A weekly reflection on a topical issue.
"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?" Bernardine discusses the "gender revolution" and our attitudes to the disruption of traditional gender roles. Producer: Adele Armstrong
"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 against this awkward fact and an obsession with the idea of a global Britain. Linda argues that we should recognise the advantages of smallness - nourishing a nation's innovation and agility. Producer: Adele Armstrong
"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 explained the events of 536 AD when the sun 'disappeared' and a devastating pandemic followed. And she ponders what scientists - hundreds of years from now - will be able to tell about our current pandemic and our environmental crisis. Producer: Adele Armstrong
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 is merely relative - and divisive," he writes. So, instead, Will suggests leaving behind something ordinary....and useful. Producer: Adele Armstrong
"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 nothingness." Adam examines the American fascination with call-in shows about sport - and the paradox that although they have absolutely no sport to talk about right now, the shows have never been more argumentative or more alive. Producer: Adele Armstrong
"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 moment in our political history." Producer: Adele Armstrong
"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 leave'". Zia Haider Rahman reflects on what lies behind the comment. Producer: Adele Armstrong
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 be doing another before I retire." Producer: Adele Armstrong
"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 transparency requirements of modern institutions and the impact they've had on the government's handling of the pandemic. Producer: Adele Armstrong
"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. Producer: Adele Armstrong
"However different our days are, we are all waiting," writes Rebecca Stott. Via Samuel Beckett, a walk in Norfolk and a discussion of the three stages of twilight, Rebecca reflects on the waiting of lockdown. Producer: Adele Armstrong
"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 ponders the Great British Wipe-Up. Producer: Adele Armstrong
"She'd been waiting for the catastrophe to end catastrophes all her life and now it was here she seemed not to give a fig about it". Howard Jacobson reflects on his mother's life - and death. Producer: Adele Armstrong
AL Kennedy ponders why we're bad at assessing risks. "We prioritize them according to emotion and information," she says, "but our emotions cloud our judgement and our information may be patchy, absent or misleading." She argues that one risk though is incontrovertible - the risk to the planet - and we need to find a way to ensure its survival. Producer: Adele Armstrong
"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 Google Earth, Will sets out to simulate a trip he was planning to make to central Australia and ponders what lessons Aboriginal culture might have for the days of pandemic. Producer: Adele Armstrong
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, that our choices will have huge impacts for which we must take responsibility. Producer: Adele Armstrong
"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, in my sewing basket." With the help of Leonardo da Vinci, "a notorious non-finisher," Rebecca ponders the meaning of our imperfect and incomplete projects. Producer: Adele Armstrong
"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 everyone in lock-down, Tom talks about his longing to meet his first grand-daughter. And he knows it's a sadness he shares with many other grandparents. Producer: Adele Armstrong
"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 coaster ride of anxiety and normalcy - from the solitude of morning coffee with the dog to the solitude of the Manhattan street late at night. With each day that passes, he finds that "the hues and shades of solitude are defining themselves, with a distinction that gives at least a shape, and sometimes the...
"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 our imaginations." Sarah argues that - given social distancing - imagination is going to be an exceedingly powerful inner muscle when it comes to our mental survival. She offers us a few of her stand out images to get us started. Producer: Adele Armstrong
"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 friends". Michael talks about what it feels like to be hunkered down in his little cottage in Devon - waiting for coronavirus to pass. Recorded by Hamish Marshall from Radio Devon. Produced by Adele Armstrong.
"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 from home and he becomes an "empty nester", Adam finds himself, too, doing just that. Producer: Adele Armstrong
"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. Producer: Adele Armstrong
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 Armstrong
"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, Sarah reflects on the task of understanding and writing history. Producer: Adele Armstrong
"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 outbreak of syphilis in 1495, to cholera at Mecca in the 1860s ....and Wuhan today. She ponders what insights this present crisis might bring. Producer: Adele Armstrong
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 and quiet. He wonders why we tolerate this growing noise pollution, even though we know that high levels of ambient noise cause stress, insomnia and even, if persistent, poor mental health. Producer: Adele Armstrong
"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 neatly folding plastic bags on his hands and knees on his living room floor...in order to let him shop responsibly. Gone is his old profligacy. "The wild", he says, "have become the watchful". Producer: Adele Armstrong
"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 background. Producer: Adele Armstrong
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 controversial cycle of operas - went on tour around the UK, Roger talked about why The Ring is absolutely a story for our time. "I have loved The Ring and learned from it for over 50 years and for me, it is quite simply the truth about our world - but the truth expressed by means of music of unquestionable auth...
