Episodes
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Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention.
In this final episode, he considers where our media consumption might be headed. Many are concerned about smartphone addiction and a disintegration of public discourse, but others see a brighter future and our current times as a turning point to a world where the capacities of technology are used to benefit of society.
Matthew speaks to a former tech engineer who has become a philosopher and activist on attention, a historian who believes that our current era has many precedents, a psychologist who is wary of headlines about collapsed attention spans and a behavioural economist who can see a way that our society will adapt to the digital world.
Contributors:
James Williams, author of Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention EconomyMatthew Sweet, Historian and BroadcasterProfessor Pete Etchells, Psychologist, Bath Spa University and author of Unlocked: The Science of Screen Time and How to Spend it BetterMichael Muthukrishna, Associate Professor of Economic Psychology and author of A Theory of Everyone: The New Science of who we are, how we got here and where we are going.
Presenter: Matthew SyedProducer: Sam Peach
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Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention.
In this episode Matthew traces the inexorable rise of shortform video and investigates its success. He asks what the increasing popularity of this type of media might mean for our attention and finds out about the people using for purposes that may have surprised Neil Postman.
Apps such as Tik Tok, Youtube and Snapchat are ubiquitous and for many have become the chief way that they consume media. What does watching shorter videos mean for the content, and how do these apps change our habits and possibly, our brains?
The popularity of this medium has driven traditional institutions that are concerned with public affairs to embrace shortform video. So what's the result? Matthew finds out.
Contributors:
Dr Zoetanya Sujon, University of the Arts LondonDave Jorgenson, Senior Video Journalist, Washington Post.Communications and Media Society, University of Liverpool
Presenter: Matthew SyedProducer: Sam Peach
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Missing episodes?
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Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention.
In this episode, Matthew analyses the medium through which we consume so much our media, the smartphone, and asks how whether it changes the nature of how we read, watch and interpret the world around us.
Matthew looks into the culture of smartphone use around the world and finds out what we can interpret from the growing use of the devices, particularly among younger generations. He looks into the technological advancements in the smartphone that have driven the most change, and considers how information consumption on a phone changes our approach to attention as opposed to the television or a book.
Contributors:
Gloria Mark, Chancellor's Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine and author of Attention Span: Finding Focus for a Fulfilling LifeDaniel Miller, Professor of Anthropology, University College London
Presenter: Matthew SyedProducer: Sam Peach
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Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention.
In this episode, Matthew looks into history to uncover different approaches to focus. He finds out where the idea of 'attention' came from, whether there has always been a fear that humanity's ability to focus was declining, and what the historical relationship of technology to distraction has been.
He hears from the historian of science D Graham Burnett. Burnett has explored different philosophies of attention across the ages and is an advocate for a change in behaviours regarding our attention today. Professor Nilli Lavie, of University College London's Attention Research Laboratory, provides an insight into modern scientific views of attention.
Matthew looks for answers in a community renowned for their ability to focus...monks. Historian Jamie Kreiner has uncovered how early Christian monks thought about distraction in her book 'The Wandering Mind'. Jamie reveals that there is more to connect the monks of the first millennia with our technological world today than we might think.
Presenter: Matthew SyedProducer: Sam Peach
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Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention.
In this first episode, he seeks answers in the work of the media theorist and educator Neil Postman. Forty years ago Postman wrote 'Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business'. Postman feared that the rise of television had created a world where the image became more important than information, and that democracy was in danger to becoming entertainment.
Postman cited the author Aldous Huxley as a key influence. Huxley's novel 'Brave New World' depicts a World State where citizens are engineered to focus on pleasure rather than the challenges of life and society. Huxley feared that tyranny may appear not through censorship, but due to "man's almost infinite appetite for distractions."
Matthew speaks to Andrew Postman, Neil Postman's son, and Aldous Huxley's biographer Uwe Rasch, to ask what the ideas of the two writers might mean for us today, in a world where media and entertainment are at our fingertips 24/7. Has the prophecy of either Postman or Huxley come to pass?
Presenter: Matthew SyedProducer: Sam Peach
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We all know the power of a great love story. In films, literature, television - a “happy ending” is shorthand for the main characters coupling up at the end. But are these romantic aspirations really a key ingredient for a happy and fulfilled life?
