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How is Character Created and Shaped?

How character is created, shaped and strengthened. With novelist Amitav Ghosh, bioethicist Ilina Singh and cultural commentator David Brooks.

What does it mean to be ‘of good character’? How easy is it to change and where does character come from? Are we shaped by our genes or experiences? Shedding light on the creation of fictional characters is novelist Amitav Ghosh, bioethicist Ilina Singh considers how society responds to children who struggle to fit in and the New York Times columnist David Brooks shares his concerns about the rise of a ‘Big Me’ culture and the decline of humility. Presented by Quentin Cooper.

(Photo: Silver congratulates Gold at the 2012 Olympics (Getty Images)

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41 minutes

Last on

Tue 9 Jun 2015 08:05GMT
BBC World Service Online

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Chapters

  • David Brooks

    How can you become a better person?

    Duration: 11:14

  • Ilina Singh

    Is there a biology of character and what does that mean for society?

    Duration: 08:21

  • 60 second idea

    What Do You Think About That?

    Duration: 03:43

  • Amitav Ghosh

    How fictional characters surprise their authors

    Duration: 13:16

David Brooks

David Brooks

David Brooks is a columnist for The New York Times and teaches at Yale University in the United States. He thinks we should spend less time striving for wealth, fame and status and look inwards to strengthen our capacity for self-awareness, self-restraint, compassion and humility. He is the author of ‘The Road to Character’.

Ilina Singh

Ilina Singh
Dr Ilina Singh is Professor of Neuroscience and Society at the University of Oxford in the UK. She is a bioethicist whose work examines the psychosocial and ethical implications of advances in biomedicine and neuroscience for young people and families. Her new study is entitled ‘Becoming Good: Early Intervention and Moral Development in Child Psychiatry’.

Amitav Ghosh

Amitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh is a novelist whose work has been translated into more than twenty languages. His latest novel, ‘Flood of Fire’, completes The Ibis Trilogy. It opens in India in 1839 and charts the progress of its characters through the moral maze of China’s First Opium War.

60 second idea to change the world

60 second idea to change the world

Ilina Singh believes that to encourage children to engage with the world and participate in debate, we should ask them the question ‘What do you think about that ?’ every day. And pause. And listen.

‘That’ can be a person, place, thing or idea. Just point and ask – and don’t forget the pause. Adults need to hear what children and teenagers have to say and young people need an opportunity to challenge, to collaborate and to take part.

Broadcasts

  • Mon 8 Jun 2015 01:05GMT
    BBC World Service Online
  • Tue 9 Jun 2015 08:05GMT
    BBC World Service Online

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  • The Forum

    The programme that explains the present by exploring the past

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