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How should we punish criminals? In Impermissible Punishments, the Arthur Liman Professor of Law at Yale Law School, Judith Resnik, provides a historical narrative of punishment in European and American prisons. Tracing the evolution from Jeremy Bentham's utilitarian Panopticon through post-World War II human rights frameworks, Resnik argues that punishment systems developed as a transatlantic rather than uniquely American project. Her analysis reveals how prisoners themselves, not reformers, first articulated the concept of retained rights during detention. Resnik’s new book chronicles a crucial divergence after the 1980s, when European systems maintained stronger human rights commitments while American prisons retreated from recognizing prisoners as rights-bearing individuals, thereby making prison a problem for its democracy.

1. Prison systems developed as a transatlantic project, not American innovation Punishment theories and practices emerged from shared Enlightenment thinking across Europe and America in the 1700s-1800s. Figures like Beccaria, Bentham, and Tocqueville created interconnected ideas about rational, purposeful punishment that crossed national boundaries.

2. Prisoners, not reformers, first articulated the concept of retained rights While reformers debated how to punish effectively, it was people in detention themselves—like Winston Talley in Arkansas in 1965—who first argued they retained fundamental rights during incarceration. This represented a revolutionary shift from viewing prisoners as "civilly dead."

3. World War II created the crucial turning point for prisoners' rights The horrors of concentration camps and fascist regimes made clear the dangers of treating any group as less than human. The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and 1955 UN prison rules marked the formal recognition of prisoners as rights-bearing individuals.

4. America and Europe diverged after the 1980s on prisoner treatment While both regions initially embraced prisoners' rights in the 1960s-70s, the U.S. retreated during the "war on crime" era. Europe maintained stronger human rights commitments, while America expanded punitive measures like solitary confinement and mass incarceration.

5. Prison conditions reflect broader democratic health Resnik argues that how a society treats its most marginalized members—prisoners, immigrants, minorities—indicates the strength of its democratic institutions. Authoritarian treatment of any group threatens the rights of all citizens in a democratic system.

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Stephen Greenblatt, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky about his book Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius o Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival, recorded September 11, 2025.

Stephen Greenblatt is a literary historian and an expert on Shakespeare and the Elizabethan era. Among his other books are  Shakespearean Negotiations: The Circulation of Social Energy in Renaissance England, Hamlet in Purgatory, Shakespeare’s Freedom, and most recently Tyrant: Shakespeare in Politics. He is Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University.

In this interview, recorded the day after Charlie Kirk’s assassination and the day before the capture of his murderer, when the American right wing had declared war on Democrats and “the left,” Stephen Greenblatt discusses political violence in Elizabethan times and today, along with his op-ed in the New York Times, “We Are Watching a Scientific Superpower Destroy Itself.” Guest Link

The focus of the interview, though, is on the life and work of Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), the playwright (Doctor Faustus, The Jew of Malta, Edward II), intellectual and spy, whose work influenced William Shakespeare and who could be called the Bard’s “rival.”

The post Stephen Greenblatt: “Dark Renaissance,” the life and times of Christopher Marlowe appeared first on KPFA.

T. Coraghessan Boyle reads his story “The Pool,”  from the September 22, 2025,  issue of the magazine. A winner of the Rea Award for the Short Story and the PEN/Malamud Prize in the short story, among others, Boyle has published more than thirty books of fiction, including the story collection “I Walk Between the Raindrops” and the novel “Blue Skies,” which came out in 2023.

This month marks 50 years of Terry Gross as the host of Fresh Air. What began in 1975 as a local experiment at WHYY in Philadelphia has since grown into a national institution—one that not only transformed public radio, but laid the groundwork for the world of podcasting.

To commemorate a half-century on the air, Terry Gross joins us for a rare appearance in the interview seat. At the top, we discuss her Brooklyn upbringing (10:26), early memories of writing (13:00), and her improbable road to public radio (29:38). Then, Terry walks us through the formative years of Fresh Air (33:37) and its seminal conversations with Kurt Vonnegut (40:21), John Updike (46:30), Monica Lewinsky (49:30), Joan Didion (1:00:55), and more.

On the back-half, Gross reflects on forty-seven years of partnership with her late husband, jazz writer Francis Davis (1:03:24), their shared affinity for reading and music (1:05:57), the future of public media (1:19:16), and why she continues to have faith in (and love for) the long-form interview (1:31:35).

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Peter Mandelson has been sacked from his role as British Ambassador to the US over his association with the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. It is the third time he has been forced to leave government.

An instrumental part of Tony Blair’s landslide election victory in 1997, Mandelson was rewarded with a seat in the cabinet. But he was soon forced to resign as Business Secretary after failing to declare a six-figure loan from a fellow minister.

His second resignation came in 2001 after making his way back into the cabinet as Northern Ireland Secretary. Mandelson was accused influencing the passport applications of the wealthy Hinduja brothers, although was later exonerated.

Mark Coles examines how despite these controversies, the man once dubbed the "Prince of Darkness" was able to keep getting himself into powerful positions.

Presenter: Mark Coles

Ian McMillan presents poetry in performance with Jackie Kay, Hollie McNish and Michael Pedersen in this recording of The Adverb at the Ledbury Festival.

Jackie Kay is the former Makar (Poet Laureate) of Scotland - she shares poems of great tenderness from her latest collection May Day and from earlier collections too.

