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Are you wanting to learn more about british library? Well you’ve come to the right place. This is a curated list of the best british library podcasts of 2021.
We have selected these podcasts for a variety of reasons, but they are all well worth a listen. We tried to select a variety of podcasts across the spectrum from hosts with a wide breadth of experience.
Best British Library Podcasts 2021
With thanks to ListenNotes, Crunchbase, SemRush and Ahrefs for providing the data to create and rank these podcasts.
British Art Talks
- Publisher: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
- Total Episodes: 13
British Art Talks is the audio series of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. It features new research and aims to enhance and expand knowledge of British art and architecture. The PMC is an educational charity that champions new ways of understanding British art history and culture. We publish, teach and carry out research, both at the Centre in London and through our online platforms. Our archives, library and lively events programme are open to researchers, students and the public. The Centre was founded in 1970 by the art collector and philanthropist Paul Mellon. It is part of Yale University and a partner to the Yale Center for British Art.
Unfinished Business
- Publisher: The British Library
- Total Episodes: 35
The fight for women’s rights is unfinished business. But where do we begin? Join incredible women, including actor and activist Jameela Jamil, Sex Education writer Laurie Nunn, Nubian Skin founder Ade Hassan, Olympic gold medal winner Victoria Pendleton and feminist icon Susie Orbach, as they talk to British Library curator Polly Russell about all things sexual liberation, intersectionality, mental health and more. Find out about the long history of women fighting for justice, discover remarkable characters from the past and hear from women today who are challenging and changing the world for the better. Creating a space for in-depth conversations on issues that matter across the world, this brand new podcast accompanies the British Library’s major new exhibition Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women’s Rights, open in London until 21 February 2021. Unfinished Business podcast series is generously supported by Joanna and Graham Barker and The Eccles Centre for American Studies. A Pixiu production. bl.uk/unfinished-business
Overmorrow’s Library
- Publisher: Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève
- Total Episodes: 18
The Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève presents Overmorrow’s Library, a podcast series by Federico Campagna, available on the 5th floor (digital extension): https://5e.centre.ch/en/ The library for ‘the day after tomorrow’ is dedicated to books and authors whose work explores the limits of the ‘world’ as the frame of sense through which our consciousness experiences the chaos of reality. Each new episode presents a book that engages with the challenge of world-making, with the end-time of a world, or with the eternal unworldly. Spanning mysticism, politics, mythology, philosophy, video-game design and more, the shelves of Overmorrow’s Library are a space for experimenting with the apocalypse, and with the ignition of new cosmogonies. Federico Campagna is an Italian philosopher and writer living in London. His latest books are ‘Prophetic Culture: Recreation for Adolescents’ (Bloomsbury, 2021), ‘Technic and Magic: The Reconstruction of Reality’ (Bloomsbury, 2018), and ‘The Last Night: Anti-work, Atheism, Adventure’ (Zero Books, 2013). He is a lecturer and tutor at KABK, The Hague, and has presented his work in institutions including the Warburg Institute, the Royal Academy, the 57th and 58th Venice Biennale, Documenta 13, Winzavod Center, Jameel Art Centre, Tate Modern and the Serpentine Gallery. He is the director of rights at the radical publisher Verso Books. Image credit: The Gilgamesh Tablet (Library of Ashurbanipal), 7th c. BCE. The British Museum, London. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
Sculpting Lives
- Publisher: Jo Baring and Sarah Turner
- Total Episodes: 6
Dame Barbara Hepworth, Dame Elisabeth Frink, Kim Lim, Phyllida Barlow, and Rana Begum – some of the most globally well-known British artists are women sculptors. Conversely, the profession and practice of sculpture was seen by many throughout the 20th century (and before) to be very much a man’s world. Often using heavy and hard materials, sculpture was not typically viewed as suitable for women artists. This podcast series explores the lives and careers of these five women who worked (and are still working) against these preconceptions, forging successful careers and contributing in ground-breaking ways to the histories of sculpture and art. Each 45-minute episode takes a woman sculptor as its subject, exploring the art works, networks, connections and relationships of these artists. Every programme is recorded in places that are significant for these women – their studios, as well as galleries and public places where their work is on display – and includes new interviews with curators, friends, family and the artists themselves, creating intimate soundscapes of their private and public worlds Sculpting Lives is written and presented by Jo Baring (Director of the Ingram Collection of Modern British & Contemporary Art) and Sarah Turner (Deputy Director for Research at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London). The pair bring their shared expertise and infectious enthusiasm for sculpture to this series, with each episode taking the form of an informal and lively conversation between Jo, Sarah and their interviewees. Written and hosted by Jo Baring and Sarah Turner Produced by Clare Lynch Research by Isabelle Mooney Music by Pauline Oliveros, [Silence](https://freemusicarchive.org/music/PaulineOliveros/EASYNOTEASYFestivalOct72010/Oliveros2010-10-071) (10.8.2010)_ Visual identity by Vanessa Fowler-Kendall This podcast has been made possible through support from The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art We are also extremely grateful to ArtUK and National Life Stories: Artists’ Lives (British Library)
