In this series, we’re remembering some of the major events of this century and asking how they’re shaping us. This programme is all about war and conflict: from the events of September 11th 2001, to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. We're also looking at artificial intelligence on the battlefield. Where might that take us? Matthew is joined by historian and writer Margaret MacMillan, former Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Nick Carter and author, Professor Anthony King. Production team Editor: Sara Wad...
Jan 06, 2025•29 min
Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention. In this final episode, he considers where our media consumption might be headed. Many are concerned about smartphone addiction and a disintegration of public discourse, but others see a brighter future and our current times as a turning point to a world where the capacities of technology are used to benefit of society. Matthew speaks to a former tech engineer who has become a philosopher and activist on at...
Dec 03, 2024•15 min
Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention. In this episode Matthew traces the inexorable rise of shortform video and investigates its success. He asks what the increasing popularity of this type of media might mean for our attention and finds out about the people using for purposes that may have surprised Neil Postman. Apps such as Tik Tok, Youtube and Snapchat are ubiquitous and for many have become the chief way that they consume media. What does...
Dec 03, 2024•14 min
Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention. In this episode, Matthew analyses the medium through which we consume so much our media, the smartphone, and asks how whether it changes the nature of how we read, watch and interpret the world around us. Matthew looks into the culture of smartphone use around the world and finds out what we can interpret from the growing use of the devices, particularly among younger generations. He looks into the technol...
Dec 03, 2024•15 min
Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention. In this episode, Matthew looks into history to uncover different approaches to focus. He finds out where the idea of 'attention' came from, whether there has always been a fear that humanity's ability to focus was declining, and what the historical relationship of technology to distraction has been. He hears from the historian of science D Graham Burnett. Burnett has explored different philosophies of atte...
Dec 03, 2024•14 min
Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention. In this first episode, he seeks answers in the work of the media theorist and educator Neil Postman. Forty years ago Postman wrote 'Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business'. Postman feared that the rise of television had created a world where the image became more important than information, and that democracy was in danger to becoming entertainment. Postman cited the autho...
Dec 03, 2024•15 min
We all know the power of a great love story. In films, literature, television - a “happy ending” is shorthand for the main characters coupling up at the end. But are these romantic aspirations really a key ingredient for a happy and fulfilled life? Matthew Syed explores the idea that you can be long term single, and happy. Social scientist Bella DePaulo always knew that marriage wasn’t for her. At 70 years-old, she is happily single, and always has been. She’s spent her career researching, writi...
Aug 28, 2024•28 min
In the 1960s and 70s, Maisie Barrett and Noel Gordon were two black British children wrongly labelled as “educationally subnormal”. They were sent to schools where children were never taught to read or write. They’re just two examples of a scandal that affected hundreds of children in the UK, one that has never been officially acknowledged. As adults, Noel and Maisie made a surprising discovery - they were both dyslexic. And with that diagnosis came a profound reimagining of themselves and what ...
Aug 21, 2024•29 min
As a teenager, Raven Saunders dreamt of playing basketball, but their physique led them down a different path. Exceptional strength and size destined them for shot put, ultimately earning them a place on the US track and field team. In 2021, amid the pandemic, Raven became known for their choice of distinctive protective masks at competitions. But the day they chose to wear a mask of The Incredible Hulk, they not only captured the world's attention, but they also showed hidden parts of themselve...
Aug 14, 2024•30 min
Jen Simonic and Masey Kaplan have bonded over a mutual love for knitting for decades. In 2022, the pair of avid knitters decided to search for strangers to help finish an incomplete blanket their bereaved friend’s mother had started. It kickstarted a movement of ‘finishers’ - people around the world who complete the half-knitted works left behind by others. Their concept challenges the idea that we are successful only when we finish what we start, an idea entrenched in our present culture. Matth...
Aug 07, 2024•28 min
When astronauts journeyed to the moon in the early 1970s, few were paying attention to the psychological impact of the experience. Yet many among those who have left the Earth’s boundary say it is extraordinary and life-changing. They experience a cognitive shift known as the "overview effect". Matthew ponders the potential of staring down at Earth for our collective good and charts how, decades on, the overview effect has found its place at the heart of space tourism. He also delves into the un...
