Little Atoms

Little Atoms is a weekly show about books, with authors in conversation. Produced and presented by Neil Denny.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recent Episodes
  • Little Atoms 946 - Ron Currie's The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne
    Apr 10, 2025 – 26:17
  • Little Atoms 945 - Xiaolu Guo's Call Me Ishmaelle
    Apr 3, 2025 – 28:16
  • Little Atoms 944 - Dan Richards' Overnight
    Mar 28, 2025 – 31:16
  • Little Atoms 943 - Dani Heywood-Lonsdale's The Portrait Artist
    Mar 21, 2025 – 28:46
  • Little Atoms 942 - Abdulrazak Gurnah's Theft
    Mar 14, 2025 – 25:45
  • Little Atoms 941 - Sarah Hesketh's 2016
    Mar 7, 2025 – 31:33
  • Little Atoms 940 - Stephen May's Green Ink
    Feb 28, 2025 – 30:01
  • Little Atoms 939 - Susan Barker's Old Soul
    Feb 21, 2025 – 27:41
  • Little Atoms 938 - Rachel Bower's It Comes From The River
    Feb 14, 2025 – 27:47
  • Little Atoms 937 - Caryl Phillips' Another Man In The Street
    Feb 7, 2025 – 28:18
  • Little Atoms 936 - Catherine Airey's Confessions
    Jan 31, 2025 – 29:19
  • Little Atoms 935 - Keon West's The Science of Racism
    Jan 24, 2025 – 35:18
  • Little Atoms 934 - Nicola Dinan's Disappoint Me
    Jan 17, 2025 – 35:10
  • Little Atoms 933 - Sumit Paul-Choudhury's The Bright Side
    Jan 10, 2025 – 29:29
  • Little Atoms 932 - Ken Hollings' The Trash Project
    Jan 3, 2025 – 41:06
  • Little Atoms 931- Lola Young's Eight Weeks
    Dec 20, 2024 – 31:16
  • Little Atoms 930 - Miranda Sawyer's Uncommon People
    Dec 13, 2024 – 39:53
  • Little Atoms 929 - Niall Williams' Time Of The Child
    Dec 6, 2024 – 28:56
  • Little Atoms 928 - Simon Critchley's On Mysticism
    Nov 29, 2024 – 30:37
  • Little Atoms 927 - Jeff Young's Wild Twin
    Nov 22, 2024 – 32:21
  • Little Atoms 926 - Jean Hanff Korelitz's The Sequel
    Nov 15, 2024 – 30:29
  • Little Atoms 925 - Jonathan Coe's The Proof Of My Innocence
    Nov 8, 2024 – 28:39
  • Little Atoms 924 - Francesca Segal's Welcome To Glorious Tuga
    Nov 1, 2024 – 27:47
  • Little Atoms 923 - Dava Sobel's The Elements of Marie Curie
    Oct 24, 2024 – 28:13
  • Little Atoms 922 - Xan Brooks' The Catchers
    Oct 17, 2024 – 32:04
  • Little Atoms 921 - Lynne Peeples' The Inner Clock
    Oct 10, 2024 – 29:26
  • Little Atoms 920 - Kate Summerscale's The Peepshow
    Oct 3, 2024 – 31:50
  • Little Atoms 919 - Ekow Eshun's The Strangers
    Sep 26, 2024 – 33:44
  • Little Atoms 918 - Garth Greenwell's Small Rain
    Sep 19, 2024 – 28:04
  • Little Atoms 917 - Rumaan Alam's Entitlement
    Sep 12, 2024 – 29:15
  • Little Atoms 916 - Donal Ryan's Heart Be At Peace
    Sep 5, 2024 – 28:29
  • Little Atoms 915 - Irenosen Okojie's Curandera
    Aug 30, 2024 – 29:51
  • Little Atoms 914 - Shahnaz Habib's Airplane Mode
    Aug 22, 2024 – 29:10
  • Little Atoms 913 - Harriet Constable's The Instrumentalist
    Aug 15, 2024 – 28:58
  • Little Atoms 912 - James Shapiro's The Playbook
    Aug 8, 2024 – 28:13
  • Little Atoms 911 - Clare Beams' The Garden
    Aug 2, 2024 – 32:04
  • Little Atoms 910 - Ralf Webb's Strange Relations
    Jul 25, 2024 – 42:20
  • Little Atoms 909 - Hanna Pylväinen's The End Of Drum-Time
    Jul 18, 2024 – 29:21
  • Little Atoms 908 - Adam Higginbotham's Challenger
    Jul 15, 2024 – 33:10
  • Little Atoms 907 - Rebecca Watson's I Will Crash
    Jul 11, 2024 – 28:53
