Podcast appearances and mentions of Julian Barnes

Is a $400 wine really ten times better than a $40 one? Does the right glass really improve your wine and is it worth it when the size makes you look ridiculous? Why do wine labels matter and should the label's look be part of every wine review? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Charles Jennings and Paul Keers, co-authors of the hilarious book I Bought It So I'll Drink It. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks   Giveaway Three of you are going to win a copy of their terrific book,, I Bought It So I'll Drink It. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and let me know that you've posted a review of the podcast. I'll choose three people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck! You can find the wines we discussed here.   Highlights Why do we feel guilty about window shopping when it comes to wine? What's the worst wine gadget or gimmick Paul and Charles have encountered? How did a 1947 Sauterne create a bond between Paul and a French wine seller? What was their most triumphant wine deal discovery? Are there elements that expensive wine delivers, that bargain wines can't? Why are Charles and Paul suspicious of mixed cases of wine? Has the quality and perception of box wines changed? What's the strangest vessel Paul and Charles have drunk wine from? What was it like drinking wine at 10 Downing Street and Lambeth Palace? What was Queen Victoria's tipple like? Why does Charles love drinking on his own? Which current wine trends will we look back on as ridiculous? Which wines would Charles and Paul now pair with their favourite childhood foods? Who would Paul and Charles love to share a bottle of wine with? Why should wine critics write about wine labels in their reviews?   Key Takeaways Charles and Paul believe there is a greater experience to be gained from drinking better wine, but that the return for your money plateaus quickly. If you go up from a £10 wine to a £30 wine, you will really notice the difference and have a tremendously greater experience. But then if you multiply that by 10 and go from £40 to £400, the difference in quality isn't that great. If I've got people around for dinner and I sit at the end of the table and everybody else has got normal wine glasses, I look like a complete plonker. And I'd love to sit there, “Oh, it's magnificent.” And they're going to think, what an idiot. So unfortunately, it doesn't get much use. It does enhance the taste of the Bordeaux, there's no doubt about it, but I'm so embarrassed sitting there drinking out of this thing the size of a melon that it really doesn't get much use. Charles and Paul mention wine labels because they think that they are ignored by most wine writers, and they're terribly important for two reasons. Firstly, because they're about the only marketing that most bottles of wine have, because we go into shops and that's all we can see, the labels. And second, if you're setting a table for dinner, you've invested in the table, in the dishware, the cutlery, the glasses to set up this beautiful thing. Why would you put a bottle of wine on the table - however it tastes - if it looks terrible? Wine critics should always say what the label looks like and whether it would look good on the table.   About Charles Jennings & Paul Keers Charles Jennings and Paul Keers are award-winning writers based in London, England. Charles and Paul co-authored the wine blog Sediment, described by New Statesman writer and Guardian literary critic Nick Lezard as “the finest wine blog available to humanity.” The blog became the basis for their book, I Bought It So I'll Drink It. Book-Prize-winning novelist Julian Barnes called it “The funniest wine-book I've read in a long time. Not just laugh-aloud funny but snortingly, choke-on-your-cornflakes funny – up there with Kingsley Amis and Jay McInerney.” Their book won the prestigious André Simon Award.         To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/341.

How does using everyday metaphors make wine writing more relatable? How has the pressure to be an expert in everything turned simple pleasures into social competition? Does buying your own wine versus getting free samples make you a better wine writer? In this episode of the Unreserved Wine Talk podcast, I'm chatting with Charles Jennings and Paul Keers, co-authors of the hilarious book I Bought It So I'll Drink It. You can find the wines we discussed at https://www.nataliemaclean.com/winepicks   Giveaway Three of you are going to win a copy of their terrific book,, I Bought It So I'll Drink It. To qualify, all you have to do is email me at natalie@nataliemaclean.com and let me know that you've posted a review of the podcast. I'll choose three people randomly from those who contact me. Good luck! You can find the wines we discussed here.   Highlights How did Charles and Paul meet? What was the first bottle of wine they shared, and how did they realize they had the same approach to bad wine? What was it like to meet legendary wine critic Oz Clarke? When did Paul and Charles discover their love for writing? What were Charles and Paul's best and worst moments in their writing careers? How did their Sediment blog create a stir with the PR people in the wine industry? Where did the title “I Bought It So I'll Drink It” come from? Did buying their own wines give them a different perspective than other wine writers who are given promotional bottles? How did the collaborative approach to writing I Bought It So I'll Drink It work? Which writers have influenced Charles and Paul's writing? Is the tension between wine snobbery and enjoyment unique to wine? What was the most pretentious wine moment Paul and Charles witnessed? How did Charles and Paul develop their distinctive vocabularies for describing wines? Which overused wine descriptors do they find cringy? What's changed about wine criticism or writing since they published their book?   Key Takeaways Charles and Paul explain that they drew their descriptions from real life. There's a tendency in wine writing to use metaphors that you wouldn't necessarily experience. I mean, I've got a cat, but I really wouldn't use the term cat's pee in describing any wine. I don't know what cat's pee actually tastes like. Whereas if I talk about wine smelling of ink, well, people know what ink smells like, and it seemed more appropriate to use ink as an analogy. The authors say that everybody has to be a bit of an expert about everything these days. It's not just a question of, “Oh, we've been to France, we've gone to Italy, we've made it to the United States,” or something like that. It's how you did it, and where you stayed, and what you did, and what tours you went on, and it's so full of itself. Then it becomes a transaction when talking with friends. As Charles and Paul think the fact that they did buy thei wine is quite fundamental to a difference between Sediment and other wine writing. They had to do the same thing, go out and buy it. Maybe that gave us a slightly different slant on wine buying and drinking as well.   About Charles Jennings & Paul Keers Charles Jennings and Paul Keers are award-winning writers based in London, England. Charles and Paul co-authored the wine blog Sediment, described by New Statesman writer and Guardian literary critic Nick Lezard as “the finest wine blog available to humanity.” The blog became the basis for their book, I Bought It So I'll Drink It. Book-Prize-winning novelist Julian Barnes called it “The funniest wine-book I've read in a long time. Not just laugh-aloud funny but snortingly, choke-on-your-cornflakes funny – up there with Kingsley Amis and Jay McInerney.” Their book won the prestigious André Simon Award.         To learn more, visit https://www.nataliemaclean.com/340.

Welcome to the latest episode of L.I.F.T.S – your bite-sized dose of the Latest Industry Fitness Trends and Stories. Today, hosts Matthew Januszek, Co-Founder of Escape Fitness and Mo Iqbal, Founder & CEO of SweatWorks, are joined by Julian Barnes, Co-founder and CEO of BFS. Julian unpacks critical trends shaping boutique fitness—like the explosive growth of Pilates studios, the impact of tariffs on equipment pricing, and the secrets behind the most profitable studios. If you're a studio owner, investor, or just passionate about the business of fitness, this is an essential listen packed with actionable insights. This LIFTS episode covers: The power of hiring a full-time manager. Studio profitability benchmarks and benchmarks. Tariffs, supply chains, and pricing strategy. The growing role of experience in member retention. Why Pilates is outperforming other modalities. To learn more about the 2024 BFS State of the Industry Report, click here: https://main.bfsnetwork.com/state-of-the-industry-report Use discount code "LIFTS" to get $50.00 off your copy of the report.  ====================================================== Support fitness industry news by sponsoring future LIFTS episodes. Contact us at wendy@escapefitness.com for advertising opportunities. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and turn on your notifications so you never miss a new video when it's published: https://www.youtube.com/user/EscapeFitness Shop gym equipment: https://escapefitness.com/shop View our full catalog: https://escapefitness.com/support/catalog (US) https://escapefitness.com/support/catalogue (UK)  ====================================================== Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Escapefitness Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/escapefitness Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/escapefitness LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/escapefitness/   00:00 Welcome Back to LIFTS 02:00 Introducing Julian Barnes 03:30 The BFS Network & State of the Industry 05:10 Breaking News: Exponential Fitness & Sequel 08:45 Studio-Level Performance vs Portfolio Models 11:20 The Impact of Tariffs on Equipment Imports 16:15 Rethinking Global Manufacturing Strategies 19:40 How Operators Can Sell Outcomes, Not Features 21:00 Profitable Studios Have One Key Role… 24:00 Trainer vs. CEO: What Studio Owners Must Become 27:30 FER: Find, Enroll, Retain 30:00 Aggregators like ClassPass: Help or Hindrance? 33:00 Pilates Is Booming—Here's Why 37:00 What Actually Works in Boutique Fitness 42:00 Raise Prices, Raise Value 45:00 Takeaways: Fundamentals Over Fads 48:30 Disney-Level Client Experience? Why It Matters 50:00 Wrap-up & How to Get the Report

Esta semana, temos “Almas Delirantes - do Telhal a Rilhafoles”, um livro centenário, com organização de Stefanie Gil Franco, reunindo textos e desenhos de doentes confinados em instituições psiquiátricas; temos um volume (volumoso) de textos de Pedro Paixão sobre o holocausto e o judaísmo; um romance de uma autor austríaco do início do século XX, Leo Perutz, intitulado “O Marquês de Bolibar”; e o título mais recente, um conjunto de confereências, de Julian Barnes, sob o título “Mudar de Ideias”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Eric Malzone welcomes Julian Barnes, co-founder and CEO of BFS Network, for an insightful discussion on the state of the boutique fitness industry. Drawing from BFS's latest annual report, Julian shares data-driven strategies that gym owners can use to improve profitability, streamline operations, and build sustainable businesses. The conversation covers everything from fundamental KPIs to surprising trends that challenge conventional wisdom in the fitness space.   https://podcastcollective.io/ https://egym.com/int

El sentido de un final de Julian Barnes es una joya literaria que condensa, en menos de 200 páginas, una exploración profunda y conmovedora de la memoria, la culpa, y la complejidad de la vida humana. A través de la voz introspectiva de Tony Webster, Julian Barnes teje una narrativa que es a la vez un misterio íntimo y una meditación filosófica, cuestionando cómo construimos nuestra identidad a partir de recuerdos fragmentarios y a menudo engañosos. Su prosa, elegante y cargada de ironía, captura la fragilidad de la verdad con una precisión que resuena universalmente, mientras que su final sorprendente –un “apocalipsis íntimo”– invita a la relectura y la reflexión. Situada en la Inglaterra de los años 60 y el presente, la novela no solo nos retrata las tensiones de una generación, sino que nos ofrece un comentario atemporal sobre la responsabilidad moral y las consecuencias imprevistas de nuestras acciones.Como una ecuación que nunca se resuelve del todo, El sentido de un final desafía a nosotros los Lunares a mirarnos dentro de sí mismos, a cuestionar las certezas de nuestro propio pasado, y a abrazar la ambigüedad de la existencia.Sumérgete en esta obra maestra para descubrir una historia que, como los fragmentos de memoria de Tony, permanece vívida, inquietante, y eternamente relevante.AVISO LEGAL: Los cuentos, poemas, fragmentos de novelas, ensayos y todo contenido literario que aparece en Crónicas Lunares di Sun podrían estar protegidos por derecho de autor (copyright). Si por alguna razón los propietarios no están conformes con el uso de ellos por favor escribirnos al correo electrónico cronicaslunares.sun@hotmail.com y nos encargaremos de borrarlo inmediatamente. Si te gusta lo que escuchas y deseas apoyarnos puedes dejar tu donación en PayPal, ahí nos encuentras como @IrvingSun  https://paypal.me/IrvingSun?country.x=MX&locale.x=es_XC  Síguenos en:  Telegram: Crónicas Lunares di Sun  ⁠Crónicas Lunares di Sun - YouTube⁠ ⁠https://t.me/joinchat/QFjDxu9fqR8uf3eR⁠  ⁠https://www.facebook.com/cronicalunar/?modal=admin_todo_tour⁠  ⁠Crónicas Lunares (@cronicaslunares.sun) • Fotos y videos de Instagram⁠  ⁠https://twitter.com/isun_g1⁠  ⁠https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9lODVmOWY0L3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz⁠  ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/4x2gFdKw3FeoaAORteQomp⁠  https://mx.ivoox.com/es/s_p2_759303_1.html⁠ https://tunein.com/user/gnivrinavi/favorites⁠ 

Nicolle Wallace on Trump sparring with Walmart after tariff price hike warnings and Former FBI Director James Comey speaks out after being questioned by the Secret Service over a social media post.Joined by: Charlotte Howard, David Gura, Claire McCaskill, Fmr. FBI Director James Comey, Julian Barnes, Ben Rhodes, Amb. William Taylor, and Chasten Buttigieg.

