This week, James Marcus goes partying with Susan Sontag and George Steiner; and Laura Beers sheds a light on Eileen O'Shaughnessy, George Orwell's first wife.

'Maestros and monsters: Days and nights with Susan Sontag and George

Steiner', by Robert Boyers

'Wifedom: Mrs Orwell's invisible life', by Anna Funder

Produced by Charlotte Pardy

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This week David explores a different way of thinking about the current epoch: what if this isn’t the Anthropocene but the Leviacene? Who or what is really driving planetary destruction? Can human nature explain it? Or should we be looking at the political and economic superpowers that are leaving their marks all over the natural world?

For more on these themes, David’s new book The Handover is available now, including as an audiobook. 

Listen to our earlier podcast with historian of science Meehan Crist on Malthus and Malthusianism.

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