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, it's 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 at 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. This is a download

from the BBC. For more information and our terms of use, go to BBC.co.uk slash radio three.

Now before we start, have you checked your privilege tonight?

And should we factor in our social advantages, when we make arguments affecting others,

we'll be debating the new privilege test later on?

We'll also take a journey through time to the origins of the universe

with a new exhibition of space photography. But first, an author whose mixture of madcap

gothic tales, terrifying shapeshifters and the dizzy borderline of fantasy and everyday life,

have earned him an admirer's club of all ages. From American gods to the Sandman to the screen version

of Coraline and episodes for Doctor Who, Neil Gaiman's magical dystopias and haunting prose have set

a new standard in fantasy horror. Now he's published his first book in several years for adults,

The Ocean at the Bottom of the Lane. Like many of Gaman's tales,

it's told through the eyes of a child, witnessing the arrival of dark forces in his countryside

home with the latest, scariest villainess to spring from his imagination an evil nanny, Ursula Moncton.

Adults follow paths. Children explore. Adults are content to walk the same way hundreds of

times or thousands. Perhaps it never occurs to adults to step off the paths, to creep beneath

rhododendrons, to find the spaces between fences. I was a child, and I knew a dozen different

ways of getting out of our property and into the lane,

ways that would not involve walking down our drive. Nobody was looking. I ran and I crept and got

through the laurels, and I went down the hill pushing through the brambles and the nettle patches

...