Minette Batters was the first woman to be elected President of the National Farmers’ Union in 113years. She worked with four Prime Ministers - three of them in one year - and six Defra Secretaries of State. She stood down from the post in February 2024.

In 2020 she led the NFU on one of the most successful campaigns ever seen, bringing together a coalition of chefs, including Jamie Oliver, farmers, environmentalists, consumer groups and animal welfare experts - resulting in over one million people signing the NFU food standards petition. Minette also co-founded ‘Ladies in Beef’ and the Great British Beef Week.

She’s an ambassador for Farm Africa and a passionate advocate and fundraiser for the Junior Diabetic Research Foundation. She’s run in four marathons, raising over £100,000 for charity. In 2021 Minette was made a Deputy Lieutenant to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, and in July 2024 she was made a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords.

1. Curriculum based learning of food production https://www.farminguk.com/news/children-have-huge-lack-of-food-and-farming-knowledge-nfu-says_48601.html

2. Learning to cook and the importance of good nutrition https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/jun/18/minette-batters-we-need-a-success-story-for-wild-spaces-but-also-for-farmers-and-food

3. Nature and the natural environment https://www.countrylife.co.uk/comment-opinion/minette-batters-the-peppering-project-is-a-blueprint-for-delivering-food-and-nature-security-across-the-country-in-a-way-that-rewilding-on-its-own-never-will-270118

4. Exercise and sport https://impactreport.womeninsport.org/

5. Politics https://www.farmersguardian.com/news/4176394/last-press-conference-nfu-president-minette-batters

6. Value of the rural economy https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/the-rural-economy/

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Ian Green discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Ian Green is a writer from Northern Scotland with a PhD in epigenetics. His debut fantasy trilogy The Rotstorm began with the Sunday Times bestseller The Gauntlet and the First Beneath. His short fiction has been widely published and he won the BBC Radio 4 Opening Lines competition, the Futurebook Future Fiction Prize, and was shortlisted for Best Newcomer at the British Fantasy Awards. His biopunk eco-terrorism thriller Extremophile was one of Financial Times’ Best Science Fiction Books of 2024 and was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and Dragon Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. His swashbuckling new book The Deep and the Drowned is out now from Head of Zeus.

1. The British Fantasy Society https://britishfantasysociety.org/
2. The Last Blade Priest by W.P. Wiles https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/review-the-last-blade-priest-by-w-p-wiles/
3. The Gormenghast books by Mervyn Peake https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/titus-alone-peake-gormenghast-trilogy-review-essay/
4. How much fun having kids is https://ifstudies.org/blog/why-bother-having-kids
5. Historic European Martial Arts (HEMA) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=763THsqZ_ng
6. Nature immersion https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/insight-therapy/202606/seeing-green-nature-immersion-has-its-benefits

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Matt Hill discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Matt Hill is the Philip K. Dick Award-nominated author of Lamb, The Breach, Zero Bomb, Graft, and The Folded Man. He lives in Glossop, on the edge of the Peak District. His new novel is Wrecks, which is available at https://deadinkbooks.com/products/wrecks-matt-hill.

1. You have to rinse the suds off your dishes when you’ve washed them. Sounds trite, even silly, but it’s true, and there’s a deeper point around my wife gently challenging me re mental load of managing childcare and housework

2. Phil Collins was a phenomenal drummer. Before his 80s ballads, Phil was writing wildly inventive drum parts. Brand X, early Genesis, mad time signatures, technically brilliant.

3. We are surrounded by free food – some of it weeds! Family walks now involve stopping every ten seconds to pick at leaves or berries. Foraging used to be common and now, obviously, isn’t. Nettles factoid, hawthorn ketchup, pig nuts, pineapple weed tea...

4. The moors of the Peak District are dotted with WW2 aircraft wreckage you can just walk up to. During and after the Second World War, dozens of planes crashed on the hills of the Peak District. Many of those wrecks are still there, including the Bleaklow Bomber. Amazing, raw history – feels rare for it not to be sanitised or in a museum

5. It takes a scarily long time to stop when you’re doing 80mph. A recent speed awareness course changed my perception of driving, especially residual speeds. By the time a car going at 70mph has stopped, a car braking from 80mph is still doing 40mph – eek

6. In England, we only have legal access to a tiny amount of land. Free access to the countryside was fought for, and often won, by mass trespass Yet we still only have access to something like 10% of land and 3% of waterways; the rest is enclosed, bounded away, or requires us to pay.

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Joel Christensen discusses with Ivan six things about The Odyssey which should be better known.

