What if modern chemistry didn’t replace alchemy—but was born from it?

In this episode of The Scholar’s Armchair, I’m joined by science writer Kit Chapman to discuss his fascinating book, The Age of Alchemy: How Early Innovators Shaped Modern Chemistry.

Most of us think of alchemy as the failed attempt to turn lead into gold. But Kit argues that this familiar story misses the point. Long before modern laboratories existed, generations of artisans, metalworkers, physicians, philosophers and alchemists developed the practical knowledge that would eventually become chemistry.

Together we explore the surprising history of alchemy, the forgotten innovators who shaped science, and what this remarkable story teaches us about curiosity, experimentation, failure and the search for truth.

In this conversation we discuss:

• Why alchemy has been misunderstood

• The real origins of modern chemistry

• Forgotten scientists and innovators from around the world

• How mistakes can lead to great discoveries

• Why science is always a deeply human endeavour

📖 Kit Chapman’s book: The Age of Alchemy

https://profilebooks.com/work/the-age-of-alchemy/

🧪 Follow Kit Chapman (“Chemistry Kit”)

https://www.youtube.com/@chemistrykit

📱 Kit on X (Twitter)

https://x.com/chemistrykit

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https://www.instagram.com/thescholarsarmchair/

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How did people decide who to trust with their lives before modern medicine?

In this episode of The Scholar’s Armchair, I’m joined by historian and literary scholar Dr Alanna Skuse to discuss her fascinating book, The Surgeon, the Midwife, and the Quack: How to Stay Alive in Renaissance England.

We explore the strange and surprising world of Renaissance medicine, where surgeons, midwives, physicians, apothecaries and travelling healers all competed for patients. Along the way we discuss Shakespeare, miracle cures, dangerous operations, the blurred line between expertise and quackery, and a question that remains just as relevant today: how do we decide who to trust when certainty is impossible?

If you enjoy conversations that bring together literature, history and big ideas, please like the video, subscribe to the channel, and let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Find out more about Dr Alanna Skuse:

📖 The Surgeon, the Midwife, and the Quack (Oneworld):

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Surgeon-The-Midwife-The-Quack/Alanna-Skuse/9781836430773

🩸 Blood, Guts, and Nasty Cuts (DK Children):

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/829078/blood-guts-and-nasty-cuts-by-dr-alanna-skuse/

📷 Follow Dr Alanna Skuse on Instagram (@historian_alanna):

https://www.instagram.com/historian_alanna/

Death is one of the few experiences every human being shares, yet in the modern world it has become something we rarely talk about. How did that happen? And what have we lost by pushing death to the margins of everyday life?

In this episode of The Scholar’s Armchair, I speak with social historian and bereavement counsellor Molly Conisbee about her remarkable book No Ordinary Deaths: A People’s History of Mortality. Rather than focusing on the deaths of kings and queens, Molly uncovers the experiences of ordinary people, revealing how communities across Britain have faced death, cared for the dying, mourned their loved ones, and searched for meaning in loss over the centuries.

Together we discuss the dramatic decline in child mortality, medieval and Victorian attitudes towards death, the changing role of hospitals and medicine, the disappearance of communal mourning rituals, and whether modern society has lost the “art of dying well.” Along the way we ask what history can teach us about grief, community, and ultimately what it means to live a good life.

Whether you’re interested in social history, cultural history, medicine, philosophy, or simply one of the most universal aspects of human experience, this is a thoughtful and deeply humane conversation.

Links:

Molly Conisbee’s book: No Ordinary Deaths: A People’s History of Mortality https://profilebooks.com/work/no-ordinary-deaths/

Molly’s profile page: https://www.bath.ac.uk/person/509812

If you enjoy conversations like this, please like, subscribe, and let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Who was the real Lord Byron?

Was he really the brooding, scandalous Romantic we’ve inherited through legend? Or was there a very different Byron hiding in plain sight—in the extraordinary letters he wrote to friends, lovers, family and fellow writers?

In this episode of The Scholar’s Armchair, I speak with Professor Andrew Stauffer about his acclaimed new book, Byron: A Life in Ten Letters. Rather than telling Byron’s story through a conventional biography, Stauffer lets Byron speak for himself, revealing a man who was witty, self-aware, vulnerable, contradictory and startlingly modern.

