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  • Richard Linklater: 'Filmmaking Is Problem Solving'

    Filmmaker Richard Linklater doesn't speak French, but that didn't stop him from directing a movie that's almost entirely in French. ‘Nouvelle Vague’ focuses on the beginning of the New Wave of cinema, specifically Jean-Luc Godard and his landmark 1960 movie ‘Breathless.’ "I know that sounds insane," Linklater says, "but me not having the language wasn't even in my top 10 concerns about if I could pull off the movie." Linklater spoke with Terry Gross about the impact of the French New Wave, and his other new film, ‘Blue Moon.’ It’s about Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart, the former creative partner of Richard Rodgers.

    Also, Maureen Corrigan reviews the novel Heart the Lover by Lily King. 


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  • Storytelling: Jeanette Winterson, Rory Stewart and Soweto Kinch

    In her latest novel, One Aladdin Two Lamps, the writer Jeanette Winterson takes inspiration from the legendary story of Shahrazad in One Thousand and One Nights. But she calls on the reader to look again at stories we think we know, unpick how fiction works, and have the courage to challenge and change the narrative.

    The saxophonist and presenter Soweto Kinch will perform his new album, Soundtrack to the Apocalypse, with the London Symphony Orchestra (at the Barbican, London, on Friday 14th November), combining British jazz, hip-hop and orchestral music. This is the finale of his acclaimed trilogy of politically charged, genre-defying works that tell different stories of the past, present and future.

    The former MP Rory Stewart spent nearly a decade in Britain’s most rural constituency, Penrith and Borders, and wrote a column for a local newspaper. In Middleland: Dispatches from the Borders he’s collected together these fragmentary moments from rural life and local politics to capture a wide-ranging portrait of life and stories from the Cumbrian countryside.

    Producer: Katy Hickman

    Assistant Producer: Natalia Fernandez

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  • A Little Happier: Surprise: Gossip Can Be Good for You

    Despite its bad reputation, gossip is actually a ubiquitous and important feature of human communication.

    Get in touch: [email protected]

    Visit Gretchen's website to learn more about Gretchen's best-selling books, products from The Happiness Project Collection, and the Happier app.

    Find the transcript for this episode on the episode details page in the Apple Podcasts app. 

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  • Ep. 378: Aquinas on God and Mind (Part Three)

    We're now moving on to the "mind" portion of our discussion, covering how reason motivates us, how free will is possible, and the degree to which the mind is passive or active.

    Get more at partiallyexaminedlife.com. Visit partiallyexaminedlife.com/support to get ad-free episodes and tons of bonus discussion.

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    51 min
  • The Smiths’ Mike Joyce on triumph, gladioli & Morrissey when he was still ‘Steve’

    Morrissey and Marr both wrote memoirs but Mike Joyce hasn’t read either, preferring to publish ‘The Drums’, his version of one of the great success stories of the ‘80s, a book about “the beauty we’d given to people – and to ourselves”. At one point he and Andy Rourke shout, ‘Where did it all go right?”. He looks back here at …

     

    … the fateful meeting in Geales fish bar when Johnny told them he was leaving – “none of us, not even Morrissey, saw it coming”

     

    … the first Smiths rehearsal and impressions of “Steve” the singer

     

    … how the songs were written - “we never asked what they meant”

     

    … and how they were arranged: “I locked with Johnny like Charlie with Keith, and Andy played a bass song over the top”

     

    ... memories of Johnny at X Clothes in Manchester and Morrissey in ‘82 - “funny, dark, so Manc”

     

    … the “almost anti-punk” appeal of the Buzzcocks and the urge for a John Maher red Premier drumkit

     

    … “Morrissey’s articulacy was both his strength and his Achilles heel”

     

    … echoes of Motown and James Honeyman-Scott in Marr’s guitar

     

    … “Singers need to feel they’re the most important person in the room”

     

    … on-stage gladioli versus “the austerity of the Hacienda”

     

    … and Morrissey today - “very angry” - and the legacy of the Smiths.  

     

    Order copies of ‘The Drums here: https://www.resident-music.com/product/joyce-mike-the-drums


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  • Lauren Groff Reads “Mother of Men”

    Lauren Groff reads her story “Mother of Men” from the November 10, 2025, issue of the magazine. Groff’s work of fiction include the novels “Fates and Furies” and “Matrix,” both of which were finalists for the National Book Award, and “The Vaster Wilds,” which was published in 2023. A new story collection, “Brawler,” will come out in February of 2026. In 2024, she opened the bookstore The Lynx in Gainesville, Florida. 

