A Philosophical Forgery?

The Essay by BBC

Mar 31, 202513:43Society & Culture

In 1852, a book of philosophical enquiry was discovered in Ethiopia. But what if the Hatata Zera Yacob is a forgery? Does it matter, if the message is inspirational? Debates over its authorship rage and Jonathan Egid’s e...

Related Episodes

Continue listening to more episodes from The Essay.

Digging for Words

Mar 31, 2025 - 13:49

In 1773, Phillis Wheatley became the first African American to publish a collection of poems. Jade Cuttle...

Workplace performance

Mar 31, 2025 - 11:10

What connects actors with baristas? In 1983, the American sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild published...

The crime of creation

Mar 31, 2025 - 12:53

The Japanese philosopher Yujin Nagasawa says the majority of people are what he calls ‘existential optimi...

Mothers on trial

Mar 31, 2025 - 13:42

Having worked as a criminal and family barrister, Shona Minson has seen the effect on women and their chi...

Land Cinema

Mar 31, 2025 - 13:35

If cinema is often associated with Hollywood or the European New Wave, since the 1970s activist-filmmaker...

The intimacy of radio

Mar 31, 2025 - 13:37

The would-be composer and philosopher Theodor Adorno played classical piano and came up with influential...

Birth Stories

Mar 31, 2025 - 13:42

How have the first hours and days after childbirth changed in the NHS? Before the NHS, a 1932 publication...

Losing Yourself in Books

Mar 31, 2025 - 13:41

What do we get from a good book? With a greater diversity of stories on offer from publishers and as exam...