Borris House Festival of Writing & Ideas Podcast

Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum and irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole take on the rise of populism, it's morphing with the religious right and it's subjugation of "Old School Conservatism" in a journey that takes us through Poland, Russia, Ukraine and the Western Liberal Democracies.

Discussing the critical issue of climate justice are two distinguished guests: Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Lord David Puttnam, renowned filmmaker and advocate for sustainable development. Our moderator for this discussion is Gabrielle Walker, a leading voice on climate change and energy transition. 

Welcome to this performance of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, featuring Jeremy Irons and Sinéad Cusack. In this event, we witness a stunning interpretation of Eliot's groundbreaking poem, which explores the themes of post-World War I disillusionment, despair and the quest for rebirth. But before we begin, author and biographer James Lever, introduces us to the historical context and literary significance of The Waste Land.   https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/

Booker Prize winning novelist (and lifelong Chelsea fan) Roddy Doyle sits down with former Chelsea footballer, analyst, music aficionado and now author of "The Accidental Footballer" Pat Nevin for a dive into writing, creativity, Roy Keane, John Peel, football punditry and lots more besides. Asking the questions is journalist, broadcaster and novelist Edel Coffey.

Join John Ilsley and Fiachna O'Bráonain as they delve into the legendary bassist's life in music. From his days in Dire Straits to his solo projects, John shares stories and insights about his musical journey and the impact it has had on his life as laid out in his recent(ish) autobiography from which this episode takes it's title. There's also a few tunes thrown in for good measure. This is a must-listen for any music fan and a rare opportunity to hear from one of the industry's most revered musicians.   https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/

EATING FOR THE PLANET: Dan Saladino (Eating to Extinction) talks to Isabel Hilton about the world's most endangered foods - from a red coloured rice in China and a mucus- dripping maize plant in Mexico. Can food diversity help us save the planet? https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/

The multi-talented Sharon Horgan (Bad Sisters) & director Lenny Abrahamson (Ordinary People) talk to author Patrick Freyne about the ins and outs of television production in the age of streaming.   https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/

Actor Ruth Wilson talks to director Lenny Abrahamson about her quasi-autobiographical BBC drama Mrs Wilson about her Grandparents. Bizarre, emotional and weirdly meta, her tale reads more like a John le Carré novel than a standard family drama. For fans of the TV drama it also brings a fresh postscript to the story in the form of a visit to MI6 HQ.

John Ronson: author, journalist, filmmaker and podcaster; talks to author (and self confessed Ronson superfan) Patrick Freyne about his various works and how his attitude to his subjects has changed over time. Insightful and often hilarious, this is Ronson in full flow. As he says himself, this is "The Full Ronson". https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/

Agony Aunt, journalist, author and now TV writer Dolly Alderton talks to Róisín Ingle about her book (and now TV series) Everything I Know About Love and does her best to solve the audience's relationship problems.   On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmZ3vK8UHO4   Tickets available for this year's festival at: https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/

These two Oscar winning titans of the movie industry discuss their collaboration on The Mission and their lives in cinema and beyond. https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/ On Earth as it is in Heaven clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMB0e... On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fOlcW... On Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/ie/album/the-...

"HORROR UPON HORROR'S HEAD ACCUMULATES": War correspondents and sufferers from PTSD Ben Anderson and Ed Vulliamy talk about the enduring nightmare of shell shock and post-traumatic stress disorder with neuroscientist Shane O'Mara.

"IMMOBILITY IS GASOLINE FOR THE IMAGINATION": Sinead Gleeson talks about her remarkable memoir of resilience, Constellations, with Anne Enright.

FIDELITY AND REPRESENTATION IN STORY-TELLING: Hisham Matar (Anatomy of a Disappearance, The Return) and Christina Lamb (I am Malala, The Girl from Aleppo) talk with BBC journalist Kirsty Lang about constructing narratives from real-life events.

SEX, LIES AND THE GENERATION GAP: Agony-aunt Philippa Perry considers how searching for love, and staying sane, have changed with the advent of social media and shifting values.

