The Essay Podcast
Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.
Episodes to download
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Professor Alice Roberts—Is Music a Civilising Force?
Tue 27 Mar 2018
2/5 Anatomist and osteoarchaeologist Alice Roberts looks at music's humananising force.
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Sir Roger Scruton—Is Music a Civilising Force?
Mon 26 Mar 2018
1/5 Sir Roger Scruton explores the civilising force of music.
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What Do You Do If You Are a Manically Depressed Robot?—The Free Thinking Essay
Fri 23 Mar 2018
10/10 Simon Beard, from the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, on AI and Douglas Adams.
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Kids With Guns—The Free Thinking Essay
Thu 22 Mar 2018
9/10 Emma Butcher looks at the view of war in the childhood writings of the Bronte family.
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Speaking Truth to Power in the Past and Present—The Free Thinking Essay
Wed 21 Mar 2018
8/10 Joanne Paul on satire, flattery and document leaks in the C16 and C17 centuries and now.
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When Shakespeare Travelled with Me—New Generation Thinkers at 10
Tue 20 Mar 2018
5/5 New Generation Thinker Islam Issa looks at Shakespeare in 1916 Egypt to Arabic pop songs.
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A War of Words—The Free Thinking Essay
Mon 19 Mar 2018
6/10 Christopher Bannister on the way a fashion show in Buenos Aires helped win World War II.
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Doing Nothing—The Free Thinking Essay
Fri 16 Mar 2018
5/10 Alistair Fraser on teenagers, gangs and filling time.
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Educating Ida—The Free Thinking Essay
Thu 15 Mar 2018
4/10 Eleanor Lybeck on the women campaigners satirised in an operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan.
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Does Trusting People Need a Leap of Faith?—The Free Thinking Essay
Wed 14 Mar 2018
3/10 Tom Simpson on a study of suspicion in a 1950s Italian village and community relations now
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Art for Health's Sake—The Free Thinking Essay
Tue 13 Mar 2018
2/10 Daisy Fancourt's research shows the arts can improve health so should we prescribe them?
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Welling Up: Women and Water in the Middle Ages—The Free Thinking Essay
Mon 12 Mar 2018
1/10 Hetta Howes looks at male fears + why Margery Kempe was criticised for crying and bleeding
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The Last Wolf—New Ways through the Glens
Fri 23 Feb 2018
5/5 Kenneth Steven sees the new routes opening the Highlands to tourists for the first time.
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The Great Glen—New Ways through the Glens
Thu 22 Feb 2018
4/5 Kenneth Steven looks at the project to build a canal through the heart of the Highlands.
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The Moss Lairds—New Ways through the Glens
Tue 20 Feb 2018
2/5 Kenneth Steven reveals how the central belt of Scotland was transformed by land clearance.
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The Dark Years—New Ways through the Glens
Mon 19 Feb 2018
1/5 Poet Kenneth Steven remarks on the history of the Scottish Highlands.
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Louise Welsh—All Miss Brodie's Girls
Fri 9 Feb 2018
Louise Welsh reflects on the uncanny in the novels of Muriel Spark.
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Val McDermid—All Miss Brodie's Girls
Thu 8 Feb 2018
Val McDermid discusses Muriel Spark - crime novelist.
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Janice Galloway—All Miss Brodie's Girls
Wed 7 Feb 2018
Janice Galloway discusses Muriel Spark- code maker and code breaker.
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Kate Clanchy—All Miss Brodie's Girls
Tue 6 Feb 2018
Kate Clanchy discusses the work of Muriel Spark - poet.
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Ali Smith—All Miss Brodie's Girls
Mon 5 Feb 2018
Ali Smith presents the first in a series of essays celebrating the work of Muriel Spark.
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Lavinia Greenlaw—Looking Good
Fri 2 Feb 2018
5/5 Five writers on the pleasures of viewing a phenomenon or social activity closely.
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Rachel Cooke—Looking Good
Thu 1 Feb 2018
4/5 Five writers consider the pleasures of viewing a phenomenon or social activity closely.
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Nicholas Shakespeare—Looking Good
Wed 31 Jan 2018
3/5 Five writers consider the pleasures of viewing a phenomenon or social activity closely.
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Lauren Elkin—Looking Good
Tue 30 Jan 2018
2/5 Five writers consider the pleasures of viewing a phenomenon or social activity closely.
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James Fox—Looking Good
Mon 29 Jan 2018
1/5 Five writers consider the art of viewing a phenomenon or social activity closely.
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Clay Bricks—Cornerstones
Fri 12 Jan 2018
5/5 Poet Fiona Hamilton contrasts clay's different states, before and after it's baked hard.
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Gypsum and Alabaster—Cornerstones
Thu 11 Jan 2018
4/5 Archaeologist Rose Ferraby gets to grips with gypsum, the key mineral in plaster.
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North Sea Oil and Gas—Cornerstones
Wed 10 Jan 2018
3/5 Esther Woolfson contrasts Aberdeen, the 'Granite City', with its oil and gas industry.
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Lewisian Gneiss—Cornerstones
Tue 9 Jan 2018
2/5 Writer Sara Maitland conjures with Lewisian gneiss, two-thirds the age of the earth.
Death in Trieste
A 1760s murder still informs ideas about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex, and death.
Watch: My Deaf World
Five compelling experiences of what it is like to be deaf in 21st-century Britain.
The Book that Changed Me
Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.
Download The Essay
Download all the episodes from the series and listen at your leisure.
