Summary
Brian Cox on the stars and planets. Archaelogist Susan Greaney on Stonehenge and Maes Howe at solstice, the shadowy paintings of Wright of Derby and Artemisia Gentileschi and the candlelight of Hanukkah in art and literature picked out by Alexandra Harris and the philosophy of Plato and light giving ideas from Sophie-Grace Chappell: Shahidha Bari and guests look at light as BBC Radio 3 broadcasts a series of music programmes, concerts, walks and features looking at Light in Darkness.
Physicist Professor Brian Cox joins the BBC SO and Principal Guest Conductor Dalia Stasevska to explore the questions raised by music and the Cosmos concerning eternity, death, rebirth and meaning in a concert being broadcast by BBC Radio 3 on the afternoon of December 23rd. In Autumn 2021 he will be embarking on another Horizons Arena Tour around the UK making the latest thinking about the Cosmos accessible to the wider public.
Professor Alexandra Harris is the author of books including Weatherland and Romantic Moderns and was one of the first BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinkers.
Professor Sophie-Grace Chappell is the author of many philosophy books and is currently considering the idea of epiphanies.
Susan Greaney works with English Heritage at Stonehenge, is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker.
Producer: Ruth Watts
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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. Hello, you can |
| 0:33.2 | always expect to be blinded by the brilliance of guests on the Arts and Ideas podcast, |
| 0:40.3 | but today's program really is illuminating. |
| 0:45.3 | We'll be marking the winter solstice by thinking about the art, history and philosophy of light. |
| 0:51.2 | Plus TV's favourite physicist Brian Cox sheds light on, well, light, actually. |
| 0:54.3 | Join me, Shahadabari, just after this. |
| 1:01.8 | Pst, do you like ideas? Big ones, satisfying ones, crunchy ones, ones that make you go, |
| 1:07.5 | oh, I like that, tell me more. My name's Matthew Sweet, and between you and me, the BBC Arts and Ideas podcast is what you need. We kind of do everything really. We'll navigate |
| 1:12.1 | Plath, Pankhurst, Derrida, we'll tell you what to do on a date with Carrie Grant. We do the |
| 1:17.4 | big questions about art, sex, death, democracy, conservatism, colonialism and cows. And here's |
| 1:24.5 | a thing. We like booking people who know what they're talking about, |
| 1:27.9 | so consider us a safe haven from the chancers and the renter gobs and the I-Reconistas. |
| 1:34.0 | So click on us, the Arts and Ideas podcast. |
| 1:36.8 | We can't guarantee satisfaction, but we'll always strive to give you it, or the right kind of dissatisfaction. |
| 1:44.5 | Hello, there's a certain slant of light on winter afternoons, |
| 1:48.6 | as the American poet Emily Dickinson once observed, |
| 1:51.3 | that feels as heavy as the weight of cathedral tunes. |
| 1:55.1 | But how are you feeling about our grey days and the long nights stretching ahead? |
| 1:59.9 | Are you taking it with good cheer, |
| 2:02.1 | stoking the home fires and switching on the Christmas lights? Or are you hibernating in a shadowy corner |
... |
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