logo
episode-header-image
May 2024
13m 57s

Political Poems: 'The Masque of Anarchy'...

London Review of Books
About this episode
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
Up next
Yesterday
Love and Death: Thom Gunn and Paul Muldoon
Thom Gunn’s career as an elegist was tied closely to the onset of the Aids epidemic in the 1980s, during which he saw many of his friends die. Despite loosening his early formalism after absorbing the work of the New American Poets, Gunn’s vision of the poet was not as a confessi ... Show More
17m 36s
Nov 17
Fiction and the Fantastic: Two Novels by Ursula K. Le Guin
When the polymorphous writer Ursula K. Le Guin died in 2018, she left behind novels, short stories, poetry, essays, manifestos and French and Chinese translations. The huge and loyal readership among children and older readers that she built during her lifetime has only grown sin ... Show More
14m 3s
Nov 10
'The Sovereignty of Good' by Iris Murdoch
Imagine a woman setting herself the task of liking her son’s choice of wife. At first she finds her daughter-in-law unbearable, but through the effort of seeing her clearly and justly she comes to accept and even appreciate the younger woman. For Iris Murdoch this is an example o ... Show More
13m 55s
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2024
Political Poems: Andrew Marvell's 'An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland'
In the first episode of their new Close Readings series on political poetry, Seamus Perry and Mark Ford look at ‘An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland’ by Andrew Marvell, described by Frank Kermode as ‘braced against folly by the power and intelligence that make it ... Show More
34m 54s
Jun 2024
Civil Disobedience with Noëlle McAfee
<p>Do political subjects have a default obligation to obey the law? In episode 105 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss civil disobedience in the present context of university activism for divestment from genocide in Gaza. They chart the genealogy of the concept of disobedience ... Show More
53m 34s
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
Apr 2021
Violence Upon the Roads
This week, Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas are joined by Patricia Craig, a writer and critic from Northern Ireland, who relates a sad and murky case of accidental killings, which took place during the Irish Civil War of the early 1920s; the TLS’s politics editor Toby Lichtig revi ... Show More
50m 19s
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 Wor ... 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
Feb 2022
Ruta Sepetys Talks About 'I Must Betray You'
<p>Ruta Sepetys writes Y.A. historical fiction that draws plenty of adult readers as well. Her new novel, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/02/books/new-ya-books.html" target="_blank">“I Must Betray You,”</a> is about a Romanian teenager who is blackmailed to become an inf ... Show More
57m 26s
May 2021
The Anarchy: everything you wanted to know
The Anarchy – a 12th-century civil war for the English crown that pitted Empress Matilda against Stephen of Blois – is remembered as one of the most turbulent episodes of the Middle Ages. It was said to be a time when “Christ and his saints slept”. Medieval historian Matt Lewis a ... Show More
1h 1m