Kia Abdullah discusses with Ivan six things which she thinks should be better known.

Kia Abdullah is a bestselling author and travel writer. Her novels include Take It Back, a Guardian and Telegraph thriller of the year; Truth Be Told, which was shortlisted for the Diverse Book Awards; and Next of Kin, which was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award and won the Diverse Book Awards in 2022. Kia has also been selected for The Times Crime Club. Her latest novel is Those People Next Door.

Kia has written for The New York Times, the Guardian, the Financial Times, The Times and the BBC, and is the founder of Asian Booklist, a non-profit that advocates for diversity in publishing and helps readers discover new books by British Asian authors.

For more information about Kia and her writing, visit her website at kiaabdullah.com, or follow her at @KiaAbdullah on Instagram and Twitter.

1. Yellowjackets https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2021-12-09/yellowjackets-showtime-juliette-lewis-christina-ricci-melanie-lynskey

2. Danakil Depression https://www.brilliant-ethiopia.com/regions/danakil-depression

3. Cultural Muslims https://theconversation.com/cultural-muslims-like-cultural-christians-are-a-silent-majority-32097

4. Small Kindnesses http://www.danushalameris.com/poems.html

5. Plain English Campaign https://www.plainenglish.co.uk/

6. London Boys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpyg2Ig7wRo

Do you ever have trouble remembering PIN numbers? Ivan Wise teaches you how: all you have to do is remember a hundred facts about the twentieth century and the exact year in which they happened.

Dolly the sheep https://dolly.roslin.ed.ac.uk/facts/the-life-of-dolly/index.html

Bob Beamon’s long jump https://vault.si.com/vault/1968/10/28/the-long-long-jump

The climbing of Mount Everest https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/conquering-everest-22118304/

