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A Book - A Place: Geneva: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Robin Pomeroy
Part history podcast, part travel guide, always a great story. A Book - A Place: Geneva takes you to unexpected places in an often city that has a unique place in history. Frankenstein and comic books were born here. Revolutionaries plotted. An enlightenment superstar had good reason to have houses in and just outside Geneva. And science fiction fans became real scientists at the home of the world's greatest experiment. Whether you're a visitor, a newcomer, or a long-time resident, this podcast will take you to corners of the city where history was (and is still being) made.
Latest Episodes
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- Aug 26, 20260 min
Have you heard our sister podcast Pick of the Pods?
Hello to all listeners of A Book - A Place: Geneva.I know what you are thinking, when is the second season coming? Well I have good news and bad news.The bad is, although I would love to make Season 2, and have plenty of books pilling up, I just don’t have the time right now - but never say never.The good news is that I have been making another podcast you might like. It’s called Pick of the Pods and featured interviews with the people making some of the best podcasts out there. We have already had podcasts from Bloomberg, Reuters, the Financial Times and Goalhanger - the people who make The Rest Is… podcasts.Subscribe to Pick of the Pods wherever you are listening to this and let me know what you think. And as soon as I have some even better news about A Book - A Place, you’ll be the first to know. Get Pick of the Pods on any podcast app: https://pod.link/1891273310, watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQu6D1uClH0i-nR9YppCSgzhElMbfPcv7. And get the weekly Pick of the Pods newsletter - a weekly recommendation of the one podcast you should be listening to right now: https://pickofthepods.substack.com/.Part book club, part travel guide, part history podcast, A Book - A Place: Geneva takes you to the places behind the stories that made the city.
- Sep 13, 20251h 4m
Ep. 5 Angels and Demons and CERN
A scientist at CERN, the research centre that straddles the French and Swiss border, is murdered in grisly and mysterious circumstances, launching a race against the clock to prevent a much bigger crime. As in The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown constructs a pacy thriller that touches on history, theology and God. The book is Angels and Demons.As Dan Brown publishes the next installment of the adventures of 'symbologist' Robert Langdon in The Secret of Secrets, this podcast goes back to where the story began - Geneva. The place is CERN.In the podcast we meet a young scientist inspired to work at CERN when she read the novel, and discover a book of short stories based on the real science that searches for the secrets of the universe.Episode page: https://bit.ly/4n1ByfXabookaplace.comPart book club, part travel guide, part history podcast, A Book - A Place: Geneva takes you to the places behind the stories that made the city.
- Aug 29, 202559 min
Ep. 4 Conrad, Lenin and revolutionary Geneva
Best know for Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad set his spy thriller Under Western Eyes in Geneva, not only because it was a city in which he had lived, but because at that time, in the early 20th century, it was a hotbed of revolutionary Russian emigrés plotting the downfall of the monarchy and the imposition of communism. This episode takes you to the Geneva library where Vladimir Lenin studied and wrote, leaving his own annotations in books - including a biography of Jesus, a historical figure that the father of the Russian revolution saw as a social radical.For all books and places mentioned in the podcast, visit abookaplace.comPart book club, part travel guide, part history podcast, A Book - A Place: Geneva takes you to the places behind the stories that made the city.
- Aug 10, 202546 min
Ep. 3 Voltaire's Candide: the best of all possible satires
Voltaire is literally in the pantheon of France's greatest literary heroes. But in his lifetime, the unconventional writer-philosopher was shunned by his home country and lived much of his life in exile - the last two decades in - and importantly - just outside Geneva.And it is here that he wrote his most enduring work: Candide, the story of an ingenue who travels the world and suffers the worst cruelties of humanity and nature, clinging to the cod philosophy that "all is for the best in this the best of all possible worlds".This episode takes you to the house in Geneva where he wrote the novel, and to the chateau just over the border in France in a village that now bears his name, Ferney-Voltaire.More details on the episode, and the sources cited in it, are available on the episode page http://bit.ly/46JI9Xc at www.abookaplace.com.Watch a version of this episode with pictures at https://www.youtube.com/@abookaplacePart book club, part travel guide, part history podcast, A Book - A Place: Geneva takes you to the places behind the stories that made the city.
- Jul 18, 202536 min
Ep. 2 The Birth of the Comic Book
Comic books, or graphic novels, are often associated with the Belgium of Tintin, the America of the superheros, or the Japan of manga and animé.But the art form was actually invented in Geneva, almost 200 years ago.In this episode we explore the life and legacy of Rodolph Toeppfer, whose work was championed by Goethe and is now acknowledged as the origin of la bande dessinée.abookaplace.comPart book club, part travel guide, part history podcast, A Book - A Place: Geneva takes you to the places behind the stories that made the city.
- Jul 3, 20251 min
Trailer: The Birth of Comic Books
Part history podcast, part travel guide, ‘A Book – A Place: Geneva’ brings you the surprising places and stories that changed Geneva and the world.In this episode: the surprising history of comic books - not invented in New York, Brussels or Tokyo, but in Geneva - 200 years ago.Visit: abookaplace.com (https://abookaplace.com)Part book club, part travel guide, part history podcast, A Book - A Place: Geneva takes you to the places behind the stories that made the city.
- Jun 16, 20251h 4m
Ep. 1 Frankenstein: a monster rises on the shores of Lake Geneva
Part book club, part travel guide, part history podcast, Season 1 of A Book - A Place: Geneva takes you on five literary adventures.Episode 1: Frankenstein: a monster is born on the shore of Lake GenevaThe book: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, by Mary Shelly, published in 1818The place: ‘Frankie’ a.k.a ‘The Creature of Doctor Frankenstein’ statue in Plainpalais, Geneva by KLAT, 2014Everyone knows something about Frankenstein, the archetype horror movie monster.But what about the birth of the story, which is now seen as perhaps the first horror novel, the first work of what would become known as science fiction, and, for today’s readers, still one of the most thought provoking tales about artificial intelligence.As we’ll hear, Frankenstein was born, not in a mad scientist’s laboratory, but in a genteel villa on the outskirts of genteel Geneva.More books:Mary, or the Birth of Frankenstein, by Anne Eekhout, 2023, novel mentioned in the podcastLe Genève de Victor Frankenstein, by Augusta Dunsterville, 2016: good guide for walking tours around places linked to FrankensteinAll the Parts of the Soul, Quill & Crow, 2023, novel by Catherine Fearns, who features in the podcastHistory of a Six Weeks’ Tour through a part of France, Switzerland, Germany, and Holland, 1817, memoir by Mary and Percy ShelleyMore places:Villa Diodati, where Byron and his retinue stayed in 1816Byron’s Field (Le Pré Byron), next to Villa DiodatiLe Salève, (mountain that overlooks Geneva, accessible by cable car)Chamonix, ‘capital city of the French Alps’, where Victor meets the monsterEven more…Penguin Random House page on FrankensteinLake Geneva as Shelley and Byron Knew It – New York Times‘Frankenstein’ Was Born During a Ghastly Vacation – History.comIn the footsteps of the Shelleys: Switzerland and Mont Blanc – Wordsworth.orgGhost stories, opium and rain: the doomed holiday that inspired Shelley’s Frankenstein – PenguinBright city, dark legend: how Geneva gave birth to Frankenstein – FLUX magazineFind out more at abookaplace.com and get the podcast on any app via this link: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbnI5XzlMSUNKeEt0cTBzakxXQVI3VEVMRzZrQXxBQ3Jtc0tuRTgwTk1xYUhpdGVjalVKNTJYbHl4ZXl5X3VOU1ZGO
- Jun 13, 20253 min
Trailer: Frankenstein trailer long
Everyone knows something about Frankenstein, the archetype horror movie monster.But what about the birth of the story, which is now seen as perhaps the first horror novel, the first work of what would become known as science fiction, and, for today’s readers, still one of the most thought provoking tales about artificial intelligence?As we’ll hear, Frankenstein was born, not in a mad scientist’s laboratory, but in a genteel villa on the outskirts of genteel Geneva.This is a trailer for Episode 1 of A Book - A Place: Geneva, part travel guide, part book club, part history podcast. Find out more at abookaplace.comPart book club, part travel guide, part history podcast, A Book - A Place: Geneva takes you to the places behind the stories that made the city.
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About A Book - A Place: Geneva
Part history podcast, part travel guide, always a great story. A Book - A Place: Geneva takes you to unexpected places in an often city that has a unique place in history. Frankenstein and comic books were born here. Revolutionaries plotted. An enlightenment superstar had good reason to have houses in and just outside Geneva. And science fiction fans became real scientists at the home of the world's greatest experiment. Whether you're a visitor, a newcomer, or a long-time resident, this podcast will take you to corners of the city where history was (and is still being) made.
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