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

it. 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. Thanks for downloading

the BBC Arts and Ideas podcast. The conversation you're about to hear picks up on themes inspired by the summer's BBC proms concerts.

If you're moved to listen to the music,

you can find every concert broadcast on Radio 3 and BBC Sounds.

Now over to the audience in the Imperial College Theatre

next to the Royal Albert Hall.

BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

Draw closer around the fire.

The animals are shut away and the children are all in bed safe from mischievous forest spirits.

The time has come to tell tales of Kaldunni and Viedmi,

the sorcerers and witches of Slavic law.

Baba Yaga, the bony-legged one,

is making a fence of skulls around her hut on chicken legs.

While Kachet the Deathless thinks of his soul,

hidden from enemies in the eye of a needle,

inside an egg, inside a duck, inside a hare, buried under an old oak tree on a secret island.

The enchanted world that we're conjuring up for you tonight is teeming with firebirds,

wish-granting pike pike and flying stoves.

I'm Victoria Donovan and joining me to guide us through this world are two storytellers.

Marina Warner is an academic alchemist who's transformed our understanding of myths, fairy tales and folklore into works of shimmering scholarship and fiction. Sophie Anderson

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