The Essay

Two years living at sea taught New Generation Thinker Kerry McInerney values which she wants to apply to the development of AI. Her Essay explores the "sustainable AI" movement and looks at visions of the future in novels including Waste Tide by Chen Qiufan and Larissa Lai’s Salt Fish Girl. Dr McInerney is a Research Associate at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge and a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the BBC and the AHRC to put academic research on radio. Producer: Julian Siddle You can hear more from Kerry in Free Thinking and New Thinking episodes available as Arts & Ideas podcasts called AI, feminism, human/machines and Yellowface, AI and Asian stereotypes

Looking at the way human and animal bodies were treated in death and used in rituals prompts New Generation Thinker and archaeologist Marianne Hem Eriksen, from the University of Leicester, to ask questions about the way humans, animals and spirit worlds were understood. Her Essay shares stories from a research project called Body-Politics’: presenting worlds where elite men could shape-shift into animals — and some people’s bones ended up in rubbish pits.This Essay is part of the BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinkers scheme which puts academic research on radio. Producer: Luke Mulhall You can hear Marianne discussing insights from her research in episodes of Free Thinking called The Kitchen and in one broadcasting next week looking at Attitudes towards death.

Amalia Holst's defence of female education, published in 1802, was the first work by a woman in Germany to challenge the major philosophers of the age, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant. Unlike Mary Wollstonecraft writing in England, Holst failed to make headway with her arguments. New Generation Thinker Andrew Cooper teaches in the philosophy department at the University of Warwick. His essay explores the publishing of Holst's book On The Vocation of Woman to Higher Intellectual Education. Andrew Cooper is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UKRI. Producer: Luke Mulhall You can hear more from Andrew in a Free Thinking discussion about The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe available as an Arts & Ideas podcast and on BBC Sounds.

Why do babies say "daddy" earlier and what might it mean when a baby does call for "mum" or "anne"? Dr Rebecca Woods, from Newcastle University, calls upon her training in linguistics and observations from her own home to trace the way children’s experiences shape their first words and the names they use for their parents.Rebecca Woods is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to put academic research on radio. Producer: Ruth WattsYou can hear more from Rebecca Woods in a Free Thinking discussion about childhood and play when Young V&A opened - it's available from the programme website and as an Arts & Ideas podcast

Traditional Variety has been a lifelong fascination for poet and playwright Amanda Dalton. She grew up in a family that included several amateur and professional entertainers and from an early age the world of Variety Theatre was ‘in her blood’... During WW2, her dad organised and performed in a night of entertainment at King Farouk’s palace in Cairo, She recalls her mum tap dancing in the kitchen as the dinner burnt. One of her most precious and prized possessions is a poster, retrieved from her uncle’s home, for a variety show at the New Hippodrome, Darlington in 1938 - acts including Waldini’s Famous Gypsy Band, Billy Brown Upside Down and his wonderful dog Lady and her uncle himself, Barry Phelps. With Idina Scott Gatty, Entertainer. As a child, Amanda never missed Sunday Night at the London Palladium or the Good Old Days on TV. Variety shows were her parents’ favourites - her obsession with them is perhaps not surprising.The acts that have always most fascinated her are those ‘speciality’ acts that dis

Traditional Variety has been a lifelong fascination for poet and playwright Amanda Dalton. She grew up in a family that included several amateur and professional entertainers and from an early age the world of Variety Theatre was ‘in her blood’... During WW2, her dad organised and performed in a night of entertainment at King Farouk’s palace in Cairo, She recalls her mum tap dancing in the kitchen as the dinner burnt. One of her most precious and prized possessions is a poster, retrieved from her uncle’s home, for a variety show at the New Hippodrome, Darlington in 1938 - acts including Waldini’s Famous Gypsy Band, Billy Brown Upside Down and his wonderful dog Lady and her uncle himself, Barry Phelps. With Idina Scott Gatty, Entertainer. As a child, Amanda never missed Sunday Night at the London Palladium or the Good Old Days on TV. Variety shows were her parents’ favourites - her obsession with them is perhaps not surprising.The acts that have always most fascinated her are those ‘speciality’ acts that dis

