New Generation Thinkers 2019

Title

First
Broadcast

Comments

Marble, Muscle And Manly Bodies In The 18th Century

20190408

What was more important in the construction of an eighteenth-century man's body: the dumbbell or the dumbwaiter? Who had the most enviable body shape: the svelte Apollo Belvedere or the rotund John Bull? Dr Sarah Goldsmith, from the University of Leicester, explores the early origins of modern gym culture in the tantalisingly elusive and occasionally surprisingly sweaty world of eighteenth-century male physicality.

Sarah Goldsmith is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Centure for Urban History and School of History, University of Leicester.

Her Essay was recorded in front of an audience at Sage Gateshead as part of this year's Free Thinking Festival.

New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select ten academics each year who can turn their research into radio.

Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Sarah Goldsmith on how the C18th craze for weight lifting fed into ideas about masculinity

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Should Salman Rushdie Live And Let Die ?

20190410

You are a liberal who opposes art being banned. But would a movie that calls for you to be killed change your view of censorship? This was the quandary facing Salman Rushdie when filmmakers in Pakistan produced a James Bond-style action thriller in which a trio of Islamist guerrillas are inspired by Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa to track down and kill the author of The Satanic Verses. In the year of the 30th anniversary of the fatwa against the novelist from Iranian clerics, film historian Dr Iain Robert Smith explores what this largely-forgotten episode from the Rushdie affair can tell us about current debates on freedom of expression.

Iain Robert Smith researches the impact of globalisation on popular films made around the world. He teaches at King's College, London.

The Essay was recorded at the Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead.

New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select 10 academics each year who can turn their research into radio.

Producer: Fiona McLean

What the BBFC archives tell us about censorship debates & a film depicting Salman Rushdie.

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

The Ottoman Empire, Power And The Sea

20190411

From Turkish raiders who occupied an island in the Bristol Channel in the seventeenth century to questions about patrolling the Mediterranean Sea now - Michael Talbot asks how can power be exerted over water? What do borders mean in the featureless desert of the ocean? These were questions faced by the Ottoman Empire in the 17th and 18th centuries when an imaginary line was used to create a legally enforced border at sea for the Sultans in Istanbul who called themselves `rulers of the two seas`, the Black and the Mediterranean.

Michael Talbot lectures about the history of the Ottoman Empire and the Modern Middle East at the University of Greenwich, London.

The Essay was recorded at Sage Gateshead as part of the Free Thinking Festival.

New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select 10 academics each year who can turn their research into radio.

Michael Talbot tells stories of Turkish raiders, sea patrols and midwater borders.

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Where Do Human Rights Come From?

20190412

You don't have to be religious to believe that, as the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, 'all human beings have the right to be free and treated equally.' However, drawing on a wide range of examples including Shakespeare's Richard III to Disney's Jiminy Cricket, New Generation Thinker Dafydd Mills Daniel argues that the UN's emphasis on 'reason and conscience' as the drivers of liberty and equality make the modern conception of human rights more religious, and less liberal, than both secular proponents and conservative critics have supposed.

Dafydd Mills Daniel lectures on theology and ethics at the University of Oxford, and researches the history and development of theories of conscience.

The Essay was recorded at the Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead and - like all the New Generation Thinker Essays - you can hear a longer version with audience questions as a BBC Arts&Ideas podcast. You can also see Dafydd in a National Geographic TV show talking about the last Sin Eater. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvW7pxOrssU

New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select 10 academics each year who can turn their research into radio.

Producer: Jacqueline Smith

Dafydd Mills Daniel looks at links between the UN, Richard III and Disney's Jiminy Cricket

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Who Wrote Animal Farm?

20190409

Was George Orwell's wife his forgotten collaborator on one of the most famous books in the world? Lisa Mullen takes a new look at Animal Farm from the perspective of the smart and resourceful Eileen Blair - and uncovers a hidden story about sex, fertility, and the politics of women's work. Why are some contributions less equal than others?

Lisa Mullen is Steven Isenberg Junior Research Fellow at Worcester College, University of Oxford and the author of Mid-century gothic: uncanny objects in British literature and culture after the Second World War.

Her Essay is recorded with an audience at Sage Gateshead as part of the Free Thinking Festival and a longer version with audience questions is available as a BBC Arts&Ideas podcast.

New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select ten academics each year who can turn their research into radio.

Production Team:-

Producer: Fiona McLean

Editor: Robyn Read

Production Coordinator: Juliette Harvey

Lisa Mullen looks at the contribution of Orwell's wife Eileen to his writing.

