Better Known

Vladimir Alexandrov discusses with Ivan two things which should be better known: both men who lived in Russia in the early part of the twentieth century.

Vladimir Alexandrov taught courses in Yale's Slavic Department on nineteenth and twentieth-century Russian literature and culture from 1986 to 2018.

While preparing to teach a graduate seminar on Russian émigré culture, he discovered Frederick Bruce Thomas, which resulted in the 2013 biography The Black Russian, which is now being developed into a dramatic TV series. In 2021, he published To Break Russia's Chains: Boris Savinkov and His Wars against the Tsar and the Bolsheviks, which is the biography of a remarkable revolutionary terrorist, political activist, government minister, and writer who has been described as "James Bond as written by Kafka." Vladimir's current project is a book about Russia's little-known support for the Union during the American Civil War. Find out more at www.valexandrov.com.

Frederick Bruce Thomas https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2013/10/10/vladimir-alexandrov-black-russian/

Boris Savinkov https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/to-break-russias-chains-vladimir-alexandrov-book-review-daniel-beer/

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Gaia Vince discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Gaia Vince is a science writer and broadcaster interested in the interplay between humans and the planetary environment. She is a Senior Honorary Research Fellow at University College London in the Anthropocene Institute. She has held senior editorial posts at Nature and New Scientist, and her writing has featured in newspapers and magazines including the Guardian, The Times and Scientific American. She also writes and presents science programmes for radio and television. In 2015, she became the first woman to win the Royal Society Science Book of the Year Prize solo for her debut, Adventures in the Anthropocene: A Journey to the Heart of the Planet We Made.

Hungarian sour cherry soup https://www.thespruceeats.com/hungarian-sour-cherry-soup-meggy-leves-recipe-1136687

Mangosteen https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/mangosteen

Friedensreich Hundertwasser https://hundertwasser.com/en

The Secret History of Writing https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/the-secret-history-of-writing-bbc4-documentary-review-lydia-wilson-655347

Heath Robinson https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/robinson_william_heath.shtml

Cassawary https://www.worldwildlife.org/magazine/issues/fall-2021/articles/meet-the-cassowary-a-bird-with-claws-rivaling-freddy-krueger-s

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Travis Elborough discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Described by The Guardian as “one of Britain’s finest pop culture historians”, Travis Elborough has been a freelance writer, author, broadcaster and cultural commentator for two decades now. Elborough’s books include Wish You Were Here: England on Sea, The Long-Player Goodbye, a hymn to vinyl records that inspired the BBC4 documentary When Albums Ruled the World, in which he also appeared, and A Walk in the Park, a loving exploration of public parks and green space. His latest, Through the Looking Glasses: The Spectacular Life of Spectacles, was published in July 2021 to immediate acclaim, saluted as "fascinating" by The Observer, while New Statesman stated, "It will make you look at specs with fresh eyes."

He has also collaborated on the popular and award-winning series of Unexpected Atlases with the cartographers Alan Horsfield and Martin Brown, the most recent of which, Atlas of Vanishing Places, appeared in November 2021.

The American Friend https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3866-the-american-friend-little-lies-and-big-disasters

The Colonnade Bar http://thecolonnadebrighton.co.uk/

The New York Novels of Dawn Powell https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1996/03/21/queen-of-the-golden-age/

A Secret Wish by Propaganda https://www.classicpopmag.com/2018/03/propaganda-a-secret-wish-review/

Waiting by Fun Boy Three https://www.allmusic.com/album/waiting-mw0000057846

Birkenhead Park https://birkenhead-park.org.uk/birkenhead-parks-conception-and-opening/

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Journalist Peter Oborne discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Peter Oborne is a former political commentator of the Spectator, the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail. He now writes about politics for Open Democracy and Middle East Eye. He is the author of The Assault on Truth, The Triumph of the Political Class, and The Rise of Political Lying as well as a biography of the cricketer Basil D’Oliveira. He was voted Columnist of the Year at the Press Awards in 2013. His website is https://boris-johnson-lies.com/.

The episode features a clip from The Death of Liberalism with Lord Paddy Ashdown by the Legatum Institute (22/6/15) and A Marriage of Convenience by Somerset Maugham, read by Daniel Weyman (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b093pfrf).

Benefits of an afternoon nap https://www.forbes.com/sites/nomanazish/2021/06/23/should-you-be-taking-afternoon-naps-heres-what-the-sleep-experts-say/

Mohenjo Daro https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/mohenjo-daro

Paddy Ashdown https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/dec/22/paddy-lord-ashdown-obituary

The virtue of listening https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/the-virtue-of-listening.31549

Fixers https://en.ejo.ch/ethics-quality/fixers-the-unsung-heroes-of-international-news-reporting

Somerset Maugham https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1990/02/01/maughams-half-half/

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Rob Doyle discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Rob Doyle is the author of four internationally acclaimed books: Autobibliography, Threshold, This Is the Ritual and Here Are the Young Men, which has been adapted for film. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Observer, TLS and Dublin Review among other publications, and he edited the anthologies The Other Irish Tradition and In This Skull Hotel Where I Never Sleep. His work has been translated into several languages.

