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Dissecting Death

Cultural discussion programme. Tom Sutcliffe discusses time and mortality with Raymond Tallis, Laura Tunbridge, Mark O'Connell and Carla Valentine.

On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe delves into the world of transhumanism, a movement whose aim is to use technology to transform the human condition. The writer Mark O'Connell has explored this world of cyborgs, utopians and the futurists looking to live forever. Raymond Tallis seeks to wrest the mysteries of time away from the scientists in his reflections on the nature of transience and mortality. Laura Tunbridge listens to the late works of Beethoven, Schumann and Mahler to ask whether intimations of mortality shape these pieces, while the mortician Carla Valentine uncovers what the dead reveal about their past life.
Producer: Katy Hickman.

Available now

43 minutes

Last on

Mon 3 Apr 2017 21:30
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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Mark O'Connell

is a journalist, essayist and literary critic.

To Be a Machine is published by Granta Books.

Carla Valentine

is the Technical Curator at Barts Pathology Museum in London.

Past Mortems: Life and Death Behind Mortuary Doors is published by Sphere.

Raymond Tallis

is a philosopher, poet, novelist and cultural critic and a retired physician.

Of Time and LamentationΒ will be published by Agenda Publishing in May.

Laura Tunbridge

is Professor of Music at the University of Oxford.

Credits

Presenter Tom Sutcliffe
Interviewed Guest Raymond Tallis
Interviewed Guest Laura Tunbridge
Interviewed Guest Mark O'Connell
Interviewed Guest Carla Valentine
Producer Katy Hickman

Broadcasts

  • Mon 3 Apr 2017 09:00
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
  • Mon 3 Apr 2017 21:30
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

Podcast

  • Start the Week

    Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday