72 episodes

The Read Smart Podcast is hosted by Razia Iqbal, John L. Weinberg Professor at Princeton University, produced by The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction and is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. The new series builds on last year’s successful podcasts released to celebrate the prize’s 21st anniversary.
Each month, Razia explores the increasingly popular world of non-fiction books. Expect to hear from prize winning authors, judges and publishing insiders. It also goes behind the scenes of the 2020 prize, which is awarded this autumn.
For more information, visit thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk and follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @BGPrize

Baillie Gifford Prize Baillie Gifford Prize

    • Arts
    • 5.0 • 4 Ratings

The Read Smart Podcast is hosted by Razia Iqbal, John L. Weinberg Professor at Princeton University, produced by The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction and is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. The new series builds on last year’s successful podcasts released to celebrate the prize’s 21st anniversary.
Each month, Razia explores the increasingly popular world of non-fiction books. Expect to hear from prize winning authors, judges and publishing insiders. It also goes behind the scenes of the 2020 prize, which is awarded this autumn.
For more information, visit thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk and follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @BGPrize

    Gardens Past and Present

    Gardens Past and Present

    Join us for the next episode of The Read Smart podcast, where host Razia Iqbal joins writer, historian and former Baillie Gifford Prize judge, Ruth Scurr and Allan Jenkins, editor of Observer Food Monthly to discuss the cultural, historical and personal significance of gardens within the non-fiction landscape. Our guests explore how the action of gardening can imitate life, whilst providing a source of private solace and personal transformation.

    Listen now to hear all about it. The podcast is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. For more podcasts from The Baillie Gifford Prize, click here. Follow @BGPrize on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube.

    • 38 min
    Read Smart: Insight into a Year of Elections

    Read Smart: Insight into a Year of Elections

    Tune into the first Read Smart episode of 2024 - and what a year it's set to be. With more than two billion voters in 50 countries heading to the polls, 2024 is set to be the biggest election year in history. Join host Razia Iqbal, as she delves into the topic with author and journalist, Samanth Subramanian and Associate Editor of The Financial Times, Stephen Bush. Find out our guests' predictions for this crucial upcoming year, alongside what they think the current health of democracy is looking like in the current political climate.

    Listen now to hear all about it. The podcast is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. For more podcasts from The Baillie Gifford Prize, click here. Follow @BGPrize on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube.

    • 35 min
    The 2023 Winner

    The 2023 Winner

    Tune into the final Read Smart episode of the year, where host Razia Iqbal will be speaking to the 2023 winner John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather, on how he feels following last Thursday’s announcement. Razia will also be joined by some students from the University of Birmingham, who have been following the Prize this term and share their thoughts on the world of non-fiction.

    Listen now to hear all about it. The podcast is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. For more podcasts from The Baillie Gifford Prize, click here. Follow @BGPrize on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube.

    • 48 min
    The 2023 Shortlist: Jennifer Homans

    The 2023 Shortlist: Jennifer Homans

    Tune into the latest episode of the Read Smart podcast, which is dedicated to Jennifer Homans and her #BGPrize2023 shortlisted work, Mr B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century. Recognised as the first major biography of the legendary choreographer and based on more than one hundred interviews, Jennifer’s work takes readers through the tumultuous life of the man who has been hailed by The New York Times as being the “Shakespeare of dancing.”

    Listen now to hear all about it. The podcast is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. For more podcasts from The Baillie Gifford Prize, click here. Follow @BGPrize on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube.

    The winner will be announced on Thursday 16 November at an award ceremony at the Science Museum, generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. The announcement will also be livestreamed across the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction social channels.

    • 37 min
    The 2023 Shortlist: Tania Branigan

    The 2023 Shortlist: Tania Branigan

    Tune into this special shortlist edition of the Read Smart podcast, where Toby Mundy speaks to #BGPrize2023 shortlisted author Tania Branigan about her book, Red Memory: Living, Remembering and Forgetting China’s Cultural Revolution. Branigan’s book explores and uncovers forty years of rarely heard stories surrounding this Cultural Revolution, begging the question: what happens to the present when the past is repressed and buried?

    Listen now to hear all about it. The podcast is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. For more podcasts from The Baillie Gifford Prize, click here. Follow @BGPrize on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube.

    The winner will be announced on Thursday 16 November at an award ceremony at the Science Museum, generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. The announcement will also be livestreamed across the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction social channels.

    • 38 min
    The 2023 Shortlist: Hannah Barnes

    The 2023 Shortlist: Hannah Barnes

    Tune into this special shortlist edition of the Read Smart podcast, where Razia Iqbal speaks to #BGPrize2023 shortlisted author, Hannah Barnes about Time To Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children. Through unprecedented access to thousands of pages of documents, internal emails, unpublished reports and personal testimony from former GIDS clinicians, Hannah’s book investigates the controversial story behind the NHS’s flagship gender service for children.

    Listen now to hear all about it. The podcast is generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. For more podcasts from The Baillie Gifford Prize, click here. Follow @BGPrize on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube.

    The winner will be announced on Thursday 16 November at an award ceremony at the Science Museum, generously supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation. The announcement will also be livestreamed across the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction social channels.

    • 28 min

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
4 Ratings

4 Ratings

frank pellow ,

Baillie gifford prize is my go to for non fiction books

The books that are short listed for the prize are always fantastic and the podcast brings further insight to them with the author interviews. Through the year there are other more topic specific episodes which lead me to even more insightful and inspiring reads.

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