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What I admire so much about her is how much fun she clearly has with her craft. Her research sent her ghost hunting and up to Alaska to visit Eskimos. She also gets so invested in her stories that she literally hears her characters speaking to her.

How does she do it? How did she manage to write a book a year? That's what this conversation is all about.

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Does the left really need to be more conservative? What is the difference between capital C and lowercase c conservatism? Is the Blue Labour movement the best tool against the MAGA agenda and right wing nationalism?

Maurice Glasman is the founder of the Blue Labour movement, a conservative strand of socialism that champions tradition, community, and civic association. In his view, we’ve come to the end of an era. From Thatcher and Reagan, through Blair and Clinton, we used to live in a period of open borders, globalisation and the rule of capital. Trump and MAGA show that the electorate is fed up with this. But what comes after MAGA? Glasman argues Blue Labour is the politics of the future.

Political theorist, Labour life peer, and a member of the House of Lords, Maurice Glasman founded the Blue Labour movement in 2009. 

Don't hesitate to email us at [email protected] with your thoughts or questions on the episode!

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Edward Osborne Wilson was a pioneer across several fields of biology, from entomology to biodiversity. He is best known for his expertise on ants, his work developing the field of Sociobiology and for his 'Half-Earth' goal.

Born in Alabama in 1929, a fishing accident at the age of 7 left him blind in one eye and he turned his attention to the little things that could be held between finger and thumb. Ed Wilson recorded several hundred species of ants and was the first to discover how they communicated through pheromones.

Nominating him is the Ecologist, and Chair of Natural England, Dr Tony Juniper. The expert is Dr Paula Ehrlich, President and CEO of the EO Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. Paula knew Ed well and joins the discussion from North Carolina.

Presented by Matthew Parris and produced for BBC Studios by Ellie Richold

In this show, Robert Harrison and Chloe Summers Edmondson discuss the cultural history of Paris, from the Enlightenment to the present day. Dr. Edmondson is Assistant Professor of French in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Miami. She holds a Ph.D. in French and a master’s degree in communication, both […]

On Point news analyst Jack Beatty on why Democrats need to embrace the "sticky symbolism" of billionaire private jets.

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Misha Glenny chooses the first of his archive picks - bringing back classic conversations from the In Our Time archive, every Monday.

In this episode, we chat with Sara Baume about her piece "On Handkerchiefs" (Tolka, Issue Eleven), as well as her book, Opening Night (2026).

We discuss friendships, grandmothers, and crafting as an anti-capitalist act.

Music by Lemzly Dale

Michael Collins is now one of the most powerful men in Ireland. But events that will tear Ireland apart and lead to his brutal assassination in Cork are already set in train.

In 1921 he is sent by De Valera to London to negotiate with the British on what will become the Anglo-Irish Treaty. With his striking good looks and his fierce reputation, London is gripped by "Collins mania".

But on December 6th 1921, when Collins signs the Treaty, he is said to have remarked: “I'm signing my actual death warrant.”

Within months, a brutal civil war breaks out across the country, and just over nine months after signing the Treaty, Collins is killed in an ambush at Béal Na Bláth on 22nd August 1922. His death remains one of the most shocking moments in Irish history resulting in endless speculation and conspiracy theories on what happened on the fateful day.

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To 'earth' us this week, Ian McMIllan invites Owen Sheers, Jason Allen Paisant, Helen Mort, and David Morley to share poems that ground us - including work from the 2026 Laurel Prize for environmental poetry by the winner Fiona Benson.

Helen Mort's latest book is 'Stepmother', Jason Allen Paisant's memoir is 'The Possibility of Tenderness' , Owen Sheers reads from 'The Green Hollow' as well as sharing new poetry, David Morley explores an earthy 'Neon Line' - and celebrates 'Middenwitch' by Fiona Benson.

Produced by Faith Lawrence

The award-winning Jamaican novelist Marlon James on his Booker-shortlisted novel The Disappearers, as he and presenter James Crawford explore its connections to three other books.

The Disappearers starts with eight men in Jamaica in 1988 meeting in private to rehearse a play. The group are attacked by a violent mob, and for the survivors, recovery is as much emotional as it is physical. Through the lives of the men, the novel explores the realities of queer life in Jamaica during the 1980s and 1990s.

For his three influences, Marlon chose Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters (1990), John Rechy’s The Sexual Outlaw (1977), and Roberto Bolaño’s The Savage Detectives (2007).

Producer: Rachael O’Neill