Every Sunday afternoon for over 30 years now, Marjorie Eliot has played a jazz concert in her Harlem apartment for anyone who comes. It all began on a Sunday morning back in 1992, after she was faced with an unimaginable loss. In this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed explores how music has allowed Marjorie Eliot to look for joy within the deepest of losses. And through the history of jazz itself, he tries to understand how music can become such a powerful, even transcendental force. With actres...
Aug 02, 2023•29 min
Three different women, who lead three very different lives, but all became villains...or did they? In this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed explores what happens when we indulge in the darker, supposedly more "villainous" parts of ourselves. He looks at the TikTok trend for embracing your so-called villain era and what might happen when we shake off expectations and niceties. With comedian Chelsea Birkby, musician Mala Waldron, Amanda Lovett who became part of the hit TV show Traitors, Dr Margr...
Jul 26, 2023•28 min
In the final episode of this mini series from Sideways, former professional ping pong player, Matthew Syed, tells the story of how ping pong fared in a more open China. After Chairman Mao's death in 1976, his successor Deng Xiaoping introduced privatisation, contracting out, and a host of reforms that freed key parts of the economy from central control. At the same time, China's table tennis team were starting to lose their primacy in the game, with challenging new styles of play emerging from S...
Jul 05, 2023•29 min
Former England international table tennis player, Matthew Syed, continues this three-part mini series from Sideways, with a moment that changed the course of China-US relations - when the hippie American player Glen Cowan met the world's greatest table tennis star Zhuang Zedong. This event would usher in rapprochement between the two nations and lay the groundwork for both Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon's landmark visits to the once isolated China. In China's Ping Pong Power, Matthew explores...
Jul 05, 2023•29 min
Matthew Syed is a former Olympic table tennis player for Great Britain. As Matthew travelled in China, competing against some of the world’s greatest players, he realised that ping pong is a game that has played a huge and fascinating role in the rise of a great power, taking us from the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 to the sporting ambitions of the country today. Matthew begins this three-part mini series from Sideways, with the story of the rise and tragic death of Rong Gu...
Jul 05, 2023•29 min
Matthew Syed is a former Olympic table tennis player for Great Britain. As Matthew travelled in China, competing against some of the world’s greatest players, he realised that ping pong is a game that has played a huge and fascinating role in the rise of a great power. In this three-part mini series from Sideways, Matthew tells the stranger-than-fiction story of how this little sport transformed China’s international standing. Available from Wednesday 5 July 2023.
Jun 28, 2023•2 min
There’s a story Matthew Syed likes to tell. And he’s told it a lot. It’s about a turning point in his life. It’s about learning from a failure and working hard to overcome his shortfalls and come back stronger. Except - he’s realised he’s been getting the story wrong. A key detail in the timeline is off. The turning point he thought was so important, might not be quite as significant after all. And the story just isn’t as neat… In this episode of Sideways, Matthew’s exploring how we use stories ...
Mar 22, 2023•29 min
Julie Matthias is in the middle of a regular shift at her hairdressing salon when she begins to feel really strange. Julie is taken to hospital with the symptoms of a stroke, but doctors can find no evidence she has had one. Initially, Julie is unable to speak properly at all. But when her voice returns, friends start to notice something strange. Julie’s standard Southern British accent, typical for the Medway area of Kent where she lives, has disappeared. In its place is a new voice, a new acce...
Mar 15, 2023•29 min
When Kevin Burkart dove into a murky lake to find a lost wedding ring, he did it for nothing. But did he really gain something much more? In this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed explores our preoccupation with rewards and their impacts. With author and lecturer Alfie Kohn, Headteacher of Barrowford Primary Rachel Tomlinson, Felicia Schaefer and Kevin Burkart. Presenter: Matthew Syed Producer: Leigh Meyer Series Editor: Katherine Godfrey Sound Design and Mix by Naomi Clarke A Novel production f...
Mar 08, 2023•29 min
Lydia Harris has always struggled with food. For as long as she can remember, she has avoided fruit and vegetables - their texture simply disgusts her. But one day, that began to change, with a small bowl of rocket leaves. Eating is one of the greatest pleasures in life for many of us - but, at the same time, it's an arena fraught with choice and decision. No wonder that, as creatures of habit, many of us settle staunchly upon a shopping list of likes, and a mental bank of dislikes. But in this ...
Mar 01, 2023•29 min
A musician is halfway through a public performance when they realise they might not make it to the end. Their body is fighting them, they’re in extreme pain. But stopping is not an option so they push on. No one would know. But boy does the musician know it. When they come off stage, they are in agony. It feels like their career is at an end. In this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed explores the connection between the musician and their instrument and what happens when that precious relationshi...
Feb 22, 2023•29 min
When Ben Taylor receives a Facebook message from a stranger in Liberia, asking in badly spelled English for financial or business assistance, he quickly assumes it’s a scam. But instead of just ignoring the message, he decides to find out about the person behind it. In this episode, Matthew Syed explores what happens when you let your guard down and make a leap of trust. With author and Oxford University trust fellow Rachel Botsman, philosopher Julian Baggini, Ben Taylor and Joel Mentee-Willie. ...
Feb 15, 2023•29 min
John Nunn learnt to play chess aged four. Since before he can remember, he’s had an exceptional talent for maths. In 1970, aged just 15, he started a degree in mathematics at the University of Oxford. In this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed ventures into the world of child prodigies. Often depicted as freakish talents with pushy parents, Matthew uncovers the falsehoods and fascinations associated with young brilliant minds. Charting John Nunn’s career, from maths lecturer to chess grandmaster,...
Feb 08, 2023•29 min
Matthew Syed introduces season six, which explores stories about letting your guard down and making a leap of trust, reaching the peaks of our powers, and finding what truly motivates us to do good things.
Feb 01, 2023•3 min
It’s December 2013 and Toni Osborne is struggling, emotionally and financially. She’s five pence short of keeping her electricity on over Christmas. As she heads out into the night to ask her local shopkeeper for help, a homeless man appears and asks for some change. This is Jack Richardson, and when she bursts into tears, it prompts him to give Toni his last five pence. This simple act of giving would alter both their lives in profound ways. In this episode, Matthew Syed explores how the effect...
Dec 07, 2022•30 min
In the 1970s, Sandra Bundy was working hard at her job at the Department of Corrections in Washington DC. She loved her job, but just turning up to work was becoming unbearable. Sandra’s male supervisors kept propositioning her for sex, asking her out on dates and making inappropriate comments. When she reported the problem to her boss’s boss, he tried to proposition her too. As the situation escalated, the language of sexual violence was used. Sandra knew what she was experiencing was wrong, bu...
Nov 30, 2022•30 min
In 2113, a riddle will be solved under the Eiffel Tower. Matthew Syed tells the story of a riddle hidden in the video game Trials Evolution (Ubisoft Redlynx) that became a worldwide treasure hunt that’s yet to be solved, as he considers the role of legacy. Matthew asks how thinking beyond our lifetimes could make life in the present more impactful and might also challenge us to consider how we meet the problems of the future. With Antti Ilvessuo, creator of the riddle, co-Founder and ex-creative...
Nov 23, 2022•29 min
In the early 1970s, Al Garthwaite and some friends move in together in Leeds. They’re about to embark on a big experiment. They’re living communally, sharing clothes, cooking, and housework. But that’s not all. Inspired by that oft repeated phrase, “it takes a village to raise a child”, they’ve decided to share parenting, helping to raise each other's offspring. What follows is an unconventional family but one full of love and care nonetheless. In this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed explores ...
Nov 16, 2022•29 min
The story of how Dr William Key and his super smart horse “Beautiful” Jim Key became one of the biggest acts in America, only to disappear into historical obscurity. But not before they made a profound impact on millions of American children, who pledged to always be kind to animals, as a result of witnessing their extraordinary partnership. Dr William Key was a former enslaved man who became a wealthy entrepreneur before turning his hand to patiently training a sickly foal to do maths and spell...
Nov 09, 2022•29 min
On Armistice Day 2015, Mel gets a phone call from her son’s school, asking her to come in. When she arrives, she finds the car park filled with ambulances and police cars, emergency services buzzing around. It began with someone fainting in assembly and then, like dominoes, more teenagers began to collapse. Students were sent back to their classrooms, but the outbreak spread, with more and more people feeling dizzy and sick. In this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed tells the story of a strange ...
Nov 02, 2022•29 min
Matthew Syed introduces season five, which looks at being less cynical, family and legacy.
Oct 26, 2022•3 min
Nicosia, Cyprus, 2018. Kiri Sofocleous sits down to write a Facebook message to a man she has never met. It has been 40 years since Kiri saw her childhood best friend but she has never forgotten her. Could this be the key to reuniting? Matthew Syed tells the story of one woman’s determination to find a beloved friend, lost for four decades due to a move abroad, a political divide and a mislaid address. It prompts him to explore why we make friends and how they influence the rest of our lives, ev...
Aug 24, 2022•29 min
Matthew Syed follows the story of Bernice Bennett, a woman driven to uncover the truth behind a treasured family portrait. When Bernice was growing up, she was always told how much she looked like her grandmother, Mattie Kemp Alexander. Looking at her grandmother’s portrait, she saw her own eyes looking back. This woman’s face was familiar, and yet Bernice knew so little about her. Feeling the call to know more, Bernice set out on a journey to uncover the stories of her family tree. Through the ...
Aug 17, 2022•29 min
In 1980, underdog English table tennis player John Hilton stunned audiences with his style of play, effortlessly confounding talented European opponents. In this episode of Sideways, Matthew puts his tactics under the microscope to discover how Hilton used deception to fool his opponents, and use their strengths against them. Deception in sport, Matthew argues, is not underhand, so long as it’s within the rules - and it’s everywhere. With the help of sports psychologist Dr Robin Jackson and goal...
Aug 10, 2022•28 min
A pigeon sparks a spy hunt. The clock is ticking and the bunker is calling. In this final episode of our four part nuclear series, Matthew Syed examines the current nuclear landscape. In this complex, multiplayer context how do we create a safer world? We begin in Kashmir, the disputed territory between India and Pakistan, where mutual suspicion has led to nuclear expansion and a delicate balance of power. With our sights understandably on the Ukraine crisis, Matthew argues that while our curren...
Aug 03, 2022•29 min
Angie Zelter is on her way to Loch Goil in Scotland. It’s a beautiful summer’s day, and her friends have packed a picnic. But that’s not the real reason they’re there. Angie has an urgent message to deliver to the world about nuclear weapons. And she’s going to deliver it through an act of destruction. In this episode, Matthew Syed looks at the danger that nuclear weapons pose, even if nations never use them in a deliberate act of war. He hears about the moments we came within a hair’s breadth o...
Jul 27, 2022•30 min
In 1961, a group of American officials decided to play a game of war. Sitting around a table, they tried imagining a nuclear crisis - and how it could be resolved. The outcome of their thought experiment surprised them all, raising far reaching questions about the strength of America’s nuclear strategy. Once nuclear weapons were unleashed into our world in the 1940s, it was obvious that a completely new set of rules of war had to be designed to prevent nuclear annihilation. In this episode, Matt...
Jul 20, 2022•29 min
It’s a little girl’s eighth birthday. She wakes to a sight that looks like the end of the world. A radioactive mushroom cloud rises 130,000 feet in the air. And the world wakes up to the devastating fallout of nuclear weapons. In this new mini series from Sideways, writer and Times columnist Matthew Syed is calling for a nuclear awakening. Since the end of the Cold War, when relations between two of the world’s nuclear superpowers - the former USSR and the USA - seemed more rosy, Matthew argues ...
Jul 13, 2022•28 min
In this new mini series from Sideways, Matthew Syed is calling for a nuclear awakening. Since the end of the Cold War, when relations between two of the world’s nuclear superpowers - the former USSR and the USA - seemed more rosy, Matthew argues that many of us have slipped into a kind of comfortable amnesia about the presence of these weapons, these destroyers of worlds. The wake up call came when President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in February accompanied by veiled nuclea...
Jul 06, 2022•3 min
James Campbell's family were unusual. They were the 'singing family'. Everyone on their street knew it - and heard it. They would sing at the drop of a hat and James' father had a barbershop quartet. Every Monday evening James would listen attentively to the sumptuous close harmonies and his father taught him and his siblings to harmonise too. James took this into his adult years. It gave him a lifelong enjoyment and confidence to harmonise with other people, just for fun. One day, when his fath...
Dec 22, 2021•29 min
