Better Known

Chioma Okereke discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Born in Nigeria, Chioma Okereke grew up in London and studied law at UCL. She started her writing career as a performance poet before turning her hand to prose. Her debut novel, Bitter Leaf (Virago), was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and her short story, Trompette De La Mort, received First Runner Up in the Costa Short Story Award. Her new novel is Water Baby.

Jamaica Kincaid https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2022/04/07/jamaica-kincaids-rope-of-live-wires/

Cadaqués https://www.lonelyplanet.com/spain/cadaques

PRP (platelet rich plasma) https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/platelet-rich-plasma-injections

Raye https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/raye-escapism-21st-century-blues-interview-1234671381/

Tiger nuts https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772753X23003325

Andre Brink https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/feb/08/andre-brink

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Ash Bhardwaj discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Ash Bhardwaj is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and keynote speaker, whose work explores the intersection of travel, current affairs and human behaviour. He has reported from around the world for outlets including the BBC, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times and Condé Nast Traveller. Before travel writing, Ash was a ski instructor, science teacher and wannabe cowboy. He is an officer in the British Army Reserve, and a lecturer in travel journalism at City, University of London. Why We Travel is his first book.

Great Polynesian Migration https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/encounters/polynesian-voyaging

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

Ukraine (as a place, not just a site of war) https://theculturetrip.com/europe/ukraine/articles/the-top-20-attractions-in-ukraine

Turning grief into hope https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/oceania/new-zealand/my-mother-died-of-cancer-new-zealand-turned-my-grief/

How beliefs and behaviours work https://iulianionescu.com/blog/how-our-beliefs-and-values-shape-our-behavior/

Psychogeography https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/psychogeography

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Anthony Daniels discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Anthony Daniels was born in London in 1949. He retired from medical practice except for medico-legal work in 2005. He has written several books, including an account of a journey across Africa by public transport, and under his pseudonym, Theodore Dalrymple, has written many essays for publications such as City Journal, some of which were collected in Life at the Bottom (2001), which has been translated into several languages. His new book is Buried But Not Quite Dead: Forgotten Writers of Père Lachaise. He divides his time between England and France.

The Fire Raisers by Max Frisch https://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2007/nov/01/thearsonistsstillburnsbrig

The Hospital Poems by WE Henley https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1931720414002025

A Mother Peeling Apples by Pieter de Hooch https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/a-woman-peeling-apples-209233

Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne-Melchior_de_Vog%C3%BC%C3%A9

That Le Corbusier was a fascist https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32546182

That the poor are disproportionately the victims of crime https://www.theguardian.com/society/2006/apr/18/socialexclusion.crime

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Historian Leah Redmond Chang discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Leah Redmond Chang is a former Associate Professor of French and Director of the French Literature Programme at George Washington University, and was most recently a Senior Research Associate at University College London. She is the author of two previous books: Into Print: The Production of Female Authorship in Early Modern France and Portraits of the Queen Mother: Polemics, Panegyrics, Letters, winner of the Josephine Roberts Award from the International Society for the Study of Early Modern Women. She lives with her husband and three children, and divides her time between Washington, DC and London.

Fake news goes back at least to the 16th century https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/12/fake-news-history-long-violent-214535/

16th-century Europe was dominated by female leaders https://www.historytoday.com/archive/review/young-queens-leah-redmond-chang-review

The Renaissance Italian painter Sofonisba Anguissola https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2022/03/this-italian-artist-became-the-first-female-superstar-of-the-renaissance

The teenaged queen consort of Spain, Elisabeth de Valois https://flhwnotesandreviews.com/2018/06/11/book-review-elizabeth-de-valois-queen-of-spain-and-the-court-of-philip-ii-by-martha-walker-freer/

The story of the 16th-century French peasant Martin Guerre and his wife Bertrande https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/martin-guerre-0016613

Letter-locking https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210616-how-the-forgotten-tricks-of-letterlocking-shaped-history

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Historian Alice Loxton discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Alice Loxton is a 28 year old history broadcaster and writer with over two million followers on social media (@history_alice). She has appeared on many channels including Sky Arts, Channel 5, BBC News and History Hit, and has worked with a wide array of organisations to bring history to mainstream audiences, including Christie’s, Meta, The National Trust, 10 Downing Street, The Royal Collection Trust, The National Portrait Gallery and The National Gallery. UPROAR! Satire, Scandal and Printmaking in Georgian London is Alice’s first book. Her second book, Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives, comes out in August 2024.

James Gillray https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v23/n12/peter-campbell/at-tate-britain

The fact that Napoleon wasn’t short https://www.history.com/news/napoleon-complex-short

Landmark Trust https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/may/12/how-a-derelict-scottish-tower-was-turned-into-a-sumptuous-retreat

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

Parish churches https://www.countryfile.com/go-outdoors/days-out/britains-most-beautiful-churches

The London Library https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v13/n18/john-sutherland/sod-off-readers

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Charlie Russell discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Charlie Russell she/her. Creative Associate and co-founder at Mischief. Trained at LAMDA. Work with Mischief includes Groan Ups (West End); The Play That Goes Wrong (UK Tour, West End, Broadway); Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Pleasance, West End, BBC1 adaptation, Broadway); The Comedy About A Bank Robbery (West End); The Goes Wrong Show (BBC Sitcom); Improviser, Mischief Movie Night (West End, UK Tour), Austentatious, Yes Queens. Charlie wrote and performed a run of her first solo show, Charlie Russell Aims To Please, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2022. Other acting work includes Kat in Kite Strings (Short Film), Doctors (BBC 1), And Then There Were None (BBC1 & Mammoth Screen) #FindTheGirl (BBC3 Online) and A Twist Of Dahl (BBC Radio 4). Charlie can next be seen starring in Fanny at The Watermill Theatre in May 2024.

