Podcasts by A Point of View
A weekly reflection on a topical issue.
Further podcasts by BBC Radio 4
Podcast on the topic Tagebücher
All episodes
The Usefulness of Pessimism from 2023-12-08T21:00
John Gray argues that the power of the imagination fuels the worst kind of politics.
'Nobody', he argues, 'is in overall charge of events. There are patterns in history, but particular h...
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On the Curiosity of Children from 2023-12-01T21:00
Rebecca Stott grew up in a creationist, fundamentalist community, where her childhood creativity and curiosity were severely restricted. Now, helping her neighbour's young son to read, Rebe...
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10,000 Steps from 2023-11-24T21:00
Adam Gopnik tries to rationalise what lies behind his new obsession - of walking 10,000 steps every day.
With the help of his daughter, Darwin and the Cynics of ancient Greece, Adam conclu...
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The Strangeness of Dreams from 2023-11-17T21:00
From clay tablets in Mesopotamia two and a half thousand years ago to the stuff of dreams today, Sarah Dunant examines the continuing mystery of the function and meaning of dreams.
'As sc...
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Material World from 2023-11-10T21:00
Zoe Strimpel is turning her sights from artsy academic interests to much more concrete ones.
Cultural warfare and events in the Middle East have left her feeling, she says, as if she's in...
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Looks Like Rain from 2023-11-03T21:00
John Connell reflects on how rain has shaped Irish culture.
'Over the centuries, the Irish - most days anyway - have learned to accept, sometimes even love, the rain,' writes John. <...
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Red Squirrel Good? from 2023-10-27T20:00
Sara Wheeler challenges the idea that there's an equivalence between loving nature and being a good person.
'This queerly opaque idea has embedded itself in the collective subconscious sin...
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On Deer Stalking from 2023-10-20T20:00
Edwin Landseer's famous painting of a majestic Highland stag, 'Monarch of the Glen', has been given pride of place in the newly opened galleries at the National in Edinburgh.
Alex Massie ...
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No News Is Good News from 2023-10-13T20:00
Will Self on why - for the past eight weeks - he's lived an almost entirely news-free existence.
After a lifetime of keeping up with events and - in recent years - obsessively toggling bet...
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The Piano: A Lifetime of Wrong Notes from 2023-10-06T20:00
Sarah Dunant argues that the patriarchy of the classical music business is finally starting to change.
Reliving her early relationship with music - from excruciating piano lessons to rebe...
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Mixed Signals from 2023-09-29T20:00
Stephen Smith on why HS2 is such a cause of national hand-wringing.
'We get railways, we do railways - ever since Stephenson's Rocket in the nineteenth century. We gave railways to the ...
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The Wink of Dishonour from 2023-09-22T20:00
'Russell Brand winked at me in the street once', begins Howard Jacobson.
He reflects on that chance encounter many years ago and the dishonourable role we all play in the creation of cele...
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In the Spite House from 2023-09-15T20:00
AL Kennedy discusses the addictive nature of hate.
'Religion', she writes, 'was once called the opium of the masses; hate is now the Oxycontin of the masses. That low thrum of resentment,...
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My Love Affair with the Mysterious from 2023-09-08T20:00
Zoe Strimpel discusses the thrills and psychic satisfactions of the spooky.
She argues that the disorientating nature of contemporary society creates the ideal breeding ground for our res...
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Against the Bucket List from 2023-09-01T20:00
Will Self reflects on the spread of the craze for so-called 'bucket lists'.
He argues that 'far from introducing the ecstatic into our necessarily ephemeral existence, the bucket list rei...
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The Trad Wife from 2023-08-25T20:00
Megan Nolan explores the concept of the 'trad wife'. She argues that 'the failings of mainstream girl-boss feminism' are leading to a resurgence of the sort of women's lifestyle associated with ...
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The Rationality of Monarchy from 2023-08-18T20:00
John Gray puts the case for the monarchy in modern Britain. 'Those who campaign for the abolition of a royal head of state in Britain,' he says, 'seem to me to be in thrall to a simple-minded ...
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The Tourist Trap from 2023-08-04T20:00
This week, UNESCO recommended that Venice should be added to its list of World Heritage in Danger, citing its failure to adequately protect the city from overwhelming tourism and the impact of c...
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Freddie Mercury's Moustache Comb from 2023-07-28T20:00
Stephen Smith on our fascination with the belongings of the rich and famous... or infamous.
'Years ago, after the fall of the Romanian dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu,' writes Stephen, 'I ent...
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The Soul of a Rebel from 2023-07-21T20:00
As a seasoned protester, Trevor Phillips explores what’s wrong with protest today.
After getting his first taste for protest as a schoolboy in Guyana (which led to detention in an army bar...
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The Dragon and The Dog from 2023-07-14T20:00
While viewing a 16th Century painting of St George slaying a dragon, Adam Gopnik reflects on how we all, in life, attempt to slay ‘the dragons of our disorder.’
He concludes that 'dragon...
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Notes on Ageing from 2023-07-07T20:00
Michael Morpurgo reflects on age as he approaches his 80th birthday. 'The truth is,' writes Michael, 'that older people are increasing in numbers and will very likely continue to do so. This ...
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Good Directions from 2023-06-30T20:00
AL Kennedy explores how we get information without an overload of negativity.
'Sadness, rage, anxiety...our media use them to hook us, withhold the good news, exhaust us with the bad', sh...
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Observing Ourselves from 2023-06-23T20:00
Will Self reflects on mirrors, past and present.
'The imperfect mirrors of the past', he writes, 'were objectified metaphors of human imperfection, rather than the perfect ones that give...
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Midsummer and the Mysteries of Colour from 2023-06-16T20:00
Rebecca Stott reflects on the colours of Midsummer as she attempts to find a paint for the hall in her new home,
With an array of paint charts laid out on her kitchen table, she looks to ...
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Beyoncé, Beauty and the Pursuit of Youth from 2023-06-09T20:00
The trend for expensive age-defying treatments is 'an insult to youth itself' says Zoe Strimpel, as she argues against treating youth as a commodity that can be bought.
After admiring the ...
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To Mow or Not to Mow from 2023-06-02T20:00
John Connell reveals how his love for a pristine lawn gave way to letting the grass grow wild.
A leaflet urging the adoption of 'No Mow May' led him to set aside his urge to 'rip and tear...
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Taking Hammer to Gill from 2023-05-26T20:00
Howard Jacobson deplores the recent vandalising of Eric Gill's sculpture at BBC Broadcasting House as a failure to understand the meaning of art.
'Art, we go on protesting, is not the art...
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The Ratings Game from 2023-05-19T20:00
Tom Shakespeare bemoans the fashion for being asked to rate everything we buy or do. "The theory is that this drives up quality for everyone, because we won't tolerate terrible products or se...
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Demographic Meltdown from 2023-05-16T10:41
When the world's first state pension was introduced in Prussia in 1889, the qualifying age was 70 and the average life expectancy was 40. Half a century later, in 1935, many countries lowered th...
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Dust to Dust from 2023-05-12T20:00
Rebecca Stott ponders the nature of dust, as Spring sunshine sharpens the sight of it gathering in the old house she is restoring. She reflects on the social history of Spring cleaning as tradi...
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Abide with Yourself from 2023-04-21T20:00
The philosopher Michel de Certeau characterised space as ‘the practice of place’,
Will Self argues that, in order to appreciate the places we inhabit, we have to indulge in 'that most unfa...
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In Praise of Satire from 2023-04-14T20:00
Living in New York during lockdown, Adam Gopnik spent his time enjoying the escapism of foreign TV shows - like the BBC's W1A and 2012.
While these shows were unapologetically British, cho...
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The Wisdom of Judgement from 2023-04-07T19:50
Sara Wheeler finds writing a biography to be a humanising process, in which learning to see the world through someone else's eyes is more important than rushing to judge them.
'We are quic...
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Insecurity from 2023-03-31T20:00
Megan Nolan says millennial adulthood feels just as uneasy as her teenage years.
Short term job contracts and expensive housing has left her generation with a permanent sense of insecurit...
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Proportional Representation and a New Politics from 2023-03-24T21:00
John Gray makes the case for proportional representation as a means to revive British politics and fuel new political ideas.
He argues that, for the last thirty years, government in Britai...
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Collecting Art from 2023-03-10T21:00
Zoe Strimpel explores what lies behind her new-found impulse to collect art to fill the blank spaces on her walls - and how collecting means something different for men and women.
"It is ...
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Lessons from Disaster Movies from 2023-03-03T21:00
AL Kennedy finds echoes of the movies of her childhood in our current state of affairs.
"Jaws, like many disaster and horror movies contain the core lesson - whenever there's a problem, ...
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Stay Weird, Britain from 2023-02-24T21:00
Trevor Phillips argues that Britain, in its desperation to eliminate inequality, risks destroying the very principles that have drawn people here for generations.
He points to its eccentr...
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Donatello and a New Renaissance from 2023-02-17T21:00
Sarah Dunant says the rediscovery of ideas from the past can help with 'the toxicity of the present'. Just as the Renaissance master Donatello drew from the classical world to create revolutiona...
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The Art of Getting Lost from 2023-02-10T21:00
Will Self on the pleasure of walking without purpose, with no final destination in mind, and the freedom that comes from getting lost once in a while.
He reflects on the rising perception ...
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AI Agonistes from 2023-02-03T21:00
Adam Gopnik challenges the idea that the artistic and literary creations of artificial intelligence can match human endeavour. Although impressive in their ability to produce pastiche, he thinks...
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On Communal Living from 2023-01-27T21:00
Rebecca Stott ponders if a move to more communal living could be key in solving some of our most pressing problems.
'I've begun to wonder whether our current crises of social care, childca...
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Masculinity: From Durkheim to Andrew Tate from 2023-01-20T21:00
Zoe Strimpel looks at the history of masculinity and its moments of crisis, from Emile Durkheim at the end of the 19th Century to self-professed misogynist, Andrew Tate, today.
'The cont...
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Prince Harry, Love, and Me from 2023-01-13T21:00
Megan Nolan ponders a bizarre alignment between her life and that of Prince Harry.
'Sure, I was taught by nuns in an Irish convent school while he was dragged up through the mean streets o...
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Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now from 2023-01-06T21:00
Tom Shakespeare looks to some DVD classics and the Japanese concept of ikigai to provide some light relief from the doom and gloom of January.
'The definitive guide to ikigai,' Tom write...
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Nature's Pantomime from 2022-12-30T21:00
Howard Jacobson reflects on why we look to comedy to see one year out and a new year in.
Reflecting on the misbehaviour of a mischievous Australian cockatoo and a 'great mocking Rigolet...
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Turf, Babe and Me from 2022-12-23T21:00
John Connell looks forward to becoming a father for the first time, with the help of three poets: Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes and Philip Larkin.
As he collects the turf and attends to his ...
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The End of Winter from 2022-12-16T21:00
As meteorologists tell us that the chance of snow is decreasing year on year, Sara Wheeler reflects on a future where younger generations may never get to experience snow - and what that means f...
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Chastity Belt Politics from 2022-12-09T21:00
Zoe Strimpel reflects on the new sexual conservatives changing the face of feminism.
'The sexual revolution bequeathed us choice: to shag as voraciously as we wanted or to get married and...
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On Being Tall from 2022-12-02T21:00
Will Self says there are distinct downsides to being tall.
At six foot, four and a half inches, Will ponders the drawbacks of a lofty stature.
'The very ideal of beauty is the smal...
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The End of the Line from 2022-11-25T21:00
Adam Gopnik, recently recovered from his first bout of Covid, explores the profound impact of the pandemic on our whole belief system.
'Covid acted as a kind of universal solvent,' Adam w...
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Who Can Herd the Cats? from 2022-11-18T21:00
David Goodhart argues that our politics is stuck, not for want of clear ideas about what to do, but because of the inability to get important things done.
'Politics has always been about...
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My Ever Growing Pile of Books from 2022-11-11T21:00
Tom Shakespeare weighs up his options to avoid being crushed by the tottering pile of books on his bedside table.