Jul 31, 2024•29 min
Matthew Syed continues his four-part mini-series from Sideways examining the ethics of space exploration in a rapidly expanding era of travel and transformation. In this episode, he explores the role and ambitions of the new actors in space exploration. More people than ever before can now aspire to travel into space with private companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic. This democratisation of space allows those who can afford it to become astronauts and view our world from a dif...
Jul 24, 2024•29 min
Matthew Syed continues his four-part mini series exploring the ethics of space exploration, by returning to the origins of the space race, which saw America and the USSR battling for supremacy. He takes a hard look into the reasons why we go to space and whether it has really benefited all humankind. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon in July 1969, humanity as a whole felt like we’d reached a new frontier. The two astronauts left a plaque behind them, at the bottom of their l...
Jul 17, 2024•29 min
In this special series from Sideways, called A New Frontier, Matthew Syed explores the most out of this world ethical questions posed by the evolution of human space exploration. He takes us into the cosmos with stories from astronauts who’ve been there and those who can only dream of going, to explore the moral debates that have permeated space exploration since before the moon landings, and are evolving dramatically today in a new era of commercial space flight, of asteroid mining and almost d...
Jul 10, 2024•29 min
Travel into the cosmos for a four-part series about the ethics of space exploration. Matthew Syed invites you to enter the vast wilderness of the galaxy to explore the moral dilemmas that sit at the heart of space exploration, and why they should matter to you. When the space race began in the 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union dominated. Today, multiple commercial entities and many more governments vie for space in the skies above us. Now we may go to other planets not in order to br...
Jul 03, 2024•3 min
In 1984, on the eve of the Winter Olympics, Joe Boylan gets lost in a blizzard on an Austrian mountainside. Joe will have to fight with everything he has to survive and be reunited with his family. How he does it reveals often typical patterns of behaviour exhibited by lost people in similar situations. Through the story of Joe’s extraordinary 48-hour battle against the wilderness, Matthew Syed examines the fascinating area of study called Lost Person Behaviour, which has changed the way search ...
Mar 27, 2024•29 min
In 1972, at the liberal Vassar College in New York, 18-year-old Rick Shenkman stood out for his unwavering support of Richard Nixon, especially as the Watergate scandal unfolded. His unconditional allegiance raises a perplexing question - why would a bright, well-educated student overlook the facts and maintain blind faith in the president? In this episode, Matthew Syed delves into one of the most intriguing facets of human psychology - cognitive dissonance. Conceptualised by Leon Festinger in t...
Mar 20, 2024•29 min
As a child, Kate Ertmann starred in commercials, in soap operas and on Broadway. But acting wasn’t her first love - mathematics was. She considered it to be “a balm" for her brain. And yet societal and teenage pressures made her turn away from maths. Growing up in Sweden, Sebastian Nillson Qvist loathed maths and found it a real struggle. But he still challenged himself to study it as part of a Political Science and Economics degree. It did not go well. But still, maths came back into their live...
Mar 13, 2024•29 min
What's your name? You might think you know, but in this episode of Sideways, Matthew Syed discovers the answer could be more complicated than you first assume. That's what Hajar found out, after spending her whole life searching for a name to truly call her own. This is the story of our names, and the influence they have over who we are and who we choose to become. With Hajar Woodland, Eva Echo, Emilia Aldrin, David Zhu and Arjee Restar. Presenter: Matthew Syed Producer: Leigh Meyer Series Edito...
Mar 06, 2024•29 min
In 2020, David Gutenmacher began to buy old photographs and videos that he came across in second hand shops. He was sad about the prospect that families had been severed from their treasured memories, and so he founded the Museum of Lost Memories to try and reconnect people with their personal archives. But when he came across a video of a family on a safari holiday he realised that finding out who was in these videos might not be all that straightforward. Matthew Syed considers the role of phot...
Feb 28, 2024•29 min
Lee and Drew have been like brothers ever since adolescence. So when Drew betrays Lee in the heat of a tumultuous night in Glasgow, the two men find themselves entangled in a bitter grudge that went way beyond what they could imagine, as the violence and bitterness of the wrestling ring, spilled over into the real world. Grudges are typically seen as dangerous, negative emotions. But is there a glimmer of light to be found amid the darkness of resentment? Matthew Syed questions both the hidden v...
Feb 21, 2024•29 min
Matthew Syed kicks off the new season of Sideways with a story of one of the most brutal grudges ever seen in pro wrestling. Matthew asks us to consider when it's time to let go of a grudge and how. The new season starts on Wednesday 21 February 2024, with other episodes exploring the meaning of photo and video memories, the significance of our names and the creativity of mathematics.
Feb 15, 2024•2 min
On a summer's day in 1974, Norwegian actor Knut Risan steps up to the mic for a voiceover job. It's for a Cinderella movie that's just been acquired by the Norwegian broadcaster NRK, from the country known at the time as Czechoslovakia. NRK want him to dub the film into Norwegian. Knut's just having fun. He's doing all the voices, even the young Cinderella. But he's about to become Norway's "Voice of Christmas" when NRK decides to put the film out as part of its festive line up. Tři oříšky pro P...
Dec 06, 2023•29 min
Cornell University is known for it's elite a cappella scene. It was even the inspiration for the hit film Pitch Perfect. But in 2018 a new group arrived on the scene - Mediocre Melodies. This is the story of how one small group of average singers made a huge impact, as Matthew Syed explores the potential benefits of embracing mediocrity and getting comfortable with being average. Featuring Andrew Greene & Maggie Meister of Mediocre Melodies. With Dr Thomas Curran and Dr Leonaura Rhodes. Pres...
Nov 29, 2023•29 min
David Henty had a talent for art from a young age. He grew up poring over Hogarth drawings. For a long time, it didn’t feel like something that he could easily pursue. But after two prison sentences spent painting as much as he wanted, there was no looking back. David was set on making a living as an artist. The thing is… the only paintings he could manage to sell for any profit, were all forgeries of famous artists like Lowry, Bacon and Picasso. Matthew Syed explores how David's copy cat approa...
Nov 22, 2023•29 min
Violinist and composer Diana Yukawa lost her father, Akihisa Yukawa, in the Japan Air Lines Flight 123 plane crash of August 1985. The crash was just five weeks before she was born. As she grew up, Diana wanted to get to know her father. Matthew Syed, explores the profound relationship that can exist between parent and child separated by a loss of this kind, and the role of storytelling in creating those connections. Writer Ashley Reese’s husband, Rob, died of cancer in 2022. Ashley is planning ...
Nov 15, 2023•29 min
After Kate and Guenther shared their first kiss on Torquay's pier in the summer of 1989, their blossoming love was soon interrupted by the distance between Yorkshire and Bavaria. Two years later, they had to let go of their early romance. In this episode, we explore rekindled loves, for better or worse, and the challenges we can face when the ghost of an old romance resurfaces. As Matthew Syed reminisces about his own experiences, he delves into the reasons why our first loves are unforgettable....
Nov 08, 2023•29 min
When chef and independent restaurateur Davide Cerretini first opened his restaurant, it was a dream come true. But that dream quickly soured when he came head to head with ever more pushy and demanding customers. And then online reviews came along... In this story of how one man took on his critics, Matthew Syed examines the role of online reviews - good and bad- in modern consumer culture and delves into whether the customer really is "always right". Featuring Davide Cerretini, restaurant criti...
Nov 01, 2023•29 min
First loves, harsh critics and a celebration of mediocrity - Sideways returns with six new stories about seeing the world differently and the ideas that shape our lives. Presented by Matthew Syed.
Oct 30, 2023•2 min
In 2014 Angela Maxwell was feeling stuck. She wanted something fresh, something exciting. After a chance encounter she landed upon her goal - she was going to set off on one of the largest adventures imaginable: a walk around the world. She didn't know exactly how the journey would play out, but that was part of the appeal - the whole planet was waiting for her to just take the first step. In this episode, Matthew Syed hears from Angela about her 6 year walk around the world, from the misery of ...
Aug 09, 2023•28 min
