Each week, a guest makes a series of recommendations of things which they think should be better known. Our recommendations include interesting people, places, objects, stories, experiences and ideas which our guest feels haven't had the exposure that they deserve.
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Sep 27, 2026 · 30:12
Chris Wilkins is a political consultant, strategist and writer and co-founder of global campaigns & advisory firm the Hanwell Group. Beginning his career as a political advisor…
Sep 20, 2026 · 29:38
Actor Joseph Millson discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Joseph Millson has been a busy and well known actor for over thirty years, an associate artist…
Sep 13, 2026 · 31:17
Rob Temple discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Rob Temple is a journalist and creator of Very British Problems. His @SoVeryBritish Twitter, Facebook and…
Sep 6, 2026 · 30:08
Printmaker Molly Mahon discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Molly Mahon is a distinguished British printmaker and textile designer renowned for her…
Aug 30, 2026 · 29:47
Anna Heyward discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Anna Heyward is a former editorial staffer of The New Yorker. She is a graduate student in animal…
Aug 23, 2026 · 30:29
Minette Batters was the first woman to be elected President of the National Farmers’ Union in 113years. She worked with four Prime Ministers - three of them in one year - and six…
Aug 16, 2026 · 29:27
Nick Freudenberg discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Nicholas Freudenberg is distinguished professor emeritus of public health at the City University of…
Aug 9, 2026 · 29:30
Ian Green discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Ian Green is a writer from Northern Scotland with a PhD in epigenetics. His debut fantasy trilogy The…
Aug 2, 2026 · 28:05
Matt Hill discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Matt Hill is the Philip K. Dick Award-nominated author of Lamb, The Breach, Zero Bomb, Graft, and The…
Jul 26, 2026 · 30:47
Joel Christensen discusses with Ivan six things about The Odyssey which should be better known. Joel P. Christensen is Professor of Classics at the CUNY Graduate Center where he…
Jul 19, 2026 · 29:42
Jessica Fellowes discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Jessica Fellowes is an author, journalist and public speaker. The Mitford Murders is her debut…
Jul 12, 2026 · 29:20
Sarah Wilson discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Sarah Wilson is a multi-New York Times bestselling author, journalist, social philosopher, international…
Jul 5, 2026 · 30:10
Ian Proud discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Ian Proud is an expert in strategic thinking, politico-economic analysis and diplomatic tradecraft. He was…
Jun 28, 2026 · 27:55
Sahar Hashemi discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Sahar Hashemi OBE has enjoyed a successful career as an entrepreneur, bestselling author and business…
Jun 21, 2026 · 30:22
Eleanor Anstruther discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Eleanor Anstruther was educated at Westminster School but dropped out of university to travel the…
Jun 14, 2026 · 29:41
Mark Leonard discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Mark Leonard is Co-Founder and Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, the first…
Jun 7, 2026 · 29:46
Tahmima Anam discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Tahmima Anam is the author of the Bengal trilogy and a recipient of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for…
May 31, 2026 · 29:34
Séamas O'Reilly discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Séamas O'Reilly is a writer and author who has worked as a columnist for the Observer, the Irish…
May 24, 2026 · 27:35
Ed Maklouf discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Ed Maklouf attended school in England before moving to the USA to study at Stanford University, where he…
May 17, 2026 · 29:32
Emer McLysaght and Sarah Breen discuss with Ivan six things which they think should be better known. Emer McLysaght & Sarah Breen are co-authors of the Aisling series. Oh My God,…
May 10, 2026 · 29:39
Charles Moore discusses with Ivan six things which he thinks should be better known. Charles Moore was editor of the Daily Telegraph from 1995 to 2003, editor of the Sunday…
May 3, 2026 · 30:01
Sean Murphy discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Sean Murphy is founder of the non-profit 1455 Lit Arts and directs the Center for Story at Shenandoah…
Apr 26, 2026 · 29:11
Steven Seidenberg discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Steven Seidenberg is the author of Anon (Omnidawn, 2022), plain sight (Roof Books, 2020), Situ…
Apr 19, 2026 · 28:37
Daniel Hahn discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Daniel Hahn is an award-winning translator, author and editor of numerous fiction and non-fiction works.…
