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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Cornerstones - The Canadian Arctic—Cornerstones
Tue 8 Dec 2015
2/5 Travel writer Sara Wheeler recalls her time visiting Canada's Arctic region.
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Northern Lights - Cornerstones: Scandinavia's Samiland—Cornerstones
Mon 7 Dec 2015
1/5 Poet John Burnside explores his fascination with the Sami landscapes of northern Norway.
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The Further Realm: Episode 5—The Further Realm
Fri 30 Oct 2015
5/5 Andrew tells tales of the undead from resonant times of the year.
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The Further Realm: Episode 4—The Further Realm
Thu 29 Oct 2015
4/5 Andrew celebrates the tome Phantasms of the Living.
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The Further Realm: Episode 3—The Further Realm
Wed 28 Oct 2015
3/5 Andrew considers the contrast between 'solid' Medieval ghosts ephemeral modern sightings.
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The Further Realm: Episode 2—The Further Realm
Tue 27 Oct 2015
2/5 Andrew reflects on sightings, with even Google Street View having recorded a ghost.
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The Further Realm: Episode 1—The Further Realm
Mon 26 Oct 2015
1/5 Andrew contemplates whether he actually believes in ghosts.
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Middletown—About Average
Fri 2 Oct 2015
5/5 Ian Sansom on the most 'average' place in the UK and what is 'Middle England'.
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Mr Average—About Average
Thu 1 Oct 2015
4/5 Novelist and critic Ian Sansom goes in search of the 'average' man or woman.
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Working 9 to 5—About Average
Wed 30 Sep 2015
3/5 The changing concept of the average working week in an age of zero hours contracts.
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Small, Medium and Large—About Average
Tue 29 Sep 2015
2/5 Ian Sansom discusses the scientific measurement of the average man and woman's dimensions.
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On the Average—About Average
Mon 28 Sep 2015
1/5 Novelist and critic Ian Sansom focuses on why 'average' has become a byword for mediocrity
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Dar es Salaam - Ubhuche, Invisible Histories of the First World War—World War One Round the World, Series 2
Fri 3 Jul 2015
5/5 Exploring why WWI is almost forgotten in Tanzania despite the casualties it suffered.
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Delhi - Parting Words—World War One Round the World, Series 2
Thu 2 Jul 2015
4/5 Shashi Tharoor explores Indian remembrances of the World War One.
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Amman - Jordan, a Country of Nationalists—World War One Round the World, Series 2
Wed 1 Jul 2015
3/5 Lina Attel explores how Jordanian national culture has survived since World War One.
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Washington - Safe for Democracy—World War One Round the World, Series 2
Tue 30 Jun 2015
2/5 David Frum explains how World War One still defines American foreign policy.
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Sydney - Stories that Bind—World War One Round the World, Series 2
Mon 29 Jun 2015
1/5 Wesley Enoch explores the powerful mythology of the Anzacs in Australia.
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Akhmatova's July 1914—Minds at War: Series 2
Fri 26 Jun 2015
5/5 Sasha Dugdale explores the impact of World War I on the great Russian poet Anna Akhmatova.
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Parade—Minds at War: Series 2
Thu 25 Jun 2015
4/5 Richard Cork discusses Pablo Picasso's designs for the Ballets Russes production Parade.
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Woolf's Mrs Dalloway—Minds at War: Series 2
Wed 24 Jun 2015
3/5 How Virginia Woolf and her great novel Mrs Dalloway were shaped by the 1914-18 conflict.
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Tzara's Dada Manifesto—Minds at War: Series 2
Tue 23 Jun 2015
2/5 Comedian Arthur Smith presents a dadaesque account of Tristan Tzara's Dada Manifesto.
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Tagore's Nobel Lectures—Minds at War: Series 2
Mon 22 Jun 2015
1/5 Santanu Das discusses the Nobel lectures of the great Indian thinker Rabindranath Tagore.
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Of Miracle, of Magic—WB Yeats at 150
Fri 12 Jun 2015
5/5 Paula Meehan explores the influence of the magical and the mystical in WB Yeats's work.
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The View from the Tower—WB Yeats at 150
Thu 11 Jun 2015
4/5 John Banville explains his long-held love for Yeats's 1928 collection of poetry The Tower.
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The Second Coming of the Second Coming—WB Yeats at 150
Wed 10 Jun 2015
3/5 Poet Paul Muldoon discusses WB Yeats's post-First World War poem The Second Coming.
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Not Liking Yeats—WB Yeats at 150
Tue 9 Jun 2015
2/5 Writer and commentator Fintan O'Toole on his love-hate relationship with WB Yeats.
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Yeats by Heart—WB Yeats at 150
Mon 8 Jun 2015
1/5 Fiona Shaw explains the impact of her childhood introduction to the work of WB Yeats.
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Brigadoon—Five Imaginary Scottish Places
Fri 5 Jun 2015
5/5 Stuart Kelly discusses Brigadoon, the village of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.
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Unthank—Five Imaginary Scottish Places
Thu 4 Jun 2015
4/5 Stuart Kelly explores the fictional city Unthank, from Alasdair Gray's 1981 novel Lanark.
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Duncairn—Five Imaginary Scottish Places
Wed 3 Jun 2015
3/5 Stuart Kelly discusses author Lewis Grassic Gibbon's fictional Scottish town Duncairn.
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.
