Advertise on podcast: The Essay

In 1773, Phillis Wheatley became the first African American to publish a collection of poems. Jade Cuttle looks at the way her poems were described and asks what do we categorise as nature writing? Her essay considers the idea of "coining" and the work of a new generation of poets including Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, Khairani Barokka, Kei Miller and a collection called Nature Matters edited by Mona Arshi and Karen McCarthy Woolf. Jade Cuttle is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the BBC to put academic research on radio. She is studying for her PhD at the University of Cambridge, writing journalism and her first book called Silthood, which explores ancient connections between soil and self. She has also released an album of poem-songs called Algal Bloom. You can find examples of Essays written for Radio 3 by Kei Miller and Elizabeth Jane Burnett on the programme website. Producer: Ciaran Bermingham

What connects actors with baristas? In 1983, the American sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild published a book called The Managed Heart which studied the working world of airline stewards. Jaswinder Blackwell-Pal’s essay considers what it means when a waiter smiles as they serve you and looks at some recent court cases over performing at work. Dr Jaswinder Blackwell-Pal is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the BBC to put academic research on radio. She is based at Queen Mary, University of London. Her research focuses on performance and work, including how drama based methods are implemented in across other sectors and industries. She is a member of the research collective Performance and Political Economy. Producer: Lisa Jenkinson

The Japanese philosopher Yujin Nagasawa says the majority of people are what he calls ‘existential optimists’. What does this mean for ideas about evil and the creation of life? Jack Symes’ essay takes us through the views of thinkers including Schopenhauer, Stephen Law and Camus. Jack Symes is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the BBC to put academic research on radio. He is based at Durham University. His books include Philosophers on Consciousness: Talking about the Mind and Talking about Existence and Defeating the Evil-God Challenge and he is working on a book about morality. Producer: Luke Mulhall

Having worked as a criminal and family barrister, Shona Minson has seen the effect on women and their children when a mother is sentenced to prison for committing a crime. Her essay considers the 1989 Children Act and what she sees as contradictory approaches to motherhood in British law. Dr Shona Minson is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the BBC to put academic research on radio. She is based at the University of Oxford, has researched the sentencing of women and has written a book Maternal Sentencing and the Rights of the Child. She has also been appointed to the newly created government advisory body the Women’s Justice Board. Producer: Lisa Jenkinson

If cinema is often associated with Hollywood or the European New Wave, since the 1970s activist-filmmakers around the world have been involving local people in telling their own stories. Co-creating films about land rights, food security, and pollution, these filmmakers pioneered what Becca Voelcker calls Land Cinema. In her essay, she shares examples made by Zhang Mengqi, Tsuchimoto Noriaki, Ogawa Productions and Enzo Camacho and Ami Lien Dr Becca Voelcker is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the BBC to put academic research on radio. At Goldsmiths, University of London she lectures on art, film and visual culture, particularly in relation to politics and ecology; and has written for publications including Screen, Frieze and Sight & Sound. Producer: Erin Downes

The would-be composer and philosopher Theodor Adorno played classical piano and came up with influential studies of authoritarianism, antisemitism and propaganda. He also wrote about the experience of listening to a radio voice. Jacob Downs's Essay for Radio 3 reflects on his insights and how far they remain relevant in a time of headphone listening, smart speakers and AI voices. Dr Jacob Kingsbury Downs lectures in Music at the University of Oxford and is an honorary research fellow at the University of Sheffield. He also works as a musician and arranger working with composers including Erland Cooper and Anna Phoebe. He is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to share academic research on radio. Producer: Kirsty McQuire

How have the first hours and days after childbirth changed in the NHS? Before the NHS, a 1932 publication describing mothers resting after labour, referred to lying-in as ranging from two weeks to two months, but attitudes have altered. In 1950 the book National Baby was published by Sarah Campion. Emily Baughan has been reading it and looks at the differences between childbirth then, memories of her mother and her own experiences. Dr Emily Baughan is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the BBC to put academic research on radio. She is a senior lecturer in 19th and 20th century British History at the University of Sheffield, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and is working on a book, Love’s Labour, which is a history of childcare. Producer in Salford: Ekene Akalawu

What do we get from a good book? With a greater diversity of stories on offer from publishers and as exam set texts, Janine Bradbury looks at the arguments which are made in favour of reading as a way of encouraging empathy and understanding or as a place to find ourselves. She asks whether this is the right way to think about the value of reading and her essay considers examples including Toni Morrison’s story Recitatif, Percival Everett's novel Erasure (which became the film American Fiction) and Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel Passing, which Rebecca Hall has directed as a film. Janine Bradbury is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the BBC to put academic research on radio. She is a senior lecturer in Contemporary Writing and Culture at the University of York, and her first poetry pamphlet Sometimes Real Love Comes Quick & Easy (Ignition Press) was a Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice. Producer in Salford: Ekene Akalawu

In 1852, a book of philosophical enquiry was discovered in Ethiopia. But what if the Hatata Zera Yacob is a forgery? Does it matter, if the message is inspirational? Debates over its authorship rage and Jonathan Egid’s essay asks what these tell us about politics then and now. Jonathan Egid is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the BBC to put academic research on radio. He’s been a Postgraduate Fellow at the British Society for the History of Philosophy and lectures at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He is writing a book about the history of the Hatata Zera Yacob debate, and runs a podcast on philosophy in less-studied languages called Philosophising In ... Producer: Luke Mulhall