'Shutting the blinds a few weeks ago,' Tom writes, 'I was hit on the hea...
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A Brit Abroad from 2022-11-04T21:00
As Americans prepare to go to the polls in the US midterm elections and the COP27 environment conference gets underway, AL Kennedy takes the temperature of debate and of the environment from a b...
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Darkness Made Visible from 2022-10-28T20:00
As warnings are sounded of possible power cuts and lights going out this winter, Rebecca Stott reflects on our relationship with darkness.
She looks at how our ancestors experienced the d...
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Investigation of a Dog from 2022-10-21T19:50
Will Self ponders the close connection between man and dog, as his dog nears the end of his life.
He reflects on lessons learnt: 'You've taught me such a lot these past fifteen years, I ...
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A Plea for Nuance from 2022-10-14T20:00
From cancel culture - ancient Greek style - to the binary politics of today, Sara Wheeler argues that the perils of entrenched positions have been clear for a very long time.
In ancient G...
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Trickle Down from 2022-10-07T20:00
Howard Jacobson ponders greed, wealth and horse-and-sparrow, or 'trickle down', economics.
From King Lear and Deuteronomy to bankers' bonuses and universal credit, Howard extols the conce...
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Notions of Blackness from 2022-09-30T20:00
Bernardine Evaristo reflects on notions of blackness in the aftermath of comments made this week by the Labour MP, Rupa Huq, who described the Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, as 'superficially' blac...
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A Deadly Serious Game from 2022-09-23T20:00
As Vladimir Putin warns he is willing to use any military means necessary in the war with Ukraine, Zoe Strimpel - a recent convert to chess - examines how Mr Putin is likely to play his next han...
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The Queen: An Acceptance of History from 2022-09-18T07:50
Michael Morpurgo reflects on the remarkable life of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
'The crown and the jewels were costume, the Palace was a stage. She knew that, we knew that', writes Mic...
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Female Fictions from 2022-09-02T20:00
Megan Nolan questions why women writers still struggle to be taken seriously.
'The appearance of the woman writer', she says, 'is often clumsily welded together with her work in an effort ...
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When Everybody Is Somebody from 2022-08-26T20:00
Will Self reflects on success...and failure.
'Ours is a society', he writes, 'in which that hoary old saying, 'Nothing succeeds like success', has been elevated to the status of a politi...
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The New Age of Empire from 2022-08-19T20:00
Linda Colley argues that President Putin's invasion of Ukraine is a wake-up call which should remind people that the days of empire are far from over. And these enduring imperial habits, she sa...
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The Samsara of Salmon from 2022-08-12T20:00
John Connell goes fishing in northern Spain, home to one of the oldest populations of Atlantic salmon in the world.
But he discovers a world on an ecological edge - with water at dangero...
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No Final Frontier from 2022-08-05T20:00
Sara Wheeler has just been appointed the authorised biographer of the travel writer, Jan Morris. But she faces a dilemma. She's concerned that she is 'effectively appropriating the story of a wo...
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Dance Cocky from 2022-07-29T20:00
From boyhood, through young adulthood, to the present day, Howard Jacobson ponders his relationship with dancing.
As summer festivals get underway across the UK, Howard tries to understand...
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Climate Change and the Fall of Icarus from 2022-07-22T20:00
Tom Shakespeare decided several years ago he was no longer going to fly for pleasure. But his father's cousin - who lives in the US - has just turned 90 and he'd love to see her again. He descri...
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Chance and Opportunity from 2022-07-15T20:00
As the Tory leadership election highlights questions of social mobility, David Goodhart looks at why some people seem to have more luck than others. To what extent can we create our own opportu...
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The Meanings of Conservatism from 2022-07-08T20:00
'We're witnessing a major change in British politics,' writes John Gray. 'But to what?' With Boris Johnson on the way out, many Conservatives, he says, believe the party needs a new 'big idea'. ...
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Billionaire Bashing from 2022-07-01T20:00
Zoe Strimpel argues that wealth creation should be the bedrock of politics.
She says that while she loathes the arrogance sometimes displayed by the super rich - especially in the presen...
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Driving the American Dream from 2022-06-24T20:00
Sarah Dunant relives a road trip she took 50 years ago, travelling across the USA at a time when Roe v Wade was the talk of America, and revolution was in the air.
'I can only imagine what...
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No-Stalgia from 2022-06-17T19:50
'It's time to acknowledge', writes Will Self, 'that we don't really feel nostalgia at all - only something far more worrying and debilitating: a condition I've named no-stalgia'.
Will argu...
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Birthday Blues from 2022-06-10T20:00
Howard Jacobson reflects on his upcoming 'significant birthday' and why he's become a willing participant in the ways of personal trainers.
'I say trainer but I am past training,' writes...
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Jubilee Musings from 2022-06-03T20:00
Adam Gopnik grew up in Canada, where he saw the Queen age gracefully on the country's bank notes - though he says the royal connection often felt vague. Arriving in London this week amid union f...
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Home from Home from 2022-05-20T20:00
'Over the centuries', writes Michael Morpurgo, 'we have been a safe haven to so many, and they have helped make us the people we are today - at our best, a deeply humanitarian people. I fear we ...
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The War with Words from 2022-05-13T20:00
'We must never underestimate the power of words to shape public opinion and politics', writes Bernardine Evaristo.
This comes in the aftermath of a call from a school authority in South D...
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Basic Instincts in the House of Commons from 2022-05-06T20:00
In the aftermath of recent headlines coming out of the Commons, Sarah Dunant explores sexual equality through the ages.
She looks in particular at the idea that 'women are temptresses who...
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Reconsidering Cannabis and the Law from 2022-05-01T07:50
Will Self presents a very British solution to the issues surrounding the legalisation of marijuana.
Considering the pervasiveness of cannabis in the UK, he says the question that should ...
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The Unlistened-to Story from 2022-04-22T20:00
"It is a terrible thing to be in possession of a truth that people don't want to hear," writes Howard Jacobson.
By way of Primo Levi, the great chronicler of the Holocaust, Coleridge's '...
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What is a Woman? from 2022-04-15T20:00
Zoe Strimpel asks the seemingly simple question 'what is a woman', but finds no simple answer as she explores the question through a brief history of feminist thought.
She explores the on...
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A View From Russia: All I Have To Say from 2022-04-08T20:00
The everyday repression of life in Russia, as experienced by an anonymous dissident playwright.
In this essay, she reflects on the war in Ukraine and asks what role she and her fellow Rus...
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Tolstoy in Our Time from 2022-03-25T21:00
Adam Gopnik seeks enlightenment for our time in Tolstoy's War and Peace, finding parallels in Tolstoy's thinking for today's war in Ukraine.
Reflecting on how Russian characters in the boo...
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Every Picture Tells a Story from 2022-03-18T21:00
"When war smashes its way into our living rooms as it did three weeks ago", writes Sarah Dunant, "it is pictures rather than words that hit hardest".
Sarah discusses the impact of images ...
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There Are No Words from 2022-03-11T21:00
For the past five years, Rebecca Stott and a Russian friend have spent time together... digging heavy soil, planting hawthorn trees and pruning wild roses.
Veronika is a translator and a ...
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Return of the Bomb from 2022-03-04T21:00
Will Self tells the story of Vasily Arkhipov, the commander of a Soviet nuclear-armed submarine, who during the Cuban Missile Crisis refused to fire his vessel's nuclear weapon and averted, man...
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It's Not Their War from 2022-02-25T21:00
Sara Wheeler reflects that the attack on Ukraine is not the war of the Russian people she has known. "The calamitous news eroding any remote sense we might have nurtured of peace in our time...
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An Ecological Reparation from 2022-02-18T21:00
John Connell reflects on planting trees on his family farm in Ireland as reparation for the years he has spent flying round the world, and also as an intrinsic good.
"For so many the plan...
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Selective Vision from 2022-02-11T21:00
Sara Wheeler reflects on the harm done by seeing the world only from our own point of view.
"At the heart of both day-to-day thoughtlessness and internecine slaughter lies a failure to see...
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Leaving the Ivory Tower from 2022-01-28T21:00
As she leaves academia, Rebecca Stott says an audit culture is stifling universities.
"Once universities had been turned into businesses and forced to compete with each other for student...
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The Right Side of History from 2022-01-21T21:00
Sarah Dunant asks if we should judge the past by the standards of the present or future, as shifting social attitudes colour our view of how the past is portrayed.
"What current historians...
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Etonian Lives Matter... but not as much as they used to. from 2022-01-14T21:00
David Goodhart rejects what he calls the 'Eton conspiracy myth' of a cabal of his old school's alumni at the top of politics and welcomes its declining influence as a sign of growing equality. Listen
On Rapid Home Delivery from 2022-01-07T21:00
Zoe Strimpel reflects on the impact of rapid home delivery on the way we live our lives, and asks what our human experience might lose from this democratisation of laziness.
"A whole gener...
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On lost souls... and mobile phones from 2021-12-31T21:00
Adam Gopnik on why a visit to get his phone repaired resulted in an unlikely revelation.
Watching those waiting alongside him, Adam comes to the realisation that we have poured ourselves ...
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The Sea at Christmas from 2021-12-24T21:00
Howard Jacobson ponders why he's always associated Christmas with the sea.
Strange, he reckons, given he's not exactly maritime by temperament.
'Long ago at Blackpool,' he write...
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A Sense of Home from 2021-12-17T21:00
Will Self reflects on his B&B renaissance.
From early memories of B&Bs with his parents...to the anonymous isolation of corporate hotels...to the 'pseudo-hygge' of Airbnbs, Will l...
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I Read the News Today, Oh Boy from 2021-12-10T21:00
A junk shop, a wooden chest, and some old newspapers from 1941 get Sarah Dunant pondering how we can deal with a world turned upside down.
"The last time the world shook", Sarah writes, "t...
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But Does it Matterhorn? from 2021-12-03T21:00
"Landscape made us', writes Sara Wheeler, 'and now, in the dying phase of our divorce from our environment, we are unmaking the landscape'.
Sara discusses the importance of place names in...
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More Questions Than Answers from 2021-11-26T21:00
Tom Shakespeare explains why he can't get enough of University Challenge.
Starter for ten, picture round and music round.....it's all here!
But thirty-five years after he first appe...
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The Child Question from 2021-11-12T21:00
Zoe Strimpel on the difficulty of deciding whether to have, or not have, children.
She describes the 'paralysis of ambivalence'. But this ambivalence is surely, she writes, 'a natural r...
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The Eve of Destruction from 2021-11-05T21:00
Sarah Dunant argues that if we can't agree on wearing masks in a crowded space, this doesn't bode well for our ability to adapt to the monumental changes we'll soon have to make to avert the cli...
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Car Hatred from 2021-10-29T20:00
Will Self argues that the car is anything but a source of freedom.
While drivers think it gives them the ability to go anywhere, in truth 'they're shackled to a grotesque and Sisyphean go...
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Two Small Scandals from 2021-10-22T20:00
"Who owns a story?" asks Adam Gopnik. "The storyteller? The subject? Or do all stories in some sense own themselves?"
Adam explores the drama being played out in the US in two stories of ...
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Not in My Movie from 2021-10-15T20:00
"In the 1880s," writes Sara Wheeler, "the scientific community began to recognise and categorise neurodiversity."
We've come a long way since then, she says. But there's a long way to go...
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Talking about Integration from 2021-10-08T20:00
David Goodhart discusses why integration is a permanent dilemma for multi-ethnic societies.
And he wonders whether, "if there is no solution to the issues that it throws up, then not talk...
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In Praise of Mathematics from 2021-10-01T20:00
"Tomorrow's world," writes Zia Haider Rahman, "will be shaped still more by finance, tech, and the minds of the mathematically disposed."
He argues that we ignore maths at our peril.
... Listen
Suffer the Children from 2021-09-24T20:00
In the aftermath of the recent report on religious groups in the UK carried out by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Rebecca Stott ponders the tension between defending the right ...