Noughties

1900: Boxer Rebellion

1901: Queen Victoria dies

1902: First teddy bear produced

1903: Wright brothers’ first flight

1904: Mormons ban polygamy

1905: Einstein’s E=mc2

1906: San Francisco earthquake

1907: The first Scout camp

1908: Ford Model T introduced

1909: Lloyd George’s People’s Budget

Tens

1910: Twain and Tolstoy die

1911: Curie’s second Nobel Prize

1912: Titanic sinks

1913: Niels Bohr’s model of the atom

1914: First World War starts

1915: Gallipoli campaign

1916: Battle of the Somme

1917: Russian Revolution

1918: Women get right to vote

1919: Versailles Treaty

Twenties

1920: Prohibition starts

1921: Ireland becomes independent

1922: BBC is founded

1923: German hyperinflation: $1=4.2tr marks

1924: Lenin dies

1925: Television invented

1926: General strike

1927: The first talkie is released

1928: Penicillin discovered

1929: Wall Street Crash

Thirties

1930: First football World Cup

1931: Britain abandons gold standard

1932: Sydney Harbour Bridge opens

1933: Reichstag Fire

1934: Night of the Long Knives

1935: Monopoly goes on sale

1936: Jesse Owens Olympics

1937: Guernica bombing

1938: Munich agreement

1939: Second World War starts

Forties

1940: The Blitz

1941: Pearl Harbor

1942: Battle of Stalingrad begins

1943: Tehran conference

1944: D-Day

1945: Atomic bombs dropped

1946: Churchill’s iron curtain speech

1947: Indian independence

1948: Gandhi assassinated

1949: Nato created

Fifties

1950: Korean War begins

1951: Catcher in the Rye published

1952: The Mousetrap starts West End run

1953: Mount Everest climbed

1954: Four minute mile

1955: Rosa Parks on the bus

1956: Hungarian uprising crushed

1957: Launch of Sputnik

1958: Blue Peter starts

1959: Castro comes to power

Sixties

1960: The pill becomes available

1961: Catch-22 published

1962: Cuban missile crisis

1963: JFK assassinated

1964: USA Civil Rights Act

1965: Dylan goes electric

1966: England win World Cup

1967: Sergeant Pepper released

1968: Bob Beamon’s long jump

1969: First man on the moon

Seventies

1970: First Boeing 747 flight

1971: World Trade Centre completed

1972: Bloody Sunday

1973: Watergate

1974: Rumble in the Jungle

1975: End of Vietnam War

1976: Apple computer introduced

1977: Voyager spacecraft launched

1978: First test-tube baby born

1979: Iranian Revolution

Eighties

1980: John Lennon killed

1981: Botham’s Ashes

1982: Falklands War

1983: First mobile phone call

1984: Miners’ strike starts

1985: Live Aid

1986: Maradona’s Hand of God

1987: Michael Fish’s hurricane

1988: Lockerbie

1989: Berlin Wall comes down

Nineties

1990: Mandela released from prison

1991: Gulf War

1992: Maastricht Treaty

1993: Buckingham Palace opens to public

1994: Rwandan genocide

1995: Windows 95 launched

1996: Dolly the sheep

1997: Death of Princess Diana

1998: Google founded

1999: Euro introduced

Alexandra Popoff is a former Moscow journalist and Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow. She is an expert on Russian literature and cultural history and the author of five literary biographies, including the award-winning Sophia Tolstoy and Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century. Her book The Wives became a Wall Street Journal best non-fiction title for 2012. Popoff’s biography of Vasily Grossman won the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for biography, Saskatchewan Nonfiction Award, became a finalist in the 2019 National Jewish Book Awards, and was long-listed for the 2019 Cundill History Prize. Her new book, a biography of Ayn Rand, will be published by Yale University Press (Jewish Lives) in 2024. Popoff has written articles and reviews for The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Literary Hub, The Globe and Mail, National Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Tablet Magazine. You can find out more at http://russianliteratureandbiography.com/.

1. Immigration as an opportunity for a new beginning https://hbr.org/2021/08/research-why-immigrants-are-more-likely-to-become-entrepreneurs

2. Moving to Saskatoon https://www.britannica.com/place/Saskatoon-Saskatchewan

3. Biographies of lesser-known people https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/alexandra-popoff/wives/

4. The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin’s Russia by Tim Tzouliadis https://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Nonfiction-review-Tzouliadis-The-Forsaken-3197333.php

5. The idea of outlawing war https://wagingnonviolence.org/2018/07/hidden-success-kellogg-briand-peace-pact/

6. The Parable of Talents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_talents_or_minas

Ivan Wise discusses Christmas music that should be better known.

Christmas is our most sturdily conservative tradition, and this December you will hear once again the same music that you have heard every other Christmas. The usual suspects dominate playlists in shopping malls, on radio stations and at parties. But how did we end up with this apparently immovable canon of Christmas songs? And what other Christmas music is out there that we should be listening to instead? George Ratcliffe Woodward, lyricist of Ding Dong Merrily on High, gets a rap makeover, Nikolai Gogol’s short story Christmas Eve inspired operas by Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov and Tom Lehrer arrives to throw some cynical scorn over the Christmas schmaltz.

Past Three O’Clock lyrics https://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/past_three_a_clock.htm

A Night in Bethlehem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=047wQ3vgFos

Morgen kommt der Weihnachtsmann https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxJRmhiOx80

December – Tchaikovsky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFRtTRUz6XA

Vakula the Smith – Tchaikovsky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC5GQdslXmw

Christmas Eve – Rimsky-Korsakov https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSpJmUBkXyM

Weihnachtsbaum – Franz Lizst https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56v4vlGUPxA

March of the gnomes – Vladimir Rebikov https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmvDaclogK4

Werther – Jules Massenet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9LQi1BBF2c

A Christmas Song – Tom Lehrer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtZR3lJobjw

Christmas Presents in Heaven – Solomon Burke https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0DUCV-09RI

Second Christmas Concerto – Michele Corette https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9yygcNIIWI

Francis Hamel discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known.

Francis Hamel is a British painter based in the UK with studios in Oxfordshire and Le Marche, Italy. He is known for landscapes and portraits as well as finely structured paintings of trees and flowers, paintings of the circus and theatre. In 2019 the V&A held an exhibition of his portraits, a monograph of his work was published in the same year.

Born in 1963 and trained at The Ruskin School, Oxford Francis Hamel has lived and worked in the William Kent designed gardens of Rousham in Oxfordshire for more than twenty years. The house, gardens and wider landscape are a constant source of inspiration. His work is held in public and private collections all over the world. Find out more at  https://www.jmlondon.com/artists/francis-hamel/.

1. Drawing as a form of therapy https://www.theschooloflife.com/shop/drawing-as-therapy/

2. Jane Dowling http://www.chappelgalleries.co.uk/exhibitions/jane-dowling/jane-dowling.htm

3. John Cowper Powys https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1985/03/28/life-in-the-head/

4. Le Marche https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/top-experiences-italy-le-marche

5. Bitter Cherries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_cerasus

6. Rousham Gardens in the winter https://rousham.org/

Louise Hare is a London-based writer and has an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck, University of London. Originally from Warrington, the capital is the inspiration for much of her work, including This Lovely City and Miss Aldridge Regrets.

This Lovely City was featured on the inaugural BBC TWO TV book club show, Between the Covers, and was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize. Louise was selected for the Observer Top 10 Best Debut Novelists list in 2020, securing her place as an author to watch. Miss Aldridge Regrets is her second novel.

1. English National Opera www.eno.org

2. The Friends by Rosa Guy https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-friends/9780440226673

3. Flamenco https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/complicated-history-flamenco-spain-180973398/

4. Sambourne House https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/museums/sambourne-house

5. Clapham South deep level shelter https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/hidden-london/clapham-south

6. Local libraries https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/research-and-data/health-and-wellbeing-benefits-public-libraries

For the 250th episode, Alan Rusbridger discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Alan Rusbridger was Editor in Chief of the Guardian from 1995-2015. He is currently editor of Prospect Magazine and Chair of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Until 2021 he was Principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.

