Blackwell Podcast Archives

Welcome to the Blackwell podcast archive page, the home of our complete podcast backlist. Scroll down for a wealth of author interviews at your finger tips!

In the first podcast for September, we are pleased to host authors Roland Chambers, Julian Baggini, Tom Vanderbilt and Rodge Glass.

We start this week with Roland Chambers, author of The Last Englishman. The book is a biography of English author and journalist Arthur Ransome who is best remembered for his series of children's books Swallows and Amazons. Chambers shows however that Ransome was much more than a writer, leading an astonishing 'double life' in the early part of the century when he was a foreign correspondent based in revolutionary Russia, and possibly much else besides.

Our second guest is British philosopher and author Julian Baggini. In his latest book Should You Judge This Book by Its Cover?, Baggini offers philosophical opinions to 100 familiar saying and quotations such as 'is the grass always greener on the other side?' 'Is there ever smoke without fire?' And 'is it better to be safe than sorry?'

Next up we have Tom Vanderbilt, author of Traffic. The book looks at how our behaviour changes when we get behind the wheel and what that says about us as drivers and people. The book also covers other curiostities of the road such as the driving habits of nations and road rage.

Our final guest this week is Rodge Glass who has written a fascinating biography on the Scottish writer and artist Alasdair Gray. The book documents the journey of the Glaswegian looking at the people, events, books, paintings, plays, poems and circumstances that conspired to make the man as he is today.

To download the full-length podcast click HERE or select the individual segments below.

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In the latest Blackwell Online podcast, authors Ziauddin Sardar and Christopher Potter take some time to discuss their books Balti Britain and You are Here. Ziauddin Sardar is a Muslim intellectual, cultural-critic and author. In his new book Balti Britain, Sardar travels to Asian communities throughout the UK to tell the history of Asians in Britain. From the arrival of the first Indian in 1614 through to present day, Sardar also looks back at his own past and that of his family following their emigration to Britain in the 1950s. Christopher Potter is a publisher-turned-author who has written the hugely successful popular science book You are Here. The book takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the life of the cosmos - from the birth of the universe some 13.7 billion years ago to the strange world of quantum mechanics, the ground-breaking theory of general relativity and much, much more, this is the ultimate story of the universe and our place in it.

To download the full-length podcast click HERE or select the individual segments below.

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In the latest Blackwell Online podcast, our regular host George Miller speaks with three authors. We begin this week with Lisa Hilton, author of Queens Consort. The books follows the lives of the twenty women who were crowned queen consort of England between 1066 and 1503 from the well-known to the forgotten. Hilton looks at the evolution of the role through the centuries while presenting intimate portraits of the individual women who ultimately helped shape the modern state. Our second guest is Jane Robinson. Her book Bluestockings tells the story of how women in the 19th and early 20th century determinedly fought for their right to a university education against staunch opposition, paving the way for generations of women to follow in their footsteps. Our final guest this week is Catharine Arnold who discusses her new book Bedlam. The book is an informative and entertaining account of how London has treated its mentally ill. From the foundation of Bethlehem hospital in 1247, the establishment which later gave rise to the term 'bedlam'; through the 18th century mad houses and on to present day.

To download the full-length podcast click HERE or select the individual segments below.

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For the new Blackwell Online podcast we welcome authors Tristram Stuart, Lucy Wadham and Matthew Rice. In Waste, Tristram Stuart looks at the global food crisis and reveals some shocking facts about the amount of food that is discarded unnecessarily worldwide, while suggesting what can be done to fix the problem; acclaimed illustrator and architectural enthusiast Matthew Rice presents an illustrated introduction to British buildings in Rice's Architectural Primer and Lucy Wadham takes us on a journey through The Secret Life of France using 25 years of personal experience to offer a rare insider's view of a nation that may be deeply incompatible with ours, but perhaps also completely misunderstood.

