2026-08-23
37 分钟Welcome to Intelligence Squared, where great minds meet.
I'm senior producer Mia Sorrenti.
When a country is fighting for its survival, why does culture matter?
And what makes people risk their lives to protect poems, paintings and stories in the midst of war?
On today's episode, Charlotte Higgins, Chief Culture Writer at The Guardian,
joins Hannah Lucinda-Smith to discuss her book Ukrainian Lessons, a journey into the art and life of a country at war,
and what Ukraine's artists, writers and cultural institutions reveal about the role of art in documenting war.
Resisting erasure and preserving a sense of national identity.
Let's join our host, Hannah Lucinda-Smith, now with more.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 heralded a war in which not only people and places,
but also language, history and culture are under attack.
When the journalist Charlotte Higgins, who reports on culture for The Guardian,
travelled to the country soon after the war began, it was to take part in the Lviv Book Forum,
an event held in defiance of the attempted desecration of Ukrainian culture.
Since then, she has travelled back to the country repeatedly to report
on the impact of the conflict on Ukraine's art and cultural community.
She's also been learning the Ukrainian language, and she documents all of this in her new book, Ukrainian Lessons.
Charlotte, welcome to Intelligence Squared.
Well, thank you so much.
And what an honour and a pleasure to be talking to you.