Little Atoms

Rebecca Wragg Sykes has been fascinated by the vanished worlds of the Pleistocene ice ages since childhood, and followed this interest through a career researching the most enigmatic characters of all, the Neanderthals. Alongside her academic expertise, she has also earned a reputation for exceptional public engagement as a speaker, in print and broadcast. Her writing has featured in the Guardian, Aeon and Scientific American, and she has appeared on history and science programmes for BBC Radio 4. She works as an archaeological and creative consultant, and co-founded the influential TrowelBlazers project, and Rebecca is now the author of Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kate Summerscale is the author of the number one bestselling The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2008, winner of the Galaxy British Book of the Year Award, a Richard & Judy Book Club pick and adapted into a major ITV drama. Her first book, the bestselling The Queen of Whale Cay, won a Somerset Maugham award and was shortlisted for the Whitbread biography award. Her latest book, The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story is shortlisted for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Natalie Haynes is the author of six books, her novels, A Thousand Ships, The Children of Jocasta, and The Amber Fury, and the non-fiction works, Pandora’s Jar, about women in Greek Myth, and The Ancient Guide To Modern Life.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gabriel Bergmoser is an award-winning Melbourne-based author, who grew up in a small rural town. In 2015 he won the prestigious Sir Peter Ustinov Television Scriptwriting Award for his pilot Windmills, and his plays include Heroes, which was nominated for the 2017 Kenneth Branagh Award for New Drama Writing. His musical, Moonlite, about a gay bushranger, was performed as part of the 2018 Midsumma Festival to critical acclaim, and was later selected for the Homegrown Grassroots development initiative. A film adaptation of his latest novel The Hunted is being developed in a joint production between Stampede Ventures and Vertigo Entertainment in Los Angeles. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Matthew Baker is the author of the story collection Hybrid Creatures. His stories have appeared in the Paris Review, American Short Fiction, New England Review, One Story, Electric Literature and Conjunctions, and in anthologies including Best of the Net and Best Small Fictions. A recipient of grants and fellowships from the Fulbright Commission and the MacDowell Colony, among many others, he has an MFA from Vanderbilt University, where he was the founding editor of Nashville Review. His latest story collection is Why Visit America. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Jo Marchant is an award-winning science journalist. She has a PhD in genetics and medical microbiology from St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, London, and an MSc in Science Communication from Imperial College. She has worked as an editor at New Scientist and Nature, and her articles have appeared in the Guardian, Wired, Observer, New York Times and Washington Post. She is the author of Decoding the Heavens, shortlisted for the Royal Society Prize for Science Books, and Cure, shortlisted for the Royal Society Prize for Science Books and longlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize. Her latest book is The Human Cosmos: A Secret History of The Stars. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Terri White is Editor-in-Chief of Empire magazine, having previously edited some of the most read titles in the UK and US, including Time Out New York and Shortlist, where she was named Men's Magazine Editor of the Year. She has also written for the Guardian and The Pool. Her first book is the memoir Coming Undone. NB: This interview contains discussion of domestic violence, sexual abuse and self-harm. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michael Bond, who won the British Psychology Society Prize 2015 for The Power of Others, is a freelance journalist and former senior editor and reporter at New Scientist. His latest book is Wayfinding: The Art and Science of How We Find and Lose Our Way. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Eagleman is a neuroscientist at Stanford University, an internationally bestselling author, and a Guggenheim Fellow. He is the writer and presenter of The Brain, an Emmy-nominated PBS/BBC television series that asks what it means to be human from a neuroscientist's point of view. Eagleman’s research encompasses time perception, vision, synesthesia, and the intersection of neuroscience with the legal system. He is the author of many books, including Sum, Incognito, The Brain, and The Runaway Species. Dr. Eagleman appears regularly on National Public Radio and BBC to discuss both science and literature. His latest book is Livewired: The Inside Story of The Ever-Changing Brain. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Susanna Moore is the author of the novels The Life of Objects, The Big Girls, One Last Look, In the Cut, Sleeping Beauties, The Whiteness of Bones, and My Old Sweetheart, and two books of nonfiction, Light Years: A Girlhood in Hawai'i and I Myself Have Seen It: The Myth of Hawai'i. She lives in New York City. Her latest book is the memoir Miss Aluminium. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.