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Fame

The Ideas That Make Us Series 1
Episode 2 of 5

Bettany Hughes considers the idea of fame and how our attitude to celebrity has changed throughout the centuries, from Achilles to YouTube. From September 2013.

The Ideas That Make Us is a new Radio 4 series which reveals the history of the most influential ideas in the story of civilisation, ideas which continue to affect us all today.

In this 'archaeology of philosophy', the award-winning historian and broadcaster Bettany Hughes begins each programme with the first, extant evidence of a single word-idea in Ancient Greek culture and travels both forwards and backwards in time, investigating how these ideas have been moulded by history and have impacted on history and the human experience. In this, the second of five programmes, Bettany investigates the idea of fame with philosopher Angie Hobbs, British Museum curator Dr Irving Finkel, historian Stella Tillyard and YouTuber Benjamin Cook.

Other ideas examined in the first series are desire, agony, fame and justice. Wisdom, comedy, liberty, peace and guest-host friendship will be explored in January 2014.

Producer: Dixi Stewart.

Available now

15 minutes

Last on

Wed 26 Apr 2017 02:15
麻豆社 Radio 4 Extra

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  • Exec Producer Dixi Stewart blogs about a bizarre moment in the recording of the programme.

Broadcasts

  • Tue 17 Sep 2013 13:45
    麻豆社 Radio 4
  • Tue 25 Apr 2017 14:15
    麻豆社 Radio 4 Extra
  • Wed 26 Apr 2017 02:15
    麻豆社 Radio 4 Extra

Watch animations from A History of Ideas

Explore some big questions about how we live today.