1. Kyrgyzstan https://alexandratolstoytravel.com/

2. Female Explorers (Lady Jane Digby, Isabel Burton and the Decembrist Wives) https://www1.essex.ac.uk/history/documents/conferences/hero-soroka.pdf

3. Sailor’s Valentines https://www.worldofinteriors.com/story/sailors-valentines

4. Carbs https://www.bhf.org.uk/how-you-can-help/events/nutrition-for-sporting-events/carbohydrates-and-exercise

5. Lesser-known Victorian literature https://potpourri2015.wordpress.com/2018/05/24/author-profile-emily-eden/

6. Nukus Art Museum in Uzbekistan https://museumstudiesabroad.org/lysenko-savitsky-preserving-soviet-avant-garde/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Natalie Kyriacou OAM is an award-winning environmentalist, writer, professional public speaker and charity director with a passion to spark curiosity about the natural world. She was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia and the Forbes 30 Under 30 honour for her services to wildlife and environmental conservation in 2018 and was recognised as one of The Australian’s Top 100 Innovators in 2022. She is a Board Director at the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife and CARE Australia, the Founder and Chair of My Green World, a UNESCO Green Citizens Pathfinder, and an Australian Delegate and Climate Justice Lead at the W20. She was the United Nations Environment Programme’s Young Champions of the Earth finalist for her innovation in wildlife and environmental conservation and is LinkedIn’s Top Green Voice. Her new book is Nature's Last Dance, which is available at https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/nature-s-last-dance-natalie-kyriacou/376cc16767a86ffa.

1. Why Bonobos Have Peaceful Societies https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/06/bonobos-tolerant-peaceful-group-relationships-paved-way-for-human-peacemaking/

2. "Ugly" Animals https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/are-ugly-animals-lost-cause-180963807/

3. Chocolate and the Midge https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qFkUdZrfu2Q

4. The Joy and Impact of Birdwatchers https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/12/birdwatching-australia-binoculars-going-birding-life

5. Nature is the World's Original Pharmacy https://theconversation.com/nature-is-the-worlds-original-pharmacy-returning-to-medicines-roots-could-help-fill-drug-discovery-gaps-176963

6. Stories of Wonder to Change the World https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/24/hope-joy-absurdity-and-marvel-there-is-so-much-more-to-our-world-story-than-loss

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Danny Bate is a linguist, writer, broadcaster and podcaster who is fascinated by the study of historical languages and etymology. He took his BA and MPhil degrees from the University of York and the University of Cambridge respectively, and his PhD in linguistics from the University of Edinburgh. He can be found at dannybate.com. His new book is Why Q Needs U, which is available at https://dannybate.com/book/.

1. The alphabet is a product of migration, born out of a meeting of different peoples and their languages
2. Our letters started out as depictions of things (body parts, animals, everyday objects)
3. English's letters are connected via a big family tree to many other scripts, including many that seem 'alien' to its readers (e.g. Arabic, Hebrew)
4. There isn't universal one way to create writing, you pick which aspects of language (words, syllables, consonants) as a primary base
5. English and related alphabets aren't phonetically accurate (and that's okay)
6. Even when spelling diverges from a strict letter-to-sound ratio, new principles and processes can emerge

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Deepa Anappara’s debut novel, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, was named as one of the best books of the year by the New York Times, Washington Post, Time, Guardian and NPR. It won the Edgar Award for Best Novel, was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Indian literature. It has been translated into over twenty languages. Anappara is the co-editor of Letters to a Writer of Color, a collection of personal essays on fiction, race, and culture. The Last of Earth is her second novel and is available at https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-last-of-earth/deepa-anappara/9780861548620

1. 19th century British mapping of Tibet by Indian surveyors https://royalsociety.org/blog/2023/09/mapping-india/
2. Cartography as a tool for furthering imperialism https://www.theelephant.info/analysis/2026/01/21/cartographic-colonialism-and-the-true-size-of-africa/
3. How we can find the colonised's experience in the coloniser's records and archives? https://shura.shu.ac.uk/30780/3/Cere-UncoveringColonialLegacy%28AM%29.pdf
4. The problems with 'Show, Don't Tell' and other similar creative writing diktats https://www.emwelsh.com/blog/show-dont-tell-rule
5. Indian is not a language! https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/11/25/should-a-country-speak-a-single-language
6. Tipu's Tiger at V&A https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/tipus-tiger

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Nigel Biggar is Emeritus Regius Professor in the University of Oxford and Fellow of Christ Church. He founded in Oxford the MacDonald Institute for the study of Ethics and Empire. He is now a Fellow of St Cross College Oxford, and an author, lecturer and broadcaster throughout the English-speaking world. After many acclaimed academic books, he wrote and published the bestselling Colonialism. His new book is The New Dark Age: Why Liberals Must Win The Culture Wars, which is available at https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=the-new-dark-age-why-liberals-must-win-the-culture-wars--9781509568321.

1. Terence Malick's 1998 film, The Thin Red Line https://www.theguardian.com/film/1999/feb/26/film-of-the-week-the-thin-red-line
2. Helmuth James von Moltke (1907-45), anti-Nazi martyr https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/19666775-last-letters-the-prison-correspondence-between-helmuth-and-freya-von-mo
3. Sir John Malcolm (1769-1833): exemplar of empire https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/sir-john-malcolm
4. 'Mass graves' discovery in grounds of an Indian Residential School at Kamloops, BC, Canada, May 2021: to this day, no body has been disinterred. https://www.fraserinstitute.org/commentary/no-evidence-of-mass-graves-or-genocide-in-residential-schools
5. The World Values Survey 2023: showing Britain to be one of the least racist countries on earth. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/policy-institute/research-analysis/uk-world-values-survey
6. Kathleen Stock, martyr in the cause of free and honest thinking on campus https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/mar/26/university-of-sussex-fined-freedom-of-speech-investigation-kathleen-stock

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Matt Kaplan is a science correspondent at the Economist. He is the author of The Science of Monsters and Science of the Magical, and co-author of David Attenborough’s First Life: A Journey Through Time. His new book is I Told You So! Scientists who were Ridiculed, Exiled and Imprisoned for Being Right, which is available at https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250372284/itoldyouso/.

1. The few doctors who worked out that handwashing was essential for preventing the spread of disease were attacked by their peers https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/ignaz-semmelweis-doctor-prescribed-hand-washing

2. George Washington disobeyed direct orders from the Continental Congress and inoculated his troops against smallpox during the Revolutionary War https://historyofvaccines.org/blog/washingtons-war-against-smallpox-revolutionary-inoculation-campaign/

3. Louis Pasteur was a vicious fellow who engaged in academic fraud. https://cms.viroliegy.com/2022/02/25/louis-pasteurs-unethical-rabies-fraud/

4. The mild mannered French physician Pierre Alexandre Louis worked out that the common practice of blood-letting was terrible for patients. https://www.grunge.com/812824/the-radical-history-of-bloodletting-explained/

5. Katalin Kariko https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/10/scientists-egos-key-barrier-to-progress-covid-vaccine-pioneer-katalin-kariko

6. Experiments exploring novel ideas are getting rarer as the effort needed to get research done steadily goes up https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20180338

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Jane Dougherty, of Irish origin, grew up in Yorkshire and now lives in France. She began writing by coming up with short stories and a YA series for her teenage children. Her first novel was published by an American publisher Musa in 2014. Since then, her poetry and short stories have been published online, in anthologies and magazines. She has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize and has published three poetry pamphlets. Her most recent novel, The Darkest Tide was published by Northodox Press in 2025. Pasiphae is available at https://www.waterstones.com/book/9781917163293

1. Déjà s'envole la fleur maigre (Paul Meyer, 1960) https://www.artforum.com/columns/paul-meyers-deja-senvole-la-fleur-maigre-231206/
2. Beatrice Cenci https://www.througheternity.com/rome/beatrice-cenci-life-death-rome
3. The Lot-et-Garonne département https://www.guide-du-lot-et-garonne.com/en/tourism/discover/the-lot-et-garonne.html
4. The works of Natalia Ginzburg https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1985/11/07/the-force-of-habit/
5. The painter Franz Marc https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n12/michael-hofmann/at-the-orangerie
6. The Irish legend about Grainne and Diarmuid https://www.discoveringireland.com/the-legend-of-diarmuid-and-grainne/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Adam Steiner is a swim-teacher, freelance journalist and author. When not saving lives he sits dreaming about all the books he will never write. 

He has written several books of music criticism: Into The Never: Nine Inch Nails And The Creation Of The Downward Spiral, Silhouettes And Shadows: The Secret History of David Bowie’s Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) and Darker With The Dawn: Nick Cave's Songs Of Love And Death.

He runs the Disappear Here poetry film project – 27 x collaborative poetry-films about Coventry Ringroad – and now curates the Living With Buildings poetry film series, screening experimental films about people, poetry and place. For more information, go to https://adamsteiner.uk/.

1. Being There, Jerzy Kozinski: movie and book – so this is a great example of late/last great art - Peter Sellers was very attached to the story and was determined to make the movie, so he had do more pink panthers for the studio to back him.

2. Lifeguards / Swim Teachers - under-appreciated, under-sexed, underpaid its one of the hardest jobs out there - sitting in a chair dreaming, not doing anything, but people always take it for granted.

3. 40 - So we're always told that 40 is the new 30 etc - but it's a dangerous, difficult age.

4. When Biographies Become Biopics: Will Self said writers reading biographies of other writers is basically lit-porn – so we get caught up in a life narrative that often informs the work but steers us away from the original.

5. Real Dictators podcast - This is my go to 'easy' listening podcast, particularly when really ill I can just leave it on in the background and absorb.

6. Charity shops... the ultimate form of social progression. In London charity shops are a mecca for the undiscerning buyer.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Erin Somers is a reporter and news editor at Publishers Lunch. Her first novel, Stay Up with Hugo Best was a Vogue Best Book of the Year in 2019. Her writing has appeared in the New Yorker, Paris Review, New York Times Book Review, New Republic, New York Magazine, Atlantic, Esquire, GQ, Best American Short Stories and many other publications. She has been the recipient of an Emerging Writer Fellowship from the NYC Centre for Fiction, a fellowship from the Millay Colony, and was a 2020 finalist for a National Magazine Award. She lives in New York's Hudson Valley with her family. Her new novel is The Ten Year Affair, which is available at https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-ten-year-affair-erin-somers/7940888?ean=9781837264568&next=t.

1. The record Entrance Music by Okonski https://okonski.bandcamp.com/album/entrance-music

2. The author Max Apple https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/books/review/Hodgman-t.html

3. The film 101 Reykjavik https://www.theguardian.com/film/News_Story/Critic_Review/Observer_review/0,,501343,00.html

4. This recording of October in the Railroad Earth by Jack Kerouac and Stephen Allen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hjPZpaXNsw

5. The Codex Seriphinianus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Seraphinianus

6. Colony Pizza in Fairfield County, Connecticut https://colonygrill.com/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Tharik Hussain is an award-winning author and journalist specialising in global Muslim heritage and culture. He has written for newspapers such as The Times, Guardian and Telegraph, magazines such as National Geographic Traveler, and broadcast media such as Al Jazeera and the BBC. For the latter, he produced award-winning radio program America’s Mosques. Tharik has written or contributed to travel books on areas including the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Europe, and his book on Islam in the Western Balkans, Minarets in the Mountains, was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize, shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year, and won the Adele Evans Award. His new book is Muslim Europe and is available at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/458266/muslim-europe-by-hussain-tharik/9780241742822.

1. Ibn Jubayr https://muslimheritage.com/ibn-jubair-capturing-the-decline-of-islamic-power/

2. King Henry II’s relationship with Muslim culture https://www.historyextra.com/period/medieval/king-henry-ii-muslim-monarch-england-convert-islam/

3. The tomb of Hala Sultan https://www.cyprusalive.com/en/hala-sultan-tekke

4. King Charles III’s view of Europe’s Muslim history https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/king-charles-iii-five-things-islam-muslims

5 .The Nasrid ‘ruby’ in the Imperial State Crown of UK https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/crown-jewels/?id=6209

1. The synagogues of Toledo https://jguideeurope.org/en/region/spain/castilla-la-mancha/toledo/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Richard Johnson is Senior Lecturer in Politics at Queen Mary University of London. With Lee Evans, he is the co-host of the 'Since Attlee and Churchill' podcast. He is the author of several books on British and US politics, including The End of the Second Reconstruction: Obama, Trump, and the Crisis of Civil Rights and Keeping the Red Flag Flying: The Labour Party in Opposition since 1922 (with Gavin Hyman and Mark Garnett).

Lee David Evans is John Ramsden Fellow at the Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London.

You can buy their books at https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/books-by-richard-lee?&new-list-page=true and you can listen to their podcast at https://open.spotify.com/show/1ZZKNZvT1JLCTELwCoRtAc.

1. The Reconstruction era in the US https://www.amazon.co.uk/End-Second-Reconstruction-Richard-Johnson/dp/1509538348
2. Lord Timothy Dexter https://shahmm.medium.com/the-ridiculous-rise-of-lord-timothy-dexter-a-tale-of-lucky-blunders-and-accidental-brilliance-4b9037a62bdd
3. Anne Kerr MP https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/11/anne-kerr-labour-party-mp-rochester-vietnam-apartheid-chicago-europe-france
4. Peter Walker https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v13/n23/hugo-young/rubbishing-the-revolution
5. Quiet Court https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/what-happened-to-the-grace-and-favour-house-for/id1785733887?i=1000683681568
6. Memory Hold the Door by John Buchan https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1966/02/17/the-sweet-smell-of-success/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Dr. Brooke Newman is an Associate Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She specializes in the history of early modern Britain and the British Atlantic, with a focus on slavery and its legacies. She is the author of the award-winning book, A Dark Inheritance: Blood, Race, and Sex in Colonial Jamaica (Yale, 2018), and The Crown's Silence: The Hidden History of Slavery and the British Monarchy (Mudlark, 2026), which is available at https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/the-crowns-silence-the-hidden-history-of-slavery-and-the-british-monarchy-brooke-newman?variant=55509554397563. Her writing and research have been featured in the Guardian, the Washington Post, Der Spiegel, and Smithsonian Magazine, and she has served as a historical expert for HBO's Last Week Tonight, Vox, the BBC, and NPR, among others.

1. The difference between historians and journalists https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/journalists-and-historians-april-2023/
2. What it’s like to work in an archive https://www.wessexarch.co.uk/news/day-life-ofan-archivist
3. The value and limitations of archives https://slimkm.com/blog/advantages-and-limitations-of-archival-research/
4. The Stuart monarchs launched England into the transatlantic slave trade https://www.historyanswers.co.uk/kings-queens/royal-african-company-how-the-stuarts-birthed-britains-slave-trade/
5. The South Sea Company was not just a Ponzi scheme https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/South-Sea-Bubble/
6. Formerly enslaved people appealed directly to the Royal Family to abolish the slave trade https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/06/british-monarchy-ties-slavery-historical-archives-slaves

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Dean Koontz won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition when he was a senior in college, and has been writing ever since. Fourteen of his novels have risen to number one on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list (One Door Away From Heaven, From the Corner of His Eye, Midnight, Cold Fire, The Bad Place, Hideaway, Dragon Tears, Intensity, Sole Survivor, The Husband, Odd Hours, Relentless, What the Night Knows, and 77 Shadow Street), making him one of only a dozen writers ever to have achieved that milestone. Sixteen of his books have risen to the number one position in paperback. His books have also been major bestsellers in countries as diverse as Japan and Sweden. Many of his books have been made into films.

Dean Koontz lives in Southern California with Gerda and their golden retriever, Elsa. Dean and Gerda share a deep love of dogs. His new book is The Friend of The Family, which is available at https://www.deankoontz.com/book/the-friend-of-the-family/.

1. What quantum mechanics tells us about the strangeness of the universe. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26635393-200-what-does-quantum-theory-really-tell-us-about-the-nature-of-reality/

2. What’s wrong with the dictum “Write what you know.” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/02/dont-write-what-you-know-write-what-you-feel-bestselling-authors-offer-tips-on-world-book-day

3. The true nature of dogs. https://www.thedogwitchwholehealthandbehaviour.com/blogs/understanding-the-true-nature-of-dogs

4. Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon https://www.caymus.com/caymus-california-cab/

5. The music of Israel Kamakawiwo’ole https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Kamakawiwo%CA%BBole

6. Creme Brulee is just a pudding. Yes it is. https://thecookful.com/creme-brulee-caramel/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Ryan Gingeras is a professor in the Institute of Regional and International Studies at the Naval Postgraduate School and is an expert in modern Eastern European and Middle East history. He is the author of seven books, including The Last Days of the Ottoman Empire and Sorrowful Shores: Violence, Ethnicity, and the End of the Ottoman Empire 1912–1923, which was shortlisted for numerous book prizes. He has published on a wide variety of topics related to history and politics in publications such as Foreign Affairs, New York Times, Washington Post, Times Literary Supplement and Foreign Policy . He currently lives with his wife and children in the Santa Cruz Mountains. His new book is Mafia: A Global History, which is available at https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Mafia-A-Global-History/Ryan-Gingeras/9781398531673.

1. Mafias should be seen as significant historical figures in the making of modern history.
2. Mafias are not as old as you think.
3. The laws that "made" mafias a global phenomenon are also not as old as you think.
4. Al Capone set the mold for the modern gangsters worldwide.
5. Coppola's The Godfather marked the critical moment in the making of modern mafias.
6. Mafias are more integrated into the workings of the modern world than ever before.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Stuart Jeffries was born in Wolverhampton in 1962. He was educated in Dudley, Oxford and London.

Stuart started his journalistic career as a cub reporter at the Birmingham Post and Mail in 1985. He used to edit the Walsall Observer's children's page under the pseudonym Uncle Tom. Later he was the jazz critic of the Morning Star under the pseudonym Lew Lewis. In 1987, he moved to the Hampstead and Highgate Express, where he had many duties, chief among which was interviewing Hampstead lady novelists, which he liked a lot. 

In 1990, he started work for the Guardian, working as subeditor, TV critic, Friday Review editor, Paris correspondent and feature writer. In 2010 he took voluntary redundancy and since then  has been a freelance journalist and author. His work has appeared in the Guardian, the Observer, The Spectator, the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph, Prospect, the New Statesman. and the London Review of Books, among others. He is the author of Mrs Slocombe’s Pussy (2000), Grand Hotel Abyss (2016), and Everything, All the Time, Everywhere (2021) and A Short History of Stupidity (2025), which is available at https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=a-short-history-of-stupidity--9781509563494.

1. Several Nazis tried at Nuremberg were judged geniuses according to IQ tests.
2. IQ tests are terrible for establishing a person's stupidity or intelligence.
3. Until 1975 hysterectomies were performed on black women in certain US states to stop them breeding morons.
4. Stupidity has its uses - especially in the office.
5. Donald Trump is more stupid than he thinks he is.
6. What the prostate is.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Pete Brown (https://petebrown.net/) is a British author, journalist, broadcaster and consultant specialising in food and drink. Since February 2025, he has been the Sunday Times Magazine’s weekly beer columnist – the only regular broadsheet newspaper or magazine beer columnist in the UK.

