Better Known

Guy Leschziner discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known. Guy Leschziner is a consultant neurologist and sleep physician, broadcaster and author. He heads the Sleep Disorders Centre at Guy's Hospital, one of Europe's largest and busiest clinical sleep services. He is presenter of Mysteries of Sleep and The Compass: The Senses on BBC World Service and Radio 4, and is aut...

Eleanor Fitzsimons discusses with Ivan six things which she thinks should be better known. Eleanor Fitzsimons is a writer and researcher who lives in Dublin. She is the author of Wilde’s Women (Duckworth, 2015), which won the silver medal in the Biography category of the 2018 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Awards. She is an honorary patron of the Oscar Wilde Society and a member of the editorial boa...

Novelist Alex Wheatle discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known. Alex Wheatle was born in London of Jamaican parents. His first book, Brixton Rock (1999), tells the story of a 16-year old boy of mixed race, in 1980s Brixton. His most recent novels, Liccle Bit (2015), Crongton Knights (2016) - winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize - and Straight Outta Crongton...

Science writer Tom Chivers discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known. Tom Chivers is science editor at UnHerd.com. His second book, How To Read Numbers: A Guide to Statistics in the News (and Knowing When to Trust Them), will be published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in March 2021. He is a two-time winner of the Royal Statistical Society's Statistical Excellence in Jour...

Emma Bridgewater discusses with Ivan six things which she thinks should be better known. Emma Bridgewater grew up in Oxford, the eldest of a large family. After studying English at London University, she joined a small knitwear firm, but soon realised that what she really wanted to do was start her own company. Her ‘eureka moment’ came in 1985, when she was searching for a pretty cup and saucer fo...

Andrew Lownie discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known. Andrew Lownie was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he was Dunster History Prizeman and President of the Union, before taking his Master’s and doctorate at Edinburgh University. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he later returned to Cambridge as a visiting fellow at Churchill College. He has...

Viv Groskop discusses with Ivan six things which she thinks should be better known. Viv Groskop is a writer, critic, broadcaster and stand-up comedian. She is the author of How to Own the Room: Women and the Art of Brilliant Speaking, also a Top 10 iTunes podcast, now in its 8th series, featuring guests like Hillary Clinton, Margaret Atwood, Nigella Lawson, Julie Andrews, Sarah Hurwitz (Michelle O...

Tom Barber discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known. Tom Barber was a journalist for many years, writing for GQ, the Evening Standard and Tatler among others before founding the award-winning travel company Original Travel with two friends in 2003. Original Travel has gone on to win a number of industry awards, and specialises in tailormade trips to original destinatio...

Madeleine Bunting discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Madeleine was a journalist on the Guardian and held a number of positions including columnist 1999-2012. She wrote on a wide range of subjects including politics, social affairs, faith and global development. Her book Love of Country was shortlisted for the Wainright and the Saltire Prizes 2017, and she won the Portico...

Scientist Marty Jopson discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known. Marty Jopson has been making science television for over twenty years. He has worked behind the camera as a researcher, prop builder, director, producer, executive and company manager. His career as a presenter spans over ten years as the science reporter on the BBC1 flagship programme, The One Show. He h...

Journalist Kavita Puri discusses with Ivan six things which she thinks should be better known. Kavita Puri is an award-winning journalist, executive producer and broadcaster for the BBC. She is also the author of the critically acclaimed book Partition Voices: Untold British Stories. Kavita is a regular presenter of The Inquiry on the BBC World Service and Radio 4. Her landmark three-part series,...

Johnnie Boden, the founder of Boden, discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known. Johnnie Boden founded Boden in 1991 with eight menswear products, sold through a catalogue hand-drawn on his kitchen table. As ambitious as he was, he couldn't have imagined that the fashion line bearing his name would become a multi-million-pound global business producing a huge range of cl...

