Tales of the World
Latest Episodes
Tales of the world episode 52 - Life fragments, fragments of life
Buying furniture in an IKEA shop is perhaps one of the most uncontroversially universal experiences of modern life. We know that even Syrian refugees and Indian fakirs are not spared the trials and tribulations of the products of the IKEA imperium. Much
Tales of the world episode 51 - L’Ukraine et l’instant de grâce de la bataille
 Loin des titres objectifs et presque techniques auxquels les journaux nous ont accoutumés dans leurs reportages sur les révoltes autour du monde, ces jours-ci, quand on parlait d’Ukraine, à  la une des journaux déferlait une vague d’hyperbole
Tales of the world - Ukraine, Syria, Bosnia, Venezuela - the rise of a new Axial Age of protest?
Ukraine, Syria, Bosnia, Venezuela – the rise of a new Axial Age? What do the protests in Ukraine, the rebellion in Syria, the student uprisings in Venezuela and people’s revolt in Bosnia have in common? Some time ago I was writing an op-ed in the Swi
Tales of the world episode 50 - From punk to kitsch: Pussy Riot in the US
What happens when the tragic in a cultural context meets the influences of a rather different approach to life… In earlier in editions of Tales of the world, I touched on the metaphorical condition of women in Russia, noting that from the unknown heroi
Tales of the world episode 49 - De la liberté et de son prix
Dans cet épisode, une histoire se raconte à propos de dette et de liberté. En compagnie du Lullaby de Johannes Brahms et d’une recénte couverture de The Economist…
Tales of the world episode 48 - The First World War or the importance of finding a name
2014 is well underway, engulfed in its own scoops, tragedies and political controversies. Unlike other years, events will happen in light of a very special lens: the fact that in 2014 we commemorate 100 years since the start of the First World War, a war
Tales of the world episode 47 - L’Etat, entre boîte de Pandore et boîte à merveilles
Chers auditeurs, chères auditrices, bonne année 2014. Voilà une nouvelle chronique dans la série de celles avec un grain de sel. Cette fois-ci, la question tourne autour de l’Etat comme dispositif de vie, politique et autre. Avec l’accompagnement
Tales of the world episode 46 - Ukraine, what battles, what future?
Ukraine holds a special place in my heart. Perhaps because I fell in love at a very early age with Timusz Hmelnitzky, the handsome son of hetman Bohdan Hmelnitsky, leader of the fierce Ukrainian Cossacks of the 17th century. Timusz was the one who conque
Tales of the world episode 45 - Tableaux d’une exposition
La récente visite de la Biennale d’art de Lyon a un après-goût légèrement amer et pessimiste. C’est en compagnie de Modest Mussorgsky et ses Tableaux d’une exposition que je cherche une issue constructive aux histoires plutôt rabat-joie que
Tales of the world episode 44 - On the contours of our future humanity
We live in a time when all the epochs blend: it’s the axial age of global social and political transformations, it is the middle ages, with their fragmentarium of beliefs in wonders and aberrations, the Renaissance of humanist tendencies, and the indus