ARTIDOTE

By Vashik ArmenikusHistory

ARTIDOTE episodes

October 18, 2022 How Can Rumi Heal Your Heart with Haleh Liza Gafori
Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet whose wisdom continues to echo and inspire souls around the world.
Every person who has read at least a single line written by Rumi knows that his verse can heal one's heart.
We wouldn't have known about Rumi and these mystical powers if not for talented translators like Haleh Liza Gafori.
Her recent beautiful translation of Rumi's poetry 'Gold' was published by The New York Review of Books in March 2022. In this episode she told Vashik Armenikus how Rumi can heal our hearts by teaching us the religion that could unite all of us - the religion of Love.

You can find more about Haleh, her work and her book recommendation in the link below.

Hope you will enjoy listening to this episode!

Vashik Armenikus

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1 hr 5 min
October 04, 2022 How Can Spinoza Change Your Life with Professor Steven Nadler
How to lead a meaningful life? How can we lead a good life and enjoy happiness in a world without a providential God?
"In Think Least of Death, Pulitzer Prize–finalist Steven Nadler connects Spinoza’s ideas with his life and times to offer a compelling account of how the philosopher can provide a guide to living one’s best life."

All the show notes 👉 https://artidote.uk/episodes/steven-nadler

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56 min
July 21, 2022 Stalin & His Library: A Dictator and His Books with Dr. Geoffrey Roberts
Stalin was an avid and voracious reader. In his recent book, Professor Geoffrey Roberts tells us about the life of Joseph Stalin through the books that the dictator read, collected, annotated, and banned.This book draws an extraordinary vivid portrait of Stalin as an intellectual who could never satiate his curiosity; who ardently believed in ideas; and who believed in mysterious powers of reading.
Geoffrey Roberts' profile on ARTIDOTE website
Get the Book: Stalin's Library by Geoffrey Roberts
Dr. Roberts' Website
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1 hr 13 min
April 26, 2022 Master & Disciple: The Life of Rodin and Rilke with Rachel Corbett
This episode’s guest is Rachel Corbett, the author of a brilliant book called You Must Change Your Life, which tells the story of the brief and intense relationship between renowned sculptor Auguste Rodin and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke.
In 1902, Rainer Maria Rilke was a delicate young visitor from Prague in Paris, he was broke and suffering from writer’s block. He was commissioned to write a book on Rodin, who was already a renowned sculptor at the time, this is when everything changes
You Must Change Your Life reveals one of the great stories of modern art and literature:
Rodin and Rilke’s years together as master and disciple, their heartbreaking rift, and moving reconciliation.
In her vibrant debut, Rachel Corbett reveals how Rodin’s influence lead Rilke to write his most celebrated poems and inspired his beloved Letters to a Young Poet.
She captures the dawn of modernism with appearances by Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse, Lou Andreas Salome, George Bernard Show and Jean Cocteau.
In this interview I also wanted to ask Rachel about how Rodin and Rilke changed HER life, how she discovered them, and what are her favourite poems by Rilke and her favourite sculptures by Rodin.
I know this might sound cliche, but When I was reading this book I was getting a strong feeling as if I am reading the script for the second part of Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Get the Book: You Must Change Your Life by Rachel Corbett
Follow Rachel on Twitter

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55 min
March 15, 2022 SWEAT: A History of Exercise with Bill Hayes
Exercise is our modern obsession.
The way we choose to exercise can tell us so much about our culture, our ambition or our mindset.
Ancient Greeks, for example, used to discuss philosophy at their gyms and believed that the intelligence of the mind needs to be in equilibrium with the fitness of the body.
In this wonderful book, ‘Sweat: A History of Exercise’, Bill Hayes explores the different ways in which we have approached exercise throughout history.
Hayes connects his own experience to the cultural and scientific history of exercise, from ancient times to the present day.
GET 'SWEAT: A History of Exercise'
BILL HAYES' RECOMMENDED BOOKS HERE

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1 hr 6 min
February 15, 2022 How to See Clearly: Why Ruskin Matters with Dr. Suzanne Fagence Cooper
In our age of immediacy John Ruskin’s ideas remain important more than ever. He can teach us how to see beauty, how to gain control over attention span and how to genuinely care about nature. He was a visionary who predicted many of the challenges we are facing today, such as climate change and culture of distraction.
Through his writings we can learn how to become better and live in harmony with the word.
In this episode, I interviewed Dr. Suzanne Fagence Cooper, who wrote a brilliant biography of Ruskin. It is a wonderful introduction to his work for those, who like me, did not know where to start reading his works.
What would Ruskin think of modern architecture? What would be his advice to us on how to live a meaningful life?
These are just two of many questions I asked Dr. Fagence Cooper in this episode.
📌 DR. SUZANNE FAGENCE COOPER'S PROFILE
📌 CHECK HER BOOK HERE
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1 hr 9 min
January 18, 2022 Napoleon & His Gardens with Dr. Ruth Scurr
In this interview Ruth Scurr tells me about Napoleon’s relationship with gardens throughout his life. Napoleon was interested in botany and tending gardens satisfied his inherent scientific curiosity. However, Napoleon also viewed gardens as a space for reflection and where he could have deep philosophical conversations with his peers.
Paul Valéry wrote that it ‘is a pity to see a mind as Napoleon’s devoted to trivial things such as empires, historic events, the thundering cannons
In that quote Valéry essentially asks us: What path would Napoleon choose if he decided not to become a military genius?
This is a question, that I believe, Dr. Ruth Scurr explores in her brilliant book Napoleon: A life in Gardens and Shadows

📌 Dr. Scurr's Profile:

📌 Her book:

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50 min
November 04, 2021 How Can Nietzsche Save Your Life with professor John Kaag
Hiking with Nietzsche is a tale of two philosophical journeys in the Swiss Alps: one made by John Kaag as an introspective teenager, the other seventeen years later in radically different circumstances - as a husband and father with his wife and small child in tow.
Kaag travels to the peaks above Sils Maria where Nietzsche routinely summered, and where he wrote his mysterious landmark work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Both trips are made in search of the wisdom at the core of Nietzsche's philosophy, yet they bring Kaag to radically different revelations about the human condition. Entertaining, intimate and thought-provoking, Hiking with Nietzsche explores not only Nietzsche's ideals but how his philosophy relates to us in the 21st century. (From the back of the book)
I was often asked 'Where to start reading Nietzsche?'. It is a hard question to answer, because each person has "their own" Nietzsche. Professor Kaag spent decades of his life studying and teaching philosophy of the famous philosopher. I believe his book is a perfect introduction to Nietzsche, because it combines three key elements: first of all it tells about N's key ideas; secondly it tells about the philosopher's hard life; and then it applies N's ideas to our own time, making it more tangible and applicable to us.
📚 You can find John Kaag's books here:
📝 My favourite quotes from the book :
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57 min
August 19, 2021 Manuscript Hunters with Ross King
This is a story about Florentine manuscript hunters. A group of people who travelled across Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries in search of lost ancient works on philosophy and literature. At the centre of this story is a man who is often referred to as ‘Michelangelo of bookselling’. His name is Vespasiano da Bisticci.
The most powerful figures across Europe came to him when they needed to find lost or rare editions of Aristotle, Plato, Quintilian or Cicero.
In this episode Vashik Armenikus speaks to Ross King, the author of a brilliant book ‘The Bookseller of Florence’ which illuminates the stories behind some of the greatest intellectuals who became manuscript hunters in Renaissance Italy.

Ross King's profile: https://artidote.uk/episodes/ross-king
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57 min
July 15, 2021 The Piano Poet. Interview with the pianist Federico Albanese
In this interview the Italian pianist Federico Albanese tells about his inspirations from writers such as Virginia Woolf to film-makers like Terrence Malick. He also tells about his latest collaborative EP with Tara Nome Doyle.
You can find Federico's EP and all the references of the episode here:
https://artidote.uk/episodes/federico-albanese
You can listen to EP on our playlist on Spotify.
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This episode was mastered by Ilia Rogatchevski. You can find his other work here.
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50 min