Live Happy, Eat Dirty Podcast with Kate Harrison (including The 5:2 Diet)
- Publisher: Kate Harrison, Author of 5:2 books, broadcaster, food writer
- Total Episodes: 32
The 5:2 Diet podcast contains all the tips, interviews, news and information you need to lose weight and feel great on the eating plan everyone is talking about. Intermittent fasting is flexible, easy and free, and the health benefits are the subject of extensive research. The podcast is presented by Kate Harrison, British author of four 5:2 books, who fasts weekly and lost 31lbs/14kg. The podcast offers tips and ideas for new and experienced fasters, including answers to common questions, health news, seasonal food ideas and interviews. Kate also runs one of the largest Facebook groups on fasting, and her website is www.the5-2dietbook.com Do YOU 5:2? This podcast makes it easy. Intro and Outro music: Festival by Topher Mohr and Alex Elena, YouTube Audio Library Important Note: This podcast is for information only and is not intended as medical advice, or as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. There are some people who shouldn’t follow this diet: children and teenagers, and pregnant or breast-feeding women. If you take medication have a pre-existing medical condition, including Type 2 diabetes, you should talk to your doctor before making any dietary changes. In addition, anyone with a history of eating disorders should definitely not undertake this without talking to their doctor or specialist.
Chortle Comedy Book Festival Podcast
- Publisher: chortleuk
- Total Episodes: 5
Comedians and comedy writers talk about their books, recorded at the British Library January 2020
National Life Stories
- Publisher: National Life Stories at the British Library
- Total Episodes: 6
From its modest beginnings in 1987, National Life Stories has grown significantly and helped to create one of the largest oral history collections in the world – the British Library holds some 70,000 recordings of which nearly 3,000 are long, in-depth biographical interviews created by National Life Stories. Each episode of this podcast will bring you a conversation with someone else associated with National Life Stories – from interviewers, to curators, to listening service and technical staff. We’ll be using this medium to surface great interview extracts and try to get to the bottom of what we think is special about the life story approach to oral history.
Paolo Hewitt – Colour Me Father
- Publisher: Griffiths
- Total Episodes: 1
Paolo Hewitt discusses his new book Colour Me Father – An Open Letter To My Son – With Gabbie Cabbie of SRB Radio, Birmingham UK. Colour Me Father is available from Paolo’s website www.paolohewitt.com A brief description of book is available below:ON August 21st 2015 at 10.30 pm in an Archway hospital, my son Rafi Supino Arif came into my life. It was of course a momentous occasion, filled with all kinds of emotions. But as he started to grow, one thought kept repeating itself in my mind. Would I write about him or the experience of raising a son? The answer was always no. There was no handle for me to grab onto so I put it to one side. Until his first birthday. It was there that Rafi first heard applause and the look on his face hit something inside of me. Within a week I had begun writing Colour ne Father. Actually, to be truthful I had started writing a book called On the Dawn of Your First Smile, which I loved as a title but which in those Google days of ours would not work. I fell upon Colour Me Father, passed it by some friends and got the thumbs up.After I had written about his birthday I then found myself writing about dreams and pigeons and Sister Patricia (May God rest her soul) and fatherhood and Wood Green and Robert De Niro, and it became apparent to me that I should let the words flow, just write what came to mind. I also saw that I was fulfilling a lifetime mission – that of paying homage, in my very very limited way, to a piece of literature that ranks as one of the finest in my mind – Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis. This is a letter that Oscar wrote to his boyfriend whilst serving his last year in Reading Gaol. (In the first year of his imprisonment the authorities refuse d to allow him to write and I think that one of the cruellest punishments ever heaped upon an artist.) During the writing of Colour I only read De Profundis. I would start it finish it, start again. My thinking was that if just one per cent of its quality rubbed off on my work, then I would stand a chance of producing something very worthwhile.My writing process was quite simple. In the morning when walking Rafi to a nursery session, I would plot out the book in my mind. I would then put those idea into a small Dictaphone that I carry with me . Back home, I would write out those ideas and then on Saturdays I would head for the British Library where I would spend all day writing.Sundays I would rest, Mondays the process would start again. One Saturday I was in the British Library and had just finished a passage when the thought forcefully occurred, that’s it, you are done, you are finished. Create an ending and then exit. You have said all you need to say. And as I advise Rafi in the book, in life always follow the heart not the head. That is what I did. I obeyed the thought my heart sent me. The book is short compared to others but it stops where it needs to stop. To carry on would have diluted its strength. I think it my best work to date. I hope you do as well.
