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SPRC In conversation with Rahul Rao: Statues, idols and why we love the idea of an animate object
52:56|A conversation about Rahul Rao’s book, ‘The Psychic Lives of Statues’. The conversation considers the agitation caused by attempts to remove celebratory statues of figures involved in the violence of the Atlantic Slave trade or of colonialism. Are statues made into ‘idols’ by people who want to defend these histories? How should we understand the sudden ‘coming alive’ of these previously forgotten and unnoticed representations of the human form? What can we learn from the distinctive erection of statues by corporate or state projects in our time and should we view these recent attempts to mark and control space through statues as a continuation of the spatial and representation tactics of European colonialism?The conversation was recorded in July 2025.Speakers: Gargi Bhattacharyya and Rahul Rao.
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SPRC In conversation with Gavan Titley
39:17|Luke de Noronha is joined by Gavan Titley, Professor in the Department of Media Studies at Maynooth University. Gavan has written several books on race, racism and multiculturalism, with a particular focus on the generative role of media and communication, including Is Free Speech Racist? with Polity Press in 2020. They discuss the question of free speech, which has become so central to questions of native entitlement and authoritarian populism in the present. The conversation was recorded in November 2025. Speakers: Luke de Noronha and Gavan Titley
SPRC In Conversation with Sita Balani
32:01|Luke de Noronha welcomes Sita Balani, Senior Lecturer in English at Queen Mary University of London and the author, most recently, of Deadly and Slick: the Sexual Life of Race in Britain (Verso Press, 2023). They discuss Sita’s recent writings on culture wars, melodrama as a mode of political communication, and the difference between the ordinary and normal. This conversation was recorded in November 2025Speakers: Luke de Noronha and Sita BalaniProducer: Trisha HartEditor: James Fox
3. SPRC In Conversation with Keir Milburn and Kai Heron: Part 3
20:23||Ep. 3Radical Abundance – understanding the reconfiguration of the global economy and how we might survive itKeir Milburn and Kai Heron in conversation with Gargi Bhattacharyya. This conversation was recorded in the summer of 2025 and discusses the changing role and approach of the United States and the extreme hardships arising from climate catastrophe as triggers to re-imagine the global economy.The conversation was recorded before the publication of Kai and Keir’s excellent and celebrated book, ‘Radical Abundance’, but the themes of the conversation echo the preoccupations of the book.There was a lot to discuss here – as a result we have split the conversation into three sections for ease of listening.
2. SPRC In Conversation with Keir Milburn and Kai Heron: Part 2
20:41||Ep. 2Radical Abundance – understanding the reconfiguration of the global economy and how we might survive itKeir Milburn and Kai Heron in conversation with Gargi Bhattacharyya. This conversation was recorded in the summer of 2025 and discusses the changing role and approach of the United States and the extreme hardships arising from climate catastrophe as triggers to re-imagine the global economy.The conversation was recorded before the publication of Kai and Keir’s excellent and celebrated book, ‘Radical Abundance’, but the themes of the conversation echo the preoccupations of the book.There was a lot to discuss here – as a result we have split the conversation into three sections for ease of listening.
1. SPRC In Conversation with Keir Milburn and Kai Heron: Part 1
22:47||Ep. 1Radical Abundance – understanding the reconfiguration of the global economy and how we might survive itKeir Milburn and Kai Heron in conversation with Gargi Bhattacharyya. This conversation was recorded in the summer of 2025 and discusses the changing role and approach of the United States and the extreme hardships arising from climate catastrophe as triggers to re-imagine the global economy.The conversation was recorded before the publication of Kai and Keir’s excellent and celebrated book, ‘Radical Abundance’, but the themes of the conversation echo the preoccupations of the book.There was a lot to discuss here – as a result we have split the conversation into three sections for ease of listening.
SPRC In Conversation with Edna Bonhomme
34:07|Gala Rexer talks to Edna Bonhomme, culture writer, historian of science, journalist, and author of “A History of the World in Six Plagues: How Contagion, Class, and Captivity Shaped Us, from Cholera to COVID-19” (2025). The conversation covers theoretical and methodological questions about the relationship between confinement and disease, Edna’s anti/inter-disciplinary approach to writing, health and illness in literature, and how the intersectional fight for prison abolition relates to struggles for health equality. This conversation was recorded in June 2025Speakers: Dr Gala Rexer, Leverhulme Fellow at the University of Warwick and Honorary Research Fellow at the SPRC // Dr Edna Bonhomme Producer: Gala Rexer and Trisha HartEditors: James Fox