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This is a catch-up version of James O'Brien's Mystery Hour. To join the game, call 0345 60 60 973, Thursdays at 12pm.

In a new documentary for Al Jazeera, Jewish-Australian journalist Antony Loewenstein return to his ancestral home, Germany, to investigate how the country’s impulse never to repeat the horrendous anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust has resulted in the suppression of any criticism of Israel and its actions in Gaza.

• Guest: Antony Loewenstein, Independent journalist, author and film-maker
• Producer: Catherine Zengerer

Stephen Fry shares his personal evolution from a troubled youth to a celebrated intellectual and artist. His candid discussion covers his youthful indiscretions, and his journey towards self-acceptance during a time when being gay in England was fraught with stigma. Fry details his profound connection to literature, having been inspired by figures like Oscar Wilde, and how books shaped his understanding of his own sexuality.

Keep up to date with Peter on Substack

Keep up to date with Kasia!

Executive Producer: Rachel Barrett

Thanks to our volunteer researcher Chris van Ryn! And special thanks to Suzi Jamil!

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If there's one thing AI has in common with all new technology, it's that a lot of people are scared of it. When it comes to AI and education, horror stories abound of students using ChatGPT to write their essays, and a possible future where teachers are replaced by bots. But according to this week's guest, there's much to be excited about.

Has there ever been a group like Talking Heads? Jonathan Gould’s Burning Down The House explores their affluent background, the root of their ambition and the springboard of the New York scene of the late ‘70s (he was a regular at CBGB). Along with …

... the romanticised image of CBGB and the reality

… their black music roots: “the same instrumentation as Booker T & the MGs”

… the influence of the Modern Lovers: “Jonathan Richman and Byrne were both oddballs, appealing but peculiar”

… how the economy of New York’s real estate let them rent a 2,000 square foot loft for $289 a month

… bands from affluent backgrounds take greater commercial risks: “there was always a Plan B”

… the art-school drop-out lineage that began John Lennon and Keith Richards

… how different they were from the CBGBs acts, a band that sang verses in French and “didn’t dress like the New York Dolls”

 … the band’s dynamic, Chris and Tina “effectively one person”

... did Byrne really make Tina Weymouth “re-audition”?

… the success of the Tom Tom Club and the tension that caused

… Byrne’s invention of his own “white choreography”

… Stop Making Sense, as big a part of their legacy as any album

… and why there can never be a reunion

Mentioned in dispatches: Brian Eno, Adrian Belew, Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder, Johnny Ramone and Fela Kuti.  

Order ‘Burning Down The House’ here:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/9780063022980

Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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David talks to Lea Ypi about her new book Indignity: A Life Reimagined, which tells the story of her grandmother’s extraordinary life and in doing so uncovers the hidden history of mid-twentieth-century Europe. But it is also a book about the different philosophies of dignity and how those ideas can shape, make and break individual human lives. A conversation about death and displacement, identity and betrayal, secrecy and salvation. 

Indignity: A Life Reimagined by Lea Ypi is out now – get it wherever you get your books. ⁠https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/458930/indignity-by-ypi-lea/9780241661925⁠

The 2nd film in our autumn season of Films of Ideas at the Regent Street cinema is coming up on Thursday 25th September: a screening of My Dinner with Andre, followed by a live recording of PPF with playwright and screenwriter Lee Hall, creator of Billy Elliot. Tickets are available now ⁠https://bit.ly/4fWDa7V⁠

Next up, the start of a new series: Fixing Democracy

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Can we humans make it to 2125? According to Gary F. Bengier, author of Journey to 2125, our species faces three existential threats over the next 100 years. His horsemen of the apocalypse are climate change, nuclear war and robots. No great surprises there. Where Bengier is more original is his stress on narrowing the manifold threats to humanity. Focus, focus, focus is Bengier’s species survival mantra. The ex-eBay technologist turned philosopher argues we're distracted by too many doomsday scenarios. His classic Silicon Valley solution: ignore the noise, solve these three core problems, and humanity might be able to "muddle through." But, as always in these cliffhanger narratives, there's a potential catch—nuclear war could destroy the resources needed to fight climate change, while robot factories in the business of building more robot factories could short circuit capitalism itself. Ooops. So there’s no guarantee that any of us - even (or especially) those Kurzweilian crazies who believe we can live forever - will squeak through to 2125.

