James Bridle

http://shorttermmemoryloss.com/



James's recent posts:

Why Russia Spies

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

tupolev-bear

Good, old-school, paranoid stuff. Bears. Interceptors. Sovereign Airspace. Spies! [MP3]

Britain on the Bottle

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

Very much enjoying this short series on the British government and its ever-changing approach to "the Drink question". This episode focusses on 'Habitual Drunkards' and the asylums they were sentenced to at the turn of the Twentieth Century, while others have covered the 1830 Beer Act, the Temperance Movement, and the World War One nationalisation of the beer industry, most of which are still available on iPlayer. [MP3]

Football’s Freedom Fighters

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

The excellent and excellently told story of the Makana Football Association, the league founded by political prisoners on Robben Island during Apartheid South Africa. The league's first president started with its constitution, and went on to draft that of the modern nation. [MP3]

The Essay: Looking for Ghosts

Friday, May 14th, 2010

In which Michael Goldfarb encounters the ghosts of Ludwig Boerne and Heinrich Heine in Frankfurt - doubly punished, for being Jews, and for writing in German, and thus condemned by their own culture, and ignored as the rest of the world turned against it. A grand intellectual history, excellently told. [MP3]

Hope Against Hate

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Archive on 4 spends a good hour digging into the history of racial conflict in the East End of the 1970s. Bangladeshi community groups, right-wing thugs, Rock Against Racism. As ever with the Archive, it's the interviews that bring the period to life. [MP3]

The Gorbals Vampire

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

Novelist Louise Welsh investigates the strange case of the Gorbals Vampire, an episode of mass hysteria from 1954 which led to changes in Britain's censorship laws. [MP3]

The Ambassador’s Reception

Sunday, April 25th, 2010

Maureen Freely explores a strange episode from history: Harold Pinter and Arthur Miller's ejection from a dinner in Istanbul (in Miller's honour) for questioning the repression being visited on their host country. We should know a lot more about Turkey, and this programme gives us a fascinating glimpse through a small window onto a wider history. [MP3]

Wild Billy Childish

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

Billy Childish is the permanent outsider, but a few more people are starting to hear his name and - if very lucky - his music, too. The ICA is about to launch a large exhibition of his work, so his reputation will only be growing. John Wilson explores his work and his world. [MP3]

The Purple Emperor

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

In this brief extract from the new series of Saving Species, bonkers lepidopterist Matthew Oates introduces us to his butterflies. Just listen. [MP3]

On The Map

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

In this short and sadly finished series, Mike Parker explored a number of avenues of modern cartography. In this programme: maps online, and how they have transformed and continue to transform mapping, and us. [MP3]