Better Known
Society & Culture
Ivan Wise
Each week, a guest makes a series of recommendations of things which they think should be better known. Our recommendations include interesting people, places, objects, stories, experiences and ideas which our guest feels haven't had the exposure that they deserve.
Delayed Gratification
Delayed Gratification co-founders Rob Orchard and Marcus Webb discuss with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Rob Orchard and Marcus Webb are co-founders of Delayed Gratification, the world’s first Slow Journalism magazine, launched in 2011. Delayed Gratification revisits events after the dust has settled and makes a virtue of being “Last to Breaking News.”
Along with Delayed Gratification’s art director Christian, Rob and Marcus are co-authors of An Answer For Everything, the critically acclaimed book of infographics published by Bloomsbury. Their new book Misc., a compendium of delightfully random facts discovered in 13 years of research for the magazine, was published by Bloomsbury in October 2024 and is available at https://www.slow-journalism.com/misc.
Drowning people pulled from the Thames used to be treated with tobacco enemas https://bcmj.org/special-feature/special-feature-tobacco-smoke-enemas
Andre Agassi used Boris Becker’s tongue to win tennis matches https://www.businessinsider.com/andre-agassi-beat-boris-becker-watching-tongue-serves-2021-4
Life on Mars sounds horrible https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2845199/
Movie star Hedy Lamarr is the unsung heroine of Bluetooth https://www.forbes.com/sites/shivaunefield/2018/02/28/hedy-lamarr-the-incredible-mind-behind-secure-wi-fi-gps-bluetooth/
One hardy entomologist set himself the task of being bitten by as many insects as possible, and recorded the experiences in lyrical prose https://www.chemistryworld.com/careers/the-man-who-gets-stung-by-insects/2500173.article
Many of the very worst films ever released have made more than half a billion dollars at the box office https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films
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31:0503/11/2024
Andrew Hindmoor
Andrew Hindmoor discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Andrew Hindmoor grew up in Sheffield, left, went to Australia, and boomeranged back to Sheffield in 2013. He is a Professor of Politics and Co-Director of the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute. He recently published Haywire: A Political History of Britain Since 2000 with Penguin which was the Times' 'book of the week' when it was released. He has previously published 12 Days Which Made Modern Britain with Oxford and academic books on the financial crisis and the state. He makes a mean lemon meringue pie.
North Stradbroke Island, Queensland. https://stradbrokeisland.com/
The Americans boxset https://www.amazon.co.uk/Americans-Complete-Seasons-1-6-DVD/dp/B07FYBZMN5
Hitchhiking https://medium.com/@korkmazlarr/the-exhilarating-journey-unveiling-the-benefits-of-hitchhiking-27f996c6d2ca
The Office for National Statistics data on happiness and life satisfaction (https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/bulletins/measuringnationalwellbeing/april2022tomarch2023 for the most recent release)
Philip Short’s biography of Vladimir Putin https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/430057/putin-by-short-philip/9781784700935
The alternative walk from Wasdale. Don’t go East from Wasdale up Scafell Pike. Go West and walk the horseshoe across Red Pike, Pillar and Great Gable.
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30:0727/10/2024
Josie Lloyd
Josie Lloyd discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Josie Lloyd, also writing as Joanna Rees, is the Sunday Times No.1 bestselling international author of over twenty novels and has been translated into 27 languages. Come Together, which she co-authored with her husband Emlyn Rees, was number one for 10 weeks and made into a Working Title film. Josie Lloyd recently wrote contemporary women’s fiction novels The Cancer Ladies Running Club and Lifesaving for Beginners, which was a #1 Bookseller Heatseeker. Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency is her first crime novel and is at https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/josie-lloyd-book-3-josie-lloyd/7270237.
Isabella Beeton - she of the 'Book of Household Management' fame is still relevant today. Her weighty Victorian tome was full of common sense advice on how to run a household, but lots of it still rings true: like cooking a big meal on a Sunday and using the left-overs all week.
Creative collaboration is a magical thing. When I first met Emlyn, my husband, he was my agent's assistant and we came up with a crazy idea to write a book together.
There's no perfect way to be 'a writer'. And certainly staring at a blank screen is not necessarily a good way to start.
It's breast cancer awareness month and having been through it - and having been inspired to write The Cancer Ladies' Running Club - it's important that people know that there are two types of breast cancer - lobular and ductal.
Having breast reconstruction surgery is not the only option after breast cancer. I had a prosthetic breast made that matches my bumpy chest wall and it's a game-changer. More people need to know that this is a great alternative to surgery.
Daily Qi Gong is amazing. As a busy mum of three with a successful career, cancer came as an enormous shock. I realised that I'd put my own well-being at the very bottom of my list.
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28:5520/10/2024
Alice Hunt
Historian Alice Hunt discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Alice Hunt is Professor of Early Modern Literature and History at the University of Southampton. She is the author of The Drama of Coronation (Cambridge University Press) and has previously written about the Tudors and James I, and often appears in the media to discuss monarchy. Her new book is Republic: Britain’s Revolutionary Decade 1649-60, which is available at https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/republic-britain-s-revolutionary-decade-1649-1660-alice-hunt/7688859. She lives in Winchester.
The Republic. The fact that we once were a republic, that it was called and known as a republic, and what this republic was actually like should all be better known.
Richard Cromwell. Eldest surviving son of Oliver Cromwell who succeeded his father as Lord Protector.
Samuel Hartlib. Polish entrepreneur who moved to England and flourished in the creative, reforming energy of the 1650s. An inveterate communicator and intelligencer, he knew everyone who was anyone at the time and had a finger in every pie. He feverishly promoted ideas to the new republican government that were way ahead of their time: paper money, a national bank, a health service, state schools, the return of the Jews.
The Compleat Angler by Izaak Walton. This beautiful, sweet, quiet book about fishing was a huge bestseller in the 1650s.
Forde Abbey, Dorset. I absolutely loved discovering Forde Abbey during the research for this book. This former Cistercian monastery, nestled in the valley of the River Axe, completely transformed my thinking about who the puritan, republican men were who governed England at this time.
The Experimental Philosophy Club. This is the name of the society of young, curious, committed scientists who met in Oxford during the 1650s to share ideas and plan experiments.
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30:0813/10/2024
Nabeel Qureshi
Nabeel Qureshi discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Nabeel S. Qureshi is an entrepreneur and researcher specializing in artificial intelligence and healthcare. He is the CEO of a new startup company and a Visiting Scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Nabeel is based in New York and grew up in Manchester, England.
The filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/17/the-metaphysical-world-of-apichatpong-weerasethakuls-movies
Empson's Seven Types of Ambiguity https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1975/01/23/incomparable-empson/
Wittgenstein's late notebooks, Culture and Value https://prismatically.blog/2020/08/30/wittgenstein-culture-and-value-whereof-one-cannot-speak-thereof-one-must-be-silent/
The pianist Grigory Sokolov, especially his recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations https://open.spotify.com/track/0iD6SmRyOj23fCKyG4x8zj?si=decbea5bd38f4515&nd=1&dlsi=ce22c9bdf87a4ba4
The essay Art as Technique by Viktor Shklovsky https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/fulllist/first/en122/lecturelist-2015-16-2/shklovsky.pdf
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v15/n08/john-lanchester/indian-summa
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30:2106/10/2024
Edward Carey
Edward Carey discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Edward Carey is a writer and illustrator who was born in North Walsham, Norfolk, England, during an April snowstorm. He is the author of the novels Observatory Mansions and Alva and Irva: the Twins Who Saved a City, and of the YA Iremonger Trilogy, which have all been translated into many different languages and all of which he illustrated. His 2018 novel Little has been published in 20 countries. His novella The Swallowed Man, set inside the belly of an enormous sea beast, was published in 2022. His latest novel Edith Holler will be published on 3rd October by Gallic Books and is available at https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/edith-holler-edward-carey/7601350?ean=9781913547783.
