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In 1967, Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka tried to stop the country’s Biafra war, in which Nigeria’s Igbo people responded to violence by seceding from the rest of the country. They proclaimed a new Republic of Biafra.

When the fighting began, Soyinka was building a reputation as a poet and playwright abroad. However, in a last-ditch attempt to avert civil war, he set off on a secret mission behind the front line to meet the Biafran leader, Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. When he left Biafra, he was imprisoned by the federal government without trial for more than two years.

Soyinka drew on his prison experience in his writing over the following years, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986 - the first African to win the award. He looks back on those events with Ben Henderson.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.

(Photo: Wole Soyinka in 1969. Credit: Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Tim Minchin is an Australian comedian, writer, and musician, known for his satirical wit and deeply philosophical songs that blend existential tenderness with irreverent humour.

Tim reflects on the personal and cultural significance of his iconic songs, including the creation and activist undertones of 'Come Home, Cardinal Pell,' a protest song aimed at urging Cardinal Pell to return to Australia to face the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Abuse. Minchin also shares his deterministic worldview, and views on happiness and purpose.

Learn more about Tim and read his books and listen to his music

This episode is sponsored by GiveWell. You can have your donation matched up to $100 before the end of the year! (or as long as matching funds last) go to givewell.org to donate or find out more. Enter LIVES WELL LIVED at the checkout!

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Executive Producer: Rachel Barrett

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

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Playful, mind-expanding, dark, funny and endlessly rewarding, Ali Smith’s dystopian parable of an authoritarian future was one of the most talked-about new books when published in hardback last year. To mark the appearance of Gliff in paperback, Smith returned to the shop to talk about it with film-maker Sarah Wood.

They also spoke about So in the Spruce Forest, an essay originally written for ‘Edvard Munch: Trembling Earth’, an exhibition in 2023 in Oslo which has now appeared in book form, beautifully printed by the Munch Museum.

Rebind combines reading with AI-chat to deepen learning and simulate the experience of conversing with some of the greatest scholars and thinkers. With Rebind, you can read A Tale of Two Cities with Margaret Atwood, Huck Finn with Marlon James, and Candide with Salman Rushdie. John and his team have recently launched the Rebind Study Bible, an interactive way to read, listen, and interpret the Bible with insight from scholars. As we head further into a world augmented by AI tools, Rebind is on the frontlines of embracing AI without destroying the art of deep, contemplative engagement. To give so insight into how Rebind is marrying scholarship with AI tools, I’m thrilled today to have John Kaag on the podcast.

For a free 7-day trial, visit this link

John Kaag is an American philosopher and chair and professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He is co-founder of Rebind Publishing.

Caleb Zakarin is editor of the New Books Network.

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David talks to novelist Ian McEwan, who was our first ever guest on PPF, about how the future will view our present once the disasters we are brewing come to pass. How might humanity scrape through the rest of the century? Will future generations see us as intellectually vibrant or essentially trivial? If we turn out to be unknowable to those who follow us, does that mean we are unknowable to ourselves? A wide-ranging conversation about how past, present and future co-exist in time.

Ian McEwan’s latest novel is What We Can Know https://bit.ly/4ogYN5u

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Next time in Politics on Trial: Lady Chatterley’s Lover 

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Dutch historian Rutger Bregman gives the second of his 2025 Reith Lectures, called "Moral Revolution."

History, he says can be "a reservoir of hope." He outlines how small groups of people have changed the course of history such as Elizabeth Fry, who brought compassion into the prison system; Emmeline Pankhurst and the suffragettes who won the vote for women and Norman Borlaug, whose Green Revolution saved millions from famine. And he argues that this is as relevant now as it ever was: that small groups of committed citizens can still change the world.

The Reith Lectures are presented by Anita Anand and the programme was recorded in front of an audience in Liverpool, who asked questions afterwards.

The series is produced by Jim Frank. The Editor is Clare Fordham.

Journalist Gil Duran’s newsletter “The Nerd Reich” documents the latest developments in anti-democracy extremism within Silicon Valley. These extreme views include calls for accelerationism: the idea that unregulated capitalism and unfettered technological advancement should accelerate as quickly as possible, in order to bring about a new world order. While this sounds conspiratorial, Duran says these views are promoted by some of the most influential voices in the tech sector. We’ll talk about the political implications of billionaire tech moguls’ actions in the Bay Area, the U.S. and the world — and how we can fight back.

Guests:

Gil Duran, journalist and author of the newsletter "The Nerd Reich"; author of the forthcoming book, “The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy”

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Miriam Toews joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Elephant,” by Raymond Carver, which was published in The New Yorker in 1986. Toews has published ten books, including the novels “A Complicated Kindness,” which won the Governor General’s Award for Fiction; “All My Puny Sorrows,” “Women Talking,” and “Fight Night”—and the memoir “A Truce That Is Not Peace.” 

Salman Rushdie’s return to fiction sees him sharing a collection of stories which look at the questions that await us all at the end of our lives. We spoke with him about mortality, looking back and what the future might hold, together with what drives his creativity.

We’ve never had more wealth, more data, or more ways to be entertained. So why doesn’t it feel like progress? 

Sean’s guest today is Brad DeLong, an economic historian at UC Berkeley and author of Slouching Towards Utopia. They talk about the difference between getting richer and living well, and why the real hinge of the 21st century might be attention rather than growth. DeLong explains how AI could make life easier or simply make us more distracted, why the world’s progress continues even as American politics falters, and what smart policy could do for the people left behind by technological change.

Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)

Guest: J. Bradford DeLong, economic historian and author of Slouching Towards Utopia

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