Little Atoms

Little Atoms with David Aaronovitch

2009-05-29T09:41:00.004Z

On this week's show, Neil and Padraig welcome back David Aaronovitch, for his third Little AToms visit.

David Aaronovitch is a writer, broadcaster and commentator on international politics and the media. He started his media career in television, working as a producer on ITV's Weekend World, and The BBC's On The Record. He has previously written for The Guardian, The Observer and The Independent, winning numerous accolades, including Columnist of the Year 2003 and the Orwell prize for journalism in 2001. As a broadcaster he has appearanced on the satirical TV current affairs programme Have I Got News For You and made radio broadcasts on historical topics. David is currently a regular columnist for The Times. David's most recent book is Voodoo History: The Role of Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History.

Little Atoms with David Eagleman

2009-05-22T09:00:00.003Z

This weeks Little Atoms features a pre-recorded* interview, Neil Denny in conversation with Neuroscientist David Eagleman about time perception, synesthesia and many possible afterlives. The interview includes David reading one of the short stories from his new book.

David Eagleman is is a neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, where he directs the Laboratory for Perception and Action and the Initiative on Neuroscience and Law. He is best known for his work on time perception, synesthesia and neurolaw. He is also a fiction writer. David's most recent book is Sum: Forty Tales From the Afterlives.

* The mp3/podcast will feature an extended version of this interview.

Little Atoms with Chris French

2009-05-15T09:23:00.002Z

On this week's show Neil and Padraig are joined in the studio by Psychologist Chris French.

Chris French is a professor of psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London, and heads the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit, which he founded in the year 2000. Chris teaches a course entitled Psychology, Parapsychology and Pseudoscience as part of the BSc (Hons) Psychology programmes at both Goldsmiths College and Birkbeck College. He is a Chartered Psychologist and a Fellow of the British Psychological Society.He is also the co-editor of The Skeptic magazine.

Little Atoms with Simon Singh

2009-05-08T09:56:00.004Z

On tonight's show Simon Singh makes a return visit to the Little Atoms Studio.

Simon Singh is an author, journalist and TV Producer, specializing in science and mathematics. Simon studied physics at Imperial College, London before completing a PhD in particle physics at Cambridge University and at CERN Geneva. In 1990 he joined the BBC's Science and Features Department, where he was a producer and director working on programmes such as Tomorrow's World and Horizon.

Simon has previously written two best-selling books, Fermat's Last Theorem and The Code Book, for which he subsequently produced and presented television adaptations for Channel 4, and then another best-seller, Big Bang: The Most Important Scientific Discovery of All Time and Why You Need to Know About It. Simon's latest book, co-authored with Edzard Ernst, is Trick or Treatment?: Alternative Medicine on Trial.

Little Atoms with Philippe Sands

2009-05-01T10:46:00.003Z

Tonight's guest on Little Atoms is Philippe Sands QC.

Philippe Sands QC has been Professor of Law at University College London since 2002 and has also taught at Boston College Law School, Cambridge University and New York University Law School. He is the author of the acclaimed Lawless World: Making and Breaking Global Rules as well as several other books on international law. He participated in the negotiation of the 1992 Climate Change Convention and the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. He is a practicing barrister at Matrix Chambers and has been involved in leading cases before English and international courts, including those concerning Senator Augusto Pinochet and the Guantanamo and Belmarsh detainees. Philippe's latest book is Torture Team: Uncovering War Crimes in the Land of the Free.

Little Atoms with Noam Chomsky

2009-04-23T09:23:00.002Z

On this week's Little Atoms Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy talk to Noam Chomsky.

Noam Chomsky has been described as the world's greatest public intellectual. Born in 1928 in Philadelphia, Chomsky earned his academic stripes as a young linguistics professor at MIT in the 1950s. His theory of transformational grammar, forged at this time, posits that the capability to form structured language is innate to the human mind. But the general public first came to know Chomsky for his outspoken opposition to the Vietnam war. For more than 40 years, he has been the academy's loudest and most consistent critic of US policies at home and abroad.

Chomsky has written more than 40 books, includng American Power and the New Mandarins, Manufacturing Consent, Hegemony or Survival, Deterring Democracy and Failed States, and continues to lecture frequently, as prolific a provocateur as ever.

Little Atoms with Dr Anthony Daniels AKA Theodore Dalrymple

2009-04-17T09:58:00.002Z

On this week's show Neil Denny talks to Dr Anthony Daniels.

Dr Anthony Daniels is a recently retired doctor and psychiatrist formerly working in a hospital and prison in Birmingham, England. Writing under the pen name Theodore Dalrymple, he is a prolific author of numerous essays and opinion pieces carried in the Wall Street Journal, Cato Institute, The Spectator, Daily Telegraph, New Criterion, City Journal and New English Review. his books include Life at the Bottom, Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses, Junk Medicine: Doctors, Lies and the Addiction Bureaucracy, and In Praise of Prejudice: The Necessity of Preconceived Ideas.

Little Atoms with Jonah Lehrer

2009-04-03T09:20:00.002Z

Jonah Lehrer is Editor at Large for Seed Magazine and the author of Proust Was a Neuroscientist. He graduated from Columbia University and studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. has written for The New Yorker, Nature, Wired, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. Jonah is also a Contributing Editor at Scientific American Mind and National Public Radio's Radio Lab, and writes a highly regarded blog, The Frontal Cortex.

Jonah's latest book, The Decisive Moment, was published by Canongate in February.

Little Atoms with Richard Wiseman

2009-03-27T10:45:00.003Z

This weeks Little Atoms features a pre-recorded interview, Neil Denny talks to Richard Wiseman. Richard talks about his new Hauntings project, about parapsychology and the value of studying psychic phenomena, refuses to tell the worlds funniest joke, and finally exclusively reveals the line-up for The Amazing Meeting London.

Professor Richard Wiseman started his working life as an award-winning professional magician, and was one of the youngest members of The Magic Circle. He then obtained a first class honours degree in Psychology from University College London and a doctorate in psychology from the University of Edinburgh. For the past twelve years he has been the head of a research unit at the University of Hertfordshire, and in 2002 was awarded Britain's first Professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology.

Richard Wiseman has established an international reputation for his research into unusual areas of psychology, including deception, luck and the paranormal. He has published over 40 papers in refereed academic journals, including articles in one of the world's most respected science publications, Nature. He has given invited addresses and keynote speeches in Britain and abroad, including to The Royal Society, The Royal Society for the Arts, Microsoft, Caltech, and The Royal Institution. His research has been featured on over 150 television programmes, including Horizon (BBC), Body Shock (Channel 4), 20/20 (ABC), and Dateline (NBC). He is regularly heard on BBC Radio 4, including appearances on ‘Start the Week', ‘Midweek' and ‘The Today Programme'. Feature articles about his work have regularly appeared in The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian, and a recent poll revealed that he was the psychologist most frequently quoted in the British media.

Richard's first book, The Luck Factor, presents a comprehensive account of his ten-year research project into the nature of luck. This best-selling book has now been published into 14 languages and published in over 25 countries. His latest book, Quirkology, examines the curious psychology of everyday life, including laughter, lying, and love.

On the 4th April this year, Richard Wiseman will be hosting Hauntings: The Science of Ghosts at the Edinburgh International Science Festival.

Little Atoms with Tracey Brown

2009-03-20T11:05:00.003Z

On this week's show Neil and Padraig are joined in the studio by Tracey Brown.

Tracey Brown is the Director of the charitable trust Sense About Science which seeks to respond to "the misrepresentation of science and scientific evidence on issues that matter to society". It promotes the principle of independent peer review and scientific enquiry free from stigma, intimidation and political pressure.

Tracey has been the Director of Sense About Science since shortly after it was established in 2002. She has a background in social research, particularly on the social dynamics of risk, together with experience of organizing research projects in the social sciences. She spent four years working on the establishment of an EC-funded regional research and academic teaching centre in Kazan, Russia, while based at the University of Kent; she spent a year in a more commercial research environment as an analyst, setting up a research unit for crisis management specialists. She is a regular contributor to public and media debates about science and progress. This is Tracey's second appearance on Little Atoms.

