Hobbes and New Leviathans

John Gray on why re-reading Hobbes can help us understand contemporary politics

• 45 mins

Slavic culture and myth

Matthew Sweet looks at the origins of creatures like Baba Yaga, Banniks and Rusalkas.

• 44 mins

Refuge and National Poetry Day

Poets Momtaza Mehri, Julianknxx and historian Jesús Sanjurjo join Matthew Sweet

• 44 mins

Faith, consciousness and creating meaning in life

Philosophers Daniel Dennett, Philip Goff, podcaster Liz Oldfield & a faith museum curator

• 44 mins

New Thinking: Modernism, exile and homelessness

Nathan Waddell and Laura Ryan talk to Jade Munslow Ong about writers depicting precarity

• 29 mins

Art, Kew, a symphony and nature

Artist Mat Collishaw, composer Jimmy López Bellido, academics Vid Simoniti & Sarah Casey

• 44 mins

The Frieze/Radio 3 Museum Directors Debate 2023

The art museum as community space, immersive art experiences & other hot topics.

• 44 mins

Being Blonde

Matthew Sweet discusses the genealogy of blondeness

• 44 mins

New Thinking: Work and protest

From Luddite protests in 1811 in textile mills to school strikes in 1911

• 35 mins

Victorian colour, jewellery and metalwork

Nandini Das visits Colour Revolution at the Ashmolean in Oxford and talks to a jeweller

• 44 mins

Humours and The Body

From mitochondrial medicine to 17th century cancer treatments, via Bach's Cantatas

• 44 mins

Valis and Philip K Dick

A weirdly autobiographical science fiction novel from 1981 inspired by hallucinations.

• 45 mins

Sankofa and Afrofuturism

Curator Ekow Eshun, academic Sarah Jilani, sculptor Zak Ové with Shahihda Bari

• 44 mins

Sleep

John Gallagher gets sleeping tips from research pioneers and early modern history

• 44 mins

Eliza Flower and non-conformist thinking

Matthew Sweet hears about research into the singer & friend of JS Mill feat. live songs!

• 45 mins

Robert Aickman

For Halloween, Matthew Sweet & guests discuss supernatural fiction, bad teeth & canals

• 45 mins

African identity via China and photography

Teju Cole, Noo Saro-Wiwa and Tate curator Osei Bonsu talk to Laurence Scott.

• 45 mins

New Thinking: Writing exile and overcoming statelessness

The lives of Bengalis in Pakistan/a novel about a Lebanese boy wanting to be an astronaut

• 31 mins

New Thinking: Food

Lisa Mullen hears about new research into eating habits and ideas about hospitality

• 44 mins

New Thinking: Playhouses and opera-going

What spectacles did Elizabethan playhouses stage other than plays? Is opera really posh?

• 37 mins

The Imperial War Museum Remembrance discussion 2023

As the IWM unveils its new art galleries, Anne McElvoy & guests discuss photographing war

• 44 mins

New Thinking: How and why we talk

John Gallagher hears about tongue shapes, accent prejudice and the importance of gossip

• 44 mins

New Thinking: The Box Office Bears project

From digging for bones to the connection between bear baiting and Elizabethan theatre

• 31 mins

Shakespeare as inspiration

From Bollywood films and Pre-Raphaelite art to productions of Shakespeare in places at war

• 44 mins

Women, art and activism

Naomi Paxton and guests on exhibitions at Tate Britain, the Barbican and Modern Art Oxford

• 44 mins

Ursula Le Guin and The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

Naomi Alderman, Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson and others discuss the politics of this 1973 fable

• 45 mins

New Thinking: Rediscovering women making film and sculpture

Kathleen Collins’ film scripts and women sculptors working in wax

• 40 mins

Sam Selvon and The Lonely Londoners

Selvon's evocative 1956 novel discussed at the British Library by Shahidha Bari & guests.

• 44 mins

Post-War Germany

Forging the modern German nation from the moral and material ruins of WW2

• 44 mins

AS Byatt and The Children's Book

AS Byatt discussed her writing life with Matthew Sweet as she published a novel in 2009

• 43 mins