Along the way we discuss the birth of celebrity culture, the origins of the Byronic hero, Byron’s influence on Mary Shelley, the Brontës and the Gothic tradition, his friendships with Percy Shelley and Thomas Moore, his role in the Greek War of Independence, and why his life and work continue to shape literature more than two centuries after his death.

Whether you’re a lifelong admirer of Romantic poetry or simply curious about one of history’s most fascinating literary figures, I hope you enjoy the conversation.

Andrew Stauffer’s book:

Byron: A Life in Ten Letters (Cambridge University Press)⁠ https://share.google/XCk4I1M8cAQuRkHOE

If you enjoyed this interview, please consider subscribing to The Scholar’s Armchair, where I speak to leading scholars and authors about literature, history, philosophy and the ideas that continue to shape our world.

What if the way we read is changing the way we think?

In this episode of The Scholar's Armchair, I speak with cognitive neuroscientist and reading researcher Maryanne Wolf, author of Proust and the Squid and Reader, Come Home, about one of the defining questions of our digital age.

Maryanne begins with a remarkable personal story. After a lifetime devoted to literature and the science of reading, she discovered that she could no longer read one of her favourite novels with the depth and pleasure she once had. That experience led her to ask a profound question: had her reading brain changed?

Our conversation explores how the brain learns to read, why deep reading is one of humanity's greatest cultural achievements, and what may be happening as more of our lives move onto screens. We discuss attention, empathy, critical thinking, education, AI, and why reading is about far more than absorbing information. It is about cultivating the very capacities that allow us to think, imagine, understand others, and make sense of ourselves.

Among the questions we explore:

• Why isn't reading a natural human ability?

• What is "deep reading," and why does it matter?

• How do books shape empathy and critical thought?

• Is digital technology changing our brains?

• What is the "biliterate brain"?

• Can we recover our capacity for sustained attention?

• How should we educate children in an age of screens and AI?

After recording this interview, Maryanne very kindly shared the new preface to the forthcoming edition of Reader, Come Home and generously gave me permission to make it available to viewers. You'll find a link to read it in the description below.

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LINKS:

📕Read the new preface to the forthcoming edition of Reader, Come Home: https://open.substack.com/pub/thescholarsarmchair/p/exclusive-new-preface-to-maryanne

📘Reader, Come Home: https://www.maryannewolf.com/reader-come-home-1

📕Proust and the Squid: https://www.maryannewolf.com/proust-and-the-squid

Nido Learning website: https://www.nidolearning.com/

📘Byung Chul Han’s The Scent of Time: https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=the-scent-of-time-a-philosophical-essay-on-the-art-of-lingering--9781509516049

📕Niall Williams’ This is Happiness: https://niallwilliams.com/pages/this-is-happiness

If you enjoy thoughtful conversations about literature, philosophy, psychology, history and the ideas that shape our world, please consider subscribing to The Scholar's Armchair.

📸SUBSCRIBE to my new Instagram! http://www.instagram.com/thescholarsarmchair

John Keats is often remembered as the poet of beauty and “negative capability.” But what if he was also one of the most profound thinkers about uncertainty?

In this episode of The Scholar’s Armchair, I speak with Dr Li Ou about her book Keats and Scepticism. We explore a side of Keats that is often overlooked: a poet deeply engaged with questions of knowledge, perception, imagination, and the limits of certainty.

What did Keats mean by “negative capability”? Why did he resist the “irritable reaching after fact and reason”? And what can his embrace of uncertainty teach us in an age of social media, ideological certainty, and instant opinions?

Our conversation explores the philosophical influences behind Keats’s poetry, offers fresh readings of the great odes, and considers why scepticism can be not a weakness but a form of intellectual humility and ethical openness.

Whether you’re a lover of Romantic poetry, philosophy, or simply interested in how literature can help us navigate modern life, I hope you’ll enjoy the discussion.