Coriolanus (2011) https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jan/22/coriolanus-film-review-ralph-fiennes

Four Tet’s Spotify playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2uzbATYxs9V8YQi5lf89WG?si=27dff54c2f194322&nd=1

The train journey from Dublin to Rosslare Harbour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin%E2%80%93Rosslare_railway_line

Last Evenings on Earth, the story collection by Roberto Bolaño https://roughghosts.com/2016/07/25/poets-artists-and-other-lost-souls-last-evenings-on-earth-by-roberto-bolano/

Anthropoid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r136kTbmOTw

Super Hot video game https://superhotgame.com

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Historian Catharine Arnold discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Catharine Arnold is a popular historian and television presenter specialising in dark themes. Her most recent book is Pandemic 1918, the Story of the Deadliest Influenza in History. Her other books include the acclaimed London Quartet. These include: Necropolis, London and its Dead, ‘entertainment of the most garish and exquisite kind,’ Peter Ackroyd, The Times. The Independent also rated Necropolis one of its Top Ten History Books in 2010. Her first novel, Lost Time, won a Betty Trask award.

Daisies https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/may/30/new-dvd-releases-daisies-czech

Masha by Mara Kay https://shinynewbooks.co.uk/the-youngest-lady-in-waiting-by-mara-kay

Bilgewater by Jane Gardam https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jane-gardam/bilgewater/

George Barker’s poetry https://mypoeticside.com/poets/george-barker-poems

Ronald Frame https://www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/arts_ents/13078532.Ronald_Frame_blows_the_dust_off_a_Dickens_heroine/

It’s Never Too Late https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_Never_Too_Late_(1956_film)

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Robin Baker discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Robin is head curator of the BFI National Archive - one of the world’s largest and most important collections of film and television – where he leads the team responsible for developing and interpreting the national collection. He has written and directed two short films and wrote the play Elephant and Castle for BBC Radio 4, starring Rory Kinnear and Olivia Colman. Robin has been attacked by cobras on two occasions.

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

Jessica Nordell is a science and culture journalist whose writing has appeared in the Atlantic, the New York Times, the New Republic and many other publications. A former writer for public radio and producer for American Public Media, she graduated from Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The End of Bias: A Beginning is her first book.

Notes on a Foreign Country by Suzy Hansen https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-shattering-and-a-shame-on-suzy-hansens-notes-on-a-foreign-country/

Somewhere in the Unknown World by Kao Kalia Yang https://harvardreview.org/book-review/somewhere-in-the-unknown-world/

Black Dog of Fate by Peter Balakian https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/peter-balakian/black-dog-of-fate/

Amaud Jamaul Johnson https://www.cortlandreview.com/issue-87/esteban-rodriguez-reviews-imperial-liquor-amaud-jamaul-johnson/

The skills to navigate difficult emotions https://www.gottman.com/blog/6stepstomindfullydealwithdifficultemotions/

The fact that biased behaviour and organisations can change https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/02/the-end-of-bias-by-jessica-nordell-review-how-to-remove-your-blinkers

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Edafe Onerhime discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Edafe Onerhime is a specialist in making an impact with data. Her motto: Data + Design + Culture. She lives in Glasgow with her wife and cat. She works as an Executive Director - Data Architecture Governance Lead at JP Morgan Chase. She believes in opening doors and building longer tables, not walls. She can be found asking questions like: How does data shape and is shaped by our culture and beliefs? How does this affect the data products and technologies that we use every day? Can we decolonise data or is it simply holding up a mirror to our real selves?

Africanfuturism https://www.lareviewofbooks.org/article/afrofuturism-africanfuturism-and-the-language-of-black-speculative-literature/

Meaning of names https://www.csescienceeditor.org/article/african-names-guide-editors/

Associations of the colour red https://study.com/academy/lesson/color-meanings-in-different-cultures.html

Short hair https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/58psLDd9GGWf5SQKSLmmdjD/why-is-black-hair-so-political

Found family https://www.glaad.org/amp/importance-of-found-families-lgbtq-youth

Patterns https://medium.com/patterns-matter/why-patterns-matter-e3abc8794465

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For the 200th episode, Anthony Horowitz discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Anthony Horowitz is one of the most prolific and successful writers working in the UK – and is unique for working across so many media. Anthony is a born polymath; juggling writing books, TV series, films, plays and journalism. Anthony has written over 50 books including the bestselling teen spy series Alex Rider, which is estimated to have sold 21 million copies worldwide.

Anthony is also an acclaimed writer for adults and was commissioned to write two new Sherlock Holmes novels The House of Silk and Moriarty. He was commissioned by the Ian Fleming Estate to write continuation novels for James Bond with Trigger Mortis and Forever and Day.

Anthony’s award-winning novel Magpie Murders was released in 2016 to critical acclaim and has just been filmed with Lesley Manville in the lead role. The sequel - Moonflower Murders - is optioned to follow. His new series featuring Detective Hawthorne and a sidekick called Anthony Horowitz has three books so far: The Word is Murder, The Sentence is Death and A Line to Kill.

Anthony is responsible for creating and writing some of the UK’s most beloved and successful television series including Midsomer Murders and he is the writer and creator of award-winning drama series Foyle’s War.

Paul Spooner https://cabaret.co.uk/artists/paul-spooner/

Miliaris Taverna https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g6765453-d6856813-Reviews-Miliaras-Latsida_Lasithi_Prefecture_Crete.html

The novels of Ian Fleming https://lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v24/n17/john-lanchester/bond-in-torment

Ollantaytambo https://www.lonelyplanet.com/peru/cuzco-and-the-sacred-valley/ollantaytambo

Special Operations Executive https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/SOE#

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr T http://www.cineoutsider.com/reviews/bluray/f/5000_fingers_of_dr_t_br.html

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