Clare Carlisle's biography of George Eliot, The Marriage Question, is one of my favourite modern biographies, so I was really pleased to interview Clare. We talked about George Eliot as a feminist, the imperfections of her “marriage” to George Henry Lewes, what she learned from Spinoza, having sympathy for Casaubon, contradictions in Eliot's narrative method, her use of negatives, psychoanalysis, Middlemarch, and more. We also talked about biographies of philosophers, Kierkegaard, and Somerset Maugham. I was especially pleased by Clare's answer about the reported decline in student attention spans. Overall I thought this was a great discussion. Many thanks to Clare! Full transcript below. Here is an extract from our discussion about Eliot's narrative ideas.Clare: Yes, that's right. The didactic thing, George Eliot is sometimes criticized for this didacticism because what's most effective in the novel is not the narrator coming and telling us we should actually feel sorry for Casaubon and we should sympathize with him. We'd be better people if we sympathize with Casaubon. There's a moralizing lecture about, you should feel sympathy for this unlikable person. What is more effective is the subtle way she portrays this character and, as I say, lets us into his vulnerabilities in some obvious ways, as you say, by pointing things out, but also in some more subtle ways of drawing his character and hinting at, as I say, his vulnerabilities.Henry: Doesn't she know, though, that a lot of readers won't actually be very moved by the subtle things and that she does need to put in a lecture to say, "I should tell you that I am very personally sympathetic to Mr. Casaubon and that if you leave this novel hating him, that's not--"? Isn't that why she does it? Because she knows that a lot of readers will say, "I don't care. He's a baddie."Clare: Yes I don't know, that's a good question.Henry: I'm interested because, in The Natural History of German Life, she goes to all these efforts to say abstract arguments and philosophy and statistics and such, these things don't change the world. Stories change the world. A picture of life from a great artist. Then when she's doing her picture of life from a great artist she constantly butts in with her philosophical abstractions because it's, she can't quite trust that the reader will get it right as it were.Clare: Yes, I suppose that's one way of looking at it. You could say that or maybe does she have enough confidence in her ability to make us feel with these characters. That would be another way of looking at it. Whether her lack of confidence and lack of trust is in the reader or in her own power as an artist is probably an open question.TranscriptHenry: Today I am talking to Clare Carlisle, a philosopher at King's College London and a biographer. I am a big fan of George Eliot's Double Life: The Marriage Question. I've said the title backwards, but I'm sure you'll find the book either way. Clare, welcome.Clare Carlisle: Hi, Henry. Nice to be here.Henry: Is George Eliot a disappointing feminist?Clare: Obviously disappointment is relative to expectations, isn't it? It depends on what we expect of feminism, and in particular, a 19th-century woman. I personally don't find her a disappointing feminist. Other readers have done, and I can understand why that's the case for all sorts of reasons. She took on a male identity in order to be an artist, be a philosopher in a way that she thought was to her advantage, and she's sometimes been criticized for creating heroines who have quite a conventional sort of fulfillment. Not all of them, but Dorothea in Middlemarch, for example, at the end of the novel, we look back on her life as a wife and a mother with some sort of poignancy.Yes, she's been criticized for, in a way, giving her heroines and therefore offering other women a more conventional feminine ideal than the life she managed to create and carve out for herself as obviously a very remarkable thinker and artist. I also think you can read in the novels a really bracing critique of patriarchy, actually, and a very nuanced exploration of power dynamics between men and women, which isn't simplistic. Eliot is aware that women can oppress men, just as men can oppress women. Particularly in Middlemarch, actually, there's an exploration of marital violence that overcomes the more gendered portrayal of it, perhaps in Eliot's own earlier works where, in a couple of her earlier stories, she portrayed abused wives who were victims of their husband's betrayal, violence, and so on.Whereas in Middlemarch, it's interestingly, the women are as controlling, not necessarily in a nasty way, but just that that's the way human beings navigate their relations with each other. It seems to be part of what she's exploring in Middlemarch. No, I don't find her a disappointing feminist. We should be careful about the kind of expectations we, in the 21st century project onto Eliot.Henry: Was George Henry Lewes too controlling?Clare: I think one of the claims of this book is that there was more darkness in that relationship than has been acknowledged by other biographers, let's put it that way. When I set out to write the book, I'd read two or three other biographies of Eliot by this point. One thing that's really striking is this very wonderfully supportive husbands that, in the form of Lewes, George Eliot has, and a very cheerful account of that relationship and how marvelous he was. A real celebration of this relationship where the husband is, in many ways, putting his wife's career before his own, supporting her.Lewes acted as her agent, as her editor informally. He opened her mail for her. He really put himself at the service of her work in ways that are undoubtedly admirable. Actually, when I embarked on writing this book, I just accepted that narrative myself and was interested in this very positive portrayal of the relationship, found it attractive, as other writers have obviously done. Then, as I wrote the book, I was obviously reading more of the primary sources, the letters Eliot was writing and diary entries. I started to just have a bit of a feeling about this relationship, that it was light and dark, it wasn't just light.The ambiguity there was what really interested me, of, how do you draw the line between a husband or a wife who's protective, even sheltering the spouse from things that might upset them and supportive of their career and helpful in practical ways. How do you draw the line between that and someone who's being controlling? I think there were points where Lewes crossed that line. In a way, what's more interesting is, how do you draw that line. How do partners draw that line together? Not only how would we draw the line as spectators on that relationship, obviously only seeing glimpses of the inner life between the two people, but how do the partners themselves both draw those lines and then navigate them?Yes, I do suggest in the book that Lewes could be controlling and in ways that I think Eliot herself felt ambivalent about. I think she partly enjoyed that feeling of being protected. Actually, there was something about the conventional gendered roles of that, that made her feel more feminine and wifely and submissive, In a way, to some extent, I think she bought into that ideal, but also she felt its difficulties and its tensions. I also think for Lewes, this is a man who is himself conditioned by patriarchal norms with the expectation that the husband should be the successful one, the husband should be the provider, the one who's earning the money.He had to navigate a situation. That was the situation when they first got together. When they first got together, he was more successful writer. He was the man of the world who was supporting Eliot, who was more at the beginning of her career to some extent and helping her make connections. He had that role at the beginning. Then, within a few years, it had shifted and suddenly he had this celebrated best-selling novelist on his hands, which was, even though he supported her success, partly for his own financial interests, it wasn't necessarily what he'd bargained for when he got into the relationship.I think we can also see Lewes navigating the difficulties of that role, of being, to some extent, maybe even disempowered in that relationship and possibly reacting to that vulnerability with some controlling behavior. It's maybe something we also see in the Dorothea-Casaubon relationship where they get together. Not that I think that at all Casaubon was modeled on Lewes, not at all, but something of the dynamic there where they get together and the young woman is in awe of this learned man and she's quite subservient to him and looking up to him and wanting him to help her make her way in the world and teach her things.Then it turns out that his insecurity about his own work starts to come through. He reacts, and the marriage brings out his own insecurity about his work. Then he becomes quite controlling of Dorothea, perhaps again as a reaction to his own sense of vulnerability and insecurity. The point of my interpretation is not to portray Lewes as some villain, but rather to see these dynamics and as I say, ambivalences, ambiguities that play themselves out in couples, between couples.Henry: I came away from the book feeling like it was a great study of talent management in a way, and that the both of them were very lucky to find someone who was so well-matched to their particular sorts of talents. There are very few literary marriages where that is the case, or where that is successfully the case. The other one, the closest parallel I came up with was the Woolfs. Leonard is often said he's too controlling, which I find a very unsympathetic reading of a man who looked after a woman who nearly died. I think he was doing what he felt she required. In a way, I agree, Lewes clearly steps over the line several times. In a way, he was doing what she required to become George Eliot, as it were.Clare: Yes, absolutely.Henry: Which is quite remarkable in a way.Clare: Yes. I don't think Mary Ann Evans would have become George Eliot without that partnership with Lewes. I think that's quite clear. That's not because he did the work, but just that there was something about that, the partnership between them, that enabled that creativity…Henry: He knew all the people and he knew the literary society and all the editors, and therefore he knew how to take her into that world without it overwhelming her, giving her crippling headaches, sending her into a depression.Clare: Yes.Henry: In a way, I came away more impressed with them from the traditional, isn't it angelic and blah, blah, blah.Clare: Oh, that's good.Henry: What did George Eliot learn from Spinoza?Clare: I think she learned an awful lot from Spinoza. She translated Spinoza in the 1850s. She translated Spinoza's Ethics, which is Spinoza's philosophical masterpiece. That's really the last major project that Eliot did before she started to write fiction. It has, I think, quite an important place in her career. It's there at that pivotal point, just before she becomes an artist, as she puts it, as a fiction writer. Because she didn't just read The Ethics, but she translated it, she read it very, very closely, and I think was really quite deeply formed by a particular Spinozist ethical vision.Spinoza thinks that human beings are not self-sufficient. He puts that in very metaphysical terms. A more traditional philosophical view is to say that individual things are substances. I'm a substance, you're a substance. What it means to be a substance is to be self-sufficient, independent. For example, I would be a substance, but my feeling of happiness on this sunny morning would be a more accidental feature of my being.Henry: Sure.Clare: Something that depends on my substance, and then these other features come and go. They're passing, they're just modes of substance, like a passing mood or whatever, or some kind of characteristic I might have. That's the more traditional view, whereas Spinoza said that there's only one substance, and that's God or nature, which is just this infinite totality. We're all modes of that one substance. That means that we don't have ontological independence, self-sufficiency. We're more like a wave on the ocean that's passing through. One ethical consequence of that way of thinking is that we are interconnected.We're all interconnected. We're not substances that then become connected and related to other substances, rather we emerge as beings through this, our place in this wider whole. That interconnectedness of all things and the idea that individuals are really constituted by their relations is, I think, a Spinoza's insight that George Eliot drew on very deeply and dramatized in her fiction. I think it's there all through her fiction, but it becomes quite explicit in Middlemarch where she talks about, she has this master metaphor of the web.Henry: The web. Right.Clare: In Middlemarch, where everything is part of a web. You put pressure on a bit of it and something changes in another part of the web. That interconnectedness can be understood on multiple levels. Biologically, the idea that tissues are formed in this organic holistic way, rather than we're not composed of parts, like machines, but we're these organic holes. There's a biological idea of the web, which she explores. Also, the economic system of exchange that holds a community together. Then I suppose, perhaps most interestingly, the more emotional and moral features of the web, the way one person's life is bound up with and shaped by their encounters with all the other lives that it comes into contact with.In a way, it's a way of thinking that really, it questions any idea of self-sufficiency, but it also questions traditional ideas of what it is to be an individual. You could see a counterpart to this way of thinking in a prominent 19th-century view of history, which sees history as made by heroic men, basically. There's this book by Carlyle, Thomas Carlyle, called The Heroic in History, or something like that.Henry: Sure. On heroes and the heroic, yes.Clare: Yes. That's a really great example of this way of thinking about history as made by heroes. Emerson wrote this book called Representative Men. These books were published, I think, in the early 1850s. Representative Men. Again, he identifies these certain men, these heroic figures, which represent history in a way. Then a final example of this is Auguste Comte's Positivist Calendar, which, he's a humanist, secularist thinker who wants to basically recreate culture and replace our calendar with this lunar calendar, which, anyway, it's a different calendar, has 13 months.Each month is named after a great man. There's Shakespeare, and there's Dante, and there's-- I don't know, I can't remember. Anyway, there's this parade of heroic men. Napoleon. Anyway, that's the view of history that Eliot grew up with. She was reading, she was really influenced by Carlisle and Emerson and Comte. In that landscape, she is creating this alternative Spinozist vision of what an exemplar can be like and who gets to be an exemplar. Dorothea was a really interesting exemplar because she's unhistoric. At the very end of Middlemarch, she describes Dorothea's unhistoric life that comes to rest in an unvisited tomb.She's obscure. She's not visible on the world stage. She's forgotten once she dies. She's obscure. She's ordinary. She's a provincial woman, upper middle-class provincial woman, who makes some bad choices. She has high ideals but ends up living a life that from the outside is not really an extraordinary life at all. Also, she is constituted by her relations with others in both directions. Her own life is really shaped by her milieu, by her relationships with the people. Also, at the end of the novel, Eliot leaves us with a vision of the way Dorothea's life has touched other lives and in ways that can't be calculated, can't really be recognized. Yet, she has these effects that are diffused.She uses this word, diffusion or diffuseness. The diffuseness of the effects of Dorothea's life, which seep into the world. Of course, she's a woman. She's not a great hero in this Carlyle or Emerson sense. In all these ways, I think this is a very different way of thinking about individuality, but also history and the way the world is made, that history and the world is made by, in this more Spinozist kind of way, rather than by these heroic representative men who stand on the world stage. That's not Spinoza's, that's Eliot's original thinking. She's taking a Spinozist ontology, a Spinozist metaphysics, but really she's creating her own vision with that, that's, of course, located in that 19th-century context.Henry: How sympathetic should we be to Mr. Casaubon?Clare: I feel very sympathetic to Mr. Casaubon because he is so vulnerable. He's a really very vulnerable person. Of course, in the novel, we are encouraged to look at it from Dorothea's point of view, and so when we look at it from Dorothea's point of view, Casaubon is a bad thing. The best way to think about it is the view of Dorothea's sister Celia, her younger sister, who is a very clear-eyed observer, who knows that Dorothea is making a terrible mistake in marrying this man. She's quite disdainful of Casaubon's, well, his unattractive looks.He's only about 40, but he's portrayed as this dried-up, pale-faced scholar, academic, who is incapable of genuine emotional connection with another person, which is quite tragic, really. The hints are that he's not able to have a sexual relationship. He's so buttoned up and repressed, in a way. When we look at it from Dorothea's perspective, we say, "No, he's terrible, he's bad for you, he's not going to be good for you," which of course is right. I think Eliot herself had a lot of sympathy for Casaubon. There's an anecdote which said that when someone asked who Casaubon was based on, she pointed to herself.I think she saw something of herself in him. On an emotional level, I think he's just a fascinating character, isn't he, in a way, from an aesthetic point of view? The point is not do we like Casaubon or do we not like him? I think we are encouraged to feel sympathy with him, even as, on the one, it's so clever because we're taken along, we're encouraged to feel as Celia feels, where we dislike him, we don't sympathize with him. Then Eliot is also showing us how that view is quite limited, I think, because we do occasionally see the world from Casaubon's point of view and see how fearful Casaubon is.Henry: She's also explicit and didactic about the need to sympathize with him, right? It's often in asides, but at one point, she gives over most of a chapter to saying, "Poor Mr. Casaubon. He didn't think he'd end up like this." Things have actually gone very badly for him as well.Clare: Yes, that's right. The didactic thing, George Eliot is sometimes criticized for this didacticism because what's most effective in the novel is not the narrator coming and telling us we should actually feel sorry for Casaubon and we should sympathize with him. We'd be better people if we sympathize with Casaubon. There's a moralizing lecture about, you should feel sympathy for this unlikable person. What is more effective is the subtle way she portrays this character and, as I say, lets us into his vulnerabilities in some obvious ways, as you say, by pointing things out, but also in some more subtle ways of drawing his character and hinting at, as I say, his vulnerabilities.Henry: Doesn't she know, though, that a lot of readers won't actually be very moved by the subtle things and that she does need to put in a lecture to say, "I should tell you that I am very personally sympathetic to Mr. Casaubon and that if you leave this novel hating him, that's not--"? Isn't that why she does it? Because she knows that a lot of readers will say, "I don't care. He's a baddie."Clare: Yes I don't know, that's a good question.Henry: I'm interested because, in The Natural History of German Life, she goes to all these efforts to say abstract arguments and philosophy and statistics and such, these things don't change the world. Stories change the world. A picture of life from a great artist. Then when she's doing her picture of life from a great artist she constantly butts in with her philosophical abstractions because it's, she can't quite trust that the reader will get it right as it were.Clare: Yes, I suppose that's one way of looking at it. You could say that or maybe does she have enough confidence in her ability to make us feel with these characters. That would be another way of looking at it. Whether her lack of confidence and lack of trust is in the reader or in her own power as an artist is probably an open question.Henry: There's a good book by Debra Gettelman about the way that novelists like Eliot knew what readers expected because they were all reading so many cheap romance novels and circulating library novels. There are a lot of negations and arguments with the reader to say, "I know what you want this story to do and I know how you want this character to turn out, but I'm not going to do that. You must go with me with what I'm doing.Clare: Yes. You mean this new book that's come out called Imagining Otherwise?Henry: That's right, yes.Clare: I've actually not read it yet, I've ordered it, but funnily enough, as you said at the beginning, I'm a philosopher so I'm not trained at all as a reader of literary texts or as a literary scholar by any means, and so I perhaps foolishly embarked on this book on George Eliot thinking, "Oh, next I'm going to write a book about George Eliot." Anyway, I ended up going to a couple of conferences on George Eliot, which was interestingly like stepping into a different world. The academic world of literary studies is really different from the world of academic philosophy, interestingly.It's run by women for a start. You go to a conference and it's very female-dominated. There's all these very eminent senior women or at least at this conference I went to there was these distinguished women who were running the show. Then there were a few men in that mix, which is the inverse of often what it can be like in a philosophy conference, which is still quite a male-dominated discipline. The etiquette is different. Philosophers like to criticize each other's arguments. That's the way we show love is to criticize and take down another philosopher's argument.Whereas the academics at this George Eliot conference were much more into acknowledging what they'd learned from other people's work and referencing. Anyway, it's really interestingly different. Debra Gettelman was at this conference.Henry: Oh, great.Clare: She had a book on Middlemarch. I think it was 2019 because it was the bicentenary of Eliot's birth, that's why there was this big conference. Debra, who I'd never met before or heard of, as I just didn't really know this world, gave this amazing talk on Middlemarch and on these negations in Middlemarch. It really influenced me, it really inspired me. The way she did these close readings of the sentences, this is what literary scholars are trained to do, but I haven't had that training and the close reading of the sentences, which didn't just yield interesting insights into the way George Eliot uses language but yielded this really interesting philosophical work where Eliot is using forms of the sentence to explore ontological questions about negation and possibility and modality.This was just so fascinating and really, it was a small paper in one of those parallel sessions. It wasn't one of the big presentations at the conference, but it was that talk that most inspired me at the conference. It's a lot of the insights that I got from Debra Gettelman I ended up drawing on in my own chapter on Middlemarch. I situated it a bit more in the history of philosophy and thinking about negation as a theme.Henry: This is where you link it to Hegel.Clare: Yes, to Hegel, exactly. I was so pleased to see that the book is out because I think I must have gone up to her after the talk and said, "Oh, it's really amazing." Was like, "Oh, thank you." I was like, "Is it published? Can I cite it?" She said, "No. I'm working on this project." It seemed like she felt like it was going to be a long time in the making. Then a few weeks ago, I saw a review of the book in the TLS. I thought, "Oh, amazing, the book is out. It just sounds brilliant." I can't wait to read that book. Yes, she talks about Eliot alongside, I think, Dickens and another.Henry: And Jane Austen.Clare: Jane Austen, amazing. Yes. I think it's to do with, as you say, writing in response to readerly expectation and forming readerly expectations. Partly thanks to Debra Gettelman, I can see how Eliot does that. It'd be really interesting to learn how she sees Jane Austen and Dickens also doing that.Henry: It's a brilliant book. You're in for a treat.Clare: Yes, I'm sure it is. That doesn't surprise me at all.Henry: Now, you say more than once in your book, that Eliot anticipates some of the insights of psychotherapy.Clare: Psychoanalysis.Henry: Yes. What do you think she would have made of Freud or of our general therapy culture? I think you're right, but she has very different aims and understandings of these things. What would she make of it now?Clare: It seems that Freud was probably influenced by Eliot. That's a historical question. He certainly read and admired Eliot. I suspect, yes, was influenced by some of her insights, which in turn, she's drawing on other stuff. What do you have in mind? Your question suggests that you think she might have disapproved of therapy culture.Henry: I think novelists in general are quite ambivalent about psychoanalysis and therapy. Yes.Clare: For what reason?Henry: If you read someone like Iris Murdoch, who's quite Eliotic in many ways, she would say, "Do these therapists ever actually help anyone?"Clare: Ah.Henry: A lot of her characters are sent on these slightly dizzying journeys. They're often given advice from therapists or priests or philosophers, and obviously, Murdoch Is a philosopher. The advice from the therapists and the philosophers always ends these characters up in appalling situations. It's art and literature. As you were saying before, a more diffusive understanding and a way of integrating yourself with other things rather than looking back into your head and dwelling on it.Clare: Of course. Yes.Henry: I see more continuity between Eliot and that kind of thinking. I wonder if you felt that the talking cure that you identified at the end of Middlemarch is quite sound common sense and no-nonsense. It's not lie on the couch and tell me how you feel, is it?Clare: I don't know. That's one way to look at it, I suppose. Another way to look at it would be to see Eliot and Freud is located in this broadly Socratic tradition of one, the idea that if you understand yourself better, then that is a route to a certain qualified kind of happiness or fulfillment or liberation. The best kind of human life there could be is one where we gain insight into our own natures. We bring to light what is hidden from us, whether those are desires that are hidden away in the shadows and they're actually motivating our behavior, but we don't realize it, and so we are therefore enslaved to them.That's a very old idea that you find in ancient philosophy. Then the question is, by what methods do we bring these things to light? Is it through Socratic questioning? Is it through art? Eliot's art is an art that I think encourages us to see ourselves in the characters. As we come to understand the characters, and in particular to go back to what I said before about Spinozism, to see their embeddedness and their interconnectedness in these wider webs, but also in a sense of that embeddedness in psychic forces that they're not fully aware of. Part of what you could argue is being exposed there, and this would be a Spinozist insight, is the delusion of free will.The idea that we act freely with these autonomous agents who have access to and control over our desires, and we pick the thing that's in our interest and we act on that. That's a view that I think Spinoza is very critical. He famously denies free will. He says we're determined, we just don't understand how we're determined. When we understand better how we're determined, then perhaps paradoxically we actually do become relatively empowered through our understanding. I think there's something of that in Eliot too, and arguably there's something of that in Freud as well. I know you weren't actually so much asking about Freud's theory and practice, and more about a therapy culture.Henry: All of it.Clare: You're also asking about that. As I say, the difference would be the method for accomplishing this process of a kind of enlightenment. Of course, Freud's techniques medicalizes that project basically. It's the patient and the doctor in dialogue, and depends a lot on the skills of the doctor, doesn't it? How successful, and who is also a human being, who is also another human being, who isn't of course outside of the web, but is themselves in it, and ideally has themselves already undergone this process of making themselves more transparent to their own understanding, but of course, is going to be liable to their own blind spots, and so on.Henry: Which of her novels do you love the most? Just on a personal level, it doesn't have to be which one you think is the most impressive or whatever.Clare: I'm trying to think how to answer that question. I was thinking if I had to reread one of them next week, which one would I choose? If I was going on holiday and I wanted a beach read for pure enjoyment, which of the novels would I pick up? Probably Middlemarch. I think it's probably the most enjoyable, the most fun to read of her novels, basically.Henry: Sure.Clare: There'd be other reasons for picking other books. I really think Daniel Deronda is amazing because of what she's trying to do in that book. Its ambition, it doesn't always succeed in giving us the reading experience that is the most enjoyable. In terms of just the staggering philosophical and artistic achievement, what she's attempting to do, and what she does to a large extent achieve in that book, I think is just incredible. As a friend of Eliot, I have a real love for Daniel Deronda because I just think that what an amazing thing she did in writing that book. Then I've got a soft spot for Silas Marner, which is short and sweet.Henry: I think I'd take The Mill on the Floss. That's my favorite.Clare: Oh, would you?Henry: I love that book.Clare: That also did pop into my mind as another contender. Yes, because it's so personal in a way, The Mill on the Floss. It's personal to her, it's also personal to me in that, it's the first book by Eliot I read because I studied it for A-Level. I remember thinking when we were at the beginning of that two-year period when I'd chosen my English literature A-Level and we got the list of texts we were going to read, I remember seeing The Mill on the Floss and thinking, "Oh God, that sounds so boring." The title, something about the title, it just sounded awful. I remember being a bit disappointed that it wasn't a Jane Austen or something more fun.I thought, "Oh, The Mill on the Floss." Then I don't have a very strong memory of the book, but I remember thinking, actually, it was better than I expected. I did think, actually, it wasn't as awful and boring as I thought it would be. It's a personal book to Eliot. I think that exploring the life of a mind of a young woman who has no access to proper education, very limited access to art and culture, she's stuck in this little village near a provincial town full of narrow-minded conservative people. That's Eliot's experience herself. It was a bit my experience, too, as, again, not that I even would have seen it this way at the time, but a girl with intellectual appetites and not finding those appetites very easily satisfied in, again, a provincial, ordinary family and the world and so on.Henry: What sort of reader were you at school?Clare: What sort of reader?Henry: Were you reading lots of Plato, lots of novels?Clare: No. I'm always really surprised when I meet people who say things like they were reading Kierkegaard and Plato when they were 15 or 16. No, not at all. No, I loved reading, so I just read lots and lots of novels. I loved Jane Eyre. That was probably one of the first proper novels, as with many people, that I remember reading that when I was about 12 and partly feeling quite proud of myself for having read this grown-up book, but also really loving the book. I reread that probably several times before I was 25. Jane Austen and just reading.Then also I used to go to the library, just completely gripped by some boredom and restlessness and finding something to read. I read a lot and scanning the shelves and picking things out. That way I read more contemporary fiction. Just things like, I don't know, Julian Barnes or, Armistead Maupin, or just finding stuff on the shelves of the library that looked interesting, or Anita Brookner or Somerset Maugham. I really love Somerset Maugham.Henry: Which ones do you like?Clare: I remember reading, I think I read The Razor's Edge first.Henry: That's a great book.Clare: Yes, and just knowing nothing about it, just picking it off the shelf and thinking, "Oh, this looks interesting." I've always liked a nice short, small paperback. That would always appeal. Then once I found a book I liked, I'd then obviously read other stuff by that writer. I then read, so The Razor's Edge and-- Oh, I can't remember.Henry: The Moon and Sixpence, maybe?Clare: Yes, The Moon and Sixpence, and-Henry: Painted Veils?Clare: -Human Bondage.Henry: Of Human Bondage, right.Clare: Human Bondage, which is, actually, he took the title from Spinoza's Ethics. That's the title. Cluelessly, as a teenager, I was like, "Ooh, this book is interesting." Actually, when I look back, I can see that those writers, like Maugham, for example, he was really interested in philosophy. He was really interested in art and philosophy, and travel, and culture, and religion, all the things I am actually interested in. I wouldn't have known that that was why I loved the book. I just liked the book and found it gripping. It spoke to me, and I wanted to just read more other stuff like that.I was the first person in my family to go to university, so we didn't have a lot of books in the house. We had one bookcase. There were a few decent things in there along with the Jeffrey Archers in there. I read everything on that bookshelf. I read the Jeffrey Archers, I read the True Crime, I read the In Cold Blood, just this somewhat random-- I think there was probably a couple of George Eliots on there. A few classics, I would, again, grip by boredom on a Sunday afternoon, just stare at this shelf and think, "Oh, is there anything?" Maybe I'll end up with a Thomas Hardy or something. It was quite limited. I didn't really know anything about philosophy. I didn't think of doing philosophy at university, for example. I actually decided to do history.I went to Cambridge to do history. Then, after a couple of weeks, just happened to meet someone who was doing philosophy. I was like, "Oh, that's what I want to do." I only recognized it when I saw it. I hadn't really seen it because I went to the local state school, it wasn't full of teachers who knew about philosophy and stuff like that.Henry: You graduated in theology and philosophy, is that right?Clare: Yes. Cambridge, the degrees are in two parts. I did Part 1, theology, and then I did Part 2, philosophy. I graduated in philosophy, but I studied theology in my first year at Cambridge.Henry: What are your favorite Victorian biographies?Clare: You mean biographies of Victorians?Henry: Of Victorians, by Victorians, whatever.Clare: I don't really read many biographies.Henry: Oh, really?Clare: [laughs] The first biography I wrote was a biography of Kierkegaard. I remember thinking, when I started to write the book, "I'd better read some biographies." I always tend to read fiction. I'm not a big reader of history, which is so ironic. I don't know what possessed me to go and study history at university. These are not books I read for pleasure. I suppose I am quite hedonistic in my choice of reading, I like to read for pleasure.Henry: Sure. Of course.Clare: I don't tend to read nonfiction. Obviously, I do sometimes read nonfiction for pleasure, but it's not the thing I'm most drawn to. Anyway. I remember asking my editor, I probably didn't mention that I didn't know very much about biography, but I did ask him to recommend some. I'd already got the book contract. I said, "What do you think is a really good biography that I should read?" He recommended, I think, who is it who wrote The Life of Gibbon? Really famous biography of Gibbon.Henry: I don't know.Clare: That one. I read it. It is really good. My mind is going blank. I read many biographies of George Eliot before I wrote mine.Henry: They're not all wonderful, are they?Clare: I really liked Catherine Hughes's book because it brought her down from her pedestal.Henry: Exactly. Yes.Clare: Talking about hedonism, I would read anything that Catherine Hughes writes just for enjoyment because she's such a good writer. She's a very intellectual woman, but she's also very entertaining. She writes to entertain, which I like and appreciate as a reader. There's a couple of big archival biographies of George Eliot by Gordon Haight and by Rosemary Ashton, for example, which are both just invaluable. One of the great things about that kind of book is that it frees you to write a different kind of biography that can be more interpretive and more selective. Once those kinds of books have been published, there's no point doing another one. You can do something more creative, potentially, or more partial.I really like Catherine Hughes's. She was good at seeing through Eliot sometimes, and making fun of her, even though it's still a very respectful book. There's also this brilliant book about Eliot by Rosemary Bodenheimer called The Real Life of Mary Ann Evans. It's a biographical book, but it's written through the letters. She sees Eliot's life through her letters. Again, it's really good at seeing through Eliot. What Eliot says is not always what she means. She can be quite defensive and boastful. These are things that really come out in her letters. Anyway, that's a brilliant book, which again, really helped me to read Eliot critically. Not unsympathetically, but critically, because I tend to fall in love with thinkers that I'm reading. I'm not instinctively critical. I want to just show how amazing they are, but of course, you also need to be critical. Those books were--Henry: Or realistic.Clare: Yes, realistic and just like, "This is a human being," and having a sense of humor about it as well. That's what's great about Catherine Hughes's book, is that she's got a really good sense of humor. That makes for a fun reading experience.Henry: Why do you think more philosophers don't write biographies? It's an unphilosophical activity, isn't it?Clare: That's a very interesting question. Just a week or so ago, I was talking to Clare Mac Cumhaill I'm not quite sure how you pronounce her name, but anyway, so there's--Henry: Oh, who did the four women in Oxford?Clare: Yes. Exactly.Henry: That was a great book.Clare: Yes. Clare MacCumhaill co-wrote this book with Rachael Wiseman. They're both philosophers. They wrote this group biography of Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, and Mary Midgley. I happened to be having dinner with a group of philosophers and sitting opposite her. Had never met her before. It was just a delight to talk to another philosopher who'd written biography. We both felt that there was a real philosophical potential in biography, that thinking about a shape of a human life, what it is to know another person, the connection between a person's life and their philosophy. Even to put it that way implies that philosophy is something that isn't part of life, that you've got philosophy over here and you've got life over there. Then you think about the connection between them.That, when you think about it, is quite a questionable way of looking at philosophy as if it's somehow separate from life or detachment life. We had a really interesting conversation about this. There's Ray Monk's brilliant biography of Wittgenstein, The Duty of Genius. He's another philosopher who's written biography, and then went on to reflect, interestingly, on the relationship between philosophy and biography.I think on the one hand, I'd want to question the idea that biography and philosophy are two different things or that a person's life and their thought are two separate questions. On the other hand, we've got these two different literary forms. One of them is a narrative form of writing, and one of them- I don't know what the technical term for it would be- but a more systematic writing where with systematic writing, it's not pinned to a location or a time, and the structure of the text is conceptual rather than narrative. It's not ordered according to events and chronology, and things happening, you've just got a more analytic style of writing.Those two styles of writing are very, very different ways of writing. They're two different literary forms. Contemporary academic philosophers tend to write, almost always-- probably are pretty much forced to write in the systematic analytic style because as soon as you would write a narrative, the critique will be, "Well, that's not philosophy. That's history," or "That's biography," or, "That's anecdote." You might get little bits of narrative in some thought experiment, but by definition, the thought experiment is never pinned to a particular time, place, or context. "Let's imagine a man standing on a bridge. There's a fat man tied to the railway line [crosstalk]." Those are like little narratives, but they're not pinned. There is a sequencing, so I suppose they are narratives. Anyway, as you can tell, they're quite abstracted little narratives.That interests me. Why is it that narrative is seen as unphilosophical? Particularly when you think about the history of philosophy, and we think about Plato's dialogues, which tend to have a narrative form, and the philosophical conversation is often situated within a narrative. The Phaedo, for example, at the beginning of the book, Socrates is sitting in prison, and he's about to drink his poisoned hemlock. He's awaiting execution. His friends, students, and disciples are gathered around him. They're talking about death and how Socrates feels about dying. Then, at the end of the book, he dies, and his friends are upset about it.Think about, I know, Descartes' Meditations, where we begin in the philosopher's study, and he's describing--Henry: With the fire.Clare: He's by the fire, but he's also saying, "I've reached a point in my life where I thought, actually, it's time to question some assumptions." He's sitting by the fire, but he's also locating the scene in his own life trajectory. He's reached a certain point in life. Of course, that may be a rhetorical device. Some readers might want to say, "Well, that's mere ornamentation. We extract the arguments from that. That's where the philosophy is." I think it's interesting to think about why philosophers might choose narrative as a form.Spinoza, certainly not in the Ethics, which is about as un-narrative as you can get, but in some of his other, he experimented with an earlier version of the Ethics, which is actually like Descartes' meditation. He begins by saying, "After experience had taught me to question all the values I'd been taught to pursue, I started to wonder whether there was some other genuine good that was eternal," and so on. He then goes on to narrate his experiments with a different kind of life, giving up certain things and pursuing other things.Then you come to George Eliot. I think these are philosophical books.Henry: Yes.Clare: The challenge lies in saying, "Well, how are they philosophical?" Are they philosophical because there are certain ideas in the books that you could pick out and say, "Oh, here, she's critiquing utilitarianism. These are her claims." You can do that with Eliot's books. There are arguments embedded in the books. I wouldn't want to say that that's where their philosophical interest is exhausted by the fact that you can extract non-narrative arguments from them, but rather there's also something philosophical in her exploration of what a human life is like and how choices get made and how those choices, whether they're free or unfree, shape a life, shape other lives. What human happiness can we realistically hope for? What does a good life look like? What does a bad life look like? Why is the virtue of humility important?These are also, I think, philosophical themes that can perhaps only be treated in a long-form, i.e., in a narrative that doesn't just set a particular scene from a person's life, but that follows the trajectory of a life. That was a very long answer to your question.Henry: No, it was a good answer. I like it.Clare: Just to come back to what you said about biography. When I wrote my first biography on Kierkegaard, I really enjoyed working in this medium of narrative for the first time. I like writing. I'd enjoyed writing my earlier books which were in that more analytic conceptual style where the structure was determined by themes and by concepts rather than by any chronology. I happily worked in that way. I had to learn how to do it. I had to learn how to write. How do you write a narrative?To come back to the Metaphysical Animals, the group biography, writing a narrative about one person's life is complicated enough, but writing a narrative of four lives, it's a real-- from a technical point of view-- Even if you only have one life, lives are not linear. If you think about a particular period in your subject's life, people have lots of different things going on at once that have different timeframes. You're going through a certain period in your relationship, you're working on a book, someone close to you dies, you're reading Hegel. All that stuff is going on. The narrative is not going to be, "Well, on Tuesday this happened, and then on Wednesday--" You can't use pure chronology to structure a narrative. It's not just one thing following another.It's not like, "Well, first I'll talk about the relationship," which is an issue that was maybe stretching over a three-month period. Then in this one week, she was reading Hegel and making these notes that were really important. Then, in the background to this is Carlisle's view of history. You've got these different temporal periods that are all bearing on a single narrative. The challenge to create a narrative from all that, that's difficult, as any biographer knows. To do that with four subjects at once is-- Anyway, they did an amazing job in that book.Henry: It never gets boring, that book.Clare: No. I guess the problem with a biography is often you're stuck with this one person through the whole--Henry: I think the problem with a biography of philosophers is that it can get very boring. They kept the interest for four thinkers. I thought that was very impressive, really.Clare: Yes, absolutely. Yes. There's a really nice balance between the philosophy and the-- I like to hear about Philippa Foot's taste in cushions. Maybe some readers would say, "Oh, no, that's frivolous." It's not the view I would take. For me, it's those apparently frivolous details that really help you to connect with a person. They will deliver a sense of the person that nothing else will. There's no substitute for that.In my book about Kierkegaard, it was reviewed by Terry Eagleton in the London Review of Books. It was generally quite a positive review. He was a bit sneering about the fact that it had what he calls "domestic flourishes" in the book. I'd mentioned that Kierkegaard's favorite flower was the lily of the valley. He's like, "Huh." He saw these as frivolities, whereas for me, the fact that Kierkegaard had a favorite flower tells us something about the kind of man he was.Henry: Absolutely.Clare: Actually, his favorite flower had all sorts of symbolism attached to it, Kierkegaard, it had 10 different layers of meaning. It's never straightforward. There's interesting value judgments that get made. There's partly the view that anything biographical is not philosophical. It is in some way frivolous or incidental. That would be perhaps a very austere, purest philosophical on a certain conception of philosophy view.Then you might also have views about what is and isn't interesting, what is and isn't significant. Actually, that's a really interesting question. What is significant about a person's life, and what isn't? Actually, to come back to Eliot, that's a question she is, I think, absolutely preoccupied with, most of all in Middlemarch and in Daniel Deronda. This question about what is trivial and what is significant. Dorothea is frustrated because she feels that her life is trivial. She thinks that Casaubon is preoccupied with really significant questions, the key to all mythologies, and so on.Henry: [chuckles]Clare: There's really a deep irony there because that view of what's significant is really challenged in the novel. Casaubon's project comes to seem really futile, petty, and insignificant. In Daniel Deronda, you've got this amazing question where she shows her heroine, Gwendolyn, who's this selfish 20-year-old girl who's pursuing her own self-interest in a pretty narrow way, about flirting and thinking about her own romantic prospects.Henry: Her income.Clare: She's got this inner world, which is the average preoccupation of a silly 20-year-old girl.Henry: Yes. [laughs]Clare: Then Eliot's narrator asks, "Is there a slenderer, more insignificant thread in human history than this consciousness of a girl who's preoccupied with how to make her own life pleasant?" The question she's asking is-- Well, I think she wants to tell us that slender thread of the girl's consciousness is part of the universe, basically. It's integral. It belongs to a great drama of the struggle between good and evil, which is this mythical, cosmic, religious, archetypal drama that gets played out on the scale of the universe, but also, in this silly girl's consciousness.I think she's got to a point where she was very explicitly thematizing that distinction between the significant and the insignificant and playing with that distinction. It comes back to Dorothea's unhistoric life. It's unhistoric, it's insignificant. Yet, by the end of Middlemarch, by the time we get to that description of Dorothea's unhistoric life, this life has become important to us. We care about Dorothea and how her life turned out. It has this grandeur to it that I think Eliot exposes. It's not the grandeur of historic importance, it's some other human grandeur that I think she wants to find in the silly girls as much as in the great men.Henry: I always find remarks like that quite extraordinary. One of the things I want a biography to tell me is, "How did they come to believe these things?" and, "How did they get the work done?" The flowers that he likes, that's part of that, right? It's like Bertrand Russell going off on his bicycle all the time. That's part of how it all happened. I remember Elizabeth Anscombe in the book about the four philosophers, this question of, "How does she do it all when she's got these six children?" There's this wonderful image of her standing in the doorway to her house smoking. The six children are tumbling around everywhere. The whole place is filthy. I think they don't own a Hoover or she doesn't use it. You just get this wonderful sense of, "This is how she gets it done."Clare: That's how you do it.Henry: Yes. The idea that this is some minor domestic trivial; no, this is very important to understanding Elizabeth Anscombe, right?Clare: Yes, of course.Henry: I want all of this.Clare: Yes. One of the things I really like about her is that she unashamedly brings that domesticity into her philosophical work. She'll use examples like, "I go to buy some potatoes from the grocer's." She'll use that example, whereas that's not the thing that-- Oxford dons don't need to buy any potatoes because they have these quasi-monastic lives where they get cooked for and cleaned for. I like the way she chooses those. Of course, she's not a housewife, but she chooses these housewifely examples to illustrate her philosophy.I don't know enough about Anscombe, but I can imagine that that's a deliberate choice. That's a choice she's making. There's so many different examples she could have thought of. She's choosing that example, which is an example, it shows a woman doing philosophy, basically. Of course, men can buy potatoes too, but in that culture, the buying of the potatoes would be the woman's work.Henry: Yes. She wasn't going to run into AJ Ayre at the grocer's.Clare: Probably not, no.Henry: No. Are you religious in any sense?Clare: I think I am in some sense. Yes, "religious," I think it's a really problematic concept. I've written a bit about this concept of religion and what it might mean. I wrote a book on Spinoza called Spinoza's Religion. Part of what I learned through writing the book was that in order to decide whether or not Spinoza was religious, we have to rethink the very concept of religion, or we have to see that that's what Spinoza was doing.I don't know. Some people are straightforwardly religious and I guess could answer that question, say, "Oh yes, I've always been a Christian," or whatever. My answer is a yes and no answer, where I didn't have a religious upbringing, and I don't have a strong religious affiliation. Sorry, I'm being very evasive.Henry: What do you think of the idea that we're about to live through or we are living through a religious revival? More people going to church, more young people interested in it. Do you see that, or do you think that's a blip?Clare: That's probably a question for the social scientists, isn't it? It just totally depends where you are and what community you're--Henry: Your students, you are not seeing students who are suddenly more religious?Clare: Well, no, but my students are students who've chosen to do philosophy. Some of them are religious and some of them are not. It will be too small a sample to be able to diagnose. I can say that my students are much more likely to be questioning. Many of them are questioning their gender, thinking about how to inhabit gender roles differently.That's something I perceive as a change from 20 years ago, just in the way that my students will dress and present themselves. That's a discernible difference. I can remark on that, but I can't remark on whether they're more religious.Just actually just been teaching a course on philosophy of religion at King's. Some students in the course of having discussions would mention that they were Muslim, Christian, or really into contemplative practices and meditation. Some of the students shared those interests. Others would say, "Oh, well, I'm an atheist, so this is--" There's just a range-Henry: A full range.Clare: -of different religious backgrounds and different interests. There's always been that range. I don't know whether there's an increased interest in religion among those students in particular, but I guess, yes, maybe on a national or global level, statistically-- I don't know. You tell me.Henry: What do you think about all these reports that undergraduates today-- "They have no attention span, they can't read a book, everything is TikTok," do you see this or are you just seeing like, "No, my students are fine actually. This is obviously happening somewhere else"?Clare: Again, it's difficult to say because I see them when they're in their classes, I see them in their seminars, I see them in the lectures. I don't know what their attention spans are like in their--Henry: Some of the other people I've interviewed will say things like, "I'll set reading, and they won't do it, even though it's just not very much reading,"-Clare: Oh, I see. Oh, yes.Henry: -or, "They're on the phone in the--" You know what I mean?Clare: Yes.Henry: The whole experience from 10, 20 years ago, these are just different.Clare: I'm also more distracted by my phone than I was 20 years ago. I didn't have a phone 20 years ago.Henry: Sure.Clare: Having a phone and being on the internet is constantly disrupting my reading and my writing. That's something that I think many of us battle with a bit. I'm sure most of us are addicted to our phones. I wouldn't draw a distinction between myself and my students in that respect. I've been really impressed by my students, pleasantly surprised by the fact they've done their reading because it can be difficult to do reading, I think.Henry: You're not one of these people who says, "Oh students today, it's really very different than it was 20 years ago. You can't get them to do anything. The whole thing is--" Some people are apocalyptic about-- Actually, you're saying no, your students are good?Clare: I like my students. Whether they do the reading or not, I'm not going to sit here and complain about them.Henry: No, sure, sure. I think that's good. What are you working on next?Clare: I've just written a book. It came out of a series of lectures I gave on life writing and philosophy, actually. Connected to what we were talking about earlier. Having written the biographies, I started to reflect a bit more on biography and how it may or may not be a philosophical enterprise, and questions about the shape of a life and what one life can transmit to another life. Something about the devotional labor of the biographer when you're living with this person and you're-- It's devotional, but it's also potentially exploitative because often you're using your subjects, of course, without their consent because they're dead. You're presenting their life to public view and you're selling books, so it's devotional and exploitative. I think that's an interesting pairing.Anyway, so I gave these lectures last year in St Andrews and they're going to be published in September.Henry: Great.Clare: I've finished those really.Henry: That's what's coming.Clare: That's what's coming. Then I've just been writing again about Kierkegaard, actually. I haven't really worked on Kierkegaard for quite a few years. As often happens with these things, I got invited to speak on Kierkegaard and death at a conference in New York in November. My initial thought was like, "Oh, I wish it was Spinoza, I don't want to--" I think I got to the point where I'd worked a lot on Kierkegaard and wanted to do other things. I was a bit like, "Oh, if only I was doing Spinoza, that would be more up my street." I wanted to go to the conference, so I said yes to this invitation. I was really glad I did because I went back and read what Kierkegaard has written about death, which is very interesting because Kierkegaard's this quintessentially death-fixated philosopher, that's his reputation. It's his reputation, he's really about death. His name means churchyard. He's doomy and gloomy. There's the caricature.Then, to actually look at what he says about death and how he approaches the subject, which I'd forgotten or hadn't even read closely in the first place, those particular texts. That turned out to be really interesting, so I'm writing-- It's not a book or anything, it's just an article.Henry: You're not going to do a George Eliot and produce a novel?Clare: No. I'm not a novelist or a writer of fiction. I don't think I have enough imagination to create characters. What I love about biography is that you get given the characters and you get given the plots. Then, of course, it is a creative task to then turn that into a narrative, as I said before. The kinds of biography I like to write are quite creative, they're not just purely about facts. I think facts can be quite boring. Well, they become interesting in the context of questions about meaning interpretations by themselves. Again, probably why I was right to give up on the history degree. For me, facts are not where my heart is.That amount of creativity I think suits me well, but to create a world as you do when you're a novelist and create characters and plots, and so, that doesn't come naturally to me. I guess I like thinking about philosophical questions through real-life stories. It's one way for philosophy to be connected to real life. Philosophy can also be connected to life through fiction, of course, but it's not my own thing. I like to read other people's fiction. I'm not so bothered about reading other biographies.Henry: No. No, no.[laughter]Clare: I'll write the biographies, and I'll read the fiction.Henry: That's probably the best way. Clare Carlisle, author of The Marriage Question, thank you very much.Clare: Oh, thanks, Henry. It's been very fun to talk to you.Henry: Yes. It was a real pleasure. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.commonreader.co.uk/subscribe