Matthew Syed explores the idea that you can be long term single, and happy.
Social scientist Bella DePaulo always knew that marriage wasn’t for her. At 70 years-old, she is happily single, and always has been. She’s spent her career researching, writing and speaking on the single experience, in an effort to dismantle the conventional wisdom that a happy, fulfilled life, means a coupled-up one.
Matthew speaks to Yale sociologist and PhD candidate Hannah Tessler about her research into the complex, expansive relationship networks of single people.
We also hear from David Bather Wood, an Assistant Professor from the University Warwick, who explains how a philosophical parable about porcupines, dating back to the 1830s, influenced contemporary understandings of the choice to live a single life.
Presenter: Matthew SyedProducer: Leona HameedSeries Editor: Katherine GodfreySound Design and Mix: Rob SpeightTheme Music: Ioana SelaruA Novel production for BBC Radio 4
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In the 1960s and 70s, Maisie Barrett and Noel Gordon were two black British children wrongly labelled as “educationally subnormal”. They were sent to schools where children were never taught to read or write.
They’re just two examples of a scandal that affected hundreds of children in the UK, one that has never been officially acknowledged.
As adults, Noel and Maisie made a surprising discovery - they were both dyslexic. And with that diagnosis came a profound reimagining of themselves and what had happened to them.
Matthew Syed considers the relationship between ableism, racism and eugenics - concepts with roots that stretch back centuries and which continue to have a profound impact on society today.
With Maisie Barrett, Noel Gordon, sociologist Dr Chantelle Jessica Lewis, Assistant Professor Dr Robert Chapman, and occupational therapist Jenny Okolo.
Presenter: Matthew SyedProducer: Tej Adeleye & Tom WrightSeries Editor: Katherine GodfreySound Design and Mix: Rob SpeightTheme music by Ioana SelaruA Novel production for BBC Radio 4
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As a teenager, Raven Saunders dreamt of playing basketball, but their physique led them down a different path. Exceptional strength and size destined them for shot put, ultimately earning them a place on the US track and field team.
In 2021, amid the pandemic, Raven became known for their choice of distinctive protective masks at competitions. But the day they chose to wear a mask of The Incredible Hulk, they not only captured the world's attention, but they also showed hidden parts of themselves.
Throughout history, masks have served various roles including spiritual, entertainment, and protective purposes. Since we’ve all been reacquainted with masks in recent years thanks to COVID-19, Matthew Syed explores how masks have the power to reveal more than they conceal and examines how these coverings, while ostensibly meant to protect, can also become powerful symbols of personal and cultural expression.
With American shot putter Raven “The Hulk” Saunders, mask maker and psychodrama therapist Mike Chase, and Professor of International Politics at Loughborough University Aidan McGarry.
If you are suffering distress or despair, details of help and support are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline
Presenter: Matthew SyedProducer: Julien Manuguerra-PattenEditor: Katherine GodfreySound Design and Mix: Rob SpeightTheme music by Ioana Selaru
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4.
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Jen Simonic and Masey Kaplan have bonded over a mutual love for knitting for decades.
In 2022, the pair of avid knitters decided to search for strangers to help finish an incomplete blanket their bereaved friend’s mother had started. It kickstarted a movement of ‘finishers’ - people around the world who complete the half-knitted works left behind by others. Their concept challenges the idea that we are successful only when we finish what we start, an idea entrenched in our present culture.
Matthew Syed traces the psychological roots of valuing completion and explores alternative outlooks that subvert the merits of finishing. He hears remarkable stories that reveal beautiful possibilities in leaving creative work half-done and asks whether reappraising the unfinished can enable an imaginative process to unfold, connect people more deeply to one another and even ease grief.
With Loose Ends founders, Jen Simonic and Masey Kaplan, their friend Patty Gardner, artist and composer Jan Hendrickse and Nina Collins, daughter of filmmaker Kathleen Collins.
Featuring excerpts from Nafas ar Rahman, commissioned by the MUSARC Choir.