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  • Angela Harding, artist

    Angela Harding is an artist, printmaker and illustrator. Based in Rutland, Angela’s work is inspired by the countryside of the British Isles, and in particular British birds. Alongside her many prints and artistic creations, her award-willing illustrations can be found adorning many a book cover.

    Angela was born in Stoke-on-Trent in June 1960, the middle of three daughters to Stephen and Joan Harding. It was an artistic household: her father, a headteacher, passed on his love of poetry to Angela, her mother taught pottery, and all three sisters would end up going to art college.

    She left school at sixteen and, at her mother’s behest, did a pre-nursing course before pursuing her passion for art. She studied Fine Art at Leicester Polytechnic from where she graduated with a first in 1982.

    After indulging her love of travel – both on her bike around Britain as well as on a Magic Bus across Europe – Angela spent twenty years working in the art world, from teaching to consultancy. During these years, she married and raised two children, then divorced and married her second husband, Mark.

    In 2008, she made the life changing decision to pursue a career as a professional artist: she abandoned the media she had previously worked in and concentrated on linocuts and silkscreen printing.

    She has worked as a magazine illustrator and today her prints can be found on everything from book covers to tea towels and greeting cards. Her advent calendars – first produced in 2015 – have become a collector’s item. She has also published several books of her own.

    When she’s not on her boat sailing around the British Isles, Angela lives in Rutland, with her husband Mark and her whippet, Oaty.

    DISC ONE: I Wanna Thank Ya (featuring Snoop Dogg) - Angie Stone

    DISC TWO: The Thought Fox. Written and read by Ted Hughes
    DISC THREE: Britten: Songs from \"Friday Afternoons\", Op. 7: Songs From Friday Afternoons, Op. 7: \"Cuckoo!\". Performed by Choir of Downside School, Purley, Viola Tunnard (piano), Benjamin Britten (conductor)
    DISC FOUR: Rise - Public Image Ltd.
    DISC FIVE: My Lady Story - Anohni and the Johnsons
    DISC SIX: La conga blicoti - Joséphine Baker
    DISC SEVEN: Skeleton Tree - LYR
    DISC EIGHT: Marie douceur - Marie colère - Marie Laforêt

    BOOK CHOICE: Bird School - Adam Nicolson

    LUXURY ITEM: A lino printing set with champagne
    CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: I Wanna Thank Ya (featuring Snoop Dogg) - Angie Stone

    Presenter Lauren Laverne

    Producer Sarah Taylor

    There are more than 2000 programmes in our archive available for you to listen to. We have cast away other notable artists including Helen Oxenbury, Maggie Hambling and Quentin Blake. You’ll also find the Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage in our archive too. You can find their episodes on BBC Sounds or on our Desert Island Discs website.

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  • Andy Burnham

    As Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership of the Labour party comes under increasing pressure and criticism, we profile a man who may well be waiting in the wings.

    Andy Burnham, a Labour stalwart who started his political career in the Blair and Brown era, seems determined to have his say in the party’s future too. Last month, he caused a political storm when he was widely interpreted as openly challenging Sir Keir Starmer’s authority during the party conference, confirming that MPs had contacted him about returning to Westminster to run for the party leadership.
    It’s not his first brush with the Labour leadership - he lost two contests in the 2010s before leaving Westminster to win the Greater Manchester mayoralty, a role which has further increased his profile and earned him the nickname ‘King of the North’, a nod to his popularity within the region.
    Stephen Smith speaks to his friends, family and political peers to find out what shaped one of the most influential figures in today’s Labour party, and whether his criticism of the government could propel him to the top job, or keep him from it.
    Presenter: Stephen Smith
    Producers: Ben Crighton, Nathan Gower, Alex Loftus and Mhairi MacKenzie
    Editor: Justine Lang
    Sound Editor: Gareth Jones and Duncan Hannant
    Production Coordinator: Sabine Schereck and Maria Ogundele

    Archive:

    Perisher: Million Pound Captains (BBC)
    Boys from the Blackstuff (BBC)

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