Historian Alice Loxton discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Alice Loxton is a 28 year old history broadcaster and writer with over two million followers on social media (@history_alice). She has appeared on many channels including Sky Arts, Channel 5, BBC News and History Hit, and has worked with a wide array of organisations to bring history to mainstream audiences, including Christie’s, Meta, The National Trust, 10 Downing Street, The Royal Collection Trust, The National Portrait Gallery and The National Gallery. UPROAR! Satire, Scandal and Printmaking in Georgian London is Alice’s first book. Her second book, Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives, comes out in August 2024. 

1. James Gillray https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v23/n12/peter-campbell/at-tate-britain

2. The fact that Napoleon wasn’t short https://www.history.com/news/napoleon-complex-short

3. Landmark Trust  https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/may/12/how-a-derelict-scottish-tower-was-turned-into-a-sumptuous-retreat

4. The French House, Soho https://www.timeout.com/london/bars-and-pubs/french-house

5. Parish churches https://www.countryfile.com/go-outdoors/days-out/britains-most-beautiful-churches

6. The London Library https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v13/n18/john-sutherland/sod-off-readers

Charlie Russell discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Charlie Russell she/her. Creative Associate and co-founder at Mischief. Trained at LAMDA.  Work with Mischief includes Groan Ups (West End); The Play That Goes Wrong (UK Tour, West End, Broadway); Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Pleasance, West End, BBC1 adaptation, Broadway); The Comedy About A Bank Robbery (West End); The Goes Wrong Show (BBC Sitcom); Improviser, Mischief Movie Night (West End, UK Tour), Austentatious, Yes Queens. Charlie wrote and performed a run of her first solo show, Charlie Russell Aims To Please, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2022. Other acting work includes Kat in Kite Strings (Short Film), Doctors (BBC 1), And Then There Were None (BBC1 & Mammoth Screen), #FindTheGirl (BBC3 Online) and A Twist Of Dahl (BBC Radio 4). Charlie can next be seen starring in Fanny at The Watermill Theatre in May 2024.

1. 500 Acts of Kindness group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2074795452542346/

2. Fanny Mendelssohn https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/23/arts/music-review-fanny-mendelssohn-was-audacious-too.html

3. The game Worldle https://thinkygames.com/reviews/worldle-a-treasure-trove-for-geography-nerds/

4. Improv https://www.hooplaimpro.com/improv-comedy-club-london-bridge.html

5. A Short History of Queer Women by Kirsty Loehr. https://www.gscene.com/arts/books/book-review-a-short-history-of-queer-women-by-kirsty-loehr/

6. Therapy https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-treatments/talking-therapies-and-counselling/benefits-of-talking-therapies/

Sunny Singh discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Sunny Singh is a writer, novelist, public intellectual, and a champion for decolonisation and inclusion across all aspects of society. She is the author of three critically acclaimed novels, Hotel Arcadia, With Krishna’s Eyes, and Nani’s Book of Suicides, a study of Amitabh Bachchan for the BFI’s film star series, and the recent, A Bollywood State of Mind: A Journey into the World’s Biggest Cinema. She has recently completed a collection of stories linked by the theme of war and is currently working on a new novel, and a non-fiction book about writing ethically. In 2017 she launched the celebrated Jhalak Prize. She is also a founder of the Jhalak Foundation that focuses on a range of literary, artistic and literacy initiatives in the UK and beyond. Sunny lives in London where she is Professor of Creative Writing and Inclusion in the Arts at the London Metropolitan University.

1. Bollywood movies https://asianreviewofbooks.com/content/a-bollywood-state-of-mind-a-journey-into-the-worlds-biggest-cinema-by-sunny-singh/

2. Backpacking https://nomadsworld.com/6-reasons-backpacking-good/

3. Intersectionality https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination

4. Senegal http://hipafrica.com/features/9-reasons-visit-senegal/

5. Open water swimming (and adult swimming lessons) https://www.brighton.ac.uk/news/2023/is-open-water-swimming-good-for-you

6. The excellence and range of literature by British writers of colour https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/03/akala-bernardine-evaristo-ben-okri-and-more-pick-20-classic-books-by-writers-of-colour

Alexandra Tolstoy discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Alexandra Tolstoy is an Anglo-Russian mother, adventurer, author and TV presenter. She organises adventurous horse riding holidays in Kyrgyzstan, and runs The Tolstoy Edit, a curated shop of her favourite interiors discoveries.

1. Kyrgyzstan https://alexandratolstoytravel.com/

2. Ronald Welch https://foxedquarterly.com/ronald-welch-carey-novels-telegraph-review/

3. Darning and patching https://pieceworkmagazine.com/your-guide-to-mending/

4. Ivan Bilibin http://textualities.net/jennie-renton/the-art-of-ivan-bilibin

5. 19th century European novels https://potpourri2015.wordpress.com/2021/06/14/review-the-semi-detached-house-by-emily-eden/

6. Victoria sponges https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/grannys-victoria-sponge

Novelist Julius Taranto discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Julius Taranto is the author of a novel, How I Won a Nobel Prize. His other writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Review of Books, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Phoebe. He attended Yale Law School and Pomona College. He lives in New York.

1. Cynthia Ozick https://centerforfiction.org/interviews/cynthia-ozick-interviewed-by-alessandra-farkas/

2. The Spirit of Libertyby Learned Hand https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2013/12/05/judge-who-shaped-our-law/

3. Jon Brion https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2023/01/17/jon-brion-the-aquarium-drunkard-interview/

4. Polite Society https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/apr/26/polite-society-review-fun-action-comedy-mashes-jane-austen-and-the-chuckle-brothers

5. American Civil War battlefields and history tourism https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/defining-battles-civil-war/

6. Peter Carey https://play.acast.com/s/talkingpolitics/petercarey

Faye Begeti discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Dr Faye Begetiis a practising neurology doctor and neuroscientist at Oxford University Hospitals. She completed her medical degree and PhD at Cambridge, and currently conducts research into Parkinson’s disease alongside seeing her neurology patients. Her Instagram account @the_brain_doctor was started to share her knowledge more widely and has since amassed a community of over 134K followers. She lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and two young daughters. Her new book is The Phone Fix.

