Printmaker Molly Mahon discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Molly Mahon is a distinguished British printmaker and textile designer renowned for her vibrant and original block prints. Offering a range of uplifting collections, each rooted in Molly’s passion for the traditional and transformative craft of block printing, designs merge classic techniques with a fresh, modern aesthetic that feels timeless and joyful. Drawing inspiration from nature and her surroundings in the Sussex countryside, collections of fabrics, wallpapers and homewares are infused with a sense of homeliness that enriches and enlivens interiors. She has written a book ‘House of Print: A modern printer’s take ono design, colour and pattern’ which was printed in 2020 and this year is the 10th anniversary of the brand.

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Anna Heyward discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Anna Heyward is a former editorial staffer of The New Yorker. She is a graduate student in animal behaviour and welfare science at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine and is working as a dog trainer. Her writing has also been published by the New York Times, New York Times Book Review, T Magazine, Paris Review, and Vogue, among others. She was a 2018 Ravitch Fellow at the CUNY School of Journalism. Anna lives in New York but is often in London and Melbourne, where she was born. Based on her New Yorker story Bad Dog https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/bad-dog, her new book is called Living with Freddie and is available at https://www.virago.co.uk/titles/anna-heyward/living-with-freddie/9780349016528/

Pain in companion animals

You don’t need to punish your dog

Non-existence of pack theory in dogs

The lack of regulation in animal training

Welcoming snakes and spiders into our homes

The benefits of embracing a “messy” garden

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Minette Batters was the first woman to be elected President of the National Farmers’ Union in 113years. She worked with four Prime Ministers - three of them in one year - and six Defra Secretaries of State. She stood down from the post in February 2024.

In 2020 she led the NFU on one of the most successful campaigns ever seen, bringing together a coalition of chefs, including Jamie Oliver, farmers, environmentalists, consumer groups and animal welfare experts - resulting in over one million people signing the NFU food standards petition. Minette also co-founded ‘Ladies in Beef’ and the Great British Beef Week.

She’s an ambassador for Farm Africa and a passionate advocate and fundraiser for the Junior Diabetic Research Foundation. She’s run in four marathons, raising over £100,000 for charity. In 2021 Minette was made a Deputy Lieutenant to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, and in July 2024 she was made a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords.

Curriculum based learning of food production https://www.farminguk.com/news/children-have-huge-lack-of-food-and-farming-knowledge-nfu-says_48601.html

Learning to cook and the importance of good nutrition https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/jun/18/minette-batters-we-need-a-success-story-for-wild-spaces-but-also-for-farmers-and-food

Nature and the natural environment https://www.countrylife.co.uk/comment-opinion/minette-batters-the-peppering-project-is-a-blueprint-for-delivering-food-and-nature-security-across-the-country-in-a-way-that-rewilding-on-its-own-never-will-270118

Exercise and sport https://impactreport.womeninsport.org/

Politics https://www.farmersguardian.com/news/4176394/last-press-conference-nfu-president-minette-batters

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Nick Freudenberg discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Nicholas Freudenberg is distinguished professor emeritus of public health at the City University of New York School of Public Health. His expertise includes childhood lead poisoning, AIDS prevention, urban food policy, community organization for health, and mass incarceration. Since the 1970s, Freudenberg has studied, evaluated, taught about, and participated in health activist campaigns in New York City and elsewhere. Freudenberg is the author of several books, including At What Cost: Modern Capitalism and the Future of Health (2021), Lethal but Legal Corporation, Consumption and Protecting Public Health (2014) and Not in Our Backyards! Community Action for Health and the Environment (1984).

He was the founding director of the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute, the CUNY Public Health Doctoral Program, and the Hunter College Center on AIDS, Drugs and Community Health.

His new book is Fighting for New York, which is available at https://cup.columbia.edu/book/fighting-for-new-york/9780231221405/.

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Ian Green discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Ian Green is a writer from Northern Scotland with a PhD in epigenetics. His debut fantasy trilogy The Rotstorm began with the Sunday Times bestseller The Gauntlet and the First Beneath. His short fiction has been widely published and he won the BBC Radio 4 Opening Lines competition, the Futurebook Future Fiction Prize, and was shortlisted for Best Newcomer at the British Fantasy Awards. His biopunk eco-terrorism thriller Extremophile was one of Financial Times’ Best Science Fiction Books of 2024 and was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. His swashbuckling new book The Deep and the Drowned is out now from Head of Zeus.

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

Matt Hill is the Philip K. Dick Award-nominated author of Lamb, The Breach, Zero Bomb, Graft, and The Folded

You have to rinse the suds off your dishes when you’ve washed them. Sounds trite, even silly, but it’s true, and there’s a deeper point around my wife gently challenging me re mental load of managing childcare and housework

Phil Collins was a phenomenal drummer. Before his 80s ballads, Phil was writing wildly inventive drum parts. Brand X, early Genesis, mad time signatures, technically brilliant.