Historian and passionate cultural commentator Simon Schama luxuriates in what he calls 'the performing tumble of language' with fellow writer William Dalrymple.

Welcome Prize winner Mark O'Connell talks about his extraordinary book Notes from an Apocalypse where he documents the strange word of 'preppers' and Doomsdayers, with journalist and curiosity-shop Misha Glenny

Sonali Deraniyagala - whose book Wave tells of experiencing her family being carried away to their deaths by the 2004 Tsunami which she survived - and Mary Cregan, whose graceful memoir The Scar chronicles a descent into depression - talk to neuroscientist Shane O'Mara about finding the resolve to live with personal trauma.

US scholar and author James Shapiro and Irish Times journalist Fintan O'Toole discuss the subversion of laughter - and everything else - in Shakespeare.

THE VULVA REVOLUTION: Lynn Enright (Vagina: A Re-education) and Naomi Wolf (Outrages: Sex, Cesnorship and the Criminalisation of Love) discusses sexual taboos, repression and the power of knowledge with BBC broadcaster Kirsty Lang. 

Michael Morpurgo (War Horse) and Clare Morpurgo (founder of the charity Farms for City Children) talk about their initiative to bring the skills of farming and the outdoor life to inner-city kids.

Award-winning journalists Lindsey Hilsum (In Extremis) and Ben Anderson (Holidays in the Axis of Evil) give an illustrated talk about the life and death of the war correspondent Marie Colvin. Including film footage.

ONE MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT: Tim Smit (Eden Project) and Lucy Siegle (Turning the Tide on Plastic) suggest 11th hour actions to save our planet.

Prolific writer Anthony Horowitz (author of the Alex Rider series, and the most recent James Bond novels) talks about the inspirations and experiences that drove him to such immense success. Questions come from a live audience of children.

MAKING IT NEW: Storyteller Kevin Barry (Night Boat to Tangier) discusses creativity, freshness, energy, influence and collaboration, with musician David Kitt. Includes readings and music.

WHAT WOULD HITCHENS SAY NOW?: Martin Amis remembers Christopher Hitchens with Julian Barnes.

ONE STEP AT A TIME: Neuroscientist Shane O'Mara (In Praise of Walking) talks with Jerry White (Nobel prize winner and landmine survivor) about walking to clarity. Moderated by pioneer weaver of ideas and keen walker Andy Middleton.

RWANDA, 25 YEARS LATER: Giles Duley, founder of the Legacy of War Foundation, gives an illustrated talk about his continuing work with genocide survivors in Kigali with war correspondent Ben Anderson.

PARENTS, YOU WILL WANT TO KNOW THIS: Psychotherapist Philippa Perry (The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did)) discusses encouraging game-changing strategies with journalist Roisin Ingle.

UP AGAINST THE WALL: Investigative journalists Carl Bernstein and Ed Vulliamy discuss real-life 'Narcos', Trump's wall, migrants and law and crime along the US-Mexico border. Moderated by Misha Glenny (McMafia)

THE MIRACLE OF SHAKESPEARE: Fiona Shaw (actor, theatre and film director) and James Shapiro (scholar and author) explore the inventiveness and transformative nature of Shakespeare's language and its changing resonance for each generation. Readings by Fiona Shaw.

This week, four award-winning war correspondents - Christina Lamb (I Am Malala and chief foreign correspondent for The Sunday Times), Lara Marlowe (The Things I Have Seen and correspondent with The Irish Times) and Lindsey Hilsum (In Extremis: The Life and Death of the War Correspondent Marie Colvin and International Editor for Channel 4) and Ben Anderson (No Worse Enemy and conflict reporter for Vice) - discuss the challenges, ethics, insights and consequences of covering conflict zones. These are some of the bravest writers working today, with a common cause to drive them on: telling the world about injustice, so that the injustice will stop. Listen to the free podcast here: https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/podcasts/

