Steven Connor considers air. It is more than a universal physical necessity: the ideas of air and breath are diffused through the poetry, rituals and symbolism of all cultures. We not only live on air, we also subsist on the complex idea of air. Medical historians, classicists, air-therapists, and musicians help to explore three aspects of the air: its positive associations with power; its negative associations with corruption; and the idea of the air as a medium or habitat.
Producer Tim Dee