  • Little Atoms 906 - Alan Murrin's The Coast Road
    Jul 4, 2024 – 28:06
  • Little Atoms 905 - Yael Van Der Wouden's The Safekeep
    Jun 27, 2024 – 35:53
  • Little Atoms 904 - Jon Savage's The Secret Public
    Jun 24, 2024 – 33:00
  • Little Atoms 903 - Julia Armfield's Private Rites
    Jun 20, 2024 – 28:41
  • Little Atoms 902 - Noreen Masud's A Flat Place
    Jun 17, 2024 – 30:17
  • Little Atoms 901 - Clare Pollard's The Modern Fairies
    Jun 13, 2024 – 30:32
  • Little Atoms 900 - Kevin Barry's The Heart In Winter
    Jun 6, 2024 – 32:12
  • Little Atoms 899 - Rachel Khong's Real Americans
    May 30, 2024 – 27:37
  • Little Atoms 898 - Ayana Mathis's The Unsettled
    May 23, 2024 – 38:02
  • Little Atoms 897 - Kaliane Bradley's The Ministry of Time
    May 16, 2024 – 28:41
Recent Reviews
  • patedwards
    Intelligent
    Books, music, and science I would never know about otherwise. Well interviewed, but some of the audio is very bad -- even the alleged studio pieces. If you can get past that, they're worth the time.
  • 7 xp
    Great interviews
    one of the great podcasts available. The host brings the best questions to his fine guests, and does so in a way that informitive and often funny. highly recommended.
  • KevinICdesigner
    Used to be interesting, now nearly useless
    This show has gone so far down hill. No longer interesting.
  • Fotograf4
    Buy another mic!
    It'd be better if the host weren't sitting 10 feet away from the microphone. Also, it would be nice if the episode guide gave a hint of what the subject is, rather than being an exhaustive biography of the guest.
  • Derrick_Fields
    Great
    "Quantum: Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality" is one of my favorite books. The interviews with Manjit Kumar lead me to your podcast. I haven't listened to many shows but so far you have a new fan.
  • adrienne10
    British Radio Show
    I started listening to Little Atoms when Rebecca Watson of the Skeptic's Guide moved to Britain and joined the hosts of this podcast. I listen to several British shows and have many British friends, even though I'm an American. I find Little Atoms to be very British. It's a very dry podcast. Even the interesting topics and guests (which is most of the topics and guests) are interviewed in such a manner that it feels as though you are listening to two gentlemen speak over tea. The female voices really help to alleviate some of that feel because it really isn't a good thing. My other complaint is that you can hear one of the hosts breathe, often. Is he a smoker? Does he just breathe very noisily? It's very distracting and has caused me to turn off an episode in the middle when I can't listen past the breathing. Oddly, this is hardly ever a problem with guests, who presumably do not speak on the radio for a living. Those complaints aside, this is an extremely informational podcast. They cover a wide variety of topics (I loved their food and wine episodes) from atheism to skepticism to psychology to science. Often the guests are those who have recently written a non-fiction book. I've added quite a few books to my wishlist by listening to this podcast. The length of the podcast varies from less than half an hour to over an hour. Overall, I do recommend this podcast because you will learn something in every episode and likely a whole lot.