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Little Amal from 2021-09-17T20:00
As thousands of Afghan refugees look to make their home in the UK, Michael Morpurgo tells the story of one child refugee, Little Amal.
"Surely," he argues, "just as we now fully acknowled...
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The Limits of Reason from 2021-09-10T20:00
John Gray on how former British Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour, identified a weakness in the idea that science and faith are opposites.
"Beyond our narrow corner of things, there may be li...
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The Secret Life of Food from 2021-09-03T20:00
Sara Wheeler looks at the emotional power of food.
"It's regrettable", she writes, "that the link between food and happiness has been broken by the epidemic of obesity that bedevils the d...
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The Creep of the On-Screen Narrative from 2021-08-27T20:00
'I don't want to find an eight-part drama more interesting than my life', writes Zoe Strimpel.
Zoe reflects on the power of TV as a coping mechanism at the height of the COVID pandemic. Listen
The Rhetoric of the Climate Crisis from 2021-08-20T20:00
Rebecca Stott responds to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
And she reflects on how our ancestors dealt with dramatic weather events - and the gods the...
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A Study in Improbability from 2021-08-13T20:00
Adam Gopnik reflects on the ever-increasing accessibility of the past.
He ponders what effect it has when "everything in the world that we can ever remember, everything that has accidental...
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Rapping with a W from 2021-08-06T20:00
Howard Jacobson turns his thoughts to the unlikely subject of present wrapping.
He delves into "Expectation Disconfirmation Theory" which, he claims, "will explain why you are less happy t...
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In the Dingle Peninsula from 2021-07-30T20:00
'In the dog days of the pandemic,' writes John Connell, 'I decided the place to recharge my spirit was the mountains and oceans of Ireland's west coast.'
John sets off in the footsteps of ...
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Trolls Running Riot from 2021-07-23T20:00
Bernardine Evaristo argues that the racist abuse levelled at England players after the final of the Euros has troubling ramifications.
She says it's the kind of "vile, in-yer-face bile m...
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Verrucas Optional from 2021-07-16T20:00
'I object to the demotion of the noble art of indoor swimming,' writes Sara Wheeler, 'in the current frenzy to leap into the nearest river.'
Sara explains why she has little time for the n...
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The Boring Twenties from 2021-07-02T20:00
Niall Ferguson argues that a post-pandemic 'Roaring Twenties' is far from certain.
'There are good reasons to doubt that the 2020s will be roaring in any sense at all, good or bad', he w...
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The Culture War from 2021-06-25T20:00
Zoe Strimpel argues that the culture war is no fake or proxy war - but rather ideas about what is acceptable to know, to teach and to think.
Thirty years after the US sociologist James Dav...
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Anti-Zionism and the Death of Tragedy from 2021-06-18T20:00
"To locate Zionism's origins," argues Howard Jacobson, "we must leave historical for spiritual time."
Howard ponders whether a hint of the tragic world view would change perceptions today...
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The Arts in Our Hearts from 2021-06-11T20:00
Bernardine Evaristo argues that, as we move out of lockdown and rebuild our creative infrastructure, we must cherish the country's arts culture.
She criticises disinvestment in the arts a...
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The Past is Never Dead from 2021-06-04T20:00
Sara Wheeler rereads her youthful diaries and ponders lessons learned.
'Discarding perished rubber bands that once sheaved the slim volumes,' Sara writes, 'I read the story of my own life...
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Eavesdropping from 2021-05-28T20:00
'I have to concede: I am a fervent eavesdropper', writes Will Self.
He ponders eavesdropping etiquette, the hard and fast rules of the game, and whether - in our straitened times - there c...
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On Concrete from 2021-05-21T20:00
Rebecca Stott reflects on why we should be looking to the Romans, and our other ancestors, for imaginative ways of building.
"People who walked the planet long before us knew more sustain...
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Absence of Exultation from 2021-05-14T20:00
"The Venetian Republic," writes Adam Gopnik, "built one of the greatest and most beautiful churches in the world, Santa Maria della Salute, to celebrate the end of one of their plagues in 1630."...
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Invisible Women from 2021-05-07T20:00
Zoe Strimpel questions some of the dominant gender narratives around the Me Too movement.
'The problem,' she writes, 'is that there is no space in all this for the lives and experiences o...
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Living with Group Difference from 2021-05-02T07:55
David Goodhart reflects on group identities in the aftermath of the Sewell report and argues that the mere existence of a difference is not evidence of unfairness.
He calls for a more nuan...
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The Age of Infantilism from 2021-04-23T20:00
'While self-righteousness loosens the tongues of fools,' writes Howard Jacobson, 'self-censorship ties the tongues of the wise.’
Howard argues that it's not autocracy that has bedevilled u...
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What are you doing here? from 2021-04-16T20:00
Michael Morpurgo reflects on meeting the Duke of Edinburgh when he was 16 and the indirect effect that meeting had in shaping his views later in life.
'He realised', writes Michael, 'that...
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Reflections on my Mother's Kenwood Mixer from 2021-04-09T20:00
"The K beater, the whisk and the dough hook are rattling around in the bowl, and I am tasting butterscotch Angel Delight on my lips." Rebecca Stott relives memories of her 1970s childhood with o...
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The Florida Phone Call from 2021-04-02T20:02
Adam Gopnik on the intricacies of the generation gap.
It's highlighted, Adam argues, by what he calls the ‘Florida Phone Call’ - the call you get from your children ‘announcing that not o...
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Is that Miss or Mrs Wheeler? from 2021-03-26T21:00
Sara Wheeler explains why online packages arriving at her house are now addressed to 'The Right Reverend Sara Wheeler'!
Sara looks back at the surprising history of the Mrs-Miss distinctio...
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The Year of Speaking Dangerously from 2021-03-12T21:00
'There is a theory,' writes Sarah Dunant, 'that we needed to pull back from too much face-to-face conversation...because we had all got so damn angry with each other.'
The past year has c...
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Sacred Cows and Sushi Rolls from 2021-03-05T21:00
'The spell of the cities is now being broken,' writes John Connell.
On his family farm in Ireland - where he's returned after many years abroad - John reflects on the new wave of migrant...
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What'll you have? from 2021-02-26T21:00
"So far," writes Tom Shakespeare, "the pub has weathered the tides of history and adapted to every change...so far."
But Tom argues that, in the aftermath of months of closure, this great...
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A Sense of an Opening from 2021-02-19T21:06
As a psychotherapist, Susie Orbach spends her working days helping people find words to express their emotional dilemmas.
But the seesaw of the pandemic presents particular challenges. <...
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Going Underground from 2021-02-12T21:00
Will Self reflects on a year of not travelling on the London underground... and why he's starting to miss it.
"On winter days," writes Will, "when it's dark first thing, then twilight, t...
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A Sense of Fear from 2021-02-05T21:00
As the government announces a tightening of Britain's borders, Zoe Strimpel tries to understand her very personal reaction.
"As a Jewish descendent of German Jewish refugees," she writes,...
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Ideology Versus Art from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Howard Jacobson explains why he prefers art to ideology, especially at election time, and always has. "I consider myself fortunate enough to have been brought up in a state of dogma-free grace." "....
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Life's a Selfie from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Howard Jacobson explains why he dislikes the narcissism of the selfie. "It's always possible that there's some Rembrandt of the selfie out there, using his 'phone to investigate the ravages of age...
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Mankle Image Crisis from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Howard Jacobson thinks the current focus of male fashion on the ankle region or "mankle", revealed by the trousers of skimpily cut suits, shows men are suffering from a self-image crisis. "It would...
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The Price of Independence from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Tom Shakespeare says that disabled people's right to independent living is under threat as a result of the imminent winding up of the Independent Living Fund. "I hope that whichever parties are in ...
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Trial by Select Committee from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Tom Shakespeare thinks our reformed Select Committees have revitalised Parliament but he warns against the temptation to play to the gallery and to cross examine unfairly. "Their main business is t...
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Cognitive Decline from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Tom Shakespeare says increasing wisdom in middle age is at least some compensation for declining cognitive powers. "Wisdom is not the amount you know, it's how you see and how you interpret what yo...
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The Nature of Time from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Will Self reflects on the unsettling nature of time. "What gives our human cultures any sense of cohesion at all is an almost relentless effort to shore up our collective memory of the past against...
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The Power of Fiction from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Will Self reflects on the power of our relationship with fictional characters. "People need people whose lives can be seen to follow a dramatic arc, so that no matter what trials they encounter, th...
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The Purpose of Satire from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Will Self finds himself driven to reconsider the nature and purpose of satire in the wake of the murders at Charlie Hebdo in Paris. "The paradox is this: if satire aims at the moral reform of a giv...
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Having Children from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Will Self reflects on the growing and vexed divide between people with and without children. "The real indication that we don't know what value parenting currently has is that to either valorise or...
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Losing Touch from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Will Self regrets our growing lack of physical contact with one another and with the natural world as a result of the rise of technology. "What the touch screen, the automatic door,online shopping ...
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The Power of Art from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
AL Kennedy reflects on the importance of the beauty and creativity of art to sustain the human spirit. "Art is a power and most of its true power is invisible, private, memorised and held even in ...
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Sacking the Capitols from 2021-01-29T21:00
Sarah Dunant finds chilling parallels between recent events in Washington and the Sack of Rome in 1527.
"Both seemed to feel," Sarah writes, "that whatever the threat, 'God's Holy City' o...
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The Power of Slow Storytelling from 2021-01-22T21:00
Rebecca Stott on why stories told over time seem so fitting for lockdown.
"In this third lockdown," Rebecca writes, "now that my grown up children have gone back to their flats, I am livin...
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Whose Free Speech? from 2021-01-15T21:00
John Gray argues that the social media bans on Donald Trump pose many risks.
"The country is already divided between political tribes that hardly speak to one another," he writes. "More th...
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A Turning Point for Democracy? from 2021-01-08T21:22
Adam Gopnik attempts to make sense of events in Washington this week and argues that the attack on Congress was predictable.
And he explores "the fascinating mismatch between the cult lea...
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New Year Letter from New York from 2021-01-01T21:55
Adam Gopnik, cycling around Central Park in New York, explains why going round in circles suddenly appears not futile, but fortunate.
In the midst of the pandemic, Adam - like thousands...
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Spiritual Pick and Mix from 2020-12-25T21:00
Bernardine Evaristo reflects on spirituality and syncretism.
"There are many people," she writes, "who are rock solid in a particular faith...but others are more flexible or live with mu...
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Off the Map from 2020-12-18T21:00
Sara Wheeler loves maps.
Taking her cue from a 1755 map on her desk, she asks how maps can help us navigate our contemporary crisis.
And she argues that - from cholera to covid - ...
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Confessions of an Anti-Clasper from 2020-12-11T21:00
Howard Jacobson reflects on hugging, past and present. He casts his mind back to his school days and one of his favourite plays, Moliere's The Misanthropist.
Howard decides that the play...
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Edible Architecture from 2020-12-04T21:00
"Unusual conditions produce novel responses" writes Will Self. And Will's response is what he calls "edible architecture". Pounding the pavements with his son during lockdown, they imagine whic...
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Loving the Body Fat-tastic from 2020-11-27T21:00
Bernardine Evaristo discusses body image and the fashion industry. Why, she asks, do fashionable clothes still need to be marketed by "long-limbed, boy-hipped young women whose silhouettes have ...
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Experience Trumps Facts from 2020-11-20T21:00
In the week where his appointment to the Equality and Human Rights Commission has come in for criticism, David Goodhart defends objective facts over personal experience.
"Our knowledge o...
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Perpetual Lockdown from 2020-11-13T21:00
Sara Wheeler reflects on lockdown for her brother - profoundly learning disabled - and others like him. Books, she writes, "teach us that my brother's isolation and society's inability to embrac...
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Don't Mention the War from 2020-11-06T21:00
Howard Jacobson with his personal reaction to a monumental week in US politics.
