The Historical Impact of Spirits and the Gin Craze

Philosopher Nina Power joins Sebastian Morello and Brian Scarffe for a roaming conversation on fire: its ancient sanctity, its capacity to protect and to destroy, its place in the hearth cults of antiquity, and its neglected spiritual symbolism in Christian life. From the oracular invocation of fire at a dinner party to reflections on cremation, alchemical distillation, gin-fuelled social collapse, and the counterfeit hearth of television.