He is currently Chair of Judges for the World Beer Awards. He was named British Beer Writer of the Year in 2009, 2012, 2016 and 2021, has won three Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards, been shortlisted twice for the André Simon Awards, and in 2020 was named an “Industry Legend” at the Imbibe Hospitality Awards. His books include Tasting Notes and Clubland.

1. Burton-on-Trent (the most important beer town in world history) https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/food-drink/article/burton-upon-trent-beer-town-zctn9787n

2. Perry (what some people refer to as pear cider) https://cideruk.com/what-is-cider-and-perry/

3. How working men’s clubs shaped modern Britain https://www.petebrown.net/book/clubland-how-the-working-mens-club-shaped-britain/

4. Norwich https://www.number82theunthank.co.uk/10-surprising-facts-about-norwich/

5. How music changes your perception of flavour https://www.petebrown.net/book/tasting-notes-the-art-of-science-of-pairing-beer-with-music/

6. It’s possible to disagree with someone politically and still have a civil, enriching conversation https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/smarter-living/learn-to-argue-productively.html

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Alex Pentland is a Stanford HAI Fellow and MIT Toshiba Professor. Named one of the “100 People to Watch This Century” by Newsweek and “one of the seven most powerful data scientists in the world” by Forbes, he is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, an advisor to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority Lab, and an advisor to the UN Secretary General’s office. His work has helped manage privacy and security for the world’s digital networks by establishing authentication standards, protect personal privacy by contributing to the pioneering EU privacy law, and provide healthcare support for hundreds of millions of people worldwide through both for-profit and not-for-profit companies. His new book is Shared Wisdom, which is available at https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262050999/shared-wisdom/.

1. Casual conversation is typically what leads to wisdom and culture
2. Polarization comes from influencers and other loud voices
3. AI-aided search can really help weaken echo chambers
4. Given a conversation platform that is safe space and given participants with shared interests people naturally generate good decisions
5. Hierarchical organizations are inflexible and poor performing by design
6. Uniform rules are bad for the majority of people

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Jaime Dávila earned an engineering degree in the United States. Choosing a career in the creative industries, he worked primarily in broadcasting and eventually led operations at Mexico’s largest media company. He became intrigued by the creation of the first mechanised sawmill by Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593. This invention, whose significance has been overlooked, inspired his new book. Find out more at https://thebestpodcastguest.co.uk/jaime-davila/.

1. Mankind’s first industrial machine was Dutch.

2. The Dutch invented participatory capitalism.

3. The Dutch were early pioneers of liberal governance in a world of monarchies.

4. The Dutch laid the foundations of industrialization.

5. New Amsterdam’s influence on American identity is underappreciated.

6. The world we inhabit was not inevitable.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Many thanks to Caroline Crampton and Laurence Bergreen for adding their choices of things which should be better known.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Christopher Hill was working in finance in London when, in 2002, he took a trip to South Africa which changed his life. He left his job, moved to Canada, and worked on the business plan for what became Hands Up Holidays. He spent the next two years traveling the world, building relationships with communities, formed a team of like-minded people, and launched the business in 2006. You can find out more at https://handsupholidays.com/.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Eleanor Doughty began her career in journalism at the Daily Telegraph, before going freelance to focus on writing. She has written the 'Great Estates' column in the Telegraph since 2017, and specialises in writing about the British moneyed and titles classes. Her first book Heirs and Graces, a history of the modern British aristocracy was published in September by Hutchinson Heinemann. Her writing appears in Country Life, The Times and Sunday Times, the Telegraph, the Spectator, the Financial Times, The Field and many other publications. When she is not writing, she can be found either on or near a horse, or out with her cocker spaniel.

The slow lane of the motorway https://moto-way.com/2019/09/a-beginners-guide-to-motorway-lanes-and-how-to-use-them/

The British aristocracy https://uk.bookshop.org/a/447/9781529153040

Venison https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/28/venison-deer-meat-health-heart-benefits

The schedule send function on Gmail https://support.google.com/mail/answer/9214606?hl=en-GB&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop

Thank you letters and handwritten correspondence https://www.forbes.com/sites/jillgriffin/2018/08/07/the-value-of-a-well-written-thank-you-note/

Early 20th century/mid-century diaries and journals https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2002/11/21/out-of-the-mists/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Sasha Butler is a Birmingham based writer. Her first novel, The Marriage Contract (Salt, 2025), was shortlisted for the Cheshire Novel Prize 2022 and the Bath Novel Award 2022, under the former title As Soft as Dreams. In addition to novels, she occasionally writes short stories. Her short story ‘Map of an Affair’ features in Floodgate Press’ anthology, Night Time Economy (September 2024). The Marriage Contract is available at https://www.saltpublishing.com/products/the-marriage-contract-9781784633608

1. The decline of the skirret https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/82232/sium-sisarum/details

2. The Great Comet of 1577 https://hgss.copernicus.org/articles/12/111/2021/

3. Levina Teerlinc https://artherstory.net/levina-teerlinc/

4. Handshakes have not always been used as a greeting gesture https://academic.oup.com/past/article/267/1/48/7716082

5. The fleet that set out with the Golden Hinde (formerly called The Pelican), the Elizabethan ship that circumnavigated the earth https://www.goldenhinde.co.uk/discover/the-circumnavigation-1577-1580

6. Baddesley Clinton https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/warwickshire/baddesley-clinton

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Doug Lemov is a former teacher and school principal whose books describe the techniques of high-performing teachers. His best-known book, Teach Like a Champion (now in its 3.0 version) has been translated into more than a dozen languages. The Teach Like a Champion Guide to the Science of Reading, out in July and co-written with Colleen Driggs and Erica Woolway, looks at how cognitive science can be better applied to the teaching of reading. Doug holds a BA in English from Hamilton College, an MA in English Literature from Indiana University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Read Doug’s latest on his blog (teachlikeachampion.org/blog) or follow him on X (@Doug_Lemov).

1. The difference between ingredients and cake. This is a reference to what the British education researcher Daisy Christodoulou says about understanding the difference between knowledge (or facts) and critical thinking.

2. How cognitive scientists define learning. As “a change in long term memory.” And further: If nothing has changed in long-term memory, nothing has been learned.” This is profoundly important because we forget (ie fail to learn) almost everything we come to understand in our lives unless we take specific actions to prevent this.

3. How fun and how important it is to teach vocabulary (the right way). https://vimeo.com/387487549

4. Lord of the Flies. Well I LOVE Lord of the Flies… but really it’s here as a proxy to speak to the importance of reading great books. And hard books. Which basically young people don’t do any more in school.

5. How powerful it is to read aloud with young people…and how to do it well

6. The benefits of very short writing exercises “American teachers assign a lot of writing but they don’t teach it well” write Judith Hochman and Natalie Wexler. This is one reason why.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Professor Sudhir Hazareesingh was born in Mauritius. He is a Fellow of the British Academy a Fellow and Tutor in Politics at Balliol College, His books include The Legend of Napoleon (Granta, 2004), In the Shadow of the General (OUP, 2012) and How the French Think (Allen Lane, 2015). He won the Prix du Mémorial d’Ajaccio and the Prix de la Fondation Napoléon for the first of these, a Prix d’Histoire du Sénat for the second, and the Grand Prix du Livre d’Idées for the third. In 2020, he became a Grand Commander of the Order of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean (G.C.S.K.), the highest honour of the Republic of Mauritius.

His biography, Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture (Allen Lane, 2020) won the 2021 Wolfson History Prize, with the judges describing it as an ‘erudite and elegant biography of a courageous leader which tells a gripping story with a message that resonates strongly in our own time’. His latest book is Daring to Be Free, described in the New Statesman as “An absorbing and revelatory history of black resistance to the transatlantic trade … a marvel of historical analysis and research.” It is available now.

1. The resistance of the enslaved https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/book-of-the-day/2025/10/the-liberating-power-of-vodou
2. The American academic and film-maker Henry Louis Gates jr https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/mar/10/henry-louis-gates-jr-black-box-writing-race-arrested-beers-with-obama
3. The Victor Hugo museum in Paris https://www.maisonsvictorhugo.paris.fr/en
4. Swimming in the river Seine in Paris in August https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gk7nk35l2o
5. The Sandhamn Murders https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2025/02/08/netflixs-best-new-crime-show-is-here-and-no-critics-have-seen-it-the-are-murders/
6. The Mauritian painter Vaco Baissac https://mauritiusarts.com/artist/vaco-baissac/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Ana Schnabl is a Slovenian writer and editor. She writes for several Slovenian media outlets and is a monthly columnist for the Guardian. Her collection of short stories Razvezani (Beletrina, 2017) met with critical acclaim. Three years later Schnabl published her first novel Masterpiece (Mojstrovina, Beletrina, 2020). Her second novel Flood Tide (Plima, Beletrina, 2022) was nominated for the Slovenian Kresnik Award. Her third novel September (Beletrina, 2024) won the Kresnik Award in 2025.

1. Dog Behaviour: I’ve got two dogs, and it took me longer than I’d like to admit to figure out what they were actually saying.

2. The Concept of Universal Basic Income: I suspect that for a lot of people, Universal Basic Income sounds like a fantasy dreamt up by the lazy and the work-shy—a clever way to dodge the nine-to-five. In reality, it’s nothing of the sort.

3. Mina Mazzini: Known simply as Mina, she was nothing short of a force of nature—Italy’s greatest voice and legend. Her vocal range was outrageous and her stage presence magnetic.

4. Jellyfish: I grew up spending summers on the Slovene coast, where most beach conversations about jellyfish revolved around how nasty they are. I think it’s time to give them a bit of a rebrand.

5. Lojze Kovačič's The Newcomers: I know I sound like a total boomer saying this, but The Newcomers really is a masterpiece—a towering work of autofiction, written decades before “autofiction” was even a buzzword on Goodreads.

6. Yugoslavia: I’m not yugonostalgic—I was simply born too late to have any real experience of living there. But I am a defender of some of the genuinely progressive ideas and policies that Yugoslavia introduced and managed to sustain.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Through living on a narrowboat on the British waterways, Adam Lind has unexpectedly built a large online community of over 900,000 loyal and engaged like-minded souls who enjoy soaking up his passion to live a life of meaning. Adam has appeared on Channel 4’s Narrow Escapes and has been featured in publications including The New York Post, Business Insider, The Sun, and others. His new book is Floating Home: Lessons from a life less ordinary, which is available at https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/floating-home-9781526683526/.

1. The importance of human connection
2. The fear mongering and segregation of the news
3. You can have control over your thoughts
4. You don’t need a lot of money to travel
5. Adversity can be a gift
6. Comparison is the thief of joy

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Described by The Independent as one of the UK’s ‘arbiters of taste’, Andrew Turvil is the former editor of The Good Food Guide, AA Restaurant Guide and Which? Pub Guide. As a freelance restaurant critic, writer, and editor, he has spent his career writing about pubs and restaurants, and, undeterred, bought a pub in 2015 and ran it for 10 years. Blood, Sweat & Asparagus Spears is his first book and is available at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Sweat-Asparagus-Spears-Restaurant/dp/1783969113.

1. Prior to the 1990s, very few chefs were household names. Very few people could reel off a list of chefs, but by the end of the decade many were TV stars and known to millions – Gary Rhodes, Jamie Oliver et al.
2. There was less emphasis on the ingredients used in restaurants prior to the 1990s and the consumption of organic food in the UK had barely got going.
3. Fashionable restaurants of the past were revived in the 1990s and gained new leases of life
4. During the 1990s the English language finally started to gain ground in the fine dining sector. Prior to the 1990s ‘posh’ food meant French food
5. Asian food in the UK took a great leap forward during the 1990s
6. The 1990s saw a proliferation of new foodie terms: nose to tail, fusion, Pacific rim and molecular gastronomy.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Andy Reid is the founder of Buddy Up, a mentoring charity for young people across south London and Surrey. He has worked in the youth sector for over 20 years delivering programmes and training throughout the UK. You can find out more at https://buddyupcharity.org/.

1. What Dreams May Come https://www.cinemasight.com/resurfaced-what-dreams-may-come-1998/
2. Roadhouse https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/road-house-1989
3. Rango https://rachelsreviews.net/2015/01/12/rango-movie-review/
4. Multiplicity https://christiananswers.net/spotlight/movies/pre2000/rvu-mult.html
5. Sorcerer https://hollywood-elsewhere.com/again-why-sorcerer-failed/
6. The Peacemaker https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/review97/peacemakerhowe.htm

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Matt Greene is an author, teacher, former screenwriter, and stay-at-home dad. His first novel, Ostrich, won a Betty Trask Award and his memoir Jew(ish) was described by Booker-shortlisted author Nadifa Mohamed as ‘wonderful’ and ‘acerbically funny’. He teaches critical and creative writing in South London, where he lives with his partner and two sons. His new book is The Definitions, which is at https://evewhite.co.uk/books/the-definitions/.

1. Purple Mountains https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/review-purple-mountains-858339/
2. What killed the studio sitcom https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/oct/26/the-last-laugh-is-the-television-sitcom-really-dead
3. A Village After Dark https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/05/21/a-village-after-dark
4. Speech Act Theory https://www.thoughtco.com/speech-act-theory-1691986
5. Two Jews, Three Opinions https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/one-jew-two-opinions/
6. Wierzbicka vs Wittgenstein https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Wierzbicka

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Danny Scott grew up in an East Midlands mining village, serving his apprenticeship as an engineer on leaving school, before moving to London in the 1980s. After a job in counter (industrial) espionage, he became a private investigator, then a painter and decorator, then an engineer again, before becoming a journalist and interviewing people like Sir Paul McCartney, Mikhail Gorbachev, Usain Bolt and Dave Hill from Slade. He lives in Essex with his wife and their young son. His memoir, The Undisputed King of Selston (John Murray), was published in June 2025. It is available at https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-undisputed-king-of-selston-danny-scott/7836018?ean=9781399816793.

1. How to hang a door https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tizE31oU4Co
2. Children of the Stones was the best kids’ telly show ever made https://thedeadpixels.squarespace.com/articles/2015/8/10/children-of-the-stones-cult-tv-series-review
3. Getting pregnant isn’t as easy as you think https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jun/06/young-infertile-four-years-forty-negative-tests-ivf
4. What the miners did for us https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20240703-coal-mining-created-community-and-culture-can-clean-energy-do-the-same
5. Skegness is beautiful https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/local-news/skegness-things-to-do-which-4420027
6. These days, there’s no room for the working class. Except at the bottom. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/23/class-barriers-journalism-working-class-liverpudlian-journalist

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

1. Our Sun is only 20 galactic years old The band Midnight Oil once asked, “How can we dance when our earth is turning?” The literal answer takes us from the Earth spinning at jet speed, to the Sun circling the Milky Way, to our galaxy itself hurtling through an expanding cosmos.

2. Ivan Wise has blue eyes. I have blue eyes. We may be related… We both have blue eyes — and they may trace back to a single ancestor, 6,000–10,000 years ago. Unlike brown eyes, blue eyes aren’t due to pigment but to the scattering of light, as with a blue sky.

3. You may not be as old as you feel. Our bodies are in perpetual renewal. Some cells live days, others last a lifetime. On average, our cells are only 7–10 years old — meaning we are all, in a sense, younger than our birthday-cake candles may suggest.

4. Yews, and why you often find them in churchyards. Step into a churchyard and you may find a yew that’s older than the church itself. These trees have stood as markers of sacred ground since before Christianity.

5. Our world without fungi wouldn’t function. From decomposing matter to building vast underground “wood-wide webs”, fungi are indispensable recyclers and collaborators.

6. Morgans don’t have wooden chassis. There’s a persistent myth that Morgan sports cars have wooden chassis. Not true: their chassis are steel or aluminium.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Laurence Bergreen is an award-winning biographer, historian, and chronicler of exploration. His books have been translated into more than 25 languages. They include Columbus: The Four Voyages, a New York Times bestseller, published by Viking in 2011. In 2007, Knopf published his Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu. For this book he crossed China from east to west and camped out on the steppe with hospitable Mongolians in their yurts. His bestselling Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe, was published by William Morrow in 2003.  In its 40th printing, it was awarded the Medalla de Honor by the Asociación de Alcades de V Centenario (Spain). He has also published In Search of a Kingdom about Francis Drake's voyage of discovery (Simon & Schuster, 2021) and Voyage to Mars: NASA’s Search for Life Beyond Earth published by Riverhead in 2000.

His research for these books included extensive fieldwork.  He has sailed twice through the Strait of Magellan and is one of the few individuals to visit the volcanic island of Surtsey off the coast of Iceland, thanks to the agile helicopters of the Icelandic Coast Guard, among other remote destinations. At NASA’s request, he named numerous geographical features around the crater Victoria on Mars. Find out more at https://laurencebergreenauthor.com/.

1. Louis Armstrong's favourite instrument https://oztypewriter.blogspot.com/2020/09/what-wonderful-world-with-typewriters.html

2. The Well Dressed Man with a Beard by Wallace Stevens https://allpoetry.com/The-Well-Dressed-Man-With-A-Beard

3. Vladimir Zworykin https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/vladimir-zworykin

4. Surtsey https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1267/

5. The Strait of Magellan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOOKr8Y2xsM

6. The Rubin Observatory https://rubinobservatory.org/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Sam Sedgman is a bestselling children's author, confirmed nerd and enthusiastic ferroequinologist. Co-creator of the award-winning 'Adventures on Trains' and 'Isaac Turner Investigates' series, he writes fact-based mystery and adventure stories for the young and young at heart.

Before writing stories for children, Sam worked as a digital producer at the National Theatre, which meant nosing around backstage with a camera and a microphone, cajoling theatre makers into explaining how stories get made. Forever interested in piecing things together, Sam is a lifelong fan of puzzles, games and detective fiction, and once founded a company making murder mystery treasure hunts for adventurous Londoners. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages.

When he isn’t writing, Sam can usually be found admiring a handsome timepiece, watching Alfred Hitchcock movies, or explaining some weird fact to you. He lives in London, on top of a railway station. You can find out more at https://samsedgman.com/.

1. The decimalisation of time in the French Revolution https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Decimal_time/
2. Italians having a twelfth cardinal colour, Azzurro https://www.thoughtco.com/azzurro-2011518
3. The 1997 action movie The Peacemaker https://them0vieblog.com/2012/07/03/non-review-review-the-peacemaker/
4. Why Australia has so many camels https://eu.desertsun.com/story/life/home-garden/james-cornett/2017/01/27/many-camels-australian-desert/96999820/
5. The surprising impermanence of burial plots https://bannocksmemorials.co.uk/8-facts-about-graves-memorials-you-didnt-know-before-today/
6. Montreal's snow management system https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/how-montreal-takes-300-000-truckloads-of-snow-off-the-street-every-winter-1.5023619

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Jordan Prosser is a writer, filmmaker and performer from Victoria, Australia. He is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, and his short films and screenplays have won multiple international accolades. His short story Eleuterio Cabrera’s Beautiful Game won the Peter Carey Short Story Award in 2022 and was published in Meanjin. Big Time is his debut novel.