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In the first Blackwell podcast for July, we have a varied mix of business, history and fiction. We begin the show with Chris Anderson, author of the bestseller The Long Tail and editor of Wired. His new book Free asks what happens when advances in technology allow things to be produced for next to nothing and looks at how business models are changing as a result. Our second guest is Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, Classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement and author of Pompeii. In this interview, Beard discusses her first visit to to the Roman town, modern restoration of the site and more. Our last guest this week is Mark Ellingham of independent publisher Profile Books. The publisher, in partnership with the charity organisation Oxfam, has produced the Ox-Tales series, four books that feature new work by some of the best contemporary fiction writers. Ellingham explains where the concept for the series came from, how he got such high profile authors involved and his hopes for the future of 'charity books' as a result of this project.

To download the full-length podcast click HERE or select the individual segments below.

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Jeremy Taylor, Gavin Pretor-Pinney and Alberto Manguel are our guests in the twelfth Blackwell podcast. We begin this week with Jeremy Taylor who discusses his book Not a Chimp. In the book, Taylor argues that while the DNA similarities between humans and chimpanzees are evident, small differences in genetic code can lead to profound differences in cognition and behaviour resulting in two wildly dissimilar species. Our second guest is Gavin Pretor-Pinney, author of the bestselling Cloudspotter's Guide and founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society. With The Cloud Collector's Handbook, Pretor-Pinney brings a full-colour, pocket guide to cloud lovers everywhere, enabling spotters to identify and record their sightings while on the move. Our final guest this week is Alberto Manguel, acclaimed writer on books and reading and author of The Library at Night. The book presents a history of libraries past and present, from the ancient world to modern online resources, as well as the personal libraries of figures such as Charles Dickens and Jorge Luis Borges.

To download the full-length podcast click HERE or select the individual segments below.

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In the latest edition of the Blackwell Online podcasts, our regular host George Miller spends some time with three authors. Starting the show this week is Roger Crowley. His new book Empires of the Sea is the follow-up to the critically acclaimed Constantinople and tells the story of the bloody battle for the control of the Mediterranean sea between the Islamic Ottoman Empire and rival Christian forces during the 16th century. Our second guest is Esther Woolfson, author of Corvus. The book is an enchanting, warm, and at times moving account of what it is like to share your life and home with a crow, a magpie and a rook. Completing our line-up this week is Matthew Cobb whose book Resistance is a fascinating and insightful history of the French Resistance to the Nazis during World War II, a topic that has often been overlooked by historians.

To download the full-length podcast click HERE or select the individual segments below.

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The tenth Blackwell Online podcast hosts three varied authors and their titles. Our first guest is Colin Brown, author of Whitehall, a fascinating title which presents a behind-closed-doors history of Whitehall and the buildings and figures that have shaped British history. Our second guest is Mark Rowlands, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Miami and author of the critically acclaimed The Philosopher and the Wolf. In the book, Rowlands documents a decade of his life spent travelling with a wolf, an experience that forces him to change his attitude to love, happiness, nature and death. Completing the show is Eamon Duffy, Professor of the History of Christianity at Cambridge. In his controversial new book Fires of Faith, Duffy re-examines the reign of Mary Tudor and argues that her attempt to reimpose Catholicism was neither inept nor backward-looking.

To download the full-length podcast click HERE or select the individual segments below.

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In the latest Blackwell Online podcast you can hear one of Britain's most eminent novelists, Kazuo Ishiguro, talk about his first volume of short stories, Nocturnes, a bittersweet collection that owes its inspiration to Ishiguro's fascination with music. George Miller also talks to Nick Davies, whose book Flat Earth News, last week won the first Bristol Festival of Ideas Book Prize sponsored by Blackwell. Listen to the podcast to find out why Davies thinks our media has replaced journalism with "churnalism". The final guest on this week's programme is Mark Bostridge. His biography of Victorian icon Florence Nightingale - published almost exactly a century after the death of "the lady with the lamp" - reveals that she was neither saint nor villain, but something much more interesting than the myth.

To download the full-length podcast click HERE or select the individual segments below.

