Damned if he Does and Damned if he Doesn...

Simon Armitage delivers his final lecture as Oxford Professor of Poetry, reflecting on his own influences as a poet. 

The Hilary Term Professor of Poetry lecture, delivered by Professor of Poetry Simon Armitage. 

Simon Armitage delivers the Trinity 2018 poetry lecture entitled "Unseasonal Produce: Winter Words in Various Moods and Metres". 

Physician and careful reader Richard Gunderman of Indiana University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about how Adam Smith and Leo Tolstoy looked at greed. Drawing on Tolstoy's short story, "Master and Man," and adding some Thomas Hobbes along the way, Gunderman argues that ... Show More

A swashbuckling tale of adventure that feels dragged out of the mists of time, the new A24 film stars Dev Patel and is based on one of the most famous and important works of English literature: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a 14th-century Arthurian tale penned in Middle Englis ... Show More

Les mots, les livres et la lecture sont-ils en danger ? Écrans, censures, réécritures… Quelles perspectives pour demain ? Cette semaine, La Grande Librairie s’interroge sur tout ce qui inquiète la littérature et imagine quelques lignes de résistance avec Michel Desmurget, Amin Ma ... Show More

Stephen Sackur speaks to the bioethicist, disability rights campaigner and writer Tom Shakespeare. Should we embrace difference, rather than use science to root it out? 

Stéphane Bern raconte un petit noble et un grand soldat, un as de la joute à l’exceptionnelle bravoure. Ou la véritable histoire du Chevalier Bayard, le Chevalier sans peur et sans reproche… Était-il justement, sans peur et sans reproche ? Pourquoi est-il devenu l’incarnation de ... Show More

How did Sir Philip Green go from being a respected retail mogul to becoming the unacceptable face of capitalism? BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng find out, and then they judge him.In the podcast that uncovers how the world's 2,668 billionaires made their ... Show More

Luke reads verses from a modernised version of this medieval poem, considered one of the masterpieces of Middle English literature. Listen to hear the rhyme and rhythm of the poetry, the descriptive vocabulary and details of the story, with vocabulary explanations and comments fr ... Show More

How should we approach Shakespeare’s plays as philosophical texts? We take as examples skepticism and politics in Othello, King Lear, and Julius Caesar.