1. The Philippines. I had the privilege of traveling to and working in the Philippines a number of times throughout the 2010s. It’s one of my favourite places on earth.

2. Ivan Sen. Perhaps my favourite Australian filmmaker, helmer of Mystery Road and Goldstone and their multiple spin-off TV series, which are just as good and as specific to the Australian outback as Scand-noirs are to their cultures and landscapes.

3. Wikipedia’s ‘Timeline of the far future’ and ‘Ultimate fate of the universe’ pages. Every year has its own dedicated Wikipedia page, including years in the future.

4. Andy Shauf. For my money, one of the best singer-songwriters of our generation, and something of a folk genius in the lineage of the Donovans and Nick Drakes of the world. His 2015 album The Bearer of Bad News is a modern-day Nebraska.

5. How LLMs actually work. Which is to say: they are statistical models based on pattern recognition and predictability, powered by tremendous amounts of data and processing power. Big tech marketing has seduced so many into seeing them as quasi-mystical entities, when really, they’re glorified spreadsheets.

6. Eggnog. Probably the finest beverage on earth, but when you mention it, in Australia at least, people become mystified and their eyes immediately glaze over. I inherited my recipe from my (American) mother and make it every year at Christmas.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Michel-Yves Bolloré is an engineer and entrepreneur whose career spans industrial innovation and philanthropic investment in education. A graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure d'Ingénieur de Toulouse and Paris-Dauphine University (Master of Science and Doctorate in Business Administration), he began his career in the family business, managing the Bolloré Group’s industrial division from 1981 to 1990. In 1990, he founded France Essor, an industrial group that led major ventures in mechanical engineering, and steel manufacturing.

Since relocating to London in 2011, he has focused on educational and cultural projects. He founded several schools, including The Laurels in London and Les Vignes in France. He is also a Knight of the Legion of Honor. His new book, co-written with Olivier Bonnassies, is God, Science, the Evidence, which is available at https://store.abramsbooks.com/products/god-the-science-the-evidence.

1. Sometimes major discoveries result from human errors, but in that case two errors are frequently better than one

2. Isabella of Spain’s decision to finance the Christopher Colombus project

3. The Middle Ages, incorrectly called “Dark Age”, has seen many crucial inventions which opened the door to a prosperous Renaissance Epoch: Example: invention of glasses, industrialization of paper manufacturing, creation of universities.

4. US scientists believe more frequently in the existence of God than people think.

5. Nature is more finely tuned than we think: an example with squirrels which luckily have a bad memory and a bad sight.

6. The origin of the word Palestine

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Simon Hall studied history at Sheffield and Cambridge, and held a Fox International Fellowship at Yale, before moving to the University of Leeds, where he is currently Professor of Modern History. His previous books include 1956: The World in Revolt and Ten Days in Harlem: Fidel Castro and the Making of the 1960s. His new book is Three Revolutions, which is available at https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571367153-three-revolutions/?srsltid=AfmBOooAoS0oqmPXfgrMioTKtanZ_z6HLyCOkcz7bM0J37S10CjiylGm

1. King Cnut and the tide https://www.historyextra.com/period/viking/facts-you-probably-didnt-know-about-king-cnut-canute-who-was-he/

2. Hungarian paprika https://www.timeout.com/budapest/restaurants/hungary-paprika-cuisine-history

3. Nixon's love of bowling https://www.messynessychic.com/2015/08/19/bowling-with-mr-president-beneath-the-white-house/

4. Simon of the Desert https://larsenonfilm.com/simon-of-the-desert

5. Bridlington south beach https://www.eastridingcoastandcountryside.co.uk/places-to-visit/find-a-place/place/?entry=bridlington_south_beach

6. Martin Luther King's sense of humour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZw6iT_gcL8

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Kasim Ali was born and raised in Alum Rock, Birmingham, where he spent the first eighteen years of his life, at which point he left to study a degree in English. Over the years, he has lived in London, Nottingham, and Newcastle, but still thinks of Birmingham as the place he’s from. He has had a short story long-listed for the B4ME story, has written fiction for BBC Radio 4, and has a column at The Bookseller. Currently, he works as an editor in publishing. Good Intentions was his first novel, Who Will Remain his second. It is available at https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/who-will-remain-kasim-ali?variant=54869542830459

1. Tar directed and written by Todd Field https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jan/11/tar-review-cate-blanchett-is-perfect-lead-in-delirious-sensual-drama
2. The Incarnations by Susan Barker https://savidgereads.wordpress.com/2015/07/15/the-incarnations-susan-barker/
3. The Leftovers TV show, 2014-2017, Damon Lindelof creator, based on book by Tom Perrotta https://www.rogerebert.com/streaming/believe-in-the-power-of-hbos-the-leftovers
4. Scrambled eggs - simple version (plus ‘smoked bread’)
5. Ex.Re - album of Elena Tonra, lead singer of band Daughter https://hearingaidmagazine.com/exre-album-review
6. Disney Plus, Devil Wears Prada, trailer button is cerulean scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rDTRuCOs9g

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Sally Smith spent all her working life as a barrister and later KC in the Inner Temple. After writing a biography of the Edwardian barrister Sir Edward Marshall Hall KC, she retired from the bar to write full time. A Case of Mice and Murder, her first novel, was inspired by the historic surroundings of the Inner Temple in which she still lives and works and was the first in a series starring the reluctant sleuth Sir Gabriel Ward KC. A Case of Mice and Murder was longlisted for the 2025 CWA Whodunnit and Historical Daggers. Her new novel A Case of Life and Limb is available at https://www.waterstones.com/book/a-case-of-life-and-limb/sally-smith/9781526668776.

1. The Temple (Inner and Middle) and its round church, off Fleet Street London. https://www.templechurch.com/royal-charter/the-inns

2. The mysterious ‘Roman ‘ Bath (built 1612) Strand Lane London, next to disused Aldwych Underground Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Baths,_Strand_Lane

3. By Grand Central Station I sat down and wept by Elizabeth Smart https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v13/n04/julian-symons/urgent

4. I capture the castle by Dodie Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrGtmuTP_7k

5. The Hawstead Panels in Christchurch Mansion Museum, Ipswich. (Also called Lady Drury’s closet’) https://ipswich.cimuseums.org.uk/visit/christchurch-mansion/

6. The Glandford Shell Museum https://www.shellmuseum.org.uk/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Hal LaCroix lives outside Boston with his wife, Elahna. He has worked as a journalist at newspapers in New England, a reporter and editor at Harvard Medical School, a conservation writer for non-profits and an instructor at Boston University. Here and Beyond is his first novel, which is available at https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/here-and-beyond-9781526678249/.

1. Senator Charles Sumner. Sumner was a mid-19th century senator with laser focus on one issue: slavery. He had a profound impact on Lincoln, pushing him to expand rights of African Americans after emancipation. Sumner became epic villain in Confederacy, where souvenir canes commemorated the beating were hot items.

2. Hokusai’s 36 Views of Mt. Fuji. Fuji is sacred, a symbol of Japan. The 36 mostly long-range views, all around the compass, provide a wraparound view of Japanese life in 1831.

3. Exoplanets. More than 5,000 have been confirmed so far, out of hundreds of billions of planets in the Milky Way galaxy. Until the 1990s no one even knew if there were any planets outside our solar system!

4. Wingspan. This is a board game about birds that my wife and I are a bit obsessed with. Each player has a board with forest, grassland and water habitats.

5. Boston Cream Pie and Boston Cream Donuts. My grandfather used to bring cakes and pies when he visited us on Cape Cod. He’d pull up in his Oldsmobile Cutlass with all these white boxes tied with string from Montilio’s bakery.

6. We Need a Global, Unifying Mission. We live on a planet with 8.2 billion people and the vast majority of us just know our neighborhood, our route back and forth to work. But on the spinning ark ship in Here and Beyond, the entire world is visible within the sphere. You look up and see buildings upside down, people upside down.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Peter Lamont is Professor of History and Theory of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. He has written about a variety of curious topics such as magic, belief, wonder and critical thinking. He is also a former professional magician and an Associate of the Inner Magic Circle. His new book is Radical Thinking, which is available at https://swiftpress.com/book/radical-thinking/

1. The Radical Road https://www.cockburnassociation.org.uk/history-blogs/edinburghs-radical-road-its-history-its-uncertain-future/
2. Encyclopaedia Britannica (2nd edition) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica_Second_Edition
3. Daniel Dunglas Home https://www.otislibrarynorwich.org/2024/01/04/daniel-dunglas-home/
4. The original Self-help book https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v26/n04/peter-mandler/gold-out-of-straw
5. Alternative points of view https://ajehrenberg.medium.com/the-importance-of-alternative-perspectives-cac0f447737b
6. The past https://www.mooc.org/blog/why-is-it-important-to-study-history

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Dr Sarah Stein Lubrano holds a PhD from the University of Oxford and a Master’s degree from the University of Cambridge. Her thinking often reaches the public through the Sense and Solidarity Initiative and the Future Narratives Lab. She was previously the Head of Content at The School of Life, tutored in prisons and wrote obituaries. She regularly appears on public radio and a variety of podcasts. Her book Don't Talk About Politics is available at https://linktr.ee/donttalkaboutpolitics.

1. Several People are Typing by Calvin Kasulke https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/reading-a-novel-set-entirely-in-slack
2. The game Billionaires and Guillotines https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745398808/billionaires-and-guillotines/
3. Looking at other people's algorithms https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-algorithms/
4. The play Sancho and Me by Paterson Joseph https://www.sanchoproductions.co.uk/
5. The band Japanese house https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Japanese_House
6. Cooperation Town https://cooperation.town/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Sarah Dunant studied history at Newnham College, Cambridge from where she went on to become a writer, broadcaster, teacher and critic. She has written twelve novels, four of which have been short-listed for awards, and edited two books of essays. She is an accredited lecturer with The Arts Society, lecturing on Italian history and renaissance art, has taught renaissance studies at Washington University, St Louis and creative writing at University of Oxford Brookes. Her new novel is The Marchesa, which is available at https://www.sarahdunant.com/the-marchesa.

1. The Discovery of the Laocoon, 1st century roman sculpture in Rome in 1506. One of those fluke stories history throws up that just gets richer and richer the more you dig (literally) into it.
2. Erich Maria Remarque. He was a 17-year-old soldier in World War One, who goes on to to write the most famous novel on war. He ends up in Switzerland with a Hollywood film star wife, Paulette Goddard.
3. The Last Supper by Plautilla Nelli. In the museum of Santa Maria Novella – a great church in Florence, there is a painting of the Last Supper done in the 1560s, by a nun who spent her whole life in a convent in Florence, who was entirely self-taught as a painter
4. Newark Park. It started as a Tudor hunting lodge. It was donated to the National Trust in 1949 and, in a state of decay, was then saved by an American, Bob Parsons.
5. Sailing to Philadelphia by Mark Knopfler. This is like listening to a short story by John Carver. American poet and master of realism and creating worlds within a couple of pages.
6. Machiavelli’s Farm House. This is the place where Machiavelli went after he lost his job as a diplomat in Florence and was sent into exile in 1512.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

AE Gauntlett completed an MA in English Literature at King’s College London in 2010. He then went on to find success as a literary agent with Peters Fraser and Dunlop, earning himself a prestigious Shooting Star nomination from The Bookseller in 2017. The Stranger at the Wedding, written secretly as he represented the work of his numerous bestselling authors, marks Gauntlett’s literary debut. It is available at https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/stranger-at-the-wedding-9781526659774/.

1. How the Dutch traded Manhattan for nutmeg https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/island-traded-for-manhattan

2. The Nightmovers: Japanese service to help people disappear https://www.bbc.co.uk/worklife/article/20200903-the-companies-that-help-people-vanish

3. The moment the Porsche 911 was almost killed off https://turo.com/blog/gearheads/how-the-porsche-911-almost-died/

4. Jean Purdy, British embryologist, pioneer of IVF with Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/history/blog/2025/reclaiming-jean-purdys-legacy/

5. The Lake Bodom Murders https://vocal.media/history/the-lake-bodom-murders-finland-s-unsolved-mystery

6. How to get published/ what literary agents really want to see in a submission letter https://literaryconsultancy.co.uk/2025/04/what-agents-are-really-looking-for/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Simon Tolkien is the grandson of JRR Tolkien and a director of the Tolkien Estate. He is also series consultant for the Amazon series, The Rings of Power. Simon studied Modern History at Trinity College, Oxford and went on to become a barrister specializing in criminal defence. He left the law to become a writer in 2001 and has published five novels which mine the history of the first half of the last century to explore dark subjects – capital punishment, the Holocaust, the Blitz and the Battle of the Somme. The epic coming-of-age story of Theo Sterling, set in 1930s New York, England and Spain, is being published in two volumes, The Palace at the End of the Sea in June, which is available at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Palace-End-Sea-Novel-Sterling/dp/1662528647 and The Room of Lost Steps, which will be available at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Room-Lost-Steps-Novel-Sterling/dp/1662528663 on 16th September this year.

1. The International Brigades https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2022/02/24/soldiers-of-solidarity-spanish-civil-war/
2. Gustave Caillebotte https://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/article/20150706-caillebotte-the-painter-who-captured-paris-in-flux
3. Port Meadow, Oxford https://www.oxford.gov.uk/directory-record/673/port-meadow
4. The Conversation https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/jul/04/the-conversation-review-gene-hackman-is-unforgettable-in-coppolas-paranoid-classic
5. Gerard Manley Hopkins https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n07/helen-vendler/i-have-not-lived-up-to-it
6. Santa Barbara, California https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/guide-to-santa-barbara

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Daria Lavelle was born in Kyiv, immigrated to the US with her family as a child and now lives in New Jersey with her husband and their three children. She holds a BA from Princeton University and an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. She writes fiction, with short stories published in a variety of US outlets. Aftertaste is her debut novel. It’s already sold into 13 territories with a major motion picture in development. It is available at https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/aftertaste-daria-lavelle/7752339

1. Putting Salt on Fruit - the easiest way to elevate and bring out the deepest flavors of your food (even out of season)! But one that most people don't think of combining with their fruit dishes.

2. Opera for Fantasy Lovers - Opera is woefully unfashionable among younger people, and most high-fantasy and speculative fiction lovers I know have no interest in this stuffy art form, and yet, some of the most formative and epic and compelling narratives ever presented are operatic in form.

3. The Hoboken, NJ food scene - New York (and Brooklyn, and Queens) get most of the love and accolades for their restaurant offerings, but Hoboken, NJ, is like the best kept secret of Italian-American cuisine and fabulous cocktails.

4. The film What Dreams May Come - this 1998 film is largely forgotten / unknown among anyone under the age of 30, but it's worth revisiting as one of the most interesting and beautiful explorations of death, grief, love, and the Afterlife.

5. Family Recipes - this is perhaps an imperative to listeners to take the time to learn their family recipes from their older generations.

6. Finding Your Tribe - I'd love to talk about several ways this has been true in my life, from writing cohorts to mom groups with my kids, to the debut groups I'm part of this year as I move toward publication.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Michelle Young, a journalist and professor of architecture at Columbia University, spent four years researching The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland, which is available at https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-art-spy-michelle-young?variant=43046200836130. A veritable female Monuments Man, Valland has, until now, mostly been written out of the annals, despite bearing witness to history’s largest art theft. While Hitler was amassing stolen art for his future Führermuseum, Valland secretly worked to stop him.

Michelle Young is an award-winning journalist, author, and professor whose writing on looted and lost art has appeared in Hyperallergic, The Forward, and The Wilson Quarterly. She is a graduate of Harvard College in the History of Art and Architecture and holds a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where she is a professor of architecture.

1. Rose Valland was one of the most medalled women from all of WWII

2. Hollywood optioned Rose's memoir and it became the Burt Lancaster caper The Train

3. Rose witnessed the Nazis burn approx 500 modern paintings of art and it really happened

1. Rose was lesbian and started living with Joyce Heer, her life partner, starting in the mid 1930s. 

2. Rose was spying in the field, as well as in the museum. She also worked directly with Resistance operatives, which is how she directly helped sabotage the last train of art intended to leave France, carrying 1000 paintings. 

3. One of the very first things the Nazis did when they occupied a country was to loot its art, in particular from Jewish families. There is a direct line between art looting and the extermination camps

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Róisín Lanigan is an editor and writer based in London and Belfast. Her work has appeared in i-D, VICE, The Atlantic, New Statesman, The Fence and Prospect, amongst other publications. She was longlisted for the Curtis Brown First Novel Prize in 2019, and won the Blue Pencil Agency First Novel Award in 2020. I Want to Go Home But I'm Already There is her first novel and is available at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/459281/i-want-to-go-home-but-im-already-there-by-lanigan-roisin/9780241668535

1. Dulse https://pacificharvest.co/blogs/learn/7-mindblowing-health-benefits-of-atlantic-dulse?srsltid=AfmBOoq6KFW9CJ2ZhY0K-LZcyK3zhku4Xe2I0CniSHs1noqs-VRI7Mq-
2. Pigeons https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/comments/lx86p7/pigeons_are_underrated_animals/?rdt=55432
3. The Montreal Screwjob https://prowrestling.fandom.com/wiki/Montreal_Screwjob
4. Paris Is Burning https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/paris-is-burning-1991
5. Parkland Walk https://www.parkland-walk.org.uk/
6. The Ballymurphy Massacre https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/11/the-ballymurphy-shootings-36-hours-in-belfast-that-left-10-dead

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Laura Spinney is a writer and science journalist. Her writing on science has appeared in The Guardian, The Economist, Nature and National Geographic, among others. She is the author of two novels, The Doctor (2001) and The Quick (2007), and a collection of oral history, Rue Centrale (2013). Her bestselling non-fiction account of the 1918 flu pandemic, Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World (2017), was translated into more than 20 languages. Her latest book, Proto: How Once Ancient Language Went Global, the story of the Indo-European languages, appeared in 2025. She lives in Paris.

1. Osmothèque – international perfume archive in Versailles. Conserves 4,000 perfumes, of which 800 have “disappeared”

2. Studs Terkel. Legendary American broadcaster, writer, actor and historian

3. Circus elephants, or rather their owner-handlers. A dying breed, as they should be, but they deserve our compassion and respect

4. Papuan languages. Nearly 900 of them, vast majority of which are undocumented

5. Gloria! 2024 Italian-Swiss film, directorial debut of Margherita Vicario

6. Marija Gimbutas. Lithuanian-born archaeologist who got it right on the word's largest language family, Indo-European

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Sara Leila Sherman is a distinguished classical musician and educator, renowned for her work in making music accessible to young audiences through her children's concert series, Mozart for Munchkins, and the non-profit Little Mozart Foundation.

