Articles and Interviews

  1. Radio and TV
  2. Selected recent articles
  3. Selected press interviews
  4. Short Fiction and Excerpts

Writing and interviews from the more remote past are archived variously on the Internet.

Radio and TV

  1. Debate on reality with Peter Atkins, James Ladyman and Julian Baggini 2022
  2. Debate on legal and illegal highs with David Nutt, Anna Waldstein and Güneş Taylor 2022
  3. Debate on the transcendental with Olivia Fane, Minna Salami, Mark Salter and Rupert Sheldrake 2021
  4. Debate on solitude and company with Sarah Garfinkel, Lucy Johnson and Mark Salter 2021
  5. Debate on language, animals and reality with Raymond Tallis, Jennifer Ackerman and Hilary Lawson 2021
  6. Debate on whether moral responsibility is a mere illusion with Sarah Garfinkel, Massimo Pigliucci and Galen Strawson 2021
  7. Various podcasts
  8. Debate on whether scientific metaphors are a real description of reality Peter Atkins, Hilary Lawson, Rupert Sheldrake and Güneş Taylor 2021
  9. Interviewed by the HowToAcademy with Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye 2021
  10. Debate on Wittgenstein, language and the unsayable with Maria Balaska, Hilary Lawson and Raymond Tallis, 2021
  11. Interviewed by Josie Mitchell of Granta, Podcast March 2020
  12. Debate on the self with Lisa Bortolotti, Anders Sandberg and Dan Zahavi 2020
  13. Debate on metaphysics, morality and mayhem with Simon Blackburn, Hilary Lawson, Raymond Tallis 2020
  14. Interviewed on BBC Radio 4 Orwell in Five Words April 2020
  15. Debate on internet violence and morality with Soma Ghosh, Meg Rosoff and Roger Bolton, 2020
  16. Zed on the Slate Political Gabfest with David Plotz 2020
  17. Debates on the known and the unknown with Simon Blackburn, Philip Goff and Renata Salecl 2020
  18. Debate at the London School of Economics with Peter Pomerantsev and Martin Moore November 2019
  19. Debate on Time with Julian Barbour, Tim Maudlin and Emily Thomas 2019
  20. Debate on whether comedy can convey profound ideas with Barry Smith and Justin Smith 2019
  21. Debate on innovation and art with Brian Eno, Sophie Fiennes, Ammar Kalia and Clare van Kampen 2019
  22. Debate on 'Fake News' with Barry Barnes and John Ellis, 2019
  23. Debate on whether the self is an illusion with Julian Baggini, Jan Westerhoff, Silvia Jonas 2019
  24. BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour, June 2019 (from 30:04)
  25. BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking on Orwell, June 2019
  26. ‘The Reality Illusion’ with Hilary Lawson, Douglas Hoffman and Maria Baghramian May 2019
  27. The Limits of Language with Stanley Fish, Hilary Lawson and Genia Schunbaumsfeld, Hay-on-Wye 2018
  28. ‘The Key to Creativity’ with Lowkey and Andrew Motion HowtheLightGetsIn 2018
  29. ‘Truth and the universe’ with Peter Atkins and Tim Lewens HowTheLightGetsIn 2018
  30. ‘Unsound Methods’ – interview with Unsound Methods June 2018
  31. ‘False Starts’ – interview with Granta May 2018
  32. ‘Minds, Machines and Magic’ with Margaret Boden, George Ellis, Warren Ellis - HowTheLightGetsIn 2018
  33. ‘Making Sense of Reality’ with Andy Clark, Rufus Duits and John McWhorter HowtheLightGetsIn 2018
  34. ‘Immortal North’ BBC Sunday Feature December 2017
  35. Interview with Margaret Atwood, Oxford Sheldonian October 2017/
  36. ‘Social Conservatism’ – BBC Free Thinking September 2017
  37. ‘Sound Frontiers’ – BBC Free Thinking October 2016
  38. ‘Freeze/Thaw’ – BBC Sunday Feature August 2016
  39. ‘The Dance of Time’ with Julian Barbour and Joseph Diekemper HowtheLightGetsIn 2016
  40. ‘The Word and the World’ with Paul Boghossian and Ray Monk HowtheLightGetsIn 2016
  41. ‘Fantasies and Lies’ with Angie Hobbs and Hannah Dawson HowTheLightGetsIn 2016
  42. ‘Visions of Apocalypse’ – with Jasper Fforde and Frank Furedi HowTheLightGetsIn 2016
  43. ‘Madness and Wisdom’ with Richard Bentall, Patricia Casey and Robert Rowland-Smith HowtheLightGetsIn 2016
  44. ‘Mystics and Reality’ BBC Free Thinking June 2016
  45. ‘A Theory of Everything?’ BBC Start the Week June 2016
  46. ‘Who we have Been and Who we Are’ with Yasmin Alibhai Brown, Richard Bentall and Steve Fuller HowTheLightGetsIn 2016
  47. ‘Paradise City’ with Chris Huhne and Richard Sennett HowTheLightGetsIn 2016
  48. Angela Carter BBC Free Thinking October 2015
  49. ‘Thoughts: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly’ – BBC Woman’s Hour September 2015
  50. ‘In the Beginning was the World’ with Hilary Lawson, Stephen Neale and Janne Teller HowTheLightGetsIn 2015
  51. ‘Matter and Mind’ with Ray Brassier, Markus Gabriel, Eva Jablonka HowTheLightGetsIn 2015
  52. ‘Beyond Knowledge’ with Ray Brassier, Hilary Lawson and Michela Massimi HowtheLightGetsIn 2015
  53. August 2014 BBC3 ‘Proms’ Series, Iceland
  54. July 2014, Radio Eins, Germany
  55. ‘Can Science Explain Consciousness’ – June 2014
  56. ‘A Field Guide to Reality’ - June 2014
  57. True to Myself' – with Hilary Lawson and Parashkev Nachev – June 2014
  58. ‘Beyond the Machine’ with Colin Blakemore and Rupert Sheldrake – June 2014
  59. Interview at the British Council Hyderabad, India November 2013
  60. Hong Radio Interview July 2013
  61. Interview with Louis de Bernieres, Hong Kong July 2013
  62. Live Fast Die Young, Panel at HowtheLightGetsIn June 2013
  63. Hong Kong Book Fair interview June 2013
  64. Podcast with Granta April 2013
  65. Error, Lies and Adventure – panel at the LSE March 2013
  66. Programme on Lawrence Durrell January 2013
  67. Interview with Radio Litopia, July 2012
  68. Interview on Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 4, July 2012
  69. Interview on Start the Week, BBC Radio 4, April 2012
  70. Interview on Nightwaves, BBC Radio 3, January 2012
  71. Crunch Festival, Hay-on-Wye, November 2011, 'How to Change the World: Art and Politics'
  72. Crunch Festival, Hay-on-Wye, November 2011, 'Awake in the Universe' - Can Art awake us from our slumbers?
  73. Interview on Open Book, BBC Radio 4, June 2011
  74. HowTheLightGetsIn Festival, Hay-on-Wye 2011, 'The New Romantics'
  75. HowTheLightGetsIn Festival, Hay-on-Wye 2011, 'The Famine and the Feast'
  76. Interview on Open Book, BBC Radio 4, January 2011