Apr 12, 2026 · 29:11
Joanna Jensen discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Joanna Jensen is the founder of the British multi-award-winning baby and child personal care brand,…
Apr 5, 2026 · 31:23
Alexandra Tolstoy returns to the podcast with a special live episode, recorded at a school. She discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Kyrgyzstan…
Mar 29, 2026 · 29:45
Natalie Kyriacou discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Natalie Kyriacou OAM is an award-winning environmentalist, writer, professional public speaker and…
Mar 22, 2026 · 30:23
Danny Bate discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Danny Bate is a linguist, writer, broadcaster and podcaster who is fascinated by the study of historical…
Mar 15, 2026 · 29:47
Deepa Anappara discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Deepa Anappara’s debut novel, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, was named as one of the best books of…
Mar 8, 2026 · 30:06
Nigel Biggar discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Nigel Biggar is Emeritus Regius Professor in the University of Oxford and Fellow of Christ Church. He…
Mar 1, 2026 · 29:34
Matt Kaplan discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Matt Kaplan is a science correspondent at the Economist. He is the author of The Science of Monsters and…
Feb 22, 2026 · 28:45
Jane Dougherty discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Jane Dougherty, of Irish origin, grew up in Yorkshire and now lives in France. She began writing by…
Feb 15, 2026 · 28:15
Adam Steiner discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Adam Steiner is a swim-teacher, freelance journalist and author. When not saving lives he sits dreaming…
Feb 8, 2026 · 27:22
Erin Somers discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Erin Somers is a reporter and news editor at Publishers Lunch. Her first novel, Stay Up with Hugo Best…
Feb 1, 2026 · 29:07
Tharik Hussain, who previously appeared on the podcast in 2022, discusses with Ivan six further things which should be better known. Tharik Hussain is an award-winning author and…
Jan 25, 2026 · 30:03
Richard Johnson and Lee Evans discuss with Ivan six things which should be better known. Richard Johnson is Senior Lecturer in Politics at Queen Mary University of London. With…
Jan 18, 2026 · 30:41
Historian Brooke Newman discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Dr. Brooke Newman is an Associate Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and a Fellow…
Jan 11, 2026 · 28:12
Dean Koontz discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Dean Koontz won an Atlantic Monthly fiction competition when he was a senior in college, and has been…
Jan 4, 2026 · 28:21
Ryan Gingeras discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Ryan Gingeras is a professor in the Institute of Regional and International Studies at the Naval…
Dec 21, 2025 · 29:49
Stuart Jeffries discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Stuart Jeffries was born in Wolverhampton in 1962. He was educated in Dudley, Oxford and London.…
Dec 14, 2025 · 30:30
Pete Brown discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Pete Brown ( https://petebrown.net/ ) is a British author, journalist, broadcaster and consultant…
Dec 7, 2025 · 30:20
Sandy Pentland discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Alex Pentland is a Stanford HAI Fellow and MIT Toshiba Professor. Named one of the “100 People to…
Nov 30, 2025 · 28:46
Jaime Davila discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Jaime Dávila earned an engineering degree in the United States. Choosing a career in the creative…
Nov 23, 2025 · 30:15
To celebrate the 400th episode of Better Known, previous guest Richard Elwes discusses with Ivan Wise six aspects of the Better Known podcast which Ivan thinks should be better…
Nov 16, 2025 · 28:01
Christopher Hill discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Christopher Hill was working in finance in London when, in 2002, he took a trip to South Africa…
Nov 9, 2025 · 27:21
Eleanor Doughty discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Eleanor Doughty began her career in journalism at the Daily Telegraph, before going freelance to…
Nov 2, 2025 · 29:48
Sasha Butler discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Sasha Butler is a Birmingham based writer. Her first novel, The Marriage Contract (Salt, 2025), was…
Oct 26, 2025 · 29:54
Doug Lemov discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Doug Lemov is a former teacher and school principal whose books describe the techniques of high-performing…
Oct 19, 2025 · 28:10
Sudhir Hazareesingh discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Professor Sudhir Hazareesingh was born in Mauritius. He is a Fellow of the British Academy a…
Oct 12, 2025 · 28:30
