Pulitzer Prize-winning author and academic Viet Thanh Nguyen talks to John Wilson about his formative influences and experiences. A child refugee, he moved to the United States with his family at the end of the Vietnam War. He is best known for his 2015 debut novel The Sympathize ...Show more
Elif Shafak
Bestselling Turkish-British novelist Elif Shafak talks to John Wilson about her formative cultural influences. Renowned for epic stories that connect the past and the present, told from multiple perspectives, her novels explore marginalised communities and exiled people. An activ ...Show more
This week, a special interview with the sociologist Richard Sennett takes us from Roland Barthes to Leonard Bernstein; and Hettie Judah on two memoirs inspired by a love of 17th-century art.'The Performer: Art, Life, Politics', by Richard Sennett'Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and ...Show more
Ross Sutherland takes us to the birth of modern art as he traces the extraordinary life of Arthur Cravan. Cravan's anarchic art heralded Dada , surrealism, situationism, punk rock and alternative comedy. His whole life was an extravagant show and his influence spreads right acros ...Show more
Poet Fiona Sampson, conductor Alice Farnham, and broadcaster Tom Service join Ian McMillan to explore the maths, metaphors and musical terms that make up the language of conducting. Plus comedy writer Jack Bernhardt takes a sideways look at Hollywood's take on the tortured genius ...Show more
This week, Jonathan Barnes joins us to explore the visionary work of Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale; and a wonderful conversation about literature and horticulture between Dame Penelope Lively and her daughter, musician Josephine Lively.'The Quatermass Experiment 70th Anniversar ...Show more