He has written plays for the National Theatre of Romania and the Vilnius Small State Theatre, Lithuania. In England his plays and adaptations have been performed at the Young Vic Studio, the Battersea Arts Centre, and the Royal Opera House Studio. He has collaborated on a shadow puppet production of Macbeth in Malaysia, and with the Faulty Optic Theatre of Puppets.
Edward will be in the UK in October and speaking about Edith Holler in bookshops around the country: Waterstones Trafalgar Square (3rd October), Mr B’s Emporium (4th October), Blackwells Oxford (5th October), Blackwells Manchester (7th October) and Dragon Hall, National Centre for Writing in Norwich (8th October).
Commonplace books https://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/2023/06/what-is-a-commonplace-book.html
Whitby Museum https://whitbymuseum.org.uk/
The art of Charles Altamont Doyle https://huntington.org/exhibition/unseen-world-charles-altamont-doyle
The fairy tales of Giambattista Basile https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giambattista-Basile
Norwich undercrofts https://www.norwichunderground.xyz/undercrofts/
Victorian toy theatres https://craftsmanship.net/the-rise-and-fall-of-toy-theatre/
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29:4429/09/2024
Steve Prest
Steve Prest discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Steve Prest was a Weapon Engineer Officer who joined the Royal Navy after reading Electronic and Electrical Engineering at Loughborough University. He served in the Defence Communications Services Agency in Corsham in support of Op TELIC 1 (Iraq); undertook a short tour in Afghanistan as a Liaison Officer to Task Force Helmand; and has served on exchange with the French Navy. In the UK he has worked in Defence Equipment and Support, MOD, the Permanent Joint Headquarters and the Maritime Capability Division of Navy Command Headquarters.
At sea he was the Weapon Engineer Officer in HMS WESTMINSTER undertaking operations in the Mediterranean (Libya), Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean; and then the Commander Weapon Engineer in HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH, bringing the ship out of build and home to Portsmouth.
Joining the nascent Navy Acquisition organisation in 2017, he was previously the Programme Director of the Type 31 Frigate Programme. He then became Deputy Director Navy Acquisition (Equipment and Systems), and Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) for the Maritime Electronic Warfare and Mine Hunting Capability Programmes. He fulfilled the role of Director Navy Acquisition from September 2022 until May 2023 and finished his career as Deputy Director People Change Programmes in Navy Command HQ.
Still working out what he wants to do when he grows up, Steve is now an independent consultant, advisor, commentator and speaker in the Defence sector and beyond. He has set up his own company, Alatar Ltd, and his self-appointed mission is “to help brilliant people to do amazing things”.
He is married to Kerry and they live on the Hampshire coast with their daughter, Emily. He enjoys reading and is a keen fan of most sports, participating when time and body allow.
The Royal Navy and what it does.
That life is stochastic not based on fate, otherwise risk management wouldn't work!
The Scouring of the Shire - from Lord of the Rings. It was a crucial part of the narrative arc in the books but missed out from the otherwise brilliant films.
Captain Cook. Everyone knows that he "discovered" Australia (he didn't really, but...) but his qualities as a leader and maritime professional should be better known.
That inclusive leadership isn't "woke nonsense" but is, at its heart, just good leadership.
Bluestone 42 - a BBC comedy drama about a British bomb disposal detachment details the camaraderie and bonds shared between the soldiers in the unit as they risk their lives defusing bombs.
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29:4122/09/2024
Stop the war
Ivan Wise discusses four anti-war plays which should be better known.
Post Mortem by Noel Coward http://www.ww1plays.com/2015/07/noel-cowards-serious-war-play.html
The White Disease by Karel Capek https://artsfuse.org/198970/arts-commentary-pestilence-on-stage-part-one-karel-capeksthe-white-plague/
O’Flaherty VC by George Bernard Shaw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Flaherty_V.C.
Last Days of Mankind by Karl Kraus https://www.theguardian.com/culture/1999/dec/13/artsfeatures4
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26:2215/09/2024
Marieke Bigg
Marieke Bigg discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Marieke Bigg is the author of Waiting for Ted, and This Won’t Hurt. Writing across fiction and non-fiction, she deconstructs the cultural givens around bodies, minds and identity. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge, where she studied the technological transformation of human reproduction. In addition to her books, Marieke speaks about the sociology of medicine and psychiatry, and collaborates with biologists and artists to explore the social potential of science. She is also a training psychotherapist. She now lives in London. Her new book is A Scarab Where The Heart Should Be, available at https://deadinkbooks.com/product/a-scarab-where-the-heart-should-be/.
In Vitro Fertilisation - while most people know what it is, knowing more about this process and its history opens up new ways of thinking about the role of reproduction in society and will have us questioning what we currently regard as natural truths
Bruder Klaus Field Chapel, Peter Zumthor - a chapel mentioned in my book, shaped by pouring concrete over 112 tree trunks that were burnt away.
Taxonomy - how when we learn the names of natural things, we look more closely, and experience our place in nature.
In Praise of Shadows, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki - the ideas in this essay are often around for me, and also guided my thinking about my prtoagonist. The essay on traditional Japanese astheatics is a warning against an incessant pursuit of light (perfection, stimulation, happiness) in Western culture.
Anne Mclaren - an embryologist who I wrote my PhD on. Fascinating scientist who worked on IVF, sending mice to space with NASA, worked with Russian scientists during the cold war, and starred in an HG Wells film as a child.
The Way Out is In - podcast by followers of the Buddhist monk and peace activist, Thit Naht Tahn.
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30:0008/09/2024
Kathy Willis
Kathy Willis discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Katherine Willis CBE is Professor of Biodiversity in the department of Biology and the Principal of St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford. She is also a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords. Previous roles include Director of Science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and a member of the UK Government’s Natural Capital Committee. In 2015, Kathy was awarded the Michael Faraday Medal for public communication of science from the Royal Society. Her new book is Good Nature: The New Science of How Nature Improves Our Health.
Staring out of a window onto greenery instead of a brick wall or a general urban scene.
Having a vase of yellow or roses or houseplant with green-white leaves on your desk.
Even if you only have 20 minutes for your walk or run, always head for the park/urban green space. Why? Because experiments show that there is a much greater reduction in our stress hormones (salivary amylase, cortisol and adrenaline) if we exercise in green space rather than on the streets.
Garden without your gloves. Why? Because experiments show when we do so the environmental microbiota (good bacteria) found in biodiverse environments, including organic soils, is transferred onto our skin and into our gut.
Visit the Mediterranean garden at the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew. Why? Because this hidden gem at Kew has a whole host of health benefits associated with it due to the smells (volatile organic compounds) given off by the mediterranean herbs lavender, rosemary, and mint.
Buy a diffuser and diffuse the scents of cypress trees in your home or office. Why? Because clinical experiments and field trials are showing that when we do so, not only are stress hormones reduced, but also it can trigger a significant increase of natural killer cells in our blood.
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30:3001/09/2024
Bruce Omar Yates
Bruce Omar Yates discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Bruce Omar Yates was born in London to an English father and an Indian mother. Bruce grew up in the South of France before returning to London to study Literature and Film at King’s College London. Bruce is principal songwriter for the cult rock groups Famy, who released their album We Fam Econo in 2014, and Los Porcos, who released their album Porco Mio in 2016. The Muslim Cowboy is his first novel and is out now from Dead Ink Books at https://deadinkbooks.com/product/the-muslim-cowboy/.
English Milk Punch: a delicious low-ABV punch made from brandy, tea, spices and milk. It was popular in Victorian times - Dickens would drink it - as it is shelf stable. After refrigeration came along it lost popularity.
I Cantautori Genovesi: Fabrizio De Andre, Gino Paoli, Luigi Tenco (and others) - a group of arty, literary songwriters from Genoa in the 1960s. They would enter songs to compete against each other in the Sanremo Music Festival. Deep romance. Luigi Tenco shot himself after losing the competition one year.
