I love ‘In Our Time’ - it strikes a really good balance between being academic and accessible. The range of topics is so broad too that you find yourself learning about things you didn’t even know you wanted to learn about. For example, scrolling to a random point in the podcast feed, I see than in four weeks in Dec ‘18 there were episodes on the thirty years war, ‘Sir Gawain & The Green Knight’, the poor laws and Venus.
Bragg’s book ‘The Adventure of English’ is a good survey of the evolution of the English language too.
Very similar to In Our Time is another BBC radio programme called The Forum which explores world history, culture and ideas. Every week an eclectic topic is discussed with three experts in a lively, informative and stimulating discussion. Highly recommended:
The sheer volume of radio content the BBC produces means there are many excellent podcasts/programmes that go undiscovered (the BBC's own search engine is terrible).
Bragg hosts these prominent topic experts, then spends more time enjoying the sound of his own voice than letting us listen to the experts. He interrupts them. He patronises them. He tells them all about their own specialist topic.
I mean, he usually isn't wrong; the programme has a team of researchers, and he's well-briefed. But he's not the expert - that'll be his guests. I would prefer it if he showed a bit of humility.
"Well, I think the fascination of knowledge is an addiction. And I sometimes think the fascination of knowledge is the meaning of life. I really do. I mean, it saved me when I was a kid. It got me out of a really, really bad hole. And I’ve tried to keep out of it ever since."
> I forgot another rule, which is that we’re never knowingly relevant. It is very simple; it’s what it should be.
I never though about it that way, but it’s so true. There’s no cultural references. No talk about current affairs. The show is timeless and only new information on a topic can make it go stale.
In Our Time is a wonderful podcast, always interesting content! Also, as an American, the pace of the show and way of speaking is itself interesting to me.
I find the duration constraint quite sad, to be honest.
Would be fantastic to live in a world where Bragg's intellect and interview style would fuse with long format podcasts (forgive me e.g. Rogan) where the conversation would last up to 4 or 5 hours.
On the contrary, the strict time limit keeps it approachable.
I have neither the time nor the energy to listen to Rogan and guest go on endless tangents (recently it’s all been about obscure standup performances in the 90s) I don’t care about.
And when I do want more from Melvyn and his guests, there’s always a reading list to go with it.
It's what Wikipedia is missing. Not only a brief summary of a topic, but, the opinion from the leading academics on a topic.
It's the academic opinions, not just the information, that is of interest. Without knowing much on an esoteric topic, being introduced to just the fact, doesn't help much. It's good to hear an expert say what points they think are the most important. That's why I like the show.
[+] [-] mdh|4 years ago|reply
Bragg’s book ‘The Adventure of English’ is a good survey of the evolution of the English language too.
[+] [-] open-source-ux|4 years ago|reply
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p004kln9/episodes/downloads
The sheer volume of radio content the BBC produces means there are many excellent podcasts/programmes that go undiscovered (the BBC's own search engine is terrible).
[+] [-] DubiousPusher|4 years ago|reply
I'm so glad to see this here. Bragg has what appears to be the best job in the world to me.
[+] [-] denton-scratch|4 years ago|reply
Bragg hosts these prominent topic experts, then spends more time enjoying the sound of his own voice than letting us listen to the experts. He interrupts them. He patronises them. He tells them all about their own specialist topic.
I mean, he usually isn't wrong; the programme has a team of researchers, and he's well-briefed. But he's not the expert - that'll be his guests. I would prefer it if he showed a bit of humility.
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] wombatmobile|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gherkinnn|4 years ago|reply
I never though about it that way, but it’s so true. There’s no cultural references. No talk about current affairs. The show is timeless and only new information on a topic can make it go stale.
What beautiful programming.
[+] [-] nadagast|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mypastself|4 years ago|reply
“Hello. In 1896…”
[+] [-] gtsnexp|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gherkinnn|4 years ago|reply
I have neither the time nor the energy to listen to Rogan and guest go on endless tangents (recently it’s all been about obscure standup performances in the 90s) I don’t care about.
And when I do want more from Melvyn and his guests, there’s always a reading list to go with it.
[+] [-] mymythisisthis|4 years ago|reply
It's the academic opinions, not just the information, that is of interest. Without knowing much on an esoteric topic, being introduced to just the fact, doesn't help much. It's good to hear an expert say what points they think are the most important. That's why I like the show.
[+] [-] gerdesj|4 years ago|reply
Every other week!
[+] [-] ur-whale|4 years ago|reply