Selected recent articles

  1. ‘Where my Feet Fall’ The Arts Desk June 2022
  2. The Pharaoh’s Gambit, Literary Review March 2022
  3. Guardian Editorial mentioning ZED as a prescient novel 2022
  4. How to Start Writing and When to Stop Literary Review December 2021
  5. In Defence of Ambivalence Literary Review September 2021
  6. Wittgenstein for Robots Literary Review August 2021
  7. ‘She hated poetry readings’ Literary Review April 2021
  8. ‘Trust me, I’m a philosopher’ Literary Review February 2021
  9. Article on weather writing Literary Review December 2020
  10. Absurdist Fiction and Absurdist Philosophy IAI news July 2020
  11. Diary about Hydra Literary Review July 2020
  12. Article on Anne Tyler Literary Review April 2020
  13. Article on ‘The All-Seeing I’ Literary Review December 2019
  14. Article on Macau, National Geographic December 2019
  15. Language, subjectivity and reality IAI News December 2019
  16. Article on Shoshana Zuboff Guardian October 2019
  17. Interviewed by Paul Semel 2020
  18. Interviewed by Fran Bigman for LitHub March 2020
  19. In conversation with Jana Prikryl LitHub 2019
  20. ‘Lost’ LitHub 2022
  21. ‘Flight’ in We, Robots 2020 - a book of 100 sci-fi short stories, edited by Simon Ings
  22. ‘The Perfect Companion’ Granta September 2020
  23. ‘Where my Feet Fall’ The Arts Desk June 2022
  24. The Pharaoh’s Gambit, Literary Review March 2022
  25. Guardian Editorial mentioning ZED as a prescient novel 2022
  26. How to Start Writing and When to Stop Literary Review December 2021
  27. In Defence of Ambivalence Literary Review September 2021
  28. Wittgenstein for Robots Literary Review August 2021
  29. ‘She hated poetry readings’ Literary Review April 2021
  30. ‘Trust me, I’m a philosopher’ Literary Review February 2021
  31. Article on weather writing Literary Review December 2020
  32. Absurdist Fiction and Absurdist Philosophy IAI news July 2020
  33. Diary about Hydra Literary Review July 2020
  34. Article on Anne Tyler Literary Review April 2020
  35. Article on ‘The All-Seeing I’ Literary Review December 2019
  36. Article on Macau, National Geographic December 2019
  37. Language, subjectivity and reality IAI News December 2019
  38. Article on Shoshana Zuboff Guardian October 2019
  39. Guardian piece on Surveillance, September 2019
  40. New Scientist Piece on the Global Economy, August 2019
  41. Guardian Piece on Absurdist Quests, August 2019
  42. Financial Times ‘Observations,’ August 2019
  43. TLS 20 questions, July 2019
  44. In Conversation – with Peter Pomerantsev for Granta, July 2019
  45. Prospect piece on Surveillance Capitalism, June 2019
  46. Literary Review Diary, June 2019
  47. On Rebecca Loncraine, TLS October 2018
  48. On Helen Phillips, Guardian July 2018
  49. ‘Made In,’ Guardian June 2018
  50. On Rats, Granta Magazine June 2018
  51. On Kirsty Gunn, Literary Review June 2018
  52. On Lara Feigel, Literary Review March 2018
  53. On Han Kang, Literary Review November 2017
  54. On Joanna Walsh, Guardian September 2017
  55. ‘The Riddle of the Self’ iai site – August 2017
  56. On Brian Dillon, Literary Review August 2017
  57. On Nicholas Rothwell, TLS July 2017
  58. On Alys Fowler, Literary Review May 2017
  59. On Gwendoline Riley, Guardian January 2017
