Words To That Effect

Dragons have been around for a very long time. 

They are one of the very few mythological creatures that have become absolutely central to popular culture; everyone knows what a dragon is. There are other important and well-known mythological creatures, but none are as ubiquitous as dragons, which can be found in Europe and the Americas, in classical and Biblical traditions, in ancient Indian tales and across Asian mythology. 

So where do dragons come from? Why are they so common across cultures, and what do they mean to us today? 

I chat to Professor Scott Bruce, author of the recently published Penguin Book of Dragons and an authority on dragons from antiquity to the present day.

 WTTE is part of the HeadStuff Podcast Network. You can support the show and get bonus content and more by becoming a member of HeadStuff+. Go to HeadStuffPodcasts.com

For full transcripts, links, references, and more the home of the podcast is wttepodcast.com

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Words To That Effect is back! Find out what's coming up on Season 6, launching on Jan 25th

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There is a complex and fascinating relationship between humans and the ocean, how people and cultures across the world know and understand the sea, whether through myths and legends, through trade or fishing, exploration or entertainment. 

This episode explores one particular aspect of all this - our relationship with the undersea, what lies beneath the surface of the oceans. It is the 4th place in a loose miniseries of literary locations: Antarctica, the desert, the forest, and now the undersea.

From early myths and legends to the naturalists of the 19th century; from the first transatlantic cables to the underwater habitats of the 1960s; from scientific attempts at a "homo aquaticus" to science fiction tales of underwater civilizations, there's plenty to explore in the ocean depths. 

Joining me on this deep dive episode is Prof Helen Rozwadowski, Professor of History and Maritime Studies at the University of Connecticut.

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How do we use fiction in food? What does a character's choice of food reveal about them? Do you simply have to go and make a dish when it's described beautifully in a book?

On this very special episode, a collaboration with the wonderful Spice Bags podcast, we discuss everything from 17th century Spanish literature to contemporary American horror, Italian detective novels to Japanese magical realism. Grab yourself a glass of Amarone and have a listen!

Support the show and get lots of bonus content by becoming a member of HeadStuff+. Find out more at HeadStuffPodcasts.com

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The forest is a place we have very mixed feelings about. Forests can be calm and peaceful, full of ancient and natural beauty. 

Until they’re not. 

The forest, in so many ways, is a place we fear. They are dark and dense and overgrown, all too easy to get lost in. They hold secrets and mysteries, and creatures we’d rather not meet alone, far from home. 

And if the monsters of the forest don’t get us, then the forest itself will. The strange, malevolent powers of the trees themselves. 

The forest can be a terrifying place. 

On this week's episode I'm joined by Dr Elizabeth Parker, who guides us through the deep dark woods.

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How do we imagine and portray the desert? And what does it say about us and our relationship to each other and, crucially, to the planet we live on?

In this, the second in a loosely connected series on places in fiction and popular culture, I chat to Dr Aidan Tynan about deserts in fiction and philosophy, from Mad Max to Burning Man, Nietzsche to Baudrillard, Cormac McCarthy to China Miéville.

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 In 1905 in Paris, the publisher Pierre Laffite had an idea. His new journal Je Sais Tout had just launched and he was looking for an author who could do for his magazine, what Arthur Conan Doyle’s phenomenally popular Sherlock Holmes had done for The Strand magazine, in London. He turned to the writer Maurice Leblanc and one of the most memorable and successful characters in French popular fiction was born: the gentleman thief Arsène Lupin.

Lupin is cunning, sophisticated, quick-witted, a master of disguise, always one step ahead of the police, and a thief of humble origins who steals only from the wealthy upper classes. 

But why did this gentleman thief achieve such instant and lasting renown? How does he fit into popular crime fiction more widely and how, you may be wondering, did he end up as the basis for one of the most popular shows Netflix has ever made? 

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Robots as high-tech labour-saving devices, and as usurpers of human jobs. Robots as distinctly Other and as dangerously indistinguishable from humans. Robots as a means of questioning what it is to be human, and highlighting the ethics behind the creation of artificial life. 

To help me explore all of this I chatted to a roboticist who also writes about literature, and a literature professor who has worked and published extensively on robotics.

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For links, references, full transcripts and more head to wttepodcast.com

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A quick update episode on the new HeadStuff membership platform, HeadStuff+

Have a listen to find out more about what's on it and how you can join (although the joining bit is very straightforward - just click here). 

I'm really excited to be a part of this and I hope if you are a regular listener and would like to support the show, and the network it is a part of, you'll consider becoming a member. Plus you get a load of extra stuff so it's win-win really! 

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 The continent of Antarctica was only discovered two centuries ago, even if it had long been theorized. It's a place shrouded in mystery with no human history and no permanent residents. It’s a land of superlatives: the coldest, the windiest, the driest continent. 

It is a grand scientific experiment, a habitat for animals, with spectacular icescapes luring tourists and scientists alike. And it’s somewhere that exists in the popular imagination in a multitude of ways, often contradictory and, it must be said, frequently confused with the Arctic.

There’s a long tradition of gothic and horror stories set in, and inspired by, Antarctica. There are heroic adventure tales from the early 20th century onwards, thrillers and adventure tales, science fiction novels, and crime and detective stories set on this inscrutable continent. Joining me to talk about all these stories and more is Prof Elizabeth Leane.

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