Welcome to the latest episode of L.I.F.T.S – your bite-sized dose of the Latest Industry Fitness Trends and Stories.     Hosts Matthew Januszek, Co-Founder of Escape Fitness and Mo Iqbal, Founder & CEO of SweatWorks, CSO of ABC Fitness attended HFA 2025 in Las Vegas.     In this LIFTS episode, Matthew and Mo are joined by: ● Kathleen Ferguson, founder and CEO of Coach 360. ● Jarrod Saracco, President/Owner of Health Club Doctor. ● Nicole Dunn, CEO of Dunn Pellier Media, Inc. ● Debra Strougo, Fitness Founder. ● Natalia Karbasova, Founder & CEO of FitTech Club. ● Julian Barnes, Co-Founder and CEO of BFS. ● Jarron Aizen, CEO & Founder of Hapana. ● Ross Campbell, Founder & CEO at Beyond Activ. ● Jolin Ma, COO at Beyond Activ.   This episode covers: ● Challenges in emerging markets. ● Community building through industry events and gatherings. ● AI's role in fitness-enhancing efficiency but not replacing human connection. ● The value of community and diverse perspectives in the fitness industry. ● Women's strength training trends and the rise of female-focused equipment. ● Growing focus on women's health needs in fitness and media.   To learn more about HFA, click here: https://hub.healthandfitness.org/hfa-show ====================================================== Support fitness industry news by sponsoring future LIFTS episodes. Contact us at marketing@escapefitness.com for advertising opportunities. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and turn on your notifications so you never miss a new video when it's published: https://www.youtube.com/user/EscapeFitness Shop gym equipment: https://escapefitness.com/shop View our full catalog: https://escapefitness.com/support/catalog (US) https://escapefitness.com/support/catalogue (UK)  ====================================================== Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Escapefitness Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/escapefitness Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/escapefitness LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/escapefitness/   0:00 Intro 1:33 Kathleen Ferguson, founder and CEO of Coach 360 9:47 Jarrod Saracco, President/Owner of Health Club Doctor 21:01 Nicole Dunn and Debra Strougo 33:11 Natalia Karbasova, Founder & CEO of FitTech Club 44:38 Intro to Athletech News cocktail party 44:50 Jolin Ma and Ross Campbell of Beyond Activ 58:51 Julian Barnes and Jarron Aizen