  60. On Ali Smith, Guardian October 2016
  61. On Dino Buzzati, Literary Review September 2016
  62. ‘In search of ourselves’ August 2016 iai.tv
  63. ‘Einstein on the Beach’ Waterstones July 2016
  64. On Anakana Schofield, Literary Review March 2016
  65. On Howard Jacobson, Literary Review February 2016
  66. On K2, Spectator November 2015
  67. On Jane Smiley, Spectator November 2015
  68. On Lucia Berlin, Literary Review October 2015
  69. On Eula Biss, Literary Review June 2015
  70. On Peter Stamm, Literary Review, March 2015
  71. On Shackleton, Spectator October 2014
  72. On my Father, Guardian, December 2014
  73. On Enrique Vila-Matas, Slightly Foxed, December 2014
  74. On Jane Smiley, Spectator, November 2014
  75. On Marilynne Robinson, Literary Review, October 2014
  76. On Shackleton, Spectator, October 2014
  77. On Ian McEwan, Prospect, September 2014
  78. On the Digital Self, New Scientist, September 2014
  79. On David Mitchell, Telegraph, August 2014
  80. On Ali Smith, Prospect, August 2014
  81. On Peter Matthiessen, Literary Review, June 2014
  82. On Al Gore, Arc Magazine, March 2014
  83. On Siri Hustvedt, Literary Review, March 2014
  84. On Karl Ove Knausgaard, Prospect, March 2014
  85. On E L Doctorow, Prospect December 2013
  86. On Tim Cope and travel writing, Spectator December 2013
  87. On cross-country skii-ing, Intelligent Life December 2013
  88. On Doris Lessing, Telegraph November 2013
  89. Review of Year Zero by Ian Buruma, Spectator, November 2013
  90. On Machiavelli, Spectator,  July 2013
  91. On Rebecca Solnit, Literary Review, July 2013
  92. 'Flights of the Imagination' – a literary tour of the remote North, Telegraph June 2013
  93. On Jay Griffiths, Literary Review
  94. On W. G. Sebald, Spectator
  95. Rooms That have Had their Part -  on weathering office life, Granta May 2013
  96. On the demise of publishing, Independent May 2013
  97. 'Diary', Spectator January 2013
  98. 'Homage to the Goddess Mother', Spectator November 2012
  99. 'May We Be Forgiven,' Literary Review October 2012
  100. 'Things Fall Apart' - the novels of Enrique Vila-Matas, New Yorker, September 2012
  101. 'The Pinecone,' Telegraph, September 2012
  102. 'My Friend the Freak,' Untitled Books September 2012
  103. 'The London Games,' American Prospect July 2012
  104. 'The Wanderings of a Contented Generation,' Guardian July 2012
  105. 'Names for the Sea,' Literary Review July 2012
  106. 'The Sin of Laughter,' Writer's Hub July 2012
  107. 'You have Nothing to Lose but Your USP!' Huffington Post June 2012
  108. 'Squashing the Toad' Huffington Post May 2012 
  109. 'Inflated Dreams,' Spectator March 2012
  110. 'An Honourable Man,' Literary Review March 2012
  111. 'New Finnish Grammar,' Literary Review October 2011
  112. 'All That I Am,' Observer September 2011
  113. 'Heroes of the Ice Age,' Spectator August 2011
  114. 'Pseudonymously Yours' - the work of John Banville, New Yorker July 2011
  115. 'Taboo and Danger,' Guardian July 2011
  116. 'The Trail Goes Cold,' Spectator April 2011
  117. 'Home Births,' Observer January 2011
  118. 'In Deep Trouble,' Spectator November 2010
  119. 'Author Author,' Guardian June 2010
  120. 'Ms Hempel,' Guardian April 2010

