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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Emma Rice—On Directing
Tue 14 Feb 2012
2/5 Kneehigh Theatre's Emma Rice explores the director's role as a storyteller.
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Roger Michell—On Directing
Mon 13 Feb 2012
1/5 Roger Michell on emotions that go with starting a film, as he makes Hyde Park on Hudson.
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Justin Cartwright - Christmas—The Writer's Dickens
Fri 23 Dec 2011
5/5 Justin Cartwright reflects on the place that Christmas occupies in Charles Dickens's work.
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Alexander McCall Smith - Episodic Writing—The Writer's Dickens
Thu 22 Dec 2011
4/5 Writer Alexander McCall Smith salutes Charles Dickens's mastery of the episodic form.
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AL Kennedy - No Hope of Return—The Writer's Dickens
Wed 21 Dec 2011
3/5 AL Kennedy explores Dickens' literary response to the themes of poverty, misery and death.
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Romesh Gunesekera - The Orphan Eye—The Writer's Dickens
Tue 20 Dec 2011
2/5 Romesh Gunesekera on how Dickens addresses the move from childhood into the world beyond.
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Tessa Hadley - Rooms and Reality—The Writer's Dickens
Mon 19 Dec 2011
1/5 Tessa Hadley on how Dickens paints the reality of his world through characters' houses.
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Black and White: Messrs Smith and Carlos and Norman
Thu 2 Feb 2017
Lindsay Johns explains the inspiration he draws from a black and white photo on his desk.
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Black and White: Yin and Yang
Wed 1 Feb 2017
Xiaolu Guo remembers lessons learned from her father growing up in China.
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Black and White: Words on the Page
Tue 31 Jan 2017
Writer Glyn Maxwell on whether we have become too black and white, and too binary.
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Black and White: Parental Advisory Explicit Lyrics
Mon 30 Jan 2017
Farrah Jarral talks about what it means to be fluent in something one doesn't understand
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The Essay - Gun Culture -The Howth Mauser
Fri 27 Jan 2017
Heather Jones explores the deadly symbolism of the Howth Mauser
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The Essay - Gun Culture - Sniper
Thu 26 Jan 2017
Nicholas Rankin explores the emergence of the deadly 'force reducer' that is the sniper
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The Essay: Gun Culture: Pistols At Dawn
Wed 25 Jan 2017
John Gallagher duels with the noisy story of guns 300 years ago
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The Essay: Gun Culture: Gotham's Gun Baron
Tue 24 Jan 2017
Brian DeLay reveals the life & arms deals of the most dangerous man you've never heard of
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Taking Aim - Renaissance-style
Mon 23 Jan 2017
Catherine Fletcher unveils handguns' explosive Renaissance origin
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Cornerstones: Chalk
Fri 13 Jan 2017
Poet Alyson Hallett is drawn to chalk landscapes and the large horse at Westbury in Wilts
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Cornerstones: Fire Rocks
Thu 12 Jan 2017
Novelist Sarah Moss discusses basalt and dolerite, the fire rocks that underpin castles.
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Cornerstones:Coal
Wed 11 Jan 2017
Writer Paul Evans traces a family line back through Shropshire's seams of coal.
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Cornerstones:Millstone
Tue 10 Jan 2017
Derbyshire poet and climber Helen Mort visits Stanage Edge, famed for its millstone grit.
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Cornerstones: Quartz
Mon 9 Jan 2017
Linda Cracknell reflects on the appeal of the quartz on Ben Lawers, her local Munro.
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Poet Kenneth Steven on the Scottish islands
Fri 23 Sep 2016
Poet Kenneth Steven writes on the remote islands of St Kilda.
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Poet Kenneth Steven reflects on Scottish island life
Thu 22 Sep 2016
Poet Kenneth Steven writes on Raasay, an island close to Skye.
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Poet Kenneth Steven reflects on Scottish island life
Wed 21 Sep 2016
Kenneth Steven looks at Rum, a wild and windswept Hebridean island.
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Poet Kenneth Steven on Scottish island life
Tue 20 Sep 2016
Poet Kenneth Steven writes on Hoy in the archipelago of the Orkney islands
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Poet Kenneth Steven reflects on Scottish island life
Mon 19 Sep 2016
Kenneth Steven writes on the Hebridean island of Iona.
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Shakespeare 400. Joan Fitzpatrick on Wolf All? Shakespeare and food
Wed 27 Apr 2016
Joan explores the symbolism of food and eating in Shakespeare's plays
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Shakespeare 400. James Loxley on Undiscovered Countries: Shakespeare and the Nation
Tue 26 Apr 2016
James explores the light Shakespeare throws on national identity, then and now
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Minds at War: Sean O'Casey's "The Silver Tassie"
Fri 15 Apr 2016
Playwright and academic Elizabeth Kuti explores Sean O'Casey's "The Silver Tassie"
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Minds at War: Father Browne's war photograph
Thu 14 Apr 2016
Photographer John D McHugh explores one of the war photos taken by Fr Francis Browne
Death in Trieste
Watch: My Deaf World
The Book that Changed Me
Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.