Steven Pinker
Wednesday 10 October 2007 21:45-22:30 (Radio 3)
Kenan Malik talks to best-selling yet controversial psychologist Steven Pinker, known as one of the chief proponents of the idea that we all have an innate instinct for language, one that has been shaped by evolutionary development of the human.
China 25/04/07
Images copyright Zhang Huan, courtesy Haunch of Venison
Playlist
Steven Pinker
Kenan Malik speaks to the eminent evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker, whose new book delves into the meaning of human language.
Steven Pinker reveals the deep structures of human thought that have been shaped by language's evolution and he explains to Kenan why he believes the spoken word is the 'window' into human nature.
Amit Chaudhuri
Kenan finds out about the intriguing connection between the Blues and Indian classical music, brought to light by the acclaimed writer Amit Chaudhuri.
Chaudhuri is also a trained Indian classical musician, and in a new album he showcases the unlikely but profound links between the two forms of music. Music critic, Charles Sharr Murray joins the discussion.
Antal Szerb
Oliver VII, a long-lost masterpiece by the mid-century Hungarian novelist Antal Szerb - about a King who leads a revolution against himself - has just been published in English for the first time. Szerb died in a labour camp in 1943, only a year after he finished this novel.
Night Waves explores the comic appeal of absolute power, even under the shadow of the Nazis.
Zhang Huan
Night Waves hears from the controversial Chinese performance artist whose work includes sitting in a public toilet covered in honey and fish heads - Zhang Huan.