Little Atoms with Stephen Law

2009-03-13T11:02:00.003Z

On This week's show, Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy talk to Stephen Law. Stephen Law is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Heythrop College, University of London. He is also editor of THINK: Philosophy for Everyone, a journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy (published by Cambridge University Press). Stephen has published numerous books on philosophy, including The Philosophy Gym: 25 Short Adventures in Thinking (on which an Oxford University online course has since been based) and The Philosophy
Files (aimed at children 12+). His other books include The War For Children's Minds, a defence of liberal values against religious and moral authoritarianism, and The Great Philosophers: The Lives and Ideas of History's Greatest Thinkers.

Stephen is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts. He was previously a Junior Research Fellow at The Queen's College, Oxford, and holds B.Phil and D.Phil degrees in Philosophy from the University of Oxford. He has a blog at www.stephenlaw.org. Stephen Law was appointed Provost of Centre For Inquiry, London in July 2008.

Little Atoms with Andrew Copson

2009-03-06T09:47:00.002Z

Andrew Copson works for the British Humanist Association on education and public affairs. Andrew coordinates the BHA's campaigns for a secular state, for an end to religious privilege and discrimination based on religion or belief and for a rational humanist perspective on public ethical issues. He also coordinates the BHA's education work promoting understanding of Humanism as a non-religious worldview both in formal school and college curricula and to the public at large. He has written on these issues for The Guardian and New Statesman as well as various journals and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Associate of the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff University.

Andrew graduated from Oxford with a first in Ancient and Modern History and was a member of the winning team of the 2005 Young Educational Thinker of the Year Programme. He came to the BHA in 2005 from the Citizenship Foundation.

Little Atoms with Nick Cohen

2009-02-27T11:53:00.002Z

Nick Cohen returns for his third visit to Little Atoms. Nick is
a columnist for the Observer and The London Evening Standard. He does
occasional pieces for many other publications, including the Standpoint
and New Humanist. Cruel Britannia: Reports on the Sinister and the
Preposterous, a collection of his journalism, was published by Verso in
1999, and Pretty Straight Guys, a history of Britain under Tony Blair, was
published by Faber in 2003. Nick's next book What's Left?: How Liberals
Lost Their Way, an examination of the agonies, idiocies and compromises of
mainstream liberal thought was published by 4th Estate in February 2007.
His Latest book, Waiting for the Etonians: Reports From the Sickbed of
Liberal England is published by 4th Estate in February 2009. Ascerbic,
funny and uncompromising, Nick Cohen's forensic political journalism makes
him one of the sharpest writers on the British left.

Little Atoms 100th show with Steve Jones*

2009-02-20T11:23:00.003Z

This week's show is the 100th edition of Little Atoms. Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy talk to Steve Jones.

Steve Jones is a professor of genetics and head of the biology department at University College London. His studies are conducted in the Galton laboratory. He is also a television presenter and a prize-winning author on the subject of biology, especially evolution. He is one of the best known contemporary popular writers on evolution. His popular writing shows a wry, sometimes rather dark, sense of humour. In 1996 his writing won him the Royal Society Michael Faraday prize "for his numerous, wide ranging contributions to the public understanding of science in areas such as human evolution and variation, race, sex, inherited disease and genetic
manipulation through his many broadcasts on radio and television, his lectures, popular science books, and his regular science column in The Daily Telegraph and contributions to other newspaper media".

Steve's books include In The Blood: God, Genes and Destiny, Y:The Descent of Man, Almost Like a Whale: 'The Origin of Species' Updated, The Single Helix: A Turn Around the World of Science and Coral: A Pessimist in Paradise. His most recent book is Darwin's Island: The Galapagos in the Garden of England.

*Actually its our first show with Steve Jones, but you know what I mean....

Little Atoms with Jonathan Heawood

2009-02-13T12:07:00.002Z

On this week's show Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy talk to Jonathan Heawood of English PEN.

Jonathan Heawood joined English PEN as Director in November 2005 from the Fabian Society, where he was responsible for publishing a wide variety of political books and pamphlets, and editing the Fabian Review. He was previously Deputy Literary Editor of the Observer, and he continues to write on culture and politics for a range of publications, including the Independent on Sunday, the Guardian, Prospect, the New Statesman, the London Review of Books and Country Life. He wrote the introduction to Orwell: The Observer Years (Atlantic, 2003), and is now writing a book about the cultural history of the British landscape.

Little Atoms with Nick Davies

2009-02-05T14:32:00.002Z

On this week's show Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy are joined in the studio by journalist Nick Davies. Nick Davies writes investigative stories for the Guardian, and has been named Journalist of the Year, Reporter of the Year and Feature Writer of the Year in the British press awards. His latest book Flat Earth News exposes falsehood, distortion and propaganda in the global media.

Website Not Updated

2009-02-05T14:28:00.002Z

Apologies that the Little Atoms website hasn't been updated, and last week's podcast isn't available yet. My computer at home has developed enough bug and viruses to floor an elephant, so need to get that sorted first.

Needless to say the program continues as normal.....

Neil

Little Atoms with Tania Glyde

2009-01-30T10:52:00.003Z

On this week's Little Atoms Neil Denny talks to writer Tania Glyde.

Tania Glyde is an author, journalist and broadcaster. She has written two novels to date, Clever Girl and Junk DNA. Her short stories have appeared in the Disco 2000 and Vox 'n' Roll anthologies. She was Time Out's Sex columnist for two years, and produced and presented the groundbreaking chat show Midnight Sex Talk on Resonance 104.4FM. Tania's latest book is Cleaning Up: How I Gave up Drinking and Lived.

Little Atoms with Tim Minchin (and Rebecca Watson)

2009-01-23T14:37:00.008Z

On this week's Little Atoms Neil Denny and special guest host Rebecca Watson are joined by Tim Minchin.

Tim Minchin is an Australian musician, actor, comedian and writer. Originally from Perth, he completed a Bachelor of Arts in English and Theatre at the University of Western Australia in 1995, then an Advanced Diploma in Contemporary Music at the Conservatorium of WA – part of the WA Academy of Performing Arts – in 1998.

In 2002, he moved to Melbourne, where he began to develop the solo comedy shows which have gained him public and critical acclaim in the last three years. He developed his unique style during an 18-month period when he played regularly in the famous 40-seat cabaret room of The Butterfly Club in South Melbourne, before producing his break out show, Dark Side, at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2005. This show won the inaugural Festival Directors' Award and was picked up by legendary Edinburgh producer, Karen Koren, matriarch of the Gilded Balloon.

At the Edinburgh Fringe, Tim became one of the most successful ever debut acts, selling out the 300-seat Debating Hall and winning the Perrier Award for Best Newcomer. He subsequently went on to perform Dark Side at the Soho Theare and the Lyric Theatre in London's West End, and also appeared on a bill with Mariah Carey and Westlife at the Royal Albert Hall.

He appeared at the Montreal Just For Laughs Festival in 2006 and the HBO US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado in January 2007, where he won the award for Best Alternative Comedian. In November that year, he performed at the HBO Comedy Festival in Las Vegas and sold out short seasons at Ars Nova in New York and the ACME Comedy Theatre in LA.

Television credits include Comedy Shuffle (BBC), Never Mind The Buzzcocks (BBC), The World Stands Up (Paramount Comedy), Comedy Cuts (ITV), Spicks and Specks (ABC) and The Sideshow (ABC). He has appeared on British and Australian radio and has recorded two specials for BBC Radio 2: “Tim Minchin and Friends” and “Tim Minchin's Loving and Peaceful Yuletide Half Hour” .

He has released two live comedy albums, Dark Side (2005) and So Rock (2006). His debut DVD, So Live, was recorded at the Sydney Opera House in May 2007 and was released by Madman Entertainment in November that year.

When not on tour, Tim lives in London with his wife and young daughter.

For one week only Little Atoms has a special guest host, in the form of Rebecca Watson. Rebecca is leading a team of skeptical female activists at Skepchick.org, co-hosting the weekly podcast The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, producing pin-up calendars, and attending rock shows. Her pilot radio show Curiosity, Aroused was a winner of the 2007 Public Radio Talent Quest and has been aired on ten public radio stations in the US. She currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts, where she works as a copywriter in order to fund her hardcore skepticism habit. There is currently an asteroid orbiting the sun with her name on it. She does nothing in moderation and hopes it shows.

