Perfecting The Body
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 24 February 2022
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After Iraq and Afghanistan, solider Harry Parker turned author and has written a study of the way robotics, computing and AI might be about to irrevocably alter our understanding of what it means to be human. Scientist and Radio 4 presenter Adam Rutherford's new book traces ideas about the perfect body and eugenics from the Spartans and Plato to present day politics and the pandemic. In her new book, philosopher and professor Clare Chambers argues that the unmodified body is a key principle of equality. While defending the right of anyone to change their bodies, she traces the way that the social pressure to modify send a powerful message: you are not good enough. They join Matthew Sweet alongside New Generation Thinker and academic at UCL, Xine Yao
Hybrid Humans: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Man and Machine by Harry Parker is out now.
Control: The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics by Adam Rutherford is out now. You can hear him discussing Genes, racism, ageing and evidence with guests including Daniel Levitin in a previous episode of Free Thinking https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000fpj2
Intact: A Defence of the Unmodified Body by Clare Chambers is out now.
Xine Yao is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to turn research into radio. You can find an essay about The Inscrutable Writing of Sui Sin Far on BBC Sounds https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000v9gl and a discussion about Darwin's The Descent of Man (1871) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000s31z
Producer: Luke Mulhall
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Can I just say? |
| 0:01.5 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast. |
| 0:04.0 | It's such a wonderful listen. |
| 0:05.6 | So nice. |
| 0:06.5 | There are loads more like it on BBC sounds. |
| 0:08.8 | Different paces, different heights. |
| 0:10.6 | The roof is buckling. |
| 0:11.9 | Where you can also listen to live sports commentary. |
| 0:14.2 | It's right foot goes for goal. |
| 0:16.7 | And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories. |
| 0:21.6 | The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession. |
| 0:25.2 | And she's had to live with that. |
| 0:26.8 | So if you love sport, a passion, it's almost like a religion. |
| 0:29.7 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:31.7 | Sort of expecting that every week now. |
| 0:34.8 | Do you have the body you want? Does anybody? I'm Matthew Sweet and on this edition of the |
| 0:40.2 | Arts and Ideas podcast, our guests will be answering those questions and exploring the consequences |
| 0:46.5 | of acting upon them, all after these messages. Hello, my name's Ian McMillan, and before you |
| 0:52.8 | slide into the podcast you were expecting, let me tell you a little bit about my program, The Verbe, my name's Ian McMillan, and before you slide into the podcast you were expecting, |
| 0:54.9 | let me tell you a little bit about my programme The Verbe, Radio 3's Literary Festival, |
| 0:59.2 | Language Cafe, and Journey to the Centre of the Sentence. |
| 1:02.5 | We'll hear new poems and stories, specially commissioned for the show, |
... |
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