Summary
What does living a good life involve? Michael Rosen's new book is called Good Days and offers suggestions to brighten our daily lives. Dr Sophie Scott-Brown is a research fellow at St Andrews' Institute of Intellectual History. The Rev'd Fergus Butler-Gallie has spent time working in the Czech republic and South Africa and ministering in parishes in Liverpool and London. His most recent book is Twelve Churches: An Unlikely History of the Buildings that made Christianity. Dr Rachel Wiseman lectures on philosophy at the University of Liverpool and explored the impact of the relative absence of women philosophers. Sudhir Hazareesingh is a Fellow and Tutor in Politics at Balliol, Oxford and author of "Daring to be Free: Rebellion and Resistance of the Enslaved in the Atlantic World, which raises questions about the Enlightenment's exclusion of enslaved people from the universal vision of a good society. Matthew Sweet hosts the discussion about what it means to be good.
The six books shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2025 which will be announced on December 2nd are:
• Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age by Eleanor Barraclough (Profile Books) • The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV by Helen Castor (Allen Lane) • Multicultural Britain: A People’s History by Kieran Connell (Hurst Publishing) • Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade by Hannah Durkin (William Collins) • The Gravity of Feathers: Fame, Fortune and the Story of St Kilda by Andrew Fleming (Birlinn) • The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective by Sara Lodge (Yale University Press)
The judges for the Wolfson History Prize 2025 are Mary Beard, Sudhir Hazareesingh, Helen King and Diarmaid MacCulloch, with the panel chaired by David Cannadine.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
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| 0:10.0 | It's such a wonderful listen. |
| 0:11.7 | So nice. |
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| 0:14.8 | Different paces, different heights, the roof is buckling. |
| 0:17.9 | Where you can also listen to live sports commentary. |
| 0:20.2 | It's right foot goes for goal. |
| 0:22.6 | And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories. |
| 0:27.7 | The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession. |
| 0:31.2 | And she's had to live with that. |
| 0:32.8 | So if you love sport, a passion, it's almost like a religion. |
| 0:35.8 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:39.7 | Sort of expecting that every week now. |
| 0:56.5 | Hello, this is the Arts and Ideas podcast with me, Matthew Sweet. It's Friday night and I'm here to offer you a taste of the good life. I can offer fasting and prayer and contemplation. I can offer peapod wine and a party hat made from the daily telegraph. I can offer whiskey and cigarettes and knickerbocker glory on a pink bear skin rug with a |
| 1:02.9 | view of Niagara Falls. I can offer you tea at the vicarage. But which kind of good life would you |
| 1:09.4 | choose? And why does that phrase seem to lead in two different directions? |
| 1:14.4 | One path towards pleasure, one towards virtue. |
| 1:18.3 | Well, we'll try to understand that tonight. |
| 1:20.4 | So by 10 o'clock, you might know how to spend the rest of your time on earth, |
| 1:24.8 | or at least the rest of your night. |
... |
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