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?

It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.

Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds.

Hello.

And tonight we start from a street somewhere in Lancashire.

I'm leaning on a lamppost at the corner of the street in case a certain little lady comes by, oh me, oh my, I hope the little lady comes by.

I don't know...

We may not lean on any lamp posts in tonight's free thinking, but we'll certainly be looking at them,

with cultural historian Eleanor Herring,

who'll also tell us about that ultimate classic of street furniture design,

the parking meter.

And we'll ask whether the West is giving way to the East,

as global politics has taken over by a new generation of strong men.

Gideon Rackman and Ricardo

Suarez de Oliva tell us about easternisation, what it means for Angola and what it means

for all the rest of us. A new generation thinker Catherine Cooper tells us about a writer

who deserves to be remembered as an author and as an activist, Margaret Storm Jameson.

But first, let us take you to Libya in the late 1970s.

In the 1970s, we lived in central Tripoli, a short distance from my maternal grandfather's house.

I remember the high eucalyptus trees in the front garden.

They're big and vivid shadows on the ground, black claws on the cars.

If there was a breeze, shade and light moved.

...