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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Zhora and the Snake - Dr Beth Singler—Blade Runner at 40
Thu 7 Nov 2019
4/5 Dr Beth Singler explores the ethics of AI sexbots in Zhora and the Snake.
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The Year of Blade Runner 3: More Human Than Human - Ken Hollings—Blade Runner at 40
Wed 6 Nov 2019
3/5 Five writers explore Blade Runner's legacy. 3: More Human Than Human - Ken Hollings.
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The Year of Blade Runner 2: Sounds of the Future Past—Blade Runner at 40
Tue 5 Nov 2019
2/5 Five writers explore Blade Runner's legacy of ideas and images. 2: Frances Morgan on sound
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Los Angeles 2019—Blade Runner at 40
Mon 4 Nov 2019
1/5 Five writers explore Blade Runner's legacy of ideas. 1: Deyan Sudjic on the city.
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Philip Hoare - The Haunted Sea—Beyond Borders
Fri 27 Sep 2019
Author Philip Hoare transcends the elements and talks about being reshaped by the sea.
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Ed Vulliamy - Forever Young—Beyond Borders
Thu 26 Sep 2019
Writer and journalist Ed Vulliamy talks about the musicians crossing the age barrier.
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Wendy Erskine - Knock Knock, Who's There?—Beyond Borders
Wed 25 Sep 2019
Writer Wendy Erskine takes us through doorways that open up portals into other worlds.
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Stephen Sexton - The Tory Islanders—Beyond Borders
Tue 24 Sep 2019
Poet Stephen Sexton talks about the margins between language and image.
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Sinead Gleeson - Pain, Borders and Averting Our Gaze—Beyond Borders
Mon 23 Sep 2019
Irish writer Sinead Gleeson talks about how pain, inequality and borders separate us.
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Rame Head Chapel—Brick, Stone, Steel, Glass
Fri 12 Jul 2019
Author Natasha Carthew on Rame Head Chapel, near Whitsand Bay, Cornwall.
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Trinity Theatre—Brick, Stone, Steel, Glass
Thu 11 Jul 2019
Writer Bridget Collins takes us backstage to Trinity Theatre, Tunbridge Wells.
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Malcolm's Place, Uig, Isle of Lewis—Brick, Stone, Steel, Glass
Wed 10 Jul 2019
Author James Rebanks, the Lake District shepherd, talks about Malcolm's place in Uig.
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Rochdale Town Hall—Brick, Stone, Steel, Glass
Tue 9 Jul 2019
Novelist Beth Underdown on Rochdale Town Hall.
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Glasgow School of Art—Brick, Stone, Steel, Glass
Mon 8 Jul 2019
Author Louise Welsh reflects on Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art.
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The Hard Man in the Call Centre—Masculinity
Fri 21 Jun 2019
5/5 Alistair Fraser on the fates and fortunes of Glaswegian tough guys.
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'Bedford, do you call this thing a coat?' The History of the Three-Piece Suit—Masculinity
Thu 20 Jun 2019
4/5 Sarah Goldsmith on an immortal trio jacket, waistcoat and trousers.
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Comrades in Arms—Masculinity
Wed 19 Jun 2019
3/5 Tom Smith on the East German Military's fascination with its soldiers' sexuality
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Sword to Pen: Redcoat and the Rise of the Military Memoir—Masculinity
Tue 18 Jun 2019
2/5 Emma Butcher on the publishing phenomenon that was the traumatised Napoleonic Redcoat
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The Well-Groomed Georgian—Masculinity
Mon 17 Jun 2019
1/5 Alun Withey on what made 18th-century men shave off centuries of manly growth.
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Alys Conran—Hay Festival 2019
Thu 30 May 2019
4/5 Alys Conran reflects on what it's like to read Robinson Crusoe as a novelist.
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Alex Wheatle—Hay Festival 2019
Wed 29 May 2019
3/5 Alex Wheatle reflects on Robinson Crusoe's themes of imperialism and slavery.
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Fiona Stafford—Hay Festival 2019
Mon 27 May 2019
1/5 Reflections on Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel, Robinson Crusoe, from the 2019 Hay Festival.
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Swimming the Avon—From the Source
Fri 17 May 2019
5/5 Poet Elizabeth-Jane Burnett swims the River Avon in search of inspiration.
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The Power of the Thames—From the Source
Thu 16 May 2019
4/5 Helen Czerski shares a physicist's view of the River Thames
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The Art of Zen Fly Fishing—From the Source
Wed 15 May 2019
Once lead singer of The Undertones, Feargel Sharkey now gets his kicks from rod and line.
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Medway Mudlarks—From the Source
Tue 14 May 2019
2/5 Driftwood, a Victorian poison bottle and a sailor's lost boot. Potent inspiration for art.
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Gaelic Waters—From the Source
Mon 13 May 2019
Folk singer Julie Fowlis conjures kelpies, selkies and waterfall banshees from Gaelic song
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Where Do Human Rights Come From?—New Generation Thinkers 2019
Fri 12 Apr 2019
Dafydd Mills Daniel looks at links between the UN, Richard III and Disney's Jiminy Cricket
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.