Morton Sherman, PhD is the retired Senior Associate Executive Director of The School Superintendents Association, known for his visionary leadership during a 25-year career as a superintendent dedicated to elevating academic standards.

Their new book is Resonant Minds, which is available at https://www.amazon.com/Resonant-Minds-Transformative-Power-Music/dp/1475874960.

1. Audiences used to participate in classical music performances. During Mozart’s time, audiences didn’t sit silently—they clapped between movements, shouted requests, and sometimes even sang along.

2. Music has always been a deep part of our lives, socially, culturally, and politically. For example, the song “Amazing Grace” has been used as a tool for healing in nearly every American crisis.

3. Music affects the brain faster than conscious thought. Our nervous system begins responding to music—adjusting heart rate, releasing dopamine, and even triggering memory—before our brains fully process the sound.

4. The best leaders intentionally listen like musicians. Great conductors don’t just give cues—they respond to the ensemble.

5. Groove isn’t just a feeling—it’s your brainwaves syncing with sound. When we listen to music with a steady beat—especially music with a strong groove—our brainwaves begin to entrain to the rhythm. That’s not poetic language—it’s neuroscience.

6. Music builds memory—and memory builds culture. When students or communities sing the same song across generations, they’re not just repeating notes. They’re participating in a kind of living history.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Jo Harkin studied literature at university. She daydreamed her way through various jobs in her twenties before becoming a full-time writer. Her debut novel Tell Me an Ending was a New York Times book of the year. Her new novel is The Pretender, which is available at https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-pretender/jo-harkin/9781526678348. She lives in Berkshire, England.

1. The ruin of Minster Lovell. This was the estate of the Viscount Lovell, one of the main characters in The Pretender. It’s got enough standing walls and a beautiful vaulted entryway to allow you to imagine life there, but also the setting is stunning.

2. Alice Chaucer’s tomb, and the concept of the Memento Mori. An hour away from Minster Lovell, in Oxfordshire, are the former lands of the Earl of Lincoln, another main character in the novel. In the pretty village of Ewelme, St Mary’s church contains the tomb of Alice Chaucer – grand-daughter of the poet himself, and the grandmother of Lincoln.

3. The Fabliaux. A modern English verse translation of medieval French Fabliaux. These were stories told across all levels of medieval society. And they were absolutely filthy.

4. Food/drink suggestion. A recipe for an overlooked and delicious medieval dish – the pre-potato pea pottage.

5. Exhibition. The British Library Treasures room has a permanent display of original books, maps and manuscripts, including medieval and Tudor era items such as pages from Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks, Beowulf, and the first printing of the Canterbury Tales.

6. Misericords. Westminster Abbey is on every London tourist's must see list, but often-overlooked feature are the misericords. In the magnificent Henry VII's chapel, where his and Elizabeth of York's tombs are located, the original 16th century hinged oak seats were not visible to the general public.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Madeleine Gray is a writer and critic from Sydney. She was a 2021 Finalist for the Walkley Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism, and has written for publications including the Sydney Review of Books, Australian Book Review and the Times Literary Supplement. She has a MSt in English Literature from the University of Oxford and is a current doctoral candidate at the University of Manchester. Green Dot is her first book, which is available at https://www.waterstones.com/book/green-dot/madeleine-gray/9781399612784.

1. The fact that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are not recognised in the Australian constitution. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/14/australia-rejects-proposal-to-recognise-aboriginal-people-in-constitution

2. Who the 78ers are https://www.78ers.org.au/the-ongoing-role-of-the-78ers

3. The television show Deadloch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadloch

4. The song 'Scar’ by Missy Higgins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKn7XAMNV-g

5. Trade union membership in Australia is far too low https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/earnings-and-working-conditions/trade-union-membership/latest-release

6. Kim Cattrall scatting with an upright bass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBmt2KN5tsY

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Alex Conner is an ADHD coach and brain scientist who combines his personal experience with ADHD to be a trusted voice in psychoeducation. He is co-founder and co-host of The ADHD Adults podcast, one of the UK’s most popular ADHD resources. Alongside James Brown, Alex co-founded ADHDadultUK, a registered charity, and Focusmag.uk, an evidence-based online magazine for adults with ADHD. Alex has published research and articles on ADHD and, as an honorary Professor at Aston University, he also delivers ADHD coaching and training to thousands of people. His new book, co-written with James Brown, is ADHD Unpacked, which is available at https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/adhd-unpacked-9781526679369/

1. ADHD is not new or over-diagnosed.
2. ADHD is not a superpower for everyone who has it.
3. ADHD is more than inattention and hyperactivity: the emotional side of ADHD.
4. Stigma: adding insult to injury.
5. ADHD doesn't come alone for most people: co-existing conditions/neurodivergences.
6. Nobody is neurodiverse, and nobody is neurotypical. Why the language of ADHD matters.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Rebecca Lemov is a historian of science at Harvard University and has been a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute. Her research explores data, technology, and the history of human and behavioural sciences. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her family. Her new book is The Instability of Truth, which is available at https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324075264.

1. Brainwashing is not about other people https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/freedom-of-mind/202412/so-youve-been-brainwashed-without-realizing-it-what-now
2. The rise and fall and rise of Barbara Pym https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/06/06/when-barbara-pym-couldnt-get-published
3. Kate Smith https://musicologynow.org/kate-smith-and-our-minstrel-past/
4. Nashville film https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jun/25/nashville-review-robert-altman
5. The story of the three frogs by Czeslaw Milosz https://bookhaven.stanford.edu/2016/06/happy-birthday-czeslaw-milosz-he-was-no-hero-and-he-knew-it/
6. Brainwashing and trauma are connected, but that was never, or rarely ever, recognized by the experts. https://www.randifine.com/post/brainwashing-the-cunning-psychological-tactic-used-in-narcissistic-abuse-domestic-violence-and-cults

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Kate Kemp is an Australian writer living in the UK. She trained as an occupational therapist and then as a systemic psychotherapist, and has worked with families and individuals in mental health services in both Australia and the UK. In 2021, she won the Stylist Prize for Feminist Fiction and the Yeovil Literary Prize. The Grapevine is her first novel and is available at https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/kate-kemp/the-grapevine/9781399618977/.

1. It’s okay to change your mind https://medium.com/darius-foroux/its-okay-to-change-your-mind-c4a0166b0a6d

2. We don’t need sameness for belonging, we need acceptance https://medium.com/@ilana_73874/belonging-without-blending-in-a-story-of-self-acceptance-b5c9e90f661b

3. Caring for someone who is dying is one of the most intimate things you can do https://www.cancervic.org.au/get-support/facing-end-of-life/caring-for-someone-nearing-the-end-of-life

4. Primadonna Festival https://primadonnafestival.com/

5. The paintings of Vilhelm Hammershøi https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2008/jun/25/art.denmark

6. Monteverdi’s Madrigals https://www.grahamsmusic.net/post/monteverdi-s-madrigals

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Shari Dunn is a polymath, an accomplished journalist, and a former attorney, news anchor, CEO, and university professor. She is an American Leadership Forum Fellow and has been awarded the prestigious Executive of the Year Award in 2018, the 2019 Women of Influence Award (Portland Business Journal), the Associated Press Award for Best Spot News, and the Wisconsin Broadcasting Association Award for Best Morning News Show. Her work has been cited in the Wall Street Journal and quoted in TIME and Fast Company among others. Shari is also a sought-after speaker. She holds a BA in philosophy from Marquette University and a JD from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. Her new book is Qualified, which is available at https://thesharidunn.com/.

1. Reconstruction’s impact on our past and our present https://time.com/5562869/reconstruction-history/

2. The myth of merit https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-myth-of-meritocracy-runs-deep-in-american-history/

3. That Imposter Syndrome is a misidentification https://hbr.org/2021/02/stop-telling-women-they-have-imposter-syndrome

4. What Competency Checking means https://fortune.com/2024/08/23/kamala-harris-competency-check-black-women-careers-elections-politics/

5. That the pipeline (of Black and other candidates of color in the workplace) is blocked, not broken or empty https://sharidunn.substack.com/p/election-2024-competency-checking

6. Why “color blindness” in the workplace, health and society doesn’t work https://hbr.org/2017/09/colorblind-diversity-efforts-dont-work

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Imran Mahmood is a criminal defence barrister with over thirty years’ experience. His debut novel You Don’t Know Me was longlisted for both the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year and the CWA Gold Dagger in 2017, and selected by Simon Mayo as a BBC Radio 2 Book Club choice in the same year. It was then adapted into a four-part BBC crime drama, airing on a prime-time BBC One slot in 2021, before being released internationally on Netflix the following year and becoming one of the platform’s most streamed shows. His second novel, I Know What I Saw (2022) was named a Sunday Times Crime Novel of the Month and reached No. 2 on the Audible charts. Mahmood has written three screenplays and is a regular contributor to the Red Hot Chilli Writers podcast. His new novel is Finding Sophie, which is available at https://www.waterstones.com/book/finding-sophie/imran-mahmood/9781526647566

1. Sentencing for Crimes https://www.sentencingacademy.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Mandatory-Minimum-Sentences-Explainer.pdf
2. The Deep and Lasting Power of Books https://medium.com/@ariszavitsanos/the-enduring-power-of-literature-why-it-matters-now-more-than-ever-42900c18e7b
3. The Quran https://www.nybooks.com/online/2017/02/09/crafting-the-koran/
4. Manipulation by Politicians and Social Media Algorithms https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-01-13-social-media-manipulation-political-actors-industrial-scale-problem-oxford-report
5. Mycorrhizal Networks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhizal_network
6. Turritopsis dohrnii https://thebiologist.rsb.org.uk/biologist-features/everlasting-life-the-immortal-jellyfish

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Dani Heywood-Lonsdale is a writer with family roots in Hawaii and the Philippines. She holds a Doctorate in Education and teaches English Literature in Oxfordshire, having previously taught in Florence and London over the past decade. Before pursuing a career in academia, she worked for a nonprofit in New York City and studied social policy and development at LSE. The Portrait Artist is her first novel, and is available at https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/portrait-artist-9781526669988/.

1. Adoration of the Magi by Leonardo da Vinci in the Uffizi museum, Florence An unfinished masterpiece. Da Vinci was commissioned by the monks of San Donato in Scopeto in 1481, but he left for Milan the following year leaving it unfinished.

2. Ristorante Academia. In Piazza San Marco: quiet, unassuming, unpretentious, DELICIOUS authentic food. The kindest, friendliest staff; every friend I have sent raves about it.

3. The dark, sad and beautiful origins of the original Peter Pan text by JM Barrie James Barrie lived in his brother David’s shadow until he was 6. In 1867, David died in a skating accident, age 14; Barrie forever tried to cheer his devastated mother—who eventually found comfort in the idea that David would remain a boy forever.

4. Wired to Create by Scott Barry Kaufman ‘Offers a glimpse inside the “messy minds” of highly creative people.

5. Molokai hot bread. A secret delicacy on the tiny island of Molokai, Hawaii: A rival between cinnamon-sugar hot bread and strawberry-cream cheese hot bread.

6. Archimede ceramic shop in Ortygia, Sicily In a deceptive location (right by the cathedral and seemingly touristy), this shop has the most exquisite works of art.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Kathleen deLaski is an education and workforce designer, as well as a futurist. She founded the Education Design Lab in 2013 to help colleges begin the journey to reimagine higher education toward the future of work. Her non-profit has helped 1200 colleges, orgs and economic regions design shorter, more affordable pathways for learners to achieve their economic goals. She spends time as a senior advisor to the Project on Workforce at Harvard University and teaches human-centered design and higher ed reform as an adjunct professor in the Honors College at George Mason University. In a previous career, Kathleen spent twenty years as a TV and then a digital journalist, including time as ABC News White House correspondent. Followed by a political appointment as the first female Pentagon spokesperson. Her new book is Who Needs College Any More?, available at https://www.whoneedscollegeanymore.org/.

1. Only 38% of Americans have a 4 year college degree, yet American education and hiring system is really only set up to help this minority succeed.
2. The “College for all” movement of the last several decades is basically dead and that may not be a bad thing
3. White people, generally, are best positioned to skip the college degree.
4. A lot of the focus and debate is on elite colleges, which is odd, because they provide 2% of the college “seats” in America
5. We are in a period of the great skills shakeup in history, which has upended hiring and will continue to do so.
6. AI is both “the race track” for fixing or democratizing the hiring system, but also could be the nemesis for entry level workers.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

1. Eric Maschwitz https://spartacus-educational.com/SPYmaschwitz.htm

2. The correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/livingrev/religion/text3/adamsjeffersoncor.pdf

3. Rommel in 1942 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportpalast_speech

4. The World Jigsaw Championships https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/cj9j24v7ejmo

5. High Wind in Jamaica https://patricktreardon.com/book-review-a-high-wind-in-jamaica-or-the-innocent-voyage-by-richard-hughes/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Jeff Sebo is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Affiliated Professor of Bioethics, Medical Ethics, Philosophy, and Law, Director of the Center for Environmental and Animal Protection, Director of the Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy, and Co-Director of the Wild Animal Welfare Program at New York University. His research focuses on animal minds, ethics, and policy; AI minds, ethics, and policy; and global health and climate ethics and policy. He is the author of The Moral Circle and Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves and co-author of Chimpanzee Rights and Food, Animals, and the Environment. He is also a board member at Minding Animals International, an advisory board member at the Insect Welfare Research Society, and a senior affiliate at the Institute for Law & AI. In 2024 Vox included him on its Future Perfect 50 list of "thinkers, innovators, and changemakers who are working to make the future a better place."

1. There is a realistic possibility of sentience in all vertebrates and many invertebrates, including insects.
2. There will be a realistic possibility of sentience in advanced AI systems within the next decade as well.
3. We have the ability (and the responsibility) to consider welfare risks for all potentially sentient beings in decisions that affect them.
4. Industrial animal agriculture is bad for humans, nonhumans, and the environment at the same time. Fortunately, we can replace it.
5. Rapid AI development creates risks for humans, nonhumans, and the environment at the same time. Fortunately, we can slow it down.
6. Human-caused global changes affect wild animals too. Fortunately, we can build a safer infrastructure for humans and animals alike.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Diana McCaulay is a Jamaican environmental activist and the award-winning author of five novels. Winner of the Gold Musgrave Medal, Jamaica’s highest award for lifetime achievement across the arts and sciences; twice Winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for the Caribbean region (in 2022 and in 2012), she has also been shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Award, among other nominations, and is the winner of the Watson, Little 50 Prize for unrepresented writers aged 50+. Her new novel is A House For Miss Pauline, available at https://www.dialoguebooks.co.uk/titles/diana-mccaulay/a-house-for-miss-pauline/9780349704265/.

1. What a healthy coral reef looks like https://simonmustoe.blog/what-does-healthy-coral-reef-look-like/
2. The Legacies of British Slave ownership project https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/
3. The Taino artefacts in the British Museum https://www.artoftheancestors.com/blog/taino-arts-british-museum
4. That the Caribbean is not just a playground for tourists ht tps://www.tiharasmith.com/blogs/behind-the-brand/the-caribbean
5. Jamaica's south coast https://www.visitjamaica.com/listing/treasure-beach/474/
6. How long ago scientists warned of the impacts of putting greenhouse gases in the atmosphere https://www.rigb.org/explore-science/explore/blog/who-discovered-greenhouse-effect

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Jonathan Sayer on Le Coq clowning https://sites.google.com/education.nsw.gov.au/jacqueslecoq/jacques-lecoq/overview-of-his-approach-to-acting

Kate Mosse on how there are more statues in Edinburgh to animals than to women https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/campaign-seeks-change-fact-edinburgh-statues-animals-women-58867

Jon Glover on Maggie and Ted https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/jun/29/maggie-ted-review-two-tory-prime-ministers-one-long-spat

Geoff Dyer on Calabash literature festival in Jamaica https://www.vogue.com/article/calabash-literary-festival-in-jamaica-is-the-islands-best-kept-secret

Alice Loxton on The French House, Soho https://www.timeout.com/london/bars-and-pubs/french-house

Anand Menon on The Middle https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/03/21/the-middles-realpolitik

Helen Lewis on the Modesty Blaise novels https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/sep/19/crimebooks.features

Ben Schott on Polari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polari

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Adam Howorth was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire and grew up in rural Northamptonshire. After moving to London to work in the music industry, he later contributed to The Times and Billboard before joining Apple, where he worked for 18 years. Adam lives near the river in Southwest London, with his wife and two daughters. His new novel is Fallen Feathers, which is available at https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/fallen-feathers-adam-howorth/7735635?ean=9781836280088.

1. Hemingway’s Boat https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jan/08/ernest-hemingway-boat-hendrickson-review
2. Good manners https://www.headspace.com/articles/the-importance-of-good-manners
3. Life is about perspective https://medium.com/picturethis/life-is-all-about-perspective-4b8cebb6ced4
4. How to tie your laces https://www.nike.com/gb/a/how-to-tie-shoelaces
5. Chip with an 8 iron not a wedge https://golf.com/instruction/nick-faldo-pros-cut-strokes-answers/
6. Chateau La Faviere 2018 https://www.majestic.co.uk/wines/ch-la-favieres-61200

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Nilanjana Dasgupta is provost professor of psychology and inaugural director of the Institute of Diversity Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is the author of many articles; the winner of the Hidden Bias Research Prize from the Kapor Foundation; and the recipient of multiple U.S. government research grants. Her work has been featured in the New York Times and other major outlets. Her new book is Change the Wallpaper.

1. Diversity training doesn’t change people’s behavior nor the organizations in which they work. Do you know we spend 8 billion dollars on diversity training each year? Only a few DEI trainings are grounded in science; most are not.

2. Our behaviour is shaped by situational forces more often than our personal beliefs. What do I mean by situational forces? They include the opinions of our colleagues, peers, and bosses. The roles we occupy and the role-based norms and expectations of how we should act.

3. The path to culture change is not individual heroes. In fact, individuals acting alone are powerless. But individuals acting together with intention are powerful movers of cultures.

4. Talent is made, not born. Did you know that young Einstein early in life was pretty average? He struggled in school as a child. He didn’t get admission into his college of choice the first time but got in after a second attempt.

5. Playing for change: A global music project turned movement turned non-profit organization for social good that connects the world through music. The idea came from the belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and connect people across the world.

6. Travel in Kerala, India. A mixture of cultures, religions, ethnic groups, food, weather, landscapes, showing co-existence and contrasts. On the west coast of India, jutting out into the Arabian Sea.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

James Marriott is a columnist at The Times, writing about society, culture and ideas.