Works of Tacitus, Vol. I, The by TACITUS, Publius Cornelius and GORDON, Thomas
- Publisher: LibriVox
- Total Episodes: 29
The historical works of Tacitus are a history of the period from A.D. 14 to 96 in thirty volumes. Although many of the works were lost (only books 1-5 of the Histories and 1-6 and 11-16 of the Annals survive), enough remains to provide a good sense of Tacitus’s political and moral philosophy.He recognized the necessity for strong rulers but argued that more should be done to manage the succession of power and allow for the ascension of talent. Tacitus asserted that it was the dynastic ambitions of Rome’s many emperors that caused the decline of moral and political life and precluded the possibility of recruiting leaders of real ability. Moreover, the dynastic temptation caused political instability because military force was now required for political change. His works point to the necessity of systematic institutional restraints on power for the preservation of liberty.Gordon’s translation and his lengthy Discourses on Tacitus bring Tacitus’ ideas up to date and apply them to the British state of the early 18th century. (Description from Online Library of Liberty)
Anything But Silent
- Publisher: The British Library
- Total Episodes: 24
Buzzing, creative, brave. Places of sanctuary, freedom, and the unexpected. Libraries don’t just keep our stories safe; they’re where new stories begin. Meet the people around the world making amazing things happen in them. Hosted by Cleo Laskarin from our exhibitions team. Books are only the beginning. Libraries are alive, and they’re anything but silent. Supported by the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library. A Pixiu Production.
The Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts | WFMT
- Publisher: WFMT
- Total Episodes: 170
Each week WFMT goes live to the Chicago Cultural Center for concerts with emerging artists from around the world, produced by the International Music Foundation. Some shows offer solo recitals while others feature ensembles. The concerts take place beneath the world’s largest Tiffany-domed ceiling, part of a landmark building that originally housed the Chicago Public Library. The Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts are named for British pianist Myra Hess who organized some 1,700 free lunchtime concerts for Londoners during World War II, in the years of nightly air raids.
Eavesdropping on Arthurians
- Publisher: Kathy Cawsey
- Total Episodes: 11
Chats with experts around the world about Arthurian literature. (Image credit: British Library Additional 10294 f. 50v La Queste del Saint Graal (ff. 2-53); France, N. (Saint-Omer or Tournai); c. 1316. Galahad with Perceval and Bors before King Arthur, joining the halves of the broken sword. I am grateful to the British Library in preserving and making such works available.) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
British Library Podcasts
- Publisher: The British Library
- Total Episodes: 55
Get audio and video from the British Library on your MP3 player or iPod
Beowulf by Unknown
- Publisher: Loyal Books
- Total Episodes: 8
Beowulf is a long narrative poem composed in Old English some time in between the 8th and 11th century AD. The only surviving manuscript that contains the poem is preserved in the British Library and it too was badly damaged by fire in 1731. It is considered to be the oldest surviving work of poetry in English and one of the rare pieces of vernacular European literature that has survived since Medieval times. A prince arrives to rid a neighboring country of a terrible monster. He mortally wounds the horrendous creature and it retreats to die in its lair in the remote mountains. The monster’s even more terrifying mother swoops down on the kingdom, prepared to destroy everything in a vengeful frenzy. The valiant prince slays her too and becomes a celebrated hero. Laden with gifts, he returns home to rule his kingdom wisely and well, till suddenly one day, he receives news of a dreadful and powerful dragon attacking the borders of his prosperous kingdom… There is no evidence to show the authorship of the poem and the manuscript reveals that it was hand-written by two different scribes. The poem originally had no title and it began to be called after its hero Beowulf the Prince of Geats in southern Sweden, only in the 19th century. The manuscript was in the possession of a scholar Lawrence Nowell and survives in a very delicate condition after so many centuries of neglect and mishaps. Beowulf recounts the story of the valiant warrior of Geats who comes to the aid of his neighbor, King Hrothgar whose mead hall is being attacked by a dreadful creature called Grendel. The mead hall was the big feasting hall of the king and sometimes even served as a living quarter for the king and his noblemen in medieval times in Scandinavia and the German parts of Europe. The monster is vanquished, but the next night, the warriors are stunned by the arrival of Grendel’s even more loathsome mother, who wreaks havoc on the sleeping victors. Beowulf uses a magical sword to destroy her and returns to his kingdom where he achieves great success and renown as a just and brave ruler. Half a century later, another supernatural creature descends on the peaceful kingdom and Beowulf again takes up arms to ride in to battle. The poem can be seen as actual history, or as a lyrical ode to a brave king. It has had enormous impact on modern-day fantasy writers and continues to be a seminal work of early English literature.
