'How might the origins of our species inform the way we think about our planet? At a point of unparalleled crisis, can human ingenuity save us from ourselves?
'Much-loved writer Ramona Koval travels the globe in a quest for answers, and encounters the unexpected. She talks to an eminent paleo-archaeologist over a two-million-year-old skull in the Republic of Georgia, meets the next generation of robots in Berlin, attends a festival against death in California and explores an ice-age cave in southern France, speaking with the world’s leading authority on cave art.
'Between these and other adventures she returns to her ever-engaging granddaughter Layla, whose development in infancy spurs Koval to find out what makes us human, what separates us from the other apes.
'Full of revealing exchanges with scientists and writers whose knowledge of the past and visions for the future could hold the key to our next evolution, A Letter to Layla will surprise and delight in equal measure.' (Publication summary)
Live Recording : Ramona Koval on A Letter to Layla
Jane Sullivan
(interviewer),
2020
23474066
2020
single work
podcast
interview
'Writer and broadcaster Ramona Koval chats with literary journalist Jane Sullivan about her insightful new book, A Letter to Layla. This is a live recording of an online event hosted via Zoom during the Covid-19 crisis.' (Production summary)
'On her deathbed, my grandmother wrote me a letter to be opened on my 18th birthday. When the time came, she was an echo of a memory; all that was left to miss was the idea of her. Yet there was an unexpected power in that long-waiting note with all its fervent, paper hopes. It was proof I had been precious to someone.' (Introduction)
'A Letter to Layla is very much a book of our times. Its impetus lies in our rapidly changing climate, and it concludes with the unexpected impact of Covid-19. In between, the book explores both our distant past and our future.' (Introduction)
'A Letter to Layla is very much a book of our times. Its impetus lies in our rapidly changing climate, and it concludes with the unexpected impact of Covid-19. In between, the book explores both our distant past and our future.' (Introduction)
'On her deathbed, my grandmother wrote me a letter to be opened on my 18th birthday. When the time came, she was an echo of a memory; all that was left to miss was the idea of her. Yet there was an unexpected power in that long-waiting note with all its fervent, paper hopes. It was proof I had been precious to someone.' (Introduction)
Live Recording : Ramona Koval on A Letter to Layla
Jane Sullivan
(interviewer),
2020
23474066
2020
single work
podcast
interview
'Writer and broadcaster Ramona Koval chats with literary journalist Jane Sullivan about her insightful new book, A Letter to Layla. This is a live recording of an online event hosted via Zoom during the Covid-19 crisis.' (Production summary)