In an attempt to define what's at stake, Howard turns his attention to Basil Fawlty, the Garden of Eden an...
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Pets Aren't People! from 2020-10-30T21:00
Zoe Strimpel examines why so many people have become passionately obsessed with dogs. "We have moved," she writes, "beyond affection, beyond dog-is-person's-best-friend love, into a passionate c...
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Brief Encounters from 2020-10-23T20:00
"My mother tended to do it in shops and on public transport - my father favoured pubs..." Taking a leaf out of his parents' book, Will Self advocates a novel "practice" for our times.
Pr...
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The Great Conjunction from 2020-10-16T20:00
"Big as it looks, it is nothing but gas and more gas, imposing its will on the sky by sheer bluster." On a night walk through Manhattan, Adam Gopnik reflects on the appearance of Jupiter high in...
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The Pro-Mask Movement from 2020-10-02T20:00
"As a fully fledged luvvie," writes Bernardine Evaristo, "practically every greeting and farewell is accompanied by a kiss or hug." But these days hugs feel like a distant memory and, she argues, w...
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What's the Magic Number? from 2020-09-25T20:00
With widespread unease over the government 's handling of the pandemic, Tom Shakespeare proposes that ordinary citizens should be allowed a greater say in what rules we should be following. "Then ...
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Conspiracy Theories and a Good Hair Cut from 2020-09-18T20:00
Facts have lost their meaning," writes Sarah Dunant. "In their place, belief has taken over." Sarah discusses QAnon, widening social divisions, and her conversations with her hairdresser.Producer: ...
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Having the 'Wrong' Politics from 2020-09-11T20:00
"As the culture war has heated up," writes Zoe Strimpel, "every word and tweet is vested with the insignia of identity, and neutrality is no longer an acceptable carpet under which to hide." Zoe d...
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Thinking Otherwise from 2020-09-04T20:00
As children return to school, Michael Morpurgo questions whether we are educating our children....or programming them. "The pandemic has found us out," Michael writes, "shown us how ridiculous an...
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A Fine Line from 2020-08-28T20:00
"At no time, in modern times," writes Adam Gopnik, "have we endured so much and understood so little." But Adam reminds us that plagues have often, in the past, preceded times of plenty - the Jazz...
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Tolerance: the Unfashionable Virtue from 2020-08-21T20:00
"The strange kind of liberalism that is currently in fashion," writes John Gray, "has rejected tolerance in favour of enforcing what it is sure is the truth." He says these new "illiberal liberals...
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The End of Progress? from 2020-08-14T20:00
The writer, Katherine Mansfield, was diagnosed with TB in 1917. She travelled across Europe - trying all sorts of therapies - until her death. But it would be another twenty years before a cure w...
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Gender in the Blender from 2020-08-07T20:00
"If we accept that gender is something imposed on us," writes Bernardine Evaristo, "as opposed to intrinsic to who we are as humans, then what does it matter if people want to switch genders?" Be...
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The Big Benefits of Smallness from 2020-07-31T20:00
"There's nothing wrong with ambition," writes Linda Colley, "but coming to terms with our inescapable geographical smallness would be helpful." She says historically there's been a tendency to kick...
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A Hazy Shade of Winter from 2020-07-24T20:00
"Once in a blue moon," writes Rebecca Stott, "new technologies become available that make it possible to open up ancient, long-shelved historical mysteries." Rebecca tells how modern science has ex...
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Legacy Bottle Opener from 2020-07-17T20:00
Will Self on why a novelty bottle opener - with little plastic seahorses floating in an acrylic handle - is his idea of a perfect inheritance. "The security that financial inheritance may convey i...
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Coronavirus and Convention from 2020-07-10T20:00
"In the absence of sports, sports radio thrives," writes Adam Gopnik, "and churns and heaves and roils on a diet of pure abstraction, stays awake all night on the caffeine of accelerated nothingnes...
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Why Black Lives Matter from 2020-07-03T20:00
"We need to challenge how we historicise the past and give it a thorough spring clean," writes Bernardine Evaristo. Bernardine discusses the UK's response to Black Lives Matter, "a necessary momen...
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A Word of Advice from 2020-06-26T20:00
"There is a piece of advice that my white British friends seem never to receive but which I have had the good fortune to be given on many occasions - 'If you don't like it here, you can always leav...
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The end of university as we know it? from 2020-06-19T23:20
Mary Beard asks if the iconic university lecture might have had its day, in the aftermath of the pandemic. "I reckon that over my career I've done getting on for 2000 of them....I doubt I'll b...
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Inside Out from 2020-06-12T20:00
"It seemed to occur to nobody in the Cummings hunt that the greater good would almost certainly have been served by down-playing the story". David Goodhart examines the accountability and transpar...
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I Like It Here from 2020-06-05T20:00
"I put myself under lock and key a week before everyone else after a clammy jogger in a pink velveteen suit panted in my face in Hyde Park". Howard Jacobson takes a wry view of life under lockdown...
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In Praise of Cleaning from 2020-05-22T20:00
"Others may thrill to the serendipity of bacon-and-eggs," writes Will Self, "but it's the determinism of dustpan-and-brush that I exalt". Dusting, wiping, vacuuming and sweeping in lockdown, Will...
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Cultural success and the Aboriginals from 2020-05-01T20:00
"I can't have been alone among those quarantined these past few weeks," writes Will Self, "in seeking out the greatest imaginative spaces with which to counterpoint my confinement." Courtesy of Go...
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A Few Good Trade Offs from 2020-04-24T20:00
Zia Haider Rahman describes the "profound moral questions" facing society as it starts to discuss how the COVID-19 lockdown might, eventually, be ended. We have to face up to the fact, he says, th...
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On Not Finishing from 2020-04-17T20:00
"I’ve been thinking about projects left unfinished," writes Rebecca Stott. " I’ve got the pages of two unfinished novels on my hard-drive, and a pile of sewing projects, seams pinned, pins rusting...
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Grandad We Love You from 2020-04-10T20:00
"I can see her on my phone, I can even hear her on my phone, but I can't feel her weight in my arms and her wiggling warmth," writes Tom Shakespeare about his new-born granddaughter. With everyon...
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Seven Degrees of Solitude from 2020-04-03T20:00
"Having been alone in the apartment now for almost three weeks," writes Adam Gopnik in New York, "I have become aware of the countless fine shades of solitude". Adam describes the daily roller co...
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Fighting infection with imagination from 2020-03-27T21:00
"As our physical reality is reduced down to a few rooms or a view from a window," writes Sarah Dunant, "our ability to conjure up things we're not able to experience is going to be vital to feed ou...
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Cause for Hope from 2020-03-20T21:00
"I have come to think of the virus as that monster from the ancient Norse legend of Beowulf, Grendel," writes Michael Morpurgo. "He's out there now, threatening my home, my village, my family and f...
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Empty-nesters and gangsters from 2020-03-13T21:00
"There is nothing some of us enjoy more," writes Adam Gopnik, "than finding analogies to our own paltry and predictable lives in scenes from famous gangster movies." As his children move away fro...
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What to do? from 2020-03-06T21:00
"There are some things that one just has to put up with," writes Tom Shakespeare. "Sometimes over-thinking is the worst response." Tom reflects on how we can best respond to difficult situations.P...
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Recline-gate from 2020-02-28T21:00
To recline....or not to recline your aeroplane seat? Adam Gopnik ponders the question of “recline-gate” in the aftermath of the recent American Airlines incident that went viral.Producer: Adele Ar...
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Inhaling History from 2020-02-21T21:00
"I am holding history in my hands," writes Sarah Dunant. "The date on the letter is February 1490...the place, the city of Mantua in Italy". As she delves through the Mantuan State Archive, Sara...
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An Epidemic of History from 2020-02-14T21:00
"We have been here before, many times" writes Sarah Dunant as she charts some key moments in history when the world has been gripped by fear over the spread of disease. From Columbus and the outb...
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Sodcasting from 2020-02-07T21:00
From the “pernicious fife-footlers polluting the sooty Victorian cities” to the “fiendish electronic cacophony” of today, Will Self bemoans the ever-increasing difficulty of finding a bit of peace ...
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Saving the planet - on hands and knees from 2020-01-31T21:00
"Of all the men I never wanted to grow old into", writes Howard Jacobson, "this is the man I wanted to grow into least: the prepared-for-all-eventualities shopper". Howard describes his hours of ...
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Anti-Semitism and the Neo Medievalists from 2020-01-24T21:00
"All racism is a species not only of unreason... but of unreason enthusiastically embraced", writes Howard Jacobson. Howard discusses why anti-Semitism should trouble us all, regardless of our b...
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The Ring of the Nibelung from 2020-01-17T21:00
Following the death of the philosopher, author and self-professed Wagner fan, Sir Roger Scruton, this is one of our favourite talks he did for the series. As Wagner’s Ring – that huge and controv...
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On Hypocrisy from 2020-01-10T21:00
Will Self explores what he sees as a growing sense of collective hypocrisy. He looks at why we're often so reluctant to use the word "hypocrisy" and argues that we accept hypocrisy in part becau...
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Getting Close to Nature from 2020-01-05T09:00
"After months of hearing about the climate emergency", writes Rebecca Stott, "I thought it would be a good thing to spend some time around a species that was doing really well". She decided to beco...
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The Consolations of Taxidermy from 2019-12-27T21:00
"I've long been fascinated with taxidermy", writes Rebecca Stott, "but it disturbs me". She explains why - after many years - she's made her peace with taxidermy."After all, can we really be all h...
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The recurrent dream of an end-time from 2019-12-20T21:00
“Whatever humans do, the world is not going to end”, writes John Gray. “Humankind cannot destroy the planet any more than it can save it”. John Gray ponders why the belief that the human world ca...
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Expectations of Democracy from 2019-12-13T21:00
"I can no longer force myself", writes Will Self, "to make choices that appear quite meaningless to me". He outlines why he decided - for the first time in his life - not to cast a vote in the el...
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Conversations of a cockroach and an alley cat from 2019-12-06T21:00
John Gray tells the story of Archy and Mehitabel, a newspaper column created in 1916 by the US journalist Don Marquis. It chronicles the conversations between a cockroach and a cat and was a ph...
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Clive James: Clams are Happy from 2019-11-29T21:00
Following the death of the brilliantly funny Clive James - one of the first presenters of "A Point of View" - this is one of his early talks for the series. In this programme - first broadcast in...
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The Sex Recession from 2019-11-22T21:00
"In all things erotic", writes Adam Gopnik, "morals and manners run at right angles to each other". Adam argues that the much discussed "sex recession" in the US is primarily a question of misund...
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A Woman at the Last Supper from 2019-11-08T21:00
"Finding, promoting and revaluing women artists through the ages", writes Sarah Dunant, "has been one of the great – albeit still ongoing – cultural success stories of our time". Sarah discusses ...
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The Great Divide from 2019-11-01T21:00
For many, three or four years away from home at a residential university is "a kind of rite of passage into adulthood", says David Goodhart. But - given most other countries seem to do fine wit...
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An evening at the Death Cafe from 2019-10-25T20:00
"It is the most extraordinary thing about humans", writes Sarah Dunant, "that along with our - albeit limited - ability to prepare for an unknown future, we find it very hard to accept the unassail...
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Down with political packages from 2019-10-18T20:00
David Goodhart discusses the rise of new "tribes" in British political life. "The old tribes were scarcely visible because they had become so familiar", he writes. "The new ones seem noisy and jar...
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The Myth of Inevitability from 2019-10-11T20:00
Margaret Heffernan argues that, in the world of technology, there's nothing inevitable about the future. "I'm not saying that automation isn't a big trend or that driverless cars aren't a possib...
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The happiest days of your life... from 2019-10-04T20:00
"Childhood really should be the happiest days of our children's lives," writes Michael Morpurgo. "But for so many of them today it is not". Michael Morpurgo reflects on the damage being caused to...
