Arts & Ideas Folgen

The Cundill Prize and PEN Hessell-Tiltman prizes for non-fiction writing about history are announced in early December. Rana Mitter talks to Cundill judge Henrietta Harrison about why their choice this year was Blood On The River by Marjoleine Kars. And with the news tonight that Rebecca Wragg Sykes book Neanderthals has won the PEN Hessell Tiltman - we revisit the conversation Rana recorded when the book came out bringing together Priya Atwal, Joseph Henrich and Rebecca Wragg Sykes in a conversation about family ties and power networks which ranges across Sikh queens, through the ties of marriage and religion which helped shape the Western world, back to the links between Neanderthals and early man.Priya Atwal has published Royal and Rebels: The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire. Dr Atwal is a Teaching Fellow in Modern South Asian History at King's College London. Joseph Henrich is a Professor in the department of Human and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and the author of The Weirdest People in the World: How the West became psychologically peculiar and particularly prosperous. Rebecca Wragg Sykes is an Honorary Fellow at University of Liverpool and Université de Bordeaux. She is the author of Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art and is one of the founders of https://trowelblazers.com/ Marjoleine Kars has won the 2021 Cundill Prize for her book Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild CoastYou might be interested in other Free Thinking conversations with Rutger Bregman author of Human Kind https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08d77hx Penny Spikins speaking about Neanderthal history at the 2019 Free Thinking Festival https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0003zp2 Tom Holland on his history of the impact of Christianity on Western thinking in a programme called East Meets West https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00093d1 The 2020 Cundill prize winner Camilla Townsend discussing Times of Change with Tom Holland, Emma Griffin and Jared Diamond https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000py89Producer: Robyn Read

Killer plants, a blinding meteor shower, the spread of an unknown disease: John Wyndham's 1951 novel explores ideas about the hazards of bio-engineering and what happens when society breaks down. Matthew Sweet is joined by writers Amy Binns and Tanvir Bush, broadcaster Peter White and New Generation Thinker Sarah Dillon to look at the book that spawned film, TV and radio adaptations and discuss what resonance it has today.Amy Binns has written a biography of John Wyndham - 'Hidden Wyndham: Love, Life, Letters'. Tanvir Bush is a writer and photographer whose most recent novel is 'Cull'. Peter White is the BBC's Disability Affairs Correspondent and presents You and Yours on Radio 4. He presented a documentary exploring science-fiction and blindness https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0931fvq Sarah Dillon is Professor of English at Cambridge University and a Radio 3 New Generation Thinker. Her most recent book is 'Storylistening: Narrative Evidence and Public Reasoning'.You can find other Free Thinking conversations exploring a range of films, books, artworks and TV series which are Landmarks of Culture on the website - everything from Jaws and The Quatermass Experiment to the writing of Günter Grass, Audre Lorde and Lorraine Hansberry. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01jwn44Producer: Torquill MacLeod

Aubrey Williams, Horace Ové, Sonia Boyce, Lubaima Himid, Peter Doig, Chris Ofili, Hurvin Anderson, Grace Wales Bonner and Alberta Whittle have works on show at Tate Britain as part of an exploration of artists from the Caribbean who made their home in Britain, and British artists who have looked at Caribbean themes and heritage in their work. Shahidha Bari's guests include the curator David A Bailey, New Generation Thinker Sophie Oliver and academic Asha Rogers.David A Bailey is co-curator of Life Between Islands, Caribbean British Art from 1950 at Tate Britain which runs until 3 April 2022 Lubaima Himid's exhibition runs at Tate Modern until 3 July 2022. You can find a discussion about the Black British Art movement in this playlist exploring Black History on the Free Thinking website - it also includes conversations about the writing of Maryse Condé, Aimé Césaire, with Kei Miller and Colin Grant, and a discussion of sugar https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08t2qbpSophie Oliver is a BBC AHRC New Generation Thinker and Lecturer in Modernism at the University of Liverpool. You can hear her Essay on Jean Rhys's dress here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000v870Asha Rogers is Associate Professor in Contemporary Postcolonial Literature at the University of Birmingham. She is the author of State Sponsored Literature: Britain and Cultural Diversity after 1945.Producer: Ruth Watts