Caroline Eden discusses with Ivan six things which she thinks should be better known. Caroline Eden is a writer and critic contributing to the Guardian, Financial Times and the Times Literary Supplement. In 2020, she was awarded the prestigious Art of Eating Prize. She is the author of two food and travel books, Samarkand (2016) and Black Sea (2018). Her new book, Red Sands, looking at the food an...

Adam Hart-Davis discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known. Adam Hart-Davis is a freelance writer and lecturer – former presenter on television of Local Heroes, Tomorrow’s World, What the Romans (and others) Did for Us, How London was Built, and many other series. He has collected various awards for both television and radio, as well as four medals and 14 honorary doctor...

Author Jini Reddy discusses with Ivan six things which she thinks should be better known. Jini Reddy’s most recent book Wanderland has been shortlisted for the 2020 Wainwright Prize. The prize celebrates the best in UK travel and nature writing. Her first book Wild Times was published in 2016. It won the book prize at the British Guild of Travel Writers Awards 2017. You can follow her @Jini_Reddy...

As a bonus episode, in a surprising turn of events, Ivan gets invited to an office summer party via Zoom and is asked to provide some entertainment for the benefit of a group of bewildered colleagues. He discusses with Jacob Cunningham, Angharad Hopkinson and Ezekiel Jacob three things which they think should be better known. This episode was recorded in front a live audience, but unfortunately th...

Kris Hollington discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known. Kris Hollington is a bestselling non-fiction author and ghost-writer of over twenty books, mostly covering crime, several of which have been adapted for TV dramas and documentaries and nominated for various awards. In 2017 he won the People’s Book Prize for non-fiction and his latest book, Corrupt Bodies, writte...

Author Dorian Lynskey discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known. Dorian Lynskey is an author and journalist who writes about music, politics, film and books for publications including the Guardian, the Observer, GQ, Billboard and the New Statesman. He is the author of 33 Revolutions Per Minute: A History of Protest Songs (Faber, 2011) and The Ministry of Truth: A Biogra...

Actor Jack Gilpin discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known. Jack Gilpin is an American actor and Episcopal priest. He currently stars in television drama series Billions and has previously performed in Succession and Law & Order. He has acted in many films including Quiz Show, Mulan and Adventureland. The Bible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sheep_and_the_Goats...

Author Richard Askwith discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known. Richard Askwith is author of six books, including the award-winning Feet in the Clouds (about fell-running); Today We Die A Little (an acclaimed biography of the Czechoslovak runner Emil Zátopek); and, most recently, Unbreakable: The Countess, the Nazis and the World’s Most Dangerous Horse Race, which won...

Journalist and author Louise Gray discusses with Ivan six things which she thinks should be better known. Louise Gray is the author of The Ethical Carnivore which discusses the ethics of meat by only eating animals she had killed herself. She was previously environment correspondent of The Daily Telegraph. Squirrel Kebabs https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ethical-Carnivore-Year-Killing-Eat/dp/1472933109/re...

Psychologist Stuart Ritchie discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known. Stuart Ritchie is a Lecturer in the Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at King's College London. His new book, Science Fictions: Exposing Fraud, Bias, Negligence and Hype in Science, is available now. More details are at http://sciencefictions.org . Bach's cantatas https://www.youtu...

Anand Menon discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known. Anand Menon is Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at King's College London and director of the UK in a Changing Europe initiative. His many books include Brexit and British Politics, which he co-wrote with Geoffrey Evans. 13 Minutes to the Moon https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xttx2 The Middle htt...

Historian David Vincent discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known. David Vincent is Professor of Social History at the Open University, where he was previously Pro Vice Chancellor. He is an Honorary Professor of History at Keele University, a recent visiting research fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at Cambridge, and a Resear...

Author Rose George discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. You can find out more about her at www.rosegeorge.com Janet Vaughan https://longreads.com/2015/03/10/a-very-naughty-little-girl/ The bidet https://www.bidet.org/blogs/news/history-of-the-bidet Dr. George Merryweather https://whitbymuseum.org.uk/whats-here/collections/special-collections/tempest-prognosticator/ Lucio Ba...