Philosophical tennis, hidden beaches and Eleanor Marx.
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 598 Ratings
🗓️ 10 July 2018
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
At the height of summer, Matthew Sweet and guests turn their minds to tennis, beaches and walking.
As Wimbledon continues, Benjamin Markovits and William Skidelsky consider the philosophy of tennis; New Generation Thinker Des Fitzgerald explores the geography of a little known beach in Cardiff city centre; Rachel Holmes goes on a walking tour of Eleanor Marx's Sydenham in south London.
A Weekend in New York is by Benjamin Markovits Federer and Me: A Story of Obsession is by William Skidelsky Eleanor Marx: A Life is by Rachel Holmes The links between Japan and Wales, and the geography of a particular Welsh beach are explored by KIZUNA: Japan | Wales | Design opens at National Museum Cardiff runs until 9 September 2018.
Des Fitzgerald is a lecturer in sociology at Cardiff University who studies the history of medicine, science and neuroscience and city life. New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select ten academics each year who can turn their research into radio.
Producer: Craig Templeton Smith.
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. |
| 0:32.1 | Hello, I'm Matthew Sweet. |
| 0:33.5 | Welcome to BBC Radio 3's Arts and Ideas discussion program, which brings together leading artists, writers and thinkers in conversation and debate. |
| 0:42.8 | If you enjoy what you hear, do subscribe. Search for the Arts and Ideas podcast. |
| 0:48.3 | And while you're there, please rate and review us. It'll help other people find us. |
| 0:53.5 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:58.4 | The British summer, what does it summon up for you? |
| 1:02.2 | The sound of leather on willow and wasp on ice cream, the seasonal spike in car crime, |
| 1:08.2 | Cliff Richard singing congratulations beneath the sky like a late Turner painting |
| 1:13.1 | of a shipwreck. Well, not this year. This year, summer actually seems to be happening. So tonight |
| 1:19.2 | we're going to the beach, Splot Beach in Cardiff, rich in industrial effluvia. And we're going to have |
| 1:25.8 | a literary and philosophical tennis match. |
| 1:28.4 | I have the strawberries and the barley water ready and in a moment our two players, |
| 1:32.6 | William Skidelsky and Benjamin Markovits, will be coming onto the court. |
| 1:36.8 | And while we wait for that to happen, let me set up a scene that sounds like a Victorian |
| 1:41.4 | melodrama, but is actually the last act of a great radical life. |
| 1:46.0 | It's the 31st of March 1898, and a housemaid called Gertrude Gentry is running down a road in |
| 1:52.0 | South East London called Jews Walk. |
| 1:55.0 | By the time she comes back, the house has gone strangely silent. |
| 1:58.0 | She walks up the stairs in search of her mistress |
... |
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