Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time • Hacker News Board

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#121

Post by ozim » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 3:07 PM UTC

flir wrote: post #79

mellosouls wrote: post #35

Its odd that when places like HN or Reddit ask for favourite podcasts the amazing resources of BBC radio (that precede all modern internet podcasts and the best of which still wipe the floor with most of them) are often forgotten. In Our Time represents the best of the form, and the BBC, and that's significantly down to the excellence of Bragg. The archive (you may need a VPN outside the UK): https://www.bbc.co.uk/pr…

I do feel that IOT would benefit from being longer - it often feels rushed. Podcasts excel at "deep dives" in a way that radio is barred from doing: a podcaster can say "I think I'm gonna do 30 hours on George Jones this year" (real example), and nobody can stop them. IOT's format has a lot of statements, but not many questions. Bragg doesn't often say "hold on, what are the consequences of that?" (unless it's a prep…

I like it exactly because it moves through biographies quickly and to the point. I can ponder about “what are the consequences” on my own.

Most of the time I don’t care enough about each topic or what are passions of the experts are to listen to it.

Having an episode where someone prepared information so I can get acquainted with the topic but I don’t have to deal with forwarding some professor ranting about his pet peeve is huge amount of value.

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#122

Post by giobox » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 3:08 PM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #53

avian wrote: post #16

In Our Time has been my favorite podcast to listen. It made me appreciate how well moderated a discussion among experts can be and how poorly most moderators on other radio programs or conference panels do their jobs. My complaint with In Our Time is that BBC started inserting the "this program is supported by ads outside of the U.K." ads in the middle of the discussions. The ads start and end with an extremely annoy…

They closed off the website to unregistered in the UK too, last time I tried to access content it asked me for a license number (I don't have a TV license). I used to follow topical comedy podcasts but they put a large delay in their publication cycle so they're no longer topical. They also nag you to install the app. They seem often to just repeat the worst habits of commercial media.

The TV License check is purely an honor based system for now - you can simply say yes and no further inquiry is made, it does not ask for any kind of reference.

I suspect this changes in next few years once they finally decide on what TV license reform looks like, especially given the large drop in TV License receipts, but for now anyone can access in UK/via VPN, license or not.

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#123

Post by pbhjpbhj » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 3:24 PM UTC

walthamstow wrote: post #13

British working-class hero, though he'd probably prefer I say English. I'm still working through the back catalogue, been at it for years, I've listened to every episode from the start until about mid 2012. I'll finish it eventually!

>though he'd probably prefer I say English.

I'm curious why you say this. He's a member of the British establishment now. Has he spoken on the topic, or ...?

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#124

Post by cageface » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 4:13 PM UTC

Angostura wrote: post #17

cageface wrote: post #6

It won't be easy to find somebody with his breadth of knowledge to replace him.

I don’t think you need a particular depth of knowledge. You need someone willing to do the pre-work -clearly there are notes from and conversations with the contributors beforehand, someone with curiosity to learn about things outside their areas of expertise. A good journalist would be fine

He very often brings other knowledge to bear in conversations that clearly wasn't just prep work for the specific topic. He's not strong on science but he has a firm grounding in literature, philosophy and history that isn't common these days.

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#125

Post by marojejian » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 4:19 PM UTC

I love how he ends every show by forcing the producer to come in and humbly serve tea to the guests.

I interpret this as some kind of cute little power play by Melvin. Even if so, he definitely earned it, and if were the producer I would serve with pride.

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#126

Post by AlecSchueler » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 4:49 PM UTC

walthamstow wrote: post #115

AlecSchueler wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laura Keunsburg completely neutered the BBC.

Robbie Gibb is the name you're looking for. He ran BBC Politics on TV for over a decade including before and after the referendum, then went to work for Teresa May in No10.

No, Laura Keunsburg was the name I was looking for, that's why I used it.

You seem to suggest I'm confused about this and I would appreciate if you could explain why.

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#127

Post by fecal_henge » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 4:56 PM UTC

gadders wrote: post #40

Angostura wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think you need a particular depth of knowledge. You need someone willing to do the pre-work -clearly there are notes from and conversations with the contributors beforehand, someone with curiosity to learn about things outside their areas of expertise. A good journalist would be fine

I always hoped they would do a behind the scenes episode on what they do to create one episode - pre-reading, selection of experts, discussion of questions to ask etc.

I for one would love to hear what refreshments they would like after the recording.

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#128

Post by butlike » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 5:21 PM UTC

AlecSchueler wrote: post #126

walthamstow wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Robbie Gibb is the name you're looking for. He ran BBC Politics on TV for over a decade including before and after the referendum, then went to work for Teresa May in No10.

No, Laura Keunsburg was the name I was looking for, that's why I used it. You seem to suggest I'm confused about this and I would appreciate if you could explain why.

I think they were agreeing with you in point of "the BBC has been neutered," and also adding to the conversation like "Oh Laura is probably bad, but have you heard of Robbie Gibb?!"

It really didn't read to me like they wanted to completely invalidate your statement.

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#129

Post by Fluorescence » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 6:23 PM UTC

samastur wrote: post #102

Fluorescence wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The time pressure is probably more important than you realise. The guests are often pretty eminent academics, feted in their field and used to being indulged. There have been some I know that very much enjoy the sound of their own voice as they tediously ramble for hours, bending any topic to their own pet themes, with colleagues and students obediently hanging on their words. Melvyn has the stature to get testy "Eno…

I generally agree with you and the "short" format is what makes it successful, but Melvyn said himself that they choose teaching professors because they would know how to explain subject clearly and after almost two decades of listening I'd say it has mostly worked.

> they choose teaching professors because they would know how to explain subject clearly

Hmm! The majority of academics in the UK teach... most of them reluctantly and badly because it's mandatory for their research contract!

Those that revel in it are used to monologuing extemporanously for hours every day in the lecture hall and supervision without interuption. It's quite far from a snappy conversational media performer.

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#130

Post by dcminter » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 6:40 PM UTC

zeristor wrote: post #48

Is it just me? At the end of each podcast there's the outro when they ask if Melvyn and his guests would like tea of coffee. This keeps throwing me back to the bit at the end of episodes of Bod, when the Frog conductor is asked which flavour milk shake he'd like. Once having itemised all of the contents of Thunderbird 4's pods over time, I have had an inkling to use some Machine learning system to gather the drinks o…

> I have had an inkling to use some Machine learning system to gather the drinks options from each In Our Time.

This is a thought of whimsical genius. I do hope you go for it...