On the continual search for perspective

June 7, 2012 5:43 AM

Mining the veritable delights of Radio 4 I stumbled across the delights of 'A Point of View' - 'A weekly reflection on a topical issue' - with commute friendly 10 to 15 minute bite size pieces from Clive James, Simon Schama, Joan Bakewell, John Gray, Mary Beard, David Cannadine and my favourites Alain de Botton & Will Self.

169 episodes to stream via iPlayer here or 58 downloadable podcasts here.

Will Self on...

A Right Loyal Toast
Europe & My Quadriga Spotting Tour
Military Matters
Lord, Lordlings and Crumpets
The Rights of Humans...and Animals
Challenging Intellect
Media Malpractice
The Arms Trade
Class, Race and Social Mobility
In Praise of Wind Farms
Why Prisons Fail
Party Political Membership

Alain de Botton on...

The Advantages of Pessimism
Modern Parenting
Social Climbing
What's in a marriage
The Art of Conversation
In Praise of the Zoo
On Marriage
In Praise of the Nanny State
Are museums our new Churches?
Man and Nature
News and Concentration
What Humanities should teach

posted by numberstation (11 comments total)

Radio 4 is great. I would also recommend Melvyn Bragg's 'In Our Time', the News Quiz, Comedy Controller and a lot of other things.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 5:48 AM on June 7, 2012 [3 favorites]

de Botton and Self are definitely enjoyable PoVers, agree with them or not, but I remember being disappointed with Clive James when he was on. One not included above who I enjoyed a lot was Lisa Jardine (Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University).
posted by Busy Old Fool at 5:53 AM on June 7, 2012

... and when you're done with Radio 4, head over to Resonance FM and catch Little Atoms.
posted by Talkie Toaster at 6:05 AM on June 7, 2012

Matthew Parris, whose columns about Parliament in the Times of London used to delight me, does a podcast where he talks to people about their idols. And it always disappoints me. :7( So I will have to try this one instead. Thank you for the suggestion.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:28 AM on June 7, 2012

Self's "In Praise of Wind Farms" is some of the most brilliant poetry I've heard in years. He's found his voice, and loves to use it.
posted by scruss at 6:45 AM on June 7, 2012

Scruss: Agree on the wind farms - also as an Interpol geek I thoughts 'The Arms Trade' POV was standout. Transcript here for anyone who is interested.
posted by numberstation at 6:56 AM on June 7, 2012

I clicked on two links within a few seconds of each other, and each opened in a new window and started playing. Odd stereophonic experience there.
posted by lon_star at 6:58 AM on June 7, 2012

Via the BBC Listener app on my iPhone is how I discovered the A Point of View series. I rather liked Self's one about race. (I have a months long backlog of programs on that thing I am catching up on everyday.)
posted by Kitteh at 8:15 AM on June 7, 2012

Another In Our Time fan here.
posted by doctornemo at 9:07 AM on June 7, 2012

Clive James's work on this series was particularly memorable. This work is collected in this book, which I heartily recommend :

A Point Of View by Clive James
posted by devious truculent and unreliable at 3:46 AM on June 8, 2012

I imagine you can find most of the contents of the book on his website, since the texts of his PoVs are there. I generally find Clive James humane, insightful and educated, but his 'no scientific consensus on global warming' piece was sad to read.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 7:52 AM on June 8, 2012