Jaime Davila discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Jaime Dávila earned an engineering degree in the United States. Choosing a career in the creative industries, he worked primarily in broadcasting and eventually led operations at Mexico’s largest media company. He became intrigued by the creation of the first mechanised sawmill by Cornelis Corneliszoon in 1593. This invention, whose significance has been overlooked, inspired his new book. Find out more at https://thebestpodcastguest.co.uk/jaime-davila/.

Mankind’s first industrial machine was Dutch.

The Dutch invented participatory capitalism.

The Dutch were early pioneers of liberal governance in a world of monarchies.

The Dutch laid the foundations of industrialization.

New Amsterdam’s influence on American identity is underappreciated.

The world we inhabit was not inevitable.

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To celebrate the 400th episode of Better Known, previous guest Richard Elwes discusses with Ivan Wise six aspects of the Better Known podcast which Ivan thinks should be better known.

Many thanks to Caroline Crampton and Laurence Bergreen for adding their choices of things which should be better known.

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Christopher Hill discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Christopher Hill was working in finance in London when, in 2002, he took a trip to South Africa which changed his life. He left his job, moved to Canada, and worked on the business plan for what became Hands Up Holidays. He spent the next two years traveling the world, building relationships with communities, formed a team of like-minded people, and launched the business in 2006. You can find out more at https://handsupholidays.com/.

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Eleanor Doughty discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Eleanor Doughty began her career in journalism at the Daily Telegraph, before going freelance to focus on writing. She has written the 'Great Estates' column in the Telegraph since 2017, and specialises in writing about the British moneyed and titles classes. Her first book Heirs and Graces, a history of the modern British aristocracy was published in September by Hutchinson Heinemann. Her writing appears in Country Life, The Times and Sunday Times, the Telegraph, the Spectator, the Financial Times, The Field and many other publications. When she is not writing, she can be found either on or near a horse, or out with her cocker spaniel.

The slow lane of the motorway https://moto-way.com/2019/09/a-beginners-guide-to-motorway-lanes-and-how-to-use-them/

The British aristocracy https://uk.bookshop.org/a/447/9781529153040

Venison https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/sep/28/venison-deer-meat-health-heart-benefits

The schedule send function on Gmail https://support.google.com/mail/answer/9214606?hl=en-GB&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop

Thank you letters and handwritten correspondence https://www.forbes.com/sites/jillgriffin/2018/08/07/the-value-of-a-well-written-thank-you-note/

Early 20th century/mid-century diaries and journals https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2002/11/21/out-of-the-mists/

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Sasha Butler discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Sasha Butler is a Birmingham based writer. Her first novel, The Marriage Contract (Salt, 2025), was shortlisted for the Cheshire Novel Prize 2022 and the Bath Novel Award 2022, under the former title As Soft as Dreams. In addition to novels, she occasionally writes short stories. Her short story ‘Map of an Affair’ features in Floodgate Press’ anthology, Night Time Economy (September 2024). The Marriage Contract is available at https://www.saltpublishing.com/products/the-marriage-contract-9781784633608

The decline of the skirret https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/82232/sium-sisarum/details

The Great Comet of 1577 https://hgss.copernicus.org/articles/12/111/2021/

Levina Teerlinc https://artherstory.net/levina-teerlinc/

Handshakes have not always been used as a greeting gesture https://academic.oup.com/past/article/267/1/48/7716082

The fleet that set out with the Golden Hinde (formerly called The Pelican), the Elizabethan ship that circumnavigated the earth https://www.goldenhinde.co.uk/discover/the-circumnavigation-1577-1580

Baddesley Clinton https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/warwickshire/baddesley-clinton

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Doug Lemov discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Doug Lemov is a former teacher and school principal whose books describe the techniques of high-performing teachers. His best-known book, Teach Like a Champion (now in its 3.0 version) has been translated into more than a dozen languages. The Teach Like a Champion Guide to the Science of Reading, out in July and co-written with Colleen Driggs and Erica Woolway, looks at how cognitive science can be better applied to the teaching of reading. Doug holds a BA in English from Hamilton College, an MA in English Literature from Indiana University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Read Doug’s latest on his blog (teachlikeachampion.org/blog) or follow him on X (@Doug_Lemov).