Martin Maloney: A lesser celebrated but wildly influential painter from the YBA generation. His painting style is deliberately crude but makes deeply educated references to the canon.
Sickle Cell Disease: One of the most common inherited diseases in the world, very cruel and life threatening, and particularly rife in West Africa and India.
The Gulag Archipelago: Not exactly unknown, but not enough people have read it. The subject of Soviet war crimes is neglected relative to their scale, the book had a big historical impact, and Solzhenitsyn was a really great writer.
Parenting: Discussion in the culture might make you think that parenting is exhausting, stressful, financially burdensome, and so on, but it's not, it's just wonderful.
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28:3225/08/2024
Pedro Domingos
Pedro Domingos discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Pedro Domingos is a renowned AI researcher, tech industry insider, and Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. He is the author of the best-selling book The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World (Basic Books, 2015), which has been translated into over twelve languages and sold over 300,000 copies. His new book is 2040: A Silicon Valley Satire at https://2040novel.com/.
Moravec's paradox: what seems hard for AI is easy and vice-versa. https://www.scienceabc.com/innovation/what-is-moravecs-paradox-definition.html
Automation creates more jobs than it destroys, and AI is no exception. https://www.paltron.com/insights-en/does-ai-create-more-jobs-than-it-destroys
John von Neumann was the greatest genius of the 20th century. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/books/review-man-from-future-john-von-neumann-ananyo-bhattacharya.html
Olaf Stapledon's "Star Maker" is the greatest science fiction novel of all time. https://yardsaleofthemind.wordpress.com/2021/08/25/olaf-stapledons-star-maker-book-review/
"Her" is that rare thing: a realistic depiction of AI in a movie. https://www.wired.com/story/spike-jonze-her-10-year-anniversary-artificial-intelligence/
Portugal's discoveries in the 15th and 16th centuries started the age of globalization. https://www.history.com/news/portugal-age-exploration
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29:5218/08/2024
Harriet Constable
Harriet Constable is a journalist and filmmaker based in London. Her journalism and documentary work has featured in outlets including the BBC, Economist and New York Times. She is a graduate of Colombia University’s School of Journalism summer school, is a Pulitzer Center grantee and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Her first novel is The Instrumentalist.
Anna Maria della Pietà: the greatest violinist of 18th century, possibly a composer in her own right, fundamental to Vivaldi's music, grew up in the extraordinary Ospedale della Pietà - the original conservatoire of music
Synaesthesia: people think it's seeing music through colour - which it is in The Instrumentalist - but it's more than that. Words can have smells and taste, one sense can trigger another in profound ways.
Bach’s Cello Suite in G minor while standing on a mountain: anyone can enjoy classical music, it's supposed to be listened to LOUDLY, it's supposed to be magnificent. Go somewhere epic, ideally in nature, and play this piece. Track the mountain with your eyes.
The Foundling Museum: the UK’s first children’s charity, a heartfelt ode to the orphans and their parents.
Female musicians: Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schulman, Nannerl Mozart, Francesca Caccini - listen to Nocturne in G minor.
Spaghetti Aglio Olio
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27:5211/08/2024
C. Michelle Lindley
C. Michelle Lindley discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
C. Michelle Lindley’s writing has been featured in The Georgia Review, Conjunctions, and more. She has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts and has an MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University and a BA from the University of Berkeley in English and Art History. The Nude is her first novel.
Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha https://asianreviewofbooks.com/content/dictee-by-theresa-hak-kyung-cha/
2022 Irma Vep remake https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/irma-vep-tv-review-1235151952/
The Island of Naxos https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Tourism-g189431-Naxos_Cyclades_South_Aegean-Vacations.html
The Pie Scene from David Lowery’s A Ghost Story https://www.thewrap.com/rooney-mara-devoured-pie-9-minute-ghost-story-scene/
Ana Mendieta's Ocean Bird Washup https://www.ft.com/content/a6c4090e-2cda-11e3-8281-00144feab7de
Kate Braverman https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet-books/2019/10/rip-kate-braverman-1949-2019
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26:4105/08/2024
Richard Davenport-Hines
Richard Davenport-Hines discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Richard Davenport-Hines is a British historian and literary biographer. His history of the Profumo scandal, An English Affair, was published in 2013. His book on espionage scandals, Enemies Within: Communists, the Cambridge Spies and the Making of Modern Britain was published in January. His other books include biographies of W. H. Auden, Marcel Proust and John Maynard Keynes. He was a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford in 2016. His new book is History in the House: Some Remarkable Dons and the Teaching of Politics, Character and Statecraft.
Anthony Quayle's novel Eight Hours from England https://thelastwordbookreview.com/2019/09/22/eight-hours-from-england-by-anthony-quayle/
Wrest Park in Bedfordshire https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/wrest-park/
The Merlin app that can identify birdsong https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/
Christopher Spence, founder of London Lighthouse hospice
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/may/23/publicservicesawards29
Raccoons https://www.peta.org.uk/blog/13-astounding-facts-didnt-know-raccoon-dogs/
Feedback, the global campaign against food-waste & the ecological damage done by bad agricultural practices https://feedbackglobal.org/about-us/
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29:1928/07/2024
Susanna Rustin
Susanna Rustin discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Susanna Rustin is a leader writer on social affairs at The Guardian, where she has worked for more than 20 years. Before that, she worked at the Financial Times. Sexed is her first book.
The "Reform Firm" - the group of women's rights campaigners with Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon at the centre of it, in the middle of 19th century. They organised the first big suffrage petition presented in the House of Commons, ran a magazine for women from Langham Place (just off Oxford Circus), campaigned for jobs and education - Bodichon co-founded Girton college with Emily Davies and she was George Eliot's dear friend. But apart from feminist historians and biographers, hardly anyone knows about them. Victorians are deeply unfashionable for some very good reasons but there is lots to admire about them as well.
Feminist evolutionary biology - feminists going all the way back to George Eliot were deeply and justifiably suspicious of his theory of natural and sexual selection, which they realised would be used as an argument for the naturalness of male dominance and authority, and female passivity and inferiority. But there is the most wonderful tradition of research by female evolutionary biologists and anthropologists - many of them American but some important Brits too - who from the 1970s onwards published research that presented a radical, alternative view of female primate and human behaviour, and countered the masculinist bias in evolutionary science up to that point. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy's book Mother Nature first published in 1999, 25 years old this year, is a beautiful and deeply illuminating book. I think people educated in social sciences/ humanities need to take off their blinkers when it comes to the ways in which humans have - like every other life form! - been shaped by evolutionary forces.
Winifred Holtby - wonderful novelist and essayist; overlooked feminist thinker. She died aged 37: her posthumously published South Riding is a wonderful, sweeping, romantic novel about local government in Yorkshire. a writer for an era of devolution and the return of deep poverty.
The law that enables people to set up parish councils (also called town councils and community councils), in the area they live in - and collect taxes locally - known as a precept - to spend on neighbourhood improvements and services.
The gender gap in higher education - girls now significantly outnumber boys at UK universities and this isn't discussed enough.
The history of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in Britain
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28:2221/07/2024
AJ Jacobs
A.J. Jacobs is an author, podcaster and human guinea pig. He has written four New York Times bestsellers that combine memoir, science, humor and a dash of self-help. His most recent book is "The Year of Living Constitutionally," in which he tries to understand our nation’s primary document by adopting the mindset and lifestyle of our Founding Fathers. The result is “fascinating and necessary” (Booklist) and “marvelously witty and wise” (Kirkus). He hosts the “The Puzzler With A.J. Jacobs,” a daily podcast produced by iHeart media, in which he gives short, audio-friendly puzzles to celebrity guests. His previous books include “The Year of Living Biblically,” “The Know-It-All” and “Thanks a Thousand.” He has told several Moth stories, and given several TED talks that have amassed over 10 million views. His weekly newsletter can be found at https://substack.com/subscribe/experimentalliving. He was the answer to 1 Down in the March 8, 2014 New York Times crossword puzzle.
Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography — specifically his advice on epistemic humility https://apuedge.com/humility-benjamin-franklin-and-arguing-with-humility-part-ii/
James Madison’s notes on the Constitution https://lawmagazine.bc.edu/2016/02/a-cautionary-tale-about-the-notes-of-james-madison/
Walking sticks https://www.stickandcaneshop.co.uk/country-sticks
The World Jigsaw Championships https://www.worldjigsawpuzzle.org/
Padel https://ipadel.co.uk/The-Rules
The MIT Mystery Hunt http://puzzles.mit.edu/
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29:5814/07/2024
Katherine Bucknell
Katherine Bucknell discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Katherine Bucknell edited all four volumes of Christopher Isherwood's Diaries , a volume of letters between Christopher Isherwood and his partner Don Bachardy (The Animals), and W.H. Auden's Juvenilia: Poems 1922-1928. Co-editor of Auden Studies, a founder of The W. H. Auden Society, and director of the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, she is widely recognised as a leading authority on Isherwood, and her new biography Christopher Isherwood Inside Out is now available. She is also the author of five novels. She was born in Vietnam, raised in America, and lives in London.
Christopher Isherwood's novel Prater Violet https://lonesomereader.com/blog/2024/1/30/prater-violet-by-christopher-isherwood
DH Lawrence's novel The Lost Girl https://journals.openedition.org/lawrence/2328
The Nucleo Project https://www.thenucleoproject.org/
Marfa Stance https://www.marfastance.com/
How scallops move https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGdXxoHJaBA
The value of memorising poetry https://theconversation.com/ode-to-the-poem-why-memorising-poetry-still-matters-for-human-connection-121622
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28:5607/07/2024
Tom Newton Dunn
Tom Newton Dunn is a presenter, political commentator and writer. He first made his name as an award-winning defence correspondent covering the Iraq and Afghan wars. He went on to be Political Editor of The Sun for 11 years, leading coverage of four general election campaigns and the Brexit referendum, and interviewed seven British Prime Ministers and US President Donald Trump.
Moving to broadcast, Tom helped launch Times Radio as the new station’s Chief Political Commentator and the presenter of its flagship Sunday morning political programme. He moved to TalkTV on its launch to anchor an hour-long weeknight news programme. He continues to write for The Times and The Evening Standard. His book is Letters from Everest, available at https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/letters-from-everest-unpublished-letters-from-mallorys-life-and-death-in-the-mountains-tom-newton-dunn?variant=40964397269070.
Britain once invaded Tibet, and by brutal force (in 1904). This was the earliest origin of the modern day conquest of Mount Everest.
Mallory was bisexual, and had homosexual affairs with other Bloomsbury Group members
Mallory had ADHD - or at least, I'm certain he did, as it explains much about him, from his obsessiveness to his forgetfulness (though of course he was never diagnosed)
The Mallory family think George's habit of climbing with a photograph of wife Ruth could be a key clue to whether he reached the top
We revere noble failure more than success - we do for Mallory
More than 300 climbers have died while trying to summit Everest since. Mallory was only the first
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29:3530/06/2024
Alex Edmans
Alex Edmans discusses with Ivan six things which should be less well known.
Alex’s new book is May Contain Lies, about misinformation, and so, in a reversal of the usual format, he discusses six ideas and beliefs which have been overexposed.
Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School. Alex has a PhD from MIT as a Fulbright Scholar, and was previously a tenured professor at Wharton and an investment banker at Morgan Stanley.
Alex has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, testified in the UK Parliament, and given the TED talk What to Trust in a Post-Truth World and the TEDx talks The Pie-Growing Mindset and The Social Responsibility of Business with a combined 2.8 million views. He serves as non-executive director of the Investor Forum, on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Responsible Investing, on Royal London Asset Management’s Responsible Investment Advisory Committee, and on Novo Nordisk’s Sustainability Advisory Council.
Alex’s book, Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit, was a Financial Times Book of the Year and has been translated into nine languages, and he is a co-author of Principles of Corporate Finance (with Brealey, Myers, and Allen). His latest book is May Contain Lies: How Stories, Statistics, and Studies Exploit Our Biases – And What We Can Do About It, available at https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520403932/may-contain-lies.
His six things which should be less well-known are:
Mothers should exclusively breast-feed their babies
You can be an expert in anything if you devote 10,000 hours to it
Starting with why is the secret to success
Diverse teams always perform better
More information makes you more informed
Grit is more important than IQ in driving achievement
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30:3423/06/2024
Jonn Elledge
Jonn Elledge is a New Statesman columnist, and a contributor to the Big Issue, the Guardian, the Evening Standard, and a number of other newspapers. He was previously an assistant editor at the New Statesman, where he created and ran its urbanism-focused CityMetric site, and spent six happy years writing about cities, maps and borders and hosting the Skylines podcast. He has written over a hundred editions of the Newsletter of (Not Quite) Everything. His new book is A History of the World in 47 Borders: The Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps. He previously wrote The Compendium of (Not Quite) Everything: All the Facts You Didn't Know You Wanted to Know and, with Tom Phillips, Conspiracy: A History of Bollcks Theories, and How Not to Fall for Them.
Babylon 5 https://www.douxreviews.com/2015/08/babylon-5-series-review.html
Life & Fate by Vasily Grossman https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v29/n20/john-lanchester/good-day-comrade-shtrum
The Truth about Markets by John Kay https://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&context=economics-faculty-publications
Why there was no Danish holocaust https://www.history.com/news/wwii-danish-jews-survival-holocaust
Nehru's affair with Lady Mountbatten https://www.indiatoday.in/india-today-insight/story/from-the-india-today-archives-1980-mountbattens-and-nehru-friendship-in-high-places-2413716-2023-07-30
Ethiopian food https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/ethiopian-food-best-dishes-africa/index.html
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29:5416/06/2024
Henry Oliver
Henry Oliver discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Henry Oliver is a writer, speaker, and brand consultant. He writes regularly for outlets like the New Statesman, The Critic, and UnHerd. He writes the popular Substack The Common Reader, which was recently mentioned in the Atlantic. His book Second Act is about late bloomers. In 2022, he was given an Emergent Ventures grant.
Izaac Walton https://newcriterion.com/article/the-right-angle/
Wren churches https://sixinthecity.co.uk/news/2023/03/51-wren-churches/
Lyrics of Noel Coward songs https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n13/rosemary-hill/mushroom-cameo
Lichfield https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryMagazine/DestinationsUK/The-City-of-Lichfield/
Byron Janis Bach recording https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdL3-xwoFik
Elizabeth Jenkins https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/sep/07/elizabeth-jenkins-obituary
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29:0609/06/2024
Jamaica Kincaid
Jamaica Kincaid discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Jamaica Kincaid was born in St. John’s, Antigua. Her books include At the Borrom of the River; Annie John; Lucy; The Autobiography of My Mother; My Brother; Mr Potter; and See Now Then. She teaches at Harvard University and lives in Vermont. Her new book is an Encylopedia of Gardening for Colored People at https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9780374608255?gC=5a105e8b.
Let Love Come Between Us by James and Bobby Purify https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32CgFcOSbxw
26 of the 50 United States bear the names of Native Americans https://thoughtcatalog.com/james-b-barnes/2014/10/26-states-that-were-named-by-native-americans-was-your-state/
The Travels of William Bartram https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/americas-first-great-enviromentalist-florida-william-bartram-180983452/
The first paragraph of the 3rd Chapter of the Life of Frederick Douglas https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/narrative/full-text/chapter-iii/
Ervartung, a mono-drama opera with music by Arnold Schoenberg https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2002/feb/01/artsfeatures.classicalmusicandopera
The seed packet was invented by The Shakers, an English Protestant sect, who immigrated to America and made many beautiful and useful things for the home. Their beliefs were quite severe regarding sex so no children were produced to ruin the beautiful and useful things they made for the home https://digventures.com/2018/02/11-things-we-still-use-that-were-invented-by-the-shakers/
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29:5902/06/2024
Caroline Eden returns
Caroline Eden returns to discuss with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Caroline Eden is a writer and book critic contributing to the Financial Times, Guardian and
the Times Literary Supplement. Her new book is Cold Kitchen: A Year of Culinary Journeys. Her earlier books include Samarkand, Black Sea and Red Sands, winner of the prestigious André Simon Award and a Book of the Year for the New Yorker.
