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Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#61

Post by hanslub42 »

gorgoiler wrote: post #30

I love this programme and have listened to it since its inception. My goodness though is it guilty of reinforcing two quite negative parts of British media culture to which I am quite sensitive: let’s call them boffinphobia and basicism . Boffinphobia is where an otherwise interesting scientific topic gets downplayed by a programme or news presenter as being too difficult for them to understand, and in particular sai…

For me, with a STEM background (and, I, suspect for many people here) the science episodes were never the most informative (though I would still learn a great deal about the history of the subject)

I'm not sure whether someone with a background in arts or history would say the same about the other episodes.

For those who want something entirely outside the STEM-heavy HN sphere of interest, there is another great BBC podcast about social science: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking_Allowed

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#62

Post by OskarS »

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…

The thing that makes it work (aside from Melvyn's excellent hosting) is that they have an unspoken but fundamental assumption about the audience, which is that the listeners are intelligent. Like, it's ok to have nuance, to dig deep into topics, it's even ok for listeners not to follow every point precisely. But the listeners are smart people that appreciate hearing from people who know what they're talking about.

That's a very rare assumption in modern media, when most mainstream things seemed to be aimed at some sort of lowest common denominator.

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#63

Post by OskarS »

mwaitjmp wrote: post #26
benrutter wrote: post #12

I looked, and there's more than 1000 available episodes of IOT on the BBC, they're all (at least every one I've heard) brilliant. I'm curious if anyone here has any particular favourites? I remember really enjoying the Plankton episode because it took me the classic IOT route of "That doesn't sound interesting, but I'll give it a listen" to looking up all the reading list. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001r1t5

There is an episode on the Epic of Gilgamesh which is absolutely fascinating. Highly recommended.

Yes, that one was the first I thought of as well.

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#64

Post by OskarS »

benrutter wrote: post #12

I looked, and there's more than 1000 available episodes of IOT on the BBC, they're all (at least every one I've heard) brilliant. I'm curious if anyone here has any particular favourites? I remember really enjoying the Plankton episode because it took me the classic IOT route of "That doesn't sound interesting, but I'll give it a listen" to looking up all the reading list. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001r1t5

As I've listened to more and more of it, I start to gravitate not to particular topics, but to particular experts. There are many guests who are regulars when topics in their field come up, and the good ones make any topic in that field interesting. For instance, if there's an episode about religious history and Martin Palmer is on it, it's bound to be a banger (listened to one on Augustine's Confessions recently, for instance, and it was great). Same with Ancient Greece and Paul Cartledge and Angie Hobbs. If I'm looking for something to listen to, I just put one of those three into the search field of my podcast player, and I'm never disappointed.

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#65

Post by OskarS »

kitd wrote: post #15
andrewstuart wrote: post #5

I like his very slightly impatient, very slightly interrupty manner with his guests.

Maybe it's just me but that always grated with me a bit. It felt sometimes a bit like a Today programme interview where "presenter style" was the product. Not to take anything away from the content though. It's the sort of programme the licence fee was made for.

It's not just you, that does grate on me sometimes as well. I get that he needs to move the show on, but I often feel like the guest is trying to make quite an important point when he interrupts. Still love it, though.

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#66

Post by aosaigh »

pncnmnp wrote: post #43
benrutter wrote: post #12

I looked, and there's more than 1000 available episodes of IOT on the BBC, they're all (at least every one I've heard) brilliant. I'm curious if anyone here has any particular favourites? I remember really enjoying the Plankton episode because it took me the classic IOT route of "That doesn't sound interesting, but I'll give it a listen" to looking up all the reading list. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001r1t5

I recently listened to the episode on The Antikythera Mechanism and found it quite fun - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0024x0g Also, I wanted to mention something interesting - back when LLM-driven applications were just emerging, someone posted on Hacker News about how they categorized In Our Time episodes using the Dewey Decimal System with LLMs. Cool stuff - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35073603

I love this one and actually posted the wiki to the The Antikythera Mechanism here (although didn't get traction unfortunately).

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#67

Post by arethuza »

dghf wrote: post #49
arethuza wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always thought it was appropriate that the UK nuclear deterrence fleet apparently would check for Radio 4 still being broadcast to check whether civilisation as we know it (at least in these damp isles) has ended. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_of_last_resort

I believe that to be precise they check for the Today programme, the Radio 4 current-affairs slot where Cabinet ministers go to get monstered.

So we need to make sure that we don't get nuked on a Sunday! [I mean what kind of monster would do that]

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#68

Post by billyruffian »

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.

They ask if you have a licence with a Yes / No choice. They don't ask for the licence number, which I'd be surprised if anyone in these islands could recall. Rather charmingly, they assume you will be honest in your answer.

Re: Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time

#70

Post by netsharc »

arethuza wrote: post #67
dghf wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe that to be precise they check for the Today programme, the Radio 4 current-affairs slot where Cabinet ministers go to get monstered.

So we need to make sure that we don't get nuked on a Sunday! [I mean what kind of monster would do that ]

Hah, reminds me of the joke in Asterix in Britain, where the Brits would stop fighting at 5 o'clock: https://youtu.be/asBo3JUWwDU?t=468 , to drink hot water (because they hadn't discovered tea yet).
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