Power Play

This week, Frances Wilson plunges into two biographies of the self-mythologising mystery man Edgar Allan Poe; and Will Eaves joins us to read his poem 'The Cat'.'Darkness Becomes Bright: The haunted life (and afterlife) of Edgar Allan Poe', by Emily Ogden'Edgar Allan Poe: A life' ...  Show more

This week, Tristram Fane Saunders praises the form-busting brilliance of new Nobel Laureate Anne Carson; and Lily Herd on shooting stars, shipwrecks and hubris through the ages.Produced by Charlotte Pardy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. 

This week David asks Mary Beard what the Roman Empire can tell us about the nature of unaccountable power, then and now. How did Roman emperors rule when they had so little knowledge of the lives of their subjects? Can absolute personal power ever escape the limits of biology, fr ...  Show more

What happens at a Roman emperor's dinner party? Why would you be lucky to get out alive? And how are emperors even chosen?Joining Kate today is the one, the only Mary Beard, to take us back to Ancient Rome and help separate the facts from the myths.Mary's latest book, Emperor of ...  Show more

Who gets to win power and how do they keep it – and lose it? These are the questions that Mary Beard and Rory Stewart addressed when they came to Intelligence Squared on in November 2023. Beard, Britain’s best known classicist, has won legions of fans through her enthusiasm for t ...  Show more