The Memes that Make Us Laugh

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2018

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The memes that make us laugh - have we become meaner or can schadenfreude be a positive thing? Philosophical traditions around the world - can you outline the ideas of Nishida as well as Nietzsche? Is Japan facing a key moment of change in what it means to be Japanese? Julian Baggini, and New Generation Thinkers Tiffany Watt Smith and Christopher Harding join Rana Mitter. Plus "starchitects" - inspirational big names or a symptom of what has gone wrong with architecture? Professor James Stevens Curl and Christine Murray discuss.

Professor James Stevens Curl's most recent book is Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism. Christine Murray is former Editor in Chief of the Architectural Review and Architect's Journal. She is founder of a new magazine The Developer. Tiffany Watt Smith has written Schadenfraude: The Joy of Another's Misfortune.

You can find her programme about babies laughing here https://bbc.in/2OVRDbh Julian Baggini's latest book is called How The World Thinks. You can hear him debate identity at the Free Thinking Festival https://bbc.in/2DN2Jok Christopher Harding's book is called Japan Story. You can find his series of Radio 3 Essays: Dark Blossoms exploring aspects of Japanese cultural history https://bbc.in/2NDfAhU and tne Free Thinking programme website has a playlist of discussions about Japanese culture https://bbc.in/2A5vnme

New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select academics who can turn their research into radio.

Producer: Robyn Read

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
0:21.2	it. It's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream
0:26.1	van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds.
0:33.3	BBC Sounds, music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:42.7	Hello, I'm Rana Mitter, and this is the Arts and Ideas podcast from BBC Radio 3.
0:48.7	Our guests include historians, authors, artists and thinkers, people interested in thinking afresh about links between past and present, and the way that their art and writing reflects trends
0:53.3	in the contemporary world.
0:54.9	So in just a minute we're going to join today's gang in the studio, but first, could you just
0:58.9	take a moment to listen to this? Listen to slow radio for an antidote to today's a frenzied world.
1:07.2	We'll transport you to snowy forests, discover lost industrial sounds, travel up mountains and roll along rivers.
1:17.4	Subscribe to Radio 3's Slow Radio podcast at BBC Sounds.
1:23.0	Step back, let go, immerse yourself. It's time to go slow. Hello, today we're thinking all over
1:31.9	the world and asking, do we understand philosophy better when we think of it as global, and bring
1:37.7	in not just Nietzsche, but Nishida. Look on any city street, tall glass skyscrapers, expanses of concrete. Do you like what you see?
1:47.2	If not, then you're in good company as historian James Stevens Curl issues a trumpet blast
1:51.7	against the monstrous regiment of modernism in architecture. Find out the names of the big-name
1:57.1	star architects he's got pinned to his dartboard. And do any of these give you a funny, warm feeling inside,
2:04.4	even when you know they really shouldn't?
2:07.2	When the doorbell rings and I find my husband,
2:10.3	who regularly gives me tutorials on correct key management,
2:13.7	has forgotten his keys.
2:15.5	The driver who nicked your parking spot is still five minutes later,
	...

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