Little Atoms with Josie Long

2009-01-09T11:06:00.003Z

On this week's show Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy are joined in the studio
by comedian Josie Long.

In 1999 Josie Long won the BBC New Comedy Award at the age of just 17 -
making her too young for the champagne that came as part of the prize.
Despite the boost the award would have given to her comedy career, she
took time off performing to complete her English degree at Oxford
university, returning in 2003.

Following the break, she was named best newcomer in the Chortle awards in
2005, and best breakthrough act the following year. In 2006, she also
scooped best newcomer in the if.comeddie awards for her solo Edinburgh
debut, Kindness and Exuberance. Her next show, Trying is Good, is
available on DVD. Josie is currently touring All of The Planet's Wonders
which is about "...the magic of learning and making sense of the world.
It's about the little and big things in life. It covers the stars,
wildlife, animals and museums, being inspired by books she has read and
people she's met along the way".

Little Atoms Christmas Special

2008-12-19T10:52:00.002Z

This week's Little Atoms consists of a number of interviews recorded backstage on 18th December at 9 Lessons and Carols for Godless People @ the Bloomsbury Theatre.

There will be a shorter version broadcast at 19.00 on Resonance 104.4FM tonight, and then immediately after a longer version available to download from the website. Podcast to follow.

The (longer) show contains an extended interview with show curator Robin Ince, and then short interviews with contributors Darren Hayman, Christina Martin, Waen Shepherd, Simon Singh, Natalie Haynes, Tim Minchin, Chris Addison and Josie Long.

Little Atoms with Phil Plait

2008-12-11T11:01:00.002Z

This week's episode of Little Atoms features Neil Denny in conversation with astronomer Phil Plait.

Philip Plait Ph.D.is a renowned astronomer with more than two decades of professional research and education experience. He has written articles for such magazines as Astronomy and Sky & Telescope, as well as national and international newspapers. He has appeared on television news and in documentaries many times, including the Sci-Fi Channel's Countdown to Doomsday and National Geographic's Is It Real? His website Bad Astronomy has won numerous awards, such as best Science Blog of 2007, and also begat the book of the same name. Phil's latest book is Death From The Skies!

Little Atoms with Kenan Malik

2008-12-05T13:48:00.002Z

On today's Little Atoms Padraig Reidy and Neil Denny are joined in the studio by Kenan Malik.

Kenan Malik is a writer, lecturer and broadcaster. Currently Senior Visiting Fellow at the Department of Political, International and Policy Studies at the University of Surrey, He was born in India, brought up in Manchester and now lives in London. He studied neurobiology (at the University of Sussex) and history and philosophy of science (at Imperial College, London). For a number of years he was a research psychologist at the Centre for Research into Perception and Cognition (CRPC) at the University of Sussex.

He is a presenter of Nightwaves, BBC Radio 3's flagship arts and ideas magazine and Analysis, BBC Radio 4's current affairs strand. He can also often be heard as a panellist on Radio 4's The Moral Maze.

His books include The Meaning of Race (1996) and Man, Beast and Zombie (2000). Strange Fruit: Why Both Sides are Wrong in the Race Debate was published in June 2008, and From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and Its Legacy will be published in early 2009.

Little Atoms with Marcus Chown

2008-11-28T13:31:00.002Z

On this week's show Neil Denny talks to Marcus Chown.

Marcus Chown is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. A former radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, he is now cosmology consultant of the weekly science magazine New Scientist. Marcus has written a number of popular science books, including "The Magic Furnace", "The Universe Next Door" and "The Never-ending Days of Being Dead". His latest book is "Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You".

Little Atoms with Adam Curtis

2008-11-20T18:13:00.002Z

On this week's show Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy will be joined in the studio by film-maker Adam Curtis.

Adam Curtis is a producer, writer and director of television documentaries such as Pandora's Box, The Mayfair Set, The Century of the Self, The Power of Nightmares and The Trap. Curtis' programs, though always about serious issues, maintain a sense of tongue-in-cheek humour and are characteristic in their extensive use of archive footage. In his film making, Curtis strives to to find meaningful connections between historical situations and often focuses on the impact different ideologies have had on modern society.

Little Atoms with Colin Blakemore

2008-11-13T18:04:00.003Z

On this week's show Neil Denny talks to Colin Blakemore.

Colin Blakemore, FMedSci, FRCP (Hon), FIBiol (Hon), FRS, is Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Magdalen College Oxford. He also holds a Professorship at the University of Warwick and is Chairman of the Neuroscience Research Partnership in Singapore. He was recently appointed as Chair of the Food Standards Agency’s new General Advisory Committee on Science. From 2003-2007 he was Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council.

Colin Blakemore studied Medical Sciences at Cambridge and completed a PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. After working for 11 years in Cambridge, he moved to Oxford as Waynflete Professor of Physiology in 1979, and from 1996-2003 he was also Director of the Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience. His research has been concerned with many aspects of vision, early development of the brain and plasticity of the cerebral cortex. His prizes include the Robert Bing Prize from the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences, the Prix Netter from the French Académie Nationale de Médecine, the Gregg Medal of the Royal Australian College of Ophthalmologists, the John P. McGovern Science and Society Medal from Sigma Xi, the international Alcon Prize for vision research and the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize. He has been President and Chairman of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and President of the British Neuroscience Association, the Physiological Society and the Biosciences Federation.

Colin has been actively involved in the public communication of science for more than 30 years. He is a frequent broadcaster on radio and television, has published a number of books about science for a general readership, and he writes for the national and international media. He works with and for the Science Museum, London, the European Dana Alliance for the Brain, the Cheltenham Festival of Science, the Science Media Centre and Sense about Science. He is President of the Association of British Science Writers.

Little Atoms with Susan Jacoby

2008-11-07T11:15:00.002Z

On this week's show Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy talk to writer Susan Jacoby.

Susan Jacoby is an independent scholar whose work now focuses on American intellectual history, the author began her writing career as a reporter for The Washington Post.

Jacoby's Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism (2004), was hailed in The New York Times as an "ardent and insightful work" that "seeks to rescue a proud tradition from the indifference of posterity." Named a notable nonfiction book of 2004 by The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times, Freethinkers was cited in England as one of the outstanding international books of the year by the Times Literary Supplement and The Guardian.

The author's previous books, include Moscow Conversations (1972), based on her experiences in Moscow from 1969 to 1971. Among her other books are Wild Justice: The Evolution of Revenge (Harper & Row), a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1984, and Half-Jew: A Daughter's Search for Her Family's Buried Past (Scribner, 2000). Susan's latest book is The Age of American Unreason: Dumbing Down and the Future of Democracy.

Jacoby has been a contributor for more than 25 years, on topics including law, religion, medicine, aging, women's rights, political dissent in the Soviet Union, and Russian literature, to a wide range of periodicals and newspapers. Her articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Washington Post Book World, Los Angeles Times Book Review, Newsday , Harper's, The Nation, Vogue, The American Prospect, Mother Jones, and the AARP Magazine, among other publications. They have been reprinted in numerous anthologies of columns and magazine articles.

She is also program director of the Center for Inquiry-New York City, a rationalist think tank and a regular panelist for On Faith, a Web site sponsored by The Washington Post and Newsweek. She also has her own political blog, The Secularist's Corner on the Web site of The Washington Post.

Little Atoms with Jonathan Meades

2008-10-30T20:08:00.002Z

This week's show features an interview with writer and broadcaster Jonathan Meades. Jonathan and Neil Denny discuss the recent release of DVD box set The Jonathan Meades Collection.

Jonathan Meades is a writer on architecture, culture and food, a novelist and television presenter. He was restaurant critic of The Times for 15 years. Jonathan's writing includes the short story collection Filthy English, the novels Pompey and The Fowler Family Business, as well as a collection food writing Incest and Morris Dancing. This will be Jonathan's third appearance on Little Atoms.

Website back.....

2008-10-30T20:02:00.003Z

The website is back up, and we've got a new host, Positive Internet. We have a dedicated server and more bandwidth, so hopefully the site falling over will be a thing of the past. I've not fully completed transferring across all the past shows to the new server yet, but the last few shows are there. The rest will follow quickly. Apologies for the absence, we're just too damn popular!

Little Atoms with Rose Shapiro

2008-10-24T09:07:00.001Z

On tonight's show we are joined in the studio by writer Rose Shapiro.

Rose Shapiro has written for newspapers, magazines and medical journals including the Independent, the Observer, Time Out, Good Housekeeping and the Health Service Journal. Her book Suckers: How Alternative Medicine Makes Fools of Us All is published by Harvill Secker, and is described as follows;

'Alternative' medicine is now used by one in three of us. In the UK we spend an estimated £4.5 billion a year on it and its practitioners are now insinuating themselves into the mainstream. There are methods based on ancient or far-eastern medicine, as well as ones invented in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Many are promoted as natural treatments. What they have in common is that there is no hard evidence that any of them work.

Treatments like homeopathy, acupuncture and chiropractic are widely available and considered reputable by many. Ever more bizarre therapies, from naturopathy to nutraceuticals, ear candling to ergogenics, are increasingly favoured. Endorsed by celebrities and embraced by the middle classes, alternative medicine's appeal is based on the spurious rediscovery of ancient wisdom and the supposedly benign quality of nature.
Surrounded by an aura of unquestioning respect and promoted through uncritical airtime and column inches, alternative medicine has become a lifestyle choice. Its global market is predicted to be worth $5 trillion by 2050.

Suckers reveals how alternative medicine can jeopardise the health of those it claims to treat, leaches resources from treatments of proven efficacy and is largely unaccountable and unregulated. In short, it is an industry that preys on human vulnerability and makes fools of us all.

Suckers is a calling to account of a social and intellectual fraud; a bracing, funny and popular take on a global delusion.

Website Down

2008-10-23T13:08:00.003Z

Apologies, but the Little Atoms website is down again at the moment, due to an unusually high number of downloads of our last two podcasts.

Am trying to get it back up asap, although this might be the end of the month.....

Little Atoms with Douglas Murray

2008-10-17T09:22:00.003Z

On tonight's show we are joined in the studio by Douglas Murray.

Douglas Murray is a bestselling author and commentator based in the UK. His most recent book is the critically acclaimed Neoconservatism: Why We Need It, which Christopher Hitchens praised in the Washington Examiner as "a very cool but devastating analysis" and which caused Andrew Roberts to hail him 'The right's answer to Michael Moore', continuing, 'This book shows how to fight and win the War on Terror'.

He appears regularly on the television and radio across Europe and America. He is a trustee of the newly founded European Freedom Fund and a member of the Advisory Board of the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. Since April 2007 he has been Director of the Centre for Social Cohesion in Westminster, London.

Join us at the usual time, 19.00-19.30 GMT on Resonance 104.4FM in London, or www.resonancefm.com worldwide.

Little Atoms with Richard Wilson

2008-10-10T09:55:00.001Z

On this week's show, Neil Denny is joined in the studio by Richard Wilson.

Richard Wilson read Philosophy at University College London and his first book, Titanic Express, recounts his search for the truth about the death of his sister Charlotte, who was killed in Burundi in 2000. He now works for a human rights organisation and lives in London.

Richard's latest book is Don't Get Fooled Again: The Sceptic's Guide to Life.

Little Atoms with Ben Goldacre

2008-10-02T17:54:00.001Z

On this week's show, Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy are joined in the studio by Dr Ben Goldacre, making his second appearance on the show.

Ben Goldacre is a writer, broadcaster and medical doctor from the UK who is best known for his Bad Science column in the Guardian, examining the claims of scaremongering journalists, quack health products, pseudoscientific cosmetics adverts, and evil multinational pharmaceutical corporations, as well as wider themes such as the medicalisation of everyday life and the psychology of irrational beliefs.

Ben studied Medicine at Magdalen College Oxford where he also edited Isis, the Oxford University Magazine. He left in 1995 with a First: before going on to clinical medicine at UCL, he was a visiting researcher in cognitive neurosciences at the University of Milan, working on MRI brain scans of language and executive function, and was also funded by the British Academy to do a Masters degree in Philosophy at King's. Ben now works full time for the NHS, appears regularly on radio and TV, and has written for publications as diverse as Time Out, the British Medical Journal, New Statesman and The Lancet, as well as writing and presenting 'The Rise of The Lifestyle Nutritionists' and 'The Power of Placebo' in 2008 on BBC Radio 4.

Ben's first book, Bad Science, was published in September by Forth Estate.

Art of Living Downloads, and Future Guests

2008-09-27T14:52:00.004Z

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

2008-09-26T12:49:00.001Z

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

2008-09-18T17:24:00.002Z

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....

2008-09-11T16:38:00.002Z

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

2008-09-11T16:25:00.003Z

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

2008-09-04T19:44:00.003Z

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

Little Atoms with Alain de Botton

2008-08-21T16:58:00.002Z

On this week's show Neil Denny talks to writer Alain de Botton.

Alain de Botton was born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1969 and now lives in London. He is a writer of essayistic books, which refer both to his own experiences and ideas - and those of artists, philosophers and thinkers. It's a style of writing that has been termed a 'philosophy of everyday life.'

His books include Essays in Love, How Proust can Change Your Life, The Consolations of Philosophy, The Art of Travel, Status Anxiety and The Architecture of Happiness.

Aside from writing, de Botton has been involved in making a number of television documentaries - and now helps to run a production company, Seneca Productions. He has also just helped to launch a miniature 'university' called The School of Life - which emulates the spirit of enquiry and playfulness found in his books.

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

Apologies for the website being down, this is due to the demand for the new podcast overwhelming our monthly bandwidth allocation. Am working on getting it back up as I type....

Little Atoms with Julie Burchill and Chas Newkey-Burden

2008-08-07T19:33:00.001Z

On this week's show Neil Denny talks to writers Julie Burchill and Chas Newkey-Burden about their book Not In My Name: A Compendium of Modern Hypocrisy.

Julie Burchill has been writing her often controversial journalism for almost 30 years, for publications as diverse as The NME, The Spectator, Daily Mail, The Times, The Express and The Guardian. She was also founding editor of The Modern Review. Julie's colourful private and social life has generated almost as many column inches over the years. She has written numerous novels, one of which Sugar Rush, has been adapted for television by Channel Four. Julie has also made a number of documentaries for Sky.

Chas Newkey-Burden is a journalist and the author of a number of books including Great Email Disasters and Amy Winehouse: She Told Us She Was Trouble.

Resonance 104.4FM Friday August 8th 19.00 - 19.30

Three more downloads

2008-08-03T17:59:00.001Z

Another three downloads available from the (shiny new) website.

That's interviews with Philip Escoffey, Julian Baggini and Lynsey Hanley.

Little Atoms with Lynsey Hanley

2008-07-31T17:16:00.002Z

On this week's Little Atoms Neil Denny talks to writer Lynsey Hanley.

Lynsey Hanley was born in Birmingham in 1976. She moved to London in 1994 to study politics and history at Queen Mary and Westfield College, London. She writes for the Observer, The Guardian, The Word and the New Statesman. Her first book, Estates: An Intimate History, is published by Granta Books.

Resonance 104.4FM Friday 1st August at 19.00

Little Atoms with Julian Baggini

2008-07-25T12:31:00.003Z

On this week's show Neil Denny and Anthony Burn talk to Julian Baggini.

Julian Baggini is editor of The Philosophers' Magazine. His books include
Atheism: A Very Short Introduction (OUP), What's It All About? Philosophy
and the Meaning of Life (Granta) and The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten and 99
Other Thought Experiments (Granta), Welcome to Everytown: A Journey into
The English Mind (Granta) and Complaint (Profile).

His journalism has appeared in publications such as the Guardian,
Independent, Times Higher Education Supplement, Times Education Supplement
and the Sunday Herald. He is frequently heard on BBC radio in programmes
including In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg, Off the Page and Nightwaves.

Join us at 19.00 on Resonance 104.4FM.

Little Atoms with Philip Escoffey

2008-07-17T18:14:00.002Z

A welcome return to Little Atoms for mind reader Philip Escoffey.

Philip Escoffey AKA The Grey Man, is one of the UK's top psychic
illusionist/mind readers. A Psychology graduate, Philip has been earning a
living as a mentalist for the last 10 years.

A confirmed skeptic, Philip is dismissive of spiritualists, mediums and
astrologers. However, he has a deep academic interest in the reasons why
people need to believe and is an expert in how techniques like
cold-reading are employed by psychics the world over.

Philip is currently previewing his stage show "Six Impossible Things
Before Dinner" in London, before embarking on a month long residency at
the Pleasance Theatre Edinburgh.

Philip will be joining Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy in the studio, last time the limitations of radio were ignored and magic tricks were performed. Expect similar this time.

Usual time and place, Friday 19.00-19.30 Resonance 104.4FM in London and www.resonancefm.com worldwide.

More downloads

2008-07-12T19:07:00.001Z

Another four shows now available to download from here. That's interviews with Austin Williams, Mary Roach, James Delingpole and Ian Haworth.

Little Atoms with Ian Haworth

2008-07-10T18:17:00.001Z

On this week's show Neil Denny talks to Ian Haworth, the General Secretary of the Cult Information Centre.

The Cult Information Centre is an educational charity providing advice and information for victims of cults, their families and friends, researchers and the media. Founded in 1987, and becoming a registered charity in 1992, it was the first educational organisation focusing critical concern on the methods used by cults to be granted charitable status in the UK.

Little Atoms with Mary Roach

2008-06-26T16:41:00.003Z

On this week's show Neil Denny talks to author Mary Roach.

Mary Roach has written for the Guardian, Vogue, GQ, Salon, Wired and the New York Times Magazine. She is the author of Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers, and Six Feet Over: Adventures in the Afterlife. Her latest book is Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Sex and Science.

Tune in at the usual time and place. Friday 19.00 on Resonance 104.4FM in London or at Resonancefm.com worldwide.

Little Atoms with Austin Williams

2008-06-19T17:04:00.002Z

Little Atoms returns after a ten week absence, joining presenters Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy on this weeks show is Austin Williams.

Austin Williams is the director of the Future Cities Project, an author and illustrator at NBS. An architect and project manager by profession, he was previously technical editor of the Architects' Journal and now writes for a wide range of publications on urban and transport issues. He was the coordinator of the 'Future of' series of festivals and is a founder member of ManTownHuman. He tutors at the RCA and was previously architecture critic at BBC London.

Austin has recently been seen convening the Bookshop Barnies salon discussions for writers, and has published a book called The Enemies of Progress: The Dangers of Sustainability, about which economist and previous Little Atoms guest Philippe Legrain said "Austin Williams has a gift for lobbing well-directed hand grenades."

Join us at the usual time, 19.00-19.30 Friday 20th June at Resonance 104.4FM in London or Resonance FM's website worldwide.

New (old) downloads

2008-06-19T17:00:00.002Z

After a considerable delay, the last two Little Atoms interviews with Rosie Waterhouse and Mark Vernon are available to download.

Little Atoms with Mark Vernon

2008-04-03T21:27:00.002Z

On this weeks show, Neil Denny and Anthony Burn are joined by Mark Vernon.

Mark Vernon is a writer, broadcaster, journalist, blogger and an honorary research fellow at Birkbeck College. He has a PhD in Philosophy from Warwick University. His books include Business: The Key Concepts, What Not To Say and The Philosophy of Friendship. His latest book is After Atheism: Science, Religion, and The Meaning of Life.

Mark was a priest in the Church of England between 1994-96, but quit the church as a conviction Atheist. Mark now sees himself firmly as an Agnostic.

Join us at the usual time, 19.00 Friday 4th April at 19.00 on Resonance 104.4FM

Little Atoms with Rosie Waterhouse

2008-03-27T19:02:00.002Z

On this week's Little Atoms Padraig Reidy and Neil Denny are Joined by Rosie Waterhouse.

Rosie Waterhouse is a lecturer in the Department of Journalism and Publishing at City University and a freelance journalist with extensive experience as an investigative reporter, having worked on the staff of five national newspapers and as a TV reporter. She has twice been a member of the Sunday Times Insight team and worked for the Independent and Independent on Sunday, where she was investigations editor, and for BBC Newsnight, where she contributed to a BAFTA for a film revealing how BSE had spread through the animal feed chain.

Her investigations have included: revealing the existence of the River Companies, a secret network of companies run by the Conservative Party to launder political donations from companies; babies for sale; MPs for hire. After investigating the origins and spread of allegations of Satanic ritual child abuse she was the first British journalist to reveal it was a myth.

As a freelance, Rosie has contributed articles to The Guardian's G2 section, the New Statesman, the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, the Times Educational Supplement, GQ, The Oldie and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's Search magazine. She has most recently contributed a series of articles in Private Eye on the Satanic Panic. Her television contributions include working as consultant on a BBC Newsnight film on the recent Satanic child abuse panic on the Isle of Lewis, and as research consultant on a BBC Real Story documentary on the Rochdale Satanic abuse controversy.

The usual time and place, Resonance 104.4FM Friday 28th March at 19.00.

Easter Break

2008-03-20T18:37:00.002Z

There will be no new Little Atoms this week, as Resonance is taking an Easter break.

Last weeks show with Marcus du Sautoy is now available to download here.

Little Atoms with Marcus du Sautoy

2008-03-13T18:41:00.002Z

A very welcome return to Little Atoms for Professor Marcus du Sautoy. Marcus is a professor of Mathematics at Oxford, a fellow of Wadham College and a research fellow at the Royal Society. He has been named by the Independent on Sunday as one of the UK's leading scientists, and has written extensively for the Guardian, The Times and the Daily Telegraph, and has appeared on Radio 4 on numerous occasions. Marcus is the author of The Music of the Primes: Why an Unsolved Problem in Mathematics Matters and has presented Mind Games, and The Music of The Primes for BBC Television. He was the Royal Institution Christmas Lecturer in 2006, which was broadcast on Channel 5, and is currently filming The Story of Maths for the BBC. His latest book is Finding Moonshine: A Mathematician's Journey Through Symmetry.

With Neil Denny and Richard Sanderson.

Resonance 104.4FM Friday 14th March 19.00

Little Atoms with Philip Spencer and Dave Rich

2008-03-07T17:56:00.004Z

Tonight's show features a pre-recorded interview in which Neil Denny talks to Philip Spencer and Dave Rich about Holocaust denial.

Philip Spencer is Associate Dean at the Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences at Kingston University. He has published works on Victor Serge,
Rosa Luxemburg, The Holocaust and Nationalism. He is an advisory editor
of Engage Online.

Dave Rich is Deputy Director of Communications at The Community Security
Trust, which provides security and defence services to the UK Jewish
community, and advises Government and the police on Anti-Semitism and
terrorism.

Little Atoms with David Colquhoun

2008-02-28T17:27:00.004Z

Little Atoms returns this friday after a two week absence, and with a new presenter. Neil Denny and Anthony Burn talk to on of Britain's leading scientists, David Colquhoun.

Professor David Colquhoun FRS, held the established (A.J. Clark) chair of Pharmacology at UCL, and was the Hon. Director of the Wellcome Laboratory for Molecular Pharmacology. In October 2004, he became a Research Fellow. Like many previous holders of the chair (in particular, A.J. Clark, J.H. Gaddum, H.O. Schild and J.W. Black) his interests are in quantitative analysis of receptor mechanisms.

He graduated from Leeds with a BSc and then went to Edinburgh to work for a PhD. After doing research at University College from 1964-69 on immunological problems and completing a book on statistics, he went to Yale University to work on nerve conduction. After returning from the USA he eventually returned to the Pharmacology Department at UCL in 1979, and has worked on single ion channel mechanisms since then. In 2004, he was made an Honorary Fellow of University College London.

David also writes DC's Improbable Science blog, on which he regularly crosses swords with various quacks and purveyors of magic potions.

Join us this friday at 19.00 on Resonance 104.4FM

Last Two Shows Now Downloadable

2008-02-19T17:54:00.002Z

The two most recent Little Atoms are now available to download from the website.

Get Derek Pasquill here, and Damian Thompson here.

Little Atoms with Damian Thompson

2008-02-07T19:29:00.000Z

On this week's Little Atoms Neil Denny and Richard Sanderson are joined by Damian Thompson.

Damian Thompson is a leader writer for The Daily Telegraph and editor-in-chief of The Catholic Herald. He blogs for the Telegraph on religious affairs and is the author of a number of books, including Waiting for Antichrist: Charisma and Apocalypse in a Pentecostal Church and The End of Time: Faith and the Fear in the Shadow of the Millennium.

In February 2008, Damian's latest book, Counterknowledge: How We Surrendered to Conspiracy Theories, Quack Medicine, Bogus Science and Fake History, will be published. You can discover more by visiting the Counterknowledge website.

More Downloads

2008-02-04T19:54:00.000Z

The interview with Linda Grant is now available to download from here.

Also, at long last, the recording of Neil Denny interviewing Johann Hari at Miller's Academy from November 2007 can be downloaded from here.

Little Atoms with Derek Pasquill

2008-01-31T19:04:00.000Z

On this week's show Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy are joined by Derek
Pasquill.

Derek Pasquill worked as a civil servant at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in a unit dealing with engagement with the Islamic world. He grew increasingly concerned over the government’s tacit support for the US’s policy of extraordinary rendition, and with the Foreign Office’s policy of consulting on issues of concern to the Muslim community exclusively via extremists in the Muslim Council of Britain. Derek leaked a number of documents to The Observer newspaper, and to journalist Martin Bright, which formed the basis of a number of critical articles, and also Bright’s pamphlet for Policy Exchange, “When Progressives Treat with Reactionaries”. In January 2006 Derek was arrested and subsequently charged with six counts of breaching the Official Secrets Act. Derek lived for two years facing a possible prison sentence, until his actions were vindicated when the case was thrown out at the Old Bailey earlier this month. It had come to light that Derek’s leaks had caused a significant rethink of the government’s strategy. Support for extraordinary rendition had been quietly dropped, as had the government’s over-reliance on the MCB.

Join us this Friday 1st February at 19.00 on Resonance 104.4FM in London or worldwide at the website.

Little Atoms with Linda Grant

2008-01-24T18:44:00.000Z

Tune in this friday at 19.00 on Resonance104.4FM or at the Resonance FM website to hear Richard Sanderson and Neil Denny talking to Linda Grant.

Linda Grant is a journalist and author. Her first novel, The Cast Iron Shore, won the David Higham First Novel Prize and was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize. Her second novel, When I lived in Modern Times, won the Orange Prize for Fiction. Still Here was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. She is also author of Sexing the Millennium: A Political History of the Sexual Revolution, The People on the Street: A Writer's View of Israel and Remind Me Who I am, Again a family memoir. Her latest book, The Clothes on Their Backs will be published in February 2008.

Another Download

2008-01-24T18:43:00.000Z

Last week's show with Philippe Legrain is now available to download from here.

Little Atoms with Philippe Legrain

2008-01-17T19:17:00.000Z

On this week's show, Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy are joined by Philippe Legrain.

Philippe Legrain is a journalist and writer, based in London but interested in the whole world. He is fascinated by how economics, politics and culture combine to form the big picture and how the world is coming together through globalisation while becoming ever more diverse through cultural mixing and individual choice. Philippe writes primarily about globalisation, migration and European issues, but through this his blog and his contributions to the Guardian's Comment is free he is now ranging more widely. Philippe is also a contributing editor to Prospect and as of September 2007, is a Visiting Fellow at the European Institute of the London School of Economics. He followed up his first book, Open World: The Truth about Globalisation, with a new one, Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them, making the case for freer international migration (immigration).

Join us at the usual time, this friday 18th Jan at 19.00 GMT on Resonance 104.4FM in London or worldwide via the Resonance FM website.

New Download

2008-01-15T22:05:00.000Z

The interview with Claire Fox from last friday is now available to download here.

Little Atoms with Claire Fox

2008-01-10T19:38:00.000Z

On this weeks show Neil Denny and Richard Sanderson are joined by Claire Fox.

Claire Fox is the director of the Institute of Ideas (IoI), which she established to create a public space where ideas can be contested without constraint. Claire initiated the IoI while co-publisher of the controversial and ground-breaking current affairs journal LM magazine (formerly Living Marxism). The IoI has since worked with a variety of prestigious institutions in Britain and abroad. Claire has a particular interest in education and social issues such as crime and mental health. She is highly critical of authoritarian developments such as New Labour's 'antisocial behaviour orders'. She is also a passionate supporter of the arts, and strongly believes that they should be valued for their own sake. She argues that efforts to dilute the arts for the benefit of 'the socially excluded' are patronising rather than democratic.

Claire is a co-convener of the yearly Battle of Ideas festival, which will next take place in London in October 2007. She is a panellist on BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze and is regularly invited to comment on developments in culture, education and the media on TV and radio programmes such as Question Time, Any Questions?, and BBC Breakfast. Claire writes regularly for national newspapers and a range of specialist journals. She has a monthly column in the MJ (municipal journal) and presents ‘Claire Fox News' on the internet TV channel 18 Doughty Street.

Join us at the usual time, this friday 11th Jan at 19.00 GMT on Resonance 104.4FM in London or the Resonance website worldwide.

More Downloads

2007-12-20T22:03:00.000Z

The last two Little Atoms interviews, with Simon Ardizzone and Howard Jacobson, are now available to download from here.

Little Atoms with John O'Farrell

2007-12-20T21:57:00.000Z

This weeks show features an interview recorded by Neil Denny with the author and journalist John O'Farrell.

John O'Farrell has published three novels, "The Best A Man Can Get", "This is Your Life" and "May Contain Nuts", a memoir of his support for the Labour Party in the wilderness years "Things Can Only Get Better", and three collections of his Guardian column, "Global Village Idiot", "I Blame the Scapegoats" and "I Have A Bream". A former comedy scriptwriter for Spitting Image and Smith and Jones, he is the founder of the satirical website NewsBiscuit, and can often be seen on such TV programmes as Grumpy Old Men, Newsnight Review and Have I Got News For You. John's latest book is An Utterly Impartial History of Britain (or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge).

At the Usual time, at 19.00 on Friday 21st December on Resonance 104.4FM in London or Resonance FM's website worldwide.

Little Atoms with Howard Jacobson

2007-12-13T19:59:00.000Z

On this weeks show, Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy are joined by writer Howard Jacobson. Howard Jacobson is a writer of both non-fiction and novels, and a journalist, with a regular column in The Independent. he has described himself as "a Jewish Jane Austen," and is often described as "A British Phillip Roth" by others. Howard's novels include "Coming From Behind", "No More Mister Nice Guy" and "The Mighty Walzer". His most recent novel is Kalooki Nights, which he described as "the most Jewish novel that has ever been written by anybody, anywhere." Two of Howard's non-fiction books, "Roots Schmoots" and "Seriously Funny", have been made into television series.

At the Usual time, at 19.00 on Friday 14th December on Resonance 104.4FM in London or Resonance FM's website worldwide.

Little Atoms with Simon Ardizzone

2007-12-06T20:18:00.000Z

On this weeks show, Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy talk to filmmaker Simon Ardizzone.

Simon Ardizzone is a freelance editor and filmmaker living and
working in the UK. Since graduating from the National Film and
Television School in 1995, Simon has worked on over 50 films for
English and American broadcasters. Hacking Democracy, his first
documentary, co-produced and directed with Russell Michaels, was
nominated for Outstanding Investigative Journalism at this year's Emmy
Awards. Hacking Democracy which proved that vote-counting computers
could reverse the results of an American election, was shown last year
by HBO to widespread critical acclaim and has become a tool for
election reform activists across the states.

Little Atoms With Toby Young

2007-11-22T22:39:00.000Z

This week Neil Denny talks to writer Toby Young.

Toby Young is a journalist, author and critic. Currently associate editor of the Spectator, Toby founded the short lived Modern Review with Julie Burchill. After the magazines closure, Toby went to New York to work for Vanity Fair. His failure to make it as a glossy magazine journalist is documented in his best-selling memoir How to Lose Friends & Alienate People. Toby's latest book is The Sound of No Hands Clapping, which details Toby's failure to make it as a Hollywood screenwriter. Despite this, How to Lose Friends & Alienate People is currently being made into a Hollywood film, starring Simon Pegg as Toby. Toby himself stars as a "background artist".

Usual time, at 19.00 on Friday 23rd November Resonance 104.4FM in London or Resonance FM's website worldwide.

Neil

Brendan O'Neill Interview Online Now

2007-11-19T19:41:00.000Z

Friday's interview with Brendan O'Neill is now available to download from here.

Neil

Little Atoms with Brendan O'Neill

2007-11-15T17:14:00.000Z

On this weeks show we welcome back to Little Atoms journalist Brendan O'Neill.

Brendan is the editor of spiked, the online magazine with the modest ambition of making history as well as reporting it. He started his career in journalism at spiked 's predecessor, LM magazine, until that was forced to close following a libel action brought by ITN. Brendan's writing has been published widely on both sides of the Atlantic, including in The Spectator, The New Statesman, The Guardian, the Christian Science Monitor and Salon. He is also a regular contributor to the Guardian's Comment is Free Blog. Entirely fulfilling Little Atoms' remit of being challenging, possibly controversial and always interesting, Brendan has been described as a "smug shite" by Peter Tatchell, and as "exceptionally ignorant" by Melanie Phillips.

Neil

New Downloads

2007-11-15T17:12:00.000Z

Our last two interviews, with Paul Evans and Natalie Haynes, are now available to download. From here.

Neil

Little Atoms with Natalie Haynes

2007-11-08T18:16:00.000Z

On this weeks show, Padraig Reidy and Neil Denny talk to Natalie Haynes.

Natalie Haynes is a stand-up comedian, journalist and author, and briefly a teacher of Latin and Greek. Her first solo comedy show, Six Degrees of Desolation, was nominated for the Perrier Best Newcomer Award in 2002. Natalie has made numerous radio shows for Radio 4, most recently Laughing Matters and Clasical Comedy. She is also a regular panellist on various Radio 4 shows, including Front Row and Loose Ends, and can also often be seen on More4's The Last Word and BBC2's Newsnight Review. An occasional columnist for The Times, Natalie has recently written a book for children, The Great Escape.

Join us at 19.00 on Friday 9th November Resonance 104.4FM in London or Resonance FM's website worldwide.

Neil

Little Atoms with Paul Evans

2007-11-01T18:26:00.000Z

Richard and Padraig are joined at very short notice by Paul Evans. Paul Evans is one of the co-founders of Poptel Technology Ltd. Many of their projects are designed to motivate sections of society that currently do not use the internet. Local councillors are one such group, and the Councillor.info project has worked with over thirty local authorities, encouraging councillors to become active managers of personal websites.

Paul has also specialised in promoting web technologies to the labour movement. He has worked on website projects for almost all of the major unions and many of the smaller ones. Previously, Paul worked as an assistant to an MEP, specialising in the regulation of Digital TV. In his spare time, he helped the New Statesman to establish the first New Statesman New Media Awards in 1998. Paul recently spoke at the Institute of Ideas' Battle of Ideas conference about weblogs and democracy. Paul's own blog can be found here.

Terry Glavin Interview Now Online

2007-10-30T18:26:00.000Z

Download it from here.

Neil

Little Atoms with Terry Glavin

2007-10-24T16:20:00.000Z

Tune in this friday at 19.00 to hear Tom Hamilton and Neil Denny talking to Canadian writer Terry Glavin. Terry Glavin is an award-winning author and journalist, an adjunct professor in the Department of Creative Writing at the University of British Colmumbia, and the editor of Transmontanus Books. His publications include "This Ragged Place:Travels Across the Landscape", which was a Governor General's Award finalist, and "The Last Great Sea". His latest book The Lost and Left Behind is published by Saqi Books on the 30th of October. Terry blogs at Transmontanus and at Drink-soaked Trotskyite Popinjays for War.

That's Resonance 104.4FM 19.00 friday 26th October.

Neil

More downloads

2007-10-20T13:58:00.000Z

Our recent interviews with Anne Quesney and Heather Couper can now be downloaded from the website here.

Neil

Little Atoms with Heather Couper

2007-10-18T19:48:00.000Z

This is the interview that was cancelled from the first week of our relaunch due to lack of phoneline, I have taken the precaution of pre-recording it.

Heather Couper is one of the UK's foremost broadcasters and writers on astronomy, space and science. She has produced and presented numerous radio and television programs, including the long running series "Seeing Stars" on the BBC World Service, and most recently "A History of British Rocketry" on Radio 4. She has written over 30 books, including Mars: The Inside Story of The Red Planet, and Philip's Stargazing 2007. Heather was awarded a CBE in the Queen's 2007 birthday honours list.

Neil

Andrew Anthony now online

2007-10-14T13:18:00.000Z

You can download our interview with Andrew Anthony from 5th October from here.

Neil

Little Atoms with Anne Quesney

2007-10-11T17:07:00.000Z

On this weeks show, Padraig and our new presenter Tom Hamilton interview Anne Quesney. Anne is the Director of Abortion Rights. Abortion Rights is a national pro-choice campaign, leading the drive to bring British abortion law into line with public opinion - so that women can make their own reproductive decisions without the current unfair obstructions. Abortion Rights also coordinate opposition to continual attempts by the anti-choice lobby to chip away at women's hard fought for legal rights.

Neil

New Presenter

2007-10-07T14:15:00.000Z

It's a pleasure to announce a new member of the Little Atoms team, Tom Hamilton. Tom writes a terrific blog, lets be sensible, which you can find here, and also contributes to Fisking Central here. You can also find out quite a lot more about Tom from his Normblog profile here.

Neil

Little Atoms with Andrew Anthony

2007-10-03T18:02:00.000Z

Presuming there are no more mishaps, Details of this weeks show.

Neil and Padraig talk about being guilty liberals to journalist Andrew Anthony.

Andrew Anthony is a feature writer and investigative journalist. He has written for the Observer for 10 years, and also writes for the Guardian, Vogue and the Saturday Telegraph. His features cover a wide range of subjects: politics, crime, sport, literature, TV and popular culture. His latest book is a polemical memoir, The Fall Out: How a guilty liberal lost his innocence.

Don't forget the new time, friday at 19.00 GMT on Resonance 104.4FM

Neil

Apologies

2007-09-29T16:33:00.000Z

Apologies to anyone who tuned in last night expecting to hear us interviewing Heather Couper. The interview was due to be via telephone, which was somewhat hindered by us arriving at the new studio to discover the phonelines hadn't been fitted yet. One very apologetic call to Heather later, and she has very kindly agreed to appear on 12th October instead. Next friday Andrew Anthony. Fingers crossed!!

Neil

The Return of Little Atoms

2007-09-24T15:34:00.000Z

Little Atoms returns on friday 28th September, and with a number of changes.

We are now broadcasting weekly, every friday, for half an hour, at a new time 19.00 - 19.30. We even have a new theme tune.

Our first guest in this brave new world i'm delighted to announce is Heather Couper. Heather is one of the UK's foremost broadcasters and writers on astronomy, space and science. She has produced and presented numerous radio and television programs, including the long running series "Seeing Stars" on the BBC World Service, and most recently "A History of British Rocketry" on Radio 4. She has written over 30 books, including Mars: The Inside Story of The Red Planet, and Philip's Stargazing 2007. Heather was awarded a CBE in the Queen's 2007 birthday honours list.

We've got a great roster of guests booked for the coming weeks, and there will be an overhaul of the website. Plus some other exciting announcements to come.

Don't forget the new time. Put it in your diary.

Neil

August Break

2007-08-02T13:43:00.000Z

The Resonance FM studio move is taking longer than expected, the target completion date is now 1st September, so Little Atoms is taking August off. Lets call it a holiday!

We'll be back in September. Meanwhile, lets hope the rain holds off.

Neil

Little Atoms with Philip Escoffey - Live!!

2007-07-24T17:28:00.000Z

While Resonance FM continues on its epic relocation to The Borough, a series of public fundraising events are being held at Corsica Studio's, Elephant and Castle.

"Much in the style of Robert Altman's recent film 'A Prairie Home Companion', the audience contribute to their favourite Resonancefm shows for
'A MONTH OF SUNDAYS'."

This coming Sunday 29th July Little Atoms will be taking part interviewing live onstage the Mentalist Philip Escoffey AKA The Grey Man. Last time Philip was on Little Atoms he performed a number of fantastic tricks, on the Radio... This time there will at least be an audience!

Also appearing on the 29th are;

Dexter Bentley
Marvin Suicide
Harmon e Phraysiur's "The Rod of Run-Awayes" (Ted Barrington & Jim Xento$$)
Simon Munnery
Strange Attractor Special

Please do come along, support Resonance, and support us!

For more details of event see here;

for location see here;

for more info on Philip Escoffey see here;

or of course listen to our previous interview with Philip here;

Neil

Resonance Studio Move

2007-07-19T17:35:00.000Z

Due to the continuing move of the Resonance FM studio's from Denmark Street to Borough High Street, there is currently a hiatus on live programming, and therefore no Little Atoms this week. Normal Service will resume on 3rd August. Meanwhile, why not catch up on some old shows here.

Neil

This Weeks Little Atoms

2007-07-05T17:36:00.000Z

On this weeks show Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy talk to the journalist Martin Bright.

Martin Bright began his journalistic career writing in very simple English for a magazine aimed at French school children. This experience has informed his style ever since. He worked for the BBC World Service, and The Guardian before joining the Observer as Education Correspondent. He went on to become Home Affairs Editor before becoming the New Statesman's political editor in 2005.

In 2006 Martin presented a documentary for Channel 4, "Who Representsents British Muslims?". He has written extensively on the governments tendency to accomodate Islamic reactionaries. These writings have been collected together by the think tank Policy Exchange and can be found and can be found here.

Tune in at 16:30 on friday at the usual place, Resonance 104.4FM in London, or on Resonance FM's Website.

Neil

Tom Standage Now Online

2007-07-05T17:33:00.000Z

The Little Atoms interview with Tom Standage is now available to download from the Little Atoms website here.

Neil

Tom Standage on Little Atoms

2007-06-20T16:35:00.000Z

On this weeks show Richard Sanderson and Neil Denny will be talking to Tom Standage, the business editor of The Economist. He started his career as the Science and Technology Editor at the Guardian, and has written several books which merge popular science and history including "The Victorian Internet", "The Neptune File" and "The Mechanical Turk".

He says of his books "I think the right attitude to new technologies is to regard them with historically-informed scepticism. My approach is
intended as a sort of antidote to the scourge of mindless product stories: when something new comes along, I like to point out that it
isn't new at all. This isn't quite as gratuitous as it sounds; it is quite often possible to learn useful lessons from history, particularly the history of technology".

His latest book is "A History of the World in 6 Glasses" in which he explores a notion that six drinks in history - beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and cola - could be seen as technological catalysts in
advancing culture.

The presenters of Little Atoms have been known to enjoy the odd drink or 2, so like to thnk that their regular forays to the pub are worth it!

Neil

Website down again.....

2007-06-18T19:12:00.001Z

On saturday evening somebody posted a link to the Christopher Hitchens interview to RichardDawkins.net which subsequently saw just over 1000 people download the interview in under 24 hours. Amazing stuff! but of course the website couldn't cope, and fell over again in shock.

I'm endeavouring to get things sorted, but in the meantime I have uploaded the last 5 interviews, those being Christopher Hitchens, Jonathan Meades, James Randi, Jonathan Derbyshire and David Aaronovitch to archive.org the internet archive.

See link here.

You might have to register first, but its worth it. There is lots of other good stuff on there.

Neil

Christopher Hitchens Interview

2007-06-07T18:28:00.000Z

This weeks Little Atoms features Christopher Hitchens in conversation with Padraig Reidy and Neil Denny about his new book, God is Not Great: How Religion poisons everything.

The interview was recorded back in april at the Oxford Literary Festival, and as you would expect from the book's title, Hitch isn't pulling any punches!

Neil

Ban This Filth!

2007-05-18T18:34:00.000Z

From the execrable Trot nostalgia blog Lenin's Tomb;

If you like this sort of thing, then you might also like to write to the wonderful Resonance FM(part of central London only) to ask them to take a show called 'Little Atoms' off the air, or at very least to point out that they are engaging in duplicity here and ask them to change the name and description of the show to ' the far right neo-liberal zionist opportunist scumbags pretending to be a pro-war left(there's no such thing) show'. Have a look at their listing on the Res FM website - you'll find the show described as a defence of science, Enlightenment values and secularism from a progressive left viewpoint. You'll find Aardvarkovitch features prominently on the site which is a clue. What they actually promote is 'Euston manifesto' sinister wankology featuring right-wing feminists and all the rest of the slimy crowd - Nick Cohen is a hero; Chomsky, Galloway etc are the enemy and the world (especially Israel of course) is in danger from the deranged hordes of Islam. Yeuch!! The rest of the stuff on ResFM is so good and this is so bad. Maybe they've got to have it for 'balance' but they could at least call it what it is, Gauche youngsters could be fooled by this for a while. Help stamp this out!"
- Lafayette Senacherib

The address for letters is;

Resonance FM
9 Denmark Street,
London
WC2H 8LS

Green ink is optional, AND TRY NOT TO WRITE IT ALL IN CAPITALS!

A far right neo-liberal zionist opportunist scumbag

Little Atoms Breaks America - America Breaks Little Atoms' Website

2007-05-14T21:13:00.000Z

James Randi very kindly mentioned the interview he recorded with Little Atoms in his latest SWIFT Newsletter, and we have subsequently seen unpresedented numbers of download requests for the interview. Just over 600 downloads in the last three days alone. While this is amazing, it has unfortunately eaten nearly a months worth of bandwidth. The Download Archive needs a lie down, and is therefore suspended until further notice. I.E. the end of the month. Otherwise the whole website is going to fall over. Sorry!

Neil

Euston Manifesto debate on humanitarian intervention post-Iraq

2007-05-14T20:56:00.000Z

On Monday 30th April, a panel of leading Ministers, MPs, and thinkers came together in Westminster Hall th the Houses of Parliament to discuss the future of humanitarian intervention, after the conflict in Iraq.

The speakers included:

Rt. Hon. Hilary Benn MP, Minister for International Development and a candidate for the Labour party deputy leadership.

Prof. Brian Brivati, Professor of Contemporary History and Human Rights at Kingston University.

Nick Cohen, journalist for the Observer and New Statesman, and author of ‘What’s Left? How Liberals lost their way’.

Gary Kent, Director of Labour Friends of Iraq.

Pat McFadden MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Cabinet Office

Karen Pollock, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust.

Why am I telling you this now you might ask? Well, the entire debate has rather handily been posted on YouTube. Enjoy.

Neil

This Week's Show....

2007-05-10T20:58:00.000Z

Jonathan Meades makes a very welcome return to Little Atoms, to discuss his new series "Abroad Again", which began this Wednesday 9th May at 19:00 on BBC2. It's very good, I've seen them all.

Tune in at the usual time and place, Resonance 104.4FM Friday 11th May at 16:30.

This show was pre-recorded a week ago (so before the French elections, which are discussed briefly), and will therefore be available to download from our website shortly after it is broadcast.

Neil

More downloadable...

2007-05-04T20:41:00.000Z

Another download. You can hear Richard and Padraig discussing Philosophy, Humanism and the Enlightenment with Jonathan Derbyshire here.

Neil

Feeling A Little Randi...

2007-05-03T20:29:00.000Z

Sorry, that's a little too obvious isn't it? Anyway, Our interview with Conjourer, Skeptic and all round Good Egg James Randi is now available to download from here.

Who knows? you might feel like having a go for that million dollars?

Neil