A Point of View

Feb 21 2025 780 ep. 9 mins 52.4k
A Point of View Podcast artwork

A weekly reflection on a topical issue.

  Society & Culture  News
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Print the Legend

Feb 21 2025 10 mins  
Tom Shakespeare explores the pitfalls of dramatised history and its influence on real life - but confesses to his own minor role in rewriting the past. "We turn to stories when the reality we desire fails us," he writes, "but if the legend is not based in fact, then history is in deep trouble, and so are we all." Producer: Sheila Cook Sound: Peter Bosher Production Co-ordinator: Ge

The Joy of Archives

Feb 14 2025 10 mins  
From sacks of correspondence belonging to a well known author to archives from the Battle of Waterloo (and the odd wooden leg), Sara Wheeler reflects on the joys of Britain's personal archives. 'I have loved almost every day I have ever spent in an archive,' Sara writes, 'and not just because dead people are so easy to get along with.' But she fears that idiosyncratic borough and c

Geese, Aristotle and Migration

Feb 07 2025 10 mins  
Walking along the muddy tracks of the River Ouse near her home a few days ago, Rebecca Stott reflects on migration. She contemplates the lives of the Canada geese that frequently fly over her home, as well as Aristotle's own studies of bird migration - and his extraordinary life as a migrant - while considering the historic links between the migration of people and human progress.

The Overwhelm

Jan 31 2025 10 mins  
The 'overwhelm' - noun, not verb - has been around 'since at least 1596', AL Kennedy discovers.She looks at the reasons why the word is making a comeback - and she has some advice for those who also feel lost in 'the overwhelm.'Producer: Adele Armstrong Sound: Peter Bosher Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

On Hyperbole

Jan 24 2025 10 mins  
Remember the days, Howard Jacobson implores us, when we got on fine with 'very'? Today, Howard argues, 'very’ is not ‘very’ enough for the times we live in.' In its place, 'incredible' and other supersized words, spreading 'verbal chaos.' Howard reflects on the dangers of over-inflated language, 'where words prance about without their clothes, shouting obscenities.'Producer:

Trump, Washington and America First

Jan 17 2025 10 mins  
As Donald Trump prepares to re-enter the White House, Mark Damazer reflects on America's leadership in the world. Eavesdropping on a focus group recently, Mark tells us that the country's leadership was seen as 'a burden and a luxury - and a luxury they wanted to do without.' 'There was a time when large chunks of the world were grateful for American involvement...but gratitude is

On a Gloomy Moment

Jan 10 2025 10 mins  
In deepest, darkest January, Adam Gopnik muses on light and dark. Adam reminds us that - from the natural world of the ghost moth to the politics of today's America - although we live in a 'gloomy moment' we can 'adjust our eyes to the gloom.''Every little bit of light we make,' writes Adam, 'in every decent thing we do and every indecency we refuse to accept, illuminates some smal

The Best I Can Do

Jan 03 2025 10 mins  
Sara Wheeler explains why every week for several decades - despite knowing nothing about art - she has called in to London’s National Gallery to look at the same two paintings. 'This habit of mine,' writes Sara, 'started by accident when I moved to London forty years ago' when she first set eyes on Botticelli's 'Portrait of a Young Man' and van Eyck's 'Portrait of a Man.' 'I have

On Resolutions

Dec 27 2024 10 mins  
Megan Nolan rediscovers a childhood diary with her first New Year's Resolutions. She was fascinated and appalled, she says, by what she read:. The final resolution, underlined, read simply 'be a better person!'These days, Megan looks on self-improvement in a rather different way - less an attempt at perfection and more 'an attempt to courageously embrace living in all its chaos.'Pr

A Jolly Good Pud

Dec 20 2024 10 mins  
Mary Beards reflects on what really lies behind our attachment to Christmas ritual and tradition. In a special edition of A Point of View, recorded in Mary's kitchen as she prepares her Christmas puddings, she ponders 'why those of us who aren't particularly wedded to the idea of tradition for the rest of the year, fall hook, line and sinker for it at this time.' 'My hunch,' Mary