Bristol Festival of Ideas Audio RSS feed
10 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 14 years ago - ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsEstablished in 2005, the Bristol Festival of Ideas aims to stimulate minds and passions with an inspiring programme of discussion and debate throughout the year. The festival welcomes to Bristol, among others, scientists, artists, politicians, journalists, historians, musicians, novelists and commentators on all subjects.
Each year, we audio record interviews and lectures with selected speakers from our annual programme. Highlights of our programme are featured here as a series of audio recordings.
More interviews and lectures can be found on our website at: www.ideasfestival.co.uk.
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Episodes
Lecture - Stewart Brand and Brian Eno, 'The Future of Environmentalism' (18 January 2010)
January 19, 2010 13:29 - 15.6 MBStewart Brand is one of the great visionaries of our time. His latest book, 'Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto', argues that ‘Being Green’ is no longer enough. Three profound transformations are underway on Earth: climate change, urbanisation and biotechnology. Unless environmentalists keep up with new science, and embrace tools and disciplines that they have traditionally distrusted - such as science and engineering - in order to forestall the cataclysmic deterioration of t...
Lecture - Barbara Ehrenreich, 'Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Undermines Us All' (12 January 2010)
January 19, 2010 12:05 - 49.6 MBThe 'New York Times' calls Barbara Ehrenreich “our premier reporter of the underside of Capitalism”. Recent books have seen her go undercover to find a job in America’s corporate sector and work in low-wage America, busting the myth of the American dream. She now looks at positive thinking – formerly a marginal 19th century healing technique, which is now seen as the key to success and prosperity. Ehrenreich exposes the downside of the science of happiness which leads to self-blame, a morb...
Interview - Margaret Atwood, 'The Year of the Flood' (9 September 2009)
September 10, 2009 13:00 - 11.1 MBGeorge Miller interviews Margaret Atwood for the Bristol Festival of Ideas just before her event at St George's Bristol on 9 September 2009 to mark the launch of her new book 'The Year of the Flood'. The event, attended by nearly 600 people, featured an exciting performance with actors and a choir, followed by an on-stage interview with Margaret herself. This podcast is 12 minutes long (11MB). If you would like to hear more interviews with selected speakers from this year's festival, plea...
Audio compilation - David Aaronovitch, Helen Bamber and Michael Frayn (September 2009)
September 01, 2009 18:00 - 27.2 MBIn this final podcast from summer 2009, presented by Bristol Festival of Ideas, George Miller looks back at some of the highlights of the 2009 May Festival. Award-winning writer, Times columnist and broadcaster David Aaronovitch discusses conspiracy theories in connection with his new book: 'Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History'; Helen Bamber talks about her long experience of human rights campaigning; and leading novelist and playwright Michael Fray...
Audio compilation - Peter Singer, Richard Holmes and Freeman Dyson (August 2009)
August 01, 2009 18:00 - 27.1 MBIn this second podcast from summer 2009, presented by Bristol Festival of Ideas, George Miller looks back at some of the highlights of the 2009 May Festival. Internationally renowned philosopher and author, Peter Singer, discusses the moral implications of greed and poverty in connection with his new book: The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty'; historian Richard Holmes talks about 'The Age of Wonder' and romantic science; and scientist Freeman Dyson looks at the challenges...
Audio compilation - Alain de Botton, Tariq Ramadan and Susie Orbach (July 2009)
July 01, 2009 18:00 - 28.4 MBIn this first podcast from summer 2009, presented by Bristol Festival of Ideas, George Miller looks back at some of the highlights of the 2009 May Festival. One of Britain's leading philosophers, writers and broadcasters, Alain de Botton, discusses the pleasures and sorrows of work; Tariq Ramadan, Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford and one of the foremost voices of reformist Islam in the West, talks about the challenges facing Islam today; and Susie Orbach, author of t...
Audio compilation - Alan Weisman, Gary Marcus and Andrew Kelly (October 2008)
October 01, 2008 18:00 - 22.4 MBIn the final podcast of this series, presented by Bristol Festival of Ideas and sponsored by the Philosopher's Magazine, George Miller looks back at some of the highlights of the 2008 Bristol Festival of Ideas. Alan Weisman looks to the future to discover what the world might be like, and how it would change if humans disappeared right now for good. In the current age of anxiety over our impact on the earth's climate and environment, he offers an intriguing glimpse of what the real legacy ...
Audio compilation - 'Atheism, Agnosticim & God', Tony Benn and Astrid Proll (September 2008)
September 01, 2008 18:00 - 25.5 MBIn this third podcast, presented by Bristol Festival of Ideas and sponsored by the Philosopher's Magazine, George Miller looks back at some of the highlights of the 2008 Bristol Festival of Ideas. Julian Baggini, author of 'Atheism: A Short Introduction', discusses matters of atheism, agnosticism and God with Rev. Robert Grimley, Dean of Bristol Cathedral, and agnostic Mark Vernon, who in 'After Atheism', argues that a committed, even passionate, agnosticism is vital for the future of our ...
Audio compilation - Adrian Tinniswood, Jean Moorcroft Wilson & Sebastian Peake (August 2008)
August 01, 2008 18:00 - 25.1 MBIn this second podcast, presented by the Bristol Festival of Ideas, George Miller looks back at some of the highlights of the 2008 Festival of Ideas. Historian, Adrian Tinniswood, presents the second Museum of Bristol Lecture: 'The Historian and the City'. As regional chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund, Adrian has been involved in many Bristol heritage projects, and now, in the lead-up to the opening of the Museum of Bristol in 2010, he reflects on his own work as a historian, looks at way...
Audio compilation - Baroness Susan Greenfield, Raymond Tallis & Alan Sokal (July 2008)
July 01, 2008 18:00 - 27.8 MBIn this first podcast, presented by Bristol Festival of Ideas and sponsored by the Philosopher's Magazine, George Miller looks back at some of the highlights of the 2008 Bristol Festival of Ideas. Baroness Susan Greenfield, Professor of Pharmacology at Oxford University, Director of the Royal Institution and a member of the House of Lords, talks about her new book 'ID: The Quest for Meaning in the 21st Century'. Raymond Tallis, polymath, poet and Emeritus Professor of Gerontology, then di...