Main content

A story spanning four generations in Germany, reflecting on racism and privilege and what family means to queer people, is the book championed by New Generation Thinker Tom Smith.

As she travels the world and prepares to become a mother, the narrator of Olivia Wenzel鈥檚 novel reflects on her upbringing as a queer, Black woman in a white family, with her mother, a rebellious East German punk who was mostly absent, and her grandmother who was loyal to the socialist regime. Her father, an Angolan student, left shortly after she was born and her twin brother died when they were 17. For Queer History Month, New Generation Thinker Tom Smith looks at the ideas of queer family life explored in 1000 Serpentinen Angst, now available in an English translation by Dr Priscilla Layne as 1000 Coils of Fear.

Producer: Ruth Watts

Available now

14 minutes

Last on

Fri 10 Feb 2023 22:45

Broadcast

  • Fri 10 Feb 2023 22:45

Death in Trieste

Death in Trieste

A 1760s murder still informs ideas about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex, and death.

Watch: My Deaf World

Watch: My Deaf World

Five compelling experiences of what it is like to be deaf in 21st-century Britain.

The Book that Changed Me

Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.

Download The Essay

Download The Essay

Download all the episodes from the series and listen at your leisure.

Podcast