17/03/2019

Former Imam of Edinburgh Central Mosque, Yahya Barry, an expert in Muslim responses to right wing populism shares his life story which has taken him from the Gambia to England, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and now Scotland.

The Japanese have a saying: “The misfortune of others tastes like honey.” Tiffany Watt Smith’s latest book takes a fresh look at schadenfreude, German for ‘shame-joy’, that deliciously guilty pleasure we feel at another’s failure.

Whether it’s living with personal or political uncertainty it’s been said that we are currently living through an Age of Anxiety. With a surge in the sale of self-help books Kara Brown and Tanya Goburdhun share their thoughts on whether people are finding reassurance inside their pages or if our worries are being exploited.

Far from easy on the eye, some people still can’t bear to look at them. 200 years on we revisit Goya’s disturbing and dramatic Black Paintings with Dr Claudia Hopkins, Senior Lecturer in Art History at the University of Edinburgh and Professor Andrew Ginger, Head of the School of Languages, Culture, Art History and Music at the University of Birmingham.

A pilgrimage with a difference – not walking, but running in the footsteps of the Celtic saints with ultra-runner, Mark Calder.