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The Forum: 22/08/2010

22/08/2010

BBC World Service - The Forum, 22/08/2010

The surprisingly long history of obesity. And do storytelling and science ever meet?

Obesity is often talked of as an ailment of modern affluence. But Bridget Kendall is joined by American cultural historian Sander Gilman who says it's nowhere near as simple as that…. 

One of the South Africa's most celebrated storytellers, Gcina Mhlophe, casts some of her fairy dust over us, and performs a very short story exclusively for the programme.

And philosopher and biologist Massimo Pigliucci maintains that it’s not so easy to trace the fuzzy line between scientific fact and conjecture. But he also asserts that there are some pressing, practical reasons why we should try to.

Obesity: will science or storytelling help? Illustration by Bridget Kendall.

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