Ana Schnabl discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Ana Schnabl is a Slovenian writer and editor. She writes for several Slovenian media outlets and is a…
Oct 5, 2025 · 29:20
Adam Lind discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Through living on a narrowboat on the British waterways, Adam Lind has unexpectedly built a large online…
Sep 28, 2025 · 28:45
Food critic Andrew Turvil discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Described by The Independent as one of the UK’s ‘arbiters of taste’, Andrew Turvil is the…
Sep 21, 2025 · 30:01
Andy Reid discusses with Ivan six films chosen by previous guests which he thinks should not, after all, be better known. With apologies to Daria Lavelle, Steve Cross, Neil…
Sep 14, 2025 · 28:08
Matt Greene discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Matt Greene is an author, teacher, former screenwriter, and stay-at-home dad. His first novel, Ostrich,…
Sep 7, 2025 · 29:08
Danny Scott discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Danny Scott grew up in an East Midlands mining village, serving his apprenticeship as an engineer on…
Aug 31, 2025 · 26:59
Alan Green grew up on the north coast of Cornwall and now lives in south London. As an environmental science graduate, he remains passionate about protecting and preserving the…
Aug 24, 2025 · 28:15
Laurence Bergreen discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Laurence Bergreen is an award-winning biographer, historian, and chronicler of exploration. His…
Aug 17, 2025 · 29:36
Sam Sedgman discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Sam Sedgman is a bestselling children's author, confirmed nerd and enthusiastic ferroequinologist.…
Aug 10, 2025 · 30:12
Jordan Prosser discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Jordan Prosser is a writer, filmmaker and performer from Victoria, Australia. He is a graduate of the…
Aug 5, 2025 · 29:39
Michel-Yves Bolloré discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Michel-Yves Bolloré is an engineer and entrepreneur whose career spans industrial innovation and…
Aug 3, 2025 · 27:37
Simon Hall discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Simon Hall studied history at Sheffield and Cambridge, and held a Fox International Fellowship at Yale,…
Jul 27, 2025 · 30:21
Kasim Ali discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Kasim Ali was born and raised in Alum Rock, Birmingham, where he spent the first eighteen years of his…
Jul 20, 2025 · 28:35
Sally Smith discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Sally Smith spent all her working life as a barrister and later KC in the Inner Temple. After writing a…
Jul 13, 2025 · 29:01
Hal LaCroix discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Hal LaCroix lives outside Boston with his wife, Elahna. He has worked as a journalist at newspapers in…
Jul 6, 2025 · 29:55
Peter Lamont discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Peter Lamont is Professor of History and Theory of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. He has…
Jun 29, 2025 · 28:57
Sarah Stein Lubrano discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Dr Sarah Stein Lubrano holds a PhD from the University of Oxford and a Master’s degree from the…
Jun 22, 2025 · 29:29
Sarah Dunant discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Sarah Dunant studied history at Newnham College, Cambridge from where she went on to become a writer,…
Jun 16, 2025 · 30:37
AE Gauntlett discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. AE Gauntlett completed an MA in English Literature at King’s College London in 2010. He then went on to…
May 25, 2025 · 29:53
Simon Tolkien discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Simon Tolkien is the grandson of JRR Tolkien and a director of the Tolkien Estate. He is also series…
May 18, 2025 · 29:56
Daria Lavelle discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Daria Lavelle was born in Kyiv, immigrated to the US with her family as a child and now lives in New…
May 11, 2025 · 30:49
Michelle Young discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Michelle Young, a journalist and professor of architecture at Columbia University, spent four years…
May 4, 2025 · 29:05
Róisín Lanigan discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Róisín Lanigan is an editor and writer based in London and Belfast. Her work has appeared in i-D,…
Apr 27, 2025 · 30:50
Laura Spinney discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Laura Spinney is a writer and science journalist. Her writing on science has appeared in The Guardian,…
Apr 20, 2025 · 30:14
Sara Leila Sherman and Mort Sherman discuss six things which should be better known. Sara Leila Sherman is a distinguished classical musician and educator, renowned for her work…
Apr 13, 2025 · 29:30
Jo Harkin discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Jo Harkin studied literature at university. She daydreamed her way through various jobs in her twenties…