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Keep right on from 2019-09-27T20:00
Michael Morpurgo reflects on growing old. "You find you are now amongst the last old trees in the park", he writes, "wary of wild winds of fortune that might weaken you or uproot you".But he finds...
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Who are you looking at? from 2019-09-20T20:00
"Let me tell you about dwarfs and being stared at". With a hint of stand up comedy, Tom Shakespeare writes poignantly about what it feels like to be stared at."The English," he says, "who were o...
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A Change of Tack from 2019-09-13T20:00
The economist, John Maynard Keynes once said to someone, "When my information changes, I change my mind. What do you do?" Tom Shakespeare argues that we need to reconsider our view that changing ...
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September Anxiety from 2019-09-06T20:00
For the September blues, writes Sarah Dunant, "usually time is the healer...you buckle down and get on with it...and by the end of October, things are on track for winter". But not, she thinks, t...
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On Ghost Cities from 2019-08-30T20:00
Rebecca Stott is fascinated with abandoned or ruined cities. She knows she's in good company - along with the millions of people who've been drawn to the recent mini-series, Chernobyl... or the v...
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Nature Red in Tooth and Claw from 2019-08-23T20:00
"For several centuries", writes Rebecca Stott, "the dominant Western version of Nature has been Mother Nature, benevolent, ever-giving, nurturing, bountiful and compliant". This was later replac...
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Against Theory from 2019-08-16T20:00
"No matter how many times you see the sun rise", writes Will Self, "it doesn't mean it will definitely rise tomorrow - or, indeed, that you'll be there to see it". Will sets out why he has a probl...
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To the Bathroom! from 2019-08-09T20:00
"Christianity has a lot to answer for," writes Will Self, "when it comes to our estrangement from our bodies - making our evacuations, quite as much as our sexual acts - an anathema in polite soci...
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The Vultures of Culture from 2019-08-02T20:00
"That culture can be - and is - being commoditised in the private sector, is a truth universally acknowledged with every ticket and book sale," writes Will Self. But, he argues, the conflating o...
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Leaving Florence from 2019-07-26T20:00
"It's well within living memory," writes Sarah Dunant, "that tourism and travel was a wondrous thing." But times have changed: "It feels as if every unnecessary journey we make now has the dull dr...
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British Populism and Brexit from 2019-07-19T20:00
"Could it be that the only way out at this point is a no deal Brexit of the kind that so many dread?" asks John Gray. He argues that it is the logical conclusion of present events.Producer: Adele...
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The Language of Leaving from 2019-07-12T20:00
"Of late, words have foregone their meaning or been given meanings they never had", writes Howard Jacobson. Starting with "betrayal" and ending with "the will of the people", Howard sets out to ...
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Distributing Status from 2019-06-28T20:00
David Goodhart argues that earlier eras have much to teach us about group solidarity. He explores the changes that have led to our post-industrial disenchantment."We cannot and do not want to go b...
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A Knight in Shining Armour? from 2019-06-21T20:00
Linda Colley argues that we all have a role to play in resolving our present political difficulties. In tough times, she says, there's a long history of people searching for a "modern man on hor...
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Refugee Tales from 2019-06-14T20:00
Monica Ali discusses the UK's use of immigration detention centres and, in particular, indefinite detention. She argues that, although detention or deportation are sometimes necessary, the policy...
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Simply a Writer from 2019-06-07T20:00
"If you're a writer of colour", writes Monica Ali, "you're only supposed to write about what people imagine to be your self". "That self might be labelled as Asian writer, or Bangladeshi writer or...
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Dangerous places, libraries from 2019-05-31T20:00
Val McDermid argues that - at a time when public discourse is so polarised - it's vital to keep our public libraries open. "A library card is a powerful weapon to change lives", Val writes. "With...
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Democracy is not in crisis from 2019-05-24T20:00
David Goodhart argues that recent events show that democracy - far from being in crisis - is actually thriving. And in the aftermath of Teresa May announcing her resignation, David writes, "I th...
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Tackling homelessness from 2019-05-10T20:00
Val McDermid argues that if homelessness was classified as an illness, we'd be demanding a cure. She takes a walk round her home city to try to imagine what it would look like through the eyes of ...
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What Would Darwin Do? from 2019-05-03T20:00
Rebecca Stott imagines a conversation with Darwin about our environmental concerns
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Get Mad, Then Get Over It! from 2019-04-26T20:00
"While I would love to find a poetic way into this", writes Sarah Dunant, "I think it best just to spit it out. I'm angry. And I have been angry for quite a while now". Sarah says she doesn't se...
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After the Fire from 2019-04-19T20:00
"For many Parisians, it's Notre Dame's constancy that's so reassuring" writes Joanna Robertson. "Pass by before dawn, she’s waiting there. Or late at night, amidst the deserted streets, her dark ...
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Automation...and a packet of frozen peas from 2019-04-12T20:00
"If you have ever tried to scan a bio-metric passport, an e-ticket or just a packet of frozen peas", writes AL Kennedy, "you'll know that using technology can turn, within moments, into a bizarre r...
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On Holding Forth from 2019-04-05T20:00
"There's one thing I can't bear", writes Rebecca Stott, "and that's being talked AT". Having grown up in a separatist fundamentalist Christian sect called the Exclusive Brethren, she says she's p...
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Brexit: Failure to compromise from 2019-03-29T21:00
John Gray reflects on where British politics goes from here. "Whether Brexit is a good or bad idea," he writes, "is no longer the central issue that Britain is facing.""Instead, the question is w...
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Where there's muck there's art from 2019-03-22T21:00
Sarah Dunant looks at the queasy relationship between art, finance and corruption. Recent protests by the photographer Nan Goldin and others over "dirty money" have hit the headlines.But Sarah ar...
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So Many Kinds of Britons: Who Knew? from 2019-03-15T21:00
Zia Haider Rahman on why Brexit has made him feel closer to Britain. He says the referendum has revealed deeper schisms in British society than the lines between native and immigrant."The sociol...
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A Sense of Chaos from 2019-03-08T21:00
AL Kennedy on why - even with apparent chaos all around us - we can’t afford to despair. "Despairing of justice, positive change, even kindness", she writes, "begins to rob our minds of the capa...
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Calling a spade a spade from 2019-03-01T21:00
Tom Shakespeare on why we’re in urgent need of a bit of plain speaking. "I don't mean here to exalt the obnoxious, the downright rude", he writes, "but while civility is a virtue, I think we could...
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Cookery shows...and hungry people from 2019-02-22T21:00
AL Kennedy questions her love of cookery shows. "That's when I start to feel uneasy, sitting at home staring at entremets and buttercream, three-foot-high cakes made with pints of fresh eggs, bec...
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Humour that's worth its name from 2019-02-15T21:00
AL Kennedy reflects on how the British sense of humour is standing up to our present political woes. "Don't get me wrong," she says, "it's nice to make people smile...but possibly Britain is no...
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The Organ Recital from 2019-02-08T21:00
Will Self asks why our relationship with our bodies - our corporeal self - has become such a distant one. "One thing that becomes screamingly obvious the second we fall ill - and which remains wi...
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The Sea Is Back from 2019-02-01T21:00
"For a long time we forgot about the sea", writes Stella Tillyard. "But it did not forget us. It was always there, like a jilted lover waiting to make a move. And now it is back". She says the see...
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The trouble with referendums from 2019-01-25T21:00
Val McDermid argues that referendums have had a devastating effect on our political system. "I am by nature an optimist", she writes. "But I'm really struggling here. We've broken our democracy....
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Brexit and the English Revolution from 2019-01-18T21:00
Linda Colley reflects on an historic week in British politics. She turns to Lawrence Stone's famous book, "The Causes of the English Revolution", to cast light on the present turmoil.And she asks...
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Have we reached Peak Stuff? from 2019-01-11T21:00
As many Christmas presents start making the surreptitious trip to the charity shop, Stella Tillyard argues that many of us appear to be freeing ourselves from the unfulfilling grip of "things". ...
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The Online Password from 2019-01-06T09:00
"There is little more infuriating", writes Tom Shakespeare, "than some quotidian website which demands you devise a new 11 letter password, including a capital letter, a lowercase letter, a number ...
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On Not Being Oneself from 2018-12-21T21:00
"Is our taste for righteous self-blown indignation so indurated and inwrought" writes Howard Jacobson, "that we will never again be able to shrug our shoulders, forget who we are and what we believ...
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Money Sense from 2018-12-14T21:00
"I listen to Money Box on Radio 4 as others might to a recording of Indonesian gamelan music", writes Will Self, "thrilling to the intricacies, even as I find them altogether alien". Will ponder...
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What did you do during the environmental collapse, daddy? from 2018-12-07T21:00
"Two things seem incontrovertible about the mounting environmental catastrophe", writes Will Self.. "It's genuinely unprecedented - and we really are in it together". Will wonders what we shou...
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The witch-hunt culture from 2018-11-30T21:00
Roger Scruton argues that political correctness, far from being the cure to our conflicts, is actually the ultimate source of them. The "isms" and "phobias", he says, have been used in order to "p...
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Speak, History! from 2018-11-23T21:00
"For most of my adult life", writes Stella Tillyard, "I have had a template which I have used not only to understand myself but also to interpret the world around me. History has been my guide". ...
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Cities of the Dead from 2018-11-23T11:46
Stella Tillyard on how we bury and remember our dead. The idea of immortality, she believes, is taking hold in a new form."Surely it will not be long before a new form of cemetery is created...a...
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Going into Storage from 2018-11-16T21:00
Howard Jacobson on a very tricky dilemma - which of his possessions can he throw away or put into storage...and which must he keep? "I inhabit a simple moral universe when it comes to sheets of p...
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Only Remembered from 2018-11-09T21:00
Michael Morpurgo reflects on our future connection with the First World War. "How will we pass it on, this torch of history?", he asks. "Those missing men, those wounded, those who lived to coun...
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Clothes and the Man from 2018-11-02T21:00
Howard Jacobson discusses the politics of dress - form religious clothing ....via too short trousers...to ripped jeans. And why are men so reluctant these days, he wonders, to put on a "little fin...
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In Praise of Mooching from 2018-10-19T20:00
Howard Jacobson on the end of mooching as a way of life. "Rooting around, doing nothing in particular, walking but not knowing where I was walking to....I can only regret the happy mooching hours ...
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Not a good time to be a man from 2018-10-12T20:00
Howard Jacobson reflects on maleness in the aftermath of the Brett Kavanaugh story. "With every sniff and grimace" Howard writes of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, "it wasn't sorrow or con...
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The Joy of Deferred Gratification from 2018-10-05T20:00
Val McDermid argues that the sheer scale of tourism on a shoestring is destroying the very thing we crave when we travel. "Our great cities are year-round destinations", she writes, "but when the...
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Fixing violence in London - Glasgow-style from 2018-09-28T20:00
Val McDermid asks if Sadiq Khan’s plan for a Glasgow-style crime reduction unit can have the same transformative effect in London as it did in Scotland. "If we change the script people live by", w...
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Murder is not the point from 2018-09-21T20:00
Val McDermid argues that crime fiction isn't really about murder at all. "We shift people out of their comfort zones and make them squirm", she writes. "But not because we kill people"."It might b...
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Serena and the Umpire from 2018-09-14T20:00
Adam Gopnik examines the issues raised by the row between Serena Williams and an umpire. "The question everyone is asking", writes Adam, is "would he have done the same to a man?"Producer: Adele A...
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On Prefixes from 2018-09-07T20:00
Adam Gopnik on why the prefixes we use speak volumes about us. The "pregnant prefix", Adam writes, "is now the giveaway of class identity - and class bound condescension. The "um"s, "like"s, "look...
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Parity of Esteem from 2018-08-31T20:00
"To stand in the corridor of a crowded locked ward in a contemporary British mental hospital" writes Will Self, "is still to feel oneself closer to Hogarth's hellish vision of Bedlam, than any enli...
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Books do furnish a room from 2018-08-24T20:00
Tom Shakespeare is downsizing. But what to do with his books? He points out that he has nothing like the magnitude of problem faced by the Argentine-Canadian author, Alberto Manguel, a few years a...