  • Pagan Scum
    We're quickly running out of time!
    Seriously, just run a longer show then, amirite? Is Rebecca still on the show? The only reason I knew about Little Atoms is from her mention of it on Skeptic's Guide, and Little Atoms became one of my favorite podcasts very quickly. Great show, often clever, often inciteful, and always enlightening.
  • Gatogreensleeves
    Great Show, Terrible Mix
    I love the topics and the show is really fun in general, but I had to remove a star for the abysmal quality of the audio. Do they know what a (software and/or hardware) compressor/limiter is? It evens out the volume so that when guests mumble or the producers/interviewers fail on proper mic placement (or a proper mic), the volumes are not an almost intolerable mash of highs and lows (let alone the balance from episode to episode). The volume of the theme music at the beginning and ending are so rediculously loud in comparison with the dialogue as to almost almost blow out my car speakers that I must turn up to even remotely hear the voice just before and/or afterwards. Please put a limiter on the track itself, then AGAIN on the overall mix. Thank you!
  • stmx3
    Great Interviews
    I love this podcast for the great interviews with a wonderful guest selection. Neil Denny and the rest of the group are getting better with each podcast. My only suggestion is to revamp the cheesy, scripted intro. Make it something a little more professional. You know, first impressions and all that.
  • RationalPragmatist
    NOT a truly scientific or skeptical podcast
    This podcast does not pass muster as a scientific and/or skeptical podcast. Neil Denny allows his guests to spew unrealistic idealisms and general woo without challenge. In one case, he even supported and made excuses for his guest’s woo-woo statements. In The World That Never Was: They mention that Alex’s definition of anarchy can’t exist for long because it requires all people to be totally altruistic all the time. Alex even gives an example of a famous anarchist who went bad. Yet they forget the general and specific unfavorable evidence and pretend such a utopia is possible. In City of Disappearances: 1. Ian spewed rhetoric about the abundances of “blotches and splots and cancers and poison” affecting the people around Enfield waste burning facility. Neil allowed this subjective judgement to go by with a chuckle and never asked for actual incidence rates or sources or any kind of corroborating information. 2. Ian started talking about spirit paths through a neighborhood, mapping the energies of the place. He jokes about this being a “rational radio show”, but again ignores the facts and makes excuses for why this woo is important and necessary. They go even farther to explain how much better belief in “toad gods” is than rationality. I'm absolutely certain that many people feel better after taking homeopathic remedies too, but it's still wrong to hawk them to desperate people. It is our responsibility to maintain rationalism in the face of feel-good deception. This podcast does not bear that standard.
  • Harold Sacks
    Top quality stuff - refreshing and thought provoking
    Anyone with an open mind and curiosity won't fail to find this podcast fascinating. They have such a wide range of different guests and subjects, and as they say during the opening, it's ALWAYS interesting. I've listened to many of the programs multiple times as they are often very deep and complex, not to mention a source of really valuable information! It's really opened my eyes having discovered Little Atoms, i use the material as a constant source of interesting topics and having followed up the subjects gone on to dominate many dinner party tables with intellectual banter. It's also a great show for jogs/bikerides/exercise etc. keeping not only the mind healthy but the body too. People i'd like to see on the show include: - Dawkins (obviously, maybe he's already been on?) - Malcolm Gladwell - Steven Pinker - Charlie Brooker - Derren Brown To Niel and Padraig - You've done an excellent job, thanks for creating such good quality entertainment for the world of free-thinkers.
  • micktravis
    Outstanding
    Although it's been available for at least a couple of years I only discovered this excellent podcast a few days ago. It features many of the same topics covered by other skeptical podcasts like The Skeptics Guide to the Universe but in much greater depth, as well as a healthy recap of the science, philosophy, and technology of the last few hundred years. I highly recommend it.
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