Freedom, Books, Flowers & The Moon

In this bonus edition of the podcast, William Collins have taken over the feed to play a new episode of their podcast, Ideas Matter. In this exclusive extract, science writer Phillip Ball talks to his editor Myles Archibald about the ideas explore in his book, How To Grow A Human.To subscribe to Ideas Matter and discover more authors by William Collins, click here.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Was the 1960s a good decade for Norman Mailer? Thomas Meaney reconsiders the work; Henry Hitchings on Auberon Waugh, anarcho-snob and master of the "vituperative arts"; Toby Lichtig on the vitality of documentary filmmaking‘Collected Essays of the 1960s’ and ‘Four Books of the 1960s’ by Norman Mailer A Scribbler in Soho: A celebration of Auberon Waugh, edited by Naim AttallahWaugh on Wine, by Auberon WaughSay What Happened: A story of documentaries, by Nick FraserOpen City Documentary Festival – opencitylondon.com  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Elaine Showalter on the “avid, ardent, driven, generous, narcissistic, Olympian, obtuse, maddening, sometimes loveable but not very likeable” Susan Sontag; Patrice Higonnet goes in search of the real Robespierre; A. N. Wilson cuts through class, aristocracy, family and fantasy in Downton AbbeySontag: Her life, by Benjamin MoserRobespierre: L’homme qui nous divise le plus, by Marcel GauchetDownton Abbey (Various cinemas)Almanach de Gotha 2019, two volumes, edited by John James  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"When future historians study these troubled times, they will marvel at the relentless rise of sea levels, strongman politics and Kardashians." So says Irina Dumitrescu, who joins us to discuss the phenomenon of celebrity, from Sarah Bernhardt to the Kardashian-Jenners; Rafia Zakaria on the murder of the Pakistani social media star Qandeel Baloch, aka "How I'm looking?" girl; Lamorna Ash on 'Bait', a new film about a timeless clash between them and us, set in a small Cornish fishing villageThe Drama of Celebrity by Sharon MarcusKardashian Kulture: How celebrities changed life in the 21st century by Ellis CashmoreTweenhood: Femininity and celebrity in tween popular culture by Melanie KennedyA Woman Like Her: The short life of Qandeel Baloch by Sanam MaherBait by Mark Jenkin, in various cinemas   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The future of the planet is in question this week, or at least, humanity's place on it, as Gabrielle Walker discusses possible solutions to climate change and why we don't need to panic - yet - but we do need to act, together. The TLS's fiction editor, Toby Lichtig, talks us through the hype and hoopla around Margaret Atwood's sequel to The Handmaid's Tale - and what the book itself is like. And are you Team Scott or Team Zelda? Joanna Scutts looks at 'the messy intertextuality of a marriage', and the question of influence within the Fitzgerald ménage. Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? by Bill McKibbenLosing Earth: The Decade We Could Have Stopped Climate Change by Nathaniel RichDown to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime by Bruno LatourThe Testaments by Margaret AtwoodThe Great Gatsby by F. Scott FitzgeraldSave Me The Waltz by Zelda Fitzgerald  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We turn to children's and YA literature in this week's episode, with Rozalind Dineen and Toby Lichtig presenting new releases (as reviewed by a selection of young readers), as well as discussing some of the pros and cons of age-specific reading; Robert Douglas-Fairhurst reintroduces J. M. Barrie's classic work Peter Pan, where a wild imagination masks tragic, sometimes disturbing, realitiesAlfie On Holiday by Shirley HughesThe Fate of Fausto: A painted fable by OliverThe Good Thieves by Katherine RundellThe Burning by Laura Bates  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What kind of son was Philip Larkin? The TLS's poetry editor Alan Jenkins finds insight in some of the 4,000-odd letters and postcards the poet sent home to his "Mop" and "Pop"; Helen Macdonald, the author of H is for Hawk, tells us more than we could ever hope to know about pigeons and pigeon fanciers; Norma Clarke considers the internet artist Cold War Steve, whose ‘furious absurdism’ has won him some 192.8K Twitter followers, and ponders connections with the eighteenth-century satires of Hogarth and GillrayLetters Home, 1936–1977, by Philip Larkin, edited by James BoothHoming: On pigeons, dwellings, and why we return, by Jon Day Cold War Steve Presents...The Festival of Brexit, by Cold War Steve  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The whereabouts of the "Salvator Mundi", the most costly artwork in the world, are still uncertain, as is its attribution to Leonardo da Vinci. Federico Varese, best known for his studies of the mafia, follows the trail; the TLS's history editor David Horspool considers the inner and outer worlds of Anne Frank’s diary, the actual anniversary of the Peterloo massacre, and a selection of other contributions to this week's special issue; Ladee Hubbard reflects on the late Toni Morrison, who died last week, and considers 'The Pieces I Am', a documentary that highlights Morrison's multifaceted life, work and legacyThe Collected Works, by Anne Frank, translated by Nancy Forest-Flier, Susan Massotty, Mirjam Pressler and Kirsten Warner and edited by Mirjam PresslerPeterloo: The English uprising by Robert PooleLegacy: One family, a cup of tea and the company that took on the world, by Thomas HardingThe Pieces I Am, by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out in