In this conversation:

• Why Keats should be understood as a philosopher as well as a poet

• The true meaning of negative capability

• Scepticism, imagination, and the search for truth

• Fresh perspectives on the great odes

• Why uncertainty can deepen empathy and understanding

• What Keats can still teach us today

If you enjoy thoughtful conversations about literature, philosophy, history, and culture, please consider subscribing to The Scholar’s Armchair.

LINKS:

Professor Li’s books:

📕 Keats and Negative Capability: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/keats-and-negative-capability-9781441147240/?__cf_chl_f_tk=wG3AKRuLU2qPN4RZ5CMlEz5_lUcdx3bS2K1NaldTdmc-1782812508-1.0.1.1-6FHb_HJEkJq0hYC0u7RNgnrdfe.h7GUrY9DBA7T7Lhk

📘Keats and Scepticism: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003285403/keats-scepticism-li-ou

Searchable etext of Keats’ letters: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/35698/35698-h/35698-h.htm

Read the book: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691235301/natural-magic?_gl=1*1dmglc8*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTczMjY1MDM3LjE3ODIyMTg4Njg.*_ga_N1W9JWKLY3*czE3ODIyMTg4NjckbzEkZzAkdDE3ODIyMTg4NjckajYwJGwwJGgxODg0NTE5NzQ3

Emily Dickinson is often imagined as a secluded poet, withdrawn from the world and writing from the privacy of her room in Amherst. But what if she was actually responding to one of the greatest intellectual revolutions in human history?

In this episode of The Scholar’s Armchair, I speak with Prof Renée Bergland about her book Natural Magic: Emily Dickinson, Charles Darwin, and the Dawn of Modern Science. We explore how Dickinson’s poetry emerged at a moment when traditional ideas about nature, faith, and humanity were being challenged by new scientific discoveries, particularly the evolutionary theories associated with Charles Darwin.

Was Dickinson simply a poet of inwardness, or was she grappling with the same questions that confronted the modern world? How did evolutionary thinking change the way people understood nature, death, and meaning? And how did Dickinson’s distinctive poetic style become a way of exploring uncertainty rather than escaping it?

Our conversation examines Dickinson’s scientific education, her fascination with the natural world, her engagement with questions of belief and doubt, and Bergland’s compelling argument that Dickinson developed a form of “natural magic”: a way of preserving wonder in a universe no longer guaranteed by divine certainty.

Whether you’re interested in poetry, literature, philosophy, science, religion, or the history of ideas, this discussion offers a fascinating new perspective on one of America’s greatest poets.

What exactly is a goblin?

Today we imagine goblins as fantasy creatures from Tolkien, Dungeons & Dragons, Harry Potter, and video games. But where did they come from, and why have they survived for centuries while so many other monsters have faded away?

In this episode of The Scholar’s Armchair, I speak with historian Matt King about his fascinating book A History of Goblins. We trace the goblin’s journey from medieval Europe, where goblins were often feared as demonic beings, through Victorian literature and folklore, to their reinvention in modern fantasy, gaming, and even internet culture.

Along the way we discuss fairyland, demons, Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market, Tolkien’s influence on fantasy, Dungeons & Dragons, Goblincore, and what our enduring fascination with goblins reveals about human fears, desires, and imagination.

Far from being a minor fantasy creature, the goblin turns out to be a surprisingly revealing guide to the history of religion, folklore, literature, and popular culture.

Topics discussed:

* The medieval origins of goblins

* Goblins, demons, and fairy folklore

* Why goblins are so difficult to define

* Victorian goblins and Goblin Market

* Tolkien, orcs, and modern fantasy

* Dungeons & Dragons and gaming culture

* Goblin Mode and Goblincore

* What monsters reveal about society

Links:

Matt’s book A History of Goblins: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-032-01063-6

Matt’s profile at University of South Florida: https://www.usf.edu/arts-sciences/departments/history/people/matt-king.aspx

#Goblins #Folklore #Fantasy #Tolkien #DnD #History #Mythology #Literature #MattKing #TheScholarsArmchair #GoblinMarket #FantasyHistory #MedievalHistory #FairyTales #CulturalHistory

Are our buildings changing because we are changing?

