This week, Ben Hutchinson takes us to Paris to survey the invention of type; and Joe Moran on giving your creativity a workout.

‘Imprimer! L’Europe de Gutenberg’, Bibliothèque nationale de France, until July 16

'Imprimer! L’Europe de Gutenberg 1450-1520’, edited by Nathalie Coilly and Caroline Vrand

‘The Imagination Muscle: Where good ideas come from (and how to have more of them)’, by Albert Read

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week David talks to Katja Hoyer and Lea Ypi about life under communism. East Germany was the most successful of the communist states of Eastern Europe, measured by economic prosperity and sporting success. Did the GDR ever really offer a model of how Soviet-style communism could give people what they wanted, including social mobility and consumerism? Why did it fall apart in the end? And how did the GDR experiment look from inside Albania, where Lea grew up? A conversation about freedom, dissent, paranoia and blue jeans.

Katja Hoyer’s latest book is Beyond the Wall: East Germany 1949-1990.

Lea Ypi’s prize-winning Free: Coming of Age at the End of History is available in paperback now.

To hear more about Rosa Luxemburg, this is from Season 2 of History of Ideas.

Sign up to LRB Close Readings:

Directly in Apple: https://apple.co/3pJoFPq

In other podcast apps: lrb.supportingcast.fm

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices