logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2023
54m 44s

History of Ideas: Virginia Woolf

David Runciman
About this episode
This week our history of the great essays and great essayists reaches the twentieth century and Virginia Woolf’s masterpiece ‘A Room of One’s Own’ (1929). David discusses how an essay on the conditions for women writing fiction ends up being about so much else besides: anger, power, sex, modernity, independence and transcendence. And how, despite all that, i ... Show More
Up next
Today
Where Are We Going? Nuclear War Part 1
For the first in a new series of conversations exploring the future that faces us all, David talks to S. M. Amadae about what nuclear weapons and the prospect of nuclear war have done to the human condition. Was 1945 the decisive watershed in the history of humanity? What made th ... Show More
59m 13s
Feb 11
What’s Wrong with Political Philosophy? Learning from Bernard Williams and Judith Shklar
Today’s episode explores the ideas of two late-twentieth-century thinkers who argued that political philosophy needs to be concerned with more than just justice. David talks to Paul Sagar about why Bernard Williams thought we should focus on questions about legitimacy and why Jud ... Show More
1h 9m
Feb 8
What’s Wrong with Political Philosophy? Learning from Max Weber
In the third part of our series David and Paul Sagar explore what the German writer and sociologist Max Weber can teach us about the pitfalls of political life and political philosophy. Why is doing politics so hard? Why is it so hard to know what to do for the best when all the ... Show More
1h 4m
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2022
434 The Story of the Hogarth Press Part 1 - Virginia Woolf's First Self-Published Story
Virginia Woolf has long been celebrated as a supremely gifted novelist and essayist. Less well known, but important to understanding her life and contributions to literature, are her efforts as a publisher. In the decades that she and her husband operated the Hogarth Press - star ... Show More
54m 9s
Aug 2022
Rediffusion - Virginia Woolf, Précoces esquisses
<p>Durant l'été, le podcast Portraits vous invite au voyage. Cette semaine, rendez-vous dans le sud de l'Angleterre avec Virginia Woolf. </p> <p><br></p> <p>La jeune Virginia Woolf, qui grandit dans la riche bibliothèque de son père intellectuel, se mesure à l’écriture très ... Show More
8m 25s
Jan 2024
Women of Science Fiction: Pauline Hopkins
Pauline Hopkins (1859-1930) was a pioneering writer who published articles and serialized novels across genres. She’s known as the author of the first science fiction novel by a woman of color – written decades before the term sci-fi was widely used. Today, you can see her ideas ... Show More
5m 42s
Mar 2022
Margaret Atwood on Stories, Deception and the Bible
<p>A good rule of thumb is that whatever Margaret Atwood is worried about now is likely what the rest of us will be worried about a decade from now. The rise of authoritarianism. A backlash against women’s social progress. The seductions and dangers of genetic engineering. Climat ... Show More
1h 8m
Jan 2017
In Plain Sight
In 1849, abolitionist and attorney Wendell Phillips wrote: "We should look in vain through the most trying times of our revolutionary history for an incident of courage and noble daring to equal that of the escape of William and Ellen Craft; and future historians and poets would ... Show More
32m 7s
Aug 2022
Sir Leslie Stephen
Virginia Woolf’s father, Sir Leslie Stephen, wanted nothing more than to be a genius—but he created one instead.Starring: Jameela Jamil as Virginia Woolf and Luke Millington-Drake as Sir Leslie Stephen. Source List:“Virginia Woolf and Leslie Stephen: History and Literary Revoluti ... Show More
38m 9s
May 2023
Ragers: Phyllis Schlafly
Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) was an anti-feminist spokesperson who successfully campaigned against the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. This month, we’re highlighting Ragers: women who used their anger— often righteous, though not always— to accomplish extraordinary th ... Show More
5m 59s
Apr 2023
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood talks to John Wilson about the formative influences and experiences that shaped her writing. One of the world’s bestselling and critically acclaimed authors, Atwood has published over 60 books including novels, short stories, children’s fiction, non-fiction and po ... Show More
43m 42s
Jun 2021
A More Perfect Union
<p>“The Engagement,” by Sasha Issenberg, recounts the complex and chaotic chain reaction that thrust same-sex marriage from the realm of conservative conjecture to the top of the gay political agenda and, eventually, to the halls of the Supreme Court. On this week’s podcast, Isse ... Show More
1h 2m