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The latest Blackwell Online podcast features authors Ben Goldacre, Michael McNay and Donna Dickenson joining our regular host George Miller. Ben Goldacre discusses his bestseller Bad Science in which he debunks (with consistent hilarity) some of the most outrageous 'scientific' claims that we are bombarded with through the media today; Michael McNay provides insight into his new book Hidden Treasures of England, in which he reveals numerous attractions throughout the country which are unknown to tourists and sightseers. Completing this week's show is Donna Dickenson whose book Body Shopping provides an alarming account of the business of body parts trade.

To download the full-length podcast click HERE or select the individual segments below.

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The seventh Blackwell Podcast brings three fascinating guests straight to your PC. Alain de Botton joins us to discuss his latest book The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work which looks at the beauty, interest and sheer strangeness of the modern workplace; Margaret MacMillan, author of The Uses and Abuses of History, explains how history is not always treated with the respect that it deserves and appeals for extra care and respect to be used when we look back through time. Completing our line-up this week is Henry Hitchings who fields questions on The Secret Life of Words which looks at the origin of words in the English language.

To download the full-length podcast click HERE or select the individual segments below.

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Two authors join us for the sixth instalment of the Blackwell Online podcast series. Tim Harford discusses his latest book The Logic of Life in which he argues that all human behaviour, even in the unlikeliest of individuals, complies with economic logic and Peter Carey answers questions on His Illegal Self, new in paperback, which follows the self-discovery story of a young boy as he flees New York city in search of his parents in distant Queensland.

To download the full-length podcast click HERE or select the individual segments below.

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Patricia Fara, David Craig and Gary Marcus are the featured guests for our fifth online podcast. The Blackwell Choice for March, Patricia Fara's Science: A Four Thousand Year History travels through the centuries and sweeps across the globe to provide a groundbreaking new account of science. Listen as she discusses her acclaimed new title. David Craig, co-author of The Great European Rip-off, speaks of the bureaucracy and kleptocracy of the officials in the Brussels EU headquarters and explains how the general European public are suffering as a result. Lastly, Gary Marcus discusses his new title Kluge which looks at the evolution of the human mind and the problems this presents for us in today's modern world.

To download the full-length podcast click HERE or select the individual segments below.

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In the fourth Blackwell Online podcast, guests Misha Glenny, Frances Wilson and Dr Edward de Bono discuss their work. Misha Glenny, author of McMafia, discusses the new world of international organised crime from the failing war on drugs to the latest threat of cyber crime; Frances Wilson answers questions on her book The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth, which looks at the life of the English author and poet while Dr de Bono, world authority in the field of creative thinking and father of lateral thinking, explains his philosophies and concepts for more productive and valuable thinking methods.

To download the full-length podcast click HERE or select the individual segments below.

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In this latest edition of online podcasts, three authors take time out to speak with Blackwell about their latest titles. Frank Close, Professor of Physics at Oxford, discusses his new book Antimatter and explains how the strange mirror world of matter was not only predicted, but came to be proved shortly afterward. Rose Shapiro scrutinises alternative medicines such as homeopathy and acupuncture in Suckers, and explains how such methods, which hold no scientific merit, are gaining popularity perhaps to the users' detriment. Finally Alex Ross, music critic of the New Yorker, speaks about the links between music and history in his book The Rest is Noise.

To download the full-length podcast click HERE or select the individual segments below.

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The second edition of the Blackwell Podcasts programme features three authors. Tom Holland discusses his latest book Millennium and looks at significant events that took place in the year 1000; Kate Williams talks about her book Becoming Queen and describes the struggles of the British monarchy in the 19th century, and Ruth Richardson, author of The Making of Mr Gray's Anatomy, discusses how the most famous medical book in history came to be.

To download the full-length podcast click HERE or select the individual segments below.

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The first in the series of Blackwell Podcasts features four varied authors and titles. Philip Hoare discusses his passion for whales as he looks to uncover the true nature of the magnificent creatures with his book Leviathan; Norman Housley talks about his book Fighting for the Cross and describes what it was like to take part in the Crusades; Jan Zalasiewicz looks at the earth 100 million years from now and asks what traces of human civilisation may be left behind in The Earth After Us, and Man Booker winner Aravind Adiga fields questions on his triumphant book The White Tiger.

To download the full-length podcast click HERE or select the individual segments below.

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