New Generation Thinkers 2021

A Brazilian Soprano in Jazz-Age Paris

Adjoa Osei celebrates Elsie Houston, who mixed Afro-Brazilian folk with European opera.

• 14 mins

New Generation Thinkers 2021

The Paradox of Ecological Art

Vid Simoniti considers eco-art from Olafur Eliasson to videos by Bo Zheng.

• 14 mins

New Generation Thinkers 2021

Alexander and the Persians

Julia Hartley asks why we call Alexander the Great.

• 14 mins

New Generation Thinkers 2021

Opium Tales

Fariha Shaikh reads accounts from Thomas de Quincey (1821) to Timothy Mo and Amitav Ghosh.

• 14 mins

New Generation Thinkers 2021

Pause for Thought

Florence Hazrat looks at the history of punctuation marks (such as brackets) and emojis.

• 14 mins

Dietrich in Five Songs

Falling in Love Again

Marybeth Hamilton charts a song Dietrich initially loathed yet never stopped singing.

• 14 mins

Dietrich in Five Songs

When Love Dies

David Thomson charts the collaboration between Dietrich and director Joseph von Sternberg.

• 14 mins

Dietrich in Five Songs

In the Ruins of Berlin

Karin Wieland analyses a song that charted Dietrich's bitter relationship with home.

• 14 mins

Dietrich in Five Songs

Where Have All the Flowers Gone

Paul Morley marks Dietrich's dive into a Pete Seeger anti-war folk song she transformed.

• 14 mins

Dietrich in Five Songs

I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face

Le Gateau Chocolat revels in how Dietrich and Burt Bacharach reforged a classic show tune.

• 14 mins

Poetic Provocations

Tupac

Inua Ellams explores the impact of rapper 2Pac on his political and racial awareness.

• 14 mins

Poetic Provocations

Kipling

Inua explores race and racism through Kipling's poem The White Man's Burden.

• 14 mins

Poetic Provocations

Dante

Inua Ellams explores why basketball is so alive in black and working-class communities.

• 14 mins

Poetic Provocations

Sunflowers

A very personal exploration of poetic starting points from writer Inua Ellams.

• 14 mins

Poetic Provocations

Carrots

Inua Ellams explores how African barber shops provide spaces where men can be vulnerable.

• 14 mins

Adrian Edmondson - Signs of Life (Series 2)

Creativity

Adrian Edmonson reflects on what went wrong with the highly successful sitcom Bottom.

• 14 mins

Adrian Edmondson - Signs of Life (Series 2)

Money

How Adrian Edmondson tricked the bank, ran away from school and almost got expelled.

• 14 mins

Adrian Edmondson - Signs of Life (Series 2)

Nuts

Five reflections on his life by comedian, actor and writer, Adrian Edmondson.

• 14 mins

Adrian Edmondson - Signs of Life (Series 2)

Fandom

Adrian Edmondson ponders the nature of being a fan and the object of others' recognition.

• 14 mins

Adrian Edmondson - Signs of Life (Series 2)

The Jacobite Rebellion

Adrian compares battles on tour with Bonnie Prince Charlie’s flight across the country.

• 14 mins

Moments of Being

Unlike Virginia Woolf, Joanna Robertson celebrates the minutiae of daily life.

• 14 mins

Moments of Being

Windows

Joanna Robertson celebrates the impact the views from her windows have on her life.

• 14 mins

Moments of Being

Going for a Walk

Joanna Robertson celebrates the minutiae of life, showing they are not small but infinite.

• 14 mins

Moments of Being

The Lives of Others

Joanna Robertson celebrates the minutiae of daily life by imagining the lives of others.

• 14 mins

Moments of Being

Miracle

Sitting in a cafe becomes miraculous when all around it coalesces into the one moment.

• 14 mins

Bohemians in T-Shirts

Actors

Michael Goldfarb on why Marlon Brando and Stanley Kowalski took to wearing T-shirts.

• 14 mins

Bohemians in T-Shirts

Writers

Michael Goldfarb explores why black US writer James Baldwin took to wearing T-shirts.

• 14 mins

Bohemians in T-Shirts

Artists

Michael Goldfarb tells the story of Jackson Pollock, another T-shirt-wearing bohemian.

• 14 mins

Bohemians in T-Shirts

Musicians

Michael Goldfarb, in his study of US bohemians, turns to Charlie Parker and Miles Davis.

• 14 mins

Bohemians in T-Shirts

Beats

The influence of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg on postwar US non-conformists.

• 14 mins