Africa Babel China
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 13 February 2019
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
West Africa has a fundamental place in the shaping of the modern world and its story is told in a new history by Toby Green. He joins Rana Mitter in the Free Thinking studio alongside Xue Xinran who explores China's recent history through the lives and relationships of one family and Dennis Duncan of the Bodleian Library muses on why the English needed English dictionaries and the desirability of a universal language. A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave trrade to the Age of Revolution by Toby Green is out now The Promise: Tales of Love and Loss by Xue Xinran is out now Babel: Adventures in Translation 5 February 2019 — 2 June 2019 at Bodleian Libraries, ST Lee Gallery, Weston Library, Oxford
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right? |
| 0:23.3 | It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream. |
| 0:28.8 | Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:33.2 | BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:36.6 | Hello, I'm Ron Amitter. |
| 0:38.3 | Welcome to BBC Radio 3's Arts and Ideas discussion program, |
| 0:41.7 | which brings together leading artists, writers and thinkers in conversation and debate. |
| 0:46.1 | If you enjoy what you hear, do subscribe. |
| 0:49.0 | Search for the Arts and Ideas podcast wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:52.6 | And while you're there, please rate and review us. |
| 0:55.0 | It'll help other people find us. |
| 0:56.8 | But first, a word. |
| 0:58.5 | It's amazing how many recordings you can find these days of a favorite piece of classical |
| 1:03.1 | music, hundreds of Beethoven symphonies, Mozart concertos, Schubert sonatas or Verdi operas. |
| 1:09.8 | So wouldn't it be great to have someone to help you pick the very |
| 1:12.7 | best? Consider it done. I'm Andrew McGregor from BBC Radio 3's Record Review. Just download our |
| 1:19.1 | podcast and one of our expert Building a Library reviewers will guide you through a great piece of |
| 1:24.1 | music, comparing recordings, choosing the finest performances. The Building |
| 1:28.7 | A Library podcast from Record Review. Subscribe now on BBC Sounds. Welcome back. The great feminist |
| 1:36.5 | historian Sheila Robotham once argued that women were hidden from history. Today, we're looking |
| 1:42.3 | at a whole range of people and ideas who've remained hidden |
| 1:45.6 | in our understanding of the past. Did you know about the mighty empires of medieval and early |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.