Better Known

Jeff Sebo discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Jeff Sebo is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Affiliated Professor of Bioethics, Medical Ethics, Philosophy, and Law, Director of the Center for Environmental and Animal Protection, Director of the Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy, and Co-Director of the Wild Animal Welfare Program at New York University. His research focuses on animal minds, ethics, and policy; AI minds, ethics, and policy; and global health and climate ethics and policy. He is the author of The Moral Circle and Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves and co-author of Chimpanzee Rights and Food, Animals, and the Environment. He is also a board member at Minding Animals International, an advisory board member at the Insect Welfare Research Society, and a senior affiliate at the Institute for Law & AI. In 2024 Vox included him on its Future Perfect 50 list of "thinkers, innovators, and changemakers who are working to make the future a better place."

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Diana McCaulay discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Diana McCaulay is a Jamaican environmental activist and the award-winning author of five novels. Winner of the Gold Musgrave Medal, Jamaica’s highest award for lifetime achievement across the arts and sciences; twice Winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for the Caribbean region (in 2022 and in 2012), she has also been shortlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Award, among other nominations, and is the winner of the Watson, Little 50 Prize for unrepresented writers aged 50+. Her new novel is A House For Miss Pauline, available at https://www.dialoguebooks.co.uk/titles/diana-mccaulay/a-house-for-miss-pauline/9780349704265/.

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For this week’s episode, enjoy some of the highlights of Better Known over the years, featuring excerpts from Ivan’s interviews with Jonathan Sayer, Kate Mosse, Jon Glover, Geoff Dyer, Alice Loxton, Anand Menon, Helen Lewis and Ben Schott

Jonathan Sayer on Le Coq clowning https://sites.google.com/education.nsw.gov.au/jacqueslecoq/jacques-lecoq/overview-of-his-approach-to-acting

Kate Mosse on how there are more statues in Edinburgh to animals than to women https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/campaign-seeks-change-fact-edinburgh-statues-animals-women-58867

Jon Glover on Maggie and Ted https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/jun/29/maggie-ted-review-two-tory-prime-ministers-one-long-spat

Geoff Dyer on Calabash literature festival in Jamaica https://www.vogue.com/article/calabash-literary-festival-in-jamaica-is-the-islands-best-kept-secret

Alice Loxton on The French House, Soho https://www.timeout.com/london/bars-and-pubs/french-house

Anand Menon on The Middle https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/03/21/the-middles-realpolitik

Helen Lewis on the Modesty Blaise novels https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/sep/19/crimebooks.features

Ben Schott on Polari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polari

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

Adam Howorth was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire and grew up in rural Northamptonshire. After moving to London to work in the music industry, he later contributed to The Times and Billboard before joining Apple, where he worked for 18 years. Adam lives near the river in Southwest London, with his wife and two daughters. His new novel is Fallen Feathers, which is available at https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/fallen-feathers-adam-howorth/7735635?ean=9781836280088.

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Nilanjana Dasgupta discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Nilanjana Dasgupta is provost professor of psychology and inaugural director of the Institute of Diversity Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is the author of many articles; the winner of the Hidden Bias Research Prize from the Kapor Foundation; and the recipient of multiple U.S. government research grants. Her work has been featured in the New York Times and other major outlets. Her new book is Change the Wallpaper.

Diversity training doesn’t change people’s behavior nor the organizations in which they work. Do you know we spend 8 billion dollars on diversity training each year? Only a few DEI trainings are grounded in science; most are not.

Our behaviour is shaped by situational forces more often than our personal beliefs. What do I mean by situational forces? They include the opinions of our colleagues, peers, and bosses. The roles we occupy and the role-based norms and expectations of how we should act.

The path to culture change is not individual heroes. In fact, individuals acting alone are powerless. But individuals acting together with intention are powerful movers of cultures.

Talent is made, not born. Did you know that young Einstein early in life was pretty average? He struggled in school as a child. He didn’t get admission into his college of choice the first time but got in after a second attempt.

Playing for change: A global music project turned movement turned non-profit organization for social good that connects the world through music. The idea came from the belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and connect people across the world.

Travel in Kerala, India. A mixture of cultures, religions, ethnic groups, food, weather, landscapes, showing co-existence and contrasts. On the west coast of India, jutting out into the Arabian Sea.

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James Marriott discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

James Marriott is a columnist at The Times, writing about society, culture and ideas.

The poetry of Geoffrey Hill https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v07/n06/tom-paulin/the-case-for-geoffrey-hill

CAT S22 Flip https://www.reddit.com/r/dumbphones/comments/16p2an2/cat_s22_flip_reviewjustwow/?rdt=55955

Uzbekistan https://www.wildfrontierstravel.com/en_GB/blog/places-to-visit-in-uzbekistan

The acronym WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_WEIRDest_People_in_the_World

The War Against Cliche by Martin Amis https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/apr/14/fiction.martinamis

Rossini's opera L'Italiana in Algeri https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPodHwCbE5k&pp=ygUQI2l0YWxpYW5hZW5hcmdlbA%3D%3D

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Keetie Roelen discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Keetie Roelen is a leading thinker in poverty and social policy and a longstanding advocate for social justice. She currently works as a Senior Research Fellow and Co-Deputy Director at the Centre for the Study of Global Development at The Open University, the largest university in the UK. She is also founder and host of the podcast Poverty Unpacked, exploring the hidden sides of poverty in conversation with a broad range of experts.

