What kind of history should we write?
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 21 November 2018
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Peter Frankopan brings his history of ties across Asia into the present while Maya Jasanoff, winner of the world's richest history prize, uses the novels of Joseph Conrad to show that the novelist was wrestling with the same problems and opportunities of globalisation we face today. Historian Peter Mandler also joins Rana Mitter to discuss new proposals for publishing historican research. As the centenary of the birth of Orkney film maker and poet Margaret Tait is celebrated nationally, New Generation Thinker, Elsa Richardson, discusses how Tait's medical training shaped her subsequent film work and writing while the curator Peter Todd concentrates on the influence of Orkney and why Tait's films still speak to us today.
Maya Jasanoff, winner of The 2018 Cundill Prize, announced in Canada on November 15th. https://www.cundillprize.com/ for her book The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World available now Peter Frankopan was one of this year's judges. His books include the best selling The Silk Roads: A New History of the World and The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World and created an illustrated version for children. Peter Mandler, Professor of Modern Cultural History at University of Cambridge
Stalking The Image: Margaret Tait and Her Legacy at Glasgow Museum of Modern Art until May 5th 2019 Peter Todd, curator of Rhythm and Poetry The films of Margaret Tait at British Film Institute until Friday 30 Nov 2018 and The BFI will be releasing her only feature film 'Blue Black Permanent' on Blu-ray disc in Spring 2019. Elsa Richardson, New Generation Thinker, reseaches intersection between the medical and cultural history, University of Strathclyde
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.
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. |
| 0:33.3 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:37.7 | Hello, I'm Ron Amitter, and this is the BBC Arts and Ideas podcast. |
| 0:42.4 | Alexander the Great set out to find new worlds to conquer. |
| 0:45.7 | You should have stayed home and downloaded us instead. |
| 0:48.4 | Whether it's world-changing philosophers or groundbreaking novelists, |
| 0:51.6 | our river of ideas never runs dry. |
| 0:54.0 | And you don't need an army to cross it, just attentive ears and an open mind. |
| 0:58.5 | We're about to set off on today's expedition. |
| 1:01.0 | But first, a word. |
| 1:03.1 | Listen to slow radio for an antidote to today's a frenzied world. |
| 1:09.2 | We'll transport you to snowy forests, discover lost industrial sounds, |
| 1:15.3 | travel up mountains and roll along rivers. Subscribe to Radio 3's Slow Radio podcast at BBC Sounds. |
| 1:24.9 | Step back, let go, immerse yourself. It's time to go slow. Hello, today we're |
| 1:33.2 | clothing ourselves in Persian silk and orkney wool, as we find out how the most exciting new work in |
| 1:38.5 | history can range from the plains of Eurasia to the possibly even more exotic hills and rocks |
| 1:43.6 | of a small Scottish island. |
| 1:45.7 | Join us for a vision of the past that's definitively turned towards the future. |
| 1:50.2 | First, though, the past has been pretty lucrative for at least one historian, because they've |
| 1:54.8 | just announced the winner of the 2018 Kundil Prize in History, administered by McGill University |
... |
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.