500 Acts of Kindness group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2074795452542346/

Fanny Mendelssohn https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/23/arts/music-review-fanny-mendelssohn-was-audacious-too.html

The game Worldle https://thinkygames.com/reviews/worldle-a-treasure-trove-for-geography-nerds/

Improv https://www.hooplaimpro.com/improv-comedy-club-london-bridge.html

A Short History of Queer Women by Kirsty Loehr. https://www.gscene.com/arts/books/book-review-a-short-history-of-queer-women-by-kirsty-loehr/

Therapy https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-treatments/talking-therapies-and-counselling/benefits-of-talking-therapies/

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Sunny Singh discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Sunny Singh is a writer, novelist, public intellectual, and a champion for decolonisation and inclusion across all aspects of society. She is the author of three critically acclaimed novels, Hotel Arcadia, With Krishna’s Eyes, and Nani’s Book of Suicides, a study of Amitabh Bachchan for the BFI’s film star series, and the recent, A Bollywood State of Mind: A Journey into the World’s Biggest Cinema. She has recently completed a collection of stories linked by the theme of war and is currently working on a new novel, and a non-fiction book about writing ethically. In 2017 she launched the celebrated Jhalak Prize. She is also a founder of the Jhalak Foundation that focuses on a range of literary, artistic and literacy initiatives in the UK and beyond. Sunny lives in London where she is Professor of Creative Writing and Inclusion in the Arts at the London Metropolitan University.

Bollywood movies https://asianreviewofbooks.com/content/a-bollywood-state-of-mind-a-journey-into-the-worlds-biggest-cinema-by-sunny-singh/

Backpacking https://nomadsworld.com/6-reasons-backpacking-good/

Intersectionality https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination

Senegal http://hipafrica.com/features/9-reasons-visit-senegal/

Open water swimming (and adult swimming lessons) https://www.brighton.ac.uk/news/2023/is-open-water-swimming-good-for-you

The excellence and range of literature by British writers of colour https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/03/akala-bernardine-evaristo-ben-okri-and-more-pick-20-classic-books-by-writers-of-colour

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Alexandra Tolstoy discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Alexandra Tolstoy is an Anglo-Russian mother, adventurer, author and TV presenter. She organises adventurous horse riding holidays in Kyrgyzstan, and runs The Tolstoy Edit, a curated shop of her favourite interiors discoveries.

Kyrgyzstan https://alexandratolstoytravel.com/

Ronald Welch https://foxedquarterly.com/ronald-welch-carey-novels-telegraph-review/

Darning and patching https://pieceworkmagazine.com/your-guide-to-mending/

Ivan Bilibin http://textualities.net/jennie-renton/the-art-of-ivan-bilibin

19th century European novels https://potpourri2015.wordpress.com/2021/06/14/review-the-semi-detached-house-by-emily-eden/

Victoria sponges https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/grannys-victoria-sponge

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Novelist Julius Taranto discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Julius Taranto is the author of a novel, How I Won a Nobel Prize, which is available at https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/julius-taranto/how-i-won-a-nobel-prize/9781035006830. His other writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Review of Books, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Phoebe. He attended Yale Law School and Pomona College. He lives in New York.

Cynthia Ozick https://centerforfiction.org/interviews/cynthia-ozick-interviewed-by-alessandra-farkas/

The Spirit of Liberty by Learned Hand https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2013/12/05/judge-who-shaped-our-law/

Jon Brion https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2023/01/17/jon-brion-the-aquarium-drunkard-interview/

Polite Society https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/apr/26/polite-society-review-fun-action-comedy-mashes-jane-austen-and-the-chuckle-brothers

American Civil War battlefields and history tourism https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/defining-battles-civil-war/

Peter Carey https://play.acast.com/s/talkingpolitics/petercarey

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Faye Begeti discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Dr Faye Begeti is a practising neurology doctor and neuroscientist at Oxford University Hospitals. She completed her medical degree and PhD at Cambridge, and currently conducts research into Parkinson’s disease alongside seeing her neurology patients. Her Instagram account @the_brain_doctor was started to share her knowledge more widely and has since amassed a community of over 134K followers. She lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and two young daughters. Her new book is The Phone Fix at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Phone-Fix-Brain-Focused-Building-Breaking/dp/1803285567

Our phones are not addictive https://technosapiens.substack.com/p/smartphoneaddiction

Habits are stored in a subconscious part of our brain https://www.npr.org/2012/03/05/147192599/habits-how-they-form-and-how-to-break-them

We don’t have unlimited mental energy https://www.dayagrant.com/blog/how-the-brain-leaks-energy

Chronic stress can lead to physical symptoms https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/stress/signs-and-symptoms-of-stress/

A good night’s sleep starts in the morning https://hr.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1421/2023/02/A-Healthy-Nights-Sleep-Starts-the-Moment-You-Wake-Up.pdf

Building cognitive reserve reduces the risk of dementia https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/health-wellbeing/mind-body/staying-sharp/thinking-skills-change-with-age/cognitive-reserve/

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