Nicolle Wallace discusses new reporting that the Pentagon was planning to brief Elon Musk on military plans for a possible conflict with China, the ‘Fighting Oligarchy' tour's huge crowds while Republicans get heckled by dissatisfied voters, law firms and universities bending to the president's demands, and more.Joined by: Julian Barnes, Rev. Al Sharpton, General Barry McCaffrey, Rep. Jim Himes, Mitch Landrieu, Mike Schmidt, Kristy Greenberg, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, and Allison Riggs.

Sculptor Antony Gormley and Professor of French literature, Catriona Seth discuss Victor Hugo's visual art with Tom Sutcliffe. Victor Hugo was a 19th century cultural colossus, known for monumental works such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables as well as his poems, plays and political writings. It's not so well known that throughout his career Hugo drew with pen and ink - the same tools he wrote with - creating some 4,000 pictures. The Royal Academy has gathered together about 70 of these in its exhibition 'Astonishing Things: The Drawings of Victor Hugo'. Julian Barnes, one of our greatest living novelists, talks about his latest nonfiction book Changing My Mind. A series of essays published today by Notting Hill Editions, it ponders moments in his life when he's reconsidered long-held views, from memories and politics to words and the writing of EM Forster.Bestselling author Emma Donoghue is known for her novel Room. She talks about mixing in real life characters to her latest work of fiction The Paris Express, which was inspired by seeing a surreal photograph of a nineteenth century French railway disaster.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet

Nicolle Wallace on the Trump administration pausing intelligence sharing with Ukraine, Musk's dangerous cuts to the federal workforce, and the Supreme Court rejecting Trump's bid to freeze USAID payments. Joined by: Julian Barnes, John Brennan, Paul Rieckhoff, Tim Miller, Mara Gay, Jacob Soboroff, David Jolly, Basil Smikle, Rep. Dan Goldman, Mary McCord, and Andrew Weissmann.

Ik ben er een paar weken tussenuit om te werken aan maar liefst TWEE nieuwe boeken, de plannen voor de TV-serie en, allerbelangrijkst, ik ben mijn moeders verjaardag aan het vieren in Londen. Mijn moeder wilde al sinds ze jaren geleden als au pair in Londen werkte naar The Mousetrap. Hupsakeetjes, wij gingen gisteravond dus naar The Mousetrap en dat is inderdaad ontzettend leuk, vooral vanwege het publiek dat enorm meeleefde. The Mousetrap is het langstlopende toneelstuk op aarde, het is gebaseerd op een waargebeurde misdaad en het was in eerste instantie een 'klus': Mary, de moeder van de Britse koningin Elizabeth, was dol op de verhalen van Christie en wilde voor haar 80e verjaardag een kort verhaal van haar favoriete auteur. Ik kon niks toepasselijkers verzinnen voor mijn moeders 83e verjaardag ;-) Vandaar deze klassieke Moord Podcast, over de verdwijning van de koningin van de misdaad zelve! Op 3 december, om half tien 's avonds gaat Christie nog even welterusten zeggen tegen haar dochter Rosalind en vertrekt daarna in haar auto, een Morris Cowley, de donkere nacht in.  De auto wordt de volgende dag teruggevonden bij een kalkgroeve, naast een meertje waarvan de lokale bevolking zegt dat het er spookt.  Van de schrijfster ontbreekt elk spoor….   Wat is hier gebeurd? Was het een kidnap? Zelfmoord? Of toch... Moord? Luisteren dus! Wil je deze podcast steunen? Koop mijn boek! De moord op mr. Jacques Wijsman is al, hoe toepasselijk, Agatha Christie meets Cissy van Marxveldt genoemd. Bestel vast exemplaar en vertel het aan al je vrienden! Te bestellen bij Bruna.nl, Bol.com maar natuurlijk ook bij je lokale boekhandel!!!! #steunjelokaleboekhandel   Boeken in deze aflevering:  Agatha Christie and the eleven missing days van Jared Cade

"Ich glaube nicht an Gott, aber ich vermisse ihn" - das Bekenntnis von Julian Barnes wählt Ilja Richter als Motto für sein Buch über persönliche Geschichten und Betrachtungen zu Gott und erschafft damit ein neues Genre: den Action-Essay. Von Thilo Jahn.

Veel mensen zijn losgeraakt van religie, maar herkennen zich in wat Julian Barnes zo mooi zei: ‘ik geloof niet in God, maar ik mis hem wel'. Of ze zeggen dat ze niet gelovig zijn, maar wel spiritueel. En dat ze wel willen geloven, maar het gewoonweg niet kunnen. Voor Claartje Kruijff is dit verlangen het beginpunt voor een nieuw gesprek over God. In haar boek Een God die in mij gelooft deelt ze herkenbare en intieme verhalen van haarzelf en de mensen die ze ontmoet. Vanuit deze verhalen verkent ze thema's die in al onze levens voorbij komen — overgave, kwetsbaarheid, gemeenschap, vreugde en verlies — en verbindt ze aan hoe en wat we op die momenten kunnen en mogen geloven. Elsbeth gaat in deze aflevering van De theologie podcast met haar in gesprek.

AVISO LEGAL: Los cuentos, poemas, fragmentos de novelas, ensayos y todo contenido literario que aparece en Crónicas Lunares di Sun podrían estar protegidos por derecho de autor (copyright). Si por alguna razón los propietarios no están conformes con el uso de ellos por favor escribirnos al correo electrónico cronicaslunares.sun@hotmail.com y nos encargaremos de borrarlo inmediatamente.  Si te gusta lo que escuchas y deseas apoyarnos puedes dejar tu donación en PayPal, ahí nos encuentras como @IrvingSun  https://paypal.me/IrvingSun?country.x=MX&locale.x=es_XC 

On this week's show, Dan Kois (author of Vintage Contemporaries and the upcoming Hampton Heights) and Laura Miller (Slate's books and culture columnist and author of The Magician's Book) fill in for Julia and Dana. The panel is first joined by Carl Wilson, Slate's music critic and the author of Let's Talk About Love, to parse through I Am: Celine Dion, a new documentary on Prime Video. Directed by Oscar-nominated director Irene Taylor, I Am: Celine Dion chronicles the French Canadian singer's private battle with Stiff Person Syndrome, an illness that has stripped away Dion's ability to sing – and with it, her identity. Then, the three explore A Family Affair, Netflix's wish fulfillment rom-com for middle-aged women starring Zac Efron, Joey King, and Nicole Kidman (plus a whole lot of Plasticine.) Finally, they dive into the world of aesthetics, inspired by Erin Schwartz's essay for The Cut, “In Defense of Calling Everything an Aesthetic.”  In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel looks into “The Vexing Problem of the ‘Medium Friend'” by Lisa Miller for The New York Times.  Email us at culturefest@slate.com.  Endorsements: Dan: All Fours by Miranda July.  Laura: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley.  Stephen: “Art and Memory” by Julian Barnes for London Review of Books.  Podcast production by Jared Downing. Production assistance by Kat Hong.   Hosts Stephen Metcalf, Dan Kois, Laura Miller Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this week's show, Dan Kois (author of Vintage Contemporaries and the upcoming Hampton Heights) and Laura Miller (Slate's books and culture columnist and author of The Magician's Book) fill in for Julia and Dana. The panel is first joined by Carl Wilson, Slate's music critic and the author of Let's Talk About Love, to parse through I Am: Celine Dion, a new documentary on Prime Video. Directed by Oscar-nominated director Irene Taylor, I Am: Celine Dion chronicles the French Canadian singer's private battle with Stiff Person Syndrome, an illness that has stripped away Dion's ability to sing – and with it, her identity. Then, the three explore A Family Affair, Netflix's wish fulfillment rom-com for middle-aged women starring Zac Efron, Joey King, and Nicole Kidman (plus a whole lot of Plasticine.) Finally, they dive into the world of aesthetics, inspired by Erin Schwartz's essay for The Cut, “In Defense of Calling Everything an Aesthetic.”  In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, the panel looks into “The Vexing Problem of the ‘Medium Friend'” by Lisa Miller for The New York Times.  Email us at culturefest@slate.com.  Endorsements: Dan: All Fours by Miranda July.  Laura: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley.  Stephen: “Art and Memory” by Julian Barnes for London Review of Books.  Podcast production by Jared Downing. Production assistance by Kat Hong.   Hosts Stephen Metcalf, Dan Kois, Laura Miller Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On June 18th, Russian President Vladimir Putin made an unprecedented trip to Pyongyang. It was the first time he'd set foot inside North Korea in nearly 25 years and marks a new low point in his war against Ukraine. This week, we're running a two-part series about the recent courtship between President Putin and North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un. In the first episode, we're joined by New York Times' national security reporter Julian Barnes. He'll walk us through last year's alleged arms deal between Russia and North Korea and Putin's growing desperation for munitions.  On Wednesday we'll dive deep on Putin and Kim's most recent meeting and how it's destabilizing a fragile international order. Guest: Julian Barnes, national security reporter for The New York Times Host:   Ray Suarez If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

Historian and author Kathryn Hughes and No Such Thing As a Fish presenter Dan Schreiber recommend favourite books to Harriett Gilbert. Kathryn chooses Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes, an exploration of the French writer's life in the form of a novel. Dan's choice is very different - John Higgs taking on the conceptual artists and chart toppers The KLF. Harriett has gone for Michael Ondaatje's novel Warlight, set in a murky and mysterious post-war London.Presenter: Harriett GilbertProducer for BBC Audio Bristol: Sally Heaven

Every now and then I run across a challenging quote about the Christian faith from someone who does not embrace the Christian faith. And every now and then, these quotes serve as a wake-up call or much needed punch in the gut. That was certainly the case when I encountered this quote from author and agnostic, Julian Barnes. Barnes writes, “There seems little point in a religion which is merely a weekly social event. What's the point of faith unless you and it are serious – seriously serious – unless your religion fills, directs, stains, and sustains your life?” Parents, what kind of faith is it that you embrace? Are you seriously serious about your relationship with Jesus Christ? That kind of seriously serious faith is the kind of faith that we're called to. It's also the kind of faith that we need to pass on to our kids. And the best way to pass on a seriously serious faith, is to live a seriously serious faith. Why don't you take some time for some serious self-examination today?

In 1984, many assumed that J.G. Ballard's Empire of the Sun had the Booker Prize in the bag. But actually, it was Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac that clinched the prize in the end. This week, we're exploring the bookies' favourite vs the Booker winner to ask which book should have won: Brookner's short, quiet novel set in a genteel Swiss hotel or Ballard's long and action-packed autobiographical epic set in wartime Shanghai. In this episode Jo and James: Discuss the Booker Prize 1984 shortlist Share a brief biography of Anita Brookner Summarise the plot of Anita Brookner's Hotel du Lac Explore the characters in Brookner's novel Share a brief biography of J.G. Ballard Summarise the plot of Empire of the Sun Who should read these books Discuss their thoughts on both novels and which they think should have won the Booker Prize 1984 Reading list: Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/empire-of-the-sun Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/hotel-du-lac Small World by David Lodge: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/small-world Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/flauberts-parrot In Custody by Anita Desai: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/in-custody According to Mark by Penelope Lively: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/books/according-to-mark A full transcript of the episode is available at our website. Follow The Booker Prize Podcast so you never miss an episode. Visit http://thebookerprizes.com/podcast to find out more about us, and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok @thebookerprizes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes (2016) VS The Color Purple by Alice Walker (1982)

"Als al het andere faalde, als de hele wereld een en al onzin leek, hield hij zich hieraan vast: dat goede muziek altijd goede muziek zou blijven en dat grote muziek onaantastbaar was." - Stine vertelt over dit citaat van de Britse schrijver Julian Barnes over de Russische componist Dmitri Sjostakovitsj.

A bittersweet episode of Book Chat has Pandora and Bobby discussing two fittingly bittersweet books: Stoner by John Williams and The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. Also, “some news”, a hearty goodbye, and a look back on some of our Book Chat faves from episodes past.You can get in touch bookchatpod@gmail.com Books/articles mentioned:Stoner and Butcher's Crossing by John WilliamsThe Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan KunderaLand of Milk and Honey by C Pam ZhangThe Science of Storytelling by Will StorrEmily, Bella, Harriet, Octavia, Prudence and Imogen by Jilly CooperThe Great Gatsby by F. Scott FitzgeraldMy Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth StroutOne Day by David NichollsBlack Butterflies by Priscilla Morris Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-AknerThe Greatest American Novel You've Never Heard Of by Tim Kreider for The New Yorker – https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-greatest-american-novel-youve-never-heard-of Stoner: the must-read novel of 2013 by Julian Barnes for The Guardian – https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/13/stoner-john-williams-julian-barnes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to this week's LIFTS, live from CES 2024, the most powerful tech event in the world, showcasing the latest innovations in AI, connected fitness, healthcare and much more.  On this week's episode, hosts Matthew Januszek, Co-Founder of Escape Fitness and Mo Iqbal, Founder & CEO of Sweatworks, take to the show floor to interview some exciting start-ups breaking onto the scene as well as established businesses taking the future of fitness by storm.  They speak with Connor Holowachuk, Co-Founder of Eigen Fitness, Debra Strougo, fitness industry expert, speaker and advisor, Fritz Desir, CEO of Proxie Health, Gary Simpson, Founder of Myrow and Steffan Weiss, CEO & Founder at Straffr and Julian Barnes, CEO and Co-Founder BFS  In this episode, the team discuss; Eigen Fitness' new innovation ‘Node', an AI powered wearable which quantifies and personalizes strength training. The future of single device wearables. Dialling up the market with passion projects from small, incubator founders. Proxie Health, a new care analytics and coordination platform.  Myrow introducing a 22-inch, Peloton-style display for Concept2 rowers. Smart resistance bands and suspension trainers from Straffr. The role of tech in solving the global public health crisis. Driving profitability in boutique businesses. ====================================================== Subscribe to our YouTube channel and turn on your notifications so you never miss a new video when it's published: https://www.youtube.com/user/EscapeFitness Shop gym equipment: https://escapefitness.com/shop View our full catalog:  https://escapefitness.com/support/catalog https://escapefitness.com/support/catalogue  ====================================================== Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Escapefitness Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/escapefitness Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/escapefitness LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/escapefitness/    

This week on the Penguin Podcast we're recapping the year with a selection of the brilliant guests we've welcomed onto the show. We hear from Jane Fallon, Chris van Tulleken, Julian Barnes, David Mitchell and more. We thank you for tuning in, and we'll see you in 2024. Happy holidays.Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, and don't forget to leave us a review – it really helps! To find out more about the #PenguinPodcast, visit www.penguin.co.uk/podcasts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is making a rare trip to Washington this week, pleading his case for American military aid, something which has long been a lifeline for his country but is now increasingly in doubt.Julian Barnes, who covers international security for The Times, explains what has brought Ukraine to the most perilous point since the war began nearly two years ago.Guest: Julian E. Barnes, a correspondent covering the U.S. intelligence agencies and international security for The New York Times.Background reading: The U.S. and Ukraine are searching for a new strategy after a failed counteroffensive.The Ukrainian leader will be appealing for more military support from the United States as an emboldened Russia steps up its attacks on his country.For more information on today's episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Our most popular episode of the year is back! James has gathered the best 'What Are You Reading?' segments from 2023 into a comprehensive summary of book recommendations from our guests.   We discuss a huge variety of books, including thriller, mystery, memoir, rom com, literature, essays, poetry, nonfiction, plays and audiobooks. We also delve into reading habits. Do you read several books at a time, or restrict yourself to one? Do you finish most books you pick up, or allow yourself to quit? And so much more.  This episode features Hilton Koppe, Sanchana Venkatesh, Lee Kofman, Anna Spargo-Ryan, Karina May, Hannah Bent, Holden Sheppard, Hayley Scrivenor, Danielle Binks, Julie Janson, Mark Brandi, Indira Naidoo, Amy Lovat, Jonathon Shannon, Ali Thomas, Jacinta Dietrich, and Annette Higgs.  Books and authors discussed in this episode: Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief by Victoria Chang; The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill;  Lost Connections by Johann Hari; Homesickness by Janine Mikosza; The Fire and the Rose by Robyn Cadwallader; Turning Points in Medieval History by Dorsey Armstrong; Crying in H Mary by Michelle Zauner; Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata; Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason; Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner; Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom; The Wych Elm by Tana French; In the Woods by Tana French; The Others by Mark Brandi; Stolen Focus by Johann Hari; Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka; Crushing by Genevieve Novak; No Hard Feelings by Genevieve Novak; The Shot by Naima Brown; The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka; The Road by Cormac McCarthy; The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy; Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy; The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho; Ghost Music by An Yu; Eta Draconis by Brendan Ritchie; We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson; The Long Knives by Irvine Welsh; We Could Be Something by Will Kostakis; Windhall by Ava Barry; The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane; Limberlost by Robbie Arnott; Benevolence by Julie Janson; Compassion by Julie Janson; Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami; The People of the River by Grace Karskens; Nardi Simpson (from ep 18); Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte; Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky; Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright; The Trial by Franz Kafka; Mistakes and Other Lovers by Amy Lovat; Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier; Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier; A Country of Eternal Light by Paul Dalgarno; Brilliant Lies by David Williamson; Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller; Summer of the Seventeenth Doll by Ray Lawler; A Swim in the Pond in the Road by George Saunders; Lee Kofman (from ep 76); Kate Mildenhall (from ep 13); Sarah Sentilles (from ep 50); From Bhutan to Blacktown by Om Dhungel; Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver; Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe Stolen Focus by Johann Hari; Yellowface by Rebecca Kuang;      Dress Rehearsals by Madison Godfrey; Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey; Lucy Clarke; Echolalia by Briohny Doyle; Bunny by SE Tolsen; On a Bright Hillside in Paradise by Annette Higgs; When One of Us Hurts by Monica Vuu; Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld; A Mile Down by David Vann; A Burglar's Guide to the City by Geoff Manaugh; The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger; The Reader by Bernard Schlink; The Tilt by Chris Hammer; The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes; The Joy Thief by Penny Moodie; We Didn't Think It Through by Gary Lonesborough; Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo; Obsession by Nicole Madigan  Learn more about Ashley's psychological thriller Dark Mode and get your copy here or from your local bookshop.  Learn more about James' award-winning novel Denizen and get your copy here or from your local bookshop. Upcoming events  Ashley is teaching Online Feedback: Manuscript Development for Writing NSW starting 4 March 2024 Ashley is teaching Writing Crime Fiction, a six-week online course with Faber starting 15 May 2024  Get in touch! ashleykalagianblunt.com jamesmckenziewatson.com Instagram: @akalagianblunt + @jamesmcwatson

Suzanne Dean is a Creative Director who has worked at Vintage Books for over twenty years. She has created covers for iconic titles and bestsellers from The Handmaid's Tale, Entangled Life and Sapiens to H is for Hawk, Atonement and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. She's also worked with a wide range of fantastic authors including Haruki Murakami, Toni Morrison and Julian Barnes.  Her designs have been recognised by many, including the ABCD awards, The British Book Design and Production Awards and the V&A Illustration Awards. This year Suzanne also won Designer of the Year at The British Book Awards 2023. In this episode we talk about art direction, managing a team of designers, how Vintage approach cover design, working with illustrators and freelancers, Suzanne's work with Noma Bar for Margaret Atwood's covers and advice for students. To see a selection of Suzanne's work, please visit her website at suzannedean.co.uk. You can also follow Suzanne on Instagram at suzanneldean. If you don't already, I'd highly recommend following the Vintage design team on Instagram as they're really good at regularly posting covers, but I think you get a really great sense of the quality of work that's produced by Suzanne and her team – so make sure to follow them  @vintagebooksdesign Cover Meeting was hosted by Steve Leard and produced by James Ede of beheard.org.uk.

Subscribe now to the PPM Patreon to not only access the full catalog of #1 ParaPower Mapping Hits (like ALTERED STATE FASH ACTORS Pt. V or Speculative Swiss-mania I & II), but also receive the privilege of submitting prompts for these Qs & Clues EPs... patreon.com/ParaPowerMapping Speaking of, #1 coming in hot w/ a far-reaching investigation into sports fixing allegations historical & current, with a particular focus on the global game & its intimate relationship w/ international relations, Western imperialism, & military regimes. We begin w/ the Independent Cork Board Researchers Union Soccer Precepts, which bring us to a discussion of Maradona's "symbolic revenge" over the Brits w/ his infamous "Hand of God" handball goal in World Cup '86, which takes us 4 years further back to the possible Thatcherite-&-Argentine-military-junta false flag known as the Falklands War... To clear the field & set the stage, we unpack some basic history of Operation Condor & the American-backed intel agency collabs b/w military dictatorships in S. America in the '70s & '80s, which led to the extrajudicial death flights & disappearances of likely 100ks of Marxists, leftists, & union members in countries like Argentina (see: Dirty War)... We show how the US State Dep't & See-Aye-Eh were arms-deep in Argentine political life in the years immediately preceding Falklands. We survey a ton of the weirdness re: the Falklands War, including Julian Barnes' assertion it was the "worst reported" war of the televised era, which supports a false flag or preordained war of mutual benefit hypothesis... Marge Thatcher's press embargoes, conferences, & censorship. The strangely civil "Red Cross box"/ neutral zone in the sea off the Falkland Islands where UK & Argentina kept medical ships stationed simultaneously throughout the 70ish or so days. We talk Prince Andrew doing heli flights & the weirdness of the conflict being bookended w/ "flags", which, is a little on the nose... Talking to you, Universe. From there, we break down Bo BrozZzy's incisive Mafiaball & "sports as mass ritual" prompt and the Henry Hill, Burke, Perla Bros. & Rick Kuhn references therein, as well as super timely professional club soccer scandal examples that are reminiscent of Kuhn's point shaving scheme (see the illegal betting breach allegations that have recently broken re: Sandro Tonali, Nicolo Fagioli—who was threatened w/ having his legs broken evidently, and Lucas Paqueta)... We discuss Declan Hill's The Fix & Gabriel Kuhn's Soccer vs. the State. We walk through the history of gambling, sports & otherwise, in England, from Queen Lizzie's Loco Lotto to the National Lotto's 2nd biggest donor, the Freemasonic United Lodge of England. This turns our attention to Voltaire & Casanova's Freemasonic Lotto Syndicates in France in the 18th century. And we conclude w/ a discussion of the distinct possibility that Sec. of State & national security tulpa Henry Kissinger—one of the architects of the bloody anticommunist conspiracy to bind together the intel services of Southern Cone countries & "disappear" leftists... anyways, we end w/ an examination of a couple articles & US Embassy & State Dep't memos that indicate that Sec. of Sports Fixing Kissinger may have been directly-or-indirectly involved in fixing the 1978 World Cup held in Argentina, when Gen. Videla & his Peruvian counterpart pressured the Peruvian nat'l team to deliberately lose to Argentina & the accompanying Satanic numerology of the game's scoreline—as well as a bevy of further 6s in accompanying stats. Oh, and we fit in a few references to Zion*st involvement in Operation Condor, the