Jill Lepore traces the history of conspiracy theories and the conditions that allow them to thrive; Tim Crane talks us through whether we have free will or not, and why it is still a problem; Michael Caines looks at non-traditional approaches to criticismBooksCONSPIRACY THEORIES AND THE PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE THEM, edited by Joseph E. Uscinski CONSPIRACIES OF CONSPIRACIES: How delusions have overrun America, by Thomas Milan Konda  THE STIGMATIZATION OF CONSPIRACY THEORY SINCE THE 1950s:  ‘A plot to make us look foolish’, by Katharina ThalmannTHE AMERICAN CONSPIRACIES AND COVER-UPS: JFK, 9/11, the Fed, rigged elections, suppressed cancer cures, and the greatest conspiracies of our time, by Douglas Cirignano  REPUBLIC OF LIES: American conspiracy theorists and their surprising rise to power, by Anna Merlan  A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE SAYING:The new conspiracism and the assault on democracy, by Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum  HARVESTER

Following the discovery of a strange book, Sarah Green revises the story of the late nineteenth-century poet Lionel Johnson, whose legacy was distorted in the 1950s by a criminal with a taste for fancy bedding; in the US, of 70,000 cases that went to disposition in 2016, more than 99 per cent resulted in conviction. What does this tell us? Clive Stafford Smith explains why American justice is a mirage; since 2015, Refugee Tales – part walking pilgrimage, part protest, part collection of narratives about those unjustly treated by Britain’s immigration system – has become an annual event. David Herd tells us what ground remains to be covered Doing Justice: A prosecutor’s thoughts on crime, punishment, and the rule of law, by Preet Bharara  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Nick Groom ponders the fate of the beleaguered British countryside and shares new theories about the economics of the natural world; En Liang Khong takes us through the increasingly global phenomenon of Japanese manga (which translates as “pictures run riot”); Damian Flanagan on Mishima, a writer who yearned to transcend time and identity Green and Prosperous Land: A blueprint for rescuing the British countryside by Dieter HelmWho Owns England?: How we lost our green and pleasant land and how to take it back, by Guy ShrubsoleManga, and exhibition at the British Museum in LondonStar, by Yukio Mishima; translated by Sam BettThe Frolics of the Beasts, by Yukio Mishima; translated by Andrew Clare  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"The sociable side of nineteenth-century musical life is not acknowledged as often as it should be..." – Laura Tunbridge discusses the interconnected, complicated and often contradictory myths and realities that link Chopin, Schumann and Brahms; the TLS's music editor Lucy Dallas takes us through a selection of other pieces on music in this week's issue, including new histories of the blues and the poetic pop of Kate Bush and the Pet Shop Boys; when Irving Sandler wrote his seminal history of abstract expressionism, he neglected to mention Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan and Elaine de Kooning – Jenni Quilter joins us to put these artists back in the frameNinth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler: Five painters and the movement that changed modern art, by Mary Gabriel Fryderyk Chopin: A life and times by Alan Walker Schumann: The faces and masks by Judith ChernaikBrahms in Context, edited by Nata