Joel P. Christensen is Professor of Classics at the CUNY Graduate Center where he also serves as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. Joel has previously taught at UT San Antonio and Brandeis University. His research interests include early Greek poetry, myth, and literary theory. With Elton Barker, Joel has published Homer: A Beginner’s Guide (2013) and Homer’s Thebes (Harvard University Press 2020). Joel has also authored The Many-Minded Man: The Odyssey, Psychology, and the Therapy of Epic (2020) with Cornell University Press, Storylife: On Epic, Language, and Living Things with Yale in 2025, and Why Odysseus? With Palgrave/Macmillan (2026). He is also editor of the Oxford Critical Guide to the Odyssey (2026) and author of numerous articles on Homer, myth, Greek poetry, and its reception in the modern world.

1. Ancient Audiences rarely ever read the Odyssey in its entirety
2. The Odyssey was sung and performed for generations before it was written down
3. We don't know how The Odyssey was written down
4. The Homeric Odyssey isn't the only version of the story that used to exist
5. Odysseus was disliked by many early Greek audiences
6. The ending of the Odyssey is extremely strange and most people ignore it!

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Jessica Fellowes discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Jessica Fellowes is an author, journalist and public speaker. The Mitford Murders is her debut series as a novelist and has been nominated for awards in Britain, France, Germany and Italy, and sold into eighteen territories. Jessica is also the author of five official companion books to ‘Downton Abbey,’ various of which hit the New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller lists. Former columnist for the Mail on Sunday and deputy editor of Country Life, she has written business books with Sophie Cornish MBE, 'The Devil You Know' with forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes and short stories for Vogue Italia and L’Uomo Vogue. Jessica makes frequent appearances on radio, podcasts and television, has a Substack – ‘Your Fellowes Reader’ – and lives in Oxfordshire with her family.

1. The work of school governors https://boardsforeducation.org.uk/
2. Hitster https://hitstergame.com/en-gb/
3. The advantages of hearing aids https://www.outsideclinic.co.uk/blog/impact-of-hearing-aids
4. Jessica Fellowes https://substack.com/@jessicafellowes
5. The Sale Room https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb
6. Singled Out by Virginia Nicholson https://www.virginianicholson.co.uk/singled-out

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Sarah Wilson discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Sarah Wilson is a multi-New York Times bestselling author, journalist, social philosopher, international keynote speaker and philanthropist. Sarah leads dynamic, global conversations about modern philosophy, creativity, existential risk, and climate change via her keynote speaking, Wild podcast, and her Substack and social communities. She lives nomadically, but is based between Paris and Sydney, and is a compulsive hiker and adventurer. Her new book is I Eat the Stars, which is available at https://www.waterstones.com/book/i-eat-the-stars/sarah-wilson/9781837827213.

1. Fractal flourishing https://accidentalgods.life/fractal-flourishing/
2. Maison de Balzac https://sarahwilson.substack.com/p/how-balzac-made-me-feel-joyous-about
3. Sufficiency https://sarahwilson.substack.com/p/sufficiency-as-a-way-of-living-a
4. Vanessa Andreotti https://decolonialfutures.net/hospicingmodernity/
5. Ikaria https://www.bluezones.com/explorations/ikaria-greece/
6. Mug cakes https://uk.pinterest.com/meganusafwife/muggin-recipes/

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Ian Proud discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Ian Proud is an expert in strategic thinking, politico-economic analysis and diplomatic tradecraft. He was a member of His Majesty's Diplomatic Service from 1999 to 2023. During that time, he was one of the Foreign Office's most accomplished crisis experts and was Chair of the Crisis Committee at the British Embassy in Moscow when the Salisbury nerve agent attack happened in March 2018. He posts international relations articles and podcasts from his Substack page, The Peacemonger. His first novel, Searching, is now available at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Searching-love-story-Ian-Proud-ebook/dp/B0GFYC25YZ/

1. Curiosity –One reason we see so much racism and intolerance is a lack of curiosity in society.

2. Boat 813 – for me the most vivid symbol of the destructive power of the 2004 tsunami is the 60-ton Royal Thai Navy patrol boat that was dragged 2 kilometres inland. I saw it for the first time just a few days after that tragic event beside the road as I drove towards Takua Pa.

3. Stink beans – the first time you eat stink beans, or sataw as they are known in Thai, the taste is bitter and overpowering. The second time you eat them you might be addicted, like me.

4. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute’s 1950 book explores our human ability to endure terrible suffering and yet survive, potentially find true love and live happily ever after. This is a theme I explore in Searching.

5. King Charles Street – the façade of the Foreign Office, directly adjacent to Downing Street, is grand and intimidating, which doesn’t help the perception that British diplomats are out of touch elitists. And yet the vast majority are not.

6. Sleep – in a crisis, I can work for forty hours without sleep, although I wouldn’t recommend it. A healthy pattern of sleep is the foundation for our physical and mental wellbeing.

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