Pogroms and prejudice
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 598 Ratings
🗓️ 9 July 2020
⏱️ 15 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
New Generation Thinker Brendan McGeever traces the links between anti-semitism now and pogroms in the former Soviet Union and the language used to describe this form of racism. Brendan McGeever lectures at the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism at Birkbeck University of London. You can hear him discussing an exhibition at the Jewish Museum exploring racial stereotypes in a Free Thinking episode called Sebald, anti-semitism, Carolyn Forché https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00050d2
New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select ten early career academics each year to turn their research into radio.
Producer: Robyn Read
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 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. |
| 0:28.9 | Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:33.3 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:37.0 | Hello, I'm Shahed Abari, and welcome to this episode of the Arts and Ideas podcast, |
| 0:42.1 | in which we'll hear an essay from one of the 2019 New Generation thinkers. |
| 0:47.1 | They are early career academics who work with BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council |
| 0:52.9 | on a scheme that turns their research into radio. |
| 0:56.6 | I was one of the first ten people chosen for the scheme nearly ten years ago. In this year's |
| 1:02.4 | essays, you'll hear topics ranging from cleaning, clean energy, crime and punishment and |
| 1:08.0 | archaeological views of the earth to moving large tracks of it to build dams in Pakistan. |
| 1:14.6 | Brendan McGever lectures at the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism at Birkbeck University of London, |
| 1:20.6 | and his essay is called pogroms and prejudice. |
| 1:24.0 | It's early morning, October 25th, the eve of the 1917 Russian Revolution. |
| 1:30.0 | Workers are taking up strategic points on the windswept streets of Petrograd. |
| 1:35.0 | In the Winter Palace, head of the provisional government, Alexander Kerensky, awaits his getaway car. |
| 1:41.8 | There are no lights or phones in his room. |
| 1:46.5 | From his window, Kerensky can see the palace bridge occupied by Red Guards. The Bolshevik seizure of power is imminent. Eventually, |
| 1:54.4 | an American Embassy car is secured and Kerensky begins his escape from Red Petrograd. As the vehicle turns a corner, he notices graffiti, freshly painted on the palace walls. |
| 2:07.6 | Down with the Yidd Kerensky, long-lived Comrade Trotsky. |
| 2:12.6 | Down with the Yid Kerensky, long-lived Comrade Trotsky? |
| 2:16.6 | This is absurd. It was Trotsky who was Jewish, not Kerensky, long-lived Comrade Trotsky. This is absurd. It was Trotsky who was Jewish, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.