Ukrainian borsch
Uzbek melons
Russian pirozhki
Polish pierogi
Armenian lavash
Turkish boza
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29:0826/05/2024
Caroline Crampton
Caroline Crampton discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Caroline Crampton is the author of The Way to the Sea: The Forgotten Histories of the Thames Estuary (Granta, 2019). Her award-winning podcast, Shedunnit, is distributed by BBC Sounds. Her journalism has appeared in the New Statesman, The Times and the Guardian. An experienced broadcaster, she has appeared on BBC Two, Sky News, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 4. Her new book is A Body Made of Glass: A History of Hypochondria.
The Lime Street Cutting https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/stunning-pictures-reveal-rarely-glimpsed-22659098
The adult novels of Eva Ibbotson https://shereadsnovels.com/2012/11/25/madensky-square-by-eva-ibbotson/
Beremeal flour https://baronymill.com/
The inverted story or "howdunnit" https://www.novelsuspects.com/articles/inverted-detective-stories-when-you-already-know-whodunnit/
The 1944 Powell and Pressburger film A Canterbury Tale https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/powell-pressburger-kent-locations-canterbury-tale
Clumber spaniels https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/clumber-spaniel/
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30:0819/05/2024
Kathryn Hughes
Kathryn Hughes discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Kathryn Hughes is the critically acclaimed author of The Victorian Governess, The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton, which was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, and the hugely acclaimed George Eliot: The Last Victorian, which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography. Her new book is Catland: Feline Enchantment and the Making of the Modern World. Educated at Oxford University, she holds a PhD in Victorian studies. She is a visiting lecturer at several British universities and reviews regularly for The Guardian, Daily Telegraph and Literary Review.
Mrs Cotman, portrait by John Sell Cotman (hanging in Norwich Castle Museum) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Mrs_John_Sell_Cotman.jpg
Frances Simpson https://cat-o-pedia.org/frances-simpson.html
The Heart of Wales railway line https://news.tfw.wales/news/heart-of-wales-railway-line-best-in-europe
The proper use of the word “disinterested” https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/eb/qa/disinterested-vs-uninterested
Linley Sambourne House https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/museums/sambourne-house
The Gas Man Cometh (1963) by Flanders and Swann https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1dvAxA9ib0
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29:2612/05/2024
Elaine Lin Hering
Elaine Lin Hering discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Elaine Lin Hering has been a lecturer at Harvard Law School and a Managing Partner at Triad Consulting Group. She has worked with a wide range of clients in Fortune 500 companies, including American Express, Capital One, Google, Merck, Nike, Shell and Pixar, as well as with government and non-profit organisations.
Elaine "has all the ingredients to become the next Brené Brown” - Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen, co-authors of NYT Bestseller, Difficult Conversations.
Elaine’s new book is Unlearning Silence: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent and Lead with Courage, available at https://www.waterstones.com/book/unlearning-silence/elaine-lin-hering/9781529900170.
The real costs of AI https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ais-climate-impact-goes-beyond-its-emissions/
Babble hypothesis of leadership https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/08/leaders-talk-more-babble-hypothesis/
No-knead pizza dough https://www.seriouseats.com/jim-laheys-no-knead-pizza-dough-recipe
Social change ecosystems https://buildingmovement.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Ecosystem-Guide-April-2022.pdf
Use of low power language is strategic https://www.yourpowerunleashed.org/blog/2023/5/21/womens-use-of-low-power-language-at-work-is-not-diminishing-but-very-strategic
Forest-bathing is healthy https://time.com/5259602/japanese-forest-bathing/
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28:5205/05/2024
Andrew Finkel
Journalist Andrew Finkel discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Andrew Finkel has spent years reporting for media organisations including The Times, The Economist, New York Times and CNN. He has covered wars and earthquakes, market booms and busts, and in his capacity as a food critic and contributing editor for Istanbul’s Cornucopia magazine, the postmodernity of the kebab. His experiences working in the Turkish-language press prompted him to co-found P24, an association to promote freedom of expression, and the Istanbul literature house, Kiraathane. He has written a number of non-fiction titles, including Turkey: What Everyone Needs to Know which was “called a succinct, readable and expert briefing on the modern country” by the Daily Telegraph and “no better introduction to today’s Turkey” by Andrew Mango. The Adventure of the Second Wife is his debut novel.
The obsession of the Ottoman sultan Abdülhamid II for Sherlock Holmes https://www.thebulwark.com/p/plagues-of-the-body-and-plagues-of-the-mind-orhan-pamuk
The art of the dramatically satisfying ending https://www.vulture.com/article/the-101-best-movie-endings-of-all-time-ranked.html
Cornucopia https://www.cornucopia.net/
The Big Green Egg https://www.biggreenegg.co.uk/
The plight of Turkish journalism https://ethicaljournalismnetwork.org/turkey-after-an-attempted-coup-the-journalists-nightmare
The periphery of Istanbul https://www.istanbulmeetandgreetservice.com/the-5-most-charming-small-villages-near-to-istanbul/
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27:2728/04/2024
Bill Weir
Bill Weir discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Bill Weir is a veteran anchor, writer, producer, and host who came to CNN in 2013 after a decade of award-winning journalism at ABC News.
In 2019, he was named the network’s first Chief Climate Correspondent, drawing on his experience creating and hosting the primetime CNN Original Series “The Wonder List with Bill Weir,” now streaming on Discovery+.
His first book, Life As We Know It (Can Be) was published by Chronicle Prism in April 2024.
The Goldilocks Earth https://www.thedailybeast.com/cnn-host-bill-weir-plans-to-hold-bidens-feet-to-the-fire-on-climate-change
Humanity’s role models will be beavers, camels and gentoo penguins https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/16/climate/life-as-we-know-it-book-bill-weir/index.html
We need thoughtful YIMBYs https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/23/us/climate-crisis-earth-day-weir-letter/index.html
The home of the future will come with much thicker walls https://www.builderonline.com/products/building-construction-materials/cnn-report-examines-alternative-way-to-build-homes
The new industrial revolution https://edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/2024/02/05/clean-revolution-weir-pkg.cnn
Veggie burgers can do more environmental harm than a steak https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/03/us/climate-crisis-cattle-amp-grazing/index.html
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30:0021/04/2024
Chioma Okereke
Chioma Okereke discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Born in Nigeria, Chioma Okereke grew up in London and studied law at UCL. She started her writing career as a performance poet before turning her hand to prose. Her debut novel, Bitter Leaf (Virago), was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and her short story, Trompette De La Mort, received First Runner Up in the Costa Short Story Award. Her new novel is Water Baby.
Jamaica Kincaid https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2022/04/07/jamaica-kincaids-rope-of-live-wires/
Cadaqués https://www.lonelyplanet.com/spain/cadaques
PRP (platelet rich plasma) https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/platelet-rich-plasma-injections
Raye https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/raye-escapism-21st-century-blues-interview-1234671381/
Tiger nuts https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772753X23003325
Andre Brink https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/08/andre-brink
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29:2514/04/2024
Ash Bhardwaj
Ash Bhardwaj discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Ash Bhardwaj is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and keynote speaker, whose work explores the intersection of travel, current affairs and human behaviour. He has reported from around the world for outlets including the BBC, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times and Condé Nast Traveller. Before travel writing, Ash was a ski instructor, science teacher and wannabe cowboy. He is an officer in the British Army Reserve, and a lecturer in travel journalism at City, University of London. Why We Travel is his first book.
