logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2023
52m 46s

Animal Farm and Other Allegories

David Runciman
About this episode
This week David talks to novelists Adam Biles and John Lanchester about the timeless appeal of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Why has it retained its hold far longer than other political allegories? Do readers need to know about the Russian history it describes? What makes the animals so relatable? Plus we discuss other favourite political allegories, from The ... Show More
Up next
Yesterday
Where Are We Going? The Future Of Work
David talks to author and journalist Sarah O’Connor, who writes about the changing character of work for the Financial Times, to explore what is happening to the world of jobs and employment in the twenty-first century. What does work mean and why do we do it? What changed when e ... Show More
1h 2m
May 10
Live Film Special: The Third Man w/Misha Glenny
Today’s episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Regent Street Cinema in London: David talks to the writer and broadcaster Misha Glenny about Carol Reed’s 1949 masterpiece The Third Man, written by Graham Greene and featuring a notorious film-stealing performance f ... Show More
56m 54s
May 6
Now & Then with Robert Saunders: The General Strike @100 Part 2
Today it’s the second part of David’s conversation with historian Robert Saunders about the meaning of the 1926 General Strike on its hundredth anniversary. How did the strike end and was its outcome a foregone conclusion? Why did the government’s political victory turn so quickl ... Show More
1h 1m
Recommended Episodes
May 2024
George Orwell Part 1 – From Eton to Barcelona
Back for season five, Origin Story continues to explore the misunderstood ideas and people that shape our politics today. With Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey. In this opening two-parter Dorian bows to the inevitable and tells the story of the subject of his book, The Ministry of Tru ... Show More
1h 4m
Aug 2024
George Orwell: life of the week
From doublethink and thoughtcrime to coming face-to-face with our worst nightmares inside Room 101, few writers have had as much impact on the popular imagination as George Orwell. But what compelled the author of 'Animal Farm' and 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' to conjure up such dark, ... Show More
41m 38s
Oct 2022
ORWELL - LA FERME DES ANIMAUX
tail spinning
25 m
Feb 2025
George Orwell - Orwell Collection Animal Farm 1984
<p>Animal Farm and 1984</p> 
16h 10m
May 2025
In the Soviet Archives: a conversation with Sheila Fitzpatrick
When Sheila Fitzpatrick first went to Moscow in the 1960s as a young academic, the prevailing understanding of the Soviet Union in the West was governed by the ‘totalitarian hypothesis’, of a system ruled entirely from the top down. Her examination of the ministry papers of Anato ... Show More
1h 9m
Feb 2022
Chapter 2_Animal Farm
Ch. 2 - Animal Farm, by George Orwell, read by Anna Butterworth 
16m 42s
Nov 2025
304. Orwell: Animal Farm, 1984 & Totalitarian Dystopia (Part 3)
What was the inspiration behind George Orwell’s most famous works? Why did he move to the remote Scottish island of Jura to finish writing 1984? What was Orwell’s “Snitch List” which he handed over to the government after World War 2? In Part 3 of this miniseries, Anita and Willi ... Show More
48m 2s
Nov 2025
Truth in an age of doublethink
We use “Orwellian” to describe everything from campus dust-ups to authoritarian crackdowns. But what did George Orwell actually stand for, what did he get wrong, and what can we learn from him about our age of surveillance capitalism and distraction? Sean’s guest is Laura Beers, ... Show More
52m 16s
Feb 2022
Chapter 5_Animal Farm
Ch. 5 - Animal Farm, by George Orwell, read by Anna Butterworth 
20m 50s
Feb 2022
Chapter 4_Animal Farm
Ch. 4 - Animal Farm, by George Orwell, read by Anna Butterworth 
11m 26s
Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami