Nudity - the great cover up?

02/21/25 • 53 min

How comfortable are we with nudity and why does the naked body still have the power to shock?

This month we’ve seen Bianca Censori break the internet after her red carpet appearance in a transparent dress and artists in north London upset about their life drawing class being moved. What actually happened and why were people so censorious about Bianca? Also, what is the history of nudism in the UK? To discuss the power of the naked body Adam is joined by Dr Victoria Bateman – an economist and author of Naked Feminism: Breaking the cult of female modesty and Stephanie Murray , a freelance journalist and contributing writer for The Atlantic.

Presented by Adam Fleming Produced by Emma Close, Beth Ashmead and Clare Williamson Studio manager: Annie Gardiner Production coordinator: Janet Staples Editor: Penny Murphy

How comfortable are we with nudity and why does the naked body still have the power to shock?

Presented by Adam Fleming Produced by Emma Close, Beth Ashmead and Clare Williamson Studio manager: Annie Gardiner Production coordinator: Janet Staples Editor: Penny Murphy

Previous Episode

Signs in other languages

How many people living in the UK do not speak English? This week a Member of Parliament for Reform UK posts a picture of Whitechapel train station in East London. On the entrance of the station, it has the name in English and then also Bengali. Rupert Lowe MP said: “The station name should be in English and English only” Dr Ben Brindle is a researcher at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford. He's been studying the data on foreign-born residents from the 2021 census. He explains how many people we're talking about when it comes to those who may not speak English well, or at all.

Next Episode

A potted history of the nudist movement

This month Bianca Censori, rapper Kanye West’s wife, broke the internet after appearing on a red carpet in a transparent dress. Meanwhile, artists were upset about their life drawing class being moved in North London. This prompted a conversation about public nudity and by extension, nudism. Professor Annebella Pollen is from the University of Brighton and author of Nudism in a Cold Climate, she explains the history and significance of the nudism movement in the UK.