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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This Sporting Life—Heffer on Film - Kitchen Sink Cinema
Thu 19 Jan 2017
4/5 Simon Heffer examines the powerful 1963 film version of This Sporting Life.
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The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner—Heffer on Film - Kitchen Sink Cinema
Wed 18 Jan 2017
3/5 Simon Heffer explores the 1962 film The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner.
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Saturday Night and Sunday Morning—Heffer on Film - Kitchen Sink Cinema
Tue 17 Jan 2017
2/5 How Alan Sillitoe's novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning was made into a film.
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Room at the Top—Heffer on Film - Kitchen Sink Cinema
Mon 16 Jan 2017
1/5 Simon Heffer re-examines the 1959 British New Wave film Room at the Top.
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Bethany Bell—Breaking Free
Fri 6 Jan 2017
5/5 Journalist Bethany Bell on living in Modling, a town near Vienna where Schoenberg lived.
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Tom McKinney—Breaking Free
Thu 5 Jan 2017
4/5 Tom McKinney on his 'first contact' with the music of Webern: Five Pieces for Orchestra.
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Gillian Moore—Breaking Free
Wed 4 Jan 2017
3/5 Gillian Moore talks about Alban Berg's relationships with the women in his life.
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Stephen Johnson—Breaking Free
Tue 3 Jan 2017
2/5 Stephen Johnson discusses Schoenberg's String Quartet No 2.
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Sarah Walker—Breaking Free
Mon 2 Jan 2017
1/5 Sarah Walker on learning and playing Schoenberg's Suite for Piano, Op 25, for her MA.
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Time—Changing My Mind
Fri 9 Dec 2016
5/5 Author Julian Barnes considers whether his perception of time has changed over the years.
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Books—Changing My Mind
Thu 8 Dec 2016
4/5 Julian Barnes on his changing views about books and their authors, especially EM Forster.
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Politics—Changing My Mind
Wed 7 Dec 2016
3/5 Author Julian Barnes discusses his changing views about politics over the years.
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Words—Changing My Mind
Tue 6 Dec 2016
2/5 Julian Barnes on how he uses words, asking what did they ever mean and what they mean now.
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Memory—Changing My Mind
Mon 5 Dec 2016
1/5 Author Julian Barnes explores ideas of vacillation, uncertainty and memory.
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Dear Agatha Christie...—Letters to Writers
Fri 11 Nov 2016
5/5 Novelist Ian Sansom has a theory to put to the Queen of Crime.
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Dear Virginia Woolf...—Letters to Writers
Thu 10 Nov 2016
4/5 A letter of apology to Virginia Woolf from novelist Ian Sansom.
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Dear George Eliot...—Letters to Writers
Wed 9 Nov 2016
3/5 Novelist Ian Sansom pens a missive to George Eliot...
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Dear Jonathan Swift...—Letters to Writers
Tue 8 Nov 2016
2/5 Ian Sansom writes an imaginary letter to Jonathan Swift and interrogates him about his art
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Dear Geoffrey Chaucer...—Letters to Writers
Mon 7 Nov 2016
1/5 Novelist Ian Sansom fires off a letter to Geoffrey Chaucer...
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Sir Richard Eyre—The Book that Changed Me
Fri 4 Nov 2016
5/5 Director Sir Richard Eyre on how he was inspired by Angus Calder's book The People's War.
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Tacita Dean—The Book that Changed Me
Thu 3 Nov 2016
4/5 Artist Tacita Dean on how Marguerite Yourcenar's book Fires changed her life and art.
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Ben Anderson—The Book that Changed Me
Wed 2 Nov 2016
3/5 Journalist Ben Anderson explains how The Autobiography of Malcolm X inspired him.
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Pauline Black—The Book that Changed Me
Tue 1 Nov 2016
2/5 Singer Pauline Black discusses Harper Lee's book To Kill a Mockingbird.
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David Simon—The Book that Changed Me
Mon 31 Oct 2016
1/5 Creator of the TV series The Wire David Simon on the book Let us Now Praise Famous Men.
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288a Main Road—Brick, Stone, Glass, Steel
Fri 14 Oct 2016
1/5 Novelist Mark Haddon reflects on the house in Northamptonshire that was his childhood home
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Queensferry Crossing, Scotland—Brick, Stone, Glass, Steel
Thu 13 Oct 2016
4/5 Dr Gavin Francis on the largest balanced cantilever bridge ever to be built.
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Chesterfield's Crooked Spire, Derbyshire—Brick, Stone, Glass, Steel
Wed 12 Oct 2016
3/5 Poet Helen explains why Chesterfield's Crooked Spire Church has inspired her.
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Impington College, Cambridge—Brick, Stone, Glass, Steel
Tue 11 Oct 2016
2/5 Painter Humphrey Ocean introduces Impington College, built by architect Walter Gropius.
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Novelist Kit de Waal reflects on the architecture of the prison where she worked.—Brick, Stone, Glass, Steel
Mon 10 Oct 2016
5/5 Novelist Kit de Waal reflects on the architecture of the prison where she once worked.
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Food: Are We What We Eat?—New Generation Thinkers
Mon 3 Oct 2016
1/5 Christopher Kissane explores the role of food in past and present conflicts over identity.
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.