The difference between ingredients and cake. This is a reference to what the British education researcher Daisy Christodoulou says about understanding the difference between knowledge (or facts) and critical thinking.

How cognitive scientists define learning. As “a change in long term memory.” And further: If nothing has changed in long-term memory, nothing has been learned.” This is profoundly important because we forget (ie fail to learn) almost everything we come to understand in our lives unless we take specific actions to prevent this.

How fun and how important it is to teach vocabulary (the right way). https://vimeo.com/387487549

Lord of the Flies. Well I LOVE Lord of the Flies… but really it’s here as a proxy to speak to the importance of reading great books. And hard books. Which basically young people don’t do any more in school.

How powerful it is to read aloud with young people…and how to do it well

The benefits of very short writing exercises “American teachers assign a lot of writing but they don’t teach it well” write Judith Hochman and Natalie Wexler. This is one reason why.

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Sudhir Hazareesingh discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Professor Sudhir Hazareesingh was born in Mauritius. He is a Fellow of the British Academy a Fellow and Tutor in Politics at Balliol College, His books include The Legend of Napoleon (Granta, 2004), In the Shadow of the General (OUP, 2012) and How the French Think (Allen Lane, 2015). He won the Prix du Mémorial d’Ajaccio and the Prix de la Fondation Napoléon for the first of these, a Prix d’Histoire du Sénat for the second, and the Grand Prix du Livre d’Idées for the third. In 2020, he became a Grand Commander of the Order of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean (G.C.S.K.), the highest honour of the Republic of Mauritius.

His biography, Black Spartacus: The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture (Allen Lane, 2020) won the 2021 Wolfson History Prize, with the judges describing it as an ‘erudite and elegant biography of a courageous leader which tells a gripping story with a message that resonates strongly in our own time’. His latest book is Daring to Be Free, described in the New Statesman as “An absorbing and revelatory history of black resistance to the transatlantic trade … a marvel of historical analysis and research.” It is available now.

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Ana Schnabl discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Ana Schnabl is a Slovenian writer and editor. She writes for several Slovenian media outlets and is a monthly columnist for the Guardian. Her collection of short stories Razvezani (Beletrina, 2017) met with critical acclaim. Three years later Schnabl published her first novel Masterpiece (Mojstrovina, Beletrina, 2020). Her second novel Flood Tide (Plima, Beletrina, 2022) was nominated for the Slovenian Kresnik Award. Her third novel September (Beletrina, 2024) won the Kresnik Award in 2025.

Dog Behaviour: I’ve got two dogs, and it took me longer than I’d like to admit to figure out what they were actually saying.

The Concept of Universal Basic Income: I suspect that for a lot of people, Universal Basic Income sounds like a fantasy dreamt up by the lazy and the work-shy—a clever way to dodge the nine-to-five. In reality, it’s nothing of the sort.

Mina Mazzini: Known simply as Mina, she was nothing short of a force of nature—Italy’s greatest voice and legend. Her vocal range was outrageous and her stage presence magnetic.

Jellyfish: I grew up spending summers on the Slovene coast, where most beach conversations about jellyfish revolved around how nasty they are. I think it’s time to give them a bit of a rebrand.

Lojze Kovačič's The Newcomers: I know I sound like a total boomer saying this, but The Newcomers really is a masterpiece—a towering work of autofiction, written decades before “autofiction” was even a buzzword on Goodreads.

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Adam Lind discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Through living on a narrowboat on the British waterways, Adam Lind has unexpectedly built a large online community of over 900,000 loyal and engaged like-minded souls who enjoy soaking up his passion to live a life of meaning. Adam has appeared on Channel 4’s Narrow Escapes and has been featured in publications including The New York Post, Business Insider, The Sun, and others. His new book is Floating Home: Lessons from a life less ordinary, which is available at https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/floating-home-9781526683526/.

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Food critic Andrew Turvil discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Described by The Independent as one of the UK’s ‘arbiters of taste’, Andrew Turvil is the former editor of The Good Food Guide, AA Restaurant Guide and Which? Pub Guide. As a freelance restaurant critic, writer, and editor, he has spent his career writing about pubs and restaurants, and, undeterred, bought a pub in 2015 and ran it for 10 years. Blood, Sweat & Asparagus Spears is his first book and is available at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Sweat-Asparagus-Spears-Restaurant/dp/1783969113.

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