Are We Still Living in an Old Country? - ft. Patrick Wright

Are We Still Living in an Old Country? - ft. Patrick Wright

CO is back, with a dream guest for Dan and Kasia: Professor Patrick Wright, author of On Living in an Old Country and The Village That Died for England, joins us for an urgent and vital conversation about Englishness, heritage, national decline, landscapes, Brexit and Reform, historical memory, and social and cultural disintegration.

This is a conversation about "the direly persistent English question" - one which will not go away.

"I don’t even have a history O’level - history came to me, rather than me coming to it,” Patrick tell us, taking us on a fascinating journey beginning in the 1980s, when Margaret Thatcher appealed loudly to “tradition”, while ripping up norms that would ensure many things would never be the same. We discuss why politics often amounts to, in Patrick’s words, “conjuring with the bones of the dead”, and why the telling of our history is so often framed in terms of crisis: as Heritage in Danger.

How does the landscape shape our idea of the nation, and vice versa? We chew over some great symbolic moments - “radioactive anecdotes” like the felling of the Sycamore Gap Tree, the Crooked House pub fire, Foot and Mouth, Dutch Elm disease (“the whole landscape was like a cemetery”), and the elevating of HMS Mary Rose from the sea bed after 450 years.

~~~

Read Patrick's brilliant books:

On Living in an Old Country (1985)

The Village that Died for England (1995)

The Sea View Has Me Again (2021)

~~~

Do please consider supporting our Patreon!

You'll also get a back catalogue of over 30 exclusive bonus eps, and it is STILL ONLY £4 a month to support your favourite cultural historians: https://www.patreon.com/c/cursedobjects

Jaksot(100)

Davos Hand Warmers and Bug Ice Cream ft. Caitlín Doherty

Davos Hand Warmers and Bug Ice Cream ft. Caitlín Doherty

Only 3000 people are invited to Davos, home of the World Economic Forum - and you’re one of them! Well, not really. But welcome anyway to this chocolate-box Swiss mountain town, transformed via "the C...

16 Helmi 52min

Where the Wild Swims Are

Where the Wild Swims Are

New year, new you, new Cursed Objects - let’s dive in! This week, Kasia breaks the ice and takes us on a plunge into the cursed and blessed world of wild, outdoor and cold water swimming – while Dan n...

19 Tammi 1h 1min

Christmas - It’s For The Kids, ft. Mr Beatnick

Christmas - It’s For The Kids, ft. Mr Beatnick

Luke Skywalker, shut up and eat your jelly! As everyone knows, Christmas is like Cursed Objects Christmas, and so sure enough: it’s the long-awaited CO Christmas Special. REJOICE! This year, we are ta...

18 Joulu 202550min

Lit up like a Christmas tree

Lit up like a Christmas tree

What would Christmas be without a tour of London’s lights? For the first of our free xmas podcasts, Kasia and Dan go UP TOWN for an outside (!!) walking tour through Covent Garden, Leicester Square an...

11 Joulu 202555min

The Princess Diana Memorial Beanie Baby

The Princess Diana Memorial Beanie Baby

Not the Queen of Hearts! Greetings, England's roses, and welcome back to the People's Podcast - this week, it's the original parasocial relationship: ROYALTY.  Kasia is being pursued by a stream of La...

27 Marras 202550min

Art, Swings and Industry - King's Cross Magical History Tour

Art, Swings and Industry - King's Cross Magical History Tour

"Escape to the King's Cross Riviera," said the sign on the construction hoardings - so we did! And it forced us to ask questions like: 'What if you threw a major urban regeneration zone and lots of pe...

11 Marras 202512min

Belfast Pubs, Punk and Gentrification ft. Fearghus Roulston

Belfast Pubs, Punk and Gentrification ft. Fearghus Roulston

We are back with another brand new episode, another very special guest, the brilliant Fearghus Roulston, and another fascinating assembly of some very Cursed Objects subjects – histories of conflict, ...

23 Loka 202556min

Suosittua kategoriassa Yhteiskunta

i-dont-like-mondays
sita
olipa-kerran-otsikko
kaksi-aitia
hupiklubi
siita-on-vaikea-puhua
ihme-ja-kumma
uutiscast
poks
antin-palautepalvelu
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
kolme-kaannekohtaa
rss-murhan-anatomia
mamma-mia
yopuolen-tarinoita-2
aikalisa
meidan-pitais-puhua
loukussa
rss-palmujen-varjoissa
kummitusjuttuja