1. The poetry of Geoffrey Hill https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v07/n06/tom-paulin/the-case-for-geoffrey-hill

2. CAT S22 Flip https://www.reddit.com/r/dumbphones/comments/16p2an2/cat_s22_flip_reviewjustwow/?rdt=55955

3. Uzbekistan https://www.wildfrontierstravel.com/en_GB/blog/places-to-visit-in-uzbekistan

4. The acronym WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_WEIRDest_People_in_the_World

5. The War Against Cliche by Martin Amis https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/apr/14/fiction.martinamis

6. Rossini's opera L'Italiana in Algeri https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPodHwCbE5k&pp=ygUQI2l0YWxpYW5hZW5hcmdlbA%3D%3D

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Keetie Roelen is a leading thinker in poverty and social policy and a longstanding advocate for social justice. She currently works as a Senior Research Fellow and Co-Deputy Director at the Centre for the Study of Global Development at The Open University, the largest university in the UK. She is also founder and host of the podcast Poverty Unpacked, exploring the hidden sides of poverty in conversation with a broad range of experts.

Keetie has a PhD in Public Policy and has been working in the field of poverty, social policy, and international development for more than 15 years. Keetie has widely published in academic journals and books, and her work has featured in media such as the Guardian and BBC World Service. She has spoken about how to address poverty to multiple audiences, ranging from government ministers at the UN and MPs in UK parliament to students and activists. Keetie is passionate about contributing to a fairer world and creating more prosperous lives for all. Across her career, she has listened to personal accounts of hundreds of families and interviewed dozens of experts, building a deep appreciation of the complexities and opportunities for addressing adversity. Her new book is The Empathy Fix (https://atlantic-books.co.uk/book/the-empathy-fix/) which seeks to tell a new story about why hardship persists and how we can break the cycle.

1. European films https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/feb/10/european-film-must-see-25-movies

2. Transplant Games https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-66336861

3. Early paintings by Van Gogh https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/arts/artwork/early-paintings-by-vincent-van-gogh.htm

4. Assistance dogs https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/guidance/assistance-dogs-guide-businesses-and-service-providers

5. ATD Fourth World https://www.atd-fourthworld.org/who-we-are/

6. Dominicanen bookshop in Maastricht https://www.awellreadwanderer.com/boekhandel-dominicanen-unique-bookstore/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Matthew Kohut is the author of Speaking Out: The New Rules of Business Leadership Communication (2024). He is the coauthor of The Smart Mission: NASA's Lessons for Managing Knowledge, People, and Projects (2022), and Compelling People: The Hidden Qualities That Make Us Influential (2013), one of Amazon's Best Business Books of 2013. As the managing partner of KNP Communications, Matt has prepared CEOs, elected officials, and public figures for events from live television appearances to TED talks. Find out more at https://www.matthewkohut.com/.

1. The best way to get someone to agree with you is to start by agreeing with them. Reciprocity makes the world go round.

2. Machiavelli's dilemma–is it better to be loved than feared or feared than loved?––is a false choice. Few people remember this sentence that followed the question: “One should wish to be both, but…it is difficult to unite them in one person.”

3. Knowledge is profoundly social. What you know is deeply influenced by your context and culture. It comes from a combination of experiences and reflective learning, and it's often difficult to articulate.

4. If you want people to remember what you say, tell a story. As prophets and philosophers have known for millennia, stories stick with us.

5. Purpose leads to motivation; struggle leads to meaning. A shared purpose gives a group something to strive toward. A shared sense of meaning only comes when experience is followed by reflection and discussion.

6. Listening to understand another person's perspective takes different skills than listening to analyse a problem and make a decision. None of us really know what it's like to walk in another person's shoes.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Adam Higginbotham is the author of Midnight in Chernobyl, winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and one of the New York Times’ Ten Best Books of 2019. His latest book, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space, was published by Avid Reader Press in May this year. An immediate New York Times bestseller, Challenger is the winner of the 2024 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction.

1. William Friedkin’s Sorcerer https://rogersmovienation.com/2024/04/07/classic-film-review-reconsidering-sorcerer-1977/

2. Roger Boisjoly https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/02/06/146490064/remembering-roger-boisjoly-he-tried-to-stop-shuttle-challenger-launch

3. The Allen Room at the New York Public Library https://www.nypl.org/about/locations/schwarzman/research-study-rooms

4. Len Deighton https://www.deightondossier.net/

5. Strong Words magazine https://www.strong-words.co.uk/

6. Peter Nichols’ A Voyage For Madmen https://thetidesofhistory.com/2022/10/09/book-review-a-voyage-for-madmen-by-peter-nichols/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Al Murray's alter ego, The Pub Landlord, is one of the most recognizable and successful comic creations of the past twenty years. He is also the author of many successful books including Watching War Films with My Dad and Command, a sharply entertaining analysis of the key allied military leaders in the Second World War. He is well known for co-hosting the hugely popular Second World War history podcast, We Have Ways of Making You Talk with fellow bestselling military author James Holland.

Arnhem: Black Tuesday is his first history book about a single campaign and is available at https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/305659/al-murray.

To view his tour dates visit: www.thepublandlord.com

“It remains one of the great joys in comedy to see the Pub Landlord befriend and belittle the front rows, blithely dishing out attributes to them, responding with superfast wit… So long as he has an audience with a pulse and an onstage pump that dispenses frothy lager for him to spill on them, Murray will always be a good night out.” - Dominic Maxwell, The Times

1. Bernard Law Montgomery https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v03/n12/john-keegan/the-mothering-of-montgomery

2. Zeno’s The Cauldron https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/468655/the-cauldron-by-zeno/9781804996621

3. Blood stem cell donation via DKMS https://www.dkms.org/get-involved/become-a-donor

4. Bill Bruford https://www.loudersound.com/features/ive-been-booted-out-of-king-crimson-about-three-times-bill-bruford-on-a-life-in-music

5. Scale modelling https://uk.airfix.com/community/blog-and-news/tips-and-tricks/new-case-study-explains-positive-benefits-scale-modelling

6. The culture of remembrance in Arnhem https://www.airbornearnhemwest.nl/en/welkom-bij-de-website-van-de-airborne-herdenking-in-arnhem-west-english/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Jon Moynihan is a businessman and venture capitalist who started his career advising companies and banks in the Netherlands, the US and the UK as a specialist in mergers and turnarounds. He then ran the global firm PA Consulting Group for 21 years. He subsequently transitioned into venture startups, creating over 20 companies to date, most of them in the science and technology fields. Jon has worked as a volunteer in the charity sector all his life, including in Bangladeshi refugee camps and other developing countries, in educational think tanks, both managing and fundraising for charities, more recently in the arts sector where, among other activities, he was president of the Royal Albert Hall for a number of years. Jon sits in the House of Lords as Baron Moynihan of Chelsea. His new book is Return to Growth: How to Fix the Economy, available at https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/return-to-growth-jon-moynihan/7711930?ean=9781785909030.

1. Most of the economies of the world continue to grow: but not the Social Democracies, especially in Europe.
2. It’s incontrovertible that too-large government results in flattened growth.
3. People in the UK are on average earning some 5 per cent less than they were 17 years ago.
4. If you spend more than the OECD average on Education, as the UK does, the extra spend doesn’t improve educational outcomes.
5. The UK, compared with just about every other developed economy was far more incontinent on its spending during Covid.
6. The impact of China’s one-child policy is that by the year 2100, the threat of China will have receded. It will be dominated by its elderly, and its population will be half that of India’s.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Rob Orchard and Marcus Webb are co-founders of Delayed Gratification, the world’s first Slow Journalism magazine, launched in 2011. Delayed Gratification revisits events after the dust has settled and makes a virtue of being “Last to Breaking News.”

Along with Delayed Gratification’s art director Christian, Rob and Marcus are co-authors of An Answer For Everything, the critically acclaimed book of infographics published by Bloomsbury. Their new book Misc., a compendium of delightfully random facts discovered in 13 years of research for the magazine, was published by Bloomsbury in October 2024 and is available at https://www.slow-journalism.com/misc.

1. Drowning people pulled from the Thames used to be treated with tobacco enemas https://bcmj.org/special-feature/special-feature-tobacco-smoke-enemas

2. Andre Agassi used Boris Becker’s tongue to win tennis matches https://www.businessinsider.com/andre-agassi-beat-boris-becker-watching-tongue-serves-2021-4

3. Life on Mars sounds horrible https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2845199/

4. Movie star Hedy Lamarr is the unsung heroine of Bluetooth https://www.forbes.com/sites/shivaunefield/2018/02/28/hedy-lamarr-the-incredible-mind-behind-secure-wi-fi-gps-bluetooth/

5. One hardy entomologist set himself the task of being bitten by as many insects as possible, and recorded the experiences in lyrical prose https://www.chemistryworld.com/careers/the-man-who-gets-stung-by-insects/2500173.article

6. Many of the very worst films ever released have made more than half a billion dollars at the box office https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Andrew Hindmoor grew up in Sheffield, left, went to Australia, and boomeranged back to Sheffield in 2013. He is a Professor of Politics and Co-Director of the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute. He recently published Haywire: A Political History of Britain Since 2000 with Penguin which was the Times' 'book of the week' when it was released. He has previously published 12 Days Which Made Modern Britain with Oxford and academic books on the financial crisis and the state. He makes a mean lemon meringue pie.

1. North Stradbroke Island, Queensland. https://stradbrokeisland.com/

2. The Americans boxset https://www.amazon.co.uk/Americans-Complete-Seasons-1-6-DVD/dp/B07FYBZMN5

3. Hitchhiking https://medium.com/@korkmazlarr/the-exhilarating-journey-unveiling-the-benefits-of-hitchhiking-27f996c6d2ca

4. The Office for National Statistics data on happiness and life satisfaction (https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/bulletins/measuringnationalwellbeing/april2022tomarch2023 for the most recent release)

5. Philip Short’s biography of Vladimir Putin https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/430057/putin-by-short-philip/9781784700935

6. The alternative walk from Wasdale. Don’t go East from Wasdale up Scafell Pike. Go West and walk the horseshoe across Red Pike, Pillar and Great Gable.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Josie Lloyd, also writing as Joanna Rees, is the Sunday Times No.1 bestselling international author of over twenty novels and has been translated into 27 languages. Come Together, which she co-authored with her husband Emlyn Rees, was number one for 10 weeks and made into a Working Title film. Josie Lloyd recently wrote contemporary women’s fiction novels The Cancer Ladies Running Club and Lifesaving for Beginners, which was a #1 Bookseller Heatseeker. Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency is her first crime novel and is at https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/josie-lloyd-book-3-josie-lloyd/7270237.

1. Isabella Beeton - she of the 'Book of Household Management' fame is still relevant today. Her weighty Victorian tome was full of common sense advice on how to run a household, but lots of it still rings true: like cooking a big meal on a Sunday and using the left-overs all week.

2. Creative collaboration is a magical thing. When I first met Emlyn, my husband, he was my agent's assistant and we came up with a crazy idea to write a book together.

3. There's no perfect way to be 'a writer'. And certainly staring at a blank screen is not necessarily a good way to start.

4. It's breast cancer awareness month and having been through it - and having been inspired to write The Cancer Ladies' Running Club - it's important that people know that there are two types of breast cancer - lobular and ductal.

5. Having breast reconstruction surgery is not the only option after breast cancer. I had a prosthetic breast made that matches my bumpy chest wall and it's a game-changer. More people need to know that this is a great alternative to surgery.

6. Daily Qi Gong is amazing. As a busy mum of three with a successful career, cancer came as an enormous shock. I realised that I'd put my own well-being at the very bottom of my list.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Alice Hunt is Professor of Early Modern Literature and History at the University of Southampton. She is the author of The Drama of Coronation (Cambridge University Press) and has previously written about the Tudors and James I, and often appears in the media to discuss monarchy. Her new book is Republic: Britain’s Revolutionary Decade 1649-60, which is available at https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/republic-britain-s-revolutionary-decade-1649-1660-alice-hunt/7688859. She lives in Winchester.

1. The Republic. The fact that we once were a republic, that it was called and known as a republic, and what this republic was actually like should all be better known.
2. Richard Cromwell. Eldest surviving son of Oliver Cromwell who succeeded his father as Lord Protector.
3. Samuel Hartlib. Polish entrepreneur who moved to England and flourished in the creative, reforming energy of the 1650s. An inveterate communicator and intelligencer, he knew everyone who was anyone at the time and had a finger in every pie. He feverishly promoted ideas to the new republican government that were way ahead of their time: paper money, a national bank, a health service, state schools, the return of the Jews.
4. The Compleat Angler by Izaak Walton. This beautiful, sweet, quiet book about fishing was a huge bestseller in the 1650s.
5. Forde Abbey, Dorset. I absolutely loved discovering Forde Abbey during the research for this book. This former Cistercian monastery, nestled in the valley of the River Axe, completely transformed my thinking about who the puritan, republican men were who governed England at this time.
6. The Experimental Philosophy Club. This is the name of the society of young, curious, committed scientists who met in Oxford during the 1650s to share ideas and plan experiments.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Nabeel S. Qureshi is an entrepreneur and researcher specializing in artificial intelligence and healthcare. He is the CEO of a new startup company and a Visiting Scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Nabeel is based in New York and grew up in Manchester, England.

1. The filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/17/the-metaphysical-world-of-apichatpong-weerasethakuls-movies
2. Empson's Seven Types of Ambiguity https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1975/01/23/incomparable-empson/
3. Wittgenstein's late notebooks, Culture and Value https://prismatically.blog/2020/08/30/wittgenstein-culture-and-value-whereof-one-cannot-speak-thereof-one-must-be-silent/
4. The pianist Grigory Sokolov, especially his recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations https://open.spotify.com/track/0iD6SmRyOj23fCKyG4x8zj?si=decbea5bd38f4515&nd=1&dlsi=ce22c9bdf87a4ba4
5. The essay Art as Technique by Viktor Shklovsky https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/fulllist/first/en122/lecturelist-2015-16-2/shklovsky.pdf
6. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v15/n08/john-lanchester/indian-summa

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Edward Carey is a writer and illustrator who was born in North Walsham, Norfolk, England, during an April snowstorm. He is the author of the novels Observatory Mansions and Alva and Irva: the Twins Who Saved a City, and of the YA Iremonger Trilogy, which have all been translated into many different languages and all of which he illustrated. His 2018 novel Little has been published in 20 countries. His novella The Swallowed Man, set inside the belly of an enormous sea beast, was published in 2022. His latest novel Edith Holler will be published on 3rd October by Gallic Books and is available at https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/edith-holler-edward-carey/7601350?ean=9781913547783.

He has written plays for the National Theatre of Romania and the Vilnius Small State Theatre, Lithuania. In England his plays and adaptations have been performed at the Young Vic Studio, the Battersea Arts Centre, and the Royal Opera House Studio. He has collaborated on a shadow puppet production of Macbeth in Malaysia, and with the Faulty Optic Theatre of Puppets.

Edward will be in the UK in October and speaking about Edith Holler in bookshops around the country: Waterstones Trafalgar Square (3rd October), Mr B’s Emporium (4th October), Blackwells Oxford (5th October), Blackwells Manchester (7th October) and Dragon Hall, National Centre for Writing in Norwich (8th October).

1. Commonplace books https://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/2023/06/what-is-a-commonplace-book.html

2. Whitby Museum https://whitbymuseum.org.uk/

3. The art of Charles Altamont Doyle https://huntington.org/exhibition/unseen-world-charles-altamont-doyle

4. The fairy tales of Giambattista Basile https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giambattista-Basile

5. Norwich undercrofts https://www.norwichunderground.xyz/undercrofts/

6. Victorian toy theatres https://craftsmanship.net/the-rise-and-fall-of-toy-theatre/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Steve Prest was a Weapon Engineer Officer who joined the Royal Navy after reading Electronic and Electrical Engineering at Loughborough University. He served in the Defence Communications Services Agency in Corsham in support of Op TELIC 1 (Iraq); undertook a short tour in Afghanistan as a Liaison Officer to Task Force Helmand; and has served on exchange with the French Navy. In the UK he has worked in Defence Equipment and Support, MOD, the Permanent Joint Headquarters and the Maritime Capability Division of Navy Command Headquarters.

At sea he was the Weapon Engineer Officer in HMS WESTMINSTER undertaking operations in the Mediterranean (Libya), Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean; and then the Commander Weapon Engineer in HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH, bringing the ship out of build and home to Portsmouth.

Joining the nascent Navy Acquisition organisation in 2017, he was previously the Programme Director of the Type 31 Frigate Programme. He then became Deputy Director Navy Acquisition (Equipment and Systems), and Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) for the Maritime Electronic Warfare and Mine Hunting Capability Programmes. He fulfilled the role of Director Navy Acquisition from September 2022 until May 2023 and finished his career as Deputy Director People Change Programmes in Navy Command HQ.

Still working out what he wants to do when he grows up, Steve is now an independent consultant, advisor, commentator and speaker in the Defence sector and beyond. He has set up his own company, Alatar Ltd, and his self-appointed mission is “to help brilliant people to do amazing things”.

He is married to Kerry and they live on the Hampshire coast with their daughter, Emily. He enjoys reading and is a keen fan of most sports, participating when time and body allow.

1. The Royal Navy and what it does.
2. That life is stochastic not based on fate, otherwise risk management wouldn't work!
3. The Scouring of the Shire - from Lord of the Rings. It was a crucial part of the narrative arc in the books but missed out from the otherwise brilliant films.
4. Captain Cook. Everyone knows that he "discovered" Australia (he didn't really, but...) but his qualities as a leader and maritime professional should be better known.
5. That inclusive leadership isn't "woke nonsense" but is, at its heart, just good leadership.
6. Bluestone 42 - a BBC comedy drama about a British bomb disposal detachment details the camaraderie and bonds shared between the soldiers in the unit as they risk their lives defusing bombs.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

1. Post Mortem by Noel Coward http://www.ww1plays.com/2015/07/noel-cowards-serious-war-play.html

2. The White Disease by Karel Capek https://artsfuse.org/198970/arts-commentary-pestilence-on-stage-part-one-karel-capeksthe-white-plague/

3. O’Flaherty VC by George Bernard Shaw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Flaherty_V.C.

4. Last Days of Mankind by Karl Kraus https://www.theguardian.com/culture/1999/dec/13/artsfeatures4

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Marieke Bigg is the author of Waiting for Ted, and This Won’t Hurt. Writing across fiction and non-fiction, she deconstructs the cultural givens around bodies, minds and identity. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge, where she studied the technological transformation of human reproduction. In addition to her books, Marieke speaks about the sociology of medicine and psychiatry, and collaborates with biologists and artists to explore the social potential of science. She is also a training psychotherapist. She now lives in London. Her new book is A Scarab Where The Heart Should Be, available at https://deadinkbooks.com/product/a-scarab-where-the-heart-should-be/.

1. In Vitro Fertilisation - while most people know what it is, knowing more about this process and its history opens up new ways of thinking about the role of reproduction in society and will have us questioning what we currently regard as natural truths

2. Bruder Klaus Field Chapel, Peter Zumthor - a chapel mentioned in my book, shaped by pouring concrete over 112 tree trunks that were burnt away.

3. Taxonomy - how when we learn the names of natural things, we look more closely, and experience our place in nature.

4. In Praise of Shadows, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki - the ideas in this essay are often around for me, and also guided my thinking about my prtoagonist. The essay on traditional Japanese astheatics is a warning against an incessant pursuit of light (perfection, stimulation, happiness) in Western culture.