Great Polynesian Migration https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/encounters/polynesian-voyaging
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/
Ukraine (as a place, not just a site of war) https://theculturetrip.com/europe/ukraine/articles/the-top-20-attractions-in-ukraine
Turning grief into hope https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/oceania/new-zealand/my-mother-died-of-cancer-new-zealand-turned-my-grief/
How beliefs and behaviours work https://iulianionescu.com/blog/how-our-beliefs-and-values-shape-our-behavior/
Psychogeography https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/psychogeography
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30:1207/04/2024
Anthony Daniels
Anthony Daniels discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Anthony Daniels was born in London in 1949. He retired from medical practice except for medico-legal work in 2005. He has written several books, including an account of a journey across Africa by public transport, and under his pseudonym, Theodore Dalrymple, has written many essays for publications such as City Journal, some of which were collected in Life at the Bottom (2001), which has been translated into several languages. His new book is Buried But Not Quite Dead: Forgotten Writers of Père Lachaise. He divides his time between England and France.
The Fire Raisers by Max Frisch https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2007/nov/01/thearsonistsstillburnsbrig
The Hospital Poems by WE Henley https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1931720414002025
A Mother Peeling Apples by Pieter de Hooch https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/a-woman-peeling-apples-209233
Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne-Melchior_de_Vog%C3%BC%C3%A9
That Le Corbusier was a fascist https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32546182
That the poor are disproportionately the victims of crime https://www.theguardian.com/society/2006/apr/18/socialexclusion.crime
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31:1131/03/2024
Leah Redmond Chang
Historian Leah Redmond Chang discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Leah Redmond Chang is a former Associate Professor of French and Director of the French Literature Programme at George Washington University, and was most recently a Senior Research Associate at University College London. She is the author of two previous books: Into Print: The Production of Female Authorship in Early Modern France and Portraits of the Queen Mother: Polemics, Panegyrics, Letters, winner of the Josephine Roberts Award from the International Society for the Study of Early Modern Women. She lives with her husband and three children, and divides her time between Washington, DC and London.
Fake news goes back at least to the 16th century https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/12/fake-news-history-long-violent-214535/
16th-century Europe was dominated by female leaders https://www.historytoday.com/archive/review/young-queens-leah-redmond-chang-review
The Renaissance Italian painter Sofonisba Anguissola https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2022/03/this-italian-artist-became-the-first-female-superstar-of-the-renaissance
The teenaged queen consort of Spain, Elisabeth de Valois https://flhwnotesandreviews.com/2018/06/11/book-review-elizabeth-de-valois-queen-of-spain-and-the-court-of-philip-ii-by-martha-walker-freer/
The story of the 16th-century French peasant Martin Guerre and his wife Bertrande https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/martin-guerre-0016613
Letter-locking https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210616-how-the-forgotten-tricks-of-letterlocking-shaped-history
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30:1124/03/2024
Alice Loxton
Historian Alice Loxton discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Alice Loxton is a 28 year old history broadcaster and writer with over two million followers on social media (@history_alice). She has appeared on many channels including Sky Arts, Channel 5, BBC News and History Hit, and has worked with a wide array of organisations to bring history to mainstream audiences, including Christie’s, Meta, The National Trust, 10 Downing Street, The Royal Collection Trust, The National Portrait Gallery and The National Gallery. UPROAR! Satire, Scandal and Printmaking in Georgian London is Alice’s first book. Her second book, Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives, comes out in August 2024.
James Gillray https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v23/n12/peter-campbell/at-tate-britain
The fact that Napoleon wasn’t short https://www.history.com/news/napoleon-complex-short
Landmark Trust https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/may/12/how-a-derelict-scottish-tower-was-turned-into-a-sumptuous-retreat
The French House, Soho https://www.timeout.com/london/bars-and-pubs/french-house
Parish churches https://www.countryfile.com/go-outdoors/days-out/britains-most-beautiful-churches
The London Library https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v13/n18/john-sutherland/sod-off-readers
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30:1217/03/2024
Charlie Russell
Charlie Russell discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Charlie Russell she/her. Creative Associate and co-founder at Mischief. Trained at LAMDA. Work with Mischief includes Groan Ups (West End); The Play That Goes Wrong (UK Tour, West End, Broadway); Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Pleasance, West End, BBC1 adaptation, Broadway); The Comedy About A Bank Robbery (West End); The Goes Wrong Show (BBC Sitcom); Improviser, Mischief Movie Night (West End, UK Tour), Austentatious, Yes Queens. Charlie wrote and performed a run of her first solo show, Charlie Russell Aims To Please, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2022. Other acting work includes Kat in Kite Strings (Short Film), Doctors (BBC 1), And Then There Were None (BBC1 & Mammoth Screen) #FindTheGirl (BBC3 Online) and A Twist Of Dahl (BBC Radio 4). Charlie can next be seen starring in Fanny at The Watermill Theatre in May 2024.
500 Acts of Kindness group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2074795452542346/
Fanny Mendelssohn https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/23/arts/music-review-fanny-mendelssohn-was-audacious-too.html
The game Worldle https://thinkygames.com/reviews/worldle-a-treasure-trove-for-geography-nerds/
Improv https://www.hooplaimpro.com/improv-comedy-club-london-bridge.html
A Short History of Queer Women by Kirsty Loehr. https://www.gscene.com/arts/books/book-review-a-short-history-of-queer-women-by-kirsty-loehr/
Therapy https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-treatments/talking-therapies-and-counselling/benefits-of-talking-therapies/
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31:0810/03/2024
Sunny Singh
Sunny Singh discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Sunny Singh is a writer, novelist, public intellectual, and a champion for decolonisation and inclusion across all aspects of society. She is the author of three critically acclaimed novels, Hotel Arcadia, With Krishna’s Eyes, and Nani’s Book of Suicides, a study of Amitabh Bachchan for the BFI’s film star series, and the recent, A Bollywood State of Mind: A Journey into the World’s Biggest Cinema. She has recently completed a collection of stories linked by the theme of war and is currently working on a new novel, and a non-fiction book about writing ethically. In 2017 she launched the celebrated Jhalak Prize. She is also a founder of the Jhalak Foundation that focuses on a range of literary, artistic and literacy initiatives in the UK and beyond. Sunny lives in London where she is Professor of Creative Writing and Inclusion in the Arts at the London Metropolitan University.
Bollywood movies https://asianreviewofbooks.com/content/a-bollywood-state-of-mind-a-journey-into-the-worlds-biggest-cinema-by-sunny-singh/
Backpacking https://nomadsworld.com/6-reasons-backpacking-good/
Intersectionality https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination
Senegal http://hipafrica.com/features/9-reasons-visit-senegal/
Open water swimming (and adult swimming lessons) https://www.brighton.ac.uk/news/2023/is-open-water-swimming-good-for-you
The excellence and range of literature by British writers of colour https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/03/akala-bernardine-evaristo-ben-okri-and-more-pick-20-classic-books-by-writers-of-colour
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29:3203/03/2024
Alexandra Tolstoy
Alexandra Tolstoy discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Alexandra Tolstoy is an Anglo-Russian mother, adventurer, author and TV presenter. She organises adventurous horse riding holidays in Kyrgyzstan, and runs The Tolstoy Edit, a curated shop of her favourite interiors discoveries.
Kyrgyzstan https://alexandratolstoytravel.com/
Ronald Welch https://foxedquarterly.com/ronald-welch-carey-novels-telegraph-review/
Darning and patching https://pieceworkmagazine.com/your-guide-to-mending/
Ivan Bilibin http://textualities.net/jennie-renton/the-art-of-ivan-bilibin
19th century European novels https://potpourri2015.wordpress.com/2021/06/14/review-the-semi-detached-house-by-emily-eden/
Victoria sponges https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/grannys-victoria-sponge
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28:3025/02/2024
Julius Taranto
Novelist Julius Taranto discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Julius Taranto is the author of a novel, How I Won a Nobel Prize, which is available at https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/julius-taranto/how-i-won-a-nobel-prize/9781035006830. His other writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Review of Books, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Phoebe. He attended Yale Law School and Pomona College. He lives in New York.
