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The Handover
Episode 20
This week Lea Ypi joins David to talk about some of the ideas in his new book, The Handover: How We Gave Control of Our Lives to Corporations, States…
2 years, 9 months ago
The Great Essays: Q & A
In this bonus episode David answers some of your questions about our series on the great political essays and essayists, from Montaigne to Joan Didio…
2 years, 9 months ago
History of Ideas: Joan Didion
Season 1 Episode 19
For the last episode in our summer season on the great twentieth-century essays and essayists, David discusses Joan Didion's 'The White Album' (1979)…
2 years, 9 months ago
History of Ideas: Susan Sontag
Season 1 Episode 18
This episode in our history of the great essays and great essayists is about Susan Sontag’s ‘Against Interpretation’ (1963). What was interpretation …
2 years, 10 months ago
History of Ideas: James Baldwin
Season 1 Episode 17
This week David discusses James Baldwin’s ‘Notes of a Native Son’ (1955), an essay that combines autobiography with a searing indictment of America’s…
2 years, 10 months ago
History of Ideas: Simone Weil
Season 1 Episode 16
This week’s episode in our series on the great essays and great essayists is about Simone Weil’s ‘Human Personality’ (1943). Written shortly before h…
2 years, 10 months ago
History of Ideas: George Orwell
Season 1 Episode 15
This week David discusses George Orwell’s ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’ (1941), his great wartime essay about what it does – and doesn’t – mean to be En…
2 years, 10 months ago
History of Ideas: Virginia Woolf
Season 1 Episode 14
This week our history of the great essays and great essayists reaches the twentieth century and Virginia Woolf’s masterpiece ‘A Room of One’s Own’ (1…
2 years, 11 months ago
From Lincoln to Trump: What Happened to the Republican Party?
Episode 13
This week David talks to American historian Gary Gerstle about the shape-shifting journey of the US Republican Party, from the Civil War to the battl…
2 years, 11 months ago
History of Ideas: Thoreau
Season 1 Episode 12
For the third episode in this series about the great political essays, David explores Thoreau’s ‘Civil Disobedience’ (1849), a ringing call to resist…
2 years, 11 months ago