5. Anne Mclaren - an embryologist who I wrote my PhD on. Fascinating scientist who worked on IVF, sending mice to space with NASA, worked with Russian scientists during the cold war, and starred in an HG Wells film as a child.

6. The Way Out is In - podcast by followers of the Buddhist monk and peace activist, Thit Naht Tahn.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Katherine Willis CBE is Professor of Biodiversity in the department of Biology and the Principal of St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford. She is also a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords. Previous roles include Director of Science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and a member of the UK Government’s Natural Capital Committee. In 2015, Kathy was awarded the Michael Faraday Medal for public communication of science from the Royal Society. Her new book is Good Nature: The New Science of How Nature Improves Our Health.

1. Staring out of a window onto greenery instead of a brick wall or a general urban scene.

2. Having a vase of yellow or roses or houseplant with green-white leaves on your desk.

3. Even if you only have 20 minutes for your walk or run, always head for the park/urban green space. Why? Because experiments show that there is a much greater reduction in our stress hormones (salivary amylase, cortisol and adrenaline) if we exercise in green space rather than on the streets.

4. Garden without your gloves. Why? Because experiments show when we do so the environmental microbiota (good bacteria) found in biodiverse environments, including organic soils, is transferred onto our skin and into our gut.

5. Visit the Mediterranean garden at the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew. Why? Because this hidden gem at Kew has a whole host of health benefits associated with it due to the smells (volatile organic compounds) given off by the mediterranean herbs lavender, rosemary, and mint.

6. Buy a diffuser and diffuse the scents of cypress trees in your home or office. Why? Because clinical experiments and field trials are showing that when we do so, not only are stress hormones reduced, but also it can trigger a significant increase of natural killer cells in our blood.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Bruce Omar Yates was born in London to an English father and an Indian mother. Bruce grew up in the South of France before returning to London to study Literature and Film at King’s College London. Bruce is principal songwriter for the cult rock groups Famy, who released their album We Fam Econo in 2014, and Los Porcos, who released their album Porco Mio in 2016. The Muslim Cowboy is his first novel and is out now from Dead Ink Books at https://deadinkbooks.com/product/the-muslim-cowboy/.

1. English Milk Punch: a delicious low-ABV punch made from brandy, tea, spices and milk. It was popular in Victorian times - Dickens would drink it - as it is shelf stable. After refrigeration came along it lost popularity.

2. I Cantautori Genovesi: Fabrizio De Andre, Gino Paoli, Luigi Tenco (and others) - a group of arty, literary songwriters from Genoa in the 1960s. They would enter songs to compete against each other in the Sanremo Music Festival. Deep romance. Luigi Tenco shot himself after losing the competition one year.

3. Martin Maloney: A lesser celebrated but wildly influential painter from the YBA generation. His painting style is deliberately crude but makes deeply educated references to the canon.

4. Sickle Cell Disease: One of the most common inherited diseases in the world, very cruel and life threatening, and particularly rife in West Africa and India.

5. The Gulag Archipelago: Not exactly unknown, but not enough people have read it. The subject of Soviet war crimes is neglected relative to their scale, the book had a big historical impact, and Solzhenitsyn was a really great writer.

6. Parenting: Discussion in the culture might make you think that parenting is exhausting, stressful, financially burdensome, and so on, but it's not, it's just wonderful.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Pedro Domingos is a renowned AI researcher, tech industry insider, and Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. He is the author of the best-selling book The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World (Basic Books, 2015), which has been translated into over twelve languages and sold over 300,000 copies. His new book is 2040: A Silicon Valley Satire at https://2040novel.com/.

1. Moravec's paradox: what seems hard for AI is easy and vice-versa. https://www.scienceabc.com/innovation/what-is-moravecs-paradox-definition.html

2. Automation creates more jobs than it destroys, and AI is no exception. https://www.paltron.com/insights-en/does-ai-create-more-jobs-than-it-destroys

3. John von Neumann was the greatest genius of the 20th century. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/books/review-man-from-future-john-von-neumann-ananyo-bhattacharya.html

4. Olaf Stapledon's "Star Maker" is the greatest science fiction novel of all time. https://yardsaleofthemind.wordpress.com/2021/08/25/olaf-stapledons-star-maker-book-review/

5. "Her" is that rare thing: a realistic depiction of AI in a movie. https://www.wired.com/story/spike-jonze-her-10-year-anniversary-artificial-intelligence/

6. Portugal's discoveries in the 15th and 16th centuries started the age of globalization. https://www.history.com/news/portugal-age-exploration

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

1. Anna Maria della Pietà: the greatest violinist of 18th century, possibly a composer in her own right, fundamental to Vivaldi's music, grew up in the extraordinary Ospedale della Pietà - the original conservatoire of music

2. Synaesthesia: people think it's seeing music through colour - which it is in The Instrumentalist - but it's more than that. Words can have smells and taste, one sense can trigger another in profound ways.

3. Bach’s Cello Suite in G minor while standing on a mountain: anyone can enjoy classical music, it's supposed to be listened to LOUDLY, it's supposed to be magnificent. Go somewhere epic, ideally in nature, and play this piece. Track the mountain with your eyes.

4. The Foundling Museum: the UK’s first children’s charity, a heartfelt ode to the orphans and their parents.

5. Female musicians: Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schulman, Nannerl Mozart, Francesca Caccini - listen to Nocturne in G minor.

6. Spaghetti Aglio Olio

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

C. Michelle Lindley’s writing has been featured in The Georgia Review, Conjunctions, and more. She has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts and has an MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University and a BA from the University of Berkeley in English and Art History. The Nude is her first novel.

1. Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha https://asianreviewofbooks.com/content/dictee-by-theresa-hak-kyung-cha/

2. 2022 Irma Vep remake https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/irma-vep-tv-review-1235151952/

3. The Island of Naxos https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Tourism-g189431-Naxos_Cyclades_South_Aegean-Vacations.html

4. The Pie Scene from David Lowery’s A Ghost Story https://www.thewrap.com/rooney-mara-devoured-pie-9-minute-ghost-story-scene/

5. Ana Mendieta's Ocean Bird Washup https://www.ft.com/content/a6c4090e-2cda-11e3-8281-00144feab7de

6. Kate Braverman https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet-books/2019/10/rip-kate-braverman-1949-2019

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Richard Davenport-Hines is a British historian and literary biographer. His history of the Profumo scandal, An English Affair, was published in 2013. His book on espionage scandals, Enemies Within: Communists, the Cambridge Spies and the Making of Modern Britain was published in January. His other books include biographies of W. H. Auden, Marcel Proust and John Maynard Keynes. He was a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford in 2016. His new book is History in the House: Some Remarkable Dons and the Teaching of Politics, Character and Statecraft.

1. Anthony Quayle's novel Eight Hours from England https://thelastwordbookreview.com/2019/09/22/eight-hours-from-england-by-anthony-quayle/

2. Wrest Park in Bedfordshire https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/wrest-park/

3. The Merlin app that can identify birdsong https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/

4. Christopher Spence, founder of London Lighthouse hospice https://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/may/23/publicservicesawards29

5. Raccoons https://www.peta.org.uk/blog/13-astounding-facts-didnt-know-raccoon-dogs/

6. Feedback, the global campaign against food-waste & the ecological damage done by bad agricultural practices https://feedbackglobal.org/about-us/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Susanna Rustin is a leader writer on social affairs at The Guardian, where she has worked for more than 20 years. Before that, she worked at the Financial Times. Sexed is her first book.

1. The "Reform Firm" - the group of women's rights campaigners with Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon at the centre of it, in the middle of 19th century. They organised the first big suffrage petition presented in the House of Commons, ran a magazine for women from Langham Place (just off Oxford Circus), campaigned for jobs and education - Bodichon co-founded Girton college with Emily Davies and she was George Eliot's dear friend. But apart from feminist historians and biographers, hardly anyone knows about them. Victorians are deeply unfashionable for some very good reasons but there is lots to admire about them as well.

2. Feminist evolutionary biology - feminists going all the way back to George Eliot were deeply and justifiably suspicious of his theory of natural and sexual selection, which they realised would be used as an argument for the naturalness of male dominance and authority, and female passivity and inferiority. But there is the most wonderful tradition of research by female evolutionary biologists and anthropologists - many of them American but some important Brits too - who from the 1970s onwards published research that presented a radical, alternative view of female primate and human behaviour, and countered the masculinist bias in evolutionary science up to that point. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy's book Mother Nature first published in 1999, 25 years old this year, is a beautiful and deeply illuminating book. I think people educated in social sciences/ humanities need to take off their blinkers when it comes to the ways in which humans have - like every other life form! - been shaped by evolutionary forces.

3. Winifred Holtby - wonderful novelist and essayist; overlooked feminist thinker. She died aged 37: her posthumously published South Riding is a wonderful, sweeping, romantic novel about local government in Yorkshire. a writer for an era of devolution and the return of deep poverty.

4. The law that enables people to set up parish councils (also called town councils and community councils), in the area they live in - and collect taxes locally - known as a precept - to spend on neighbourhood improvements and services.

5. The gender gap in higher education - girls now significantly outnumber boys at UK universities and this isn't discussed enough.

6. The history of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in Britain

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

1. Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography — specifically his advice on epistemic humility https://apuedge.com/humility-benjamin-franklin-and-arguing-with-humility-part-ii/

2. James Madison’s notes on the Constitution https://lawmagazine.bc.edu/2016/02/a-cautionary-tale-about-the-notes-of-james-madison/

3. Walking sticks https://www.stickandcaneshop.co.uk/country-sticks

4. The World Jigsaw Championships https://www.worldjigsawpuzzle.org/

5. Padel https://ipadel.co.uk/The-Rules

6. The MIT Mystery Hunt http://puzzles.mit.edu/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Katherine Bucknell edited all four volumes of Christopher Isherwood's Diaries , a volume of letters between Christopher Isherwood and his partner Don Bachardy (The Animals), and W.H. Auden's Juvenilia: Poems 1922-1928. Co-editor of Auden Studies, a founder of The W. H. Auden Society, and director of the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, she is widely recognised as a leading authority on Isherwood, and her new biography Christopher Isherwood Inside Out is now available. She is also the author of five novels. She was born in Vietnam, raised in America, and lives in London.

1. Christopher Isherwood's novel Prater Violet https://lonesomereader.com/blog/2024/1/30/prater-violet-by-christopher-isherwood

2. DH Lawrence's novel The Lost Girl https://journals.openedition.org/lawrence/2328

3. The Nucleo Project https://www.thenucleoproject.org/

4. Marfa Stance https://www.marfastance.com/

5. How scallops move https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGdXxoHJaBA

6. The value of memorising poetry https://theconversation.com/ode-to-the-poem-why-memorising-poetry-still-matters-for-human-connection-121622

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Moving to broadcast, Tom helped launch Times Radio as the new station’s Chief Political Commentator and the presenter of its flagship Sunday morning political programme. He moved to TalkTV on its launch to anchor an hour-long weeknight news programme. He continues to write for The Times and The Evening Standard. His book is Letters from Everest, available at https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/letters-from-everest-unpublished-letters-from-mallorys-life-and-death-in-the-mountains-tom-newton-dunn?variant=40964397269070.

1. Britain once invaded Tibet, and by brutal force (in 1904). This was the earliest origin of the modern day conquest of Mount Everest.

2. Mallory was bisexual, and had homosexual affairs with other Bloomsbury Group members

3. Mallory had ADHD - or at least, I'm certain he did, as it explains much about him, from his obsessiveness to his forgetfulness (though of course he was never diagnosed)

4. The Mallory family think George's habit of climbing with a photograph of wife Ruth could be a key clue to whether he reached the top

5. We revere noble failure more than success - we do for Mallory

6. More than 300 climbers have died while trying to summit Everest since. Mallory was only the first

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Alex’s new book is May Contain Lies, about misinformation, and so, in a reversal of the usual format, he discusses six ideas and beliefs which have been overexposed.

Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School. Alex has a PhD from MIT as a Fulbright Scholar, and was previously a tenured professor at Wharton and an investment banker at Morgan Stanley.

Alex has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, testified in the UK Parliament, and given the TED talk What to Trust in a Post-Truth World and the TEDx talks The Pie-Growing Mindset and The Social Responsibility of Business with a combined 2.8 million views. He serves as non-executive director of the Investor Forum, on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Responsible Investing, on Royal London Asset Management’s Responsible Investment Advisory Committee, and on Novo Nordisk’s Sustainability Advisory Council.

Alex’s book, Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit, was a Financial Times Book of the Year and has been translated into nine languages, and he is a co-author of Principles of Corporate Finance (with Brealey, Myers, and Allen). His latest book is May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit Our Biases – And What We Can Do About It, available at https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520403932/may-contain-lies.

His six things which should be less well-known are:

1. Mothers should exclusively breast-feed their babies
2. You can be an expert in anything if you devote 10,000 hours to it
3. Starting with why is the secret to success
4. Diverse teams always perform better
5. More information makes you more informed
6. Grit is more important than IQ in driving achievement

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

1. Babylon 5 https://www.douxreviews.com/2015/08/babylon-5-series-review.html

2. Life & Fate by Vasily Grossman https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v29/n20/john-lanchester/good-day-comrade-shtrum

3. The Truth about Markets by John Kay https://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&context=economics-faculty-publications

4. Why there was no Danish holocaust https://www.history.com/news/wwii-danish-jews-survival-holocaust

5. Nehru's affair with Lady Mountbatten https://www.indiatoday.in/india-today-insight/story/from-the-india-today-archives-1980-mountbattens-and-nehru-friendship-in-high-places-2413716-2023-07-30

6. Ethiopian food https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/ethiopian-food-best-dishes-africa/index.html

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Henry Oliver is a writer, speaker, and brand consultant. He writes regularly for outlets like the New Statesman, The Critic, and UnHerd. He writes the popular Substack The Common Reader, which was recently mentioned in the Atlantic. His book Second Act is about late bloomers. In 2022, he was given an Emergent Ventures grant.

1. Izaac Walton https://newcriterion.com/article/the-right-angle/

2. Wren churches https://sixinthecity.co.uk/news/2023/03/51-wren-churches/

3. Lyrics of Noel Coward songs https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n13/rosemary-hill/mushroom-cameo

4. Lichfield https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryMagazine/DestinationsUK/The-City-of-Lichfield/

5. Byron Janis Bach recording https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdL3-xwoFik

6. Elizabeth Jenkins https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/sep/07/elizabeth-jenkins-obituary

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Jamaica Kincaid was born in St. John’s, Antigua. Her books include At the Borrom of the River; Annie John; Lucy; The Autobiography of My Mother; My Brother; Mr Potter; and See Now Then. She teaches at Harvard University and lives in Vermont. Her new book is an Encylopedia of Gardening for Colored People at https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9780374608255?gC=5a105e8b.

1. Let Love Come Between Us by James and Bobby Purify https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32CgFcOSbxw

2. 26 of the 50 United States bear the names of Native Americans https://thoughtcatalog.com/james-b-barnes/2014/10/26-states-that-were-named-by-native-americans-was-your-state/

3. The Travels of William Bartram https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/americas-first-great-enviromentalist-florida-william-bartram-180983452/

4. The first paragraph of the 3rd Chapter of the Life of Frederick Douglas https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/narrative/full-text/chapter-iii/

5. Ervartung, a mono-drama opera with music by Arnold Schoenberg https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2002/feb/01/artsfeatures.classicalmusicandopera

6. The seed packet was invented by The Shakers, an English Protestant sect, who immigrated to America and made many beautiful and useful things for the home. Their beliefs were quite severe regarding sex so no children were produced to ruin the beautiful and useful things they made for the home https://digventures.com/2018/02/11-things-we-still-use-that-were-invented-by-the-shakers/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Caroline Eden is a writer and book critic contributing to the Financial Times, Guardian and the Times Literary Supplement. Her new book is Cold Kitchen: A Year of Culinary Journeys. Her earlier books include Samarkand, Black Sea and Red Sands, winner of the prestigious André Simon Award and a Book of the Year for the New Yorker.

1. Ukrainian borsch

2. Uzbek melons

3. Russian pirozhki

4. Polish pierogi 

5. Armenian lavash

6. Turkish boza

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Caroline Crampton is the author of The Way to the Sea: The Forgotten Histories of the Thames Estuary (Granta, 2019). Her award-winning podcast, Shedunnit, is distributed by BBC Sounds. Her journalism has appeared in the New Statesman, The Times and the Guardian. An experienced broadcaster, she has appeared on BBC Two, Sky News, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 4. Her new book is A Body Made of Glass: A History of Hypochondria.

1. The Lime Street Cutting https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/stunning-pictures-reveal-rarely-glimpsed-22659098

2. The adult novels of Eva Ibbotson https://shereadsnovels.com/2012/11/25/madensky-square-by-eva-ibbotson/

3. Beremeal flour https://baronymill.com/

4. The inverted story or "howdunnit" https://www.novelsuspects.com/articles/inverted-detective-stories-when-you-already-know-whodunnit/

5. The 1944 Powell and Pressburger film A Canterbury Tale https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/powell-pressburger-kent-locations-canterbury-tale

6. Clumber spaniels https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/clumber-spaniel/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Kathryn Hughes is the critically acclaimed author of The Victorian Governess, The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton, which was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, and the hugely acclaimed George Eliot: The Last Victorian, which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography. Her new book is Catland: Feline Enchantment and the Making of the Modern World. Educated at Oxford University, she holds a PhD in Victorian studies. She is a visiting lecturer at several British universities and reviews regularly for The Guardian, Daily Telegraph and Literary Review.

1. Mrs Cotman, portrait by John Sell Cotman (hanging in Norwich Castle Museum) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Mrs_John_Sell_Cotman.jpg

2. Frances Simpson https://cat-o-pedia.org/frances-simpson.html

3. The Heart of Wales railway line https://news.tfw.wales/news/heart-of-wales-railway-line-best-in-europe

4. The proper use of the word “disinterested” https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/eb/qa/disinterested-vs-uninterested

5. Linley Sambourne House https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/museums/sambourne-house

6. The Gas Man Cometh (1963) by Flanders and Swann https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1dvAxA9ib0

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Elaine Lin Hering has been a lecturer at Harvard Law School and a Managing Partner at Triad Consulting Group. She has worked with a wide range of clients in Fortune 500 companies, including American Express, Capital One, Google, Merck, Nike, Shell and Pixar, as well as with government and non-profit organisations.

Elaine "has all the ingredients to become the next Brené Brown” - Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen, co-authors of NYT Bestseller, Difficult Conversations.

Elaine’s new book is Unlearning Silence: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent and Lead with Courage, available at https://www.waterstones.com/book/unlearning-silence/elaine-lin-hering/9781529900170.

