Radio 3 Essay

Authored essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week. Each episode is full of insight, opinion and intellectual surprise from one expert voice. We aim to include as many episodes of The Essay in the download as we can but you'll find that some aren't included for rights reasons.

Throughout the week BBC World Service offers a wide range of documentaries and other factual programmes. This podcast offers you the chance to access landmark series from our archive.

Titanic Letters

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, BBC Radio Ulster produced a series of short readings, featuring letters written by people caught up in the disaster, written before and after the Titanic sank.

Welcome to GUYS WE F****D: THE ANTI SLUT-SHAMING PODCAST. They spread their legs, now they're spreading the word that women should be able to have sex with WHOEVER they want WHENEVER they want and not be ashamed or called sluts or whores. 

Welcome to a new revolution. 

Each week, Corinne Fisher & Krystyna Hutchinson (together known as the comedy duo Sorry About Last Night) interview a gentleman they slept with. Some they made love to, some they had sex with a few times and some they f****d in a hotel bathroom...er, what? Corinne & Krystyna want to make the world a more sex-positive place...one candid story of intercourse at a time. 

Winner of the Queen Elisabeth (2009) and Yehudi Menuhin Competitions (2008), Ray Chen is among the most compelling young violinists today.   “Ray has proven himself to be a very pure musician with great qualities such as a beautiful youthful tone, vitality and lightness.   He has all the skills of a truly musical interpreter,” said the great Maxim Vengerov.
Ray has released two critically acclaimed albums on Sony: a recital program “Virtuoso” of works by Bach, Tartini, Franck, and Wieniawski, and the Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky concertos with Swedish Radio Orchestra and Daniel Harding.   Following the success of these recordings, Ray was profiled by The Strad and Gramophone magazines as “the one to watch”.   “Virtuoso” was distinguished with the prestigious ECHO Klassik award.   He is currently working on his third, all-Mozart album with Christoph Eschenbach and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, slated for release later this year.
Ray continues to win the admiration of fans and fellow musicians worldwide.   In 2012, he became the youngest soloist ever to perform in the televised Nobel Prize Concert for the Nobel Laureates and the Swedish Royal Family.   His Carnegie Hall debut with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Sakari Oramo, as well as his sold-out Musikverein concert with the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly were met with standing ovations.   Since the 2012- 13 season, Ray has been invited to join Konzerthaus Dortmund's series “Junge Wilde,” which presents young and groundbreaking artists in Germany.   Later this season, Ray will make his San Francisco recital debut at the SF Jazz Center. He also looks forward to his upcoming recital tour of Australia and his debuts with the Orchestre National de France and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Followed by over 500,000 people on SoundCloud, Ray Chen looks to expand the classical music audience by increasing its appeal to the young generation via all available social media platforms.   He is the first ever classical musician to be invited to write a regular blog about his life as a touring soloist for the largest Italian publishing house, RCS Rizzoli (Corriere della Sera, Gazzetta dello Sport, Max).   In his unstinting efforts to break down barriers between classical music, fashion and pop culture, he is supported by Giorgio Armani and was recently featured in Vogue magazine.
Born in Taiwan and raised in Australia, Ray was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music at age 15, where he studied with Aaron Rosand and was supported by Young Concert Artists.   He plays the 1702 "Lord Newlands" Stradivarius violin on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.

Sarah Wanamaker is following