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Episodes

Title	First Broadcast	Comments
Marble, Muscle And Manly Bodies In The 18th Century	20190408	What was more important in the construction of an eighteenth-century man's body: the dumbbell or the dumbwaiter? Who had the most enviable body shape: the svelte Apollo Belvedere or the rotund John Bull? Dr Sarah Goldsmith, from the University of Leicester, explores the early origins of modern gym culture in the tantalisingly elusive and occasionally surprisingly sweaty world of eighteenth-century male physicality. Sarah Goldsmith is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Centure for Urban History and School of History, University of Leicester. Her Essay was recorded in front of an audience at Sage Gateshead as part of this year's Free Thinking Festival. New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select ten academics each year who can turn their research into radio. Producer: Torquil MacLeod Sarah Goldsmith on how the C18th craze for weight lifting fed into ideas about masculinity Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.
Should Salman Rushdie Live And Let Die ?	20190410	You are a liberal who opposes art being banned. But would a movie that calls for you to be killed change your view of censorship? This was the quandary facing Salman Rushdie when filmmakers in Pakistan produced a James Bond-style action thriller in which a trio of Islamist guerrillas are inspired by Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa to track down and kill the author of The Satanic Verses. In the year of the 30th anniversary of the fatwa against the novelist from Iranian clerics, film historian Dr Iain Robert Smith explores what this largely-forgotten episode from the Rushdie affair can tell us about current debates on freedom of expression. Iain Robert Smith researches the impact of globalisation on popular films made around the world. He teaches at King's College, London. The Essay was recorded at the Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead. New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select 10 academics each year who can turn their research into radio. Producer: Fiona McLean What the BBFC archives tell us about censorship debates & a film depicting Salman Rushdie. Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.
The Ottoman Empire, Power And The Sea	20190411	From Turkish raiders who occupied an island in the Bristol Channel in the seventeenth century to questions about patrolling the Mediterranean Sea now - Michael Talbot asks how can power be exerted over water? What do borders mean in the featureless desert of the ocean? These were questions faced by the Ottoman Empire in the 17th and 18th centuries when an imaginary line was used to create a legally enforced border at sea for the Sultans in Istanbul who called themselves `rulers of the two seas`, the Black and the Mediterranean. Michael Talbot lectures about the history of the Ottoman Empire and the Modern Middle East at the University of Greenwich, London. The Essay was recorded at Sage Gateshead as part of the Free Thinking Festival. New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select 10 academics each year who can turn their research into radio. Michael Talbot tells stories of Turkish raiders, sea patrols and midwater borders. Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.
Where Do Human Rights Come From?	20190412	You don't have to be religious to believe that, as the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, 'all human beings have the right to be free and treated equally.' However, drawing on a wide range of examples including Shakespeare's Richard III to Disney's Jiminy Cricket, New Generation Thinker Dafydd Mills Daniel argues that the UN's emphasis on 'reason and conscience' as the drivers of liberty and equality make the modern conception of human rights more religious, and less liberal, than both secular proponents and conservative critics have supposed. Dafydd Mills Daniel lectures on theology and ethics at the University of Oxford, and researches the history and development of theories of conscience. The Essay was recorded at the Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead and - like all the New Generation Thinker Essays - you can hear a longer version with audience questions as a BBC Arts&Ideas podcast. You can also see Dafydd in a National Geographic TV show talking about the last Sin Eater. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvW7pxOrssU New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select 10 academics each year who can turn their research into radio. Producer: Jacqueline Smith Dafydd Mills Daniel looks at links between the UN, Richard III and Disney's Jiminy Cricket Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.
Who Wrote Animal Farm?	20190409	Was George Orwell's wife his forgotten collaborator on one of the most famous books in the world? Lisa Mullen takes a new look at Animal Farm from the perspective of the smart and resourceful Eileen Blair - and uncovers a hidden story about sex, fertility, and the politics of women's work. Why are some contributions less equal than others? Lisa Mullen is Steven Isenberg Junior Research Fellow at Worcester College, University of Oxford and the author of Mid-century gothic: uncanny objects in British literature and culture after the Second World War. Her Essay is recorded with an audience at Sage Gateshead as part of the Free Thinking Festival and a longer version with audience questions is available as a BBC Arts&Ideas podcast. New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select ten academics each year who can turn their research into radio. Production Team:- Producer: Fiona McLean Editor: Robyn Read Production Coordinator: Juliette Harvey Lisa Mullen looks at the contribution of Orwell's wife Eileen to his writing. Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.