Free Thinking - Rio, addiction, and saying the unsayable

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2016

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Anne McElvoy looks ahead to the Rio Olympics discussing Brazilian culture with author, politics lecturer and former National Secretary for Public Security Luis Eduardo Suárez and with Dr Edward King from the University of Bristol. The RSC is exploring saying the unsayable this summer with a season of plays, Anne talks with the writer and the director of 'Fall of the Kingdom, Rise of the Foot Soldier' - Somalia Seaton and Nadia Latif. Neuroscientist Marc Lewis explains why he is convinced that addiction is a behavioural problem and not a disease. And Raqib Shaw talks about his new exhibition of self-portraits.

Rio de Janeiro: Extreme City by Luis Eduardo Suárez published by Allen Lane is out now. Digital Technologies in Argentine and Brazilian Culture by Edward King explores the use of science fiction in literature and graphic fiction from Argentina and Brazil. The Biology of Desire: why addiction is not a disease by Marc Lewis published by Scribe is out now 'Fall of the Kingdom, Rise of the Foot Soldier' runs from 27th July at the RSC in Stratford Raqib Shaw's self portraits are at the White Cube in Bermondsey until 11th September 2016.

Producer: Ruth Watts

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
0:21.2	it. It's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream
0:26.1	van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds.
0:32.1	Hello, there'll be no slacking off tonight on tonight's rethinking as we consider a series of daunting challenges,
0:39.5	from saying the unsayable at the Royal Shakespeare Company to conquering addiction.
0:44.7	And I'll be talking to Rakeeb Shaw, the artists who spent two and a half years on 14 enamel paint self-portraits,
0:52.3	all of them using porcupine quills.
0:54.8	But first to a Herculane task of a very different order,
0:58.4	as we head to a city preparing to stage in Olympic Games in two weeks time.
1:09.9	Rio is still in a race to be ready for the Olympics.
1:13.6	I am pumped for the Rio Games.
1:17.6	They are less than two months away or never.
1:20.6	No other country in the Olympic history has lived through
1:25.6	such a difficult political times so shortly close to the game.
1:33.8	Some recent reflections on preparations for the games from Mario Andrada from the Rio 2016 organizing committee, Stephen Colbert from CBS's The Late Show and the BBC's Olympic coverage.
1:50.0	And so to the city of Rio, which will stage this summer's Olympic Games.
1:54.0	We're all familiar with the Rio of Sandy White beaches, Carnival and Brazil's five World Cup football wins.
2:02.5	But as the games have drawn closer, news reports have presented a city of violent crime,
2:08.1	corruption battles and inequality in a country also threatened this year by the Zika virus
2:13.9	and the further instability of the impeachment process that brought down President Dilma Rousseff.
2:20.3	A native of Rio, Luis Eduardo Suarez, has previously served as Brazil's National Secretary for Public Security.
2:27.3	He's now professor of social sciences at Rio de Janeiro State University and the author of Rio de Janeiro, Extreme City,
	...

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