Presenter: Matthew SyedProducer: Vishva SamaniSeries Editor: Katherine GodfreySound Design and Mix: Rob SpeightTheme music by Ioana SelaruA Novel production for BBC Radio 4
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When astronauts journeyed to the moon in the early 1970s, few were paying attention to the psychological impact of the experience. Yet many among those who have left the Earth’s boundary say it is extraordinary and life-changing. They experience a cognitive shift known as the "overview effect".
Matthew ponders the potential of staring down at Earth for our collective good and charts how, decades on, the overview effect has found its place at the heart of space tourism. He also delves into the unlikely religious roots and moral complexity behind the billionaires striving to make it possible for humans to live in space one day.
With former NASA astronaut Nicole Stott, new astronaut Ed Dwight, Space Philosopher and author Frank White, Anthropologist of Space and Religion, Deana Weibel, Professor of Religion at Knox College Robert Geraci and former ISRO scientist, Jijith Nadumari Ravi.
Presenter: Matthew SyedProducer: Vishva SamaniEditor: Katherine GodfreySound Design and Mix: Rob SpeightTheme music by: Ioana SelaruA Novel production for BBC Radio 4.
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Matthew Syed continues his four-part mini-series from Sideways examining the ethics of space exploration in a rapidly expanding era of travel and transformation.
In this episode, he explores the role and ambitions of the new actors in space exploration. More people than ever before can now aspire to travel into space with private companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic. This democratisation of space allows those who can afford it to become astronauts and view our world from a different perspective.
But new actors and new purposes bring new challenges. Spacefaring billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos openly share their ambitions to settle on celestial bodies like the Moon or Mars. With a limited body of space laws, questions about land ownership and governance in space - and on Earth - arise.
With sculptor and new astronaut Ed Dwight, anthropologist Deana Weibel, NASA consultant Linda Billings and space Lawyer Michelle Hanlon.
Presenter: Matthew SyedProducers: Vishva Samani and Julien Manuguerra-PattenSeries Editor: Katherine GodfreySound Design and Mix: Rob SpeightTheme music by Ioana SelaruA Novel production for BBC Radio 4
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Matthew Syed continues his four-part mini series exploring the ethics of space exploration, by returning to the origins of the space race, which saw America and the USSR battling for supremacy. He takes a hard look into the reasons why we go to space and whether it has really benefited all humankind.
When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon in July 1969, humanity as a whole felt like we’d reached a new frontier. The two astronauts left a plaque behind them, at the bottom of their lunar module. It said “we came in peace for all mankind”. But while Armstrong and Aldrin were ambassadors of the entire species, it was an American flag which was planted on the surface of the moon.
This was a time of fear of Cold War competition amidst fear of nuclear annihilation. Despite the altruistic ideals encapsulated in NASA’s motto "for the benefit of all", the geopolitical stakes of the space race were paramount. Matthew explores how this combined with America's perception of its exceptionalism and how the post-war period was filled with nationalistic ambitions and controversies.
With historians Roger Launius and Neil Maher, Science and Religion Professor Catherine Newell, Space Lawyer Michelle Hanlon and retired astronaut John Herrington.
Presenter: Matthew SyedProducer: Julien Manuguerra-PattenSeries Editor: Katherine GodfreySound Design and Mix: Rob SpeightTheme music by: Ioana SelaruA Novel production for BBC Radio 4
Featuring archive from:Apollo moon landing archive: NASA, Apollo 11 Moonwalk - Original NASA EVA Mission Video - Walking on the Moon, 1969. Archive Rev Ralph Abernathy at Cape Kennedy. From Library of American Congress and WGBH. Extract from the 3 parts documentary series “Chasing the Moon” directed by Robert Stone for PBS, 2019. Wernher Von Braun - extract from “Disneyland, Man on the Moon” documentary produced by Walt Disney and directed by Ward Kimball, ABC tv 1955. Archive JF Kennedy at the United Nation. From the United Nations Archives. General Assembly (20 September 1963)First International crew arrives at Space Station - CNN reports, 2 November 2000. Archive Space Treaty - British Pathé, Space Treaty February 1967NASA Artemis launch - @NASA, produced by Sonnet Apple, 2022.
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In this special series from Sideways, called A New Frontier, Matthew Syed explores the most out of this world ethical questions posed by the evolution of human space exploration.