Keetie has a PhD in Public Policy and has been working in the field of poverty, social policy, and international development for more than 15 years. Keetie has widely published in academic journals and books, and her work has featured in media such as the Guardian and BBC World Service. She has spoken about how to address poverty to multiple audiences, ranging from government ministers at the UN and MPs in UK parliament to students and activists.

European films https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/feb/10/european-film-must-see-25-movies

Transplant Games https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-66336861

Early paintings by Van Gogh https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/arts/artwork/early-paintings-by-vincent-van-gogh.htm

Assistance dogs https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/guidance/assistance-dogs-guide-businesses-and-service-providers

ATD Fourth World https://www.atd-fourthworld.org/who-we-are/

Dominicanen bookshop in Maastricht https://www.awellreadwanderer.com/boekhandel-dominicanen-unique-bookstore/

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

Matthew Kohut is the author of Speaking Out: The New Rules of Business Leadership Communication (2024). He is the coauthor of The Smart Mission: NASA's Lessons for Managing Knowledge, People, and Projects (2022), and Compelling People: The Hidden Qualities That Make Us Influential (2013), one of Amazon's Best Business Books of 2013. As the managing partner of KNP Communications, Matt has prepared CEOs, elected officials, and public figures for events from live television appearances to TED talks. Find out more at https://www.matthewkohut.com/.

The best way to get someone to agree with you is to start by agreeing with them. Reciprocity makes the world go round.

Machiavelli's dilemma–is it better to be loved than feared or feared than loved?––is a false choice. Few people remember this sentence that followed the question: “One should wish to be both, but…it is difficult to unite them in one person.”

Knowledge is profoundly social. What you know is deeply influenced by your context and culture. It comes from a combination of experiences and reflective learning, and it's often difficult to articulate.

If you want people to remember what you say, tell a story. As prophets and philosophers have known for millennia, stories stick with us.

Purpose leads to motivation; struggle leads to meaning. A shared purpose gives a group something to strive toward. A shared sense of meaning only comes when experience is followed by reflection and discussion.

Listening to understand another person's perspective takes different skills than listening to analyse a problem and make a decision. None of us really know what it's like to walk in another person's shoes.

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

Adam Higginbotham is the author of Midnight in Chernobyl, winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and one of the New York Times’ Ten Best Books of 2019. His latest book, Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space, was published by Avid Reader Press in May this year. An immediate New York Times bestseller, Challenger is the winner of the 2024 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction.

William Friedkin’s Sorcerer https://rogersmovienation.com/2024/04/07/classic-film-review-reconsidering-sorcerer-1977/

Roger Boisjoly https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/02/06/146490064/remembering-roger-boisjoly-he-tried-to-stop-shuttle-challenger-launch

The Allen Room at the New York Public Library https://www.nypl.org/about/locations/schwarzman/research-study-rooms

Len Deighton https://www.deightondossier.net/

Strong Words magazine https://www.strong-words.co.uk/

Peter Nichols’ A Voyage For Madmen https://thetidesofhistory.com/2022/10/09/book-review-a-voyage-for-madmen-by-peter-nichols/

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To mark the 350th episode, comedian Al Murray discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Al Murray's alter ego, The Pub Landlord, is one of the most recognizable and successful comic creations of the past twenty years. He is also the author of many successful books including Watching War Films with My Dad and Command, a sharply entertaining analysis of the key allied military leaders in the Second World War. He is well known for co-hosting the hugely popular Second World War history podcast, We Have Ways of Making You Talk with fellow bestselling military author James Holland.

Arnhem: Black Tuesday is his first history book about a single campaign and is available at https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/305659/al-murray.

To view his tour dates visit: www.thepublandlord.com

“It remains one of the great joys in comedy to see the Pub Landlord befriend and belittle the front rows, blithely dishing out attributes to them, responding with superfast wit… So long as he has an audience with a pulse and an onstage pump that dispenses frothy lager for him to spill on them, Murray will always be a good night out.” - Dominic Maxwell, The Times

Bernard Law Montgomery https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v03/n12/john-keegan/the-mothering-of-montgomery

Zeno’s The Cauldron https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/468655/the-cauldron-by-zeno/9781804996621

Blood stem cell donation via DKMS https://www.dkms.org/get-involved/become-a-donor

Bill Bruford https://www.loudersound.com/features/ive-been-booted-out-of-king-crimson-about-three-times-bill-bruford-on-a-life-in-music

Scale modelling https://uk.airfix.com/community/blog-and-news/tips-and-tricks/new-case-study-explains-positive-benefits-scale-modelling

The culture of remembrance in Arnhem https://www.airbornearnhemwest.nl/en/welkom-bij-de-website-van-de-airborne-herdenking-in-arnhem-west-english/

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