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Bin the Bucket List from 2018-08-17T20:00
Tom Shakespeare on why he rejects the idea of a bucket list. He proposes instead an idea dreamt up by one of his mates - a list that rhymes with bucket but begins with an F. "Let's call it a Forg...
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The Road to Peace from 2018-08-10T20:00
As we near the end of four years of collective reflection on the First World War, Michael Morpurgo talks of the importance of never taking peace for granted. "We have been looking back, rememberi...
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Think Again from 2018-08-03T20:00
Michael Morpurgo argues it's time to think again over Brexit. "It is surely time to accept that we have made a mistake", he writes, "that whichever way we voted, things are not turning out the wa...
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Brexit and Illiberal Europe from 2018-07-20T20:00
John Gray argues that in the Brexit debate, few Remainers seem to have noticed the illiberal and fragmented Europe that has recently come into being. "Illiberal forces are advancing across the Eu...
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The Conundrum of Inheritance Tax from 2018-07-13T20:00
Sarah Dunant on her uneasy conundrum over inheritance tax. "Like most intelligent beings", Sarah writes, "I'm passionate about addressing climate change for future generations. But my urgency of ...
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Cliches and Commonplaces from 2018-07-06T19:55
Adam Gopnik sets out to determine the difference between cliche and universal truth. Via Homer, Shakespeare and the Beatles, Adam observes that "the deepest statements in literature are very near...
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Mindless Replicants from 2018-06-22T20:00
"What would it be like to consciously feel you were nothing but a robotic phenotype", asks Will Self, "pre-programmed to replicate its own integrated genotypic code then become...obsolete?" Takin...
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A New Anti-Semitism from 2018-06-15T20:00
Will Self once wrote that he could no longer identify as a Jew at all. As anti-Semitism once again comes back to the centre stage of British political life, Will says he's had cause to rethink hi...
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Bobby Kennedy's Assassination - 50 years on from 2018-06-01T20:00
On 5th June 1968, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. In one of the most famous editions of Radio 4's "Letter from America" - Alistair Cooke gave an eye witness account of the assassination.This is a...
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Summer in the Movies from 2018-05-25T20:00
Amit Chaudhuri on why he believes modern movies have a "spiritual glumness". "Digitisation's subterranean agenda", he says, "is to repress natural light."Unlike old black and white films which we...
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Ireland's Abortion Referendum - A Personal View from 2018-05-18T20:00
Sarah Dunant gives a personal view on Ireland's abortion referendum. She remembers one of her first jobs after university - working in a Pregnancy Advisory Service in London as a counsellor - and...
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The Brightening of History from 2018-05-11T20:00
"Calcutta was born old", writes Amit Chaudhuri. But restoration work of old buildings in the city, he says, "is now often based on the assumption that an old building...must have once looked new,...
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A Problem with Words from 2018-05-04T20:00
"My problem with words is something I have never written down or spoken out about". The writer, Stella Tillyard, talks about her "battle" with dyslexia - from her childhood to now.She vividly des...
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A Normal Need from 2018-04-27T20:00
Tom Shakespeare ponders why disabled sexuality is still so often taboo. "Sexuality is a human right", he points out....and says we must set aside the notion that disabled people have "special nee...
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The Museum of Deportation from 2018-04-20T20:00
"The past is concretised and solidified in things", writes Stella Tillyard "and they vibrate with the experience of their use". Stella tells the story of a small Italian Museum - the Museum of Dep...
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The Mental Illness Metaphor from 2018-04-13T20:00
Tom Shakespeare on why we need to rethink our use of the mental illness metaphor. Is President Trump really "mad"?, he asks. Is Brexit "bonkers"? Or is the latest government policy "schizophrenic...
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China and the Retreat of Liberal Values from 2018-04-06T20:00
"Western liberals", writes John Gray, "are horrified by the rise of Xi Jinping". But as China's parliament votes to allow him to be President for life, John Gray argues that the future of the lib...
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Modern-day Empires from 2018-03-30T20:00
John Gray says the idea that empire has had its day is one of the delusions of our age. Old empires, he says, are being replaced by new ones - in China, Russia and - he argues - in Europe.He exami...
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The Rise and Rise of Up Lit from 2018-03-23T21:00
There was Chick Lit, then Grit Lit....now it's "Up Lit" - uplifting stories about kindness and community that we all seem to be reading. Kamila Shamsie says she, too, has been carried along with ...
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The True Mark of Civilisation? from 2018-03-16T21:00
At a time when the word "civilisation" is the subject of great debate, Kamila Shamsie explores the meaning of the word through the prism of Indian art. "If you really want to understand how the w...
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Going Forward from 2018-03-09T21:00
Tom Shakespeare tells us why he believes the phrase "going forward" is an inelegant and negative replacement for "in future". When you talk about the future, he says, you are using a temporal conc...
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Teffi: Silver Shoes and the Dream of Revolution from 2018-03-02T21:00
"We're in one of those recurring periods in history", writes John Gray, "when the idea of revolution has become appealing again". In this context, John says we should dust off the work of Teffi - ...
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The Dangers of a Higher Education from 2018-02-23T21:00
John Gray argues that, throughout history, highly educated people have often made the worst decisions. Taking George Orwell as his starting point "There are some ideas so absurd that only intelle...
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The Trolley Problem from 2018-02-16T21:00
In 1967, the philosopher Philippa Foot developed a thought experiment about a runaway trolley. It involved countless dilemmas designed to illustrate human behaviour. But whatever the scenario, th...
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Memento Mori from 2018-02-09T21:00
"Death's not great for selling yoghurt" writes AL Kennedy, "but making Death dance through a culture seems to do more than reinforce dominant ideologies....it can lend power to the powerless".She s...
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Too Much Winning from 2018-02-02T21:00
"Winning - isn't it great?" asks AL Kennedy. But she argues that our "winner takes all" mentality is suffocating democracy."On both sides of the Atlantic, in regimes around the world", she writes...
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The Heart in Drama from 2018-01-26T21:00
AL Kennedy on why Hollywood has never been a nice place. In 1919, barely three decades after the advent of moving pictures, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and others thought things were bad enoug...
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Daring to Marvel from 2018-01-19T21:05
"How long", asks Howard Jacobson, "before the protocols of looking forbid our looking appreciatively at anyone?" He explores the enormous difficulties surrounding the language of appreciation, "no...
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On Misanthropy from 2018-01-12T21:00
Howard Jacobson ponders why misanthropy is out of fashion. "Where have they gone?", he asks, "such great haters of mankind as Juvenal, Swift, Flaubert".Mankind, he believes, has not grown less tr...
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The Last Bohemia from 2018-01-07T09:00
Howard Jacobson on why we need to preserve Bohemia. London's Soho, he says, is the nearest the UK has to a Bohemia but "you don't sniff aesthetic licence in the streets of Soho as you once did".B...
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Dramatic Speech from 2017-12-29T21:05
"It isn't just because they have become platforms for propaganda and interpersonal odiousness that we should declare war on the social media", writes Howard Jacobson. "It is because they reduce all...
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In Praise of the Feuilleton from 2017-12-22T21:05
Howard Jacobson on the art of the feuilleton....and the joy of the ordinary. He says the feuilletonists - those writers of short observational pieces - show "you don't have to be tendentious to b...
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The Novelist's Complicity from 2017-12-15T21:05
"Great television is taking over the space occupied by many novels", writes Zia Haider Rahman "and taking with it many excellent writers". He says that many novels have already moved in the direc...
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The Assault on Reason from 2017-12-08T21:00
"It's not merely facts that are under assault in the polarised politics of the UK, the US and other nations twisting in the winds of what some call populism" writes Zia Haider Rahman. "There's also...
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A Folder Called 'Hope' from 2017-12-01T20:50
"On my computer", writes Zia Haider Rahman, "I have a folder of exchanges with organisations and corporations, a folder called 'Hope'". Zia describes the letters he's written to some of Britain's...
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Macbeth and the Insomnia Epidemic from 2017-11-24T20:50
Will Self reflects on the epidemic of sleeplessness. He explores the "heady cocktail" of modern life that's keeping us awake and argues that we all need the imaginative sustenance of dreams.Produ...
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Mass Myopia from 2017-11-17T20:50
Will Self on how wearing glasses has become something that is entirely unremarkable. "Nowadays the acquisition of glasses", he writes, "is simply another opportunity for the conspicuous consumpti...
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The miserable pantomime of contemporary British vegetarianism from 2017-11-10T20:50
"As the years have passed", writes Will Self, "so gnawing on a bloody piece of cow rump has come to seem, to me, more and more...well, vulgar". Via Leviticus and Arcimboldo, he charts his convers...
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Men Against Women from 2017-11-03T20:50
Will Self says we need creative solutions to end institutional misogyny and abuse. "Rather than addressing - as parliamentarians currently are - the business of shutting the stable door after the...
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Ode to Space from 2017-10-27T19:50
Will Self on why he loves space.... From childhood dreams of being "strapped into the command module of a Saturn 5 rocket about to blast off from Cape Kennedy" to contemplating 1000-million-star m...
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I hope this email finds you well... from 2017-10-20T19:50
Mary Beard ponders why email is governed by so few rules and conventions. "Fifty years ago, when I was at high school", Mary writes, "we spent many hours learning how to write a letter".She wonder...
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The Battle for Free Speech from 2017-10-13T19:50
Andrew Sullivan says a type of "cultural Marxism" is sweeping through American universities. Conservative ideas, he says, are increasingly being banished from campuses and free speech is seen as ...
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The Apocalypse Hasn't Happened Yet from 2017-10-06T19:50
Andrew Sullivan says Donald Trump is teaching a generation that the key to advancement in society is to bully, lie, slander and cheat. He examines the long-term effects of the Trump Presidency."I...
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The Triumph of Tribalism from 2017-09-29T19:50
Andrew Sullivan on how America has become "a truly tribal society". "I've lived here since the Reagan era", he writes, "and there have been plenty of divides. But none quite as tribal or as roote...
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Talking of Empire from 2017-09-22T19:50
Monica Ali with a personal take on why she believes the history of the British Empire must be taught in our schools. She recalls a conversation with her father where he told her that at primary s...
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On authenticity from 2017-09-15T19:50
Authenticity, writes Monica Ali, has become the yardstick by which we measure the value of much of our day-to-day lives. "In this hyper-mobile, hyper-connected world" she says, "the cult of authe...
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Tackling the moped menace from 2017-09-08T19:50
Monica Ali describes her desire for vengeance after her son was robbed by two boys on mopeds. She reflects on the recent surge in moped crime and what can be done to stop it.She says the criminal...
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The Religion of Rights from 2017-09-01T19:50
"European society", says Sir Roger Scruton, "is rapidly jettisoning its Christian heritage and has found nothing to put in its place save the religion of human rights". But, he argues, this new "r...
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The Meaning of Conservative from 2017-08-30T08:47
Roger Scruton asks: "What does the Tory Party really stand for?" He says the Conservative party at present is muddling along without a philosophy.But he argues that, far from being the 'nasty par...
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Pottering towards the new socialist state from 2017-08-25T19:50
Roger Scruton looks at the impact of Harry Potter on our world view. "People are starting to live in a kind of cyber-Hogwarts", he says, "a fantasy world in which goods are simply obtained by nee...
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Raising the Bar from 2017-08-11T19:50
Adam Gopnik muses on the art of parenting and the challenges of getting it right. "Too much praise... or too little?", he wonders. "You have to be hands off, smiling" but at the same time "engage...
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On Musical Theatre from 2017-08-07T08:50
Adam Gopnik reflects on why musical theatre makes its makers miserable. He should know - he's just finished an eight week run of a musical he wrote. He concludes that while films, for example, ha...
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Napoleons and Normalcy from 2017-07-28T19:50
"I have lived long enough now", writes Adam Gopnik, "to see several absolutely horrific epochs come and go...looking much less absolutely horrific once they're gone." He reflects on how Donald Tru...
