Better Known

Ivan Wise

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.

  1. 1D AGO

    Charles Moore

    Charles Moore discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known. Charles Moore was editor of the Daily Telegraph from 1995 to 2003, editor of the Sunday Telegraph from 1992 to 1995 and editor of the Spectator magazine from 1984 to 1990. He is now the Chairman of The Spectator. He became a non-affiliated peer in July 2020. He wrote the authorised biography of Margaret Thatcher, which is available at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/458867/margaret-thatcher-by-moore-charles/9780241687673. The 18th century https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-oct-26-bk-46704-story.html East Sussex https://www.thekeep.info/places/eastsussex/ The Psalms https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2025/12-september/features/features/finding-inspiration-in-the-psalms-food-for-the-christian-journey Ordet https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/d06c8e31-324e-5886-bfb3-200802199b37/ordet Auckland Castle https://aucklandproject.org/attraction/auckland-palace/ Hedges https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/expert-advice/garden-management/wildlife-gardening/plant-a-hedge This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

    30 min

  2. MAY 3

    Sean Murphy

    Sean Murphy discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Sean Murphy is founder of the non-profit 1455 Lit Arts and directs the Center for Story at Shenandoah University. He has been publishing fiction, poetry, reviews (of music, movie, book, food), and essays on the technology industry for over twenty years. His latest book is red, white, and blues, his fourth poetry collection, which is available at https://www.seanmurphy.net/rwb/. America learned all the wrong lessons from popular 80s movies America is a myth-making machine Atlantic City's disintegration tells us everything we need to know about Trump Howard Dean's scream The Assault on the Arts & Humanities Explain the Deeper Motivation of Late-Stage Capitalism AI Can't and Won't Replace Art This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

    30 min

  3. APR 26

    Steven Seidenberg

    Steven Seidenberg discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Steven Seidenberg is the author of Anon (Omnidawn, 2022), plain sight (Roof Books, 2020), Situ (Black Sun Lit, 2018) Null Set (Spooky Action Books) and Itch (RAW ArT Press, 2015). His books have been published in Italian, Portuguese and Swedish translation, and his collections of photographs include The Architecture of Silence: Abandoned Lives of the Italian South (Contrasto, 2023) and Pipevalve: Berlin (Lodima Press, 2017). Coda is his latest published work and the cover features one of Steven’s photographs. It is available at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Coda-Steven-Seidenberg/dp/1632431734 Steven lives in Boston, America, and frequently travels with his work, particularly in Europe. Philosopher Vilem Flusser https://www.frieze.com/article/without-firm-ground-%E2%80%93-vil%C3%A9m-flusser-and-arts Composer Julius Eastman https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2021/06/21/1007150496/julius-eastman-a-misunderstood-composer-returns-to-the-light Photographer Lynne Cohen https://www.frieze.com/article/lynne-cohen Painter Morris Ben Newman https://www.tfaoi.org/aa/9aa/9aa5.htm Poet Lorine Niedecker https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/lorine-niedecker Museum of Otherness and Elsewhere https://www.blocal-travel.com/street-art/maam-museum-rome/ This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

    29 min

  4. APR 19

    Daniel Hahn

    Daniel Hahn discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Daniel Hahn is an award-winning translator, author and editor of numerous fiction and non-fiction works. He is one of the editors of The Ultimate Book Guide, the first volume of which won the Blue Peter Book Award. Other titles include children’s works such as Happiness Is a Watermelon on Your Head (a picture-book for children) and a new edition of The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature. He has been a chair for prestigious international prizes including the International Booker Prize, the IMPAC Dublin Award and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. He was previously chair for the Society of Authors and currently serves on the board of trustees for English PEN. His new book If This Be Magic is available at https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/if-this-be-magic-the-unlikely-art-of-shakespeare-in-translation-daniel-hahn/75a20e19805e32b5. Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak https://www.drttmk.com/books/outside-over-there Appalachian Waltz by Mark O’Connell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajkgNEO_Yeg&list=RDajkgNEO_Yeg&start_radio=1 Machado de Assis https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/12/17/machado-de-assis-well-ventilated-conscience/ Semicolons https://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/colonandsemi/semi Asterix in English translation https://auntymuriel.com/2012/12/23/asterix-in-translation-the-genius-of-anthea-bell-and-derek-hockridge/ Hamlet Goes Business https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/hamlet-goes-business This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

