Mon 30 Jan 2017
Farrah Jarral talks about what it means to be fluent in something one doesn't understand
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The Essay - Gun Culture -The Howth Mauser
Fri 27 Jan 2017
Heather Jones explores the deadly symbolism of the Howth Mauser
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The Essay - Gun Culture - Sniper
Thu 26 Jan 2017
Nicholas Rankin explores the emergence of the deadly 'force reducer' that is the sniper
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The Essay: Gun Culture: Pistols At Dawn
Wed 25 Jan 2017
John Gallagher duels with the noisy story of guns 300 years ago
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The Essay: Gun Culture: Gotham's Gun Baron
Tue 24 Jan 2017
Brian DeLay reveals the life & arms deals of the most dangerous man you've never heard of
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Taking Aim - Renaissance-style
Mon 23 Jan 2017
Catherine Fletcher unveils handguns' explosive Renaissance origin
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Cornerstones: Chalk
Fri 13 Jan 2017
Poet Alyson Hallett is drawn to chalk landscapes and the large horse at Westbury in Wilts
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Cornerstones: Fire Rocks
Thu 12 Jan 2017
Novelist Sarah Moss discusses basalt and dolerite, the fire rocks that underpin castles.
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Cornerstones:Coal
Wed 11 Jan 2017
Writer Paul Evans traces a family line back through Shropshire's seams of coal.
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Cornerstones:Millstone
Tue 10 Jan 2017
Derbyshire poet and climber Helen Mort visits Stanage Edge, famed for its millstone grit.
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Cornerstones: Quartz
Mon 9 Jan 2017
Linda Cracknell reflects on the appeal of the quartz on Ben Lawers, her local Munro.
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Poet Kenneth Steven on the Scottish islands
Fri 23 Sep 2016
Poet Kenneth Steven writes on the remote islands of St Kilda.
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Poet Kenneth Steven reflects on Scottish island life
Thu 22 Sep 2016
Poet Kenneth Steven writes on Raasay, an island close to Skye.
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Poet Kenneth Steven reflects on Scottish island life
Wed 21 Sep 2016
Kenneth Steven looks at Rum, a wild and windswept Hebridean island.
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Poet Kenneth Steven on Scottish island life
Tue 20 Sep 2016
Poet Kenneth Steven writes on Hoy in the archipelago of the Orkney islands
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Poet Kenneth Steven reflects on Scottish island life
Mon 19 Sep 2016
Kenneth Steven writes on the Hebridean island of Iona.
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Shakespeare 400. Joan Fitzpatrick on Wolf All? Shakespeare and food
Wed 27 Apr 2016
Joan explores the symbolism of food and eating in Shakespeare's plays
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Shakespeare 400. James Loxley on Undiscovered Countries: Shakespeare and the Nation
Tue 26 Apr 2016
James explores the light Shakespeare throws on national identity, then and now
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Minds at War: Sean O'Casey's "The Silver Tassie"
Fri 15 Apr 2016
Playwright and academic Elizabeth Kuti explores Sean O'Casey's "The Silver Tassie"
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Minds at War: Father Browne's war photograph
Thu 14 Apr 2016
Photographer John D McHugh explores one of the war photos taken by Fr Francis Browne
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Minds at War: "O' Connell Street"
Wed 13 Apr 2016
Poet and academic Gerald Dawe explores Francis Ledwidge's poem "O'Connell Street".
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Minds at War: "The Last September"
Tue 12 Apr 2016
Dr Heather Jones of the LSE explores Elizabeth Bowen's novel "The Last September"
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Minds at War: "Ulysses"
Mon 11 Apr 2016
The writer Fintan O'Toole reflects on James Joyce's novel "Ulysses"
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Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks
Fri 4 Mar 2016
Stephen Johnson studies the audience's reaction to Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks
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Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 4
Thu 3 Mar 2016
Stephen Johnson considers how Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 4 thrilled the first audience
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.
