Conflict of Interest

Feb 13 2025 28 ep. 37 mins 839
Conflict of Interest Podcast artwork

Celebrities ask the simple questions about the world’s most complex conflicts, from the First World War to the present day. Who was fighting in Vietnam? What was the Malayan Emergency? Why is Korea divided between North and South? Guided by an IWM curator, each celebrity is taken on a journey through IWM - discovering the objects, people and stories that shape our understanding of the modern world.

  History  Education
RSS feed Share
Copy RSS


Subscribe on Podcast Addict


Edmund Clark on Controlled Environments

Feb 13 2025 32 mins  
How do modern conflicts change the way artists respond to warfare? In this bonus episode, Edmund Clark discusses his experiences of depicting life for those who are living in controlled environments. In this wide-ranging conversation with Rebecca Newell, Head of Art at Imperial War Museums, we touch on many of the themes explored over series three, as well as how Clark tries to ca

Sanjeev Bhaskar on Dreams and Nightmares

Feb 06 2025 30 mins  
How do we begin to understand how civilians felt in a time of war? We often look to diaries and poetry - but today we look to the surrealist artists that sought to make sense of the most extreme times imaginable. Actor Sanjeev Bhaskar is taken on a specially curated tour of the Blavatnik Art, Film and Photography Gallery by Iris Vasey - to discover  history's most private thought

Geoff Norcott on Technology & Innovation

Jan 30 2025 33 mins  
What did it take to capture 20th Century warfare on film - and how were they used in the war effort? Geoff Norcott joins curator James Taylor for a personalised tour of the artworks on display at the Imperial War Museum, London. From reconnaissance missions by air to the cameramen risking their lives on the ground, images from this time have endured in our consciousness and shape

Rachel Parris on Protest and Propaganda

Jan 23 2025 35 mins  
Is there anything new in modern propaganda? Comedian Rachel Parris discovers how governments and protesters have always pulled on the public's emotional heartstrings across the 20th and 21st centuries. From shock tactics to satire, art curator Sarah Holdaway guides Rachel on a personalised tour of the Blavatnik Art, Film and Photography Gallery - accompanied by Dr Mark Sealy, Direc

Carl Miller on The War Dead and Wounded

Jan 16 2025 43 mins  
What did artists and photographers choose to show us of the horrors of the front line? And how did Governments seek to curb what its citizens could see? Carl Miller (The Kill List) travels from the trenches of France to modern day Iraq, via the paintings and photography on display at the Blavtnik Art, Film and Photography Galleries at Imperial War Museum, London. Guiding Carl’s j

Susan Wokoma explores The Home Front

Jan 09 2025 33 mins  
How did British society react to the sudden increase of women in the workforce during the First World War? Or the thousands of colonial volunteers brought over to fight Nazism? Susan Wokoma (Chewing Gum, Cheaters) is given a personal guided tour by IWM curator Geoff Spender, as the actor discovers the artists and photographers behind those stories -  encountering censored image

Helen Lewis on Destruction and Reconstruction

Jan 02 2025 43 mins  
How have artists, filmmakers and photographers shaped our understanding of wars and conflict? Journalist and writer Helen Lewis explores the recently-opened Blavatnik Art, Film and Photography Galleries at Imperial War Museum, London. From No Man's Land to mushroom clouds, Helen discovers the people that have interpreted over a hundred years of conflict, in this specially-curated t

Conflict Of Interest is back

Dec 29 2024 1 mins  
More conflicts explained in a brand new series focusing on the role of art, film and photography in depicting warfare across the Twentieth Century. This time featuring: Broadcaster Helen Lewis Actor Sanjeev Bhaskar Comedian Rachel Parris Writer Carl Miller (‘The Kill List’) Actor Susan Wokoma Comedian Geoff Norcott New episodes from 3rd January - if you know someo

Ukraine, with Sophie Duker

Aug 21 2022 54 mins  
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 shocked the world. But what is the history behind this devastating war, and where did it all begin? In this special episode of Conflict of Interest, we explored Ukraine’s recent past, from the collapse of the Soviet Union to Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Guests in this episode were comedian Sophie Duker, Ukrainian jour

The Falklands Conflict, with Katherine Parkinson

May 17 2022 53 mins  
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Falklands Conflict. But why did the United Kingdom, steered by Margaret Thatcher, send its Navy to defend the Falklands, a tiny group of islands over 8,000 miles from Britain? Why were the islands so important to Argentina and its government? And what are the prospects for reconciliation forty years later? In this episode we were joined b