Summary
Diving from Tudor times through the Brooklyn Naval Yard in the Second World War to present day deep water sculpture parks and swimming with whales. Rana Mitter talks to prize-winning writer Jennifer Egan about the Sea as metaphor and how the research for her latest novel, Manhattan Beach, was the inspiration for its time-shifting, punky, award-laden predecessor, The Goon Squad. He hears from historian Miranda Kaufmann about the existence of a black population of skilled workers in Tudor England, one of whom dived salvage on the wreck of the Mary Rose after she sank laden with cannons on her way to wage war against the French. And he's joined by marine biologist, Alex Rogers, writer and whale lover Philip Hoare, and Jason de Caires Taylor, creator of the world's first underwater sculpture parks to discuss why decades after we first saw our blue and watery planet hanging in space, we still find it easier to ignore our oceans than explore them.
Transcript
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| 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. |
| 0:32.0 | Hello, I'm Ron Amitter. |
| 0:33.6 | Welcome to BBC Radio 3's Arts and Ideas discussion program, which brings together leading artists, writers and thinkers in conversation and debate. |
| 0:41.5 | If you enjoy what you hear, do subscribe. |
| 0:44.4 | Search for the Arts and Ideas podcast wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:48.1 | And while you're there, please rate and review us. |
| 0:50.4 | It'll help other people find us. |
| 0:52.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:56.1 | Are they not, dear listener, two points in the adventure of the diver. |
| 1:00.8 | One, when a beggar he prepares to plunge. |
| 1:03.6 | One, when a prince, he rises with his pearl. |
| 1:07.2 | Listener, we plunge. |
| 1:09.4 | And with apologies to Robert Browning's poem Paracelsus, here goes. |
| 1:13.9 | Later, we'll be breaking through the ocean skin in the company of Philip Haw, writer of Wales, |
| 1:19.1 | Jason DeChery's Taylor, eco-artist and creator of underwater sculpture parks, and Alex Rogers, |
| 1:24.6 | who's one of the world's leading experts on the deep ocean. |
| 1:30.6 | We'll also hear about free diving, Tudor style. |
| 1:35.2 | But we begin with a deep dive with one of America's most celebrated novelists. |
| 1:38.8 | In 2011, Jennifer Egan won the Pulitzer Prize for her rollicking, rumbustious, picaresque tale of the Baby Boom Generation, |
| 1:43.9 | a visit from the Goon Squad. |
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