Landmark: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2019

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rachel Carson’s passionate book, Silent Spring, first published in 1962 is said to be the work which launched the environmental movement. But how does it speak to us now?

For a recording of Free Thinking’s Cultural Landmark series at the Hay Festival, presenter Rana Mitter is joined by guests Tony Juniper, Emily Shuckburgh, Dieter Helm and Kapka Kassabova.

Tony Juniper is a campaigner, sustainability adviser and writer of work including Saving Planet Earth and How many lightbulbs does it take to change a planet? Emily Shuckburgh is a climate scientist and mathematician at the British Antarctic Survey and the co-author (with the Prince of Wales and Tony Juniper) of the Ladybird Book on Climate Change. Dieter Helm is an economist specialising in utilities, regulation and the environment. His recent books include Burn Out: the Endgame for Fossil Fuels, The Carbon Crunch, Nature in the Balance and Natural Capital: Valuing the Planet. Kapka Kassabova is a novelist, poet and journalist whose work includes Border,, Someone else’s life and Villa Pacifica. You can hear her talking to Free Thinking about winning the Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding here https://bbc.in/2TsFZ51

You can find a collection of all the discussions of Landmarks of culture as a playlist on the Free Thinking website / and available to download as BBC Arts&Ideas podcasts https://bbc.in/2Jw9y5Q

Producer: Fiona McLean

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.
0:33.3	BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.
0:37.4	Hello, I'm Rana Mitter.
0:39.1	Welcome to BBC Radio 3's Arts and Ideas discussion programme,
0:42.3	which brings together leading artists, writers and thinkers in conversation and debate.
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0:54.5	rate and review us. It'll help other people find us. Hello, I'm composer Michael Barclay,
0:59.9	and I just want to let you know about my podcast, which I think you might enjoy. It's called
1:04.9	Private Passions. Every week, a different guest chooses the classical music they're passionate about.
1:11.8	People like Alan Bennett,
1:17.3	Jan Ravens, Grayson Perry. And what I love about it is how much people reveal of themselves when they're talking about and listening to the music which moves them. Just search for
1:22.8	private passions in BBC Sounds. download the free app now.
1:36.6	It's a lovely day here in Hay on Y.
1:39.6	The sun is shining on the fields not far from this BBC tent.
1:43.6	A reminder that over 70% of the UK's land area
1:46.6	is managed by farmers. At first glance, the landscape round here couldn't be further from this
1:52.1	rather chilling line from John Keats. The sedge is withered from the lake and no birds sing.
2:00.0	But in 1962, a writer used exactly those words as an
	...

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