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My Encounter with Shingles from 2017-07-21T19:50
Adam Gopnik reflects on why he turned to marijuana to relieve his pain during a recent bout of shingles. His 17 year old daughter was horrified.But Adam concludes that wise drug policy accepts th...
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What To Call Him? from 2017-07-14T19:50
"You can't call him crazy, because it isn't fair to crazy people", writes Adam Gopnik. "You can't compare him to a four-year-old because four-year-old children are not in fact tyrannical or egoti...
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A Staircase in Sunlight from 2017-07-07T20:00
"I will now pause for a full two seconds to allow you to throw things at the radio", begins Adam Gopnik. He's working hard, he claims, at a literary festival in Capri.While there he goes in searc...
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The Mark of a Man from 2017-06-30T19:50
"It seems indisputable, to me", writes Will Self "that what makes it possible for our attractions to each other to be as deep and profound as they are, is some sort of difference - whether it be gi...
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After Grenfell from 2017-06-23T20:05
Will Self gives a very personal view of high-rise buildings in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower disaster. "As a commentator on the built environment", Will writes, "I've been too wry, too cyni...
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Get Over It from 2017-06-16T20:05
Howard Jacobson reflects on the political ironies that are emerging following the election. What should our response be to losing politically?Producer: Adele Armstrong.
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A new politics? from 2017-06-09T20:00
"The election has left many people wondering if politics has morphed into a wholly new condition" writes John Gray. He reflects on whether politics really has been turned upside down by a momento...
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Renouncing Middlemarch from 2017-06-02T20:00
"It's late in the year to be making a resolution I'm probably going to break, but the words have to be spoken" writes Howard Jacobson. "I hereby renounce Middlemarch". Howard reveals what lies be...
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After Manchester from 2017-05-26T20:00
Howard Jacobson reflects on his home city's response to the Manchester attack. What confronts the city now, he says, is dealing with the fact that the perpetrator came from within itself."All our...
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The Fearsome Nature of Literary Festivals from 2017-05-19T20:00
As the season of literary festivals gets underway, Howard Jacobson tells us not to be lured by their appearance of being civilized. "The prevailing tone of sweet concord shouldn't be allowed to d...
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In praise of the elite from 2017-05-12T20:00
Howard Jacobson speaks up in defense of the metropolitan liberal elite. He ponders why the word "elitist" has acquired such negative connotations in some fields - but not in others."It makes no s...
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Trust in Voices from 2017-04-28T20:00
A L Kennedy commends paying attention to voices as a way to discern truth telling. "Listening to our media, our public voices, as if we're listening to people in our everyday lives, holding them ...
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The Past in the Present from 2017-04-21T19:55
A L Kennedy reflects on the way our past shapes our present and our future. "As groups we get trapped in our pasts, not quite repeating them, but sometimes forcing our futures out of shape for th...
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The Power of Reading from 2017-04-14T20:05
AL Kennedy extols the virtues of reading and its power to encourage respect for the value and sovereignty of other people's existence. "It allows you to look and feel your way through the lives o...
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Bad News is Good Business from 2017-04-07T18:00
AL Kennedy says we should reject the media outlets that peddle only bad news whether real or fake in ever shriller voices, depicting a world of unremitting awfulness. "Fake facts - let's just call...
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Dementia Rights from 2017-03-31T19:50
Tom Shakespeare argues that viewing dementia as a disability could help those living with the condition win greater rights. In the last few decades, he writes, we have seen many impairment groups...
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The Power and Peril of Stories from 2017-03-24T20:50
Tom Shakespeare reflects on how all the political populists who now occupy our imaginations are master story tellers. People need stories and these stories appeal to us, he says. But he argues tha...
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Sic transit from 2017-03-17T21:00
Tom Shakespeare on why - in today's world of uncertainty and fear - it may give us some political consolation to remember that while everything positive in life is short-lived, so too is everything...
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The Screensaver of Life, or the Idling Brain from 2017-03-10T21:00
Stella Tillyard looks at the phonomenon of the "idling brain" - when the brain is supposedly at rest. She ponders what it means that we have no idea what's running through the minds of the people...
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Flying Saucers and an Uncertain World from 2017-03-03T21:00
"Human beings shape their perceptions according to their beliefs", writes John Gray, not the other way round. He says people "will persuade themselves to believe almost anything, no matter how far...
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The Spectre of Populism from 2017-02-24T21:00
John Gray look at the history of populism. He argues that modern-day populism has largely been created by centre parties who have identified themselves with an unsustainable status quo.He looks at...
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The Follies of Experts from 2017-02-17T21:00
John Gray assesses why experts failed to predict recent seismic events. He says they operated under the long-held but mistaken belief that history unfolds according to predictable patterns."Human...
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The fun of work - really? from 2017-02-16T09:23
"I haven't been visiting schools and drowsing during headteachers' PowerPoint presentations for nothing this past quarter century", writes Will Self. "I know full-well that the purpose of both Br...
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Protecting Our Way of Life from 2017-02-10T21:00
John Gray examines what lies behind our desire to protect our "way of life". "If people are forced to choose between insecurity and a promise of stability through tyranny", he writes, "many will ...
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States of Confusion from 2017-02-03T21:00
Will Self argues that, at a time when we're observing "our so-called leaders, fretting and strutting on the world stage", it really is a worthwhile exercise to spend time worrying about why we're h...
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Teaching to the test from 2017-01-27T21:00
Will Self says it's time for schools to stop "teaching to the test". He argues that in the contemporary wired world, "it seems obvious that young people need more than ever to know how to think o...
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The Fourth Plinth from 2017-01-20T21:00
Will Self explores the significance of the art work that adorns the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square. He asks what such public art projects represent in this "festival of ephemerality our societ...
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Re-launching National Service from 2017-01-13T21:00
"We're constantly being reminded that this is a democracy", writes Will Self "one, indeed, which we should take back control of". But in the arena of national defence, he says, the role of the ci...
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The Shape Of Our Time from 2016-12-30T21:00
Adam Gopnik revisits a much explored subject - the differences between patriotism and nationalism. In the light of the events of the past year, he questions why the politics of nationalism appear...
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Word of 2016: People from 2016-12-23T21:00
"Perhaps we should try, before the year's out", writes Howard Jacobson, " to agree on the International Word of 2016 - the word that most describes where we've been these last 12 months". "Post-t...
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"Baby It's Cold Outside" from 2016-12-16T21:00
The Christmas song "Baby It's Cold Outside" has become the cause of intense controversy in the US where it's been described as a "hymn to rape" . "As the father of a teenage daughter" writes Adam...
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Holes in Clothes from 2016-12-09T21:00
"I work hard so that my teenage daughter can have holes in all her clothes", writes Adam Gopnik. He reflects on the greater significance of designer holes in jeans...and why it's a trend to be ce...
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Bob Dylan and the Bobolaters from 2016-12-02T21:00
Adam Gopnik - a lifelong fan of Bob Dylan - muses on Dylan's "utterly predictable lack of gratitude" towards his Nobel Prize. "The terrible and intriguing truth", he writes, is that "people are tr...
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A Liberal Credo from 2016-11-25T21:00
Adam Gopnik muses on liberals and liberalism - and why liberalism is so despised. "At a moment when it seems likely to be drowned out in America" he writes, "I shall make a small forlorn effort t...
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The Week Gone By from 2016-11-25T16:25
Adam Gopnik asks what hope is there of a liberal, open society in America during the next 4 years. He argues that Americans must hold to the faith that liberal politics really do rise from the gr...
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The Trump Card from 2016-11-18T21:00
Roger Scruton assesses some of the reasons behind Donald Trump's victory. And he asks why many who intended to vote for Donald Trump would not have confessed to their intention."They wanted chang...
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America Votes from 2016-11-04T21:00
Adam Gopnik reflects on why he believes a victory for Donald Trump would be a disaster for America. The American Presidential election "posits a simple eternal human confrontation between sensibl...
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In Praise of Prophets of Doom from 2016-10-28T20:00
Howard Jacobson argues that dissatisfaction with life is essential for the health of the human spirit. "It might come to outweigh other emotions to the point where it is detrimental to the vigour...
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Shylock's Mock Appeal from 2016-10-21T20:00
Howard Jacobson applauds the granting of an appeal by Shylock in a mock trial in Venice as a symbolic revoking of a bad decision in Shakespeare's play. "It's natural to rage against wrong decisio...
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In Praise of Difficulty from 2016-10-14T20:00
Howard Jacobson applauds the playwright Tom Stoppard's attack on the ignorance of the average audience, arguing we should not only aspire to be educated ourselves but should not be offended by the ...
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Against Safe Spaces from 2016-09-30T20:00
John Gray reflects on the controversial "safe spaces" policy being pursued by some universities. It may have been devised to ensure that people of all identities are entitled to a tolerant environ...
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The Real Meaning of Trump from 2016-09-23T20:00
John Gray assesses what lies behind the Trump phenomenon and the remarkable political upheaval that could - possibly - see Donald Trump propelled into the White House. From the start, he says, Tr...
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Who Cares About Independence? from 2016-09-16T20:00
Wheelchair user, Tom Shakespeare, reflects on what it feels like to be dependent on others. He says care often leaves the recipient in a devalued state.He calls for society to respond to the chal...
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My Idea of Heaven from 2016-09-09T20:00
John Gray muses on what his idea of heaven is....and why it shouldn't be a perfect world. History teaches us that trying to create a perfect society leads to hell on earth, he writes."But dreams ...
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Every Dog Has His Day from 2016-08-26T20:00
Tom Shakespeare - a new dog owner - reflects on what dogs can teach us about contentment. Remembering his childhood obsession with the Peanuts cartoon, he quotes Snoopy "My life has no purpose, n...
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Finding Our Roots from 2016-08-19T20:00
Will Self reflects on the joys of genealogy - truffling in census returns and parish records and establishing "our genuine links to multiple generations of nonentities"! "As a passionate Londoner...
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What's wrong with modern art? from 2016-08-12T20:00
Will Self explores what's wrong with modern art. "I've been responsible for a fair amount of absolutely total nonsense in my time", he writes, but says most contemporary art is little more than "...
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Act Your Age from 2016-08-05T20:05
Will Self explains why he finds it hard to always act his age. "To alternate between being an errant child and a corrective adult must, I think, be intrinsic to the human condition."Producer: Shei...
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Canaries in the Coal Mine from 2016-07-29T20:05
Tom Shakespeare gives a very personal view of the implications for society of a prenatal screening technology due to be announced shortly. Tom inherited the genetic condition, achondroplasia, or ...
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Being English from 2016-07-22T20:05
Via steak and kidney pie and a spot of Morris dancing, AL Kennedy reflects on Englishness...at a time, she writes, "when Englishness is struggling to decide what it can be". She appeals to Englan...
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Facts Not Opinions from 2016-07-15T20:00
AL Kennedy ponders the importance of facts... in a world dominated by opinion. "The Chilcot report highlights how a war can conjure the demons it promised to suppress", she writes "because facts ...
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Brexit and our cultural identity from 2016-07-15T09:00
The historian Mary Beard presents the last in the series in which some of Britain's leading thinkers give their own very personal view of "Brexit". Mary Beard asks whether the referendum result w...
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Strategic Shift from 2016-07-14T09:00
Peter Hennessy sees the UK's vote to leave the European Union as the biggest strategic shift in British history since the Second World War, rivalled only by the disposal of the British Empire. As a...
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Democracy After Brexit from 2016-07-13T09:00
In these special editions of A Point of View, five of Britain's leading thinkers give their own very personal view of "Brexit" - what the vote tells us about the country we are, and are likely to b...
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Britain, Europe and the World from 2016-07-12T09:00
In these special editions of Radio 4's long-running essay programme, A Point of View, five of Britain's leading thinkers, give their own very personal view of "Brexit" - what the vote tells us abou...
