The EssayNew Generation Thinkers 2022Episodes Episode guide

Back up to: The Essay

1. Fighting the colour bar

   Shirin Hirsch explores the way boxer Len Johnson fought a Manchester pub ban.
2. Land and soil politics

   Jim Scown on the links between Goethe, George Eliot and the storming of the US Capitol.
3. Stupid Victorians

   Louise Creechan looks at the impact of 19th-century ideas about intelligence.
4. Children of the Waters

   Sabina Dosani on the ritual of Mizuko Kuyo and modern ceremonies marking miscarriage.
5. The discordant tale of Thomas Weelkes

   Ellie Chan looks at the life and music of the Tudor composer who died 400 years ago.
6. Revolutionary free speech

   Clare Siviter looks at attempts to liberate and then censor expression in 1790s France.
7. Fugitive slaves, Victorian justice

   Oskar Jensen tells the tall tale of a court case inspired by a best-selling novel.
8. A family of witches

   Emma Whipday explores the demonisation of single mothers in English witch trials.
9. Charles Babbage and broadcasting the sea

   The father of modern computing thought the sea could communicate. Joan Passey tells us why
10. The South African Bloomsberries

    Jade Munslow Ong reads 20s writing by Solomon T Plaatje, Roy Campbell and William Plomer.