A weekly reflection on a topical issue.
Radio 4,·839 episodes
Michael Morpurgo reflects on age as he approaches his 80th birthday.
07 Jul 2023,·9 mins
AL Kennedy ponders how we deal with a never-ending cycle of bad news.
30 Jun 2023,·9 mins
Will Self reflects on mirrors, narcissism and human imperfection.
23 Jun 2023,·9 mins
As Midsummer Day approaches, Rebecca Stott examines our complex relationship with colour.
16 Jun 2023,·9 mins
Zoe Strimpel on the perils of treating youth as a commodity.
09 Jun 2023,·9 mins
John Connell reveals how his love for his lawn gave way to letting the grass run wild.
02 Jun 2023,·9 mins
Howard Jacobson says an attack on Eric Gill's sculpture is a failure to understand art.
26 May 2023,·9 mins
Tom Shakespeare bemoans the fashion for being asked to rate everything we buy or do.
19 May 2023,·9 mins
Rebecca Stott ponders the nature of dust, as spring sunshine sharpens the sight of it.
12 May 2023,·9 mins
Sara Wheeler ponders what the new Carolean age will bring forth.
05 May 2023,·9 mins
Sarah Dunant explores how the UK can tackle its demographic timebomb.
28 Apr 2023,·9 mins
Will Self on the fad of creating ever more 'cultural quarters' in our towns and cities.
21 Apr 2023,·9 mins
Adam Gopnik says foreign TV shows helped him appreciate the universal language of satire.
14 Apr 2023,·9 mins
Sara Wheeler says writing a biography has proved a reminder not to judge people.
07 Apr 2023,·9 mins
Megan Nolan says she was an insecure teenager, and millennial adulthood is just as uneasy.
31 Mar 2023,·9 mins
John Gray makes the case for proportional representation as a means to revive our politics
24 Mar 2023,·9 mins
Howard Jacobson on why a flower has suddenly trumped exotic chocolates in his affections.
17 Mar 2023,·9 mins
Zoe Strimpel explores what lies behind her new-found impulse to collect art.
10 Mar 2023,·9 mins
AL Kennedy finds echoes of the disaster movies of the 70s in our current state of affairs.
03 Mar 2023,·9 mins
Trevor Phillips discusses the dangers to Britain of a new, repressive 'group-think'.
24 Feb 2023,·9 mins
Sarah Dunant says the Renaissance master Donatello shows us a way to learn from the past.
17 Feb 2023,·9 mins
Will Self on the pleasure of walking without purpose and the freedom of getting lost.
10 Feb 2023,·9 mins
Adam Gopnik challenges the idea that artificial intelligence can match human creativity.
03 Feb 2023,·9 mins
Rebecca Stott asks if communal living could solve society's most pressing problems.
27 Jan 2023,·9 mins
Zoe Strimpel on modern masculinity and the dangers posed by the rhetoric of Andrew Tate.
20 Jan 2023,·9 mins
Megan Nolan ponders a bizarre alignment between her life and that of Prince Harry.
13 Jan 2023,·9 mins
Tom Shakespeare goes in search of some light relief from the January blues.
06 Jan 2023,·9 mins
Howard Jacobson celebrates the way animals rescue us from self-importance.
30 Dec 2022,·9 mins
John Connell looks forward to becoming a father for the first time.
23 Dec 2022,·9 mins
Sara Wheeler reflects on the myriad wintry metaphors in the English language.
16 Dec 2022,·9 mins
