Listen "Jonathan Franzen"
Episode Synopsis
On Start the Week Tom Sutcliffe talks to the American writer Jonathan Franzen about his latest novel, Purity. One of Franzen's characters compares the internet with the East German Republic and he satirises the utopian ideas of the apparatchik web-users. The head of the Oxford Internet Institute Helen Margetts counters with her research on the success and failure of political action via social media. The artist Tacita Dean laments the ubiquity of digital at the expense of film, and the financial journalist Gillian Tett roots out tunnel vision - both personal and business - in her new book on silos.
Producer: Katy Hickman.
Producer: Katy Hickman.
More episodes of the podcast Start the Week
The arts and health
12/01/2026
Animals and Meaning
29/12/2025
The Dark
15/12/2025
Histories, emotions and identity
08/12/2025
Space, Quantum Frontiers and Cosmic Clues
01/12/2025
Digital Futures and Information Crises
17/11/2025
Saving Tigers, Green Crime and Cli-fi
10/11/2025
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.