Last week we crowned the best Booker shortlist ever and this week, we're going even deeper into that list. In 2005, the odds were on Julian Barnes to win the Booker Prize with Arthur & George but the judges chose The Sea by John Banville. Arthur & George traces the intersecting lives of an obscure solicitor and the world-famous creator of Sherlock Holmes, while The Sea follows a man attempting to escape a recent loss while confronting a past trauma. So, we're taking a closer look at both books and asking: who was right – the Booker judges or the bookies? In this episode Jo and James: Give plot summaries of Arthur & George and The Sea Share a short biography of Julian Barnes and John Banville Discuss the merits of each novel Consider whether the bookies' favourite should have won the Booker Prize in 2005 Reading list: The Sea by John Banville Arthur & George by Julian Barnes On Beauty by Zadie Smith The Accidental by Ali Smith A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie In the Fold by Rachel Cusk A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel Saturday by Ian McEwan Further resources: How do you place a winning bet on the Booker Prize? via The Atlantic A full transcript of the episode is available at our website. Follow The Booker Prize Podcast so you never miss an episode. Visit http://thebookerprizes.com/podcast to find out more about us, and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok @thebookerprizes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Skådespelaren Johan Ulveson kliver upp på operascenen för första gången med huvudrollen i Folkoperans Tidens Larm. Jenny Teleman har träffat honom, och han blir rörd när han pratar om musiken. Lyssna på alla avsnitt i Sveriges Radio Play. Kan man göra odödlig klassisk musik - som hela världen älskar - i ett mordiskt system?Kompositören Dmitrij Dmitrijevitj Sjostakovitj var en av 1900-talets främsta och hela sitt liv verksam i Sovjetunionen. Han böjde sig lydigt för makten, men gjorde samtidigt ett envist diskret motstånd. Författaren Julian Barnes roman ”Tidens larm” är ett porträtt av denne kluvne man och konstnär. Nu blir romanen dramatiserad musikteater på Folkoperan i Stockholm med Johan Ulveson i rollen som Sjostakovitj. P1 Kulturs Jenny Teleman ramlar in på en repetition av ”Tidens larm” - och hamnar mitt inne i en av Johan Ulvesons repliker om hur en dröm om frihet kan se ut.Producent: Anna Tullberg

Russia is firing off more artillery shells than they can produce at home, forcing the Kremlin to shop around for a new supplier. Ray Suarez speaks with New York Times' national security reporter Julian Barnes about Russia's alleged arms deal with North Korea, and what it means for the war in Ukraine.    Guest:   Julian Barnes, national security reporter for The New York Times   Host:   Ray Suarez   If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

In a rare move, the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, traveled outside his country this week to meet with the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin. Julian Barnes, a national security reporter for The New York Times, explains what Russia wants from North Korea and how far Mr. Putin might go to get it.Guest: Julian E. Barnes, a national security reporter for The New York Times.Background reading: Kim Jong-un has ammunition stocks that Russia covets as it continues its war in Ukraine, and North Korea may get advanced technology and badly needed food aid in return.Heading to Russia to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin, the North Korean leader chose to travel by rail, on a train with some unusual features.For more information on today's episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Eleanor Wachtel has spoken to the award-winning English writer Julian Barnes many times over the course of his lengthy career. In June 2016, he joined her onstage at the Bluma Appel Salon at the Toronto Reference Library to talk about his love of music, his novel The Noise of Time, about the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, and dealing with death. *Please note this episode contains some discussion of suicide.

Episode 1615: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Julian Barnes, author of ELIZABETH FINCH, about the polytheism of antiquity and how to become somebody who can pass on wisdom Julian Barnes was born in Leicester, England on January 19, 1946. He was educated at the City of London School from 1957 to 1964 and at Magdalen College, Oxford, from which he graduated in modern languages (with honours) in 1968. After graduation, he worked as a lexicographer for the Oxford English Dictionary supplement for three years. In 1977, Barnes began working as a reviewer and literary editor for the New Statesman and the New Review. From 1979 to 1986 he worked as a television critic, first for the New Statesman and then for the Observer. Barnes has received several awards and honours for his writing, including the 2011 Man Booker Prize for The Sense of an Ending. Three additional novels were shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize (Flaubert's Parrot 1984, England, England 1998, and Arthur & George 2005). Barnes's other awards include the Somerset Maugham Award (Metroland 1981), Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize (FP 1985); Prix Médicis (FP 1986); E. M. Forster Award (American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, 1986); Gutenberg Prize (1987); Grinzane Cavour Prize (Italy, 1988); and the Prix Femina (Talking It Over 1992). Barnes was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1988, Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1995 and Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2004. In 1993 he was awarded the Shakespeare Prize by the FVS Foundation and in 2004 won the Austrian State Prize for European Literature. In 2011 he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature. Awarded biennially, the prize honours a lifetime's achievement in literature for a writer in the English language who is a citizen of the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland. He received the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence in 2013 and the 2015 Zinklar Award at the first annual Blixen Ceremony in Copenhagen. In 2016, the American Academy of Arts & Letters elected Barnes as an honorary foreign member. Also in 2016, Barnes was selected as the second recipient of the Siegfried Lenz Prize for his outstanding contributions as a European narrator and essayist. On 25 January 2017, the French President appointed Julian Barnes to the rank of Officier in the Ordre National de la Légion d'Honneur. The citation from the French Ambassador in London, Sylvie Bermann, reads: 'Through this award, France wants to recognize your immense talent and your contribution to raising the profile of French culture abroad, as well as your love of France.' He was awarded the 2021 Jerusalem Prize and the 2021 Yasnaya Polyana Prize, the latter for his book Nothing to Be Frightened Of. Also in 2021, he was awarded the Jean Bernard Prize, so named in memory of the great specialist in hematology who was a member of the French Academy and chaired the Academy of Medicine. Julian Barnes has written numerous novels, short stories, and essays. He has also translated a book by French author Alphonse Daudet and a collection of German cartoons by Volker Kriegel. His writing has earned him considerable respect as an author who deals with the themes of history, reality, truth and love. Barnes lives in London. Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

EPISODE 1617: In this second KEEN ON interview with Julian Barnes, the distinguished British writer, Andrew talks to Julian about growing up in England, his lifelong romance with Europe and that "golden" generation of British writers Julian Barnes was born in Leicester, England on January 19, 1946. He was educated at the City of London School from 1957 to 1964 and at Magdalen College, Oxford, from which he graduated in modern languages (with honours) in 1968. After graduation, he worked as a lexicographer for the Oxford English Dictionary supplement for three years. In 1977, Barnes began working as a reviewer and literary editor for the New Statesman and the New Review. From 1979 to 1986 he worked as a television critic, first for the New Statesman and then for the Observer. Barnes has received several awards and honours for his writing, including the 2011 Man Booker Prize for The Sense of an Ending. Three additional novels were shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize (Flaubert's Parrot 1984, England, England 1998, and Arthur & George 2005). Barnes's other awards include the Somerset Maugham Award (Metroland 1981), Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize (FP 1985); Prix Médicis (FP 1986); E. M. Forster Award (American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, 1986); Gutenberg Prize (1987); Grinzane Cavour Prize (Italy, 1988); and the Prix Femina (Talking It Over 1992). Barnes was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1988, Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1995 and Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2004. In 1993 he was awarded the Shakespeare Prize by the FVS Foundation and in 2004 won the Austrian State Prize for European Literature. In 2011 he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature. Awarded biennially, the prize honours a lifetime's achievement in literature for a writer in the English language who is a citizen of the United Kingdom or the Republic of Ireland. He received the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence in 2013 and the 2015 Zinklar Award at the first annual Blixen Ceremony in Copenhagen. In 2016, the American Academy of Arts & Letters elected Barnes as an honorary foreign member. Also in 2016, Barnes was selected as the second recipient of the Siegfried Lenz Prize for his outstanding contributions as a European narrator and essayist. On 25 January 2017, the French President appointed Julian Barnes to the rank of Officier in the Ordre National de la Légion d'Honneur. The citation from the French Ambassador in London, Sylvie Bermann, reads: 'Through this award, France wants to recognize your immense talent and your contribution to raising the profile of French culture abroad, as well as your love of France.' He was awarded the 2021 Jerusalem Prize and the 2021 Yasnaya Polyana Prize, the latter for his book Nothing to Be Frightened Of. Also in 2021, he was awarded the Jean Bernard Prize, so named in memory of the great specialist in hematology who was a member of the French Academy and chaired the Academy of Medicine. Julian Barnes has written numerous novels, short stories, and essays. He has also translated a book by French author Alphonse Daudet and a collection of German cartoons by Volker Kriegel. His writing has earned him considerable respect as an author who deals with the themes of history, reality, truth and love. Barnes lives in London. Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To mark our 25th anniversary, Julian Barnes returns to Bookclub. He's answering readers' questions about his Booker-shortlisted novel Arthur and George. It's based on real events and tells the story of Arthur Conan Doyle's campaign to overturn the conviction of a young solicitor, George Edalji, Upcoming recording: Thursday 13 July 1830 at BBC Broadcasting House in London - Mick Herron on Slow Horses. Thursday 17 August 1900 at The Portobello Bookshop in Edinburgh - Jenni Fagan on Luckenbooth

James Naughtie and readers are joined by novelist Sarah Winman, answering questions about her novel Tin Man. It's a moving and intimate portrait of three characters, Michael, Ellis and Annie. They variously fall in love, and fall out of touch, but are always deeply connected. Tin Man is a short and powerful novel about love, loss and kindness. Our next Bookclub recordings are with Mary Lawson, discussing her novel Crow Lake, at 1300 on 24 May at BBC Broadcasting House in London. Julian Barnes discussing Arthur and George at 1830 on Tuesday 13 June at BBC Broadcasting House, London. email bookclub@bbc.co.uk to take part

Con Sergio del Molino y Eva Orúe, directora de la Feria del libro de Madrid, nos remontamos al año 2016 cuando Sergio del Molino titulaba con 'Los ególatras' un escrito en el que reivindicaba el ego de los autores y terminaba con algunas recomendaciones entre las que se encontraba el libro del que hablaremos hoy 'Francis Plug: cómo ser un autor público' de Paul Ewen.  Este libro se basa en experiencias y observaciones realizadas y vividas de primera mano en encuentros reales con autores. Escritores como Salman Rushdie, V.S Naipol, Margaret Atwood, Julian Barnes, Nadine Gordimer, Cotzee, Ian McEwan, John Banviller y Kazuo Ishiguro que tenían charlas con resultados tan catastróficos como hilarantes que ofrece dos puntos de vista de escritores: los tímidos y los ególatras. 

“What if we could do it better than anyone else in the ecosystem?” Nathan McCauley asked himself while co-founding Anchorage Digital, a unicorn assets platform that provides instantly settled key storage and custody—holding investments on behalf of investors—for digital assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Before starting this venture, he worked at financial services platform Square, where he performed what he called “financial security” for four years with his future Anchorage Digital co-founder Diogo Monica. There the two helped to design the digital card reader with Jack Dorsey. Wanting to learn more about the sales, marketing and development aspects of B2B business before starting their own company, he and Diogo joined Docker, a software platform that helps developers to build, run and share applications.  Nathan talks about working at Square with Jack Dorsey and Keith Rabois, their unique approaches to leadership, and what the experience at Docker was versus what he thought it was going to be. Brendan explains the problem with overindexing on opportunities to make what turn out to be largely unneeded products. Early on in his career, Nathan's managers constantly evaluated him as having “irrational optimism.” He later learned about the power of being paranoid.  Nathan started Anchorage because he wanted to build a culture, one in which his employees could find a purpose and enrich their lives. With this motivation still at the forefront, he spends a lot of time interviewing potential employees. He explains the key to finding the right people who align with the company's mission.  Quotes: “This idea of sitting around and waiting for good opportunities and then when you find them, putting everything into them. One of the things that would've happened if I decided to start a company just after Square is I would've probably gone after a smaller opportunity that wasn't as high leverage as Anchorage. And so I'm extremely grateful for the patience aspect of it. In terms of waiting for the right opportunity, that was a good fit for mine and my co-founders' skillset. That's not to say that I didn't learn a ton from Docker. I actually did learn a ton from Docker too. But it's kind of a dual purpose of learning a lot, learning about enterprise sales, learning about marketing, but also not jumping into something that was not as big of an opportunity as it possibly could have been.” (24:29-25:18 | Nathan)  “We had this idea of a very secure system without a problem that actually needed solving that way, the custody problem coming along was almost this conceptual model of an idea of a very secure system that finally had a use case that we could build towards. So the answer to that ends up being that we had a very clear product vision very early on what needed to get built,  but we did not want to build an mvp. because we knew the very nature of the product was likely to hold non-trivial amounts of funds very early on. We didn't want to do anything less than good enough in the first version.” (29:44-30:27 | Nathan)  “The most useful outlet for fear is to keep innovating.” (35:46-35:50 | Nathan) Connect with Brendan Dell: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendandell/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendanDell Instagram: @thebrendandell TikTok: @brendandell39 Buy a copy of Brendan's Book, The 12 Immutable Laws of High-Impact Messaging: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780578210926    Connect with Nathan McCauley: Anchorage.com nathan@anchorage.com Check out Nathan's recommended books:   Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points that Challenge Every Company by Andrew S. Grove https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780385483827 Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781400077304 A History of the World in Ten and a Half Chapters by Julian Barnes https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780679731375 Raids on the Unspeakable by Thomas Merton https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780811201018 Please don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe to Billion Dollar Tech on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts! Use code Brendan30 for 30% off your annual membership with RiverSide.fm  Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

This week on the Penguin Podcast, Nihal Arthanayake is joined by English writer and national treasure, Julian Barnes.He joins us to discuss the paperback publication of his most recent novel, Elizabeth Finch. Nihal and Julian also discuss his 'controlled' friendship with novelist Anita Brookner, how his worldview has been shaped by his french perspective, why Olympic women rowers move him to tears, and why the British need to honestly address their imperial history. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, and please do leave us a review – it really does help us. And finally, to find out more about the #PenguinPodcast, visit https://www.penguin.co.uk/podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Helaine Knapp, a self-professed "tech junkie" with a Big Ten education and a penchant for healthy living, risks it all to launch a boutique fitness empire, only to discover the water is colder and the monsters more fierce than she ever imagined. City Row is over 10 years old and they were one of the first to "make rowing sexy" and bring it to the forefront.  She is now an expert in connected fitness, having built a best-in-class software platform and content production.  Helaine was always a fitness enthusiast, but she had to learn the hard way to take it slow. After college, Helaine was working in tech startups when her love for fitness kicked in again. She was a "Spinning junkie," trying to out-work everyone else, but it led to her herniating three disks in her lower back. After this, she developed a concept for a boutique fitness studio, and recruited her old college friend Annie Mulgrew to help. Together, they built City Row from the ground up, and in the process, created an empire. Despite the challenges they faced, Helaine learned that the best way to succeed was to go together, not alone. As someone who never started a business prior to jumping in with both feet, she states "As I tell young entrepreneurs all the time . . . I knew that it was going to be pretty hard, but I also knew that I wanted to bet on myself. And I would say, jump in if you really want to do it, but go in wise, with eyes wide open. This is not rainbows and butterflies. The water is cold, and there are fucking monsters lurking below. And if that sounds appealing to you, then you should definitely have some fun and jump in. But the water is cold and there are sharks!" In this episode, she and Pete discuss:  1. How Helaine used her tech skills to create a successful boutique fitness business. 2. What strategies she used to build a strong team culture and successful franchise. 3. The challenges entrepreneurs faced during the pandemic (and now post-pandemic climate) and how to overcome them. Click here to download transcript.  Other episodes you'll enjoy around boutique fitness: Julian Barnes: https://www.halotalks.com/episode-326-julian-barnes-ceo-co-founder-boutique-fitness-solutions/ Greco Fitness: https://www.halotalks.com/greco-fitness-jenna-york-and-mike-donnelly/ Sumner Hanna: https://www.halotalks.com/episode-370-sumner-hanna-senior-instructor-at-soulcycle-designer-and-co-founder-sumner-leigh-athletics/ Connect With Us:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehaloadvisors/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Integritysquare YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@halotalks Twitter: https://twitter.com/thehaloadvisors LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/integrity-square/ Website: https://www.halotalks.com Loved this episode? Leave us a review and rating here.

