Humans: A Monstrous History
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Welcome to Intelligence Squared where great minds meet. I'm head of programming, Connor Boyle. What is a monster? Why do humans create stories about olderness? And what does it tell you about a society that engages in monster making?
Our guest today is Saraka Davis, writer and historian who has written a book about these questions, Humans A Monstrous History. Davis was joined in conversation by Sophie McMain, Associate Editor of The New Statesman, to discuss the topic. Let's join our speakers now. Hello and welcome to Intelligence Squared with me, Sophie McVain. Our guest today is Sureka Davis. She is a writer and historian, and the author of Humans A Monstrous History and
A book that mines medieval history and modern sci-fi that we've stories of zombies with plots from the Muppets to show how people have defined, explained, and vilified otherness across the world through long, wild tradition of monster making. The book also looks forward to consider how, amid rising political polarisation and ever more powerful AI, We prevent people from being dehumanised and turned into monsters. So Sureka to start with a very simple question, what Is a monster.
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