1. Our phones are not addictive https://technosapiens.substack.com/p/smartphoneaddiction

2. Habits are stored in a subconscious part of our brain https://www.npr.org/2012/03/05/147192599/habits-how-they-form-and-how-to-break-them

3. We don’t have unlimited mental energy https://www.dayagrant.com/blog/how-the-brain-leaks-energy

4. Chronic stress can lead to physical symptoms https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/stress/signs-and-symptoms-of-stress/

5. A good night’s sleep starts in the morning https://hr.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1421/2023/02/A-Healthy-Nights-Sleep-Starts-the-Moment-You-Wake-Up.pdf

6. Building cognitive reserve reduces the risk of dementia https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/health-wellbeing/mind-body/staying-sharp/thinking-skills-change-with-age/cognitive-reserve/

Kelly Link discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Kelly Link is the author of White Cat, Black Dog; Get in Trouble, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction; Magic for Beginners; Stranger Things Happen; and Pretty Monsters. Her short stories have been published in The Best American Short Stories and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. She is a MacArthur “Genius Grant” fellow and has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She is the co- founder of Small Beer Press and co-edits the occasional zine Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. She is also the co-owner of Book Moon, an independent bookstore in Easthampton, Massachusetts. The Book of Love is her debut novel. You can buy it through Bloomsbury, Amazon, Bookshop.org and Waterstones.

1. Kathryn Davis https://artsci.wustl.edu/faculty-staff/kathryn-davis

2. Dorothy https://dorothyproject.com/

3. Winterpills https://www.winterpills.com/

4. Kiva www.kiva.org

5. CCATE www.ccate.org

6. Street Books www.streetbooks.org

Alice Kinsella discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Alice Kinsella is a poet from Mayo, on the west coast of Ireland. She is the author of Sexy Fruit (Broken Sleep, 2018) and editor of Empty House: poetry and prose on the climate crisis (Doire Press, 2021). Milk (Picador, 2023) is her debut book of prose. She is an Arts Council of Ireland Next Generation Artist. 

1. The Loneliest Whale in the World 

2. Happy Tummy Company https://www.thehappytummyco.com/

3. Mosab Abu Toha https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/01/a-palestinian-poets-perilous-journey-out-of-gaza

4. Polycystic Ovary Syndrome https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/polycystic-ovary-syndrome

5. County Mayo’s Whaling past https://iwdg.ie/end-of-our-whaling-era/

6. Being wrong https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/24/french-parliament-passes-law-giving-citizens-the-right-to-make-mistakes

Robert McCrum discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Robert McCrum is a writer and editor whose most recent book Shakespearean was published to great acclaim in 2021. Formerly the editor-in-chief of Faber & Faber, and literary editor of the Observer, he is also the author of Wodehouse: A Life (2004), and a classic memoir, My Year Off (1998).

From 1980 to 1996, McCrum was editor-in-chief of Faber & Faber, where he published Kazuo Ishiguro, Hanif Kureishi, Milan Kundera, Peter Carey, Danilo Kis, Paul Auster, Marilynne Robinson, Lorrie Moore, Adam Phillips, Mario Vargas Llosa, Jayne Anne Phillips, Orhan Pamuk, and Adam Mars-Jones, among many others. At the same time, he wrote seven novels, and co-authored the BBC TV series, The Story Of English, for which he was awarded an Emmy in 1986, followed by a Peabody Prize in 1987.

In July 1995, McCrum suffered a serious stroke, a personal crisis he described in My Year Off, a book now regarded as an essential study in the understanding of the condition.

He was literary editor of the Observer from 1996 to 2010, and published his award-winning biography P.G. Wodehouse: A Life in 2004. Globish (2010) was an international bestseller. My Year Off (1998), is now in its third edition as a Picador Classic.

McCrum joined The Observer in 1996-2010, and ultimately became Associate Editor. He left the Guardian Media Group in January 2018 to pursue his own literary interests.  In 2024, he will publish The Penalty Kick: The Story of A Game-changer with Notting Hill Editions.

1. The Lost Art of Silence by Sarah Anderson https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/animal-emotions/202312/the-art-and-power-of-connecting-to-the-sounds-of-silence

2. The River Granta https://www.wildlifebcn.org/news/river-granta-gets-wiggle

3. The invention of the penalty kick in football https://epicchq.com/story/william-mccrum-the-irish-inventor-of-the-penalty-kick/

4. Alfred the Great https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v40/n09/tom-shippey/what-did-he-think-he-was

5. Kindness https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-the-unbearable-lightness-of-being-enthralled-a-generation/

6. Rossini’s Petite Messe Solonelle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqrzmdevQSI

Ivan looks back at previous discussions with a variety of guests and picks out the things which they think should be less well known. Foregoing the normal positivity, guests rant, complain and moan about famous people, books, television shows, sports, ideas and 90s dances which they find deeply tiresome. The guests and topics are:

James Runcie on Lord of the Rings

Helen Thompson on The West Wing

Paul Willetts on Meghan Markle

Matthew Parris on Alistair Campbell

Irenosen Okojie on The Sun

Daisy Dunn on Whats app

Jon Glover on the word “like”

Dominic Sandbrook on history

Emma Smith on Shakespeare

Kate Mosse on Nigel Farage

Henry Hemming on Formula One

Subhadra Das on Charles Darwin

Andy Smith on Macarena