Someone whose work often involves finding things, grinding things, squashing things and blowing things up, artist Cornelia Parker has a self confessed curious relationship to things. In this episode, Zoe visits Cornelia at home to discover what 5 things she feels have made her.

The Things That Make Us is a podcast about people and the objects that have shaped them. Each week, a guest is invited to pick 5 things that have inspired, delighted, provoked or influenced them, and then talk about these items ‘on tape’ at a time and place of their choosing - ideally with as many of the things present as possible. The show was devised and created by Zoe Laughlin, Director of the Institute of Making in London. 

For pictures of all the things selected by guests, please visit www.thethingsthatmakeus.com


Cornelia Parker

Television presenter, Dallas Campbell, originally trained as an actor but applied his eye for magic and ability to tell a good story to the task of communicating science. Often found down a tunnel or up in a rocket, his adventures focus on the wonders of our engineered world and the 5 things he picks are testament to this.

Dallas Campbell

A practicing NHS doctor, Ranj Singh specialises in the treatment of children and young adults. Working a punishing regime of shifts, Ranj is at the coal face of our National Health Service. Alongside his medical career, Ranj co-created and presents the pioneering BBC CBeebies show, Get Well Soon. A household name to anyone under 5, Ranj can also be found on ITV’s flagship show, This Morning, giving advice on all things medical. In this episode, Zoe joins Ranj at home to discuss the five things that have made him.

Ranj Singh

Dame Professor Uta Frith is a fellow of The Royal Society and one of the most highly regraded and decorated psychologist of her generation. Her ground breaking research into autism and dyslexia underpins much of our contemporary understanding of these conditions and has influenced educators and researchers around the world. In this episode, Uta invites Zoe to her home to hear about the things that have made her and have a spot of lunch.

Uta Frith

Robert Llewellyn is familiar to many as the actor who plays Kryten in the hit BBC TV series Red Dwaf and the presenter of Scrapheap Challenge, but he also writes and talks and gets up to all sorts of things online. In 2009, Robert began a YouTube series called Carpool, in which he interviews guests in his car, whilst giving them a lift to wherever they want to go. Others have since done similar, but it is Robert’s do-it-yourself approach that meant he was one of the first to produce such regular online content and bypass the traditional channels of distribution.

Warning: passions ran high and as a result there is a little swearing and general bad language over the course of this episode.

Robert Llewellyn

In this episode, Zoe visits Tim Hunkin at his Central London HQ, the Novelty Automation arcade, surrounded by mechanisms that will train you to dispose of radioactive waste, challenge you to beat the bankers, or illicit yelps of pleasure as they give you a right good frisking.

Tim’s drive and enthusiasm to discover and celebrate how things work has clearly influenced him throughout his career as it can be seen in everything, from the encyclopaedic cartoon strip he drew for the Observer newspaper, to his influential series of TV programmes on The Secret Life of Machines.

Tim’s website: http://www.timhunkin.com

The Novelty Automation, Tim’s arcade in Central London: http://www.novelty-automation.com

Tim Hunkin and Rex Garrod’s amazing TV show, The Secret Life of Machines, can be viewed here: http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/SLOM/index.html (or search for them on YouTube).

An archive of Tim’s cartoon strip encyclopaedia, The Rudiments of Wisdom: http://www.rudimentsofwisdom.com

Tim Hunkin

The influential artist and material-object investigator, Richard Wentworth makes work that brings into focus the relationship between found objects, materials and processes of making through playful juxtaposition and observation. For this wide reaching and far roaming conversation, Richard joins Zoe in her office at the Institute of Making with a bag brimming with the things he wants to talk about. The interview was recorded on Thursday 26th May 2016. Examples of his work can be seen in Tate’s collection: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/richard-wentworth-2132

Richard Wentworth

Dame Zandra Rhodes is one of fashion’s most recognisable faces and enduring talents. A true icon of our age, her designs for clothes, textiles and jewellery have graced catwalks, wardrobes and museum collections around the world. In this episode, Zoe joins Zandra in her studio during London Fashion Week for a glimpse into the things that have made her.

Zandra Rhodes

Master perfumer maker, Roja Dove, can identify whilst blindfold, over 800 scents. He makes extraordinary perfumes that contain the worlds finest ingredients and is a passionate advocate for the power of smell to captivate, evoke and transport us. This episode of The Things That Make Us was recorded in front of a live audience at the Institute of Making in November 2015. It was an early test of the idea for this podcast, and is released to mark the 10th official episode of The Things That Make Us, as you know it today.

Roja Dove - Live!

Co-founder of the fast food chain Leon, Henry Dimbleby is a chef and food writer who promotes and practices naturally fast food in all its forms, from healthy school dinners to street food feasts. In this episode, Zoe joins Henry at home to discuss the things that have made him. Now, there is a little bit of what some might consider to be adult conversation in this interview. For example, the word penis is used, so if just reading that word has sent you into a flap, this might not be the episode for you.

Henry Dimbleby

A podcast about people and the objects that have shaped them.

See pictures of all the things selected by each guest here: http://www.thethingsthatmakeus.com/gallery/

Follow on twitter for latest news, updates and extra pictures: https://twitter.com/thingsmakeus

The Things That Make Us is produced and presented by Zoe Laughlin, Director of the Institute of Making.

The Things That Make Us

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