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PODCAST

Better Known

Each week, a guest makes a series of recommendations of things which they think should be better known. Our recommendations include interesting people, places, objects, stories, experiences and ideas which our guest feels haven"t had the exposure that they deserve.

society & culture history

All Episodes

28:45

Andrew Turvil

Better Known ·

2025/09/28

Food critic Andrew Turvil discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.Described by The Independent as one of the UK’s ‘arbiters of taste’, Andrew Turvil is the former editor of The Good Food Guide, AA Restaurant Guide and Which? Pub Guide. As a freelance restaurant critic, writer, and editor, he has spent his career writing about pubs and restaurants, and, undeterred, bought a pub in 2015 and ran it for 10 years. Blood, Sweat & Asparagus Spears is his first book and is available

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30:01

Andy Reid speaks negatively about six films

Better Known ·

2025/09/21

Andy Reid discusses with Ivan six films chosen by previous guests which he thinks should not, after all, be better known. With apologies to Daria Lavelle, Steve Cross, Neil Brand, Tom Newman, Adam Higginbotham and Sam Sedgman.Andy Reid is the founder of Buddy Up, a mentoring charity for young people across south London and Surrey. He has worked in the youth sector for over 20 years delivering programmes and training throughout the UK. You can find out more at https://buddyupcharity.org/. What

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28:08

Matt Greene

Better Known ·

2025/09/14

Matt Greene discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Matt Greene is an author, teacher, former screenwriter, and stay-at-home dad. His first novel, Ostrich, won a Betty Trask Award and his memoir Jew(ish) was described by Booker-shortlisted author Nadifa Mohamed as ‘wonderful’ and ‘acerbically funny’. He teaches critical and creative writing in South London, where he lives with his partner and two sons. His new book is The Definitions, which is at

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29:08

Danny Scott

Better Known ·

2025/09/07

Danny Scott discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.Danny Scott grew up in an East Midlands mining village, serving his apprenticeship as an engineer on leaving school, before moving to London in the 1980s. After a job in counter (industrial) espionage, he became a private investigator, then a painter and decorator, then an engineer again, before becoming a journalist and interviewing people like Sir Paul McCartney, Mikhail Gorbachev, Usain Bolt and Dave Hill from Slade. He

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26:59

Alan Green

Better Known ·

2025/08/31

Alan Green grew up on the north coast of Cornwall and now lives in south London. As an environmental science graduate, he remains passionate about protecting and preserving the natural world. Alan spent nearly three decades at a Magic Circle law firm in the City of London, where he led a copy-editing team. A committed daily runner for over 35 years, Alan combines his love of nature with a commitment to wellbeing in all aspects of life. Sound Advice is his debut book, available at

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28:15

Laurence Bergreen

Better Known ·

2025/08/24

Laurence Bergreen discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Laurence Bergreen is an award-winning biographer, historian, and chronicler of exploration. His books have been translated into more than 25 languages. They include Columbus: The Four Voyages, a New York Times bestseller, published by Viking in 2011. In 2007, Knopf published his Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu. For this book he crossed China from east to west and camped out on the steppe with hospitable Mongolians in

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29:36

Sam Sedgman

Better Known ·

2025/08/17

Sam Sedgman discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.Sam Sedgman is a bestselling children's author, confirmed nerd and enthusiastic ferroequinologist. Co-creator of the award-winning 'Adventures on Trains' and 'Isaac Turner Investigates' series, he writes fact-based mystery and adventure stories for the young and young at heart. Before writing stories for children, Sam worked as a digital producer at the National Theatre, which meant nosing around backstage with a camera and a

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30:12

Jordan Prosser

Better Known ·

2025/08/10

Jordan Prosser discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.Jordan Prosser is a writer, filmmaker and performer from Victoria, Australia. He is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, and his short films and screenplays have won multiple international accolades. His short story Eleuterio Cabrera’s Beautiful Game won the Peter Carey Short Story Award in 2022 and was published in Meanjin. Big Time is his debut novel. The Philippines. I had the privilege of traveling to and

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29:39

Michel-Yves Bolloré

Better Known ·

2025/08/05

Michel-Yves Bolloré discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Michel-Yves Bolloré is an engineer and entrepreneur whose career spans industrial innovation and philanthropic investment in education. A graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure d'Ingénieur de Toulouse and Paris-Dauphine University (Master of Science and Doctorate in Business Administration), he began his career in the family business, managing the Bolloré Group’s industrial division from 1981 to 1990. In 1990, he

