logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2024
49m 35s

History of Ideas 11: Umberto Eco

David Runciman
About this episode
Episode 11 in our series on the great essays explores Umberto Eco’s ‘Thoughts on Wikileaks’ (2010). Eco writes about what makes a true scandal, what are real secrets, and what it would mean to expose the hidden workings of power. It is an essay that connects digital technology, medieval mystery and Dan Brown. Plus David talks about the hidden meaning of Juli ... Show More
Up next
Today
The Starmer Crisis in Historical Perspective – Part 1
Today it’s the first of two episodes in which we try to make sense of what’s happening in British politics with a bit of historical perspective: how did we arrive at the current crisis and what might come next? David talks to five experts to get their perspectives on the seemingl ... Show More
1h 13m
May 13
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
Recommended Episodes
Nov 1995
Umberto Eco
The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the writer Umberto Eco. His best-selling novel The Name of the Rose propelled him from the relative obscurity of his post as Professor of Semiotics at Bologna University to worldwide fame at the age of 50.He'll be talking to Sue La ... Show More
36m 46s
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
Sep 2022
Dangerous ideas & scandalous lives: Germany’s first Romantics
At the turn of the 19th century, a small university town in Germany became the beating heart of an intellectual revolution. From philosophers and poets to scientists and playwrights, Jena attracted some of Europe’s brightest minds. Andrea Wulf tells Ellie Cawthorne about how the ... Show More
39m 42s
Jun 2023
What Communes and Other Radical Experiments in Living Together Reveal
<p>“Today’s future-positive writers critique our economies while largely seeming to ignore that anything might be amiss in our private lives,” writes Kristen Ghodsee. Even our most ambitious visions of utopia tend to focus on outcomes that can be achieved through public policy — ... Show More
1h 10m
Feb 2021
History of Ideas S2 E1 : Rousseau on Inequality
This is episode 1 of the new HISTORY OF IDEAS series from Talking Politics. To hear the remaining 11 episodes, please subscribe to History of Ideas!Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality (also known as the Second Discourse) tells the story of all human history to answer ... Show More
47m 55s
Jul 2021
Désordres extraordinaires | Épisode 2
tail spinning
19m 4s
Sep 2021
88/ A History of Nothing (With Susan A. Crane)
tail spinning
1h 27m
Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami