John Maier

Friendships and rivalries in the golden age of Oxford philosophy

13 May 2023 9:00 am

Nikhil Krishnan provides many amusing vignettes of Isaiah Berlin, A.J. Ayer, Gilbert Ryle and others in the heyday of linguistic philosophy

The films of Quentin Tarantino’s childhood

14 January 2023 9:00 am

The X-rated movies he’d seen by the age of ten included Deliverance, Taxi Driver and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre – which he’d then discuss with his child psychologist

After Aberfan, clairvoyants had a field day

4 June 2022 9:00 am

In the wake of catastrophe, however random or unpredictable, one of the first things people can be relied upon to…

What did the Russians make of Francis Bacon?

29 January 2022 9:00 am

The KGB might not have known much about modern art, but they knew what they liked. For instance, at what…

Contains moments of spellbinding banality: Radio 4's The Poet Laureate has Gone to his Shed reviewed

21 August 2021 9:00 am

The interview podcast is a genre immoderately drawn to gimmicks, as the logical space of possible formats is gradually exhausted.…

Our need to get drunk in company may be innate

24 July 2021 9:00 am

It was once a favourite theory of optimistic drunkards that a suitably ‘moderate’ level of alcohol consumption provided covert health…

Yuri Gagarin – poster boy of manned space flight

17 April 2021 9:00 am

To an observant outsider, the Soviets might have appeared to have developed an oddly intolerant attitude towards stray dogs. Every…

Enjoyably tasteless: Power – The Maxwells reviewed

6 February 2021 9:00 am

This year marks three decades since Robert Maxwell fell naked to his death from the deck of his yacht, The…

The programme of art plunder initiated by Hermann Göring continued long after the war’s end

23 January 2021 9:00 am

Making one’s fortune in Occupied Paris was largely a matter of knowing the right people: in fact, the further to…

Enjoyably bad-tempered: The Lock In with Jeremy Paxman reviewed

21 November 2020 9:00 am

‘I used to be Mr Nasty! That was good! Mr Nasty was easy!’ Jeremy Paxman bellows at Michael Palin on…

A passion for pastiche: China’s Potemkin villages

17 October 2020 9:00 am

Closely inspect No. 23 Leinster Terrace, Bayswater and you might notice the house has no letter box. Push at the…

Is this the last round in the great celebrity Punch and Judy show?

2 May 2020 9:00 am

It’s been tough recently being Woody Allen, something that didn’t look too easy to begin with. Last year Amazon breached…