Born in Illinois in 1941, Dana Meadows studied Chemistry and Molecular Biology, before turning her back on a post doc position at Harvard, to pursue environmentalism. She joined her husband Dennis Meadows as part of the team working on Professor Jay Forester's World3 computer model of the world economy at MIT and wrote the report on the results of that model, which predicted overshoot and collapse if economic growth were not curbed. The report, called Limits to Growth, was published in 1972 to much publicity, alarm and ridicule. Donella said "We were at MIT. We had been trained in science. The way we thought about the future was utterly logical: if you tell people there’s a disaster ahead, they will change course. If you give them a choice between a good future and a bad one, they will pick the good. They might even be grateful. Naive, weren’t we?" Following the publication of Limits to Growth, Dana dedicated her life to living by the principles of sustainability (a word coined by the Limits to Growth team) and to teaching the principles of 'systems' thinking, which she believed could help people understand and live more harmoniously with the planet.Choosing Dana is Economist Kate Raworth, who believes that economics needs a broader, more holistic model to be fit for the 21st century. To this end, she founded the Doughnut Economics Action Lab, which champions regenerative and distributive economics, that can meet the needs of people within the means of the living planet. Kate never met Dana, but felt an immediate kinship when she picked up her book, Thinking in Systems, and now believes that all children should be taught to think about the balancing and reinforcing loops of systems. Produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Ellie Richold.
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27:56
Mark Billingham chooses George Harrison
George Harrison was a musician, singer and songwriter who became one of the most famous people in the world as one quarter of the Beatles. That alone would merit a place in the Great Lives pantheon, but his work in the decades after the band broke up indicates a man of diverse and arguably underestimated talents. Erupting onto the pop music scene in the 1960's, the Beatles' success was swift and dizzying; and for the rather private George, sometimes dubbed ‘the quiet Beatle’, this celebrity and adulation seems to have never quite sat comfortably. Nevertheless, he became a musical icon: responsible for a captivating collection of songs, from those he wrote with the Beatles through to his solo work; collaborating with a host of international artists; popularising Indian music and instruments; and even venturing into the movie-making business. At the same time, like many others thrust into the spotlight, George appears to have struggled with balancing success and the celebrity lifestyle with a more meaningful and spiritual existence.This tension and how it drove George Harrison as an artist is part of what attracts crime writer, occasional musician and self-professed Beatles fanatic Mark Billingham to his story, and why he's nominated him today. Also in the studio to offer her insights is Dr Holly Tessler, a senior lecturer in music industries at the University of Liverpool, where she leads their MA programme: 'Beatles, Music Industry and Heritage'.Presented by Matthew Parris and produced for BBC Studios Audio by Lucy Taylor.
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27:00
Jake Arnott on John Gay
John Gay, eighteenth-century satirist and author of The Beggar's Opera, is nominated by the writer Jake Arnott - whose novels, including The Long Firm and He Kills Coppers, are also set in London's criminal underworld. Editor of Private Eye, Ian Hislop, is the presenter, and Dr Rebecca Bullard of the University of Oxford is on hand to help uncover the life of a man who was perhaps as keen to expose the corruption and sleaze he saw around him as he was to climb the greasy pole of professional success. After reaching middle age in the shadow of his much more famous friends, Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope, what was it about The Beggar's Opera that suddenly brought him the fame he craved? And was John Gay, in fact, gay? Presented by Ian Hislop
Produced by Beth Sagar-Fenton
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27:42
Ellen E Jones nominates Florynce Kennedy
One dubbed "the biggest, loudest and indisputably the rudest mouth on the battleground", Florynce Kennedy was a force to be reckoned with. She was a lawyer, a vocal figure in the American civil rights and feminist movements of the 1960s and '70s, and a champion of numerous other causes besides; from legalising abortion to campaigning for sex-worker rights - proving that it was possible to care about and campaign for causes even if they didn't affect her directly.Flo was famous in her own time, not only for her passionate commitment to fighting injustice and her incredible talent as a phrase-maker - delivering punchy comments peppered with colourful language - but also for her flamboyant style, notably her trademark Australian hat. And yet today Flo's reputation has dwindled; she's arguably far less well-known than she should be according to her nominator Ellen E Jones, a journalist and broadcaster focusing on film and television who co-hosts the Radio 4 programme 'Screenshot'. Joining the discussion remotely from the United States, is Sheri Randolph, author of the biography ‘Florynce "Flo" Kennedy: The Life of a Black Feminist Radical’; also an associate professor of history at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and founder of the Black Feminist Think Tank.Matthew and his guests also hear from Flo's friend and fellow activist Gloria Steinem, who says: "Wherever we went, somehow she created a community of our own by her presence. She was effervescent and smart and outgoing and irresistable... Flo, in her jodhurs and her Aussie hat, was just a symbol of all the movements together."Presented by Matthew Parris and produced for BBC Studios Audio by Lucy Taylor.
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27:59
A N Wilson selects Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"I've chosen him because I think he was possibly the most interesting human being who has ever lived". A N WilsonBorn in the middle of the 18th century in Frankfurt, Goethe went on to become the pre-eminent figure in German literature. As well as writing plays and poetry (including Faust) he was a statesman, a scientist, an artist and a critic. Queen Victoria was a huge fan of his work and his philosophy, but his fame in this country subsequently suffered because of anti-German sentiment. Joining A N Wilson in the nest of Goethe worshippers is Dr Charlotte Lee, Director of German at Cambridge.She notes that Goethe's "immense charisma" was there physically as well. But was he a nice man? Wilson argues that we shouldn't even ask such questions of someone like Goethe. "I just don't feel asking whether he was nice or not gets you anywhere."Presented by Matthew Parris and produced for BBC Studios Audio by Ellie Richold
Ireland