Traditional Variety has been a lifelong fascination for poet and playwright Amanda Dalton. She grew up in a family that included several amateur and professional entertainers and from an early age the world of Variety Theatre was ‘in her blood’... During WW2, her dad organised and performed in a night of entertainment at King Farouk’s palace in Cairo, She recalls her mum tap dancing in the kitchen as the dinner burnt. One of her most precious and prized possessions is a poster, retrieved from her uncle’s home, for a variety show at the New Hippodrome, Darlington in 1938 - acts including Waldini’s Famous Gypsy Band, Billy Brown Upside Down and his wonderful dog Lady and her uncle himself, Barry Phelps. With Idina Scott Gatty, Entertainer. As a child, Amanda never missed Sunday Night at the London Palladium or the Good Old Days on TV. Variety shows were her parents’ favourites - her obsession with them is perhaps not surprising.The acts that have always most fascinated her are those ‘speciality’ acts that dis

Traditional Variety has been a lifelong fascination for poet and playwright Amanda Dalton. She grew up in a family that included several amateur and professional entertainers and from an early age the world of Variety Theatre was ‘in her blood’... During WW2, her dad organised and performed in a night of entertainment at King Farouk’s palace in Cairo, She recalls her mum tap dancing in the kitchen as the dinner burnt. One of her most precious and prized possessions is a poster, retrieved from her uncle’s home, for a variety show at the New Hippodrome, Darlington in 1938 - acts including Waldini’s Famous Gypsy Band, Billy Brown Upside Down and his wonderful dog Lady and her uncle himself, Barry Phelps. With Idina Scott Gatty, Entertainer. As a child, Amanda never missed Sunday Night at the London Palladium or the Good Old Days on TV. Variety shows were her parents’ favourites - her obsession with them is perhaps not surprising.The acts that have always most fascinated her are those ‘speciality’ acts that dis

Traditional Variety has been a lifelong fascination for poet and playwright Amanda Dalton. She grew up in a family that included several amateur and professional entertainers and from an early age the world of Variety Theatre was ‘in her blood’... During WW2, her dad organised and performed in a night of entertainment at King Farouk’s palace in Cairo, She recalls her mum tap dancing in the kitchen as the dinner burnt. One of her most precious and prized possessions is a poster, retrieved from her uncle’s home, for a variety show at the New Hippodrome, Darlington in 1938 - acts including Waldini’s Famous Gypsy Band, Billy Brown Upside Down and his wonderful dog Lady and her uncle himself, Barry Phelps. With Idina Scott Gatty, Entertainer. As a child, Amanda never missed Sunday Night at the London Palladium or the Good Old Days on TV. Variety shows were her parents’ favourites - her obsession with them is perhaps not surprising.The acts that have always most fascinated her are those ‘speciality’ acts that dis

Essay 5: Christmas PuddingA new series of essays written and read by the very popular Fiona Stafford, Professor of Literature at Somerville College, Oxford, following her much praised series of essays The Meaning of Trees and Composers and their Dogs. Here Fiona explores some of the world’s favourite puddings, all of which have surprising stories and have become symbols far beyond the pudding bowl. Christmas pudding. A British icon, supposedly a classless, medieval religious symbol but which owes its modern prominence to Dickens. Exported as Empire Pudding, it is loved around the Commonwealth. There are surprising local adaptations in Asia (especially India) and the Caribbean, adding spices and exotic elements and renaming it as their own Christmas tradition. Thus it symbolises the reverse appropriation of imperialism. Key ingredient: dried fruit. Dates back to 4000 BC, much older than any religion, hence its role in nearly all of them. Christmas pudding is an example of the Victorians inventing many of our

Essay 4: PavlovaA new series of essays written and read by the very popular Fiona Stafford, Professor of Literature at Somerville College, Oxford, following her much praised series of essays The Meaning of Trees and Composers and their Dogs. Here Fiona explores some of the world’s favourite puddings, all of which have surprising stories and have become symbols far beyond the pudding bowl. Pavlova is a much-disputed national symbol claimed by rival neighbours. A crisp meringue with whipped cream and fruit, it has become a source of pride and national identity for New Zealand and Australia; both claim its creation with disputed historical citations. For both it is their Christmas dessert. But the pavlova symbolises the re-writing of history. Actually, it’s a 1700s Austrian Habsburger dessert, long before ballerina Pavlova's 1926 Australian tour (a story of celebrity hysteria) supposedly inspired it. The USA documented an almost identical dessert in 1896 with another name. Thus Australia or New Zealand can only