During his time at the Guardian, both he and the paper won numerous awards, including the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service Journalism. The Guardian grew from a printed paper with a circulation of 400,000 to a leading digital news organisation with 150m browsers a month around the world. He launched now-profitable editions in Australia and the US as well as a membership scheme which now has 1m Guardian readers paying for content.

He was born in Zambia, was educated at Cambridge and lives in London. He is the co-author of the BBC drama, Fields of Gold. He is a keen amateur musician and the author of Play it Again. His memoir of journalism and its future, Breaking News, was published in 2018. He is a member of the Facebook Oversight Board. His latest book, News and How to Use it, was published in 2020.

1. Bone-conducting headphones https://www.soundguys.com/bone-conduction-headphones-20580/

2. Audio sleep masks https://www.headphonesty.com/2021/02/best-sleep-mask-with-headphones/

3. The music of Billy Mayerl http://www.perfessorbill.com/comps/wmayerl.shtml

4. Electric bikes https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/electric-bikes/article/best-electric-bikes-aJMUp0P2yY0r

5. Why free speech matters https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/26/free-speech-bigots-no-platform

6. Prospect magazine www.prospectmagazine.co.uk

True crime writer Dean Jobb discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Dean Jobb is award-winning true crime writer and a professor in the School of Journalism, Writing & Publishing at the University of King’s College in Halifax, where he teaches in the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction program. His latest book, The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer (Algonquin Books), won the inaugural CrimeCon Clue Award for True Crime Book of the Year in 2022 and was longlisted for the American Library Association’s Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. His previous book, Empire of Deception (Algonquin Books), was the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year, won the Crime Writers of Canada Award for best true crime book, and was a finalist for Canada’s Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for nonfiction. Learn more about his work at https://www.deanjobb.com. 

1. Jakob Dylan https://www.smh.com.au/culture/music/a-wounded-jakob-dylan-bares-his-scars-in-a-new-album-20210718-p58any.html

2. How to pronounce Newfoundland https://www.elleryqueenmysterymagazine.com/the-crime-scene/stranger-than-fiction-september-2022/

3. Joseph Bell https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usbiography/b/josephbell.html

4. Where the Cajuns came from https://www.nps.gov/jela/learn/historyculture/from-acadian-to-cajun.htm

5. How to tell a pearl is fake https://www.worldsultimate.net/arthur-barry.htm

6. The first Ponzi https://www.chicagotribune.com/history/ct-opinion-flashback-leo-koretz-ponzi-scheme-20210305-bsqzjlztlrbg5afozquk6ccksm-story.html

Duncan Larkin discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Duncan Larkin has covered the sport of running for more than a decade. He’s a certified Army Master Fitness Trainer and was a top-300 American marathoner back in 2006. He has won the Himalayan 100-Mile Stage Race and the Mohawk-Hudson Marathon. His books include Run Simple and The 30-Minute Runner. Duncan writes about fitness for Outside Magazine, Competitor Magazine, Runner’s World, ESPN, and Running Times. Find out more at https://roadsmillslaps.tumblr.com/ and at https://www.instagram.com/dunlar/.

1. How the last-place finisher of the NYC Marathon feels in the last mile https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YrlVSOB4-s

2. Silas Soule and Mochi https://www.colorado.com/life-chronicles-sand-creek-massacre

3. The concept of cognitive dissonance https://www.healthline.com/health/cognitive-dissonance-examples

4. Time will Reveal by DeBarge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_988-cpiG94

5. Keith Douglas’ poem Vergissmeinnicht https://interestingliterature.com/2017/08/a-short-analysis-of-keith-douglass-vergissmeinnicht/

6. The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/05/10/ambrose-bierce-one-americas-best/

Travel writer Tim Hannigan discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Tim Hannigan was born and brought up in the far west of Cornwall, but he now lives in Ireland. After leaving school he trained as a chef. He later studied journalism and began his writing career as a journalist and guidebook writer, based in Indonesia. He is the author of a number of nonfiction books, including Murder in the Hindu Kush, which was shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker Prize, and Raffles and the British Invasion of Java, which won the John Brooks Award. His most recent book is The Travel Writing Tribe, about a quest to answer the trickiest questions about the travel genre. His next book, The Granite Kingdom, is an exploration of his own homeland, Cornwall, and is due out in May 2023.

1. Indonesia https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1966/05/26/in-search-of-indonesia/

2. The 1811 British invasion of Java https://www.thehighlandersmuseum.com/?p=30029

3. Cornwall is one of the poorest regions in western Europe https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2016/02/real-cornwall-county-poorer-lithuania-and-hungary

4. The Cornish language https://omniglot.com/writing/cornish.htm

5. The public footpaths of England and Wales https://footpathmap.co.uk/

6. Eland Books https://www.travelbooks.co.uk/