In this episode of The Scholar’s Armchair, I speak with Amritt Flora, Course Leader for the MA Interior and Spatial Design at Chelsea College of Arts, about the emergence of a possible metamodern shift in architecture and design.

Our conversation begins with a simple observation. Over the last decade, design students seem to be approaching the world differently. Questions of identity, feeling, sincerity, uncertainty, and meaning have become increasingly important. Could these changes be part of a broader cultural movement that scholars have called metamodernism?

Together we explore:

What metamodernism means in practice

The journey from modernism to postmodernism and beyond

Why architecture is always designing for a future that does not yet exist

The move from certainty and fixed rules toward complexity and contradiction

Why contemporary designers are increasingly concerned with emotion, experience, and interior life

Whether architecture can foster connection, meaning, and belonging

How today's students are reshaping the way we think about design

What the built environment reveals about wider cultural change

Along the way we discuss oscillation between sincerity and irony, the fragmentation of styles in contemporary culture, the changing role of architects, and whether we are witnessing a renewed search for meaning after the postmodern age.

If you've enjoyed our previous conversations on metamodernism, philosophy, literature, and culture, this episode extends the discussion into the spaces we inhabit every day.

Can a building be sincere? Can a room express hope? And what does the architecture of the twenty-first century tell us about who we are becoming?

====================•

Links:

The MA course in interior and spatial design: https://www.arts.ac.uk/subjects/architecture-spatial-and-interior-design/postgraduate/ma-interior-and-spatial-design-camberwell

Work showcase: https://ualshowcase.arts.ac.uk/c/camberwell-college-of-arts-ma-interior-and-spatial-design?query=%21nullquery&collection=ual-showcase&num_ranks=12&sort=dmetasortKey&meta_hideFromCollege_sand=0&meta_college_sand=Camberwell+College+of+Arts&f.Courses%7Ccourse=MA+Interior+and+Spatial+Design&start_rank=25#about

YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ_HubX0o9Y&t=9s

Course Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/maisdccw

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#Metamodernism #Architecture #Design #SpatialDesign #InteriorDesign #Philosophy #Culture #TheScholarsArmchair #AmrittFlora #Postmodernism #Modernism #Meaning #ArchitectureTheory #ContemporaryCulture #UniversityoftheArtsLondon

Have we lost the inner life?

In this episode of The Scholar’s Armchair, I speak with author and cultural critic Lesley Chamberlain about her book Rilke: The Last Inward Man and the enduring relevance of one of Europe’s greatest poets, Rainer Maria Rilke.

Chamberlain argues that Rilke stood at the end of a long tradition of inwardness: a tradition that saw the inner life as a source of meaning, creativity, and spiritual depth. At a time when religion was losing its authority and modernity was transforming society, Rilke sought to discover whether poetry and art could preserve a sense of transcendence in an increasingly fragmented world.

In our conversation, we discuss Rilke’s childhood, his relationship with Lou Andreas-Salomé, his transformative journeys to Russia, the influence of Auguste Rodin, the Duino Elegies, the Sonnets to Orpheus, and whether art can replace religion as a source of meaning.

Most importantly, we explore a question that feels increasingly urgent today:

What happens when a culture loses faith in the value of the inner life?

⸻

Topics discussed:

* Rilke and the meaning of inwardness

* Attention, solitude, and modern distraction

* Poetry, spirituality, and transcendence

* Lou Andreas-Salomé and Russia’s influence on Rilke

* Rodin and the discipline of attention

* The Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus

* Art after the decline of religion

* Why Rilke still matters today

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Links:

Lesley’s book Rilke: The Last Inward Man: https://pushkinpress.com/book/rilke-the-last-inward-man/

Lesley’s Novel The Mozhaisk Road: Russian Heart of Darkness: https://www.austinmacauley.com/book/the-mozhaisk-road

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If you enjoyed this conversation, please like, subscribe, and share the video. It helps more people discover thoughtful discussions about literature, philosophy, history, and culture.

#Rilke #Poetry #Philosophy #Literature #TheScholarsArmchair #LesleyChamberlain #Reading #Culture #Attention #InnerLife #Books #LiteraryCriticism #Modernity #Spirituality #ArtAndMeaning