Essay 3: Crème BrûléeA new series of essays written and read by the very popular Fiona Stafford, Professor of Literature at Somerville College, Oxford, following her much praised series of essays The Meaning of Trees and Composers and their Dogs. Here Fiona explores some of the world’s favourite puddings, all of which have surprising stories and have become symbols far beyond the pudding bowl. Crème brûlée (meaning burnt cream) - a pudding thought of as a French creation (1697). But its surprising backstory saw British food historians claim it as a creation by the chefs at Trinity College, Cambridge (founded in 1546), prompting French academics to then cite their version from the early 1500s, with literary references. French aristocracy’s fervent embracing of it as a wealth and status symbol put this pudding on the international map, but post-revolution the French abandoned it as a decadent symbol of the rejected gentry, with expensive cream, eggs and scarce refined sugar. For two centuries it was in obscuri

Essay 2: Summer PuddingA new series of essays written and read by the very popular Fiona Stafford, Professor of Literature at Somerville College, Oxford, following her much praised series of essays The Meaning of Trees and Composers and their Dogs. Here Fiona explores some of the world’s favourite puddings, all of which have surprising stories and have become symbols far beyond the pudding bowl. Summer pudding, supposedly quintessentially English, (mixed berries encased in juice-soaked stale bread) began life as a symbol of health food for weight conscious American women over a century ago. It’s an invention from Victorian times, originally called ‘hydropathic pudding’, (low-calorie dessert for US health spas). Key ingredients: berries, sugar and stale bread. The changing variety of berries charts the growth of global trading and capitalism. Through this relatively low-calorie dessert we explore how, before refined sugar, desserts were not seen as an especially unhealthy course. Poorer families would have so

Essay 1: TapiocaA new series of essays written and read by the very popular Fiona Stafford, Professor of Literature at Somerville College, Oxford, following her much praised series of essays The Meaning of Trees and Composers and their Dogs. Here Fiona explores some of the world’s favourite puddings, all of which have surprising stories and have become symbols far beyond the pudding bowl. Tapioca is equally loved and loathed; this hot and cold 'frogspawn' pudding’s story is reverse imperialism; an east Asian dessert with many guises, seen as old-fashioned in Britain, now hyper-trendy, conquering new global markets as 'pearls' in bubble tea. Key ingredient: starch from cassava. It is native to South America, taken to Asia and Africa by Portuguese merchants, it is also made into alcoholic drinks. Tapioca, a global staple food, bringing British school dinners many comic tales of revulsion. symbolises one of many puddings that came to Europe from 'the colonies' and was embraced and customised in the UK. Haters w

Khadijah Ibrahiim’s essay, A Journey of Things Past and Present, looks at how Leeds’s built environment has changed and what that tells us about it as a society. Leeds is a rich north England city in a beautiful rural setting, but only the former is reflected in its physical development. The starting point is a much-loved mural that Khadijah contributed to as part of a school art project about the city’s historical and modern architecture. Khadijah still lives in the city and has watched as the skyline has become blotted out by high rise buildings, changing the view and creating a sort of forest of grey trees. She is struck by how beautiful the countryside is around the city, as are many of its historical buildings.The essay will consider what the built city tells us about its identity and why/how the landscape is developed, then move us into the future, talking about the imminent David Oluwale memorial sculpture by Yinka Shonibare, Hibiscus Rising, in currently empty open space down near the river. Khadija