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27:37

Simon Hall

Better Known ·

2025/08/03

Simon Hall discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Simon Hall studied history at Sheffield and Cambridge, and held a Fox International Fellowship at Yale, before moving to the University of Leeds, where he is currently Professor of Modern History. His previous books include 1956: The World in Revolt and Ten Days in Harlem: Fidel Castro and the Making of the 1960s. His new book is Three Revolutions, which is available at

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30:21

Kasim Ali

Better Known ·

2025/07/27

Kasim Ali discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.Kasim Ali was born and raised in Alum Rock, Birmingham, where he spent the first eighteen years of his life, at which point he left to study a degree in English. Over the years, he has lived in London, Nottingham, and Newcastle, but still thinks of Birmingham as the place he’s from. He has had a short story long-listed for the B4ME story, has written fiction for BBC Radio 4, and has a column at The Bookseller. Currently, he works

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28:35

Sally Smith

Better Known ·

2025/07/20

Sally Smith discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.Sally Smith spent all her working life as a barrister and later KC in the Inner Temple. After writing a biography of the Edwardian barrister Sir Edward Marshall Hall KC, she retired from the bar to write full time. A Case of Mice and Murder, her first novel, was inspired by the historic surroundings of the Inner Temple in which she still lives and works and was the first in a series starring the reluctant sleuth Sir Gabriel

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29:01

Hal LaCroix

Better Known ·

2025/07/13

Hal LaCroix discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Hal LaCroix lives outside Boston with his wife, Elahna. He has worked as a journalist at newspapers in New England, a reporter and editor at Harvard Medical School, a conservation writer for non-profits and an instructor at Boston University. Here and Beyond is his first novel, which is available at https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/here-and-beyond-9781526678249/. Senator Charles Sumner. Sumner was a mid-19th century senator

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29:55

Peter Lamont

Better Known ·

2025/07/06

Peter Lamont discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.Peter Lamont is Professor of History and Theory of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. He has written about a variety of curious topics such as magic, belief, wonder and critical thinking. He is also a former professional magician and an Associate of the Inner Magic Circle. His new book is Radical Thinking, which is available at https://swiftpress.com/book/radical-thinking/ The Radical Road

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28:57

Sarah Stein Lubrano

Better Known ·

2025/06/29

Sarah Stein Lubrano discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.Dr Sarah Stein Lubrano holds a PhD from the University of Oxford and a Master’s degree from the University of Cambridge. Her thinking often reaches the public through the Sense and Solidarity Initiative and the Future Narratives Lab. She was previously the Head of Content at The School of Life, tutored in prisons and wrote obituaries. She regularly appears on public radio and a variety of podcasts. Her book Don't Talk

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29:29

Sarah Dunant

Better Known ·

2025/06/22

Sarah Dunant discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.Sarah Dunant studied history at Newnham College, Cambridge from where she went on to become a writer, broadcaster, teacher and critic. She has written twelve novels, four of which have been short-listed for awards, and edited two books of essays. She is an accredited lecturer with The Arts Society, lecturing on Italian history and renaissance art, has taught renaissance studies at Washington University, St Louis and creative

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30:37

AE Gauntlett

Better Known ·

2025/06/16

AE Gauntlett discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.AE Gauntlett completed an MA in English Literature at King’s College London in 2010. He then went on to find success as a literary agent with Peters Fraser and Dunlop, earning himself a prestigious Shooting Star nomination from The Bookseller in 2017. The Stranger at the Wedding, written secretly as he represented the work of his numerous bestselling authors, marks Gauntlett’s literary debut. It is available at

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29:53

Simon Tolkien

Better Known ·

2025/05/25

Simon Tolkien discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.Simon Tolkien is the grandson of JRR Tolkien and a director of the Tolkien Estate. He is also series consultant for the Amazon series, The Rings of Power. Simon studied Modern History at Trinity College, Oxford and went on to become a barrister specializing in criminal defence. He left the law to become a writer in 2001 and has published five novels which mine the history of the first half of the last century to explore dark

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29:56

Daria Lavelle

Better Known ·

2025/05/18

Daria Lavelle discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.Daria Lavelle was born in Kyiv, immigrated to the US with her family as a child and now lives in New Jersey with her husband and their three children. She holds a BA from Princeton University and an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. She writes fiction, with short stories published in a variety of US outlets. Aftertaste is her debut novel. It’s already sold into 13 territories with a major motion picture in development. It is

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30:49

Michelle Young

Better Known ·

2025/05/11

Michelle Young discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Michelle Young, a journalist and professor of architecture at Columbia University, spent four years researching The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland, which is available at https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-art-spy-michelle-young?variant=43046200836130. A veritable female Monuments Man, Valland has, until now, mostly been written out of the annals, despite bearing witness

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