He takes us into the cosmos with stories from astronauts who’ve been there and those who can only dream of going, to explore the moral debates that have permeated space exploration since before the moon landings, and are evolving dramatically today in a new era of commercial space flight, of asteroid mining and almost daily satellite launches.
Matthew begins the series by diving into the ethics of humanity’s search for extra-terrestrial life.
In 1974, Richard Isaacman was a young graduate, studying to become an astronomer, from some of the field's biggest names - like Carl Sagan and Frank Drake. At just 21-years-old, he’s asked to contribute to humankind's first ever deliberate attempt to send a targeted radio transmission to a cluster of stars in the outer reaches of the galaxy. A rudimentary picture, designed to be intercepted and decoded by aliens.
Delving into our obsession with aliens, science fiction and the vastness of space, Matthew discovers how asking questions about space ethics can often lead us to answers that tell us much more about the ways we treat our own environment, other animals, and each other, than it does about little green men.
With former NASA astronaut John Herrington, York University astronomer Sarah Rugheimer and space ethicist, podcaster and author Erika Nesvold.
Presenter: Matthew SyedProducer: Leona HameedSeries Editor: Katherine GodfreySound Design and Mix: Rob SpeightTheme music by Ioana SelaruA Novel production for BBC Radio 4
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Travel into the cosmos for a four-part series about the ethics of space exploration. Matthew Syed invites you to enter the vast wilderness of the galaxy to explore the moral dilemmas that sit at the heart of space exploration, and why they should matter to you.
When the space race began in the 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union dominated. Today, multiple commercial entities and many more governments vie for space in the skies above us. Now we may go to other planets not in order to bring back knowledge that will benefit humankind on earth, but potentially to stay and make a new life for the human race… out there. Exploration is turning to colonisation. In this series, Matthew Syed explores the moral underpinning of space exploration beginning with the space race and early attempts to send a message to little green men. He will ask who gets to go to space, how should we behave when we're there, and whether we have the ethical and legal framework to avoid replicating the conflicts we face on earth, up in the skies above us.
Despite all the complexities and necessary moral questions to be wrangled with in this new era, Matthew explores the profound experiences to be had by standing outside our planet. It may offer a unique vantage point to ask questions about who we are, what we owe to each other, where we’re going, and why.
Producers: Leona Hameed, Julien Manuguerra-Patten, Vishva SamaniSeries Editor: Katherine GodfreySound design and mix: Rob SpeightTheme tune by Ioana SelaruA Novel production for BBC Radio 4
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In 1984, on the eve of the Winter Olympics, Joe Boylan gets lost in a blizzard on an Austrian mountainside. Joe will have to fight with everything he has to survive and be reunited with his family. How he does it reveals often typical patterns of behaviour exhibited by lost people in similar situations.
Through the story of Joe’s extraordinary 48-hour battle against the wilderness, Matthew Syed examines the fascinating area of study called Lost Person Behaviour, which has changed the way search and rescue teams operate, world over.
Featuring Joe Boylan, Robert J Koester, mathematician and author of Lost Person Behavior, Alistair Read from Mountain Rescue England and Wales, Neil Balderson of Lowland Rescue and Maura O'Connor, science journalist and author of Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World.
Presenter: Matthew SyedProducer: Leona HameedSeries Editor: Katherine GodfreySound Design and Mix by Daniel KempsonTheme Tune by Ioana SelaruA Novel production for BBC Radio 4
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In 1972, at the liberal Vassar College in New York, 18-year-old Rick Shenkman stood out for his unwavering support of Richard Nixon, especially as the Watergate scandal unfolded. His unconditional allegiance raises a perplexing question - why would a bright, well-educated student overlook the facts and maintain blind faith in the president?
In this episode, Matthew Syed delves into one of the most intriguing facets of human psychology - cognitive dissonance.
Conceptualised by Leon Festinger in the 1950s, cognitive dissonance refers to the mental discomfort a person experiences when they hold contradictory beliefs, values, or attitudes simultaneously, or when their behaviour conflicts with their beliefs or values. While we all encounter cognitive dissonance in our daily lives, its underlying mechanisms often remain unnoticed despite their profound impact.