1. The Three Threats That Actually Matter Bengier argues humanity faces three existential challenges over the next century: climate change, nuclear war, and mass unemployment from robots that build robot factories. His core message: stop getting distracted by "50 other things" and focus solely on these civilization-ending threats.

2. The Dangerous Interconnection Nuclear war isn't just catastrophic on its own—it could destroy the economic resources needed to fight climate change. A limited nuclear exchange (losing "10 or 20 cities each") would consume so much wealth in rebuilding that climate action would become impossible, creating a cascade of existential failures.

3. The Robot Revolution Will Be Different This Time While the current AI wave won't eliminate most jobs, Bengier warns of a second wave when AI-embedded robots become ubiquitous. When "robots build the robot factories that build the robots," the fundamental question becomes: who owns the robot factories? This could mark the end of capitalism as we know it.

4. Nuclear Power Is Essential, Solar Isn't Enough Despite solar costs dropping 90%, Bengier argues we need nuclear power (especially small modular reactors) because renewables alone can't provide consistent baseline power. More critically, developing nations need accessible nuclear technology to avoid using their cheap fossil fuel reserves.

5. Consciousness Isn't Coming to Machines Against Silicon Valley hype about AGI and conscious AI, Bengier (who studied philosophy of mind) argues machines lack "qualia"—the subjective experience of what things feel like. Machines can analyze an apple's 37 components but can't understand what an apple actually is. The "hard problem of consciousness" remains nowhere near solved.

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The unconscious has become a well-known feature of our human lived experience since Freud. We often refer to unwanted impulses, suppressed thoughts, unconscious desires, and the like.

But what IS the unconscious? Is it just an easy excuse for our behaviour? Or is it a necessary piece of what it means to be human?

Join our diverse and rich panel as they discuss, and disagree, over this question: Josh Cohen is a literature professor and psychoanalyst, Barbara Tversky is a professor of psychology, and Edward Harcourt is a philosopher.

What do you think? Can the unconscious explain things? Email us at [email protected] with your thoughts or questions on the episode!

Our London festival is in LESS THAN two weeks! To witness such topics discussed live in London, buy tickets and join the converstaion: https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/

And visit our website for many more articles, videos, and podcasts like this one: https://iai.tv/

You can find everything we referenced here: https://linktr.ee/philosophyforourtimesthe-chemistry-of-freedom

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Since Europeans first landed in Australia, the country has been a net importer of languages. Not all of those languages make it, and Gaelic was one of the early languages that died out. What did the loss of language mean for Australia's earliest Gaelic speakers?

• Guest: Dr Pamela O'Neill, the Sir Warwick Fairfax Lecturer in Celtic Studies at The University of Sydney
• Producer: Alex Tighe

The Booker prize winning novelist Arundhati Roy looks back at her foremost influences in her memoir, Mother Mary Comes To Me. While her writing and activism are shaped by early circumstances – both financial and political – at the centre is her relationship with her mother, who she describes as ‘my shelter and my storm’.

The poet Sarah Howe won the TS Eliot prize for poetry for her debut collection, Loop of Jade. In her new work, Foretokens, she returns to the complex inheritance of family and language, as she tries to piece together the fragmentary, often mythical, early life of her Chinese mother, given away at birth.

The academic Lea Ypi travels through the history of Ottoman aristocracy to the making of modern Albania and the early days of communism as she attempts to retrace the life of her beloved grandmother. In her new book, Indignity: A Life Reimagined, she reveals the fragility of truth, as her own memories collide with secret police reports and newly discovered photographs.

Producer: Katy Hickman