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Onora O'Neill from 2016-07-11T09:00
The philosopher Onora O'Neill criticises the standard of public debate on both sides of the European Union decision and asks how this democratic deficit can be repaired. "The disarray that we now ...
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Belongings from 2016-07-08T20:05
"Transitions shake us" writes AL Kennedy. "and you don't need me to tell you that as a nation we're sharing one". Alison reflects on how disturbing transitional times can be ...and writes of her ...
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The power of language from 2016-06-24T15:00
AL Kennedy reflects on how being able to communicate clearly is the work of a lifetime. She argues that the present school testing regime could have a catastrophic effect on our children's ability ...
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A Petition Against Petitions from 2016-06-19T08:05
Roger Scruton says the fashion for government by petition is out of step with representative democracy in which representatives are not elected to relay the opinions of their constituents but to re...
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How Should We Build? from 2016-06-10T20:05
Roger Scruton says we should protect the English countryside by making beauty our priority when we build new houses while in towns we should reverse the damage done in previous decades.
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I Gave It All Away from 2016-05-27T20:05
Will Self argues that instead of holding onto money until old age, we should give children their inheritance when they're most in need of it.
"Forget the old right/left, rich/poor divisio...
Spell-checking the Futr from 2016-05-14T14:44
Self-confessed "digi-drunkard" Will Self on predictive texting, spellchecking and algorithms.
Will tries to convince himself - and us - that his use of technology is considered and practi...
Florence Under Water from 2016-05-06T20:00
50 years after one of the worst floods in Florence's history, Sarah Dunant reflects on the events of 1966 and the work still going on to save some of the greatest art in the world.
She ta...
The Power of the Pen from 2016-04-29T13:51
On a visit to her local flea market in Florence, Sarah Dunant stumbles across a love letter. The date: November 1918. There's the challenge of the Italian of course....but the biggest hurdle, she s...
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Reading Renaissance Art from 2016-04-22T20:00
Taking a tour of some recent blockbuster art exhibitions, Sarah Dunant reflects on the importance of context for us to properly appreciate art.
She argues that increasingly we're sold art ...
When Is Enough Enough? from 2016-04-15T20:00
Sarah Dunant takes an historical look at avarice. She argues that the revelations in the Panama Papers are just the latest proof that man's greed is woven into the human psyche.
Dante gav...
The Meaning of Time from 2016-04-08T20:00
Will Self reflects on our sense of the meaning of time and the changes in our perception brought about by new technologies.
"Obviously the world wide web and the internet have played a key...
Virtual Violence from 2016-04-01T20:20
Will Self draws no comfort from an alleged drop in violence in the real world, as he sees us increasingly expressing our innate tendency towards violence in the virtual and online worlds.
" I d...
Allergic to Food from 2016-03-25T21:00
Finding himself on a restricted diet, Will Self reflects on the rise of food allergies and intolerances which used to fail to invoke his sympathy.
"It's not so much that I doubt the physi...
Resolutions from 2016-03-18T21:00
Adam Gopnik struggles to keep his New Year's resolutions to find a "monastic moment" in the day to meditate and listen to good music.
"What gets in the way of our dream of practising deta...
Human Hybrids from 2016-03-11T21:00
Adam Gopnik deplores the fashion for attacking so-called "cultural expropriation" as in the recent fuss over American students wearing sombreros at a Mexican theme party.
"Cultural mixing...
Moral Futures from 2016-02-26T21:00
Adam Gopnik thinks future generations will be as appalled by some practices that are accepted today as we are by aspects of the past.
"Even as we condemn our moral ancestors, we need to ho...
Vanilla Happiness from 2016-02-19T21:00
Adam Gopnik says the secret of happiness lies in unexpected pleasures, like finding yoghourt is vanilla when you expect it to be plain.
"Are the intrinsic qualities of something more power...
Star Wars Obsession from 2016-02-05T21:00
Helen Macdonald has made her name writing about nature and birds of prey. So why has she become so fascinated with the recent Star Wars movie that she's been to see it six times? In her first "A Po...
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Expert by Experience from 2016-01-29T21:00
After hearing a former political prisoner in South Africa and a holocaust survivor tell their stories, Tom Shakespeare concludes that personal experience is the most powerful form of expertise.
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Face to Face from 2016-01-22T21:00
Tom Shakespeare is concerned by the growth in cosmetic procedures and the pressure more and more women and girls, in particular, feel to conform to a face and body type.
"My anxiety is ab...
Sing a New Song from 2016-01-15T21:00
Tom Shakespeare argues that we need a new national anthem, one that celebrates what's great about the whole country, reflects the diversity of the population and the values of modern society.
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Howard Jacobson: Wisdom from 2016-01-01T21:00
Howard Jacobson does not feel complimented when someone describes him as "wise". He would sooner have understanding, akin to that of Shakespeare.
"What's wrong with wisdom is it implies st...
Howard Jacobson: Sermons from 2015-12-27T09:00
Howard Jacobson would sooner see Radio 4's Thought for the Day more not less religious and argues that humanists and the religious can meet in sermonizing when it's of the majesty of a great preach...
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Howard Jacobson: Christmas from 2015-12-18T21:00
Howard Jacobson recalls the healthy mongrel mix of traditions in his Jewish family's festivities at Christmas.
"Let's rejoice in the eclecticism, I say, and find in the varieties of ways p...
Sarah Dunant: Protest, Paris, Terror from 2015-12-04T21:00
Sarah Dunant reflects on the nature of protest against the threat of terrorism and the threat of climate change and their coming together in the city of Paris.
"How do we find a sense of p...
From Pot to Profit from 2015-11-27T21:00
Sarah Dunant welcomes Canada's plans to fully legalise marijuana and sees the benefits of a booming cannabis products industry in the American states where it's already legal.
"It costs so...
Sarah Dunant: Crisis in Catholicism from 2015-11-20T21:00
Sarah Dunant sees a new crisis in the Catholic church as a result of unchanged policy over divorce, homosexuality, celibacy and the role of women.
"Men may truly believe in God but for mo...
Roger Scruton: The Tyranny of Pop from 2015-11-13T21:00
Roger Scruton deplores the tyranny of banal and ubiquitous pop music. Young people, above all, need help to appreciate instead the great music of our civilisation.
"Unless we teach childre...
Roger Scruton: Offensive Jokes from 2015-11-06T21:00
Roger Scruton says we must feel free to express opinions and to make jokes that others may find offensive; censoring them them only leads to a loss of reasoned argument.
"The policing of the p...
Roger Scruton: In Defence of Free Speech from 2015-10-23T20:00
Roger Scruton argues that the law on freedom of speech ought to protect those who express heretical views and not be used to close down debate.
"Free speech is not the cause of the tensions tha...
Will Self: On Gardening from 2015-10-16T20:00
Will Self reflects on our relationship with gardens and gardening.
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Will Self: Looks Matter from 2015-10-09T20:00
Will Self says we can't pretend that looks don't matter or that everyone is beautiful, including the obese.
"That different cultures, during different eras, have found different aspects of...
Will Self: What's in a Name from 2015-10-05T08:27
Will Self reflects on the significance of names, including his own.
"We desire to be recognised for who we really are, and seek out in our very ascription the means of uniting our intimat...
Will Self: A Life of Habit from 2015-09-25T20:00
Will Self sees our love of habit as a shield against the unexpected in life.
"For us, custom, and its bespoke application, habit, are integral to our lives; because - or so we sort of reas...
Will Self: Losing Sleep from 2015-09-18T20:00
Will Self reflects on the various reasons for his inability to sleep soundly any more.
"I concede there is something about our contemporary existence, especially in big, bustling cities, w...
P J O'Rourke: Presidential Candidates from 2015-09-11T20:00
P J O'Rourke sizes up the candidates aspiring to be the President of the United States.
"Who are all these jacklegs, high-binders, wire-pullers, mountebanks, swellheads, buncombe spigots, boodl...
The Abolition of Man from 2015-09-04T20:00
John Gray warns about the dangers of science that attempts to enhance human abilities. He says such knowledge can jeopardize the very things that make us human.
More than 70 years after C...
Another Kind of Atheism from 2015-08-28T20:00
John Gray looks to history to argue that it's time to rethink today's narrow view of atheism.
He ponders the lives of two little known atheists from the past - the nineteenth century Ital...
John Gray: Recalling Eric Ambler from 2015-08-21T20:00
John Gray recalls the life and work of the thriller writer Eric Ambler and finds uncomfortable echoes of today's society in the pages of his novels.
"What they reveal is a world ruled by financ...
John Gray: Euro Despair from 2015-08-14T20:00
John Gray sees the European currency as a misconceived project from the outset and thinks the austerity policies imposed on Greece are destructive and self defeating.
"Attempting to maintain t...
Adam Gopnik: Long-Form Television from 2015-08-07T20:00
Adam Gopnik reflects on the reason for our obsession with long - form television series and sees a link to the current brevity of all our other forms of discourse.
"As communication, public and...
Peter Aspden: In Love with Greece from 2015-07-24T20:00
Peter Aspden thinks the powerful influence of Greece, both ancient and modern, on European sensibilities makes the current economic crisis full of emotionally charged symbolism.
"I often think ...
Adam Gopnik: In Praise of Privacy from 2015-07-17T22:00
Although he loves to read collections of private letters by public figures, Adam Gopnik feels disturbed and offended by the lip-smacking ease with which people thumb through Hillary Clinton's or Am...
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Adam Gopnik: Power, Persecution and Pluralism from 2015-07-10T22:00
Adam Gopnik wonders why religious people are feeling "persecuted" following the US Supreme Court ruling making same sex marriage legal in all fifty states. Can a religious person free to practice t...
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Adam Gopnik: Family Reunions from 2015-07-03T22:00
Adam Gopnik's ten-year family reunion brings into focus the passage of time.
"The inescapable material of any family reunion, British or American, Jewish or Celtic, is always the same: each of...
Adam Gopnik: Words and Music from 2015-06-26T22:00
Adam Gopnik's experience of writing a libretto casts light on the mysterious relationship between words and music.
"Sung words belong more fully to the world of ritual and routine, of incantati...
Adam Gopnik: Indispensable Man from 2015-06-19T22:00
Adam Gopnik found himself supplanted as his family's waffle maker while he was away on a trip and concludes there are no indispensable people in any organization (or family) anywhere, though we all...
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AL Kennedy: The Worth of Education from 2015-06-12T22:00
"A school's core strength is that it's a school" writes AL Kennedy. She argues that the "monetisation" of learning - where its value is assessed in purely monetary terms - risks destroying the very...
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AL Kennedy: Creamola Foam remembered from 2015-06-05T22:00
"I'm getting old. Not older, just old" begins AL Kennedy. Through childhood memories of drinking Creamola Foam, her grandfather's voice ...and being kicked by a boy in the shin during playtimes, sh...
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In Praise of Courtesy from 2015-05-29T22:00
AL Kennedy takes the recent death of a friend - the screenwriter Gill Dennis - as her starting point in an exploration of courtesy. "When courtesy walks into a room," she writes, "it seems to turn ...
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Politics of Hope from 2015-05-22T22:00
AL Kennedy says the election results in Scotland reflect a surge in political engagement in which people continue to feel they have the power to make a difference.
"A significant percentage of ...
Presidents as Monarchs from 2015-05-15T22:00
David Cannadine says when Barack Obama's critics accuse him of acting like a king they're forgetting the origins of the office of President.
"From the outset, the American presidency was vested...
Election View from 2015-05-08T20:00
The American writer PJ O'Rourke gives his view of the UK election. "In the once solidly red-rosette glens and braes and lochs and heather the Scottish National Party snatched the sporran, ripped th...
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Leaders Old and Young from 2015-05-01T22:00
David Cannadine reflects on the merits of youth and age in our political leaders and finds the current set taking their parties into next week's election strikingly young.
"It's a curious and u...
Commemorative Style from 2015-04-24T22:00
David Cannadine compares the enthusiasm for national commemorations in Britain with the more understated syle in the United States. "It's easier for Britain, which is a relatively small and unified...
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