Art of Living Downloads, and Future Guests

All three interviews discussing the Art of Living series are now available to download. That's Raymond Tallis, Ziyad Marar and John Harvey.


Meanwhile, the roster of guests is virtually complete for the rest of 2008, and there are some great interviews to look forward to. Look out for return visits from Ben Goldacre and Jonathan Meades, Richard Wilson on a Skeptics Guide to Life, Douglas Murray on the future of Conservatism, Marcus Chown on Quantum Theory, Rose Shapiro on Alternative Medicine, Susan Jacoby on American Unreason, Kenan Malik on Race, Neuroscience from Colin Blakemore and Adam Curtis on his documentaries.

We've also got something exciting planned for Christmas, more of which later.....

Little Atoms with John Harvey

Little Atoms takes its final look at The Art of Living series of books,
from Acumen Publishing.

The Art of Living - We live in a world where people are searching for new
insights and sources of meaning. Religion often seems questionable; work
and the consumer treadmill unbalanced; and self-help worthy but
simplistic. Philosophy is the great untapped resource of our generation.
From Plato to Russell philosophers have engaged wide audiences on matters
of life and death. The Art of Living series aims to invigorate philosophy
and open up the subjects riches to a wider public once again. Taking its
lead from the concerns of the ancient Greek philosophers, the series asks
the question "how should we live?" Authors draw on their own personal
reflections to write philosophy that seeks to enrich, stimulate and
challenge the reader's thoughts about their own life.


This week Neil Denny talks to writer John Harvey about Clothes.

John Harvey studied and taught English Literature at the University of
Cambridge, becoming Vice-Master of Emmanuel College in 2002. He came to
clothes literature by way of visual art and has written a number of books
on visual subjects including Victorian Novelists and their Illustrators
and, more recently Men in Black. He is author of several novels and has
reviewed widely for national newspapers and journals.

Little Atoms with Ziyad Marar

Little Atoms continues its look at The Art of Living series of books, published by Acumen Publishing.

The Art of Living - We live in a world where people are searching for new insights and sources of meaning. Religion often seems questionable; work and the consumer treadmill unbalanced; and self-help worthy but simplistic. Philosophy is the great untapped resource of our generation. From Plato to Russell philosophers have engaged wide audiences on matters of life and death. The Art of Living series aims to invigorate philosophy and open up the subjects riches to a wider public once again. Taking its lead from the concerns of the ancient Greek philosophers, the series asks the question "how should we live?" Authors draw on their own personal reflections to write philosophy that seeks to enrich, stimulate and challenge the reader's thoughts about their own life.

This week Neil Denny will be talking to writer Ziyad Marar about Deception.

Ziyad Marar was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1966. He lived in the Middle East until the age of 10 before moving to London where he still lives. He has worked as Editorial Director at Sage Publications for the last decade. He holds a BSc in psychology (Exeter University), an MA in the philosophy and psychology of language, and did several years of post-graduate research in this field (London University). His recent book The Happiness Paradox reflects his interest in the way philosophy and psychology can contribute to a better understanding of modern identity. His forth-coming book, Deception, looks at our relationship with the truth, and asks whether it's possible (or even desirable) to live a truly honest life.

Finally, Podcasting....

After nearly 3 years and multiple requests, we've finally got around to making Little Atoms available as a Podcast.

If you haven't already, you can sign up for it here.


Thanks to the brilliant Sid Rodrigues of The Skeptic for actually doing all the hard graft.

Little Atoms with Raymond Tallis

For rest of September, Little Atoms will be discussing ideas raised in a new series of books, entitled The Art of Living, edited by former Little Atoms guest Mark Vernon and published by Acumen Publishing.

The Art of Living - We live in a world where people are searching for new insights and sources of meaning. Religion often seems questionable; work and the consumer treadmill unbalanced; and self-help worthy but simplistic. Philosophy is the great untapped resource of our generation. From Plato to Russell philosophers have engaged wide audiences on matters of life and death. The Art of Living series aims to invigorate philosophy and open up the subjects riches to a wider public once again. Taking its lead from the concerns of the ancient Greek philosophers, the series asks the question "how should we live?" Authors draw on their own personal reflections to write philosophy that seeks to enrich, stimulate and challenge the reader's thoughts about their own life.

This Neil Denny will be talking to writer Raymond Tallis about Hunger.

Raymond Tallis was Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Manchester until he left to become a full-time writer in 2006. Author of more than 250 medical publications, Tallis was, in 2007 presented with the Lord Cohen Gold Medal for Research into ageing and, in the same year, the Healthwatch Award for promoting evidence-based medicine. He was elected fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences for his research into stroke and epilepsy.

In addition to his medical works, Tallis is author of many works of fiction and poetry, and has written on the philosophy of the mind, philosophical anthropology, literary theory, the nature of art and cultural criticism. His books include The Kingdom of Infinite Space, Hippocratic Oaths: Medicine and its Discontents, In Defence of Realism, The Knowing Animal and Absence. 2007 Tallis was nominated in the Independent as one of "50 Brains of Britain" and in April appeared as a castaway on Desert Island Discs.

Little Atoms with Richard Holloway

On this week's show Neil Denny talks to Richard Holloway.

Richard Holloway was Bishop of Edinburgh and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church. A former Gresham Professor of Divinity, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Chairman of the Joint Board of the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen. He has written for many newspapers in Britain, Including The Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The Herald and The Scotsman. He has presented several series for BBC television.

Richard's books include Dancing on the Edge, Godless Morality, On Forgiveness, Looking in the Distance, and How to Read the Bible. His most recent book Between the Monster and the Saint was published by Canongate in August.


Usual time and place, Resonance 104.4 FM Friday 19.00-19.30