Marble, Muscle and Manly Bodies in the 18th Century
What was more important in the construction of an eighteenth-century man’s body: the dumbbell or the dumbwaiter? Who had the most enviable body shape: the svelte Apollo Belvedere or the rotund John Bu...
8 Apr 201919min
The Emotion of Now
Matthew Sweet and a panel of experts stand-up for their emotion of choice in a debate about the most pertinent emotion for understanding Britain today. Is it Joy? Anger? Anxiety? Schadenfruede or sham...
8 Apr 201946min
Healthy Eating Edwardian Style
Elsa Richardson uncovers the early history of the wellbeing industry and introduces Eustace Hamilton Miles, a diet guru who made his name selling health to Edwardian Britons. Reformers promoted the ‘s...
5 Apr 201920min
'Calm Down Dear' - How Angry Should Politics Get?
What does it mean to feel that your political position is righteous? At a time of rising tempers among electorates, should we all “calm down - or harness our rage? Kehinde Andrews is Professor of Blac...
5 Apr 201954min
Shopping Around the Baby Market
Commercial surrogacy – the practice of paying another woman to carry a pregnancy to term – has been criticised for being exploitative, particularly when poorer women are recruited. Even if these women...
4 Apr 201917min
Why Trespassing Is the Right Way To Go
Have you ever been somewhere you shouldn't? In this essay, New Generation Thinker Ben Anderson creeps around, and explains how trespassers in the early-twentieth century helped create new attitudes to...
3 Apr 201919min
Being Diplomatic
How much emotion should you show if you are a diplomat, a news reporter or a conciliation expert? Anne McElvoy chairs a Free Thinking Festival debate at Sage Gateshead with Gabriel Gatehouse, Gabriell...
3 Apr 201954min
The Essay: Cooking and Eating God in Medieval Drama
Daisy Black looks at religious imagery, food, anti-semitism and product placement in medieval mystery plays. Eaten by characters, dotted around the stage as saliva-prompting props, or nibbled by audie...
2 Apr 201922min
