Episode 69. D H Lawrence Birthplace Museum
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Carolyn Melbourne, Curator and Collections Manager at the D H Lawrence Birthplace Museum and Dr Andrew Harrison, Director of the D. H. Lawrence Research Centre at the University of Nottingham. They talk about how growing up in a small mining town, Eastwood, influenced the writer and poet D H Lawrence and how, despite escaping it through self-imposed exile abroad, he returned to the ambience of his childhood in his late novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Episode 68. Bridget Foreman: The Devising of Plays and Community Theatre
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the playwright Dr Bridget Foreman, Associate Director of Riding Lights theatre company and Senior Lecturer in Playwriting at the University of York about her career, pioneering experience of devising community theatre and latest co-written play, His Last Report (2025) about the social researcher, Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree.
Episode 67. Prudent Revolutionaries: Portraits of British Feminists between the Wars
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Sir Brian Harrison, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Oxford about his major study of the personalities, achievements, and tactics of British feminist leaders between the Wars and associated book, Prudent Revolutionaries (1987).
Episode 66. G. K. Chesterton
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Dale Ahlquist, magazine editor and advocate of the thought of G. K. Chesterton, author, literary critic, Christian apologist, journalist and creator of the fictional detective, Father Brown.
Episode 65. Ellen Ranyard: Pioneer Social Worker
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with author and co-founder of infed.org, the online encyclopedia of pedagogy and informal education, Mark K. Smith about the Victorian pioneer of social work and district nursing, Mrs Ellen Ranyard.
Episode 64. ‘These Houses Are Ours’: The Co-operative Housing Movement, 1870-1919
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the author and journalist, Andrew Bibby about the affordable, community-led housing alternatives that grew out of the nineteenth century co-operative movement.
Episode 63. Dick Sheppard and the Peace Pledge Union
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the screenwriter and literary historian, Professor George M Johnson about the pacifist priest and founder of the Peace Pledge Union, Dick Sheppard.
Episode 62. Two Portsmouth Portraits: John Pounds and Robert Dolling
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the TV writer, novelist, book dealer and publisher, Matt Wingett about the history of his home town, Portsmouth and its two eminent social reformers, John Pounds and Robert Dolling..
Episode 61. The Quakers and their Chocolate
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor Ben Pink Dandelion, about the religious sensibility of the British Quakers, their innovative but generous business mindset, and the Fry, Cadbury and Rowntree chocolate makers.
Episode 60. Cicely Saunders and the Modern Hospice Movement
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the distinguished sociologist of palliative care, Professor David Clark, about the founder of the modern hospice movement, Cicely Saunders.
Episode 59. Henry Scott Holland and the Common Good
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the academic Dr Ralph Norman about the Anglican preacher and social reformer, Henry Scott Holland.
Episode 58. Carl Jung: Psychotherapist, Pioneer, Healer
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the Revd Earl Collins about the life and pioneering career of Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist and psychologist.
Episode 57. Andy Harrison: Riding Lights and One-Man Plays
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the actor Andy Harrison about his career, Riding Lights, and his partnership with playwright Murray Watts in a series of one-man plays about Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday and Henri Nouwen.
Episode 56. Maude Royden and the Guildhouse
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the Revd Canon Alison Falby about the life and times of the pioneering Anglican preacher, suffragist, pacifist and public intellectual Maude Royden.
Episode 55. The Ragged School Movement
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Erica Davies, Director of the Ragged School Museum and the academic Bill Jacob about the Museum’s place in the London Ragged School Movement, before the advent of state education in 1870.
Episode 54. O Little Town: A short history of hymns and their place names
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with the choral composer Mark Browse about his book, O Little Town about hymn tunes and their place names.
Episode 53. Keir Hardie and the Labour Church
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Dr Neil Johnson about his separate books on Keir Hardie and the Labour Church
Episode 52. Dorothy L Sayers and Creativity
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Revd Canon Michael Hampel about the detective writer and dramatist, Dorothy L Sayers and her theory of creativity.
Episode 51. Hilaire Belloc
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Chris Hare about his 2022 book, Hilaire Belloc: The Politics of Living.
Episode 50. Evelyn Underhill: Pioneer of Modern Spirituality
Dr Simon Machin in conversation with Professor Jane Shaw about the pioneer of modern spirituality, Christian mystic, retreat leader and spiritual director, Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941).