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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: Furniture - A Personal History of Movable Objects

The Essay: Furniture - A Personal History of Movable Objects: Episode 3: Je suis un table

Je suis un table

Episode 3

Episode 3: Je suis un table

Furniture - A Personal History of Movable Objects

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Furniture - A Personal History of Movable Objects, Je suis un tableClose menu

Ian Sansom explores the literary, philosophical and cultural history of the table.

Novelist and academic Ian Sansom explores the literary, philosophical and cultural history of the table.

The novelist and academic Ian Sansom explores the literary, philosophical and cultural history of the table.
From dining to designing, drinking and disagreeing; the table is central to our lives; "the departure point and launching pad for a thousand hare-brained schemes and ideas, a drawing board, a battlefield, and also the philosopher's favourite tool". Ian has raised a family round his kitchen table, but his true table as a writer is a solitary one. Bertrand Russell used the table as a symbol to explore the uncertain nature of observed reality; Wordsworth urged readers to rise up from their wooden desk, while Karl Marx used tables to explore the notion of commodities in Das Kapital, but is the table Ian built for O-level woodwork the truest thing he has ever made?'.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Novelist and academic Ian Sansom explores the history and symbolism of furniture

Series in which novelist and academic Ian Sansom explores the history and symbolism of furniture

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The Essay

Furniture - A Personal History of Movable Objects

Episode 3: Je suis un table

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