    29 min

  5. APR 12

    Joanna Jensen

    Joanna Jensen discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Joanna Jensen is the founder of the British multi-award-winning baby and child personal care brand, Childs Farm which she created in 2010 as a result of her own daughters’ sensitive and eczema prone skin. A former Investment Banker in both London and Hong Kong, Jensen transformed an emotional need into a commercial brand from day one. Her brand was launched into mainstream retailers Boots and Waitrose in 2014 and became the number one brand in the baby and child toiletries category in 2019 disrupting the more established legacy brands with its natural, sustainable and fruity formulas, and seeing Johnson Baby’s market share tumble from 32% to 13% in just 5 years. In March 2022, Jensen sold 92% of Childs Farm for £36.8m to PZ Cussons Plc, the branded consumer goods business and owner of well-known brands such as St.Tropez, Imperial Leather, and Carex selling the final 8% in January 2025. Jensen is an active keen supporter of female founded businesses. She is an Angel Investor in 11 female founded brands and a leading advocate in supporting female founded businesses. She sits on the Angel Investment Committee for the Invest in Women Task Force. Jensen’s first book Making Business Child’s Play: How to build a winning brand was published in September 2025. From idea to launch, she details everything entrepreneurs don’t know they don’t know to endeavour to learn what took her six months to learn in 6 minutes. Small, consistent actions beat sporadic big ones Your brain treats uncertainty as a threat A ‘mast' year occurs every 3-5 years Relationships are the real currency in business Bees are infrastructure for our food system Strong social connection is a biological need This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

    29 min

  6. APR 5

    Alexandra Tolstoy live

    Alexandra Tolstoy returns to the podcast with a special live episode, recorded at a school. She discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Kyrgyzstan https://alexandratolstoytravel.com/ Female Explorers (Lady Jane Digby, Isabel Burton and the Decembrist Wives) https://www1.essex.ac.uk/history/documents/conferences/hero-soroka.pdf Sailor’s Valentines https://www.worldofinteriors.com/story/sailors-valentines Carbs https://www.bhf.org.uk/how-you-can-help/events/nutrition-for-sporting-events/carbohydrates-and-exercise Lesser-known Victorian literature https://potpourri2015.wordpress.com/2018/05/24/author-profile-emily-eden/ Nukus Art Museum in Uzbekistan https://museumstudiesabroad.org/lysenko-savitsky-preserving-soviet-avant-garde/ This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

    31 min

  7. MAR 29

    Natalie Kyriacou

    Natalie Kyriacou discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Natalie Kyriacou OAM is an award-winning environmentalist, writer, professional public speaker and charity director with a passion to spark curiosity about the natural world. She was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia and the Forbes 30 Under 30 honour for her services to wildlife and environmental conservation in 2018 and was recognised as one of The Australian’s Top 100 Innovators in 2022. She is a Board Director at the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife and CARE Australia, the Founder and Chair of My Green World, a UNESCO Green Citizens Pathfinder, and an Australian Delegate and Climate Justice Lead at the W20. She was the United Nations Environment Programme’s Young Champions of the Earth finalist for her innovation in wildlife and environmental conservation and is LinkedIn’s Top Green Voice. Her new book is Nature's Last Dance, which is available at https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/nature-s-last-dance-natalie-kyriacou/376cc16767a86ffa. Why Bonobos Have Peaceful Societies https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/06/bonobos-tolerant-peaceful-group-relationships-paved-way-for-human-peacemaking/ "Ugly" Animals https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/are-ugly-animals-lost-cause-180963807/ Chocolate and the Midge https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qFkUdZrfu2Q The Joy and Impact of Birdwatchers https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/12/birdwatching-australia-binoculars-going-birding-life Nature is the World's Original Pharmacy https://theconversation.com/nature-is-the-worlds-original-pharmacy-returning-to-medicines-roots-could-help-fill-drug-discovery-gaps-176963 Stories of Wonder to Change the World https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/aug/24/hope-joy-absurdity-and-marvel-there-is-so-much-more-to-our-world-story-than-loss This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

    30 min

  8. MAR 22

    Danny Bate

    Danny Bate discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Danny Bate is a linguist, writer, broadcaster and podcaster who is fascinated by the study of historical languages and etymology. He took his BA and MPhil degrees from the University of York and the University of Cambridge respectively, and his PhD in linguistics from the University of Edinburgh. He can be found at dannybate.com. His new book is Why Q Needs U, which is available at https://dannybate.com/book/. The alphabet is a product of migration, born out of a meeting of different peoples and their languages Our letters started out as depictions of things (body parts, animals, everyday objects) English's letters are connected via a big family tree to many other scripts, including many that seem 'alien' to its readers (e.g. Arabic, Hebrew) There isn't universal one way to create writing, you pick which aspects of language (words, syllables, consonants) as a primary base English and related alphabets aren't phonetically accurate (and that's okay) Even when spelling diverges from a strict letter-to-sound ratio, new principles and processes can emerge This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

    30 min
See All (428)

Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

4.8
out of 5
11 Ratings

About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    Ivan Wise
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    428
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2017
  • Show Website
    Better Known

You Might Also Like