Shelley’s angry, violent poem was written in direct response to the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester in 1819, in which a demonstration in favour of parliamentary reform was attacked by local yeomanry, leaving 18 people dead and hundreds injured. The ‘masque’ it describes begins with a procession of abstract figures – Murder, Fraud, Hypocrisy – embodied in mem ... Show More
Jun 11
Narrative Poems: ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
In her diary entry for 20 November 1797, Dorothy Wordsworth describes a late afternoon walk with her brother William and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. ‘ We went eight miles in the dark,’ she wrote, ‘William and Coleridge employing themselves in laying the plan of a ballad.’ This was t ... Show More
14m 27s
Jun 3
Nature in Crisis: ‘Is a River Alive?’ by Robert Macfarlane
The idea that a river is a living being has important legal consequences. But it also has imaginative consequences, which can, in George Eliot’s words, ‘enlarge the imagined range for self to move in’. In ‘Is a River Alive?’ (2025), Robert Macfarlane travels with the lawyers, Ind ... Show More
14m 54s
May 27
Who’s afraid of realism? ‘Mrs Dalloway’ by Virginia Woolf
In August 1923, halfway through writing ‘Mrs Dalloway’, Virginia Woolf recorded a new idea in her diary: she would ‘dig out beautiful caves’ behind her characters, and ‘the caves shall connect, and each comes to daylight at the present moment’. This was Woolf’s ‘tunnelling proces ... Show More
21m 10s
Aug 2023
Stephanie Barczewski, "How the Country House Became English (Reaktion, 2023)
How the Country House Became English (Reaktion, 2023) by Dr. Stephanie Barczewski is an exploration of the evolution of the quintessentially English country house.
Country houses have come to be regarded as quintessentially English, not only in terms of their architectural style ... Show More
57m 29s
May 2019
E30. Andrew Doyle Discusses the Dangers of Well-Intentioned Authoritarianism
Andrew Doyle is the man behind satirical Twitter account Titania McGrath – a radical intersectionalist, feminist, and slam poet, who is constantly telling people how oppressed she is – and author of Woke: A Guide to Social Justice. He and Bridget have a fascinating and important ... Show More
1h 29m
Jan 2024
The Trial of a New Society by Justus Ebert ~ Full Audiobook [philosophy]
The Trial of a New Society by Justus Ebert audiobook. Genre: philosophy In 1912 textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, mostly immigrants, went on strike in response to a pay cut, speedups, and unsafe working conditions. Representatives from the Industrial Workers of the Worl ... Show More
3h 37m
May 2021
A Desperate Writer Steals 'The Plot'
<p>Jake Bonner, the protagonist of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/10/books/the-plot-jean-hanff-korelitz-group-text.html" target="_blank">Jean Hanff Korelitz’s “The Plot,”</a> writes a novel based on someone else’s idea. The book becomes a big hit, but Jake has a hard ti ... Show More
1h 4m
May 2011
May 30, 2011 Alan Watt "Cutting Through The Matrix" LIVE on RBN: "Signs are Ominous, Sans Battle Drums, Something Wicked This Way Comes" *Title/Poem and Dialogue Copyrighted Alan Watt - May 30, 2011 (
--{ Signs are Ominous, Sans Battle Drums,
Something Wicked This Way Comes:
"The State of the Union's a Sorry Mess,
Bullies Curse Public in Battle Dress,
The U.S. Flag Once Caused a Tear,
Now Pushing Institutionalized Fear,
Post-Democratic and Authoritarian,
Uniforms Have Gone Wag ... Show More
46m 46s