Free Thinking: Churchill, Pocahontas and The Idiot

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2017

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Anne McElvoy is joined by screenwriter Alex von Tunzelmann who discusses her new film, Churchill. New Generation Thinker Christopher Bannister, an expert on the propaganda unit The Ministry of Information, reveals the influence it still wields today. Academic Nandini Das and Stephanie Pratt, an art historian with Native American heritage, consider the complicated legacy of Pocahontas 400 years after her death. Plus, writer Elif Batuman offers a linguistic guide to the nuisances of the Turkish language and explains why she's so in love with the book titles of Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Elif Batuman's The Idiot is out now.

You can find information about Pocahontas events from Gravesend Council http://www.visitgravesend.co.uk/events/pocahontas-400/ and http://www.bigideascompany.org/project/pocahontas-2017/

Churchill is on general release from Friday.

Christopher Bannister is based at the School of Advanced Study at University College London.

New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3, BBC Arts and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to find academics who can turn their research into radio and television. You can find more on the Free Thinking website.

Producer: Craig Templeton Smith

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.
0:32.1	This is the BBC.
0:37.1	I'm Anne McHalevoy and welcome to this podcast from the Freethinking Team at BBC Radio 3.
0:44.0	Hello, Cigars at the Ready, as we have in studio, Alex von Tunzelman, writer of the latest screen attempt to tackle our inveterate British bulldog, Winston Churchill.
1:00.0	Plus our man in the South, new generation thinker Christopher Bannister, reports back from the Americas on what they thought of our most decorated Prime Minister.
1:04.0	We'll hear from the Turkish-American writer, Elif Bittuman, who confesses to a crush on Fyodor Dostoevsky.
1:15.9	And 400 years since her death is this our most abiding memory of Pocahontas. Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain?
1:21.0	Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
1:25.8	Can you paint with all the colors of the wind, can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
1:33.3	More on the shapeshifting cultural icon that is Pocahontas later on.
1:38.3	But first, 70 years after it ended, Hollywood's obsession with who won the war continues.
1:43.3	I ran this country and this war for more than two years before. After it ended, Hollywood's obsession with who won the war continues.
1:50.5	I ran this country and this war for more than two years before these Americans even turned up.
1:56.8	Yet, it's as if my experience, my knowledge of warfare counted for nothing.
2:00.4	Sure, Ike has a great deal of experience of warfare.
2:02.5	Maybe you should listen to him.
2:06.1	Is everyone to overrule everything I say?
2:09.6	The king appointed me, Prime Minister of this country,
2:12.9	and it's my duty to lead them through this war.
2:16.4	Don't assume you're the only one capable of making decisions.
	...

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