She's been a novelist, a playwright, a critic, an essayist, a memoirist, a journalist, a writer for cinema and a historian of theatre -- in both English and Marathi. Shanta Gokhale joins Amit Varma in episode 311 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about her remarkable life and times. (For full linked show notes, go to SeenUnseen.in.) Also check out: 1. Shanta Gokhale on Amazon, Wikipedia and her own website. 2. One Foot on the Ground -- Shanta Gokhale. 3. Living With Father: A Memoir -- Shanta Gokhale. 4. आमची आई : इंदिरा गोपाळ गोखले -- Shanta Gokhale. 5. The Engaged Observer: The Selected Writings of Shanta Gokhale -- Edited by Jerry Pinto. 6. Rita Velinkar (Marathi) (English) -- Shanta Gokhale. 7. Tya Varshi/Crowfall (Marathi) (English) -- Shanta Gokhale. 8. Playwright at the Centre: Marathi Drama from 1843 to the Present -- Shanta Gokhale. 9. Shivaji Park: Dadar 28: History, Places, People -- Shanta Gokhale. 10. Satyadev Dubey: A Fifty-Year Journey Through Theatre -- Edited by Shanta Gokhale. 11. The Scenes We Made: An Oral History of Experimental Theatre in Mumbai -- Edited by Shanta Gokhale. 12. Avinash: The Indestructible -- Shanta Gokhale. 13. Smritichitre: The Memoirs of a Spirited Wife -- Lakshmibai Tilak (translated by Shanta Gokhale). 14. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja). 15. The Adda at the End of the Universe -- Episode 309 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Sathaye and Roshan Abbas). 16. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. The Never Never Nest -- Cedric Mount. 18. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mrinal Pande). 19. The Female Eunuch -- Germaine Greer. 20. The Second Sex -- Simone de Beauvoir. 21. A Godless Congregation — Amit Varma. 22. Agarkar's Donkeys: A Meditation on God — Amit Varma. 23. The Life and Times of Urvashi Butalia — Episode 287 of The Seen and the Unseen. 24. The Kavita Krishnan Files — Episode 228 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. Films, Feminism, Paromita — Episode 155 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Paromita Vohra). 26. The Will to Change — bell hooks. 27. The Loneliness of the Indian Man — Episode 303 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Taneja). 28. The Three Languages of Politics — Arnold Kling. 29. Memories and Things — Episode 195 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aanchal Malhotra). 30. History of European Morals — WEH Lecky. 31. The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress — Peter Singer. 32. The Nurture Assumption — Judith Rich Harris. 33. Phineas Gage. 34. Don't think too much of yourself. You're an accident — Amit Varma's column on Chris Cornell's death. 35. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 36. Dnyaneshwar, Tukaram, Arun Kolatkar and Dilip Chitre. 37. GN Devy on Amazon and Wikipedia. 38. Navyug Vachanmala and Arun Vachan -- PK Atre's series for elementary school and middle school respectively. 39. The State of Our Farmers — Episode 86 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gunvant Patil). 40. Varun Grover Is in the House — Episode 292 of The Seen and the Unseen. 41. Hussain Haidry, Hindustani Musalmaan — Episode 275 of The Seen and the Unseen. 42. Storytel. 43. Pu La Deshpande, Raag Darbari and Kashi Ka Assi on Storytel. 44. The Refreshing Audacity of Vinay Singhal — Episode 291 of The Seen and the Unseen. 45. Stage.in. 46. A Doll's House -- Henrik Ibsen. 47. Looking for Ibsen in Maharashtra -- Shanta Gokhale. 48. The Vintage Book Of Indian Writing 1947 - 1997 -- Edited by Salman Rushdie and Elizabeth West. 49. The Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature -- Edited by Amit Chaudhuri. 50. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the creator ecosystem with Roshan Abbas, Varun Duggirala, Neelesh Misra, Snehal Pradhan, Chuck Gopal, Nishant Jain, Deepak Shenoy and Abhijit Bhaduri. 51. 1000 True Fans — Kevin Kelly. 52. 1000 True Fans? Try 100 — Li Jin. 53. Namdeo Dhasal on Amazon and Wikipedia. 54. Alice Munro on Amazon and Wikipedia. 55. Squid Game on Netflix. 56. Yada Kadachit (Part 1) (Part 2) -- Written and directed by Santosh Pawar. 57. Sakharam Binder (Marathi) (English) -- Vijay Tendulkar. 58. A Cricket Tragic Celebrates the Game -- Episode 201 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ramachandra Guha). 59. सप्तरंगी कोरिया एक अनुभव -- Sudha Hujurbajar-Tumbe. 60. Suyash Rai Embraces India's Complexity -- Episode 307 of The Seen and the Unseen. 61. Alice in Wonderland -- Lewis Carroll. 62. Charles Dickens, William Wordsworth, JB Priestley, George Bernard Shaw and William Shakespeare on Amazon. 63. The Lost Daughter -- Elena Ferrante. 64. The Lost Daughter -- The film by Maggie Gyllenhaal. 65. The Shadow Lines -- Amitav Ghosh. 66. Enid Blyton on Amazon. 67. This Life At Play: Memoirs -- Girish Karnad. 68. Sunil Shanbag and Shanta Gokhale in conversation with Girish Karnad. 69. Aranyer Din Ratri -- Satyajit Ray. 70. Messy: How to Be Creative and Resilient in a Tidy-Minded World -- Tim Harford. 71. A Room of One's Own -- Virginia Woolf. 72. A Passage to India -- EM Forster. 73. Kumar Shahani on Wikipedia and IMDb. 74. Middlemarch -- George Eliot. 75. Anna Karenina -- Leo Tolstoy. 76, Far From the Madding Crowd -- Thomas Hardy. 77. Vanity Fair -- William Makepeace Thackeray. 78. Ulysses -- James Joyce. 79. Picnic at Hanging Rock -- Peter Weir. 80. Why Read the Classics? -- Italo Calvino. 81. The Memoirs of Dr Haimabati Sen — Haimabati Sen (translated by Tapan Raychoudhuri). 82. Hercule Poirot on Amazon, Wikipedia and Britannica. 83. The Golden Age of Murder — Martin Edwards. 84. PG Wodehouse on Amazon, Wikipedia and Britannica. 85. A Meditation on Form — Amit Varma. 86. The Creative Process: A Symposium -- Edited by Brewster Ghiselin. 87. Nissim Ezekiel and Satyadev Dubey. 88. Avadhya -- CT Khanolkar. 89. Masaan — Directed by Neeraj Ghaywan and written by Varun Grover. 90. Tanjore Painting and Prabhakar Barwe. 91. Profit = Philanthropy — Amit Varma. 92. Where Have All The Leaders Gone? — Amit Varma. 93. What Have We Done With Our Independence? — Episode 186 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pratap Bhanu Mehta). 94. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta — Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen. 95. Memoirs -- Habib Tanvir. 96. Sulabha Deshpande on Wikipedia and IMDb. 97. Sunil Shanbag on Wikipedia, IMDb and Instagram. 98. Atul Pethe on Book My Show and Facebook. 99. Shanta Gokhale's cameo in Ardh Satya (at 1:36:10). 100. My Friend Sancho -- Amit Varma. 101. Bend it Like Beckham -- Gurinder Chadha. 102. We Should Celebrate Rising Divorce Rates (2008) — Amit Varma. 103. Indira Sant on Amazon and Wikipedia. (And a translation of Ekti by Vinay Dharwadkar.) 104. The Loneliness of the Indian Woman — Episode 259 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shrayana Bhattacharya). 105. Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh — Shrayana Bhattacharya. 106. Private Truths, Public Lies — Timur Kuran. 107. Ranjit Hoskote, Arundhati Subramaniam and Jerry Pinto on Amazon. 108. Alt News, The News Minute and Scroll. 109. The Reflections of Samarth Bansal — Episode 299 of The Seen and the Unseen. 110. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva — Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 111. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope — Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen. 112. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma (on Demonetisation). 113. Enabled by technology, young Indians show what it means to be a citizen — Amit Varma. 114. Beware of Quacks. Alternative Medicine is Injurious to Health — Amit Varma. 115. The Life and Times of Teesta Setalvad -- Episode 302 of The Seen and the Unseen. 116. Madame Bovary -- Gustave Flaubert. 117. The Brothers Karamazov -- Fyodor Dostoevsky. 118. The World as India -- Susan Sontag. In addition to the links above, Shanta recommended: Books: Women in Love (DH Lawrence), Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka), Ways of Seeing (John Berger), 84, Charing Cross Road (Helene Hanff), The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway), The Tin Drum (Gunter Grass), The Shadow Lines, The Glass Palace, Hungry Tide (all Amitav Ghosh), Solo (Rana Dasgupta), The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera), Respected Sir (Naguib Mahfouz), One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez), Midnight's Children (Salman Rushdie), The Sense of an Ending, Flaubert's Parrot, The Noise of Time, Levels of Life (all Julian Barnes). Hindustani Classical Vocal: Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Ustad Amir Khan, Bhimsen Joshi, Padma Talwalkar, Dinkar Kaikini,  Venkatesh Kumar, Ulhas Kashalkar, Uday Bhawalkar (dhrupad), Mukul Shivputra. Carnatic Vocal: MS Subbulakshmi, DK Pattamal, TM Krishna, Sanjay Subrahmanyan. Instrumental: TR Mahalingam (flautist), Lalgudi Jayaraman (violin). Others: Geet Varsha (Kumar Gandharva), Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo (Farida Khanum), Dnyaneshwari (Lata Mangeshkar). This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: ‘Reading the World' by Simahina.

Join Vicky and Joe for a little rant about bad advice — and some profound deep thoughts about socks from Joe. In this episode, Vicky and Joe share three pieces of writing advice Vicky hates, and Joe shares a piece of general advice he hates, and they talk about how to make things simpler. And also profound socks. Don't miss it!   Key Takeaways: [1:00] Joe is calling in from an undisclosed underpass!  [7:50] What advice has Joe received that he's absolutely hated? [9:50] Should you write like you speak?  [13:00] It takes a lot of practice to ‘write like you speak'.  [15:00] Would you like to read a 900 page technical manual?  [15:40] It's not a sin to use filler words! Just place them strategically.  [18:30] Should you eat the frog first?  [20:10] Do a fun thing first before you the hard thing.  [23:00] What's some common writing advice that you hate?  [23:50] Joe doesn't like the pomodoro technique. It doesn't work for him!  [27:45] DOn't believe every piece of advice that you read is for you!    Mentioned in This Episode: Website Book Breakthrough Jam Podcast Subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, and Overcast Email Vicky about 1:1 coaching at: vicky@moxiebooks.co.uk Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin Levels of Life by Julian Barnes

Want to get a report card about how your training gym is doing? Want to identify exactly where to focus your efforts? Get your FREE assessment HERE. Learn more about BFU: Unicorn Society - Our coaching group Coaching - 1-on-1 coaching Mark on YouTube - More fit biz musings

We discuss the recent New York Times piece by Julian Barnes, a national security reporter for the paper of record, and the upcoming UFO report set to be delivered to Congress by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.COINTELPRO Official Twitter.Co-hosts: Mike and Austin.Our Patreon page - support the show here.Support the show

Adam talks with British professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex, Anil Seth about the difficulty of defining consciousness, the difference between the idea of a self and a soul, what happens when things go wrong with your perception of self and those around you, the way that psychedelics alter consciousness for better or worse, and whether Anil's work has changed the way he thinks about the big D. Not Sunny D. The other one.This conversation was recorded remotely on July 1st, 2021Thanks to Séamus Murphy-Mitchell for production support and to Becca Ptaszynski for additional editingPodcast artwork by Helen GreenRELATED LINKSTAKE PART IN THE PERCEPTION CENSUSBEING YOU - A NEW SCIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS by Anil Seth - 2021 (ABE BOOKS)YOUR BRAIN HALLUCINATES YOUR CONSCIOUS REALITY WITH ANIL SETH - 2017 (TED TALK)THE NEUROSCIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS WITH ANIL SETH - 2017 ROYAL INSTITUTION LECTURE (YOUTUBE)NICK BOSTROM - THE SIMULATION ARGUMENT - 2013 (YOUTUBE)THE PARADOX OF THE ATHEIST SOUL by John Gray - 2020 (NEW STATESMAN WEBSITE)HOW TO CHANGE YOUR MIND by Michael Pollan - 2018 (MICHAEL POLLAN WEBSITE)NOTHING TO BE FRIGHTENED OF by Julian Barnes- 2008 (ABE BOOKS) Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.