Freedom, Books, Flowers & The Moon

Tyler Cowen on the advantages of gradual reform over long-term thinking.https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/the-long-view-richard-fisher-the-lost-future-jan-zielonka-gradual-greg-berman-aubrey-fox-book-review-tyler-cowen/  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Lucy and Alex discover how James Shapiro created his landmark work on a formative year in Shakespeare’s life; and Miranda France on her spellbinding study of memoir and creative writing.‘1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare’, by James Shapiro‘The Writing School’, by Miranda FranceProduced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Throsby on the ruthlessness of the consulting industry.https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/consulting-mckinsey-mariana-mazzucato-rosie-collington-walt-bogdanich-michael-forsythe-book-review-david-throsby/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Laurie Maguire is in the audience for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet; and Lucy and Alex catch up with novelist Curtis Sittenfeld on her whistle-stop visit to the UK.‘Hamnet’, an RSC production, from the novel by Maggie O’Farrell‘Romantic Comedy’, by Curtis SittenfeldProduced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tristram Hunt revisits the monuments controversy. https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/monumental-lies-robert-bevan-everyday-like-of-memorials-andrew-shanken-on-the-street-edwin-heathcote-book-review-tristram-hunt/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Historian Emily Baughan on two books chronicling the immense impact of the NHS and the welfare state on the lives of Britons; and a new film explores Patricia Highsmith’s hinterland.’The Welfare State generation: Women, agency and class in Britain since 1945’, by Eve Worth‘Poster, protests and prescriptions: Cultural histories of the National Health Service in Britain’, edited by Jennifer Crane and Jane Hand‘Loving Highsmith’, a film by Eva VitijaProduced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nicola Shulman on two anthologies that display the obituarist’s art.https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/lives-less-ordinary-nigel-farndale-eccentric-lives-andrew-brown-book-review-nicola-shulman/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Boyd Tonkin visits Complicité’s audacious adaptation of Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead; and Barnaby Phillips on two Victorian explorers at daggers drawn'Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead’, staged by Complicité, based on the novel by Olga Tokarczuk‘River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile’ by Candice Millard Producer: Lucy Dichmont Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Searching for the Good LifeSkye Clery on how to cope with the fear of death and other anxieties https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/life-is-short-dean-rickles-life-is-hard-kieran-setiya-book-review-skye-cleary/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lamorna Ash joins us to talk about Shy, Max Porter’s tale of teenage angst; and Jonathan Taylor on an illuminating survey of the uses and abuses of storytelling.’Shy’ by Max Porter’Seduced by Story: The Use and Abuse of Narrative’ by Peter BrooksProducer :Lucy Dichmont Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mother Knows BestMichele Pridmore-Brown considers recent insights into parenthood from neuroscience, archaeology and social policyhttps://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/mother-brain-chelsea-conaboy-what-makes-a-person-mark-hanson-lucy-green-growing-up-human-brenna-hassett-book-review-michele-pridmore-brown/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we go in search of the meaning of life, death and the universe, in the capable hands of Nat Segnit and Skye Cleary.‘The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery’ by Adam Gopnik‘Life is Short: An Appropriately Brief Guide to Making It More Meaningful’ by Dean Rickles‘Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way’ by Kieran SetiyaProduced by Lucy Dichmont Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Irina Dumitrescu considers what psoriasis tells us about social outcasts.https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/skin-sergio-del-molino-book-review-irina-dumitrescu/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Margarette Lincoln on the secret life of Daniel Defoe, government agent; and Claire Lowdon transports herself back to the teenage turmoil of Martin Amis’s debut novel, fifty years on. ‘The Cambridge Edition of the Correspondence of Daniel Defoe’ edited by Nicholas Seager‘The Rachel Papers’ by Martin AmisProduced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Helen Bynum enjoins us to consider the secret lives of plants; and Jacqueline Banerjee on love and marriage in the world of George Eliot.‘Planta Sapiens: Unmasking Plant Intelligence’ by Paco Calvo with Natalie Lawrence‘The Marriage Question: George Eliot’s Double Life’ by Clare CarlisleProduced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Geoffrey Wheatcroft considers how the First World War triggered a wave of xenophobia and a Red Scare.https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/american-midnight-adam-hochschild-book-review-geoffrey-wheatcroft/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Flora Willson explores the struggle of four women composers to have their work heard, and Biancamaria Fontana on the late David Graeber’s survey of Madagascan pirate kingdoms.‘Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Musical World’ by Leah Broad‘Pirate Enlightenment: Or the Real Libertalia’ by David GraeberProduced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In our first instalment, we talk to novelist Dame Margaret Drabble and her son, gardener and TV presenter Joe Swift. Their wide-ranging conversation includes a disagreement over pelargoniums, Joe’s childhood insistence on playing football in his mother’s cottage garden, the joys of irregular hedges and fashions in fiction and foliage alike.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Mazower asks: did the Ottomans preserve the Parthenon and Elgin wreck it?https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/who-saved-the-parthenon-william-st-clair-book-review-mark-mazower/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Margaret Drabble and Joe Swift talk about the relationship between literature and gardening; and a new short-story collection from Margaret Atwood.‘Turning Leaves’, a new podcast from the TLS team‘Old Babes in the Wood’ by Margaret AtwoodProduced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.