Category: Culture

Thoreau: The Writer Who Went to the Woods

The Forum | 9 May 2019 | 0h 39m | Listen Later | iTunes
Explores the life and legacy of the American thinker Henry David Thoreau and his famous work Walden, which describes the Thoreau’s experiment in living simply at Walden Pond in Massachusetts in the 1840s. Walden offers insights into work and leisure, nature, solitude, society, the good life and more. Discusses Walden and his essay Civil Disobedience, and reflects on the legacy of Thoreau’s work.

Malcolm Gladwell’s 12 Rules for Life

Revisionist History | 29 June 2018 | 0h 45m | Listen Later | iTunes
Malcolm Gladwell contrasts what is rational in sport with what we typically do, showing the role of disagreeableness in allowing us to engage with the world as it really is.

The School of Hard Facts

Analysis | 28 October 2012 | 0h 28m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Interview with E.D. Hirsch who advocates a school curriculum strongly grounded in facts and knowledge. He believes that there are specific ideas, works of literature and scientific concepts which everyone should know so that they can be active participants in society. Discusses with the former English schools minister, Nick Gibb, the reasons for embracing Hirsch’s ideas and how they could counteract what he describes as a prevailing left-wing ideology among teachers.

Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden”

Great Books | 1 May 2018 | 0h 29m | Listen Later 
Interview with Kelly Scott Franklin about Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, which challenges us to evaluate our lives and what is most important.

The Iliad

In Our Time | 14 September 2018 | 0h 48m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great epic poem attributed to Homer, telling the story of an intense episode in the Trojan War. It is framed by the wrath of the Greek hero Achilles, insulted by his leader Agamemnon and withdrawing from the battle that continued to rage, only returning when his close friend Patroclus is killed by the Trojan hero Hector.

The Economist asks: Bjorn from ABBA

The Economist asks | 26 July 2018 | 0h 22m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Bjorn Ulvaeus from ABBA on Mamma Mia, the melancholy beneath the exuberant voices, his musical influences, writing in the #MeToo era and the two new songs ABBA has recorded.

Joseph Henrich on Cultural Evolution, WEIRD Societies, and Life Among Two Strange Tribes

Conversations with Tyler | 14 December 2016 | 1h 25m | Listen Later  | iTunes
Interview with anthropologist Joseph Henrich, author of “The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter.” Argues that intelligence is overrated and that social learning, and its ability to influence biological evolution over time, is what really sets our species apart. Discusses his work on cultural evolution, his life among different tribes (academic and otherwise), China’s missing industrial revolution, and the Flynn effect.