James Pratt and John Smith were the last men hanged in England for the crime of sodomy, reported to the authorities by nosy landlords who later petitioned for clemency. Tom Crewe joins Thomas Jones to explain how exceptional – and unexceptional – the case was, the historical forces that led to the death sentence and the surprising ambivalence many Londoners felt about ‘unnatural crimes’ in the 1830s.

Find out more about Bluets at the Royal Court theatre here: https://royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/bluets/

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The word ‘culture’ now drags the term ‘wars’ in its wake, but this is too narrow an approach to a concept with a much more capacious history. In the closing LRB Winter Lecture for 2024, Terry Eagleton examines various aspects of that history – culture and power, culture and ethics, culture and critique, culture and ideology – in an attempt to broaden the argument and understand where we are now.

Terry Eagleton delivered this lecture as part of the LRB's Winter Lecture series at St James's Church, Clerkenwell, London on 27 March 2024.

Read Terry Eagleton’s lecture in the LRB: https://lrb.me/eagletonwl

Watch the lecture on YouTube: https://lrb.me/eagletonwlyt

Find out more about Bluets here: https://royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/bluets/

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In her recent LRB Winter Lecture, Hazel V. Carby discussed ways contemporary Indigenous artists are rendering the ordinarily invisible repercussions of ecocide and genocide visible. She joins Adam Shatz to expand on the artists discussed in her lecture, and how they disrupt the ways we’re accustomed to seeing borders, landmasses, and landscapes empty – or emptied – of people.

Find the lecture and further reading on the episode page: lrb.me/carbypod

Watch the lecture on YouTube: lrb.me/carbyyt

Find out more about Bluets at the Royal Court theatre here: https://royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/bluets/

Listen to the We Society Podcast here: https://acss.org.uk/we-society-podcast/

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