It’s the centenary of the birth of Iris Murdoch, the novelist-philosopher who dominated the literary pages for much of the twentieth century. Where do we stand on her now? Michael Caines and Frances Wilson discuss; This was the week that the US women’s football team won the World Cup. Devoney Looser, the roller derby queen of academia, enjoys “a brief opportunity to revel in America’s better strengths”.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Do the kids – in these times of identity politics – still read Updike? The answer is “probably not”. But should they? Claire Lowdon makes the case; Toby Lichtig discusses Chelsea Manning, the US Army data analyst turned whistle-blower, and a new documentary on her life; Eric Rauchway considers the prevalence of pro-Nazi feeling and policy in 1940s America and beyond Novels 1959–1965: The Poorhouse Fair, Rabbit, Run, The Centaur, Of the Farm, by John Updike (Library of America)XY Chelsea, directed by Tim Travers HawkinsHitler’s American Friends: The Third Reich’s supporters in the United States, by Bradley HartThe Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a village caught in between, by Michael Dobbs  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Thea Lenarduzzi on the cultural history of gesture and body language; What is Chaucer to us today? When did he become known as the "Father of English poetry", and what did he get up to when he was not writing rude and memorable poetry? Julia Boffey explains; the Stonewall uprising in New York is remembered as a pivotal moment in LGBTQ rights – fifty years on, Hugh Ryan revisits the history Books Dictionary of Gestures: Expressive comportments and movements in use around the world by François CaradecSilent History: Body language and nonverbal identity, 1860–1914, by Peter K. AnderssonThe Stonewall Riots: A documentary history, edited by Marc SteinThe Stonewall Reader, edited by the New York Public LibraryPride: Photographs after Stonewall by Fred W. McDarrahLove and Resistance: Out of the closet into the Stonewall era, edited by Jason Baumann  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

TLS contributors – including David Baddiel, Mary Beard, Paul Muldoon and Elizabeth Lowry – give their seasonal reading recommendations; TLS editors wreak havoc and suggest their own. (Visit the-tls.co.uk to read the summer books feature in full.)  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A "new" ending to a Nabokov novel and the unregarded first volume of Vasily Grossman's epic, the "Soviet War and Peace"; Rebecca Reich guides us through these and the question of whether the West is paranoid about Russia or vice versa; Laura Freeman joins us to talk about dinner with the Durrells and pond life sandwiches.BooksStalingrad: A novel by Vasily GrossmanVasily Grossman and the Soviet Century by Alexandra PopoffPlots against Russia by Eliot BorensteinThe Russia Anxiety by Mark B. SmithDining with the Durrells by David Shimwell  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If capitalism is broken, can it be fixed? And can it save the environment? Joseph E. Stiglitz discusses; as we mark seventy-five years since the D-Day landings, William Boyd considers a brilliant new "worm's-eye view" of historical events; a decade after leaving academia for the "wilderness of writing", Stephen Marche returns to report on the troubled field of the humanitiesThe Future of Capitalism: Facing the new anxieties by Paul CollierCapitalism: The future of an illusion by Fred L. BlockMoney and Government: A challenge to mainstream economics by Robert SkidelskyNormandy ’44: D-Day and the battle for France by James Holland  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Omani novelist Jokha al-Harthi and the translator Marilyn Booth won this year's Man Booker International prize for fiction in translation, for the novel Celestial Bodies, an account of three sisters living in the village of al-Awafi in an Oman on the brink of change. A couple of days after the announcement, at Waterstones book shop in Piccadilly, the winners spoke to the Turkish novelist Elif Shafak about the novel, Arabic culture and modernisation, translation, and women’s wisdom.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Anna Katharina Schaffner on the cultural history of fat and fat phobia; the TLS's travel editor Catharine Morris on why Paris will always be disappointing, the solitude of open spaces, and the problem with "Victor" the archetypal travel writer; an extract from the 2019 Man Booker International prize-winning Celestial Bodies by Jokha al-Harthi, read by the novel's translator Marilyn Booth BooksFat: A cultural history of the stuff of life by Christopher E. ForthThe Truth About Fat by Anthony WarnerFearing the Black Body: The racial origins of fat phobia by Sabrina StringsWe’ll Never Have Paris, edited by Andrew GallixThe Solace of Open Spaces by Gretel EhrlichHeida: A shepherd at the edge of the world by Steinunn Sigurðardóttir and Heiða Ásgeirsdóttír, translated by Philip RoughtonWhere the Hornbeam Grows: A journey in search of a garden by Beth LynchThe Cambridge History of Travel Writing, edited by Nandini Das and Tim YoungsCelestial Bodies by Jokha al-Harthi, translated by Marilyn Booth &