In Human Intelligence, Naomi Alderman dissects the minds of brilliant thinkers from the past; examining the myriad ways in which humans think and realising that...
Darwin asked big questions. His theory of evolution transformed our understanding of life on Earth. But Naomi Alderman discovers that he did it by looking at small things and tiny changes that other people had overlooked. From earliest childhood, he’d been a collector – pocketing shells, coins, minerals, bits of pottery and rooftiles – and his travels on HMS Beagle allowed him to amass a vast collection of specimens and observations that he and others would puzzle over for decades.Special thanks to Dr John van Wyhe, historian of science at the National University of Singapore and the Director of The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. Produced by BBC Studios Audio in partnership with The Open University.Presenter: Naomi Alderman
Executive editor: James Cook
Assistant producer: Sarah Goodman
Researcher: Harry Burton
Production coordinator: Amelia Paul
Script consultant: Sara Joyner
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Collectors: Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson was living proof that a person can be extremely messy and disorganised but still do work of great worth. He compiled and almost single-handedly wrote an English dictionary that changed the language for good. ‘Dictionary Johnson’ established the spelling and meaning of many words; he looked at etymology; he poked fun and cracked jokes. He lived hand to mouth, writing for money, and helped establish the modern literary world.Special thanks to Judith Hawley, Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. Produced by BBC Studios Audio in partnership with The Open University.
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Collectors: Pamphila
Naomi Alderman examines the intelligence and sharp humour of an ancient Greek historian known as Pamphila of Epidaurus. She was a female historian working in a society that believed women were constitutionally unsuited to the rational and peculiarly masculine task of recording facts for posterity. She wrote thirty-three volumes of her famed Historical Commentaries from her home. She wrote for fun, organising her material in a free and easy mix, like ‘embroidery’. We have none of her original writings, just reported fragments, but she gave us cultural history as we know it today, centuries ahead of time.Special thanks to Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at Durham University. Produced by BBC Studios Audio in partnership with The Open University.
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Collectors: Denis Diderot
Naomi Alderman looks at the remarkable way Denis Diderot connected ideas and people. In 18th-century Paris, he edited one of the very first encyclopaedias: twenty-eight volumes with tens of thousands of articles on everything from the concept of liberty to cutting-edge medical research, the manufacture of silk stockings and a recipe for apricot jam. Diderot was the perfect man for the job – energised by veering from one subject to the next and undeterred by fierce opposition from the Church or even a government ban on the entire project. Special thanks to Kate Tunstall, Professor of French and Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones Fellow in Modern Languages at Worcester College, University of Oxford.Produced by BBC Studios Audio in partnership with The Open University.
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Collectors: Sei Shōnagon
Naomi Alderman wonders at lady-in-waiting, writer and all-round entertainer Sei Shōnagon, who wrote The Pillow Book over a thousand years ago in the Japanese imperial court.The Empress and her entourage lived in a closed world, glimpsed through half-shut blinds, while political machinations went on all around them. Poetry and wit were highly prized; and Sei Shōnagon was unmatched. In dark times, she picked out the beauty and absurdity in everyday life; and pulled together poetry, anecdote, essays and lists to create a whole new genre in Japanese – miscellany. Special thanks to Naomi Fukumori, Associate Professor and Director of The Institute for Japanese Studies at The Ohio State University.Excerpts from The Pillow Book translated by Meredith McKinney (Penguin Classics 2006).Produced by BBC Studios Audio in partnership with The Open University.
In Human Intelligence, Naomi Alderman dissects the minds of brilliant thinkers from the past; examining the myriad ways in which humans think and realising that great minds don't, in fact, think alike.
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