Selected press interviews

  1. Interviewed by Paul Semel 2020
  2. Interviewed by Fran Bigman for LitHub March 2020
  3. In conversation with Jana Prikryl LitHub 2019
  4. Dorian Lynskey Piece on Political Novels, August 2019
  5. Wall Street Journal: ‘Who’s Afraid of Big Bad Tech’, August 2019
  6. Q and A with The Real Story September 2017
  7. ‘Champion of the contemporary Philosophical Novel’ – interview with Lithub October 2016
  8. Interview with the LRB on the alchemy of fiction, August 2016
  9. ‘How do you write a book about existence?’ Guardian July 2016
  10. ‘Meet the Author’ Guardian July 2016
  11. Elevating Irony' – iai.tv July 2014
  12. Festival Highlights' – Prospect, June 2014
  13. Interview with the Daily News Colombo, February 2014
  14. Interview with The Hindu December 2013
  15. Interview with the New Indian Express December 2013
  16. Interview with The Hindu November 2013
  17. Interview with Slightly Bookist October 2013
  18. Interview with Female First May 2013
  19. Interview with the Guardian, July 2012
  20. Interview on Female First July 2012
  21. Interview on Book Oxygen June 2012
  22. Interview with Literateur August 2011
  23. Interview with Bookmunch May 2011
  24. Interview with the Guardian June 2010
  25. Podcast with the Guardian, June 2010 
  26. Interview with PSB, 'Need to Know,' June 2010
  27. Interview with the Oxford Times June 2010
  28. Interview with Reuters, May 2010
  29. Interview on The Thought Fox April 2010
  30. Interview with the Guardian June 2008
  31. Interview with the Guardian June 2008
  32. Interview with the Independent June 2008
  33. Interview with Booktrust January 2008

Short Fiction and Excerpts

  1. ‘Lost’ LitHub 2022
  2. ‘Flight’ in We, Robots 2020 - a book of 100 sci-fi short stories, edited by Simon Ings
  3. ‘The Perfect Companion’ Granta September 2020
  4. Esquire magazine short story ‘The Group’
  5. Extract in TANK
  6. Extract in GRANTA
  7. ‘Norma Scott’ for Catapult 2017
  8. ‘Beetle’ White Review July 2015
  9. 'Images of Undiluted Love' – short story for the New Scientist December 2013
  10. 'Cassandra White is not a virtuous widow' - excerpt from Come to the Edge published by Litro June 2012
  11. 'Barthelme' - short story commissioned by the Guardian, April 2011 
  12. 'The Hermit' - excerpt from The Birth of Love June 2010
  13. 'Clocking Off' - excerpt from Inglorious published in the Guardian June 2008
  14. 'Only the Past is Immortal' - excerpt from The Ice Museum published in the Guardian August 2005

©2022 Joanna Kavenna