Cynthia Ozick https://centerforfiction.org/interviews/cynthia-ozick-interviewed-by-alessandra-farkas/
The Spirit of Liberty by Learned Hand https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2013/12/05/judge-who-shaped-our-law/
Jon Brion https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2023/01/17/jon-brion-the-aquarium-drunkard-interview/
Polite Society https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/apr/26/polite-society-review-fun-action-comedy-mashes-jane-austen-and-the-chuckle-brothers
American Civil War battlefields and history tourism https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/defining-battles-civil-war/
Peter Carey https://play.acast.com/s/talkingpolitics/petercarey
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29:3318/02/2024
Faye Begeti
Faye Begeti discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Dr Faye Begeti is a practising neurology doctor and neuroscientist at Oxford University Hospitals. She completed her medical degree and PhD at Cambridge, and currently conducts research into Parkinson’s disease alongside seeing her neurology patients. Her Instagram account @the_brain_doctor was started to share her knowledge more widely and has since amassed a community of over 134K followers. She lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and two young daughters. Her new book is The Phone Fix at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Phone-Fix-Brain-Focused-Building-Breaking/dp/1803285567
Our phones are not addictive https://technosapiens.substack.com/p/smartphoneaddiction
Habits are stored in a subconscious part of our brain https://www.npr.org/2012/03/05/147192599/habits-how-they-form-and-how-to-break-them
We don’t have unlimited mental energy https://www.dayagrant.com/blog/how-the-brain-leaks-energy
Chronic stress can lead to physical symptoms https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/stress/signs-and-symptoms-of-stress/
A good night’s sleep starts in the morning https://hr.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1421/2023/02/A-Healthy-Nights-Sleep-Starts-the-Moment-You-Wake-Up.pdf
Building cognitive reserve reduces the risk of dementia https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/health-wellbeing/mind-body/staying-sharp/thinking-skills-change-with-age/cognitive-reserve/
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30:0311/02/2024
Kelly Link
Kelly Link discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Kelly Link is the author of White Cat, Black Dog; Get in Trouble, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction; Magic for Beginners; Stranger Things Happen; and Pretty Monsters. Her short stories have been published in The Best American Short Stories and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. She is a MacArthur “Genius Grant” fellow and has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She is the co-founder of Small Beer Press and co-edits the occasional zine Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. She is also the co-owner of Book Moon, an independent bookstore in Easthampton, Massachusetts. The Book of Love is her debut novel.
Bloomsbury: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/book-of-love-9781804548431/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Love-Kelly-Link/dp/1804548456/
Bookshop.org: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-book-of-love-kelly-link/7508595?ean=9781804548455
Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-book-of-love/kelly-link/9781804548455
Kathryn Davis https://artsci.wustl.edu/faculty-staff/kathryn-davis
Dorothy https://dorothyproject.com/
Winterpills https://www.winterpills.com/
Kiva www.kiva.org
CCATE www.ccate.org
Street Books www.streetbooks.org
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28:5604/02/2024
Alice Kinsella
Alice Kinsella discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Alice Kinsella is a poet from Mayo, on the west coast of Ireland. She is the author of Sexy Fruit (Broken Sleep, 2018) and editor of Empty House: poetry and prose on the climate crisis (Doire Press, 2021). Milk (Picador, 2023) is her debut book of prose. She is an Arts Council of Ireland Next Generation Artist.
The Loneliest Whale in the World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDwDXwcF3iw
Happy Tummy Company https://www.thehappytummyco.com/
Mosab Abu Toha https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/01/a-palestinian-poets-perilous-journey-out-of-gaza
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/polycystic-ovary-syndrome
County Mayo's Whaling past https://iwdg.ie/end-of-our-whaling-era/
Being wrong https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/24/french-parliament-passes-law-giving-citizens-the-right-to-make-mistakes
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27:4628/01/2024
Robert McCrum
Robert McCrum discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Robert McCrum is a writer and editor whose most recent book, Shakespearean was published to great acclaim in 2021. Formerly the editor-in-chief of Faber & Faber, and literary editor of the Observer, he is also the author of Wodehouse: A Life (2004), and a classic memoir, My Year Off (1998).
From 1980 to 1996, McCrum was editor-in-chief of Faber & Faber, where he published Kazuo Ishiguro, Hanif Kureishi, Milan Kundera, Peter Carey, Danilo Kis, Paul Auster, Marilynne Robinson, Lorrie Moore, Adam Phillips, Mario Vargas Llosa, Jayne Anne Phillips, Orhan Pamuk, and Adam Mars-Jones. At the same time, he wrote seven novels, and co-authored the BBC TV series, The Story Of English, for which he was awarded an Emmy in 1986, followed by a Peabody Prize in 1987.
In July 1995, McCrum suffered a serious stroke, a personal crisis he described in My Year Off, a book now regarded as an essential study in the understanding of the condition.
He was literary editor of the Observer from 1996 to 2010. Globish (2010) was an international bestseller. In 2024, he will publish The Penalty Kick: The Story of A Game-changer with Notting Hill Editions.
The Lost Art of Silence by Sarah Anderson https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/animal-emotions/202312/the-art-and-power-of-connecting-to-the-sounds-of-silence
The River Granta https://www.wildlifebcn.org/news/river-granta-gets-wiggle
The invention of the penalty kick in football https://epicchq.com/story/william-mccrum-the-irish-inventor-of-the-penalty-kick/
Alfred the Great https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v40/n09/tom-shippey/what-did-he-think-he-was
Kindness https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-the-unbearable-lightness-of-being-enthralled-a-generation/
Rossini’s Petite Messe Solonelle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqrzmdevQSI
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28:0121/01/2024
Less well known
Ivan looks back at previous discussions with a variety of guests and picks out the things which they think should be less well known. Foregoing the normal positivity, guests rant, complain and moan about famous people, books, television shows, sports, ideas and 90s dances which they find deeply tiresome. The guests and topics are:
James Runcie on Lord of the Rings
Helen Thompson on The West Wing
Paul Willetts on Meghan Markle
Matthew Parris on Alistair Campbell
Irenosen Okojie on The Sun
Daisy Dunn on Whats app
Jon Glover on the word “like”
Dominic Sandbrook on history
Emma Smith on Shakespeare
Kate Mosse on Nigel Farage
Henry Hemming on Formula One
Subhadra Das on Charles Darwin
Andy Smith on Macarena
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27:1414/01/2024
Matthew Rice
Matthew Rice discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Matthew Rice paints, writes and runs courses in the summer which utilise his garden, which is the focus of the rest of his time. Over his career he has published 11 books on architecture, designed many millions of mugs for the business he ran with his then wife Emma Bridgewater, and illustrated for Country Life magazine. His interests in architecture have led to a series of charity roles in that area. Matthew grew up in a household of designers and now lives in Oxfordshire where he paints and writes.
Matthew Rice, educated at Bedales, studied painting and theatre design at Chelsea and Central Schools of Art, is an honorary doctor of Keele and Staffordshire Universities and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Matthew has four children and one grandson.
His books include Village Buildings of Britain, Building Norfolk, Rice’s Architectural Primer, The Lost City of Stoke-on-Trent, Rice’s Church Primer, Oxford, Pat Albeck Queen of the Tea Towel, Rice’s Language of Buildings, Venice A Sketchbook Guide and Rome A Sketchbook Guide.
During the summer, Matthew runs a variety of painting and gardening courses in addition to opening his garden at his home in west Oxfordshire. Further details are available at www.matthewricewatercolours.co.uk.