The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling
- Publisher: Loyal Books
- Total Episodes: 3
The Man Who Would Be King tells the story of two British adventurers in British India who become kings of Kafiristan, a remote part of Afghanistan. It was inspired by the exploits of James Brooke, an Englishman who became the “white Raja” of Sarawak in Borneo, and by the travels of American adventurer Josiah Harlan, who claimed the title Prince of Ghor. The story was first published in The Phantom Rickshaw and other Tales (Volume Five of the Indian Railway Library, published by A H Wheeler & Co of Allahabad in 1888). It also appeared in Wee Willie Winkie and Other Stories in 1895, and in numerous later editions of that collection. It is the basis for John Huston’s 1975 film of the same name, starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine as the “kings”, and Christopher Plummer as Kipling.
The Big Idea
- Publisher: RTHK.HK
- Total Episodes: 170
Our presenters Douglas Kerr, Vanessa Collingridge and guests explore the history, meaning and significance of ideas in contemporary society. ********************************************************************************* The whole series of the Big idea is available in our podcast station Podcast: Weekly update and available after its broadcast. ********************************************************************************* Douglas Kerr Douglas Kerr is Professor in the School of English at the University of Hong Kong, where he teaches courses in literature and rhetoric. He has lived in Hong Kong since 1979. He was born and brought up in Scotland, but went to Cambridge University in 1969 to read Modern Languages and English, and then moved on to the University of Warwick, where he studied English and French literary responses to the First World War, leaving with a PhD in Comparative Literature. During this time, a penurious year working in the French National Library in Paris gave him a taste for living some distance from home. He satisfied this taste by moving to Hong Kong, and has been here ever since. A continuing scholarly interest in the literature of the Great War eventually produced a book on the English war poet Wilfred Owen, and this was published by Oxford University Press in 1993. This was followed by George Orwell, published by Northcote House in their Writers and their Work series. Living first in colonial and then in postcolonial Hong Kong, it is no surprise that he became deeply interested in the way Asia (or the East, or the Orient) was experienced by foreigners, and this became the subject of his next book, Eastern Figures: Orient and Empire in British Writing, published by Hong Kong University Press in 2008. Like many others, Douglas had first encountered the Sherlock Holmes stories as a child, but it was a lot later that he began working on their author, Arthur Conan Doyle. Though he is best known for his detective fiction, Conan Doyle was a prolific writer in all sorts of genres and subjects, and an important figure in the cultural history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Douglas's book Conan Doyle: Writing, Profession and Practice, to be published by Oxford University Press in 2013, is a “cultural biography” of Conan Doyle and a study of all his writing. Douglas is a regular book reviewer for the South China Morning Post, and was on the Board of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival for five years; he still acts as an Advisor to the Festival. Though Hong Kong is a small place and he has been a resident here for more than thirty years, like other professors he still has a tendency to get lost. Vanessa Collingridge Vanessa graduated from Oxford University in 1990 with a first class honours degree in Geography and started working in television, quickly moving into the field of science, environment and history which remain her passion both on and off screen. Since then, she has been a regular face on all the major UK TV channels (BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5), along with Discovery and The Learning Channel (USA) and The History Channel (worldwide). In Spring 2007, she took over the chair of the long-running weekly series Making History, the flagship history series for BBC Radio 4. Her 4x1hr documentary series, Captain Cook – Obsession and Discovery (2007-8) based on her best-selling book, has now won five major international awards including a Canadian “Gemini” (“Oscar”) for Best History Programme, Australia’s prestigious National Culture Award and the Sydney Morning Herald Readers’ Award for Best History Programme. The series has so far been screened in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, North & South America, North Africa and most of Europe. A former columnist for the Daily Telegraph, The Scotsman and BBC History magazine, she writes a monthly column for BBC Who Do You Think You Are magazine along with features for the national newspapers, particularly the Daily Mail, Scotsman and Sunday Herald. A reviewer for The Literary Review, her own books include Captain Cook (2002), Boudica (2005) and The Story of Australia (2008) plus multiple chapters for Thames & Hudson’s Seventy Greatest Journeys in History and The Greatest Explorers in History (2010). Vanessa is currently researching her PhD on the history of cartography of the Great Southern Continent (Antarctica), based at Glasgow University and Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute. She lectures on science, history, geography, presentation skills and the media across the UK, including at Cambridge, Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities, the RGS and the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. She is a Fellow of the RGS and RSGS and co-founder & host of Glasgow’s Café Scientifique to stimulate debate between the scientific community and the general public. She is a regular speaker at Book Festivals including Edinburgh International Book Festival, Cheltenham and Christchurch (New Zealand). She is director of her own production company, Monster Media Productions, which makes radio and television programmes for broadcast and corporate clients; the company also provides a range of training for media and presentation skills. She moved to Hong Kong in November 2010 with her husband and four young sons from where she continues to write and broadcast, and research her PhD.
Paolo Hewitt – Portobello Radio
- Publisher: Griffiths
- Total Episodes: 1
Paolo Hewitt discusses his new book Colour Me Father – An Open Letter To My Son with Portobello Radio as well as London, Beatles, Mods, Oasis, music and much much more. www.paolohewitt.comON August 21st 2015 at 10.30 pm in an Archway hospital, my son Rafi Supino Arif came into my life. It was of course a momentous occasion, filled with all kinds of emotions. But as he started to grow, one thought kept repeating itself in my mind. Would I write about him or the experience of raising a son? The answer was always no. There was no handle for me to grab onto so I put it to one side. Until his first birthday. It was there that Rafi first heard applause and the look on his face hit something inside of me. Within a week I had begun writing Colour ne Father. Actually, to be truthful I had started writing a book called On the Dawn of Your First Smile, which I loved as a title but which in those Google days of ours would not work. I fell upon Colour Me Father, passed it by some friends and got the thumbs up.After I had written about his birthday I then found myself writing about dreams and pigeons and Sister Patricia (May God rest her soul) and fatherhood and Wood Green and Robert De Niro, and it became apparent to me that I should let the words flow, just write what came to mind. I also saw that I was fulfilling a lifetime mission – that of paying homage, in my very very limited way, to a piece of literature that ranks as one of the finest in my mind – Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis. This is a letter that Oscar wrote to his boyfriend whilst serving his last year in Reading Gaol. (In the first year of his imprisonment the authorities refuse d to allow him to write and I think that one of the cruellest punishments ever heaped upon an artist.) During the writing of Colour I only read De Profundis. I would start it finish it, start again. My thinking was that if just one per cent of its quality rubbed off on my work, then I would stand a chance of producing something very worthwhile.My writing process was quite simple. In the morning when walking Rafi to a nursery session, I would plot out the book in my mind. I would then put those idea into a small Dictaphone that I carry with me . Back home, I would write out those ideas and then on Saturdays I would head for the British Library where I would spend all day writing.Sundays I would rest, Mondays the process would start again. One Saturday I was in the British Library and had just finished a passage when the thought forcefully occurred, that’s it, you are done, you are finished. Create an ending and then exit. You have said all you need to say. And as I advise Rafi in the book, in life always follow the heart not the head. That is what I did. I obeyed the thought my heart sent me. The book is short compared to others but it stops where it needs to stop. To carry on would have diluted its strength. I think it my best work to date. I hope you do as well.
The British Library Podcast
- Publisher: Somethin’ Else
- Total Episodes: 2
Books, exhibitions and events at the British Library
Staging History, 1780 to 1840
- Publisher: Oxford University
- Total Episodes: 4
In this series, Michael Burden, David Kennerley and Susan Valladares from the University of Oxford discuss the fashion for staging historical dramas in British and American theatres in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The series accompanies the Bodleian Library’s exhibition on this theme and the podcasts include descriptions and discussions of many of the items on display.
British Library Henry VIII Podcasts
- Publisher: The British Library
- Total Episodes: 13
Get audio and video from the British Library on your MP3 player or iPod