From The Wizard of Oz to Madame Mao, Kirsty Sinclair Dootson’s essay explores the politics of making films in colour - specifically Technicolor - a process synonymous with American cinema that was the envy of political powers across Russia, Germany and China. The story takes us from Hollywood to Auschwitz to Instagram. Dr Kirsty Sinclair Dootson is a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the BBC to put academic research on radio. She is a lecturer in Film and Media at University College London, and author of a book The Rainbow’s Gravity. Producer: Rabeka Nurmahomed

Irish poet Michael Longley, who died on 22nd January 2025, was described by Seamus Heaney as 'a keeper of the artistic estate, a custodian of griefs and wonders.' He devoted a lifetime to the art of poetry and won numerous poetry prizes. He is recognised as a very fine love poet and in this episode of Michael Longley's Life of Poetry, first broadcast in 2024, he reads poems that address the gift of a decades-long love and marriage and the inevitability of ageing. After a lifetime dedicated to poetry, he says, 'I can't imagine that I would be alive now if I hadn't had poetry propelling me forward.' He reads his poems The Pattern, The Linen Industry and Age from his collection Ash Keys: New Selected Poems (Cape Poetry), published to mark his 85th birthday on 27th July 2024, and Foam from his collection The Slain Birds. Presenter: Olivia O'Leary Producer: Claire Cunningham Executive Producer: Regan Hutchins Michael Longley's Life of Poetry is a Rockfinch production for BBC Radio 3.

The Irish poet Michael Longley, who died on 22nd January 2025, was described by Seamus Heaney as 'a keeper of the artistic estate, a custodian of griefs and wonders.' He devoted a lifetime to the art of poetry and won numerous poetry prizes. In this episode of The Essay, first broadcast in 2024, he described his refuge from the city streets of Belfast in County Mayo, in one of the most remote and beautiful parts of the west of Ireland. He had been writing about its nature and landscape for over 50 years and it provided endless inspiration for poems. In more recent years he recognised the threat of climate change and he expresses the hope that younger generations will take greater care of the world. He reads his poems The Leveret, Remembering Carrigskeewaun, Stonechat and The Comber from his collection Ash Keys: New Selected Poems (Cape Poetry), published to mark his 85th birthday on 27th July 2024, and Merlin from his collection The Slain Birds. Presenter: Olivia O'Leary Producer: Claire Cunningham Executive Producer: Regan Hutchins Michael Longley's Life of Poetry is a Rockfinch production for BBC Radio 3.

The Irish poet Michael Longley, who died on 22nd January 2025, was described by Seamus Heaney as 'a keeper of the artistic estate, a custodian of griefs and wonders.' He devoted a lifetime to the art of poetry and won numerous poetry prizes. In 1968, violence erupted in Northern Ireland, the beginning of 30 years of the Troubles. In the third episode of this series of The Essay, first broadcast in 2024, he talked about writing poems that remembered some of those who were victims of the the violence and his most famous poem, Ceasefire, which looks to Homer's great epic poem The Iliad as it reflects on the cost of peace. As well as Ceasefire, he reads his poems The Troubles, The Ice-cream Man, and All of these People from the collection Ash Keys: New Selected Poems (Cape Poetry), published to mark his 85th birthday on 27th July 2024. Presenter: Olivia O'Leary Producer: Claire Cunningham Executive Producer: Regan Hutchins Michael Longley's Life of Poetry is a Rockfinch production for BBC Radio 3.

The Irish poet Michael Longley, who died on 22nd January 2025, was described by Seamus Heaney as 'a keeper of the artistic estate, a custodian of griefs and wonders.' He devoted a lifetime to the art of poetry and won numerous poetry prizes. In the second episode of this series of The Essay, first broadcast in 2024, he talked with presenter Olivia O'Leary about his World War 1 poems, many of which were inspired by his own father's experience of having fought in the war, although he rarely talked about it. Michael's poems link the Great War and the Northern Ireland Troubles. He reads his poems Citation, Harmonica, The Sonnets and Wounds from the collection Ash Keys: New Selected Poems (Cape Poetry), published to mark his 85th birthday on 27th July 2024. Presenter: Olivia O'Leary Producer: Claire Cunningham Executive Producer: Regan Hutchins Michael Longley's Life of Poetry is a Rockfinch production for BBC Radio 3.

The poet Michael Longley, who died on 22nd January 2025 at the age of 85, was described by Seamus Heaney as 'a keeper of the artistic estate, a custodian of griefs and wonders.' He devoted a lifetime to the art of poetry and won numerous poetry prizes. In Episode 1 of this series of The Essay, first broadcast in 2024 and recorded to mark his 85th birthday, he talked with presenter Olivia O'Leary about his home town of Belfast and his love of jazz, saying that, 'Good poetry for me combines two things: meaning and melody.' He also loved the classics, which he studied at Trinity College Dublin, where he met his wife, Edna, a distinguished literary critic. He was one of a group of young poets that emerged from Northern Ireland in the 1960s and he describes the mutual support, rivalry and excitement of that time. He reads his poems Elegy for Fats Waller and an extract from his poem River and Fountain from a new collection, Ash Keys: New Selected Poems (Cape Poetry), published to mark his 85th birthday on 27th July 2024. He also reads Bookshops from his collection Angel Hill and Poem from The Slain Birds. Presenter: Olivia O'Leary Producer: Claire Cunningham Executive Producer: Regan Hutchins Michael Longley's Life of Poetry is a Rockfinch production for BBC Radio 3.