Rivers and geopolitics
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2019
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The worlds large water infrastructure projects often result in geo-political flashpoints - Rana Mitter hears from Majed Akhter about problems from the US to Pakistan while Dustin Garrick outlines a water crisis that is also a crisis in governance and why new management of the Murray-Darling basin in Australia may provide hints about a way forward. And aside from Romulus and Remus, what prompted the founding of Ancient Rome. Archaeologist Andrea Brock outlines her new research that shows the emergence of a new island at a special spot on the Tiber in the 7th century BC led to massive infrastructure projects and urban growth.
Dr Dustin Garrick is the co-director of the Smith School Water Programme at the University of Oxford and American Association of Science Leshner leadership fellow.
Dr Majed Akhter is a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker who lectures at King's College, London. Before becoming a geographer, he was a resource economist and an industrial engineer.
Dr Andrea Brock is a lecturer in ancient history at the University of St Andrews.
Producer: Jacqueline Smith
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. |
| 0:28.8 | Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:33.2 | BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:36.6 | Hello, I'm Ron Amitter. |
| 0:38.3 | Welcome to BBC Radio 3's Arts and Ideas discussion program, |
| 0:41.7 | which brings together leading artists, writers and thinkers in conversation and debate. |
| 0:46.1 | If you enjoy what you hear, do subscribe. |
| 0:49.0 | Search for the Arts and Ideas podcast wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:52.6 | And while you're there, please rate and review us. |
| 0:55.0 | It'll help other people find us. Hello, I'm composer Michael Barclay, and I just want to let |
| 0:59.4 | you know about my podcast, which I think you might enjoy. It's called Private Passions. Every |
| 1:05.2 | week, a different guest chooses the classical music they're passionate about. People like Alan Bennett, |
| 1:10.7 | Jan Ravens, Grace and Perry. |
| 1:12.6 | And what I love about it is how much people reveal of themselves |
| 1:16.0 | when they're talking about and listening to the music which moves them. |
| 1:20.6 | Just search for private passions in BBC Sounds. |
| 1:24.4 | Download the free app now. |
| 1:26.9 | You know that on free thinking we never just go with the flow. |
| 1:30.2 | And now that rivers are running through Radio 3 all this week, we thought we'd get right into |
| 1:34.3 | that flow. Damn it, harness it, and just for good value, find out whether it might tip the world |
| 1:39.7 | into a major geopolitical conflict. Because the UN tells us that there's a global water crisis, |
... |
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.