An exploration of the cultural and social history of paper. Read more
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Paper
An exploration of the cultural and social history of paper.
Touki Bouki
A close look at Djibril Diop Mambéty's classic 1973 film with Matthew Sweet and guests.
Diverse Classical Music
Digging into the music of composers Joseph Bologne, Kikuko Kanai and Julia Perry.
Yishai Sarid, Marking Holocaust Memorial Day 2022
Anne McElvoy talks to Israeli novelist Yishai Sarid & hears about new historical research.
Asta Nielsen
Matthew Sweet and guests look at the Danish star of androgynous early romcoms and Hamlet.
How to Create a Modernist Masterpiece
Will Self, Alexandra Harris, Kevin Le Gendre and Owen Hatherley build up a manifesto.
Modernism around the World
Rana Mitter looks at Bauhaus in Delhi, Japanese and South African novels and Mexican art.
Futurism
Matthew Sweet and guests look at the manifesto celebrating youth, technology and violence.
Diverse Classical Music II
New research into music by Margaret Bonds, Robert Nathaniel Dett, Ali Osman, Isaac Hishow.
Whale Watching
Rana Mitter dives into the world of whales and examines our relationship to marine life.
Existential Risk
Planning and creating in the shadow of the doomsday clock with Shahidha Bari and guests.
Stonehenge History
Anne McElvoy is joined by Neil Wilkin, Mike Pitts, Susan Greaney and Seren Griffiths.
China, Freud, War and Sci-Fi
From AI and fan fiction to 1930s replica antiquities: new ways of thinking about China.
Hitchhiking
Matthew Sweet considers examples from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Polish tokens.
Pankaj Mishra, Research into Indian history
Pankaj Mishra discusses his new novel about four friends in an age of upheaval.
Artists' models and fame
Egon Schiele's women, Whistler's Woman in White, new radio ballads. Shahidha Bari hosts.
Perfecting the Body
Eugenics to cyborgs: Adam Rutherford, Clare Chambers, Xine Yao and Harry Parker discuss.
Climate change, nature and art
Ingrid Pollard, Julian Perry, Patricia Dominguez, Will Abberley and Eleanor Barraclough.
The Barbican, art and writing in 50s Britain
Lisa Mullen & guests mark the 40th anniversary of the opening of London's Barbican centre
The Generation Gap
Writer Howard Jacobson, photographer Ruth Sutoyé talk family histories with Matthew Sweet
Sisters
The Unthank sisters, Sally Alexander, Lucy Holland, Oyinkan Braithwaite and Shahidha Bari.
New research into women's history
The Clean Break theatre company, sex strikes, East European feminism. Naomi Paxton hosts.
Blackmail and Shame
Mark Ravenhill on staging the play on which Hitchcock based Blackmail.
The Stasi poetry circle, Nazi schools and German culture
How an East German creative writing class fought the cold war - was their poetry any good?
Vikings
From the Victorian craze to modern takes on Norse myths, Netflix and archaeological finds.
John Maynard Keynes
From HM Treasury to Versailles and Bloomsbury: a look at the life and legacy of JM Keynes.
After Dark Festival: Equinox
Finding meaning in the moment when the length of day and night is equal.
Dark Places
A poet, crime writer, theologian and marine biologist explore darkness.
Enter the Dragon and Bruce Lee
Matthew Sweet watches the 1973 martial arts film made before Bruce Lee's death aged 32.
Leopoldo Torre Nilsson's Hand in the Trap
Confronting the man who jilted you is the plot of this 1960s Argentine expressionist film
New Generation Thinkers 2022
Laurence Scott introduces the ten academics chosen to share their research on radio.