1. The real costs of AI https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ais-climate-impact-goes-beyond-its-emissions/

2. Babble hypothesis of leadership https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/08/leaders-talk-more-babble-hypothesis/

3. No-knead pizza dough https://www.seriouseats.com/jim-laheys-no-knead-pizza-dough-recipe

4. Social change ecosystems https://buildingmovement.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Ecosystem-Guide-April-2022.pdf

5. Use of low power language is strategic https://www.yourpowerunleashed.org/blog/2023/5/21/womens-use-of-low-power-language-at-work-is-not-diminishing-but-very-strategic

6. Forest-bathing is healthy https://time.com/5259602/japanese-forest-bathing/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Andrew Finkel has spent years reporting for media organisations including The Times, The Economist, New York Times and CNN. He has covered wars and earthquakes, market booms and busts, and in his capacity as a food critic and contributing editor for Istanbul’s Cornucopia magazine, the postmodernity of the kebab. His experiences working in the Turkish-language press prompted him to co-found P24, an association to promote freedom of expression, and the Istanbul literature house, Kiraathane. He has written a number of non-fiction titles, including Turkey: What Everyone Needs to Know which was “called a succinct, readable and expert briefing on the modern country” by the Daily Telegraph and “no better introduction to today’s Turkey” by Andrew Mango. The Adventure of the Second Wife is his debut novel.

1. The obsession of the Ottoman sultan Abdülhamid II for Sherlock Holmes https://www.thebulwark.com/p/plagues-of-the-body-and-plagues-of-the-mind-orhan-pamuk

2. The art of the dramatically satisfying ending https://www.vulture.com/article/the-101-best-movie-endings-of-all-time-ranked.html

3. Cornucopia https://www.cornucopia.net/

4. The Big Green Egg https://www.biggreenegg.co.uk/

5. The plight of Turkish journalism https://ethicaljournalismnetwork.org/turkey-after-an-attempted-coup-the-journalists-nightmare

6. The periphery of Istanbul https://www.istanbulmeetandgreetservice.com/the-5-most-charming-small-villages-near-to-istanbul/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Bill Weir is a veteran anchor, writer, producer, and host who came to CNN in 2013 after a decade of award-winning journalism at ABC News.

In 2019, he was named the network’s first Chief Climate Correspondent, drawing on his experience creating and hosting the primetime CNN Original Series “The Wonder List with Bill Weir,” now streaming on Discovery+.

His first book, Life As We Know It (Can Be) was published by Chronicle Prism in April 2024.

1. The Goldilocks Earth https://www.thedailybeast.com/cnn-host-bill-weir-plans-to-hold-bidens-feet-to-the-fire-on-climate-change

2. Humanity’s role models will be beavers, camels and gentoo penguins https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/16/climate/life-as-we-know-it-book-bill-weir/index.html

3. We need thoughtful YIMBYs https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/23/us/climate-crisis-earth-day-weir-letter/index.html

4. The home of the future will come with much thicker walls https://www.builderonline.com/products/building-construction-materials/cnn-report-examines-alternative-way-to-build-homes

5. The new industrial revolution https://edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/2024/02/05/clean-revolution-weir-pkg.cnn

6. Veggie burgers can do more environmental harm than a steak https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/03/us/climate-crisis-cattle-amp-grazing/index.html

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Born in Nigeria, Chioma Okereke grew up in London and studied law at UCL. She started her writing career as a performance poet before turning her hand to prose. Her debut novel, Bitter Leaf (Virago), was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and her short story, Trompette De La Mort, received First Runner Up in the Costa Short Story Award. Her new novel is Water Baby.

1. Jamaica Kincaid https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2022/04/07/jamaica-kincaids-rope-of-live-wires/

2. Cadaqués https://www.lonelyplanet.com/spain/cadaques

3. PRP (platelet rich plasma) https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/platelet-rich-plasma-injections

4. Raye https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/raye-escapism-21st-century-blues-interview-1234671381/

5. Tiger nuts https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772753X23003325

6. Andre Brink https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/08/andre-brink

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Ash Bhardwaj is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and keynote speaker, whose work explores the intersection of travel, current affairs and human behaviour. He has reported from around the world for outlets including the BBC, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times and Condé Nast Traveller. Before travel writing, Ash was a ski instructor, science teacher and wannabe cowboy. He is an officer in the British Army Reserve, and a lecturer in travel journalism at City, University of London. Why We Travel is his first book.

1. Great Polynesian Migration https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/encounters/polynesian-voyaging

2. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

3. Ukraine (as a place, not just a site of war) https://theculturetrip.com/europe/ukraine/articles/the-top-20-attractions-in-ukraine

4. Turning grief into hope https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/oceania/new-zealand/my-mother-died-of-cancer-new-zealand-turned-my-grief/

5. How beliefs and behaviours work https://iulianionescu.com/blog/how-our-beliefs-and-values-shape-our-behavior/

6. Psychogeography https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/psychogeography

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Anthony Daniels was born in London in 1949. He retired from medical practice except for medico-legal work in 2005. He has written several books, including an account of a journey across Africa by public transport, and under his pseudonym, Theodore Dalrymple, has written many essays for publications such as City Journal, some of which were collected in Life at the Bottom (2001), which has been translated into several languages. His new book is Buried But Not Quite Dead: Forgotten Writers of Père Lachaise. He divides his time between England and France.

1. The Fire Raisers by Max Frisch https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2007/nov/01/thearsonistsstillburnsbrig

2. The Hospital Poems by WE Henley https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1931720414002025

3. A Mother Peeling Apples by Pieter de Hooch https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/a-woman-peeling-apples-209233

4. Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne-Melchior_de_Vog%C3%BC%C3%A9

5. That Le Corbusier was a fascist https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32546182

6. That the poor are disproportionately the victims of crime https://www.theguardian.com/society/2006/apr/18/socialexclusion.crime

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Leah Redmond Chang is a former Associate Professor of French and Director of the French Literature Programme at George Washington University, and was most recently a Senior Research Associate at University College London. She is the author of two previous books: Into Print: The Production of Female Authorship in Early Modern France and Portraits of the Queen Mother: Polemics, Panegyrics, Letters, winner of the Josephine Roberts Award from the International Society for the Study of Early Modern Women. She lives with her husband and three children, and divides her time between Washington, DC and London.

1. Fake news goes back at least to the 16th century https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/12/fake-news-history-long-violent-214535/

2. 16th-century Europe was dominated by female leaders https://www.historytoday.com/archive/review/young-queens-leah-redmond-chang-review

3. The Renaissance Italian painter Sofonisba Anguissola https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2022/03/this-italian-artist-became-the-first-female-superstar-of-the-renaissance

4. The teenaged queen consort of Spain, Elisabeth de Valois https://flhwnotesandreviews.com/2018/06/11/book-review-elizabeth-de-valois-queen-of-spain-and-the-court-of-philip-ii-by-martha-walker-freer/

5. The story of the 16th-century French peasant Martin Guerre and his wife Bertrande https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/martin-guerre-0016613

6. Letter-locking https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210616-how-the-forgotten-tricks-of-letterlocking-shaped-history

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Alice Loxton is a 28 year old history broadcaster and writer with over two million followers on social media (@history_alice). She has appeared on many channels including Sky Arts, Channel 5, BBC News and History Hit, and has worked with a wide array of organisations to bring history to mainstream audiences, including Christie’s, Meta, The National Trust, 10 Downing Street, The Royal Collection Trust, The National Portrait Gallery and The National Gallery. UPROAR! Satire, Scandal and Printmaking in Georgian London is Alice’s first book. Her second book, Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives, comes out in August 2024.

1. James Gillray https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v23/n12/peter-campbell/at-tate-britain

2. The fact that Napoleon wasn’t short https://www.history.com/news/napoleon-complex-short

3. Landmark Trust https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/may/12/how-a-derelict-scottish-tower-was-turned-into-a-sumptuous-retreat

4. The French House, Soho https://www.timeout.com/london/bars-and-pubs/french-house

5. Parish churches https://www.countryfile.com/go-outdoors/days-out/britains-most-beautiful-churches

6. The London Library https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v13/n18/john-sutherland/sod-off-readers

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Charlie Russell she/her. Creative Associate and co-founder at Mischief. Trained at LAMDA. Work with Mischief includes Groan Ups (West End); The Play That Goes Wrong (UK Tour, West End, Broadway); Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Pleasance, West End, BBC1 adaptation, Broadway); The Comedy About A Bank Robbery (West End); The Goes Wrong Show (BBC Sitcom); Improviser, Mischief Movie Night (West End, UK Tour), Austentatious, Yes Queens. Charlie wrote and performed a run of her first solo show, Charlie Russell Aims To Please, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2022. Other acting work includes Kat in Kite Strings (Short Film), Doctors (BBC 1), And Then There Were None (BBC1 & Mammoth Screen) #FindTheGirl (BBC3 Online) and A Twist Of Dahl (BBC Radio 4). Charlie can next be seen starring in Fanny at The Watermill Theatre in May 2024.

1. 500 Acts of Kindness group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2074795452542346/

2. Fanny Mendelssohn https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/23/arts/music-review-fanny-mendelssohn-was-audacious-too.html

3. The game Worldle https://thinkygames.com/reviews/worldle-a-treasure-trove-for-geography-nerds/

4. Improv https://www.hooplaimpro.com/improv-comedy-club-london-bridge.html

5. A Short History of Queer Women by Kirsty Loehr. https://www.gscene.com/arts/books/book-review-a-short-history-of-queer-women-by-kirsty-loehr/

6. Therapy https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-treatments/talking-therapies-and-counselling/benefits-of-talking-therapies/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Sunny Singh is a writer, novelist, public intellectual, and a champion for decolonisation and inclusion across all aspects of society. She is the author of three critically acclaimed novels, Hotel Arcadia, With Krishna’s Eyes, and Nani’s Book of Suicides, a study of Amitabh Bachchan for the BFI’s film star series, and the recent, A Bollywood State of Mind: A Journey into the World’s Biggest Cinema. She has recently completed a collection of stories linked by the theme of war and is currently working on a new novel, and a non-fiction book about writing ethically. In 2017 she launched the celebrated Jhalak Prize. She is also a founder of the Jhalak Foundation that focuses on a range of literary, artistic and literacy initiatives in the UK and beyond. Sunny lives in London where she is Professor of Creative Writing and Inclusion in the Arts at the London Metropolitan University.

1. Bollywood movies https://asianreviewofbooks.com/content/a-bollywood-state-of-mind-a-journey-into-the-worlds-biggest-cinema-by-sunny-singh/

2. Backpacking https://nomadsworld.com/6-reasons-backpacking-good/

3. Intersectionality https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination

4. Senegal http://hipafrica.com/features/9-reasons-visit-senegal/

5. Open water swimming (and adult swimming lessons) https://www.brighton.ac.uk/news/2023/is-open-water-swimming-good-for-you

6. The excellence and range of literature by British writers of colour https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/03/akala-bernardine-evaristo-ben-okri-and-more-pick-20-classic-books-by-writers-of-colour

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Alexandra Tolstoy is an Anglo-Russian mother, adventurer, author and TV presenter. She organises adventurous horse riding holidays in Kyrgyzstan, and runs The Tolstoy Edit, a curated shop of her favourite interiors discoveries.

1. Kyrgyzstan https://alexandratolstoytravel.com/

2. Ronald Welch https://foxedquarterly.com/ronald-welch-carey-novels-telegraph-review/

3. Darning and patching https://pieceworkmagazine.com/your-guide-to-mending/

4. Ivan Bilibin http://textualities.net/jennie-renton/the-art-of-ivan-bilibin

5. 19th century European novels https://potpourri2015.wordpress.com/2021/06/14/review-the-semi-detached-house-by-emily-eden/

6. Victoria sponges https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/grannys-victoria-sponge

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Julius Taranto is the author of a novel, How I Won a Nobel Prize, which is available at https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/julius-taranto/how-i-won-a-nobel-prize/9781035006830. His other writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Review of Books, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Phoebe. He attended Yale Law School and Pomona College. He lives in New York.

1. Cynthia Ozick https://centerforfiction.org/interviews/cynthia-ozick-interviewed-by-alessandra-farkas/

2. The Spirit of Liberty by Learned Hand https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2013/12/05/judge-who-shaped-our-law/

3. Jon Brion https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2023/01/17/jon-brion-the-aquarium-drunkard-interview/

4. Polite Society https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/apr/26/polite-society-review-fun-action-comedy-mashes-jane-austen-and-the-chuckle-brothers

5. American Civil War battlefields and history tourism https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/defining-battles-civil-war/

6. Peter Carey https://play.acast.com/s/talkingpolitics/petercarey

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Dr Faye Begeti is a practising neurology doctor and neuroscientist at Oxford University Hospitals. She completed her medical degree and PhD at Cambridge, and currently conducts research into Parkinson’s disease alongside seeing her neurology patients. Her Instagram account @the_brain_doctor was started to share her knowledge more widely and has since amassed a community of over 134K followers. She lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and two young daughters. Her new book is The Phone Fix at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Phone-Fix-Brain-Focused-Building-Breaking/dp/1803285567

1. Our phones are not addictive https://technosapiens.substack.com/p/smartphoneaddiction

2. Habits are stored in a subconscious part of our brain https://www.npr.org/2012/03/05/147192599/habits-how-they-form-and-how-to-break-them

3. We don’t have unlimited mental energy https://www.dayagrant.com/blog/how-the-brain-leaks-energy

4. Chronic stress can lead to physical symptoms https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/stress/signs-and-symptoms-of-stress/

5. A good night’s sleep starts in the morning https://hr.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1421/2023/02/A-Healthy-Nights-Sleep-Starts-the-Moment-You-Wake-Up.pdf

6. Building cognitive reserve reduces the risk of dementia https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/health-wellbeing/mind-body/staying-sharp/thinking-skills-change-with-age/cognitive-reserve/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Kelly Link is the author of White Cat, Black Dog; Get in Trouble, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction; Magic for Beginners; Stranger Things Happen; and Pretty Monsters. Her short stories have been published in The Best American Short Stories and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. She is a MacArthur “Genius Grant” fellow and has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She is the co-founder of Small Beer Press and co-edits the occasional zine Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. She is also the co-owner of Book Moon, an independent bookstore in Easthampton, Massachusetts. The Book of Love is her debut novel.

Bloomsbury: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/book-of-love-9781804548431/ Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Love-Kelly-Link/dp/1804548456/ Bookshop.org: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-book-of-love-kelly-link/7508595?ean=9781804548455 Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-book-of-love/kelly-link/9781804548455

1. Kathryn Davis https://artsci.wustl.edu/faculty-staff/kathryn-davis

2. Dorothy https://dorothyproject.com/

3. Winterpills https://www.winterpills.com/

4. Kiva www.kiva.org

5. CCATE www.ccate.org

6. Street Books www.streetbooks.org

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Alice Kinsella is a poet from Mayo, on the west coast of Ireland. She is the author of Sexy Fruit (Broken Sleep, 2018) and editor of Empty House: poetry and prose on the climate crisis (Doire Press, 2021). Milk (Picador, 2023) is her debut book of prose. She is an Arts Council of Ireland Next Generation Artist.

1. The Loneliest Whale in the World https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDwDXwcF3iw

2. Happy Tummy Company https://www.thehappytummyco.com/

3. Mosab Abu Toha https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/01/a-palestinian-poets-perilous-journey-out-of-gaza

4. Polycystic Ovary Syndrome https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/polycystic-ovary-syndrome

5. County Mayo's Whaling past https://iwdg.ie/end-of-our-whaling-era/

6. Being wrong https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/24/french-parliament-passes-law-giving-citizens-the-right-to-make-mistakes

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Robert McCrum is a writer and editor whose most recent book, Shakespearean was published to great acclaim in 2021. Formerly the editor-in-chief of Faber & Faber, and literary editor of the Observer, he is also the author of Wodehouse: A Life (2004), and a classic memoir, My Year Off (1998).

From 1980 to 1996, McCrum was editor-in-chief of Faber & Faber, where he published Kazuo Ishiguro, Hanif Kureishi, Milan Kundera, Peter Carey, Danilo Kis, Paul Auster, Marilynne Robinson, Lorrie Moore, Adam Phillips, Mario Vargas Llosa, Jayne Anne Phillips, Orhan Pamuk, and Adam Mars-Jones. At the same time, he wrote seven novels, and co-authored the BBC TV series, The Story Of English, for which he was awarded an Emmy in 1986, followed by a Peabody Prize in 1987.

In July 1995, McCrum suffered a serious stroke, a personal crisis he described in My Year Off, a book now regarded as an essential study in the understanding of the condition.

He was literary editor of the Observer from 1996 to 2010. Globish (2010) was an international bestseller. In 2024, he will publish The Penalty Kick: The Story of A Game-changer with Notting Hill Editions.

1. The Lost Art of Silence by Sarah Anderson https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/animal-emotions/202312/the-art-and-power-of-connecting-to-the-sounds-of-silence

2. The River Granta https://www.wildlifebcn.org/news/river-granta-gets-wiggle

3. The invention of the penalty kick in football https://epicchq.com/story/william-mccrum-the-irish-inventor-of-the-penalty-kick/

4. Alfred the Great https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v40/n09/tom-shippey/what-did-he-think-he-was

5. Kindness https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-the-unbearable-lightness-of-being-enthralled-a-generation/

6. Rossini’s Petite Messe Solonelle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqrzmdevQSI

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

James Runcie on Lord of the Rings Helen Thompson on The West Wing Paul Willetts on Meghan Markle Matthew Parris on Alistair Campbell Irenosen Okojie on The Sun Daisy Dunn on Whats app Jon Glover on the word “like” Dominic Sandbrook on history Emma Smith on Shakespeare Kate Mosse on Nigel Farage Henry Hemming on Formula One Subhadra Das on Charles Darwin Andy Smith on Macarena

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Matthew Rice paints, writes and runs courses in the summer which utilise his garden, which is the focus of the rest of his time. Over his career he has published 11 books on architecture, designed many millions of mugs for the business he ran with his then wife Emma Bridgewater, and illustrated for Country Life magazine. His interests in architecture have led to a series of charity roles in that area. Matthew grew up in a household of designers and now lives in Oxfordshire where he paints and writes.

Matthew Rice, educated at Bedales, studied painting and theatre design at Chelsea and Central Schools of Art, is an honorary doctor of Keele and Staffordshire Universities and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Matthew has four children and one grandson.

His books include Village Buildings of Britain, Building Norfolk, Rice’s Architectural Primer, The Lost City of Stoke-on-Trent, Rice’s Church Primer, Oxford, Pat Albeck Queen of the Tea Towel, Rice’s Language of Buildings, Venice A Sketchbook Guide and Rome A Sketchbook Guide.

During the summer, Matthew runs a variety of painting and gardening courses in addition to opening his garden at his home in west Oxfordshire. Further details are available at www.matthewricewatercolours.co.uk.

