History of Ideas: Simone Weil

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

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

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the French philosopher and social activist Simone Weil. Born in Paris in 1909 into a wealthy, agnostic Jewish family, Weil was a precocious child and attended the prestigious Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, achieving the top marks in her cla ...  Show more

Why would someone disown their son over a pair of glasses? How could an unmarried woman in 1918 have published a book about sexual pleasure? And what is an appropriate gift for a newlywed prince and princess? 

Today, we’re looking at the complicated woman who wa ...

Today’s show is built around three simple sentences: “Future people count. There could be a lot of them. And we can make their lives better.” Those sentences form the foundat ...

Si la littérature s’avère parfois exotisante ou violente lorsqu’elle aborde les vies colonisées, elle permet aussi de rendre un juste hommage à des vies longtemps jugées indignes d’intérêt. Telle est la démarche d’Abdellah Taïa dans l’ouvrage <a href="https:// ...