His 2024 courses include:
Tuesday 30th April – Vegetable & Cut Flower Growing Course
Wednesday 15th & Thursday 16th May – Botanical Drawing Course
Wednesday 29th & Thursday 30th May – Sketchbook Course
Wednesday 5th & Thursday 6th June – Sketchbook Course
Wednesday 19th & Thursday 20th June – Botanical Drawing Curse
Wednesday 10th & Thursday 11th July – Architectural Drawing Course
His 2024 Open Garden dates are: Sunday 2nd June, Sunday 21st July an Sunday 8th September.
Poundbury https://poundbury.co.uk/
Landmark trust https://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/
Choral evensong https://www.choralevensong.org/uk/
The Grant Museum https://www.ucl.ac.uk/culture/grant-museum-zoology
Zinnias https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-grow-zinnias/
Silver Birch https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/a-z-of-british-trees/silver-birch/
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28:3507/01/2024
Richard Mills
Richard Mills discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Dr Richard Mills is Associate Professor in English Literature and Popular Culture at St Mary’s University, London. He has been programme director for the Film and Popular Culture, Cultural Studies and Irish Studies degrees. He has published extensively on popular music, Irish literature and culture, film, fashion and British television. Mills is the author of The Beatles and Fandom: Sex, Death and Progressive Nostalgia (Bloomsbury 2019). He is co-editor of Mad Dogs and Englishness (Bloomsbury 2017) and The Beatles and Humour (Bloomsbury 2023). He is author of the forthcoming The Beatles and Black Music: Post-colonial Theory, Musicology and Remix Culture (Bloomsbury 2024) Richard is a regular contributor to BBC4’s Last Word, Sky News, RTE, Portobello Radio and BBC Live and serves on the editorial board of The Journal of Beatles Studies.
Bedazzled https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/32e4e509-795e-5e0d-b70b-681f67bde3c8/bedazzled
The black artists who influenced the Beatles' music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqp2h65BAs8 & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGLGzRXY5Bw
Deep End https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_End_(film)
Disturbing the Peace by Richard Yates https://www.amazon.co.uk/Disturbing-Peace-Vintage-Classics-Richard/dp/0099518554
Dining at the Dunbar by Maurice Leitch https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/13/maurice-leitch-obituary
Claire Keegan's stories and novels https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/claire-keegan
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28:4517/12/2023
Noreen Masud
Noreen Masud discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Noreen Masud is a Lecturer in Twentieth Century Literature at the University of Bristol, and an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker 2020. Her first book for non-academic audiences is A Flat Place (2023): a memoir-travelogue about the beauty of flat places, and how they might help us relate to each other.
The beauty of flat landscapes https://theartsdesk.com/books/noreen-masud-flat-place-reflective-landscapes
The history of non-white British MPs https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn01156/
Deep canvassing https://www.vox.com/2020/1/29/21065620/broockman-kalla-deep-canvassing
W. S. Graham https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/w-s-graham
The proper use of prepositions and conjunctions https://content.byui.edu/file/b8b83119-9acc-4a7b-bc84-efacf9043998/1/Grammar-1-2-1.html
How to make elderly carrots less bendy https://www.allrecipes.com/article/how-to-revive-limp-vegetables/
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29:4810/12/2023
Bob Cryer
Bob Cryer discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Bob Cryer is an actor and writer best known for Coronation Street and Hollyoaks. He is the youngest child of Barry Cryer. He collaborated with his father on Barry's book of anecdotes, Butterfly Brain, in 2010. Shortly afterwards, they created the book series Mrs Hudson's Diaries, which was adapted into a play for Wilton's Music Hall. Mrs Hudson's Radio Show soon followed for Radio 4 in 2018. Their joint podcast, Now Where Were We?, launched just before Barry's death in January 2022. Bob's new book is Barry Cryer: Same Time Tomorrow?: The Life and Laughs of a Comedy Legend.
Black filter coffee https://majestycoffee.com/blogs/posts/americano-vs-drip-coffee
Phyllis Pearsall https://www.peterberthoud.co.uk/post/the-real-story-of-a-z-maps-by-phyllis-pearsall
Barry Cryer https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-34041501
Raymond Carver https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/12/24/rough-crossings
The Felice Brothers https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/23/the-felice-brothers-life-in-the-dark-new-album
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/kiss-kiss-bang-bang-review/
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29:3403/12/2023
Martin Knight
Martin Knight discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Martin Knight is a British author. He has written autobiographies with footballers George Best, Dave Mackay, Peter Osgood and Charlie Cooke also Alan Longmuir founder member of the Bay City Rollers.
In addition he has authored true crime titles and novels. His latest book Justice Killer is released in November 2023. His collaboration with ex-criminal Ronnie Field Nefarious will be published by Harper Collins in 2024.
Bird identification apps https://birda.org/best-birdwatching-apps-uk/
Letter writing https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/nov/26/from-me-with-love-lost-art-letter-writing
Non-league and lower league football https://www.echo-news.co.uk/sport/23260993.support-non-league-football/
The Small Faces https://medium.com/the-riff/the-tragic-story-of-the-small-faces-8830946625b9
The Footage Detectives https://www.tptvencore.co.uk/Playlist/Footage-Detectives?id=1ce12be2-3de3-4c50-a784-a8ceb1083fb0
Hastings https://www.ellieandco.co.uk/2022/02/7-secret-highlights-of-a-weekend-in-hastings-east-sussex.html
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29:4726/11/2023
300th episode: Henry Lewis
To mark the 300th episode of Better Known, actor Henry Lewis discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Henry Lewis is a power house creative: writer, actor, director and puzzle genius. He is the Artistic Director of Mischief and writes, produces and performs for the company. His work with Mischief includes: The Play that Goes Wrong (Broadway, West End, UK & International Tours), Peter Pan Goes Wrong (BBC1, West End & UK Tours), The Comedy About A Bank Robbery (West End & UK Tour), The Goes Wrong Show (BBC1 & Amazon), Magic Goes Wrong (created with magicians Penn & Teller, West End), Groan Ups (West End), Mischief Movie Night (West End & UK Tour). Henry's work has earned him five Olivier Nominations including a win for Best New Comedy for The Play that Goes Wrong, and his writing has been performed in over thirty countries worldwide. His new book is The Museum Heist, available at https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-museum-heist/henry-lewis/9781408728499.
Royal Institution www.rigb.org
I am Mother https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-capsule-genre-string-20190620-story.html
Paxos https://www.greektravel.com/greekislands/paxos/
John Duffin https://www.johnduffin.co.uk/
Tony’s Chocolate https://tonyschocolonely.com/uk/en
The Mystery Agency https://themysteryagency.com/
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28:1219/11/2023
Lucy Eaton
Lucy Eaton discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.
Lucy Eaton’s theatre credits include: The Duchess of Malfi (Old Vic), A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Trafalgar Studios), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Donmar Warehouse), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Southwark Playhouse), Daisy Pulls it Off (Park Theatre), Khadija is 18 (Finborough Theatre) and Almost, Maine (Park Theatre).
TV credits include BBC1's lockdown smash comedy Staged, alongside David Tennant and Michael Sheen, and Netflix US’ Murder Maps.
Alongside her acting, Lucy co-runs Go People, a production company specialising in uplifting escapism on an intimate scale. She is also Founding Director of Revels in Hand, an internationally renowned luxury events service that offers world class theatre productions in clients’ private homes. Revels in Hand has been featured in Tatler, The Guardian, Forbes, The Telegraph and Vogue.
Greek food https://greekreporter.com/2012/03/05/top-10-strange-greek-foods-you-may-like-or-not/
How actors learn their lines https://theactorsplace.org/how-actors-memorize-lines-part-1/
Colons and semi-colons https://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/colonandsemi/semi
The pursuit of happiness https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/a_better_way_to_pursue_happiness
The best theatres in London https://www.timeout.com/london/theatre/top-london-theatre-venues-chosen-by-you
You can hire theatre for your home https://www.revelsinhand.com/
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30:1012/11/2023