Hollie McNish is one of our best-loved poets. In books like 'Nobody Told Me' and 'Lobster', her work explores taboos around the body and the experience of motherhood. In this programme we hear her poetry of friendship too.

Michael Pedersen is a poet and author, as well as the Makar for Edinburgh. He has been acclaimed for his attention to male friendship in his collection 'The Cat Prince' and for the poetic writing in his new book 'Muckle Flugga' - which is filled with warmth and humour.

Truth, delusion and psychedelic reality

Do psychedelics reveal hidden layers of reality, or are we simply tripping?

Psychedelics are back in the cultural zeitgeist, this time as a treatment for mental health issues. However, critics argue that psychedelics only work by replacing mental illness with a distorted view of reality - but, is this an accurate assessment? A study from Imperial College London suggests that after taking psychedelics people get better at future life events. Visual acuity is also known to increase, suggesting people become less delusional, not more, when taking psychedelics. Should we see the psychedelic experience as showing us something true about the nature of reality? Or is it merely a distortion?

James Rucker is a Consultant Psychiatrist and a Senior Clinical Lecturer in mood disorders and psychopharmacology at the Centre for Affective Disorders at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London.

Julian Baggini is a philosopher, journalist and author of over 20 books about philosophy for the general reader. He is the co-founder and editor of "The Philosophers’ Magazine", and also writes and broadcasts for The Guardian and the BBC.

Eileen is an Ecuadorean-Scottish creative director, artist, and explorer based in London. She is the founder of Tayos, an organisation supporting the protection of endangered habitats in Ecuador as well as exploring their relationship to nature and its role in wellbeing through art, music, and science.

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Ireland and Britain’s relationship is as intertwined as it has so often been violent and traumatic. In these Divided Isles, the award-winning author and journalist Philip Stephens charts the dramatic century since the political leaders David Lloyd George, Michael Collins, Winston Churchill and Éamonn De Valera alongside those of millions of Irish emigrants.  

With the complicated relationship between Ireland and Britain, could it ever end up with a United Ireland? All to discuss with Philip Stephens - Writer, Historian and Author of 'In These Divided Isles'.

We’re with the cultural historian Robin D.G. Kelly at UCLA, who has the nerve to ask: where have our thinkers gone in Trump time? Not the experts or the influencers, but the grander minds who might tell us where our country went.

James Baldwin and Noam Chomsky (by Susan Coyne).

Robin hooked us with his piece in the Boston Review on “The Responsibility of Intellectuals in the Age of Fascism and Genocide.” Whose job is it to tell us the truth in what can feel like a sort of waking nightmare or a revolution going backward? Will we ever see Benjamin Franklin’s common-sense republic again? Or put it another way: where’s Noam Chomsky, or James Baldwin for that matter? Will we ever again meet an unflinching truth-teller about our real condition in this autumn of 2025?

The post Where Are the Intellectuals? appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.

Things aren’t quite as sunny on the environmental front as some recent guests suggest. According to the award winning science writer Peter Brannen, our planet is in an unprecedented crisis. We’re burning 500 million years of the earth's history in a few decades, Brannen warns, so we should all quit pretending that our recycling will miraculously save the planet. That said, though, his latest book, The Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything, is the complex narrative of how carbon dioxide (CO2) both made and might unmake our world. So CO2 is simultaneously the good guy and the villain in our environmental story. Without carbon dioxide, Brannen warns, Earth would freeze into an uninhabitable ice ball. But too much creates a Venus-like greenhouse hell in which all life would be quickly extinguished. We hang in a delicate sweet spot that took nature millions of years to manufacture —and we humans are now disrupting this ecological balance at breakneck speed. The result is what Brannen calls a terrifying planetary experiment with no safety net. So stop pretending your recycling will save the earth, he warns. Fixing the planet will require more than a new Tesla and regular trips to Whole Foods.

1. CO2 is Earth's Essential Paradox Carbon dioxide both enables life and threatens to destroy it. Without CO2, Earth would freeze into an uninhabitable ice ball within decades. But too much creates a Venus-like greenhouse hell. We exist in an extremely narrow window that took millions of years to establish.

2. We're Conducting an Unprecedented Planetary Experiment Humans are burning 500 million years of stored solar energy (fossil fuels) in just a few decades, releasing ancient CO2 at a rate 100 times faster than natural volcanic processes. This speed overwhelms Earth's natural ability to rebalance the system.

3. Individual Consumer Actions Won't Save Us Recycling, driving electric cars, and other personal choices create demand for better technologies but won't solve a problem of this scale. The focus on consumer responsibility was actually a strategy pushed by fossil fuel companies to deflect from systemic change.

4. Technology Offers Hope, But Carbon Removal is Fantasy Solar power costs have plummeted dramatically, offering genuine reasons for optimism. However, carbon capture and removal technologies are thermodynamically expensive and cannot scale to meaningful levels—they're "basically useless" if we don't first cut emissions to nearly zero.

5. Democracy May Be Too Slow for Climate Action International climate treaties produce "mealy-mouthed press releases" while missing targets. Brannen suggests the most realistic path forward is that clean energy becomes so economically superior that countries adopt it regardless of political will, potentially leaving the U.S. behind if it doesn't adapt.

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