Writer and activist Sinead Burke discuss the importance of how our individual rights should inform fashion design, and how plenty of other life choices also need a rethink, with Sinead Gleeson Listen to the free podcast here: https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/podcasts/

Booker Prize winner Julian Barnes and Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Muldoon chew the cud on the 'the good things in life'. It was Sunday Morning, June 2019, and it felt like the right time to discuss how to avoid poisoning one's friends in the kitchen, the reverential love of music by writers, rare herbs that grow in people's hedges, and so on. Listen to the free podcast here: https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/podcasts/

DALRYMPLE'S INDIA: William Dalrymple has been for some years the most eloquent chronicler of Indian history. This talk draws from his recent book The Anarchy: The Fall of the Mughal Empire and the Rise of the East India Company, a gripping parable of gore and deceit, of unimaginable opulence and intolerable starvation, a cautionary tale of the rise of the East India Company and a supreme act of corporate violence in history. Listen to the free podcast here https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/podcasts/

In one of the most exceptional meetings of the 2019, conflict reporter Ed Vulliamy meets Hothouse Flower guitarist and broadcaster Fiachna Ó Braonáin. Vulliamy's book When Words Fail explores the music that he turns to - Hendrix, Shostakovich, Patti Smith, BB King, Dylan, Planxty, among others - when the war zones or places away from home that he has set up camp become hard to bear. Listen to the free podcast here: https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/podcasts/

Journalist Roisin Ingle discusses Rosita Boland's travel writing, fresh perspectives and her continuing need to be elsewhere.   Podcast available here  https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/podcasts/

Historian and prolific commentator Simon Schama and cybersecurity investigative journalist Misha Glenny (also author of McMafia) discuss whether democracy can survive in a world run by algorithms, with Fintan O'Toole. Podcast available here  https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/podcasts/

Actor, writer and comedian Simon Farnaby faces a grilling from a (largely) young audience of Horrible Histories and Paddington fans. Podcast available here: https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/podcasts/

A rare interview with novelist Donna Tartt, author The Secret History and The Goldfinch, with writer, producer and friend Rick Stroud, in which they talk about writing, art and adventure.

Novelist and screenwriter Anthony Horowitz, author of 176 books and counting, talks James Bond, Daniel Hawthorne and a life dedicated to suspense. Following this interview at Borris House in June 2018, he set his then forthcoming novel Moonflower Murders in this very location Podcast available here:  https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/podcasts/  

In October 2017, Ibrahim Halawa was released from an Egyptian prison after four years of being incarcerated without any proper trial. He and his sisters had been caught up in a protest in Cairo. Shortly after his release, Senator Ivana Bacik talks to the young Irishman about the turn his life had taken.   Podcast available here  https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/podcasts/

International Human Rights lawyer Philippe Sands, author of East West Street, talks to commentator Fintan O'Toole about crimes against humanity. Recorded June 2019.   Podcast available here: https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/podcasts/

Viv Albertine - guitarist for British post-punk band The Slits, and author of two extraordinary memoirs Clothes Clothes Clothes Boys Boys Boys Music Music Music and To Throw Away Unopened - talks about a lifetime of challenging authority. Recorded June 2018.

The Guardian's investigative journalist Luke Harding quizzes McMafia author Misha Glenny about the current endemic of organised crime emerging from Russia. Recorded at 2018 Borris House Festival. Podcast available here:  https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/podcasts/

Sir Tim Smit - Whose career included a spell as a rock musician of some success before he went on to create The Eden Project and to restore and evolve The Lost Gardens of Heligan - provides inspiration with his optimistic and iconoclastic vision. Disruption makes luck...   Podcast available here: https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/podcasts/

Gender activists Glamrou and Panti Bliss discuss the politics of identity, the power of dressing up, and the fun of extroversion.   Podcast available here:  https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/podcasts/

Educationalist and children's author Michael Morpurgo (War Horse, and some 100 other bestselling books) talks about where it all comes from - and about the stunning importance memory in particular.   Podcast available here: https://festivalofwritingandideas.com/podcasts/