Featuring journalist and historian Rick Shenkman, Professor Elliot Aronson, Professor Matt Johnson and Princeton University graduate student, Logan Pearce.
Presenter: Matthew SyedProducer: Julien Manuguerra-PattenSeries Editor: Katherine GodfreySound Design and Mix: Daniel KempsonTheme Tune by Ioana SelaruA Novel production for BBC Radio 4
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As a child, Kate Ertmann starred in commercials, in soap operas and on Broadway. But acting wasn’t her first love - mathematics was. She considered it to be “a balm" for her brain. And yet societal and teenage pressures made her turn away from maths.
Growing up in Sweden, Sebastian Nillson Qvist loathed maths and found it a real struggle. But he still challenged himself to study it as part of a Political Science and Economics degree. It did not go well.
But still, maths came back into their lives.
In this episode of Sideways, we find out what led them back to mathematics and the impact it had on them. Something host Matthew Syed experienced first hand when a desire to understand inflation and economics led him back to studying for a maths A-Level in his own time and finding it actually enjoyable, rather than a chore as he had at school.
We hear how determination to dominate in the sport of darts can lead to incredible mastery of mental arithmetic from Professor Marcus du Sautoy, who also suggests a novel approach to maths education which he believes could inspire and motivate children. And Field’s Medal winner Professor Efim Zelmanov introduces us to a brilliant young mathematician who was killed in a duel 150 years ago but left behind a theory which keeps all online banking safe.
With Kate Eartmann of katelovesmath.com, Sebastian Nillson-Qvist, Professor Marcus du Sautoy - Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and Professor of Mathematics, and Professor Efim Zelmanov - Field’s Medallist and Director of the Shenzhen International Center for Mathematics.
Presented by Matthew SyedProducer: Marilyn RustSeries Editor: Katherine GodfreySound Design and Mix: Daniel KempsonTheme Tune: Ioana SelaruA Novel production for BBC Radio 4
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What's your name? You might think you know, but in this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed discovers the answer could be more complicated than you first assume.
That's what Hajar found out, after spending her whole life searching for a name to truly call her own.
This is the story of our names, and the influence they have over who we are and who we choose to become.
With Hajar Woodland, Eva Echo, Emilia Aldrin, David Zhu and Arjee Restar.
Presenter: Matthew SyedProducer: Leigh MeyerSeries Editor: Katherine GodfreySound design and mix by Daniel KempsonTheme tune by Ioana SelaruA Novel production for BBC Radio 4
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In 2020, David Gutenmacher began to buy old photographs and videos that he came across in second hand shops. He was sad about the prospect that families had been severed from their treasured memories, and so he founded the Museum of Lost Memories to try and reconnect people with their personal archives.
But when he came across a video of a family on a safari holiday he realised that finding out who was in these videos might not be all that straightforward.
Matthew Syed considers the role of photography and video in personal memory making, and how we go about using photos to leave a record of our existence on earth.
Featuring:David Gutenmacher, Founder and curator of the Lost Memory MuseumJono MarcusLina Henkel, professor of psychology at Fairfield University
Presenter: Matthew SyedProducer: Nadia MehdiSeries Editor: Katherine GodfreyMusic, Sound Design & Mix: Daniel KempsonSideways theme by Ioana SelaruA Novel production for BBC Radio 4
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Lee and Drew have been like brothers ever since adolescence. So when Drew betrays Lee in the heat of a tumultuous night in Glasgow, the two men find themselves entangled in a bitter grudge that went way beyond what they could imagine, as the violence and bitterness of the wrestling ring, spilled over into the real world.
Grudges are typically seen as dangerous, negative emotions. But is there a glimmer of light to be found amid the darkness of resentment? Matthew Syed questions both the hidden values and harsh consequences of grudges.
Featuring WWE superstar Drew McIntyre, ICW champion and professional wrestler Lee Greig, Pr Robert Enright from University of Wisconsin and writer Sophie Hannah.
Presenter: Matthew SyedProducer: Julien Manuguerra-PattenSeries Editor: Katherine GodfreySound Design and Engineering: Daniel KempsonTheme tune by Ioana Selaru.A Novel production for BBC Radio 4.
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