His 2024 courses include: Tuesday 30th April – Vegetable & Cut Flower Growing Course Wednesday 15th & Thursday 16th May – Botanical Drawing Course Wednesday 29th & Thursday 30th May – Sketchbook Course Wednesday 5th & Thursday 6th June – Sketchbook Course Wednesday 19th & Thursday 20th June – Botanical Drawing Curse Wednesday 10th & Thursday 11th July – Architectural Drawing Course

His 2024 Open Garden dates are: Sunday 2nd June, Sunday 21st July an Sunday 8th September.

1. Poundbury https://poundbury.co.uk/

2. Landmark trust https://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/

3. Choral evensong https://www.choralevensong.org/uk/

4. The Grant Museum https://www.ucl.ac.uk/culture/grant-museum-zoology

5. Zinnias https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-grow-zinnias/

6. Silver Birch https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/a-z-of-british-trees/silver-birch/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Dr Richard Mills is Associate Professor in English Literature and Popular Culture at St Mary’s University, London. He has been programme director for the Film and Popular Culture, Cultural Studies and Irish Studies degrees. He has published extensively on popular music, Irish literature and culture, film, fashion and British television. Mills is the author of The Beatles and Fandom: Sex, Death and Progressive Nostalgia (Bloomsbury 2019). He is co-editor of Mad Dogs and Englishness (Bloomsbury 2017) and The Beatles and Humour (Bloomsbury 2023). He is author of the forthcoming The Beatles and Black Music: Post-colonial Theory, Musicology and Remix Culture (Bloomsbury 2024) Richard is a regular contributor to BBC4’s Last Word, Sky News, RTE, Portobello Radio and BBC Live and serves on the editorial board of The Journal of Beatles Studies.

1. Bedazzled https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/32e4e509-795e-5e0d-b70b-681f67bde3c8/bedazzled

2. The black artists who influenced the Beatles' music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqp2h65BAs8 & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGLGzRXY5Bw

3. Deep End https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_End_(film)

4. Disturbing the Peace by Richard Yates https://www.amazon.co.uk/Disturbing-Peace-Vintage-Classics-Richard/dp/0099518554

5. Dining at the Dunbar by Maurice Leitch https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/13/maurice-leitch-obituary

6. Claire Keegan's stories and novels https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/claire-keegan

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Noreen Masud is a Lecturer in Twentieth Century Literature at the University of Bristol, and an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker 2020. Her first book for non-academic audiences is A Flat Place (2023): a memoir-travelogue about the beauty of flat places, and how they might help us relate to each other.

1. The beauty of flat landscapes https://theartsdesk.com/books/noreen-masud-flat-place-reflective-landscapes
2. The history of non-white British MPs https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01156/
3. Deep canvassing https://www.vox.com/2020/1/29/21065620/broockman-kalla-deep-canvassing
4. W. S. Graham https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/w-s-graham
5. The proper use of prepositions and conjunctions https://content.byui.edu/file/b8b83119-9acc-4a7b-bc84-efacf9043998/1/Grammar-1-2-1.html
6. How to make elderly carrots less bendy https://www.allrecipes.com/article/how-to-revive-limp-vegetables/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Bob Cryer is an actor and writer best known for Coronation Street and Hollyoaks. He is the youngest child of Barry Cryer. He collaborated with his father on Barry's book of anecdotes, Butterfly Brain, in 2010. Shortly afterwards, they created the book series Mrs Hudson's Diaries, which was adapted into a play for Wilton's Music Hall. Mrs Hudson's Radio Show soon followed for Radio 4 in 2018. Their joint podcast, Now Where Were We?, launched just before Barry's death in January 2022. Bob's new book is Barry Cryer: Same Time Tomorrow?: The Life and Laughs of a Comedy Legend.

1. Black filter coffee https://majestycoffee.com/blogs/posts/americano-vs-drip-coffee

2. Phyllis Pearsall https://www.peterberthoud.co.uk/post/the-real-story-of-a-z-maps-by-phyllis-pearsall

3. Barry Cryer https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-34041501

4. Raymond Carver https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/12/24/rough-crossings

5. The Felice Brothers https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/23/the-felice-brothers-life-in-the-dark-new-album

6. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/kiss-kiss-bang-bang-review/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Martin Knight is a British author. He has written autobiographies with footballers George Best, Dave Mackay, Peter Osgood and Charlie Cooke also Alan Longmuir founder member of the Bay City Rollers.

In addition he has authored true crime titles and novels. His latest book Justice Killer is released in November 2023. His collaboration with ex-criminal Ronnie Field Nefarious will be published by Harper Collins in 2024.

1. Bird identification apps https://birda.org/best-birdwatching-apps-uk/

2. Letter writing https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/nov/26/from-me-with-love-lost-art-letter-writing

3. Non-league and lower league football https://www.echo-news.co.uk/sport/23260993.support-non-league-football/

4. The Small Faces https://medium.com/the-riff/the-tragic-story-of-the-small-faces-8830946625b9

5. The Footage Detectives https://www.tptvencore.co.uk/Playlist/Footage-Detectives?id=1ce12be2-3de3-4c50-a784-a8ceb1083fb0

6. Hastings https://www.ellieandco.co.uk/2022/02/7-secret-highlights-of-a-weekend-in-hastings-east-sussex.html

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Henry Lewis is a power house creative: writer, actor, director and puzzle genius. He is the Artistic Director of Mischief and writes, produces and performs for the company. His work with Mischief includes: The Play that Goes Wrong (Broadway, West End, UK & International Tours), Peter Pan Goes Wrong (BBC1, West End & UK Tours), The Comedy About A Bank Robbery (West End & UK Tour), The Goes Wrong Show (BBC1 & Amazon), Magic Goes Wrong (created with magicians Penn & Teller, West End), Groan Ups (West End), Mischief Movie Night (West End & UK Tour). Henry's work has earned him five Olivier Nominations including a win for Best New Comedy for The Play that Goes Wrong, and his writing has been performed in over thirty countries worldwide. His new book is The Museum Heist, available at https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-museum-heist/henry-lewis/9781408728499.

1. Royal Institution www.rigb.org

2. I am Mother https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-capsule-genre-string-20190620-story.html

3. Paxos https://www.greektravel.com/greekislands/paxos/

4. John Duffin https://www.johnduffin.co.uk/

5. Tony’s Chocolate https://tonyschocolonely.com/uk/en

6. The Mystery Agency https://themysteryagency.com/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Lucy Eaton’s theatre credits include: The Duchess of Malfi (Old Vic), A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Trafalgar Studios), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Donmar Warehouse), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Southwark Playhouse), Daisy Pulls it Off (Park Theatre), Khadija is 18 (Finborough Theatre) and Almost, Maine (Park Theatre).

TV credits include BBC1's lockdown smash comedy Staged, alongside David Tennant and Michael Sheen, and Netflix US’ Murder Maps.

Alongside her acting, Lucy co-runs Go People, a production company specialising in uplifting escapism on an intimate scale. She is also Founding Director of Revels in Hand, an internationally renowned luxury events service that offers world class theatre productions in clients’ private homes. Revels in Hand has been featured in Tatler, The Guardian, Forbes, The Telegraph and Vogue.

1. Greek food https://greekreporter.com/2012/03/05/top-10-strange-greek-foods-you-may-like-or-not/

2. How actors learn their lines https://theactorsplace.org/how-actors-memorize-lines-part-1/

3. Colons and semi-colons https://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/colonandsemi/semi

4. The pursuit of happiness https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/a_better_way_to_pursue_happiness

5. The best theatres in London https://www.timeout.com/london/theatre/top-london-theatre-venues-chosen-by-you

6. You can hire theatre for your home https://www.revelsinhand.com/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Simon Garfield was born in London in 1960. He is the author of an appealingly diverse and unpredictable canon of non-fiction, including the bestsellers Mauve, Just My Type and On The Map. He is a trustee of Mass Observation, and is the editor of several books of diaries from the archive, including Our Hidden Lives and A Notable Woman. His recent books include Timekeepers, In Miniature, and All the Knowledge in the World: The Extraordinary History of the Encyclopaedia.

1. The Interrogatory Mood by Padget Powell https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/nov/07/padgett-powell-interrogative-mood-review

2. The complete works of Tracy Kidder https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1981/10/08/modern-times/

3. The Albertus typeface https://www.weidenfeldandnicolson.co.uk/titles/simon-garfield/albertus/9781399609258/

4. Backlisted podcast https://www.backlisted.fm/

5. Yallah Coffee bar in St Ives https://yallahcoffee.co.uk

6. New Wave - Elvis Costello’s collaboration with the Slovenian Eurovision entrants Joker Out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKcxldNZYQA

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Leah Morgan is a project engineer and science communicator working in fusion energy research. She makes science and engineering videos on her YouTube channel Leah Morgan and gives talks all about the energy of the future! You can find her at www.leahmorgan.co.uk and on TikTok, Youtube, and Instagram @LeahLoveScience.

1. Fusion energy research https://www.iaea.org/topics/fusion
2. Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell https://scientificwomen.net/women/bell-jocelyn-14
3. Melodeons https://hobgoblin.com/instruments/instrument/melodeon
4. The King of Rome https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/nostalgia/meet-derbys-king-rome-worlds-5932317
5. The dubious origins of English folk songs https://biblio.uottawa.ca/omeka1/silentfilmmusiccanada/exhibits/show/folk-music/cecil-sharp
6. The value of opportunity https://opportunitynetwork.org/about/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Max Décharné‘s new book Teddy Boys – Post-war Britain and the First Youth Revolution is published by Profile Books on 25 January 2024. He was the drummer of the band Gallon Drunk, and has been the singer and songwriter with The Flaming Stars since 1994. An authority on the 1950s and 1960s counterculture, his other books include Vulgar Tongues: An Alternative History of British Slang, A Rocket in My Pocket, Hardboiled Hollywood and King’s Road: The Rise and Fall of the Hippest Street in the World. He lives in London.

1. Frank Key https://foxedquarterly.com/andrew-nixon-frank-key-hooting-yard-stories-literary-review/

2. Annette Hanshaw https://www.sandybrownjazz.co.uk/JazzRemembered/AnnetteHanshaw.html

3. Jonathan Latimer https://mysteryfile.com/Latimer/Latimer.html

4. What's On in London https://vintagemagazinecompany.co.uk/collections/whats-on-in-london

5. The Jacobites https://soundcloud.com/jacobites/i-miss-you

6. Coup de Torchon http://www.frenchfilms.org/review/coup-de-torchon-1981.html

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Nigel Planer is an actor, writer and musician. He played Neil in the BBC comedy The Young Ones and Ralph Filthy in Filthy Rich & Catflap. He has appeared in many West End musicals, including original casts of Evita, Chicago, We Will Rock You, Wicked, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. His play, It’s Headed Straight Towards Us, is co-written with Adrian Edmondson, stars Samuel West and Rufus Hound, and is on at the Park Theatre, London. His latest book is Jeremiah Bourne in Time.

1. Myths of 20th century leftist icons https://www.theguardian.com/politics/from-the-archive-blog/2019/may/01/eugenics-founding-fathers-british-socialism-archive-1997

2. Ambedkar and Mulk Raj Anand https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2023/02/27/book-review-ambedkar-in-london-by-william-gould-santosh-dass-and-christophe-jaffrelot/

3. Jane Jacobs https://www.nybooks.com/online/2012/03/30/jane-jacobs-neocons-health-care/

4. Anselm Keifer https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/03/anselm-kiefers-beautiful-ruins

5. Nenda Neururer https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10130242/

6. Learning languages https://www.cambridge.org/elt/blog/2022/04/29/learning-language-changes-your-brain/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Danell Jones is a writer with a PhD in literature from Columbia University. She is the author of The Virginia Woolf Writers Workshop; the poetry collection Desert Elegy; and An African in Imperial London, which won the High Plains Book Award for Nonfiction. Her newest book is The Girl Prince: Virginia Woolf, Race, and the Dreadnought Hoax.

1. Julia Margaret Cameron’s Photographs of Alamayou, Prince of Abyssinia https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1394113/d%C3%A8jatch-al%C3%A1mayou--b%C3%A1sha-f%C3%A9lika-photograph-cameron-julia-margaret/

2. Britons Through Negro Spectacles, by A.B.C. Merriman-Labor https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/447069/britons-through-negro-spectacles-by-merriman-labor-abc/9780241559741

3. Public libraries https://www.neh.gov/article/complicated-role-modern-public-library

4. Sophie Stone performing All the World’s A Stage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbIOZZy54EM

5. California Highway 395 https://californiathroughmylens.com/highway-395-roadtrip/

6. London Calling by Una Marson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6xyJxC_yl4

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Angus Jackson is a screen and stage director and writer. For the screen he has directed the feature length film Elmina’s Kitchen for the BBC for which he was nominated for a BAFTA as best new director. For The Royal Shakespeare Company he has directed Oppenheimer, Don Quixote, Coriolanus and Julius Caesar. He wrote and directed Secret Cinema Presents Casino Royale in London and Shanghai in collaboration with Eon Productions.

1. Changing Lanes https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/changing-lanes-2002

2. Shostakovich’s 2nd piano concerto https://www.bso.org/works/piano-concerto-no-2-shostakovich

3. Coriolanus https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/sep/22/politicians-people-coriolanus-rsc-shakespeare

4. Special v general relativity http://www.differencebetween.net/science/difference-between-general-relativity-and-special-relativity/

5. Movies based on ancient myths https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2003/aug/31/features.review87

6. Drawing on the right side of the brain by Betty Edwards https://www.drawright.com/theory

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Cathi Unsworth is a novelist, writer and editor who lives and works in London. She began her career on the legendary music weekly Sounds at the age of 19. Her novels include The Not Knowing, Weirdo and That Old Black Magic. She is currently teaching novel writing for Curtis Brown Creative's online platform. Her latest book is Season of the Witch: The Book of Goth.

1. The magazine Fortean Times https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/magazine/letter-of-recommendation-fortean-times.html
2. Discovering London's secrets by going for long walks https://www.london-walking-tours.co.uk/secret-london/introduction.htm
3. The noir writer Derek Raymond https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/doors-closing-slowly-derek-raymonds-factory-novels/
4. The pop artist Pauline Boty https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/obituaries/pauline-boty-overlooked.html
5. The publishers London Books https://www.london-books.co.uk/
6. The musician Tim Smith https://thequietus.com/articles/31719-tim-smith-cardiacs-strange-world

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

1. Composting toilets https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/dec/09/no-flush-movement-composting-toilet-clean-water-waste-fertiliser-eco-revolution

2. Earhart the grey whale https://www.pugetsoundexpress.com/10-gray-whale-sounders-have-returned/

3. Indigenous languages https://en.unesco.org/courier/2019-1/indigenous-languages-knowledge-and-hope

4. Travel-sickness remedy https://www.rivieratravel.co.uk/blog/12-ways-banish-seasickness

5. Regrowing spring onions https://www.allrecipes.com/article/save-money-diy-fresh-green-onions/

6. Take Me To Church by Sinéad O'Connor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMzY_KQIKjU&pp=ygUlVGFrZSBNZSBUbyBDaHVyY2ggYnkgU2luw6lhZCBPJ0Nvbm5vcg%3D%3D

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Dr Becky Smethurst is a Royal Astronomical Society Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. She is the star of astronomy-themed You Tube channel Dr Becky. Her current research is trying to answer the question, “How do galaxies and black holes evolve together?” Her latest book is A Brief History of Black Holes.

1. Black holes are neither “black” nor “holes” https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/dr-becky-smethurst/a-brief-history-of-black-holes/9781529086706

2. Annie Jump Cannon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Jump_Cannon

3. The same algorithm that identifies stars also identifies individual whale sharks https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/star-mapping-algorithms-track-endangered-animals

4. The dark sky sights of the UK https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/best-dark-sky-sites-uk

5. You can measure the speed of light with a microwave https://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/science/physics-and-astronomy/physics/measure-the-speed-light-your-microwave

6. The "black hole of Calcutta" prison is where black holes get their name from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hole_of_Calcutta

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

DanRam travels the globe as an Event MC & Speaker at over 100 events a year. Hosting changemakers like President Barack Obama, billionaire founders Sir Richard Branson and Reid Hoffman, F1 champion Nico Rosberg, Grammy-winning artists and celebrities, he works on 4 continents from college campuses to parliaments to in-house corporate innovation days for Fortune 500 companies to the biggest tech conferences in the world. His passion is to inspire people with his motto “Start Now Start Simple” in building a future we all want to live in.

1. How to survive a charging wild lion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=829YuVH1dg8

2. Why introverts make better professional speakers https://www.givepowerfulpresentations.com/blog/3-reasons-why-introverts-make-great-public-speakers-pt-1

3. A superpower I can give you – adaptability https://blog.lumen.com/adaptability-embracing-the-new-superpower/

4. My 5G morning routine https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/18/psychologists-morning-habits-to-help-you-be-happier-more-productive.html

5. Why MCs are more important to an event than speakers https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-reasons-hire-professional-emcee-mc-event-host-amy-mcwhirter/

6. The soul stirring music of Gospel Music legend Kirk Franklin https://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/article272178398.html

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Helen Batten is an author and psychotherapist. Her non-fiction books delve into the historical worlds of circuses, nuns, a family of redheaded sisters and Victorian music hall and opera. After reading history at Cambridge, she trained as a journalist, and worked in television producing and directing documentaries for the BBC. She now works as an integrative psychotherapist and couples counsellor in private practice in London. Helen is currently working on a book about a murder, magic and sacred music in Renaissance Italy. Her books are Confessions of a Showman, Sisters of the East End, The Scarlet Sisters, and The Improbable Adventures of Miss Emily Soldene.

1. Carlo Gesualdo https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/12/19/prince-of-darkness

2. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in Relationships https://www.gottman.com/blog/the-four-horsemen-recognizing-criticism-contempt-defensiveness-and-stonewalling/

3. Emily Soldene https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/emily-soldene-who-was-life-facts-actress-writer-rebel/

4. How to have a good death https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sisters-East-End-Helen-Batten

5. Homing by Jon Day https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/07/homing-jon-day-review-pigeons

6. The Gladstone Arms https://www.thegladpub.co.uk/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Andrew Pontzen is a cosmologist and a Professor at University College London. He is currently principal investigator on the ERC-funded GMGalaxies project, and co-director of UCL's Cosmoparticle Initiative. Previously he held a Royal Society University Research fellowship and, before that, junior fellowships in Oxford and Cambridge. His latest book is The Universe in a Box.

1. Simulations and the role they play in science and society https://original.newsbreak.com/@massachusetts-updates-1665615/3107758662878-decoding-the-universe-the-role-of-computer-simulations-in-cosmology

2. Beatrice Hill Tinsley https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/obituaries/overlooked-beatrice-tinsley-astronomer.html

3. Hugh Everett https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hugh-everett-biography/

4. There are in the order of 200 billion terrestrial planets in our galaxy https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/what-is-an-exoplanet/planet-types/terrestrial/

5. Bayesian probability https://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2016/06/bayesian-statistics-beginners-simple-english/

6. Sierpinski triangle https://fractalfoundation.org/OFC/OFC-2-1.html