Podcast Episodes

The most insightful poet that ever lived. Iain McGilchrist & Mark Vernon on William Blake

Iain McGilchrist calls William Blake “the least cosy of poets and one of the most insightful that ever lived.” Blake is cited more often than most figures in Iain’s great book, "The Matter With Thing…

Published on 3 months ago

How to Live like William Blake!

A conversation from History with Chris Harding.

In Mark Vernon's new book "Awake!", he argues that we’re missing something from our view of the great visionary artist William Blake.

It’s that word - ‘v…

Published on 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Awake! Albion awake! And let us awake up together!

Recorded in St James’s Piccadilly, the church in which William Blake was baptised, with his life mask also present.

Thoughts on Blake’s great call to us today from the launch of my new book, “Awake! W…

Published on 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Top 10 William Blake quotes! The full countdown

A taste of Blake’s genius and what he might mean for us. Celebrating the release of "Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination" by Mark Vernon.

The full countdown:

10. 
I’ll sing to you to t…

Published on 3 months, 2 weeks ago

On the Right Track. Liberty from left-brained analysis. William Blake’s path of perceptual expansion

Acknowledging that there are complementary modes of perception has become commonplace. But left-hemisphere analysis can diagnose the problem without offering much sense of how better to incorporate t…

Published on 3 months, 2 weeks ago

Loosening the mind-forged manacles. William Blake in words and songs

A live conversation with Mark Vernon, Katy Carr and Dexter Bentley from the Hello Goodbye Show.

Who was William Blake? What might his music have sounded like? What did he say about the imagination? Wh…

Published on 3 months, 3 weeks ago

The saint who ripped reality and rose like a sun. Francis and the apocalyptic fears of chaotic times

Saint Francis was born into a world in a panic.
The stabilities of the feudal world had collapsed with the rise of mercantilism. The gap between rich and poor was unsustainable and a new underclass w…

Published on 4 months ago

Does nature really obey laws? A dialogue with Rupert Sheldrake

The conviction that the natural world is obedient, adhering to laws, is a widespread assumption of modern science. But where did this idea originate and what beliefs does it imply? 

In this episode of…

Published on 4 months, 1 week ago

"Enemies of the Human Race" William Blake on the disaster of atheism

William Blake opens the third part of his epic poem, Jerusalem: the Emanation of the Giant Albion, with an astonishing remark. “He never can be a friend of the Human Race who is the Preacher of Natur…

Published on 4 months, 1 week ago

Merely Christianity? Discerning the Spirit of a Revival. A conversation with Elizabeth Oldfield

There is undoubtedly a new spirit of interest in Christianity abroad in the presumed secular world. Some increases in church-going are even showing up in the stats. But what can be made of the curios…

Published on 4 months, 2 weeks ago