In his essay, Paradoxopolis, Ian Duhig is inspired by a painting by 'Leeds’s Lost Modernist', the reclusive Joash Woodrow, and the former local synagogue, now the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, both sited on the road north out of Leeds, built by Blind Jack Metcalf, iconic Leeds roadmaker of the Victorian era. Ian says: "When I first moved here about 50 years ago, Leeds was still advertising itself as The Motorway City of the Seventies and as much as its natural resources of clay and coal, its central location between London and Scotland. and England’s east and west coasts, was a major influence on its development. Immigrants, itinerant labour and roadmakers have built this city and its economy, something I propose to show by inviting you all to join me now on a virtual poetic journey through it on one road, Blind Jack Metcalf’s due north where we will come to understand something of that extraordinary civil engineer and what Virginia Woolf meant when she once wrote in a TLS review: “Personally, we sho

In her essay, Both Arms, Michelle Scally Clarke writes about the statue of that name by William Kenneth Armitage CBE, a Leeds sculptor known for his semi-abstract bronzes.  It is a powerful public image of compassion, support and welcome, created as a monument to friendship. It resonates for Michelle about her own life journey as a mixed race care leaver who was welcomed and held by Leeds as a child and now an adult. ‘Both Arms” also holds great pride and nostalgia for Michelle, a visual symbol of Leeds as a city of hope for now and the future. Her essay explores Leeds as a city of welcome in multiple contexts - adoption and adaptation; migrants and refugees; traders and artists; students; and Nelson Mandela’s iconic visit to the city in the 1990s. Michelle Scally Clarke is a writer and performer of drama, creative writing, and poetry. Work includes BBC Contains Strong Language 2023, Space2 2016 performance and workshop focusing on mental health ‘Suitcase’, 2018 cross-cultural play ‘Jeans, Whose Genes?

The world of magic and enchantment that Jeremy Dyson remembers from the Leeds of his childhood are epitomised by the three intricately carved clocks with life size human figures that still keep time in the Edwardian and Victorian shopping arcades in the city centre, now hemmed in by shopping malls and fast food outlets. From discussing the three clocks, he takes us back to the Victorian architectural splendour and status of the city, with its bronze and stone carved animals in Leeds Central Library and a plea to remember the value of spending money on public art.Jeremy Dyson is the co-creator and co-writer of the multi-award winning comedy show The League of Gentlemen, the BAFTA-nominated comedy drama Funland and the Rose-d’or winning all female sketch show Psychobitches. His play Ghost Stories, co-written with Andy Nyman was nominated for an Olivier award);Writer/reader, Jeremy Dyson Sound designer, Alisdair McGregor Producer, Polly ThomasLooking at Leeds is a co-commission between BBC Radio 3 and The Space

The city of Leeds seen through public art past, present and future. In this edition, Malika Booker considers an architectural sculptural frieze located on Abtech House, 18 Park Row, Leeds (formerly West Riding Union Buildings) created in 1900 by the stonemason and sculptor Joseph Thewlis. The sculpture depicts emblematic figures related to Leeds commerce at the time, linked to the abundance of textile industry and mills in Yorkshire and Leeds. As a member of the Caribbean community living in Chapeltown, she is particularly interested in the Minerva Goddess presiding over these figures, as well as the figures depicting the bank's relationship with empire. She is caught by the multicultural portrayal of figures representing different aspects of Industry and the world, but of particular interest is the depiction of an enslaved African figure lifting and bending over bales of cotton. This lyrically poetic essay considers the changing visual, political, social and environmental changes that the sculptural frieze

"Each remembered moment is a keyhole. Time doesn't 'flow like a river', doesn't exist in Odesa at all; the numbers of years, 1986 or 1989 or 2006 are like signs hanging about the corner grocery shop, with names of owners, swaying. In these streets, everything is ever-present. There are places like this on the planet: you can stop in the middle of the street and stick a finger into the skin of time, tear a hole, and see through."Across a week of personal essays, the Ukrainian-American poet Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic, writes about the city of his birth and reflects on fatherland, mother tongue, memory, Deafness, exile and oppression. He writes about the Odesa of his childhood and his family's flight from Ukraine to the USA in the early 1990s. He writes of invasion, war, regimes and revolution. Of Odesa's poets, past and present (editing their poems in the bomb shelters). Of the statues in the city squares - Leo Tolstoy, Taras Shevchenko, Catherine the Great.In his final essay, Ilya visits the Jewish