Apr 6, 2025 · 29:51
Madeleine Gray discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Madeleine Gray is a writer and critic from Sydney. She was a 2021 Finalist for the Walkley Pascall…
Mar 30, 2025 · 29:32
Alex Conner discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Alex Conner is an ADHD coach and brain scientist who combines his personal experience with ADHD to be a…
Mar 23, 2025 · 30:50
Rebecca Lemov discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Rebecca Lemov is a historian of science at Harvard University and has been a visiting scholar at the…
Mar 16, 2025 · 30:17
Kate Kemp discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Kate Kemp is an Australian writer living in the UK. She trained as an occupational therapist and then as a…
Mar 9, 2025 · 30:33
Shari Dunn discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Shari Dunn is a polymath, an accomplished journalist, and a former attorney, news anchor, CEO, and…
Mar 2, 2025 · 30:22
Imran Mahmood discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Imran Mahmood is a criminal defence barrister with over thirty years’ experience. His debut novel You…
Feb 23, 2025 · 29:18
Dani Heywood-Lonsdale discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Dani Heywood-Lonsdale is a writer with family roots in Hawaii and the Philippines. She holds a…
Feb 16, 2025 · 29:58
Kathleen deLaski discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Kathleen deLaski is an education and workforce designer, as well as a futurist. She founded the…
Feb 9, 2025 · 29:43
Ivan selects five conversations from previous Better Known episodes, including discussions with Henry Hemming, Brooke Allen, Mark William Jones, AJ Jacob and Meg Rosoff. Eric…
Feb 2, 2025 · 30:10
Jeff Sebo discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Jeff Sebo is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Affiliated Professor of Bioethics, Medical…
Jan 26, 2025 · 29:56
Diana McCaulay discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Diana McCaulay is a Jamaican environmental activist and the award-winning author of five novels.…
Jan 19, 2025 · 30:58
For this week’s episode, enjoy some of the highlights of Better Known over the years, featuring excerpts from Ivan’s interviews with Jonathan Sayer, Kate Mosse, Jon Glover, Geoff…
Jan 12, 2025 · 27:14
Adam Howorth discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Adam Howorth was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire and grew up in rural Northamptonshire. After moving to…
Jan 5, 2025 · 30:08
Nilanjana Dasgupta discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Nilanjana Dasgupta is provost professor of psychology and inaugural director of the Institute of…
Dec 15, 2024 · 30:41
James Marriott discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. James Marriott is a columnist at The Times, writing about society, culture and ideas. The poetry of…
Dec 8, 2024 · 30:02
Keetie Roelen discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Keetie Roelen is a leading thinker in poverty and social policy and a longstanding advocate for social…
Dec 1, 2024 · 29:39
Matt Kohut discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Matthew Kohut is the author of Speaking Out: The New Rules of Business Leadership Communication (2024). He…
Nov 24, 2024 · 30:36
Adam Higginbotham discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Adam Higginbotham is the author of Midnight in Chernobyl, winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for…
Nov 17, 2024 · 30:05
To mark the 350th episode, comedian Al Murray discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Al Murray's alter ego, The Pub Landlord, is one of the most…
Nov 10, 2024 · 28:48
Jon Moynihan discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Jon Moynihan is a businessman and venture capitalist who started his career advising companies and banks…
Nov 3, 2024 · 31:05
Delayed Gratification co-founders Rob Orchard and Marcus Webb discuss with Ivan six things which should be better known. Rob Orchard and Marcus Webb are co-founders of Delayed…
Oct 27, 2024 · 30:07
Andrew Hindmoor discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Andrew Hindmoor grew up in Sheffield, left, went to Australia, and boomeranged back to Sheffield in…
Oct 20, 2024 · 28:55
Josie Lloyd discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Josie Lloyd, also writing as Joanna Rees, is the Sunday Times No.1 bestselling international author of…
Oct 13, 2024 · 30:08
Historian Alice Hunt discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Alice Hunt is Professor of Early Modern Literature and History at the University of Southampton.…
Oct 6, 2024 · 30:21
Nabeel Qureshi discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Nabeel S. Qureshi is an entrepreneur and researcher specializing in artificial intelligence and…
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