We are surrounded by free food – some of it weeds! Family walks now involve stopping every ten seconds to pick at leaves or berries. Foraging used to be common and now, obviously, isn’t. Nettles factoid, hawthorn ketchup, pig nuts, pineapple weed tea...

The moors of the Peak District are dotted with WW2 aircraft wreckage you can just walk up to. During and after the Second World War, dozens of planes crashed on the hills of the Peak District. Many of those wrecks are still there, including the Bleaklow Bomber. Amazing, raw history – feels rare for it not to be sanitised or in a museum

It takes a scarily long time to stop when you’re doing 80mph. A recent speed awareness course changed my perception of driving, especially residual speeds. By the time a car going at 70mph has stopped, a car braking from 80mph is still doing 40mph – eek

In England, we only have legal access to a tiny amount of land. Free access to the countryside was fought for, and often won, by mass trespass Yet we still only have access to something like 10% of land and 3% of waterways; the rest is enclosed, bounded away, or requires us to pay.

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Joel Christensen discusses with Ivan six things about The Odyssey which should be better known.

Joel P. Christensen is Professor of Classics at the CUNY Graduate Center where he also serves as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. Joel has previously taught at UT San Antonio and Brandeis University. His research interests include early Greek poetry, myth, and literary theory. With Elton Barker, Joel has published Homer: A Beginner’s Guide (2013) and Homer’s Thebes (Harvard University Press 2020). Joel has also authored The Many-Minded Man: The Odyssey, Psychology, and the Therapy of Epic (2020) with Cornell University Press, Storylife: On Epic, Language, and Living Things with Yale in 2025, and Why Odysseus? With Palgrave/Macmillan (2026). He is also editor of the Oxford Critical Guide to the Odyssey (2026) and author of numerous articles on Homer, myth, Greek poetry, and its reception in the modern world.

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Jessica Fellowes discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Jessica Fellowes is an author, journalist and public speaker. The Mitford Murders is her debut series as a novelist and has been nominated for awards in Britain, France, Germany and Italy, and sold into eighteen territories. Jessica is also the author of five official companion books to ‘Downton Abbey,’ various of which hit the New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller lists. Former columnist for the Mail on Sunday and deputy editor of Country Life, she has written business books with Sophie Cornish MBE, 'The Devil You Know' with forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes and short stories for Vogue Italia and L’Uomo Vogue. Jessica makes frequent appearances on radio, podcasts and television, has a Substack – ‘Your Fellowes Reader’ – and lives in Oxfordshire with her family.

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Sarah Wilson discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Sarah Wilson is a multi-New York Times bestselling author, journalist, social philosopher, international keynote speaker and philanthropist. Sarah leads dynamic, global conversations about modern philosophy, creativity, existential risk, and climate change via her keynote speaking, Wild podcast, and her Substack and social communities. She lives nomadically, but is based between Paris and Sydney, and is a compulsive hiker and adventurer. Her new book is I Eat the Stars, which is available at https://www.waterstones.com/book/i-eat-the-stars/sarah-wilson/9781837827213.

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Ian Proud discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Ian Proud is an expert in strategic thinking, politico-economic analysis and diplomatic tradecraft. He was a member of His Majesty's Diplomatic Service from 1999 to 2023. During that time, he was one of the Foreign Office's most accomplished crisis experts and was Chair of the Crisis Committee at the British Embassy in Moscow when the Salisbury nerve agent attack happened in March 2018. He posts international relations articles and podcasts from his Substack page, The Peacemonger. His first novel, Searching, is now available at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Searching-love-story-Ian-Proud-ebook/dp/B0GFYC25YZ/

Curiosity –One reason we see so much racism and intolerance is a lack of curiosity in society.

Boat 813 – for me the most vivid symbol of the destructive power of the 2004 tsunami is the 60-ton Royal Thai Navy patrol boat that was dragged 2 kilometres inland. I saw it for the first time just a few days after that tragic event beside the road as I drove towards Takua Pa.

Stink beans – the first time you eat stink beans, or sataw as they are known in Thai, the taste is bitter and overpowering. The second time you eat them you might be addicted, like me.

A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute’s 1950 book explores our human ability to endure terrible suffering and yet survive, potentially find true love and live happily ever after. This is a theme I explore in Searching.

King Charles Street – the façade of the Foreign Office, directly adjacent to Downing Street, is grand and intimidating, which doesn’t help the perception that British diplomats are out of touch elitists. And yet the vast majority are not.

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