Category: Culture

Violet Moller on The Map of Knowledge

New Books Network | 31 July 2019 | 1h 04m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Violet Moller about her book The Map of Knowledge: A Thousand-Year History of How Classical Ideas Were Lost and Found. Discusses the tenuous transmission of books from the ancient world to the modern, via Alexandria, Syria, Constantinople, Baghdad and Renaissance Venice.

Andrew Roberts on Churchill and the Craft of Biography

EconTalk | 26 August 2019 | 1h 10m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Andrew Roberts about the life of Winston Churchill and the art of biography. How did Churchill deal with the mistakes he inevitably made in a long career? Was he prescient or just the right man in the right place at the right time? Was he an alcoholic? Did he suffer from depression? Drawing on his biography of Churchill, Andrew Roberts answers these and other questions in this wide-ranging conversation that includes a discussion of the mechanics of writing a 1000 page book on a man who has had over 1000 biographies written about him already.

Robert Cottrell on the Future of Reading

Venture Stories | 22 August 2019 | 1h 04m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Robert Cottrell, editor of The Browser. Background on The Browser, the bond between readers and writers, future business models, long-form writing, algorithmic curation, and machine translation opening up non-English writing.

Elizabeth Gilbert on Life and Love

How to Academy | 19 August 2019 | 1h 20m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Elizabeth Gilbert exploring her life story and thoughts on genius and creativity, sex and adventure, wonder and fear. Draws on her books Eat, Pray, Love, Committed, Big Magic and City of Girls.

Tyler Cowen on Big Business

EconTalk | 19 August 2019 | 1h 06m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Tyler Cowen about his book, Big Business, which argues that big corporations in America are underrated and under-appreciated. Strays widely with a deliciously contrarian take on many subjects including the advantages of social media.

How We Can Learn to Stop Worrying and Love Language

The Guardian Books Podcast | 6 August 2019 | 0h 35m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interviews with David Shariatmadari, author of Don’t Believe a Word: The Surprising Truth About Language and Cecelia Watson, author of Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark. Insights on language and punctuation.

Nineteen-Eighty-Four Turns 70

Late Night Live – with Phillip Adams ABC RN | 26 June 2019 | 0h 29m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Dorian Lynskey about his book The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell’s 1984. Discusses Orwell’s life and society’s relationship with the book we turn to when the truth is mutilated, language is distorted, and power is abused.

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

The Great Books | 18 June 2019 | 0h 31m | Listen Later | iTunes
Interview with Lorraine Murphy discussing the plots, social criticism, characters and themes of Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility.