Better Known

Historian Alice Hunt discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Alice Hunt is Professor of Early Modern Literature and History at the University of Southampton. She is the author of The Drama of Coronation (Cambridge University Press) and has previously written about the Tudors and James I, and often appears in the media to discuss monarchy. Her new book is Republic: Britain’s Re...

Nabeel Qureshi discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Nabeel S. Qureshi is an entrepreneur and researcher specializing in artificial intelligence and healthcare. He is the CEO of a new startup company and a Visiting Scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Nabeel is based in New York and grew up in Manchester, England. The filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul...

Edward Carey discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Edward Carey is a writer and illustrator who was born in North Walsham, Norfolk, England, during an April snowstorm. He is the author of the novels Observatory Mansions and Alva and Irva: the Twins Who Saved a City, and of the YA Iremonger Trilogy, which have all been translated into many different languages and all of which...

Steve Prest discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Steve Prest was a Weapon Engineer Officer who joined the Royal Navy after reading Electronic and Electrical Engineering at Loughborough University. He served in the Defence Communications Services Agency in Corsham in support of Op TELIC 1 (Iraq); undertook a short tour in Afghanistan as a Liaison Officer to Task Force Helman...

Ivan Wise discusses four anti-war plays which should be better known. Post Mortem by Noel Coward http://www.ww1plays.com/2015/07/noel-cowards-serious-war-play.html The White Disease by Karel Capek https://artsfuse.org/198970/arts-commentary-pestilence-on-stage-part-one-karel-capeksthe-white-plague/ O’Flaherty VC by George Bernard Shaw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Flaherty_V.C . Last Days of M...

Marieke Bigg discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Marieke Bigg is the author of Waiting for Ted, and This Won’t Hurt. Writing across fiction and non-fiction, she deconstructs the cultural givens around bodies, minds and identity. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge, where she studied the technological transformation of human reproduction. In additi...

Kathy Willis discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Katherine Willis CBE is Professor of Biodiversity in the department of Biology and the Principal of St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford. She is also a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords. Previous roles include Director of Science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and a member of the UK Government’s Natural Capital Commi...

Bruce Omar Yates discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Bruce Omar Yates was born in London to an English father and an Indian mother. Bruce grew up in the South of France before returning to London to study Literature and Film at King’s College London. Bruce is principal songwriter for the cult rock groups Famy, who released their album We Fam Econo in 2014, and Los Porcos,...

Pedro Domingos discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Pedro Domingos is a renowned AI researcher, tech industry insider, and Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. He is the author of the best-selling book The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World (Basic Books, 2015), which has...

Harriet Constable is a journalist and filmmaker based in London. Her journalism and documentary work has featured in outlets including the BBC, Economist and New York Times. She is a graduate of Colombia University’s School of Journalism summer school, is a Pulitzer Center grantee and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Her first novel is The Instrumentalist. Anna Maria della Pietà: the greates...

C. Michelle Lindley discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. C. Michelle Lindley’s writing has been featured in The Georgia Review, Conjunctions, and more. She has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts and has an MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University and a BA from the University of Berkeley in English and Art History. The Nude is her first novel. D...

Richard Davenport-Hines discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Richard Davenport-Hines is a British historian and literary biographer. His history of the Profumo scandal, An English Affair, was published in 2013. His book on espionage scandals, Enemies Within: Communists, the Cambridge Spies and the Making of Modern Britain was published in January. His other books include bi...

Susanna Rustin discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Susanna Rustin is a leader writer on social affairs at The Guardian, where she has worked for more than 20 years. Before that, she worked at the Financial Times. Sexed is her first book. The "Reform Firm" - the group of women's rights campaigners with Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon at the centre of it, in the middle of 19th...

A.J. Jacobs is an author, podcaster and human guinea pig. He has written four New York Times bestsellers that combine memoir, science, humor and a dash of self-help. His most recent book is "The Year of Living Constitutionally," in which he tries to understand our nation’s primary document by adopting the mindset and lifestyle of our Founding Fathers. The result is “fascinating and necessary” (Boo...

Katherine Bucknell discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Katherine Bucknell edited all four volumes of Christopher Isherwood's Diaries , a volume of letters between Christopher Isherwood and his partner Don Bachardy (The Animals), and W.H. Auden's Juvenilia: Poems 1922-1928. Co-editor of Auden Studies, a founder of The W. H. Auden Society, and director of the Christopher Ish...

Tom Newton Dunn is a presenter, political commentator and writer. He first made his name as an award-winning defence correspondent covering the Iraq and Afghan wars. He went on to be Political Editor of The Sun for 11 years, leading coverage of four general election campaigns and the Brexit referendum, and interviewed seven British Prime Ministers and US President Donald Trump. Moving to broadcast...

Alex Edmans discusses with Ivan six things which should be less well known. Alex’s new book is May Contain Lies, about misinformation, and so, in a reversal of the usual format, he discusses six ideas and beliefs which have been overexposed. Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School. Alex has a PhD from MIT as a Fulbright Scholar, and was previously a tenured professor at Whart...

Jonn Elledge is a New Statesman columnist, and a contributor to the Big Issue, the Guardian, the Evening Standard, and a number of other newspapers. He was previously an assistant editor at the New Statesman, where he created and ran its urbanism-focused CityMetric site, and spent six happy years writing about cities, maps and borders and hosting the Skylines podcast. He has written over a hundred...

Henry Oliver discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Henry Oliver is a writer, speaker, and brand consultant. He writes regularly for outlets like the New Statesman, The Critic, and UnHerd. He writes the popular Substack The Common Reader, which was recently mentioned in the Atlantic. His book Second Act is about late bloomers. In 2022, he was given an Emergent Ventures grant....

Jamaica Kincaid discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Jamaica Kincaid was born in St. John’s, Antigua. Her books include At the Borrom of the River; Annie John; Lucy; The Autobiography of My Mother; My Brother; Mr Potter; and See Now Then. She teaches at Harvard University and lives in Vermont. Her new book is an Encylopedia of Gardening for Colored People at https://blackwe...

Caroline Eden returns to discuss with Ivan six things which should be better known. Caroline Eden is a writer and book critic contributing to the Financial Times, Guardian and the Times Literary Supplement. Her new book is Cold Kitchen: A Year of Culinary Journeys. Her earlier books include Samarkand, Black Sea and Red Sands, winner of the prestigious André Simon Award and a Book of the Year for t...

Caroline Crampton discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Caroline Crampton is the author of The Way to the Sea: The Forgotten Histories of the Thames Estuary (Granta, 2019). Her award-winning podcast, Shedunnit, is distributed by BBC Sounds. Her journalism has appeared in the New Statesman, The Times and the Guardian. An experienced broadcaster, she has appeared on BBC Two, S...

Kathryn Hughes discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Kathryn Hughes is the critically acclaimed author of The Victorian Governess, The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton, which was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, and the hugely acclaimed George Eliot: The Last Victorian, which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography. Her new book is Catland: Felin...

Elaine Lin Hering discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Elaine Lin Hering has been a lecturer at Harvard Law School and a Managing Partner at Triad Consulting Group. She has worked with a wide range of clients in Fortune 500 companies, including American Express, Capital One, Google, Merck, Nike, Shell and Pixar, as well as with government and non-profit organisations. Elain...

Journalist Andrew Finkel discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Andrew Finkel has spent years reporting for media organisations including The Times, The Economist, New York Times and CNN. He has covered wars and earthquakes, market booms and busts, and in his capacity as a food critic and contributing editor for Istanbul’s Cornucopia magazine, the postmodernity of the kebab....