The TLS Podcast

Anna Picard discusses the problems of subject matter and sensationalism in the new opera Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel; Anna Vaux talks us through the Bauhaus school and its global influence, as well as Lucian Freud's compulsion to create and controlBooksJack the Ripper:The Women of Whitechapel by Iain Bell, ENO, until April 12Walter Gropius: Visionary founder of the Bauhaus by Fiona MacCarthyJosef Albers: Life and work by Charles DarwentLucian Freud by Martin Gayford Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Richard Fortey takes us on an energetic sprint through 65 million years of Europe's complex biological history; David Robey introduces the life and work of Emilio Salgari, the Italian Rider Haggard; Ella Baron, the TLS's regular cartoonist, discusses her work, including this week's European cover.BooksEurope: A natural history by Tim FlanneryEmilio Salgari: Una mitologia moderna tra letteratura, politica, società (volumes I and II) by Ann Lawson LucasElla Baron's work will be exhibited at Christie's in London, from April 5 to 10 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Carol Tavris considers new approaches to the old problem of old age (and the newer problem of old old age); as secularism wanes on the global scale, Rupert Shortt considers whether religion does more harm than good BooksBolder: Making the most of our longer lives by Carl HonoréBorrowed Time: The science of how and why we age by Sue ArmstrongRetirement and Its Discontents: Why we won’t stop working, even if we can by Michelle Pannor SilverWomen Rowing North: Navigating life’s currents and flourishing as we age by Mary PipherOn the Brink of Everything: Grace, gravity and getting old by Parker J. PalmerThis Chair Rocks: A manifesto against ageism by Ashton ApplewhiteDoes Religion do More Harm than Good? by Rupert Shortt Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Phil Baker guides us through the morbid, wistful and yet immensely charming world of the writer and illustrator Edward Gorey; Frances Wilson weighs the pleasures and pains of letter and email writing; Ian Sansom on the struggle to be funnyBooksBorn To Be Posthumous: The eccentric life and mysterious genius of Edward Gorey, by Mark DeryWhat a Hazard a Letter Is: The strange destiny of the unsent letter, by Caroline AtkinsWritten In History: Letters that changed the world, by Simon Sebag MontefioreIn Their Own Words: Volume 2: More letters from historyWit's End: What wit is, how it works, and why we need it, by James GearyMessing About In Quotes: A little Oxford dictionary of humorous quotations, compiled by Gyles Brandreth Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“What we often forget in the daily drumbeat of abuses by the dominant tech companies is our complicity in these abuses, and in the fundamental and unsettling ways the internet has changed every one of us.” As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights enters its seventieth anniversary, Dave Eggers, in the 2018 PEN H. G. Wells lecture, argues that urgent amendments are needed to mitigate the corrosive effects of technology on the societal and the personal. You can read an edited extract from the lecture on the TLS website. This is a recording of an event that took place on December 16, 2018, at the Bridge Theatre, London.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Coward celebrates the 400th anniversary of the birth of Cyrano de Bergerac, whose radical thought has long been obscured by his protuberant nose; Muriel Zagha on Molière, France’s most famous playwright, and a bold new adaptation of Tartuffe; finally, a poem by Stephen Knight: “Rail Replacement Bus Service” (sigh) Molière’s ‘Tartuffe’, a new version by John Donnelly, at the National Theatre, London Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Stig Abell and Lucy DallasToby Lichtig comes in to talk the wide scope of Jewish culture, the “lachrymose” theory of history and why it is Arthur Miller time once more. Roz Dineen deals with porn, pile-ons and goop podcasts. And we call Thea when she is “working from home” to check in on her new dog. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A conversation between the novelist and essayist Zadie Smith and the journalist Carolina, recorded at Hay Festival Cartagena in Colombia earlier this month. The full Hay Festival archive can be accessed by subscribing to Hay Player online at hayfestival.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The writer and comedian Charlie Higson, half of the team behind The Fast Show, on the curious history of comedy written and performed by pairs; the novelist Margaret Drabble considers the dizzying new releases from the estate of Anthony Burgess, the man Philip Larkin once called “the Batman of contemporary letters”  TextsStan & Ollie, directed by Jon S. Baird Morecambe & Wise: 50 years of sunshine, by Gary MorecambeThe Double Act: A history of British comedy duos, by Andrew RobertsSoupy Twists!: The full, official story of the sophisticated silliness of Stephen Fry & Hugh Laurie, by Jem RobertsBeard’s Roman Women by Anthony Burgess, edited by Graham FosterPuma by Anthony Burgess, edited by Paul WakeThe Black Prince by Adam RobertsObscenity and the Arts, a talk by Anthony Burgess, edited by Johnny Walsh Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A recording of the inaugural Gabriel García Marquez lecture given this February by the novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, at Hay Festival Cartagena in Colombia. The full Hay Festival archive can be accessed by subscribing to Hay Player online at hayfestival.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.